Synopses & Reviews
"President Bush and his Administration have risen to the global warming challenge with responses ranging from obfuscation to pretense to outright denial...I'd like to issue each and every one of them a challenge. Come with me--see what I have seen--and try to understand what global warming really means for us and for our children. Leave Washington and travel to the places I have visited..."--From the Preface
A glacier disappears high in the Peruvian Andes. Floodwaters surge across the English countryside. Ten thousand Pacific Islanders begin to evacuate their homeland. A dust storm turns day into night across the Inner Mongolian plains. These events may seem unrelated, but they are not. Even as scientists and other experts debate the specifics, climate crisis is already affecting the lives of millions.
In this ground-breaking book, Mark Lynas reveals the first evidence--collected during an epic three-year journey across five continents--about how global warming is hitting people's lives all around the world. From American hurricane chasers to Mongolian herders, from Alaskan Eskimos to South Sea islanders, Lynas's encounters and discoveries give us a stark warning about the even worse dangers that lie ahead if nothing is done.
High Tide's message is urgent and its revelations are at once shocking and inspiring--shocking as so few of us yet realize the magnitude of whats happening, and inspiring as there is still time to avert much greater catastrophe. No one who reads this book will be able to look their children in the eyes and say "I didnt know."
As global temperatures soar to record levels, Lynas bears witness to:
- CRIPPLING DROUGHT: China's Yellow River no longer reaches the sea for half the year, and villages across the north of the country are disappearing under advancing sand dunes
- BAKED ALASKA: Permafrost is melting, leaving houses, roads and whole forests sucked into the thawing ground. Winter is in retreat, leaving animals confused and Native Alaskan people without a livelihood
- DISAPPEARING GLACIERS: Every glaciated mountain range on Earth is experiencing massive ice losses. Montana's Glacier National Park has lost 100 glaciers in the last century; only 50 remain. Water supplies to hundreds of millions of people--from Peru to Pakistan--are threatened
- HIGH TIDES: Islanders on the tiny South Pacific nation of Tuvalu are already leaving their homeland as rising sea levels engulf their atolls. Today 70 percent of the worlds sandy shorelines are retreating; up to 90 percent of the beaches on the Eastern U.S. seaboard are eroding fast
- CATASTROPHIC FLOODS: English villagers now talk about a "wet season" rather than a winter. Heavier rainfall is now falling across the global mid-latitudes, from the continental U.S. to Russia, sparking devastating floods on an ever more frequent basis. Born in Fiji in 1973, Mark Lynas grew up in Peru, Spain, and the UK and edited the website OneWorld.net until 2000. A specialist in climate change, Lynas is a journalist, campaigner, and broadcast commentator. He lives in Oxford. Visit his Web site at www.marklynas.org.
A glacier disappears high in the Peruvian Andes. Floodwaters surge across the English countryside. Ten thousand Pacific Islanders evacuate their homeland. A dust storm turns day into night across the inner Mongolian plains. To many people, these events might seem unrelated. Not so. Even as scientists and other experts continue to debate the specifics, a climate crisis has crept up almost unnoticed on Planet Earth.
In this groundbreaking book, journalist and activist Mark Lynas reveals the first evidencepainstakingly collected over three years of traveling to far-flung corners of the globeof how global warming is seriously affecting people's lives, not in the future, but in our world right now. And in doing so, Lynas offers a stark warning about the much worse dangers that lie ahead if nothing is done to reverse the current climate crisis.
"Lynas has given us a tremendous gift: he has time-traveled into our terrifying collective future, a future that has already arrived in the farthest reaches of the globe. Go with him on this breathtaking, beautifully told journeyand I promise that you will come back changed, determined to alter the course of history."Naomi Klein, author of No Logo
"The real-life storiesthe human and emotional contentare what make High Tide a compelling and powerful read."Nicols Fox, The Washington Post Book World "The American people have been subjected to one of the most pervasive misinformation campaigns ever undertaken . . . President Bush and his administration have met the global warming challenge with responses ranging from obfuscation to pretence to outright denial . . . [Americans] deserve the information to make informed choices, not just for their own sakes, but because the decisions made by Americans willmore than those of any other peopledecide the fate of our planet over the coming century. For every time America votes, the world holds its breath. It is time for all of us to choose."from the Preface to High Tide
"High Tide shows climate change is affecting real people right now. High Tide helps us all grasp the magnitude of global warming but also manages to be personal, lively, and human. It is an important, persuasive, and thought-provoking book."Former Vice President Al Gore
"With High Tide, Mark Lynas has given us a tremendous gift: he has time-traveled into our terrifying collective future, a future that has already arrived in the farthest reaches of the globe. Go with him on this breathtaking, beautifully told journeyand I promise that you will come back changed, determined to alter the course of history."Naomi Klein, author of No Logo
"Telling the story of climate change through [the author's] personal experience and those of ordinary individuals is strategically brilliant. The real-life storiesthe human and emotional contentare what make High Tide a compelling and powerful read."Nicols Fox, The Washington Post Book World
