The Next One Hundred Years

by Jonathan Weiner

The author examines the threat of the greenhouse effect on the planet, the hole in the ozone layer, and the decimation of forests, and details the steps necessary to reverse these disasters

Genres: Science, Environment, Nonfiction, Ecology

312 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 1991

About the author

Jonathan Weiner is one of the most distinguished popular-science writers in the country. His books have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A former editor at The Sciences and a writer for The New Yorker, he is the author of The Beak of the Finch, Time, Love, Memory, His Brother's Keeper among many others.

He currently lives in New York with his wife, Deborah Heiligman who is the children's book author, and their two sons. There he teaches science writing at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

Reviews

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although Weiner’s book is less focused on the future than I would have expected, I still found this book a great discussion of the risks of climate change. Weiner takes the reader through the first measurements that lead us to our current understanding of climate change. Along the way, he shares with the reader how our evolving understanding of the earth’s processes allows us to expect a myriad of changes across the earth’s biosphere and hydrosphere due to the increasing levels of carbon dioxide. I was also pleased to see Weiner discuss all the aspects that make a doubt-free climate model quite impossible. His discussion on the effect of clouds, volcanism and sun activity serve to give the reader a more nuanced understanding of the difficulties of predicting the climate with 100% confidence. However, Weiner still demonstrates that to hope that all this uncertainties cancel out the very real effects of a warming planet is sheer folly. He also manages to put the predicted changes into context, showing how a 1-2 °C warming and an increase of a few feet in the sea level can make once-in-a-century heat waves and storm surges once-in-a-decade disasters. All in all, this book was an interesting recapitulation of the challenges that are in stock for humanity as a whole in the immediate future.

[Tom Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazingly prescient. Originally published in 1990, it includes an entirely modern understanding of the dire climate change issues we face today. Even more amazing is Mr. Weiner's understanding of the powerful effect of methane released from melting permafrost and from methane clathrates on the Arctic sea floor. A great book that makes clear that we must solve this climate change problem ASAP or face the extinction of our species by 2030.

[A De]

Prima boek. Al gelezen 3x sinds 1990. Dit boek zou gelezen moeten worden door wereldleiders. Na bestuderen van de werkelijke gang van ijverig werk van Charles David Keeling zou deze wetenschapper toch minimaal de nobelprijs hebben verdiend. De achterliggende gedachten van de kromme van Keeling worden helaas door de machtigen der aarde en hun economen vertrapt. Indien men naar hem geluisterd zou hebben op tijd had de mensheid bijtijds het verslindende consumptiegedrag en het verbrassen van fossiele brandstoffen en oerwouden kunnen tegengaan. Het staat allemaal in het boek. Sinds zijn 1e metingen zijn we 100ppm verder. 5 over 12. Hij heeft het keurig voorspeld.

[Lynn Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone who would like a clear and concise view of various individual scientific studies and other issues involved in the climate crisis and why it is essential to get a grip on them ASAP. For the common person this is a very important book.

[Ginger Heskett]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14349176

[Ginger Heskett]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14339623

[Aliemms · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHEN THE SUN BURNS RED*

Savage heat is searing, Global warning has begun
Mother Earth is reeling, No protection from the sun
Forest Fires are raging, while the rivers turn to ice
Foolish man creating, Mother Nature's cruel demise

Winter turns to summer,Then the seasons disappear
No one needs a PROPHET to explain what's all too clear
Oceans overflowing, Islands drowning everywhere
Leaders wouldn't admit it, Now they're crying in the despair

Hailstorms, tornadoes
Cold spells untimely frosts
Heat waves and Blizzards
Global death's the cost

Face the End Of The Time
As we plunge headlong towards the day
Can deny the signs, WhenThe Sun Burns Red
The Earth will Turn, From Blue to Gray

Now Rain shall wash away sad remains of man
Cities once so proud will crumble into sand
Buildings all collapse when all its done and said
The guilty ones will die with the innocent……….
When the sun burns red

[Nathan Titus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book based on the title alone, having no idea of its contents. I thought it would be about how we as humans have the power to take our world anywhere we want...right up my ally.
NOPE!
It was about global warming and environmental destruction. Nothing I haven't heard before. The tone, too, was one I've heard before: doom and gloom, everything humans do is bad, thinly disguised as science. While I know for a fact that almost everything this book has to say is true, it simply wasn't worth hearing again.
I did like the bit in the end where he talks about how much good we could do by planting trees, especially in cities. I wish he'd expanded that. Instead, he went off talking about how we need to set up multi billion dolar monitoring stations to confirm what we already know: that co2 is rising, that forest are disappearing, that the ozone hole is growing, that the planet's getting hotter, ext, ext. A lot of good that will do! Focus on solutions, people!

[Everett Shtallings · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first book I read on global warming. I used it as required reading in the physical science courses I taught at Winthrop University. It is clearly written and understandable for the non science major. It gives a great insight into the life and mindset of Joseph Keeling who started the modern study of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

[Lafcadio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of facts presented in an easy to read narrative.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the book that woke me up with respect to global warming.