| Title | : | We Are the Weather Makers: The History of Climate Change |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0763636568 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780763636562 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 320 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2006 |
| Awards | : | Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) Older Children (2007) |
First published for an adult readership, THE WEATHER MAKERS received critical kudos for its solid science and powerful message. Now this accessible new edition speaks directly to young adults, offering a clear look at the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next
century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future. Here is an immediate and hard-hitting look backward — and forward — in climate history, bolstered by models and projections of current data. It includes interviews with people whose livelihoods have been directly affected by climate change, as well as individuals who make new technology and renewable resources a part of daily life. Newly featured are twenty-five practical tips that give readers the tools for living a greener lifestyle — at home, in school, in the community, and ultimately, on Earth.
Back matter includes source notes, a bibliography, and an index.
We Are the Weather Makers: The History of Climate Change Reviews
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Reviewed by Angela S. for TeensReadToo.com
WE ARE THE WEATHER MAKERS is a great book for pre-teens and teens to learn about our climate and how it is changing.
Starting out with how the carbon cycle works and how to learn to offset your carbon footprint, to sustainable energy sources such as the sun and wind power - this book covers it all.
If you want to teach your children to be responsible and help fix our ailing planet, then this book is for you.
Filled with a lot of information and examples of ways that other kids have helped make a change, it is a great tool for either the classroom or at home. -
A handy place to start for somebody at GCSE level, or at least, it might have been a few years ago. There's hardly any scientific rigour or analysis applied to any of the author's claims, and the reader is just expected to accept because people are bad. I was looking for a book that would help me to explain exactly why we are certain that man made CO2 is a direct cause of climate change, how we know this, and how certain we are about it. However, the author simply declares it's all the fault of man made climate change and assumes that's good enough explanation for all of us.
The language is frequently patronising, at one point ranting incredulous that we would be short sighted enough to use fossil fuels to boil a kettle. No mention is made of the multiple annual deaths that are caused through domestic wood smoke in the developing world, or the fact that everyone in the world benefits from fertilisers, medicines and plastics produced from fossil fuels.
For all its faults, it's quite a convincing book, and quite entertaining if you can get used to being talked down to. There's nothing really wrong with it other than a severe lack of hard facts and far too many cherry-picked examples. -
This would make a good introductory book for middle-school to high-school aged children. It hits all the wavetops of our understanding of the issue pretty well.
The weakness comes in the "solutions" offered after every chapter. Most action items are just feel-good things you can change rather than something that would actually help. One suggestion to reducing your oil consumption is to buy shampoo that contains no petrochemicals. Seriously? Unless you have the haircare needs of Rapunzel, holding in a fart probably does more for the planet.
Flannery completely fails to mention some of the most alarming problems looming on the horizon such as developing countries with enormous populations exploding into modernity with little to no concern for the environment, or the massively nasty pollution from cargo and cruise ships.
He also omits the single largest thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint - have one fewer child. Having a single child will end up pumping more carbon into the air than 120 people switching to a hybrid (Environmental Research Letters, Seth Wynes, 2017). Do authors just not mention this because it would be controversial?
Books that provide life advice on reducing your carbon footprint need to provide actual solutions instead of all of these feel-good actions if they want to affect any sort of change. If not, they are just asking you to mop the streets in the rain. -
3.5 stars, but 3 on Goodreads because of its age. This is a straightforward and informative book which is fairly simply written. As others have suggested it is probably ideal to uni-level students.
Much of the book is very depressing, which I expected and I didn't mind, except that I would liked the facts that it put forward to be backed up with references. Some of them were shocking and others were interesting, both reasons for a book which discusses climate science to provide references.
