Product Description
In 1989 Ian Lowe published Living in the Greenhouse, one of the first books to be published in Australia on the greenhouse effect. Since then, the signs of global warming have become even more clear and more worrying to the international community, as demonstrated by the Kyoto Protocol. In Australia and around the world the impact of climate change on weather patterns is already being noticed in dramatic and frightening ways. In this new book, Professor Lowe brings… More >>
Living in the Hothouse: How Global Warming Affects Australia
I was very impressed with this book. Professor Lowe gives the clearest explanation I have read of the atmospheric chemistry changes behind the global warming crisis. The author completely demolishes the arguments of those who hold that this crisis is caused by variations in the orbit of the earth or by the fantasies of ecological extremists. The carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are at the highest point in the last 20 million years, and the author convincingly argues that it has become a moral imperative for the world community to make a serious response.
Much of the global warming literature is about the Northern Hemisphere with discussion about the rapidly warming Arctic, the recent hurricane disasters in the United States, and even the outbreak of malignant melanoma here in California. Therefore it is most helpful for the continent of Australia to be reporting in as well. And the dangers to that nation in terms of brushfires, substantially reduced water resources, and intense summer heat are fully documented. What is different about this book is the long list of practical proposals for reversing climate change. Not many global warming books emphasize architecture and public transportation. But if there are solutions available, these are two of the key components.
This is not a book for everyone. Those unfamiliar with Australian geography may feel lost in the place names. Political conservatives will not be happy about Professor Lowe’s denunciations of the “rogue regimes” of Australian Prime Minister John Howard and US President George W Bush. Even I think that the author’s antipathy toward automobiles is a bit overdone. But unless the warnings by Professor Lowe and others about impeding disaster are heeded, the next generation of global warming books may be about surviving the disaster which has already arrived.
Rating: 5 / 5