The Weather Makers

The Weather Makers is another excellent book. It is a very easy read, written in a comfortable, semi autobiographical style. It has two very strong suits:

It documents environmental changes that can be seen occurring year to year, or decade to decade, in a variety of geographical locations. New Guinea highlands, coral reefs, frogs in Costa Rica, contraction of desert vegetation in South Africa, etc. His enduring message is you can see it with your own eyes, you do not need an expert to tell you. While there may be dispute as to actual temperature changes, Tim Flannery cites numerous examples where plants and animal behavior tells that something is changing. As indeed most of us can see from looking our gardens or walking in a park.
It then sets current warming in the context of (a) past temperature and carbon dioxide fluctuations, and (b) some of the positive feed-back loops (trigger points) that could easily lead to accelerated warming.

As for so many global warming books, The Weather Makers is rather vague as to (a) what we should do about it, and (b) what happens if we do nothing. As is also true for Al Gore, Tim Flannery urges us to “take action” both in personal life style and by voting: But basically silent as to what we should vote for.