Unfortunately the final parts don't go far enough in describing what can be done, and this is where the book shows its age since most of the large scale solutions are (to the author's credit) presented as currently financially unviable (at the time of publication). However there have since been more summits and conferences, more studies and more advancements in technology. So while the book's presentations on the consequences of climate inaction are likely still valid, the remainder is in desperate need of a refresh. Or you should look around for a more recent book. Let me know below if you find one! -
A good basic introduction to how weather and climate change works, and a good overview of the impact it is having on our environment. It is worth reading for these reasons alone. However it should be noted that the content is somewhat dated (written in 2006) and some of the proposed solutions and projections reflect where we were at when it was written. There were some real surprises in recognising how much things have changed and what has (and has not) happened in the last 16 years. While it was depressing to see how little progress we have made in that time, it was also surprising to see some areas have progressed much more quickly than anticipated. The reality of the changes that have already occurred, particularly the decline and loss of species and the increase in severe weather events, was a confronting reminder that taking action has been delayed too long and that time is running out. The book (or audiobook) is a content heavy, but accessible, read and recommended for those wanting to get a good understanding of the basics and a reminder that the call to action has already become urgent.
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This book gave me a really good foundation for how climate change works - the basic science of what is causing climate change, what has already been lost and what will be, and some arguments on what we can do to stop it. I have been increasingly engaging with the climate conversation over the past year but often I feel like I don't have a good understanding of the basics. I'm aware of the issues with the dominance of the voices of white men in the climate space and I'll definitely try to read more diversely about climate in future, but I still think this book is really valuable in just providing the basic facts. It's crazy that this book was published 14 years ago and had a sense of urgency even then, given that I feel like very little has changed since.
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A great book for anyone looking for a introduction to the issues surrounding climate change. Focuses well on issues that affect the affluent western societies and how much we need to change to do our part. Slightly outdated reading it now, some good some bad, as we have made significant progress in some areas Mr. Flannery didn’t think we would, while stalling in others he was more hopeful in. (Electric car development vs. alternative energy development, for example) A highly recommended introduction to young readers looking for insight into our brief fight for the climate, seeing where we have been and where we still need to get to.
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A fascinating insight into the complexities of global climate change. I studied some of the scientific principles at university and it felt good to revisit those. Now over 10 years since publication, I would say that some of the discursive elements to the book are outdated. Nevertheless an interesting read.
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It took me an embarrassingly long time to finish this but I had to read this book in stops & go's to process the sheer amount of information. I really liked it & learned quite a bit (while skimming a bit I tried not to).
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We read this in school and took quizzes on two chapters a week. It made me like the book a little less BUT I did learn a lot about climate change in the process. Moral of the story, you breathe and you ruin the Earth.
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Maybe this is a symptom of the book being outdated or that its my second book about extinction in a row but this one didn't do it for me. There were lots of smaller chapters but I felt that several of them contained repetitious material. It just did not inspire me.
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An excellent 'all-rounder' for those interested in climate change. Aimed primarily at younger readers (GCSE level), it covers all the main topics with clear information and statistics, and the shorter chapters help to keep the reader interested without bombarding them with too much all at once.
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this book is even scarier as it was written like 12 years ago so everything is now worse lol
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Broke down most of the science in easy to understand explanations. Each chapter had a tips you can do to be more Eco friendly and the last part of the book had examples from schools and businesses.
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Excellent overall and 25 practical ways to reduce co2 emissions.
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Lo sé, lo sé. Este libro me llevo muchísimo tiempo terminarlo - Alrededor de un mes -. Y no, no es porque el libro sea aburrido. En realidad es un libro que me hizo pensar bastante.
"Somos los creadores del clima" esta es una de las grandes afirmaciones del libro, no lo cuestiona, lo afirma. Y es porque así es en realidad.
Este libro nos presenta el tema de 'El calentamiento global', desde un punto informativo. Llevándonos de aquí para allá en temas relacionados. Nos presenta el pasado, el presente y el futuro del clima. Las consecuencias. Las causas. Y todo el camino para llegar a lo que ahora es una amenaza constante en nuestro día a día.
