Review: Good attempt at a mission impossible
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 15, 2012
Near the beginning of this book, the author admits that most climate scientists take the safe route and explain that we cannot attribute any particular weather event to global warming. This is more or less what Powell attempts to do in his book. He stops just short of saying that global warming caused particular storms, but the goal of the book is to suggest that global warming has caused an increase in extreme weather events that is now detectable. He reviews all different sorts of severe weather from recent years including heat waves, floods, rainstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes and fires. Along with all of them, he shows how recent trends have all been towards more severe or frequent events and he attempts to explain how global warming may be fueling these. He makes a pretty good case and whether or not you are open to the connection between these events and global warming, it is still an interesting review of some big news makers from the past few years. A book like this is probably a mission impossible because naysayers will always be able to assert that we cannot prove that all of these weather events were caused by or enhanced by global warming, and for the most part they are right. However, global warming is rarely about one event, but rather about long-term trends, and it is difficult to deny that the long term trend has included some pretty rough winds of late. If you are new to the topic of global warming, this probably isn't the best book with which to start. If you already know a little something about the topic or are interested in weather, this is an interesting and quick read.