The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth
The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth – Review
I was persuaded into purchasing this book by the positive blurbs on the cover by, among others, Jared Diamond. Also, I am basically in the “yes, we must do something” camp with respect to climate, and seemed to find a deeper fully understanding behind this phenomenon. Overall, this book bears from the same problem as Flannery’s book on North America (The Eternal Frontier). Flannery looks to seize on a conclusion, and then flog his facts in line. In contrast, my impression is that Diamond (or Quammen, or any of a dozen other ecologically focused authors) are much subtler thinkers. That is, they find commonly repeated, compelling narratives that all nudge you in a constant direction. Flannery doesn’t detour to give you the background, he sticks to the straight-and-narrow of his thesis. Myself, I want to have the story related, and the facts appear: Flannery tells me the facts, and justifies it with stories. There is a difference. Besides this academic problem, there’s a UNITS problem. As an engineer, I appreciate this. But Flannery should have sorted degrees F from C, gigajoules from kilocalories, millions of gallons from cubic km, and while Sverdups are great fun, say what? The extent of problems, and their interrelations, is just a plain frank mess in this book. Yes, the book is largely right in its conclusions. Yes, it is laudable in its passion. Sorry: in my opinion it is flawed in its tone and execution. It ends up being, in my mind, ALMOST as flawed with ideology as the idiots he’d oppose — and the important motives are obscured by a lack of care with constant comparisons.