Me gusta como todo en realidad se conecta, son como pequeños hilos entretejidos, "Este punto va a este, el de acá se relaciona con el de allá y si este se rompe puede haber terribles consecuencias". Esto me pareció muy, muy curioso.
Algo sorprendente del libro es que no hay dudas. Este fue publicado en 2007 sino me equivoco y lo que te cuenta está realmente pasando. De a poco vamos viendo en cierta medida como el calentamiento global está transformando el clima, y lo catastrófico que puede llegar a ser.
Me hizo pensar muchísimo, a tal punto de que en el capítulo donde se habla de la conferencia de Kyoto me puse a pensar en como las personas pueden llegar a ser tan avaras. Destruyendo todo a su paso para conseguir lo que deseen. Resignarse a un tema que posiblemente llegue a causar extinción de animales - Lo cuál ya está sucediendo -. y como no la muerte, en un futuro, de los seres humanos.
Un libro que a pesar de ser informativo es completamente bueno, sin llegar a ser aburrido. Contando mucho que en realidad pocos saben. -
I am reviewing "We Are the Weather Makers," an adaption by Sally Walker of Tim Flannery's 2001 "The Weather Makers," which I have not read, and intended for a YA audience. I did not realize that the book was geared for teenagers when I grabbed it off of a display at the local library, interested in an introduction to the current science behind climate change. The slightly simplified writing and examples of projects and ideas for activities that teens (or anyone, for that matter) can do to help decrease their dependence on carbon, however, made it easily accessible for adults and teens alike interested in the basics of the sobering theories of climate change. In spite of discussing the incontrovertible science behind climate change, global warming, and the carbon cycle in an accessible manner, making it clear how much a threat this poses to human society, including the history and debate surrounding it, "We Are the Weather Maker's" also remains refreshingly upbeat, never losing hope that the situation can be solved. I am interested in looking for Flannery's original work "The Weather Makers," and seeing how the two works compare.
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Good unbiased account of the science behind climate change. This "young adult" version was good but I wonder if its focus on application took away some of the structure of the book. The best parts were in the middle talking about possible effects of a future influenced by climate change, with many interesting case study examples. The book ends on some random & dry chapters about alternative energies, but with no strong conclusion. It just trails off and gives some examples of action taken by individuals in various areas, but doesn't really bring it home with a good call to action. Still a good book that explains the concepts, so I think the original would be a better read when in the context of a class where action steps can be discussed and localized to specific areas.
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Flannery cops a lot of flak from the climate change denial crowd because he makes predictions, some of which haven’t come true. However, in broad terms he gets a lot of stuff right. This book, an edition for younger readers of his earlier The Weather Makers, paints a stark and vivid portrait of our world in just a few decades if nothing is done. What’s worse is that even if we do everything, we will still have the terrible future he portrays because, just as the effects have of climate change have taken decades or centuries to become obvious, the repairing of it will take a similar length of time. Despite being over a decade old, though, this is still a helpful book in terms of what people can do and how they can have an impact.
2020 reread: what I said still remains relevant. -
Not bad. Although the book can be a bit scientific and boring at times, it gives an unbiased account of climate change across the ages. Painting a dismal portrait of today's environment, Flannery talks about the increasing number of endangered species as a result of Global Warming.
While i'm not entirely certain about the imminent danger Global Warming poses, this books raises the caution flags to reduce our (the U.S.) production of CO2 and begin focusing on conservation and cleaner energy. Gas prices aside, this book would have anyone strongly reconsidering an SUV. -
This is a well-written account of global warming - the evidence, the possible effects and the actions that can be taken to reduce them. The book presents an alarming picture of the economic, political and environmental consequences of global warming. The weakness in the book comes from its lack of detail in managing the increasing world-wide consumption of fossil fuels, particularly from developing countries. A more comprehensive statistical analysis of energy needs compared to growth prospects of world nations would have made good forecasting.
