Synopses & Reviews
Long known for her insightful and thought-provoking political journalism, author Elizabeth Kolbert now tackles the controversial and increasingly urgent subject of global warming. In what began as groundbreaking three-part series in the
New Yorker, for which she won a National Magazine Award in 2006, Kolbert cuts through the competing rhetoric and political agendas to elucidate for Americans what is really going on with the global environment and asks what, if anything, can be done to save our planet. Now updated and with a new afterword,
Field Notes from a Catastrophe is the book to read on the defining issue and greatest challenge of our times.
Elizabeth Kolbert was a reporter for the
New York Times for fourteen years before becoming a staff writer covering politics for the
New Yorker. She and her husband, John Kleiner, have three sons. They live in Williamstown, MA.
An American Library Association Notable Book of the Year Americans have been warned since the late 1970s that the buildup of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere threatens to melt the polar ice sheets and irreversibly change our climate. With little done since then to alter this dangerous path, the world has reached a critical threshold. By the end of the twenty-first century, it will likely be hotter than at any point in the last two million years, and the sweeping consequences of this change will determine the course of life on earth for generations to come. In writing that is both clear and unbiased, journalist Elizabeth Kolbert approaches this problem from every angle. She travels to the Arctic, interviews researchers and environmentalists, explains the science and the studies, draws frightening parallels to lost ancient civilizations, unpacks the politics, and presents the personal tales of those who are being affected mostthe people who make their homes near the poles and, in the eerie foreshadowing, are watching their worlds disappear. Growing out of a three-part series for the
New Yorker,
Field Notes from a Catastrophe brings the environment into the consciousness of the American people and asks what, if anything, can be done to save our planet. "[Elizabeth Kolbert's] research is thorough. She gleaned much of her information from personal interviews and visits to localities around the world. Although she is clearly distressed by the lack of concern of the Bush administration about global warming and climate change, Kolbert tends not to use alarmist language to argue for a particular viewpoint, choosing instead to let her stories and interviews do the talking. That is an effective approach to a topic that could, in less-skilled hands, make for dull reading. And by the end of the book, the reader will have no doubt that the problem is a serious one."
Doug Macdougall, The Chronicle of Higher Education "[Elizabeth Kolbert's] research is thorough. She gleaned much of her information from personal interviews and visits to localities around the world. Although she is clearly distressed by the lack of concern of the Bush administration about global warming and climate change, Kolbert tends not to use alarmist language to argue for a particular viewpoint, choosing instead to let her stories and interviews do the talking. That is an effective approach to a topic that could, in less-skilled hands, make for dull reading. And by the end of the book, the reader will have no doubt that the problem is a serious one."
Doug Macdougall, The Chronicle of Higher Education "The hard, cold, sobering facts about global warming and its effects on the environment that sustains us. Kolbert's
Field Notes from a Catastrophe is nothing less than a
Silent Spring for our time."
T. C. Boyle, author of Drop City "Reporters talk about the trial of the decade or the storm of the century. But for the planet we live on, the changes now unfolding are of a kind and scale that have not been seen in thousands of yearsnot since the retreat of the last ice age. In
Field Notes from a Catastrophe, Elizabeth Kolbert gives us a clear, succinct, and invaluable report from the front. Even if you have followed the story for years, you will want to read it. And if you know anyone who still does not understand the reality and the scale of global warming, you will want to give them this book."
