Dimensions
155 x 235 x 25mm
The weather is changing. We don't need experts to tell us that. Just ask any of us who have noticed the growing ferocity of the planet's storms, floods and the destruction they bring; or who have been puzzled by warmer warm spells in the winter and hotter heat waves in the summer; or who have noted the record number of weather records set in recent years. In fact, any of us can attest to the feeling that there's something weird going on with the weather. What we don't know is what that means - for us, for our planet and for our future. In THE CHANGE IN THE WEATHER, acclaimed New York Times journalist Bill Stevens offers the first comprehensive look at the science of climatic change-and reveals that we are at the dawn of a new era of climate, in which conditions once regarded as extreme will become increasingly commonplace. How did we get here? How bad is it - and how much worse will it get? How much will it change life as we know it-and how quickly? These are the questions faced by the international community of climate scientists Stevens introduces to readers, exploring the means by which they assemble far-flung instances of storms, droughts and everyday anomalies-in short, the weather we all experience in our own backyards-into a picture of global natural forces at work. As Stevens brings to life this vital science and the questions it seeks to answer, he puts today's situation into illuminating historical context. Tracing mankind's evolving relationship with climate, he discusses the impact climate has had on civilization, the ways in which mankind has sought to understand it, and our futile attempts to control it. Most important, he examines today's critical effort to discover if in fact we have already set into motion profound climatic change that we can not control-the so-called "greenhouse effect" of human- induced global warming. A lay-reader's glimpse into the science of everyday experience, and an eye-opening, authoritative exploration of the forces that will shape - our uncertain future. THE CHANGE IN THE WEATHER is intelligent nonfiction at its most commercially relevant.
