Climate Change Reality Check: Global Warming and Changes in Earth's Weather Patterns, Facts about Billion-Dollar Disasters and Solutions Using Artificial Intelligence by Freeman PublishingMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Changing global weather patterns has everyone concerned be it the common citizen or the world leader or a scientist. There is a genuine fear among all that earth’s climate may change so much that it may result in majority of the world unfit for human existence. There are concerns about reduced land area, specially around the coastal regions of the world; diminished freshwater; and a challenging environment to produce adequate amount of food. Apart from highly educated scientists, nobody else seems to understand this phenomenon or know how to slow it down.
In this scenario Freeman Publishing presents the Climate Change Reality Check – a 198-page book which offers a deep insight into the greenhouse effect and makes the important distinction between weather and climate. Written in an easy-to-understand style the book is divided into eight chapters, apart from an introduction and a conclusion and an exhaustive list of references for further reading.
Each chapter is further divided into sections that simplify and explain complex concepts for the understanding of the non-academic community. The author sounds a grim warning in the first section of the book, “What do you do when there is nowhere to go? Two years after Hurricane Harvey hit, on August 25, 2017, the survivors recalled looking down the streets and seeing gaps where their neighbors’ houses used to be, like broken teeth,” writes the author making the beginning statement of the introduction. The cost of climate crises is clearly detailed which according to the author is over $3 Trillion from 1985 – 2025, a staggering amount indeed which may see exponential change if the trend of climate change continues.
The chapter that touched me as I read through is the fifth titled “The silent sufferers – ordinary people in the climate crises.” In this section of the book the author details stories of from ground zero which explains the ground realities resulting from climate change. Over 25 million already displaced, estimated 250,000 deaths due to aftereffects, most of these people belong to the vulnerable class and poor including farmers, fishermen, and others who harvest natural resources for the benefit of greater population. These are people with no insurance of backup plan and need support and assistance. The chapter further details the risk of disease, migration, rise of climate refugees, loss of livelihoods, among other challenges that future generations will have to face.
The rest of the book deals with possible solutions to this global challenge and how each nation in the world is responding to the challenge with a different solution of their own. How the global accords such as the Paris Agreement of 2015, and results thereof, financing the solutions is also discussed.
Even though most of the book paints a grim picture for the future of the earth and its population. The conclusion provides hope with AI and its use in precision agriculture; for accurate weather forecasting; generation of electricity; among others. Overall I think this book is a worthy reading for those interested in climate change; the future of the world. It is also a good resource for college students and young people starting out in life. This book would help people make responsible and sustainable decisions which will go a long way to save the earth’s fragile environment.
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