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Title details for Fire and Flood by Eugene Linden - Available

Fire and Flood

A People's History of Climate Change, from 1979 to the Present

by Eugene Linden
Paul Bellantoni
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Winner of the American Meteorological Society's Louis J. Batton Book of the Year Award
From a writer and expert who has been at the center of the fight for more than thirty years, a brilliant, big-picture reckoning with our shocking failure to address climate change. Fire and Flood focuses on the malign power of key business interests, arguing that those same interests could flip the story very quickly—if they can get ahead of a looming economic catastrophe.
Eugene Linden wrote his first story on climate change, for Time magazine, in 1988; it was just the beginning of his investigative work, exploring all ramifications of this impending disaster. Fire and Flood represents his definitive case for the prosecution as to how and why we have arrived at our current dire pass, closing with his argument that the same forces that have confused the public’s mind and slowed the policy response are poised to pivot with astonishing speed, as long-term risks have become present-day realities and the cliff’s edge is now within view.
Starting with the 1980s, Linden tells the story, decade by decade, by looking at four clocks that move at different speeds: the reality of climate change itself; the scientific consensus about it, which always lags reality; public opinion and political will, which lag further still; and, perhaps most important, business and finance. Reality marches on at its own pace, but the public will and even the science are downstream from the money, and Fire and Flood shows how devilishly effective moneyed climate-change deniers have been at slowing and even reversing the progress of our collective awakening. When a threat means certain but future disaster, but addressing it means losing present-tense profit, capitalism’s response has been sadly predictable.
Now, however, the seasons of fire and flood have crossed the threshold into plain view. Linden focuses on the insurance industry as one loud canary in the coal mine: fire and flood zones in Florida and California, among other regions, are now seeing what many call “climate redlining.” The whole system is teetering on the brink, and the odds of another housing collapse, for starters, are much higher than most people understand. There is a path back from the cliff, but we must pick up the pace. Fire and Flood shows us why, and how.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 5, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593557389
      • File size: 265104 KB
      • Duration: 09:12:17

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Is a scientifically authoritative yet emotionally calm narrator essential for guiding listeners through a planet's climate apocalypse? Most definitely yes, and Paul Bellantoni's narration makes this audiobook an engaging way to learn what seems like everything about climate science. Bellantoni would even make this work fun except that each chapter hurtles listeners closer to an understanding of planetary doom. While the politics and policy decisions of climate change are the backbone of the material, the work also provides fascinating examples of climate science, which Bellantoni imparts at a fast pace. This is a good option for a book about global warming because it covers more than a century of energy choices. J.T. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from February 14, 2022
      Journalist Linden (The Winds of Change) pulls no punches in this urgent look at the causes and progression of climate change, the science that proved its existence, and what could have been done to mitigate it. He begins in the 1980s, when “the rise in global temperatures first began to separate itself from the noise of annual variations,” and continues up through the 2010s, which saw the first “widespread public alarm” over climate change, showing in meticulous detail how today’s climate reckoning stems from government failures in the United States and elsewhere, missed opportunities (notably the decisions by China and India to fuel their economic growth with coal rather than renewable energy), and from outright misinformation. Despite promising growth trends for green energy sources, Linden is pessimistic that the U.S., with its priorities on profit, can facilitate the collective action necessary to avoid disaster. The outlook here is bleak and sobering: “Through our ingenuity, adaptability, and greed,” he writes, “we have created a trap for ourselves.” The result is a damning account of the climate crisis. Agent: Esther Newberg, Curtis Brown.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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