Review: Whether you believe climate scientists or not...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 31, 2011
the concept is a great idea for an apocalyptic novel - though it might take another writer to really hit a home run with the idea.Told as if in a series of interviews with different people, whether male or female, whatever the culture, Powell's characters all sound alike. Yet the situations the world faces by 2084 are compelling and well thought out. Continuing a baseball analogy, Powell hits a double with this effort, at best. Not a great work of fiction, but it should make the reader think and, for that reason, succeeds well enough.In Powell's vision of Earth in 2084, the world hasn't done one thing to halt global warming. There isn't one mention of a carbon mitigation strategy, no carbon sequestration, no alternative energy, nothing. Can that be accurate with the way the solar energy industry is taking off? Or wind farms, geothermal or the myriad other alternative energies? 2084 is long enough away for mankind to be convinced about the validity of global warming either one way or another. I don't think people would just roll over and accept a heating planet with the kind of consequences spelled out here.Nevertheless, the aim here isn't story telling so much as it is to scare you about the implications of global warming. This is agenda-driven fiction. On that front it succeeds handily. With every tornado, overly hot day or any other weather event, I  guarantee you're going to be thinking of the shrinking tropical glaciers, the diminishing Rocky Mountain snow pack or drought. All of the doomsday scenarios are collected right here.