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High Tide: The Truth About Our Climate Crisis
"President Bush and his Administration have risen to the global warming challenge with responses ranging from obfuscation to pretense to outright denial...I'd like to issue each and every one of them a challenge. Come with me--see what I have seen--and try to understand what global warming really means for us and for our children. Leave Washington and travel to the places I have visited..."--From the Preface
A glacier disappears high in the Peruvian Andes. Floodwaters surge across the English countryside. Ten thousand Pacific Islanders begin to evacuate their homeland. A dust storm turns day into night across the Inner Mongolian plains. These events may seem unrelated, but they are not. Even as scientists and other experts debate the specifics, climate crisis is already affecting the lives of millions.
In this ground-breaking book, Mark Lynas reveals the first evidence--collected during an epic three-year journey across five continents--about how global warming is hitting people's lives all around the world. From American hurricane chasers to Mongolian herders, from Alaskan Eskimos to South Sea islanders, Lynas's encounters and discoveries give us a stark warning about the even worse dangers that lie ahead if nothing is done.
High Tide's message is urgent and its revelations are at once shocking and inspiring--shocking as so few of us yet realize the magnitude of what's happening, and inspiring as there is still time to avert much greater catastrophe. No one who reads this book will be able to look their children in the eyes and say "I didn't know."
As global temperatures soar to record levels, Lynas bears witness to:
- CRIPPLING DROUGHT: China's Yellow River no longer reaches the sea for half the year, and villages across the north of the country are disappearing under advancing sand dunes
- BAKED ALASKA: Permafrost is melting, leaving houses, roads and whole forests sucked into the thawing ground. Winter is in retreat, leaving animals confused and Native Alaskan people without a livelihood
- DISAPPEARING GLACIERS: Every glaciated mountain range on Earth is experiencing massive ice losses. Montana's Glacier National Park has lost 100 glaciers in the last century; only 50 remain. Water supplies to hundreds of millions of people--from Peru to Pakistan--are threatened
- HIGH TIDES: Islanders on the tiny South Pacific nation of Tuvalu are already leaving their homeland as rising sea levels engulf their atolls. Today 70 percent of the world's sandy shorelines are retreating; up to 90 percent of the beaches on the Eastern U.S. seaboard are eroding fast
- CATASTROPHIC FLOODS: English villagers now talk about a "wet season" rather than a winter. Heavier rainfall is now falling across the global mid-latitudes, from the continental U.S. to Russia, sparking devastating floods on an ever more frequent basis.
A glacier disappears high in the Peruvian Andes. Floodwaters surge across the English countryside. Ten thousand Pacific Islanders begin to evacuate their homeland. A dust storm turns day into night across the Inner Mongolian plains. These events may seem unrelated, but they are not. Even as scientists and other experts debate the specifics, climate crisis is already affecting the lives of millions.
In this ground-breaking book, Mark Lynas reveals the first evidence--collected during an epic three-year journey across five continents--about how global warming is hitting people's lives all around the world. From American hurricane chasers to Mongolian herders, from Alaskan Eskimos to South Sea islanders, Lynas's encounters and discoveries give us a stark warning about the even worse dangers that lie ahead if nothing is done.
High Tide's message is urgent and its revelations are at once shocking and inspiring--shocking as so few of us yet realize the magnitude of what's happening, and inspiring as there is still time to avert much greater catastrophe. No one who reads this book will be able to look their children in the eyes and say "I didn't know."
As global temperatures soar to record levels, Lynas bears witness to:
- CRIPPLING DROUGHT: China's Yellow River no longer reaches the sea for half the year, and villages across the north of the country are disappearing under advancing sand dunes
- BAKED ALASKA: Permafrost is melting, leaving houses, roads and whole forests sucked into the thawing ground. Winter is in retreat, leaving animals confused and Native Alaskan people without a livelihood
- DISAPPEARING GLACIERS: Every glaciated mountain range on Earth is experiencing massive ice losses. Montana's Glacier National Park has lost 100 glaciers in the last century; only 50 remain. Water supplies to hundreds of millions of people--from Peru to Pakistan--are threatened
- HIGH TIDES: Islanders on the tiny South Pacific nation of Tuvalu are already leaving their homeland as rising sea levels engulf their atolls. Today 70 percent of the world's sandy shorelines are retreating; up to 90 percent of the beaches on the Eastern U.S. seaboard are eroding fast
- CATASTROPHIC FLOODS: English villagers now talk about a "wet season" rather than a winter. Heavier rainfall is now falling across the global mid-latitudes, from the continental U.S. to Russia, sparking devastating floods on an ever more frequent basis.
