Synopses & Reviews
A vivid and illuminating portrayal of the surprising ways that climate change will affect the world in the near futurepolitically, economically, and culturally
While reporting just outside of Darfur, Stephan Faris discovered that climate change was at the root of that conflict, and began to wonder what current and impendingand largely unanticipatedcrises such changes have in store for the world.
Forecast provides the answers.
Global warming will spur the spread of many diseases. Italy has already experienced its first climate-change epidemic of a tropical disease, and malaria is gaining ground in Africa. The warming world will shift huge populations and potentially redraw political alliances around the globe, driving environmentalists into the hands of anti-immigrant groups. Americas coasts are already more difficult places to live as increasing insurance rates make the Gulf Coast and other gorgeous spots prohibitively expensive. Crops will fail in previously lush places and thrive in some formerly barren zones, altering huge industries and remaking traditions. Water scarcity in India and Pakistan have the potential to inflame the conflict in Kashmir to unprecedented levels and draw the United States into the troubles there, and elsewhere.
Told through the narratives of current, past, and future events, the result of astonishingly wide travel and reporting, Forecast is a powerful, gracefully written, eye-opening account of this most urgent issue and how it has altered and will alter our world.
Stephan Faris is a journalist who specializes in writing about the developing world. Since 2000, he has covered Africa, the Middle East, and China for publications including Time, Fortune, The Atlantic Monthly, and Salon. He has lived in Nigeria, Kenya, Turkey, and China. He now lives in Rome with his wife and three-year-old son.
While reporting just outside of Darfur, Stephan Faris discovered that climate change was at the root of that conflict, and began to wonder what current and impendingand largely unanticipatedcrises such changes have in store for the world. After years of travel, research, and reporting, Faris reached these alarming conclusions:
Global warming will spur the spread of many diseases. Italy has already experienced its first climate-change epidemic of a tropical disease, and malaria is gaining ground in Africa. The warming world will shift huge populations and potentially redraw political alliances around the globe, driving environmentalists into the hands of anti-immigrant groups. Americas coasts are already more difficult places to live as increasing insurance rates make the Gulf Coast and other gorgeous spots prohibitively expensive. Crops will fail in previously lush places and thrive in some formerly barren zones, altering huge industries and remaking traditions. Water scarcity in India and Pakistan have the potential to inflame the conflict in Kashmir to unprecedented levels and draw the United States into the troubles there, and elsewhere.
Forecast is a thorough portrayal of the unexpected ways that climate change may affect the world in the near futurepolitically, economically, and culturally. "Engaging, thoroughly researched reportage . . . [Faris] elegantly negotiates the tricky line between the personal and political, and in doing so provides a more accurate and powerful warning about the perils of climate change than many other books in the genre"New Scientist
"Engaging, thoroughly researched reportage . . . [Faris] elegantly negotiates the tricky line between the personal and political, and in doing so provides a more accurate and powerful warning about the perils of climate change than many other books in the genre."New Scientist
"The most perceptive [book] so far about [climate changes] growing place in our daily lives, our iconography, and, sometimes, our paranoias."Fred Pearce, Orion
"Bad news is good news if it gets us to act. Forecast shouldit shows that this is not a crisis for our children, but the central question of our time."Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and The Bill McKibben Reader
"Stephan Faris has written a superb, first-hand account of the imminent results of climate change. His exceptional writing provides a vivid sense of the impact of global warming happening now. Forecast is a must read for all those who want to understand the seriousness of this growing problem threatening our planet."General Anthony C. Zinni USMC (Retired), author of The Battle for Peace
"Forecast takes us beyond the computer-generated doomsday maps and Mad Max-like theories, giving us instead real stories of the devastating effects climate change has already had on our most precious resourceourselves. Through compelling and vigorously-researched storytelling, Stephan Faris shines a light in uncomfortable places, tracing calamities as varied as the Darfur conflict and grapes withering on their Napa Valley vines back to global warming. Forecast makes it clear that this crisis has been upon us for way longer than we realize, and the stakes are raised with every carbon-laced breath we take."Kelly McMasters, author of Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town
"The possible effects of global warming can seem vague and far away: will ocean levels rise six inches or six feet, and in twenty years or two-hundred? But as Stephan Faris's Forecast so powerfully illustrates, global warming is already playing a crucial role in a number of issues besetting the planet, in everything from the explosion of illegal immigration into Europe, to the brutal conflict between nomadic and agrarian tribes in Darfur. With a very deft hand, and even a touch of ironic wit, Faris shows that global warming comes at real cost to real peopleand the future is already upon us."Scott Anderson, author of The Man Who Tried to Save the World
