Copyright Date:
2023
Edition Date:
2023
Release Date:
05/02/23
ISBN:
1-7784-0074-4
ISBN 13:
978-1-7784-0074-2
Dewey:
551
Language:
English
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews
(Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)
Because of human actions, the climate is changing-and not for the better. So argues Otto, whose work is at the forefront of climate science.Whatever else we might know, or think we know, about the climate, "every weather event takes place under different environmental conditions than those of 250 years ago," writes Otto, director of Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute. Unpacking that, the 250-year cutoff roughly coincides with King George III's awarding of a patent to James Watt for the steam engine, which would soon give birth to the Industrial Revolution-and with it the greenhouse gases that are steadily warming the atmosphere. Commanding a vast body of data, Otto observes that the "seven hottest years [in recorded history] have all taken place within the last decade." Because we are in the middle of this change, we suffer from observational bias: We know it's hot, but we keep at our normal affairs. Meanwhile, this rising heat has different effects in different places. More heat means more atmospheric moisture but also quicker evaporation, so that some places will be flooded and others will suffer from drought. The big-picture effects are predictable, writes the author, but we must look beyond those "large-scale averages" to consider the effects of climate change on a storm-by-storm, drought-by-drought basis. Throughout the narrative, Otto intersperses glimpses of that big picture with a major case study: Hurricane Harvey, which in 2017 did nearly as much damage as Hurricane Katrina a dozen years earlier, dropping 41 inches of rain in just three days. Along the way, the author considers the concurrent effects of leaders of government and industry who have stymied research. She has an answer: "If governments don't do their job and don't do enough to put a stop to climate change, then courts can remind them of their purpose."Those who doubt the severity of climate change will persist, but for the fact-minded, Otto's arguments are incontrovertible.
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Kirkus Reviews
(Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)
From leading climate scientist Dr. Friederike Otto, this gripping book reveals the revolutionary science that definitively links extreme weather events--including deadly heat waves, forest fires, floods, and hurricanes--to climate change. "Meet the forensic scientists of climate change; if you like CSI, you'll be equally enthralled with the skill and speed these folks exhibit. But the stakes are infinitely higher!" --Bill McKibben, author of Falter and The End of Nature Tied with Hurricane Katrina as the costliest cyclone on record, Hurricane Harvey caused catastrophic flooding and over a hundred deaths in 2017. Angry Weather tells the compelling, day-by-day story of the World Weather Attribution unit--a team of scientists that studies extreme weather events while they're happening--and their race to track the connection between the hurricane and climate change. As the hurricane unfolds, Otto reveals how attribution science works in real time, and determines that Harvey's terrifying floods were three times more likely to occur due to human-induced climate change. At the forefront of cutting-edge climate science, Friederike Otto uncovers how the new ability to determine climate change's role in extreme weather events can dramatically transform how we view the climate crisis: from how it will affect those of us who are most vulnerable, to the corporations and governments that may find themselves held accountable in the courts. The research laid out in Angry Weather will have profound impacts, both today and for the future of humankind. Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.