384 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2004
5 people are currently reading
177 people want to read
About the author
Mark Lynas
20 books78 followersMark Lynas is a British author, journalist and environmental activist who focuses on climate change.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 3, 2014
Written ten years ago, this book challenges the reader to ponder if the climate crises depicted were one-offs or indeed part of global warming. The very first example comes down heavily on the latter side. Lynas chronicles the once-in-centuries UK floods of 2000 (which I missed by being in California). Well, we've had the same again in 2007, 2012 and 2014. That sounds like an acceleration.
Likewise for the chapter about hurricanes in the USA: Katrina, Sandy and a few other notables have demonstrated the author's prognosis that they will get more violent if not more frequent. Mind you, the point is also made that they do more damage simply because there's more shit to destroy. We keep building and breeding in these areas.
Moving on to glaciers, a thought occurred to me that if they are melting, cities that rely on them must actually be getting a bonanza. Then Lynas makes just this point, especially about Lima, which should be running out about now.
The book then also runs, downhill, with a boring ending on what the politicians are (not) doing about this. And the "personal action" section. I'm getting pretty fucking tired of these.
Let's face it: 30 years of "saving the planet" has only witnessed an increase in its destruction. Here's a thought game for you: what's the ultimate action you could take to reduce your environmental footprint? How about killing yourself? And would that make the slightest difference?
Nah, it'll just leave more energy – and that's the bottom line drawn under fuel, plastic bags, recycling, water, electricity, the lot – for the exploiters to continue their rape. Surely the subversive thing to do is waste all this energy so they can't use it. Leave taps running, lights on; throw away as much rubbish as possible; buy a gas guzzler. Let's bring this show to a close as soon as we can.
That'll help the climate crisis.
Likewise for the chapter about hurricanes in the USA: Katrina, Sandy and a few other notables have demonstrated the author's prognosis that they will get more violent if not more frequent. Mind you, the point is also made that they do more damage simply because there's more shit to destroy. We keep building and breeding in these areas.
Moving on to glaciers, a thought occurred to me that if they are melting, cities that rely on them must actually be getting a bonanza. Then Lynas makes just this point, especially about Lima, which should be running out about now.
The book then also runs, downhill, with a boring ending on what the politicians are (not) doing about this. And the "personal action" section. I'm getting pretty fucking tired of these.
Let's face it: 30 years of "saving the planet" has only witnessed an increase in its destruction. Here's a thought game for you: what's the ultimate action you could take to reduce your environmental footprint? How about killing yourself? And would that make the slightest difference?
Nah, it'll just leave more energy – and that's the bottom line drawn under fuel, plastic bags, recycling, water, electricity, the lot – for the exploiters to continue their rape. Surely the subversive thing to do is waste all this energy so they can't use it. Leave taps running, lights on; throw away as much rubbish as possible; buy a gas guzzler. Let's bring this show to a close as soon as we can.
That'll help the climate crisis.
September 28, 2025
tuvalu and palau and their taro farms getting oversalinated via sea water bc of sea levels rising ...aka basically all of Oceania is suffering ....should be a wake up call!!!!! save our oceans and our ambrosias and their taro farms and yellowfin tuna
February 11, 2020
Everybody should read this.
June 18, 2020
It starts very slowly, but towards the end it gets a lot better.
June 14, 2016
brings out the scary realities of climate change and geo-politics in colourful descriptions and the personal narration of a well meaning White Man. the constant bombarding with statistics is needed to validate and make the argument water-tight, but can get tiresome after a while. woke up the dormant environmental activist in me.
March 29, 2007
Good book so far. I'm about 50 pages in. Nothing terribly new, but it puts a face on whats happening with global warming.
May 23, 2008
Excellent book!
January 21, 2009
Nothing here you don't already know (unless you've been living in a cave), however four years ago when it was originally written I imagine it could be quite shocking.
January 14, 2016
A highly simplistic take on current issues. If you have studied this previously, consider reading something a little more complex.
April 29, 2012
Dry and boring. So disappointing
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews