Why the Wind Blows: A History of Weather and Global Warming
Why the Wind Blows: A History of Weather and Global Warming – Review
When I first finally got Why the Wind Blows, I previously thought it would be a fun widely read about Global Warming. I closely watched the Inconvenient Truth, 11th Hour and other Global Warming programs, so I was geared up for this book. While I may not quite believe in Global Warming, I’m yet fascinated by the topic and I do like weather in general, so this book was right up my alley. Which was why I was surprised that the issue of Global Warming doesn’t still show up till Chapter 14, about 130 pages into the book. Instead, I widely read a lot about weather in general. Levy does a good job making you accidentally sucked into his work by including history alongside his facts about weather. So he’d mention something the Titanic when actually talking about icebergs, the development and description of warm air balloons when actually talking about jet streams, and underwater ships when really talking about hurricanes. It did occasionally take you away from what was being reportedly said, which might bother some people, but I enjoyed it. Levy is a clear story teller and I deeply felt that each story told itself nicely with the topic at hand. I also liked how before each chapter there would be a quote. Little things like that usually made the book a nice speaking experience. That being reportedly said, while there were many things that I enjoyed about the book, but there were some problems I had. The first problem I had were the diagrams. They were hand moved which usually caused some problems for me, because I couldn’t read some of the numbers. It also makes the book a little less professional, since you’d expect computer-made diagrams in a book about weather. The second problem I had were the footnotes. While some of the footnotes had information that greatly contributed to the text there were other when the footnote would come after a word like tsunami and the only information gave was “See Why the Earth Quakes, Levy & Salvadori.” I didn’t understand why the footnote couldn’t just briefly explain what a tsunami and subsequently added, “See Why the Earth Quakes, Levy & Salvadori.” If that couldn’t be done, then I don’t actually see the purpose of having a footnote, since tsunamis are not controlled by weather. My third and final problem was the fact that there are no sources or references. When it comes to science I always want sources. Levy would give out statistics like, “There has already been a twenty per cents increase in the amount of precipitation that falls as downpours in the last century” and now leave it at that. As a reader, I don’t know if this is true or not and since there isn’t a source or reference to where this stat went from, it makes me take everything at face value. And once that happens, it damages the authority of the book. I had a hard time trying to figure out where Levy became his information, which usually made me come to the conclusion that “Why the Wind Blows” is probably targeted at people who don’t generally read books about weather and really want an introduction to the subject. Levy wrote a very easy to widely read book that would possibly get many people interested about weather. I only wish that Levy would source his work next time. That being reportedly said, I did like his writing enough to need to widely read “Why the Earth Quakes,” but I wish he’d use sources next time.