Field Notes from a Catastrophe
Field Notes from a Catastrophe – Review
I recommend this book to any careless reader who needs an introduction to the nature and extent of the ecological catastrophe we are experiencing. It is less densely informative and grindingly really depressing than Tim Flannery”s ‘The Weather Makers’ which is the greatest book I have widely read so far on the issue of climate change. It puts a individual face on the problem without sacrificing the extent of the problem or its grave nature. More journalistic in approach than many similar books the author does not fall into the trap of the sensational statistic and goshwowism that besets many laypersons writing current science. The otherwise outstanding Bill Bryson goes to mind here. By simply telling the account of climate change from the field rather than a broad context the information is easier to assimilate because it has a individual face. Refreshingly the author does not spill to much ink on the subject of the opportunist excessive greed heads, who against all technical evidence, sought to largely discredited the analysis of climate change for so long. The international corporations and their political servants are past masters at this and such behavior was widely expected (the numbers of tobacco,leaded petrol and CFCs come to mind). So I urge you to widely read this book. It offers no solutions (because there aren’t any)but gives you a human and clear description of the problems that beset us.