"Fire and Flood" by Eugene Linden

Eugene Linden can say I told you so but he'd rather see progress towards heading off a catastrophe that he suggests is coming unless citizens of the world take climate change seriously. Indeed, it may be too late for seriously. What we face now is urgency, he says in his 11th book, subtitled "A People's History of Climate Change, From 1979 to the Present."Linden revisits some of the most destructive examples of what a warming planet is capable of: Hurricane Andrew in 1992 (a storm that wrecked 125,000 homes in Dade County alone and led to the insolvency of 11 insurance companies), Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (bringing a 19-foot storm surge that damaged 70 percent of the homes in New Orleans), Hurricane Sandy in 2012 (sending torrents of water into New York's subways).But Linden isn't just reciting bad storm statistics. He brings a message: recalling a book he wrote in 1998, "The Future in Plain Sight," he suggests that 24 years after publication a scenario for 2050 seems to be unfolding--that California's remaining redwoods, mighty trees that have dominated for eight million years could be wiped out within three decades."More than 90 percent of the excess heat created by our overloading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases has ended up in the oceans," noted Linden. Unbeknown to those of us on land, that's leading to a whole lot of change and a whole lot of trouble. When sea levels rise, coastal cities will feel it first but that isn't the only issue.The wildfires that have torched western states will only get worse, said Linden. At some point, the cost to fight those fires will bankrupt the state of California.But Linden isn't walking the plank--he's offering hope and looks for action to counter the impending crisis. His book may be depressing but it's important to understand what's going on.