from description: We already know what climate change is and many of us understand the human causes. But what will climate change do to our world? Who will be affected (spoiler: all of us!) and how will our lives change in the future? Topics include sea levels, extreme weather, drought, animal and plant extinction, and human and animal migration. Drawing on real-life situations and stories, journalist Jeff Fleischer takes an informed, approachable look at how our world will likely change as a result of our actions, including suggestions on what we can still do to slow down these unprecedented effects.
Extremely easy to read and understand, A Hot Mess discusses the difference between weather and climate, the changes the earth is already experiencing and how the changes affect everything in a domino effect.
This is one of the best books I've read concerning climate change because it is so clearly written and documented about the very things we have witnessed over the years, though some of it may have escaped our notice at the time. The extreme weather events--hurricanes, droughts, floods, and wildfires--are unavoidable results of a changing climate that we can't ignore. Everything is connected. The loss of insect species and amphibians eventually disturb the food chain and those changes in the food chain reach, gradually, but inevitably, all the way up to humans.
Fleischer details how all of these events are connected and how the droughts, floods, and rising sea waters impact first one species and/or landscape, then another, and continue to move up the chain. Much of it is common sense, but for some reason, many would rather avoid looking to the future and the way these changes are going to alter the way we live and the effects it will have on our children and grandchildren. The scientists have known for years, have warned of the consequences, have been ignored.
A Hot Mess should be required reading for all politicians, from mayors to senators, and for all of the young people who will be most at risk. While the book also gives ways that anyone can make choices that are helpful, it is the responsibility of governments and big business to make the adjustments and adaptations that will make the biggest differences.
COP26 makes it clear that even the governments that realize the danger are still unable or unwilling to make the hard decisions that will be necessary.
If more people come to believe what science has been saying for decades, they can influence the outcome by making their opinions known. How many devastating hurricanes and fires and coasts lost to rising sea levels will we need to endure before that happens?
A Hot Mess is fascinating reading and written for for teens and young adults, but one of the most concise and readable books I've read on the topic.
Highly Recommended. If you are participating in Nonfiction November, give this one a try.
NetGalley/Lerner Pub. Group/Zest Books
Nonfiction/Climate. Aug. 1, 2021. Print length: 192 pages.
This sounds like a book on climate change that gets its approach right...clear writing and not so long that the reader grows bored with the subject and quits reading. I'll definitely try to get my hands on a copy of this one.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest concern has been, and still is, what can the rest of the world do about the problem without the participation of China, Russia, and India. Does the book address this at all?
I think it does get it right. One surprise was that the U.S. is in the top 3 for carbon emissions. There are things we can all do, but without the changes that governments and big business need to make.... The only thing that disturbed me is that the last chapter looks at the political divide on climate change. There is a political divide on this, but I wish it had left it with the science because the facts could change minds, but those with a political bias about climate change could reject it.
DeleteChina, Russia and India are polluting the air out of control, so pollution keeps going. I of course know the climate is changing, as it always has done. At one time the northern US states were under 1 to 2 miles of ice, and then the earth warmed. Not due to humans. Yes, it is good to cut back on pollution, as we are doing, but we can't stop climate change. Two different subjects.
ReplyDeleteThe book addresses the millennia that it took for most climate change to occur and evidence points to an asteroid being responsible for the sudden cretaceous event that caused widespread climate change and killed off the dinosaurs. But science has proven that manmade causes, especially since the Industrial Revolution, have caused the heating of the earth and that the more people and the more fossil fuels burned are responsible for the more rapid heating that is now in process.
DeleteWhile pollution and greenhouse gases are often conflated, there is a major difference in the way they affect on the atmosphere. It is the greenhouse gases that trap the heat in the atmosphere.
I suspect you are right that we can't stop climate change. We ignored the causes for too long, but the consequences are frightening, and we all are going to deal with them.
This one goes on my reading list. As for stopping climate change, we COULD stop the part of it that we contribute to, which is the greatest part of it, if we had the political will to do it. To deny that humans have anything to do with the dangerous warming of the Earth is simply to be willfully ignorant.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Sadly, the political will has been absent for so long. Changes that could have been instituted and were not, have exponential effect. I know people who are willfully ignorant, not dumb. Reading this book could have an impact on some of those who want to ignore the situation because it talks about how things are already affecting them and will continue to do so.
DeleteThis sounds like an informative and important book. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
ReplyDeleteThe book emphasizes the repercussions of climate change. What will happen as sea levels rise and the sea becomes even more acidic, how droughts and floods will affect agriculture, etc.
DeleteWhile I rarely read non-fiction, books with such topics still intrigue and catch my attention.
ReplyDeleteA Hot Mess was an excellent account of what we are facing and the changes that will continue to occur as the planet heats up.
DeleteSounds like a book not to be missed! I have no idea if anything regarding climate change is being taught in schools but it should be. We all have a part in this and the sooner we learn how we can make an impact the better. And, yes, our politicians should also be paying attention!
ReplyDeleteA Hot Mess is really good! Since the impact will be on the next generations, I do think that climate change should be part of the curriculum from elementary through high school. I wish I could think of something nice to say about politicians, but most are only concerned with their pocketbooks.
DeleteI should add this to my list of recommendations for our naturalist group members.
ReplyDeleteA Hot Mess would be a great choice for your naturalist group. Well-written and well-documented, the book works through the way climate change is already changing our lives and how it will continue to affect us.
DeleteI should add this to my list of recommendations for our naturalist group members.
ReplyDelete