Flannery - The Weather Makers

More Praise for The Weather Makers:

With The Weather Makers, Tim Flannery, himself a creative scientist, adds a blend of poetical writing and historical perspective to an amazingly clear and comprehensive tour of the complex climate-change world. He starts in early Earth history and brings us to the present predicamentand names names of who is primarily responsibleus, especially via careless management, crass consumerism, corporate greed, political corruption and media indifference. This is a beautifully written guide for anyone interested in the increasingly serious climate-change problem to learn what is going on.

Stephen H. Schneider, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
at Stanford University and Co-Director of the Center for Environmental
Science and Policy at the Stanford Institute for International Studies

This is the book the world has been waiting forand needingfor decades. At last, a book that sets out, for the general public, the irrefutable evidence that climate change is already happening, and we need to become very serious about itfast.

Professor Peter Singer, internationally renowned author and ethicist

An overwhelming account of how climate change is affecting the world today. Presented with a vast array of information in a readable and convincing way, The Weather Makers shows clearly that decisive action is needed now.

Chief Emeka Anyaoku, President, World Wildlife Fund International

Until The Weather Makers, nobody since Bill McKibben had told the tale of what this global-warming beast will be like as it awakens. Super hurricanes are understood as omens as Flannery weaves the science, politics, and the economics together in a tale as frightening as it must have been when Hitler was marching across Europe. When he writes, there has been little reason for our blindness, except perhaps for an unwillingness to look such horror in the face and say, You are my creation, I believe he will inspire us to destroy this creation before it destroys us.

John Passacantando, Executive Director, Greenpeace USA

We have to shift the debate on global warming this year and this book is going to help make that happen.

Laurie David, environmental activist and
founder of stopglobalwarming.org

This is a magnificent book; exciting, poetic, passionateand full of knowledge we all need and can act upon before its too late.

Redmond OHanlon

In his previous books, Tim Flannery took us on compelling journeys into the human and non-human past. Now he brings his wit, wisdom, and eloquence to bear on our future as a civilization, a future we have recklessly undermined but may still be able to secure. Thoroughly researched, closely reasoned, and eloquently written, The Weather Makers is a book of the utmost importance to everyone on Earth. It is essential reading for the halls of power, especially in Canberra, Texas, and Washington.

Ronald Wright, author of A Short History of Progress,
broadcast as the Massey Lecture series 2004

With his usual outstanding writing, Tim Flannery has introduced us to a whole interconnected world of climate change, one that has been much debated but little understood. It is difficult to misunderstand the convincing connections presented in this landmark book, which should be read by everyone concerned with the worlds future. Climate change is the single most important driving force that will negatively affect the future of the human race unless we do something about it now. Tim Flannery makes it clear why this is so and provides a blueprint for getting ahead of the curve and creating a sustainable world for the future.

Peter H. Raven, Director, Missouri Botanical Garden

This concise and elegantly written book arms us with the facts we need to change our ways (and the calamitous ways of our handlers). Tremendously informative. Essential reading.

Joy Williams, author of Ill Nature

Our ultimate folly could be reckless change of the climatic system on which life on Earth and our civilization depend. The Weather Makers is a wonderfully lucid and compelling account of the climate change issue and how its solution is in our own hands. This is Tim Flannerys best and most important book.

Thomas E. Lovejoy, President, The Heinz Center for
Science, Economics and the Environment

Finally, a book about a global crisis that people can understand. All of us who are dubious, or skeptical, or cant make sense of the passionate warnings about climate change will find in this book a clear distillation of the salient facts and their meaning.

Sharon Butala, author of Lilac Moon and
The Perfection of the Morning

No current field of study is as diverse or as important to the planets future as global warming. Tim Flannery has assimilated a vast amount of really alarming information and turned itbeautifullyinto a truly terrifying book. The Weather Makers should make us all sit up nights, taking notice.

Wayne Grady, author of The Quiet Limit of the World:
A Journey to the North Pole to Investigate Global Warming

THE
WEATHER
MAKERS

Other books by Tim Flannery

Mammals of New Guinea

Tree Kangaroos: A Curious Natural History
with R. Martin, P. Schouten, and A. Szalay

Possums of the World: A Monograph of the Phalangeroidea
with P. Schouten

Mammals of the South West Pacific and Moluccan Islands

Watkin Tench, 1788 (ed.)

The Life and Adventures of John Nicol, Mariner (ed.)

Throwim Way Leg

The Birth of Sydney

Terra Australis: Matthew Flinders Great Adventures in the
Circumnavigation of Australia (ed.)

The Eternal Frontier

The Explorers

A Gap in Nature with P. Schouten

Astonishing Animals with P. Schouten

HOW MAN IS CHANGING THE CLIMATE
AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR LIFE ON EARTH

TIM FLANNERY

Copyright 2005 by Tim Flannery

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 or permissions@groveatlantic.com.

Originally published in 2005 by Text Publishing Company, Melbourne, Australia

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Flannery, Tim F. (Tim Fridtjof), 1956

The weather makers: how man is changing the climate and what it means for life on earth / Tim Flannery.

p. cm.

ISBN: 978-1-5558-4663-6 (e-book)

1. Climatic changes. 2. Global warming. I. Title.

QC981.8C5F438 2006
363.73874dc22 2005052350

Atlantic Monthly Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

Distributed by Publishers Group West