Hot Living through the Next Fifty Years on Earth

A fresh take on climate change by a renowned journalist driven to protect his daughter, your kids, and the next generation wholl inherit the problem For twenty years, Mark Hertsgaard has investigated global warming for outlets including the　New Yorker, NPR, Time, Vanity Fair, and The Nation. But the full truth did not hit home until he became a father and, soon thereafter, learned that climate change had already arrived―a century earlier than forecast―with impacts bound to worsen for decades to come. Hertsgaard's daughter Chiara, now five yea rs old, is part of what he has dubbed "Generation Hot"--the two billion young people worldwide who will spend the rest of their lives coping with mounting climate disruption.

HOT is a father's cry against climate change, but most of the book focuses on s olutions, offering a deeply reported blueprint for how all of us―as parents, communities, companies and countries―can navigate this unavoidable new era. Combining reporting from across the nation and around the world with personal reflections on his daugh ters future, Hertsgaard provides "pictures" of what is expected over the next fifty years: Chicagos climate transformed to resemble Houstons; dwindling water supplies and crop yields at home and abroad; the redesign of New York and other cities against mega-storms and sea-level rise. Above all, he shows who is taking wise, creative precautions. For in the end, HOT is a book about how well survive.

"Passionate and somber...[Hot's] urgent message is one that citizens and governments cannot afford to ignore." —Boston Globe "Informative and vividly reported book...passionate." —San Francisco Chronicle

"[A] readable, passionate book . . . persuasively argues that human survival depends on bottom-up, citizen-driven government action." —Publishers Weekly

" Climate change is well underway, writes Hertsgaard, and we must begin to adapt to it even as we work to stop it.... The authors stated goal is to make readers feel hopeful so that they will act, but he is candid about his own lapses into despair. . . . Hopefully, this book will prompt readers to action. Starkly clear and of utmost importance." —Kirkus Reviews (starred) "In Hot, one of America's finest journalists confronts one of the world's most urgent problems. Hertsgaard cuts through the denial and disinformation about climate change, offering a clear, tough-minded view of our predicament. More important, he shows that the worst harms of global warming are not inevitable and outlines the steps that can help to avert disaster. Hot bravely takes aim at perhaps the greatest climate threat of all: apathy." —Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation

"I know what you're thinking: The problem is so massive I can't bear to read any more about it. But youre wrong. Mark Hertsgaard not only makes the workings of climate change clear, vivid and comprehensible but gives us some reasons for hope. Some of the ways to fight or adapt to global warming are simpler—and more unexpected—than you would think, and some of the places where these lessons are being applied you never would have guessed. Hot is a lively, personal, very human piece of reportage about an issue that will ever more be at the very center of our lives." —Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopolds Ghost

"Mark Hertsgaard is the master of a kind of travelogue reporting that lets you understand possibilities and problems in a deep way. But this time, one of the places he's traveling to is the near future, and the news he brings back is equal parts scary, invigorating, and full of challenge. This is an important book." —Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

"Like the fairy tales that Mark reads to his daughter, Chiara, Hot is full of out-sized challenges and glimmers of hope. In this brilliant postcard from the year 2060, Mark explores a world that will be defined, for better or worse, by decisions made today as we conduct a massive planetary science experiment—one that future generations will grade us on." —Terry Tamminen, Secretary of the California EPA for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

On a quest to protect the next generation from mounting climate change, renowned journalist Mark Hertsgaard offers a deeply reported blueprint on how to navigate this unavoidable new era.

"Hot bravely takes aim at perhaps the greatest climate threat of all: apathy." — Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation

"Hertsgaards answers . . . are lucid, realistic, and offer reason for hope." — Christian Science Monitor

For twenty years, Mark Hertsgaard has investigated global warming as a journalist, but the full truth did not hit home until he became a father and, soon thereafter, learned that climate change was bound to worsen for decades to come. Hertsgaard's daughter is part of what he has dubbed "Generation Hot" — the two billion young people worldwide who will spend the rest of their lives coping with climate disruption. Drawing on reporting from around the world, Hot is a call to action that injects hope and solutions into a debate characterized by doom and gloom and offers a blueprint for how all of us ? parents, communities, countries ? can navigate an unavoidable new era.

"[Hots] urgent message is one that citizens and governments cannot afford to ignore." — Boston Globe

MARK HERTSGAARD, described by Barbara Ehrenreich as “one of Americas finest reporters,” has written for the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and Time, and is author of four books, including Earth Odyssey. He has traveled the world seeking answers to the question of how to keep humanity alive in the face of global warning. A Soros fellow, he recently attended the Copenhagen Conference, widely considered the most important global meeting in the history of the climate issue.

Contents

Prologue: Growing Up Under Global Warming 1

 1. Living Through the Storm 15

 2. Three Feet of Water 31

 3. My Daughters Earth 47

 4. Ask the Climate Question 74

 5. The Two-Hundred-Year Plan 107

 6. Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? 128

 7. In Vino Veritas: The Business of Climate Adaptation 159

 8. How Will We Feed Ourselves? 177

 9. While the Rich Avert Their Eyes 218

 10. “This Was a Crime” 247

Epilogue: Chiara in the Year 2020 292

Acknowledgments 295

Notes 299

Index 319