Living Well in the Age of Global Warming : 10 Strategies for Boomers, Bobos, and Cultural Creatives

Rating:
Summary: Amusing Nonscience
Review: The Delcourt's book is a hoot.

It is premised upon a recent publication known as the "U.S. National Assessment" on global warming. The backchatter about this document is astounding; it has been well-documented that the climate models which serve as its base actually perform worse than random numbers when applied to the US in the last several decades.

Further, the climate models that were used in this Assessment aren't even representative of most other models. I have read that Assessment, now available from Cambridge Press. It considered many models, but chose two--which, respectively, predict the most extreme departures in temperature and rainfall over the US, compared to the many others considered. Not only are the models that serve as the basis for the Delcourt's book bad, they aren't even representative!

I offer this notion to prospective purchasers of this book: either the Delcourt's knew this, and didn't tell you, which makes them deceptive, or they did not, which makes them incompetent.

I work for a major government climate lab, and I can tell you that this book is a typical global warming joke. Unfortunately, the political climate is so bad that we can't talk about this much in public. Too bad, because the planet is really warming a bit. Would like to see a more honest book here, which admits to warming and to the limits of our science. My little research on this shows the bestselling title under global warming has the weird title "Satanic Gases", but looks much more interesting. Maybe that's why people are buying it and not this silly book by the Delcourt Bobos.

Rating:
Summary: Unhelpful advice, from a selfish perspective
Review: These two professors of paleo-ecology draw upon various scientific studies and projections of global warming, to portray the likely ecological changes in selected regions of the United States - primarily, the regions where the authors maintain their multiple residences. For more specific details about other areas, you're referred to a lot of web sites where you'll have to dig through the primary source materials for yourself.

Most of the actual advice has to do with real estate values, neglecting a host of other potential climate change impacts. For example, the financial advice (aside from real estate speculation) is limited to a few paragraphs stating the current conventional wisdom for investing in stocks and bonds. Apparently, the authors didn't even imagine the possibility that the economic consequences of climate change could inflict unprecedented damage on the financial markets. Similarly, while urging us to buy adequate home insurance against severe weather events, they don't consider the risk that insurance companies will go bankrupt from increased claims and be unable to pay.

Their "Top Ten Strategies" range from the ludicrous, to the merely impractical, to the downright immoral. Live on a houseboat, and when storms threaten, just weigh anchor and move somewhere else! Buy several different houses in different climate zones, as the authors did! (A majority of their suggestions seem to assume we're all independently wealthy.) Buy oceanfront property at bargain prices right after a devastating hurricane, build expensive homes on it, and sell to poor suckers who don't realize how soon the next hurricane is likely to hit!

Strategies for ameliorating the broad effects of global warming get little attention here. Instead, this book emphasizes securing material luxuries for oneself, and even takes delight in finding ways to profit from the destruction, at the expense of one's less fortunate neighbors.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Eyeopener On Manifest Effects Of Global Warming!
Review: This is a book that will be welcomed by millions of environmentally conscious readers concerned with the range of potential social, economic and political issues stemming from the profound effects of global warming. Many of us are already concerned with the ways in which we may potentially be affected both individually and as members of a society that will literally be forced to deal with the truly massive related dislocations and changes posed by the so-called "Greenhouse Effect" in the coming decades. The authors of this book have addressed themselves to a myriad of potential issues and a range of appropriate strategies for such factors as changes in weather patterns, economics, retirement possibilities, and other such phenomena related to the massive changes in climate that are associated with the Greenhouse Effect.

Thus, Paul and Hazel Delcourt, both paleo-ecologists teaching at the University of Tennessee, present the results of a massive three-year national study, The National Climate Assessment, by thousands of scientists to project the potential environmental changes in this country over the next hundred years. The authors then match the results of this massive work with a range of demographic studies that lead them to conclude that wide-ranging economic, political, and social change will result. Therefore, "Living Well In The Age Of Global Warming" provides the reader with a fascinating look at the range of possibilities that exist for one to "live well and prosper' in the radically changed ecological, social, and personal circumstances of a world undergoing radical and unavoidable change.

Indeed, while the serious reader may find fault with the authors' particulars in dealing with the range of alternatives available, one can hardly fault their central point, which is that the world will be radically changed both in terms of its climate and our potential cultural responses to those changes. Thus, whether discussing changing weather patterns (and the associated changes in storm tracks now predicted by many meteorologists) or exploring changes in temperature zones to the degree that millions may be forced to vacate areas like Georgia as they turn positively tropical, this is fascinating reading. They also discuss potential changes in forest cover, livable habitats, and many other related subjects. According to the authors, each of these factors will become increasingly important in determining the overall quality of life possibilities as global warming proceeds.

In essence, the authors have created an entertaining and informative book that openly discusses what the consequences of global warming may portend for each of us in practical and understandable terms, and in so doing they have rendered an important service to us all. While I admit that I did not like the "self-help to financial success" tone the prose sometimes degenerates into, I found myself so fascinated by other aspects of their careful thought that helped me to overcome any minor trepidation I had regarding the book. One can hardly argue with their central thesis; that the comfortable world we know is vanishing before our eyes, and that the shape of the one to come will be largely determined by the effects that global warming has on our society and our environment.

The book deals with a variety of different issue and a whole range of potential individual responses that the intelligent and savvy person can use to negotiate his or her way through the coming hardships. While I do not feel that this book is anything like the comprehensive "bible" activists need to carry on in the difficult days and years to come, it is certainly a provocative and thoughtful excursion into a subject matter few have dared to broach to date. Hopefully it provides us with just the opening salvo of what one prays will become both a national and international debate on what each of us needs to do to live more responsibally on the delicate skin of this, our living planet. I recommend it without hesitation; enjoy!