"Stephan Faris has traveled everywhere, holding his journalist's looking glass for everyone to see the same carbon-crazed climate monster gazing at us in every reflection. Reader: Your world is peering from these pages. Better pay attention."Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us
"A journalist concerned with on-the-ground evidence of global warming, Faris reports on what he learned in visits to various regions around the world. A global climatic component is involved in local environmental situations, Faris finds, the details of which he expands in presenting the explanations of scientific or policy experts. What counts most in this work, however, are the impressions of climate change Faris gathered from his interviews with local inhabitants. They make tangible the abstractions of the issue in Sudan, Key West, Brazil, California, Canada, and India. In addition to covering local peoples observations about desertification, coral bleaching, and the temperature-sensitive wine-making industry, Faris looks into local political ramifications, especially those concerning people forced to move because of environmental stresses. He presents background to the violence in Darfur and notes the concerns of insurers about Americas hurricane-prone southern coasts. Faris reportorial techniques work well in his narrative, priming readers for his recommendation for urgent action on climate change."Gilbert Taylor, Booklist
"The latest communiqué from the emerging genre of traveling the world in the footsteps of climate change is an intelligent, nuanced report on the complex relationships between increasingly unstable weather patterns and politics, ecology and lifestyles. Journalist Faris shows how the genocide in Darfur has roots in desertification and may be a canary in the coal mine, a foretaste of climatically driven political chaos, and how the resulting emigration of Africans to Europe is causing economic pressures that are being met with fascistic movements in Italy and Britain. Locals are abandoning Key West and New Orleans due to unsustainable insurance premiums; Bangladesh is likely to be flooded out of existence; and drought may wipe out the Amazon rain forest within 70 years. Faris cites a study predicting a world depicted by Mad Max, only hotter, with no beaches and perhaps with even more chaos. But, depressingly, he admits that his travels researching this book released nine times an average person's annual carbon use and that the world many have opened its eyes to climate change, but we're far from taking effective action."Publishers Weekly
Review
"An intelligent, nuanced report on the complex relationships between increasingly unstable weather patterns and politics, ecology and lifestyles."—Publishers Weekly
"A globe-spanning look at the effects of climate change, already apparent in our time.... Faris writes deftly about the developing world."—Kirkus Reviews
"Engaging, thoroughly researched reportage.... [Faris] elegantly negotiates the tricky line between the personal and political, and in doing so provides a more accurate and powerful warning about the perils of climate change than many other books in the genre"—New Scientist
“Well worth the carbon footprint of its publication … The most perceptive [book] so far about [climate changes] growing place in our daily lives, our iconography, and, sometimes, our paranoias.”—Fred Pearce, Orion
"Bad news is good news if it gets us to act. Forecast should--it shows that this is not a crisis for our children, but the central question of our time."—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and The Bill McKibben Reader
"Stephan Faris has traveled everywhere, holding his journalists looking glass up for everyone to see the same carbon-crazed climate monster looming in every reflection. Reader, that mirror is now in your hands: Your world, too, is peering from these pages. Better pay attention."—Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us
"Stephan Faris has written a superb, first-hand account of the imminent results of climate change. His exceptional writing provides a vivid sense of the impact of global warming happening now. Forecast is a must read for all those who want to understand the seriousness of this growing problem threatening our planet."—General Anthony C. Zinni USMC (Retired), author of The Battle for Peace
"Forecast takes us beyond the computer-generated doomsday maps and Mad Max-like theories, giving us instead real stories of the devastating effects climate change has already had on our most precious resource—ourselves. Through compelling and vigorously-researched storytelling, Stephan Faris shines a light in uncomfortable places, tracing calamities as varied as the Darfur conflict and grapes withering on their Napa Valley vines back to global warming. Forecast makes it clear that this crisis has been upon us for way longer than we realize, and the stakes are raised with every carbon-laced breath we take."—Kelly McMasters, author of Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town
"The possible effects of global warming can seem vague and far away: will ocean levels rise six inches or six feet, and in twenty years or two-hundred? But as Stephan Faris's Forecast so powerfully illustrates, global warming is already playing a crucial role in a number of issues besetting the planet, in everything from the explosion of illegal immigration into Europe, to the brutal conflict between nomadic and agrarian tribes in Darfur. With a very deft hand, and even a touch of ironic wit, Faris shows that global warming comes at real cost to real people - and the future is already upon us."—Scott Anderson, author of The Man Who Tried to Save the World
Synopsis
A vivid and illuminating portrayal of the surprising ways that climate change will affect the world in the near futurepolitically, economically, and culturally
While reporting just outside of Darfur, Stephan Faris discovered that climate change was at the root of that conflict, and began to wonder what current and impendingand largely unanticipatedcrises such changes have in store for the world.
Forecast provides the answers.
Global warming will spur the spread of many diseases. Italy has already experienced its first climate-change epidemic of a tropical disease, and malaria is gaining ground in Africa. The warming world will shift huge populations and potentially redraw political alliances around the globe, driving environmentalists into the hands of anti-immigrant groups. Americas coasts are already more difficult places to live as increasing insurance rates make the Gulf Coast and other gorgeous spots prohibitively expensive. Crops will fail in previously lush places and thrive in some formerly barren zones, altering huge industries and remaking traditions. Water scarcity in India and Pakistan have the potential to inflame the conflict in Kashmir to unprecedented levels and draw the United States into the troubles there, and elsewhere.
Told through the narratives of current, past, and future events, the result of astonishingly wide travel and reporting, Forecast is a powerful, gracefully written, eye-opening account of this most urgent issue and how it has altered and will alter our world.
Stephan Faris is a journalist who specializes in writing about the developing world. Since 2000, he has covered Africa, the Middle East, and China for publications including Time, Fortune, The Atlantic Monthly, and Salon. He has lived in Nigeria, Kenya, Turkey, and China. He now lives in Rome with his wife and three-year-old son.
While reporting just outside of Darfur, Stephan Faris discovered that climate change was at the root of that conflict, and began to wonder what current and impendingand largely unanticipatedcrises such changes have in store for the world. After years of travel, research, and reporting, Faris reached these alarming conclusions:
Global warming will spur the spread of many diseases. Italy has already experienced its first climate-change epidemic of a tropical disease, and malaria is gaining ground in Africa. The warming world will shift huge populations and potentially redraw political alliances around the globe, driving environmentalists into the hands of anti-immigrant groups. Americas coasts are already more difficult places to live as increasing insurance rates make the Gulf Coast and other gorgeous spots prohibitively expensive. Crops will fail in previously lush places and thrive in some formerly barren zones, altering huge industries and remaking traditions. Water scarcity in India and Pakistan have the potential to inflame the conflict in Kashmir to unprecedented levels and draw the United States into the troubles there, and elsewhere.
Forecast is a thorough portrayal of the unexpected ways that climate change may affect the world in the near futurepolitically, economically, and culturally. "Engaging, thoroughly researched reportage . . . [Faris] elegantly negotiates the tricky line between the personal and political, and in doing so provides a more accurate and powerful warning about the perils of climate change than many other books in the genre"New Scientist
"Engaging, thoroughly researched reportage . . . [Faris] elegantly negotiates the tricky line between the personal and political, and in doing so provides a more accurate and powerful warning about the perils of climate change than many other books in the genre."New Scientist
"The most perceptive [book] so far about [climate changes] growing place in our daily lives, our iconography, and, sometimes, our paranoias."Fred Pearce, Orion
"Bad news is good news if it gets us to act. Forecast shouldit shows that this is not a crisis for our children, but the central question of our time."Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and The Bill McKibben Reader
"Stephan Faris has written a superb, first-hand account of the imminent results of climate change. His exceptional writing provides a vivid sense of the impact of global warming happening now. Forecast is a must read for all those who want to understand the seriousness of this growing problem threatening our planet."General Anthony C. Zinni USMC (Retired), author of The Battle for Peace
"Forecast takes us beyond the computer-generated doomsday maps and Mad Max-like theories, giving us instead real stories of the devastating effects climate change has already had on our most precious resourceourselves. Through compelling and vigorously-researched storytelling, Stephan Faris shines a light in uncomfortable places, tracing calamities as varied as the Darfur conflict and grapes withering on their Napa Valley vines back to global warming. Forecast makes it clear that this crisis has been upon us for way longer than we realize, and the stakes are raised with every carbon-laced breath we take."Kelly McMasters, author of Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town
