1st Edition

Feeling the Heat Dispatches from the Front Lines of Climate Change

    216 Pages
    by Routledge

    216 Pages
    by Routledge

    For an increasing number of people, global warming is not an academic and scientific debate, but a matter of survival. As the planet warms at a rate of four degrees Fahrenheit per century, violent storms are increasing in frequency, icebergs are melting, sea level is rising, species are losing their habitats, and temperature records are being broken. Feeling the Heat consists of chapter-length visits by well-known authors to actual world "hot" spots, where people are already coping day-to-day with the consequences of climactic disruption. The locations for the book were strategically chosen because each represents a separate and important global warming impact, such as rising tides, melting glaciers, evolving ecosystems and air pollution. Feeling the Heat takes global warming out of the realm of armchair speculation and arcane scientific debate, revealing the process of climate change to be ongoing, serious and immediate.

    Contents Introduction Preface PART ONE: HUMAN IMPACTS Chapter One - China: The Cost of Coal, Mark Hertsgaard Chapter Two - Europe: Planning Ahead, Colin Woodard Chapter Three - Greater New York: Urban Anxiety, Jim Motavalli Chapter Four - Antigua and Barbuda: Islands Under Siege, Dick Russell Chapter Five - Asia: Clouds Got In the Way, Jim Motavalli Through a Lens, Darkly: A Photo Essay by Gary Braasch, Gary Braasch PART TWO: ECOSYSTEMS IN TROUBLE Chapter Six - Alaska and the Western Arctic: The Ice Retreats, Kieran Mulvaney Chapter Seven - The California Coast: Marine Migrations and the Collapsing Food Chain, Orna Izakson Chapter Eight - Australia, Florida and Fiji: Reefs At Risk, David Helvarg Chapter Nine - Pacific Northwest: The Incredible Shrinking Glaciers, Sally Deneen Chapter 10 - Antarctica: The Ice is Moving, David Helvarg End Notes About E Magazine

    Biography

    Jim Motavalli is the editor of E: The Environmental Magazine, an award-winning bi-monthly, and author of the books Forward Drive and Breaking Gridlock. He writes on environmental subjects for The New York Times, Salon, and many other publications. He also hosts a public affairs radio show and teaches journalism in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

    "This disturbing report, by a brilliant team of environmental journalists, portrays an industrial civilization on the verge of destroying its own conditions of existence. We are all captives, the authors warn us, on a runaway train. Can we change drivers soon enough to avoid the largest catastrophe in the last 10,000 years?." -- Mike Davis, author of Ecology of Fear and Dead Cities