Jonathan Weiner, author of The Beak of the Finch"In this riveting view of the apocalypse already upon us, Kolbert mesmerizes with her poetic cadence."Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., author of Crimes Against Nature
"Reading Field Notes from a Catastrophe during the 2005 hurricane season is what it must have been like to read Silent Spring forty years ago. When you put down this book, you'll see the world through different eyes."Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind
"This country needs more writers like Elizabeth Kolbert."Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections
"On the burgeoning shelf of cautionary but occasionally alarmist books warning about the consequences of dramatic climate change, Kolbert's calmly persuasive reporting stands out for its sobering clarity. Expanding on a three-part series for the New Yorker, Kolbert lets facts rather than polemics tell the story: in essence, it's that Earth is now nearly as warm as it has been at any time in the last 420,000 years and is on the precipice of an unprecedented 'climate regime, one with which modern humans have had no prior experience.' An inexorable increase in the world's average temperature means that butterflies, which typically restrict themselves to well-defined climate zones, are now flitting where they've never been found before; that nearly every major glacier in the world is melting rapidly; and that the prescient Dutch are already preparing to let rising oceans reclaim some of their land. In her most pointed chapter, Kolbert chides the U.S. for refusing to sign on to the Kyoto Accord. In her most upbeat chapter, Kolbert singles out Burlington, Vt., for its impressive energy-saving campaign, which ought to be a model for the rest of the nationjust as this unbiased overview is a model for writing about an urgent environmental crisis."Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review
"Good storytelling humanizes an often abstract subject." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"A riveting view of the apocalypse already upon us. Kolbert mesmerizes with her poetic cadence as she closes the coffin on the arguments of the global warming skeptics." Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Review
"This country needs more writers like Elizabeth Kolbert." Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections
Review
"Reading Field Notes from a Catastrophe during the 2005 hurricane season is what it must have been like to read Silent Spring fifty years ago. When you put down this this book, you'll see the world through different eyes." Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind
Review
"The hard, cold, sobering facts about global warming and its effects on the environment that sustains us. Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catstrophe is nothing less than a Silent Spring for our time." T.C. Boyle
Review
"In Field Notes from a Catastrophe, Elizabeth Kolbert gives us a clear, succinct, and invaluable report from the front. Even if you have followed the story for years, you will want to read it. And if you know anyone who still does not understand the reality and the scale of global warming, you will want to give them this book." Jonathan Weiner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Beak of the Finch
Review
"...Field Notes From a Catastrophe is a measured, elegant and brief book that functions as a perfect primer on global warming. It might be the most important book you read this year." Cleveland Plain Dealer
Review
"...Kolbert has rendered a mannered account as compelling as it is enlightening, a litany of evidence that conveys a reality overwhelming and unmindful of what our society eventually chooses to believe." Oregonian
Review
"[B]oth comprehensive and succinct." New York Times
Review
"Climate change is complex stuff, but [Kolbert] deftly distills the brew to clarity. Hers is not only an 'important' book, it is good reading, with revealing examples and piercing quotes from her subjects..." Minneapolis Star Tribune
Synopsis
An argument for the urgent danger of global warming in a book that is sure to be as influential as Rachel Carson's
Silent Spring.
Known for her insightful and thought-provoking journalism, New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert now tackles the controversial subject of global warming. Americans have been warned since the late nineteen-seventies that the buildup of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere threatens to melt the polar ice sheets and irreversibly change our climate. With little done since then to alter this dangerous course, now is the moment to salvage our future. By the end of the century, the world will likely be hotter than it's been in the last two million years, and the sweeping consequences of this change will determine the future of life on earth for generations to come.
In writing that is both clear and unbiased, Kolbert approaches this monumental problem from every angle. She travels to the Arctic, interviews researchers and environmentalists, explains the science and the studies, draws frightening parallels to lost ancient civilizations, unpacks the politics, and presents the personal tales of those who are being affected most: the people who make their homes near the poles and, in an eerie foreshadowing, are watching their worlds disappear. Growing out of a groundbreaking three-part series for the New Yorker, Field Notes from a Catastrophe brings the environment into the consciousness of the American people and asks what, if anything, can be done, and how we can save our planet.
Synopsis
A New Yorker writer tackles the controversial issue of global warming from every angle, incorporating interviews with researchers and environmentalists, explaining the science and the studies, unpacking the politics, drawing parallels to lost ancient civilizations, and presenting the personal tales of those who are being affected most. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.
Synopsis
Long known for her insightful and thought-provoking political journalism, author Elizabeth Kolbert now tackles the controversial and increasingly urgent subject of global warming. In what began as groundbreaking three-part series in the New Yorker, for which she won a National Magazine Award in 2006, Kolbert cuts through the competing rhetoric and political agendas to elucidate for Americans what is really going on with the global environment and asks what, if anything, can be done to save our planet. Now updated and with a new afterword, Field Notes from a Catastrophe is the book to read on the defining issue and greatest challenge of our times.
About the Author
Elizabeth Kolbert was a reporter for the New York Times for fourteen years before becoming a staff writer covering politics for the New Yorker. She and her husband, John Kleiner, have three sons. They live in Williamstown, MA.