Early Warming: Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North

by Nancy Lord

In Shishmaref, Alaska, new seawalls are constructed while residents navigate the many practical and bureaucratic obstacles to moving their entire island village to higher ground. Farther south, inland hunters and fishermen set out to grow more of their own food—and to support the reintroduction of wood bison, an ancient species well suited to expected habitat changes. First Nations people in Canada team with conservationists to protect land for both local use and environmental resilience.

In Early Warming , Alaskan Writer Laureate, Nancy Lord, takes a cutting-edge look at how communities in the North—where global warming is amplified and climate-change effects are most immediate—are responding with desperation and creativity. This beautifully written and measured narrative takes us deep into regions where the indigenous people who face life-threatening change also demonstrate impressive conservation ethics and adaptive capacities. Underpinned by a long acquaintance with the North and backed with scientific and political sophistication, Lord’s vivid account brings the challenges ahead for us all into ice-water clarity.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Environment

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Nicasio Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly wonderful book that does a fantastic job of holding in its view the personal, local, and global. I loved the writer's voice, her breadth of knowledge, and the wide array of experts she spent time with. Reading this book felt like spending a comfortable, companionable evening in the company of smart, earnest friends. Highly recommended to my friends who write climate fiction, and to all other residents of Earth.

[Yvonne Leutwyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow I felt much more connected to Lord's descriptions of real people facing life-changing challenges than to many academic papers on climate change that are so full of "variability" and "uncertainty" that I can't even determine what they are trying to say.

[Greyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable look at climate change and its impact in different parts of Alaska and its adjacent seas. It takes a look at the Kenai Peninsula, high-northern forests, Barter island on the north coast, and a few villages on the western peninsulas. The mix of personal accounts with ties to climate and oceanic science is very well done, with clear linkages between personal struggles dealing with extreme weather and the large, biome-sized variances that cause it.

The last chapter on ocean-warming and acidification also makes clear just how much we don't know and cannot yet predict about the global changes yet to come, and that gaining that knowledge is going to be costly and come in fits and starts. Hopefully it's not too late.

[Janice Sheufelt · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book, especially for Alaskans. Remember all the forest fires on the Kenai last summer? This book explains the real effects of climate change in Alaska.

[Paige Lanham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone should read this, especially those who say they don't "believe in" global warming or that the planet is constantly going through cycles of change. Nancy Lord talks to the people from island and coastal communities who are forced to leave the homes where their families have lived for thousands of years because they are literally eroding out from under them. The people who are effected most are the people who do the least to perpetuate climate change. The planet does go through cyclic change, but the changes that we are bringing about through our dependence on oil, trawling of the oceans, and general disrespect for our home increasingly makes it less inhabitable for us. Although many organisms will survive, the animals we eat and depend on are the most at risk. It's easy to deny something that doesn't affect us directly, but within our lifetimes, every person will feel what so many Alaskan communities are fighting against. This isn't something that future generations will have to deal with/clean up. This is our problem right now. Increase your awareness, change your habits, fight big corporations, READ THIS BOOK!

[Naol Debele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those who believe in climate change should read this book, those who do not defiantly read it. We are all coming to a narrow ugly end if we are not moving forward on climate change related issues. It is serious. Problems that are Irreversible, such as climate change should be view as a very important issue to overcome.

[Anne Huntemer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book had a lot of good information on global warming, and some very powerful first hand accounts. However, even after just beginning, I found it very difficult to stay focused, and every few paragraphs my thoughts would wonder. Good information, just hard to get through.

[Laura-nassidesa Eschbaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a personal view of what is happening now to people effected by climate change. Worth the read especially if you don't believe in global warming.

[Phillipa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Global warming from a local perspective. Highly recommended.

[Foxglow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well thought out look at the changes Global Warming is making on the Arctic and the choices being made to deal with those changes.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good, but the writing style started to get pretty stale around chapter three.

[Chloe Hovind Clinkenbeard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only read about half, but I'm not going to read anymore.