"Part tract, part travelogue, Lynas's smart, hip, and factual book wakes us up and guides us to action. High Tide is a lively, instructive primer for awareness and change."Joy Williams, author of The Quick and The Dead
"[High Tide is] occasionally funny and caustic, and always readable."Anthony Doerr, The Boston Globe
"Lynas brings a youthful idealism and intensity to his travels . . . His book is a clarion call to action . . . Clear, lucid, and informative."Will Self, The New Statesman
"Thoroughly engaging and well-researched."Clive Gamble, The Times Literary Supplement
"Scientific reports can describe the glacial retreat that is [now] occurring, but they could never be as powerful as [this book's introductory] before-and-after photographs . . . Rational and compelling . . . We badly need books like this."Eamon Ryan, The Irish Times
"There will be many more books like High Tide, but this will be remembered as the first . . . An unusual book . . . Not unworthy of comparison with Orwell and certainly the breaker of new ground."Michael McCarthy, The Independent
"Powerful . . . A harrowing prospect, brilliantly set out by Lynas."J. G. Ballard, The Evening Standard
"A compelling work of reporting."Fred Pearce, New Scientist
"Compelling and eloquent."Peopleandplanet.net
"[An] alarming book."The Sunday Times
Review
"For all environmental activists/educators and those new to the ongoing debate about global climate change." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"High Tide shows climate change is affecting real people right now. High Tide helps us all grasp the magnitude of global warming but also manages to be personal, lively, and human. It is an important, persuasive, and thought-provoking book." Former Vice President Al Gore
Review
"With High Tide, Mark Lynas has given us a tremendous gift: he has time traveled into our terrifying collective future, a future that has already arrived in the farthest reaches of the globe. Go with him on this breathtaking, beautifully told journey and I promise that you will come back changed, determined to alter the course of history." Naomi Klein, author of No Logo
Review
"Part tract, part travelogue, Lynas' smart, hip, and factual book wakes us up and guides us to action. High Tide is a lively, instructive primer for awareness and change." Joy Williams, author of The Quick and The Dead
Synopsis
Reveals the first evidence collected during an epic three-year journey across five continents of how global warming is affecting people's lives all around the world. From Alaskan Eskimos to South Sea islanders, Lynas's encounters and discoveries give us a stark warning about the even worse dangers that lie ahead if nothing is done.
Synopsis
"President Bush and his Administration have risen to the global warming challenge with responses ranging from obfuscation to pretense to outright denial...I'd like to issue each and every one of them a challenge. Come with me--see what I have seen--and try to understand what global warming really means for us and for our children. Leave Washington and travel to the places I have visited..."--From the Preface
A glacier disappears high in the Peruvian Andes. Floodwaters surge across the English countryside. Ten thousand Pacific Islanders begin to evacuate their homeland. A dust storm turns day into night across the Inner Mongolian plains. These events may seem unrelated, but they are not. Even as scientists and other experts debate the specifics, climate crisis is already affecting the lives of millions.
In this ground-breaking book, Mark Lynas reveals the first evidence--collected during an epic three-year journey across five continents--about how global warming is hitting people's lives all around the world. From American hurricane chasers to Mongolian herders, from Alaskan Eskimos to South Sea islanders, Lynas's encounters and discoveries give us a stark warning about the even worse dangers that lie ahead if nothing is done.
High Tide's message is urgent and its revelations are at once shocking and inspiring--shocking as so few of us yet realize the magnitude of whats happening, and inspiring as there is still time to avert much greater catastrophe. No one who reads this book will be able to look their children in the eyes and say "I didnt know."
As global temperatures soar to record levels, Lynas bears witness to:
- CRIPPLING DROUGHT: China's Yellow River no longer reaches the sea for half the year, and villages across the north of the country are disappearing under advancing sand dunes
- BAKED ALASKA: Permafrost is melting, leaving houses, roads and whole forests sucked into the thawing ground. Winter is in retreat, leaving animals confused and Native Alaskan people without a livelihood
- DISAPPEARING GLACIERS: Every glaciated mountain range on Earth is experiencing massive ice losses. Montana's Glacier National Park has lost 100 glaciers in the last century; only 50 remain. Water supplies to hundreds of millions of people--from Peru to Pakistan--are threatened
- HIGH TIDES: Islanders on the tiny South Pacific nation of Tuvalu are already leaving their homeland as rising sea levels engulf their atolls. Today 70 percent of the worlds sandy shorelines are retreating; up to 90 percent of the beaches on the Eastern U.S. seaboard are eroding fast
- CATASTROPHIC FLOODS: English villagers now talk about a "wet season" rather than a winter. Heavier rainfall is now falling across the global mid-latitudes, from the continental U.S. to Russia, sparking devastating floods on an ever more frequent basis.
About the Author
Mark Lynas is a journalist, campaigner and broadcast commentator on environmental issues. He is a contributor to the
New Statesman, Ecologist, Granta and
Geographical magazines, and the
Guardian and
Observer in the UK. He lives in Oxford, England.