"The possible effects of global warming can seem vague and far away: will ocean levels rise six inches or six feet, and in twenty years or two-hundred? But as Stephan Faris's Forecast so powerfully illustrates, global warming is already playing a crucial role in a number of issues besetting the planet, in everything from the explosion of illegal immigration into Europe, to the brutal conflict between nomadic and agrarian tribes in Darfur. With a very deft hand, and even a touch of ironic wit, Faris shows that global warming comes at real cost to real peopleand the future is already upon us."Scott Anderson, author of The Man Who Tried to Save the World
"Stephan Faris has traveled everywhere, holding his journalist's looking glass for everyone to see the same carbon-crazed climate monster gazing at us in every reflection. Reader: Your world is peering from these pages. Better pay attention."Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us
"A journalist concerned with on-the-ground evidence of global warming, Faris reports on what he learned in visits to various regions around the world. A global climatic component is involved in local environmental situations, Faris finds, the details of which he expands in presenting the explanations of scientific or policy experts. What counts most in this work, however, are the impressions of climate change Faris gathered from his interviews with local inhabitants. They make tangible the abstractions of the issue in Sudan, Key West, Brazil, California, Canada, and India. In addition to covering local peoples observations about desertification, coral bleaching, and the temperature-sensitive wine-making industry, Faris looks into local political ramifications, especially those concerning people forced to move because of environmental stresses. He presents background to the violence in Darfur and notes the concerns of insurers about Americas hurricane-prone southern coasts. Faris reportorial techniques work well in his narra
Synopsis
A vivid and illuminating portrayal of the surprising ways that climate change will affect the world in the near future--politically, economically, and culturally
While reporting just outside of Darfur, Stephan Faris discovered that climate change was at the root of that conflict, and began to wonder what current and impending--and largely unanticipated--crises such changes have in store for the world.
Forecast provides the answers.
Global warming will spur the spread of many diseases. Italy has already experienced its first climate-change epidemic of a tropical disease, and malaria is gaining ground in Africa. The warming world will shift huge populations and potentially redraw political alliances around the globe, driving environmentalists into the hands of anti-immigrant groups. America's coasts are already more difficult places to live as increasing insurance rates make the Gulf Coast and other gorgeous spots prohibitively expensive. Crops will fail in previously lush places and thrive in some formerly barren zones, altering huge industries and remaking traditions. Water scarcity in India and Pakistan have the potential to inflame the conflict in Kashmir to unprecedented levels and draw the United States into the troubles there, and elsewhere.
Told through the narratives of current, past, and future events, the result of astonishingly wide travel and reporting, Forecast is a powerful, gracefully written, eye-opening account of this most urgent issue and how it has altered and will alter our world.
Stephan Faris is a journalist who specializes in writing about the developing world. Since 2000, he has covered Africa, the Middle East, and China for publications including Time, Fortune, The Atlantic Monthly, and Salon. He has lived in Nigeria, Kenya, Turkey, and China. He now lives in Rome with his wife and three-year-old son.
While reporting just outside of Darfur, Stephan Faris discovered that climate change was at the root of that conflict, and began to wonder what current and impending--and largely unanticipated--crises such changes have in store for the world. After years of travel, research, and reporting, Faris reached these alarming conclusions:
Global warming will spur the spread of many diseases. Italy has already experienced its first climate-change epidemic of a tropical disease, and malaria is gaining ground in Africa. The warming world will shift huge populations and potentially redraw political alliances around the globe, driving environmentalists into the hands of anti-immigrant groups. America's coasts are already more difficult places to live as increasing insurance rates make the Gulf Coast and other gorgeous spots prohibitively expensive. Crops will fail in previously lush places and thrive in some formerly barren zones, altering huge industries and remaking traditions. Water scarcity in India and Pakistan have the potential to inflame the conflict in Kashmir to unprecedented levels and draw the United States into the troubles there, and elsewhere.
