The Winds of Change

Description

Climate has been humanity's constant, if moody, companion. At times benefactor or tormentor, climate nurtured the first stirrings of civilization and then repeatedly visited ruin on empires and peoples. Environmental journalist Linden reveals a recurring pattern in which civilizations become prosperous and complacent during good weather, only to collapse when climate changes--either through its direct effects, such as floods or drought, or indirect consequences, such as disease, blight, and civil disorder. The science of climate change is still young, but the evidence mounts that climate loomed over the fate of societies from arctic Greenland to the Fertile Crescent and from the lost cities of the Mayans in Central America to the rain forests of Central Africa. The tragedy of New Orleans is but the latest instance in which a region prepared for weather disasters experienced in the past finds itself helpless when nature ups the ante.--From publisher description.

First Sentence

IN THE Francis Ford Coppola film The Conversation, the plot turns on the efforts of an audio technician who attempts to reconstitute a critical phrase caught by a clandestine bugging device after being uttered by a young and scared couple.

Subjects

Other Editions

• The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of CivilizationsPaperbackSimon & Schuster2007-06-26
• The winds of changeSimon & Schuster2004-01-01
• The winds of changeSimon & Schuster2006-01-01
• The winds of changeSimon & Schuster2006-01-01