Forecast is a thorough portrayal of the unexpected ways that climate change may affect the world in the near future--politically, economically, and culturally. Engaging, thoroughly researched reportage . . . Faris] elegantly negotiates the tricky line between the personal and political, and in doing so provides a more accurate and powerful warning about the perils of climate change than many other books in the genre--New Scientist
Engaging, thoroughly researched reportage . . . Faris] elegantly negotiates the tricky line between the personal and political, and in doing so provides a more accurate and powerful warning about the perils of climate change than many other books in the genre.--New Scientist
The most perceptive book] so far about climate change's] growing place in our daily lives, our iconography, and, sometimes, our paranoias.--Fred Pearce, Orion
Bad news is good news if it gets us to act. Forecast should--it shows that this is not a crisis for our children, but the central question of our time.--Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and The Bill McKibben Reader
Stephan Faris has written a superb, first-hand account of the imminent results of climate change. His exceptional writing provides a vivid sense of the impact of global warming happening now. Forecast is a must read for all those who want to understand the seriousness of this growing problem threatening our planet.--General Anthony C. Zinni USMC (Retired), author of The Battle for Peace
Forecast takes us beyond the computer-generated doomsday maps and Mad Max-like theories, giving us instead real stories of the devastating effects climate change has already had on our most precious resource--ourselves. Through compelling and vigorously-researched storytelling, Stephan Faris shines a light in uncomfortable places, tracing calamities as varied as the Darfur conflict and grapes withering on their Napa Valley vines back to global warming. Forecast makes it clear that this crisis has been upon us for way longer than we realize, and the stakes are raised with every carbon-laced breath we take.--Kelly McMasters, author of Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town
The possible effects of global warming can seem vague and far away: will ocean levels rise six inches or six feet, and in twenty years or two-hundred? But as Stephan Faris's Forecast so powerfully illustrates, global warming is already playing a crucial role in a number of issues besetting the planet, in everything from the explosion of illegal immigration into Europe, to the brutal conflict between nomadic and agrarian tribes in Darfur. With a very deft hand, and even a touch of ironic wit, Faris shows that global warming comes at real cost to real people--and the future is already upon us.--Scott Anderson, author of The Man Who Tried to Save the World
Stephan Faris has traveled everywhere, holding his journalist's looking glass for everyone to see the same carbon-crazed climate monster gazing at us in every reflection. Reader: Your world is peering from these pages. Better pay attention.--Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us
A journalist concerned with on-the-ground evidence of global warming, Faris reports on what he learned in visits to various regions around the world. A global climatic component is involved in local environmental situations, Faris finds, the details of which he expands in presenting the explanations of scientific or policy experts. What counts most in this work, however, are the impressions of climate change Faris gathered from his interviews with local inhabitants. They make tangible the abstractions of the issue in Sudan, Key West, Brazil, California, Canada, and India. In addition to covering local people's observations about desertification, coral bleaching, and the temperature-sensitive wine-making industry, Faris looks into local political ramifications, especially those concerning people forced to move because of environmental stresses. He presents background to the violence in Darfur and notes the concerns of insurers about America's hurricane-prone southern coasts. Faris' reportorial techniques work well in his narrative, priming readers for his recommendation for urgent action on climate change.--Gilbert Taylor, Booklist
The latest communique from the emerging genre of traveling the world in the footsteps of climate change is an intelligent, nuanced report on the complex relationships between increasingly unstable weather patterns and politics, ecology and lifestyles. Journalist Faris shows how the genocide in Darfur has roots in desertification and may be a canary in the coal mine, a foretaste of climatically driven political chaos, and how the resulting emigration of Africans to Europe is causing economic pressures that are being met with fascistic movements in Italy and Britain. Locals are abandoning Key West and New Orleans due to unsustainable insurance premiums; Bangladesh is likely to be flooded out of existence; and drought may wipe out the Amazon rain forest within 70 years. Faris cites a study predicting a world depicted by Mad Max, only hotter, with no beaches and perhaps with even more chaos. But, depressingly, he admits that his travels researching this book released nine times an average person's annual carbon use and that the world many have opened its eyes to climate change, but we're far from taking effective action.--Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
A vivid and illuminating portrayal of the surprising ways that climate change will affect the world in the near future—politically, economically, and culturally
While reporting just outside of Darfur, Stephan Faris discovered that climate change was at the root of that conflict, and began to wonder what current and impending—and largely unanticipated—crises such changes have in store for the world.
Forecast provides the answers.
Global warming will spur the spread of many diseases. Italy has already experienced its first climate-change epidemic of a tropical disease, and malaria is gaining ground in Africa. The warming world will shift huge populations and potentially redraw political alliances around the globe, driving environmentalists into the hands of anti-immigrant groups. Americas coasts are already more difficult places to live as increasing insurance rates make the Gulf Coast and other gorgeous spots prohibitively expensive. Crops will fail in previously lush places and thrive in some formerly barren zones, altering huge industries and remaking traditions. Water scarcity in India and Pakistan have the potential to inflame the conflict in Kashmir to unprecedented levels and draw the United States into the troubles there, and elsewhere.
Told through the narratives of current, past, and future events, the result of astonishingly wide travel and reporting, Forecast is a powerful, gracefully written, eye-opening account of this most urgent issue and how it has altered and will alter our world.
About the Author
Stephan Faris is a journalist who specializes in writing about the developing world. Since 2000, he has covered Africa, the Middle East, and China for publications including Time, Fortune, The Atlantic Monthly, and Salon. He has lived in Nigeria, Kenya, Turkey, and China. He now lives in Rome with his wife and three-year-old son.