The Weather Makers

How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth

By: Tim Flannery

Narrated by: Tim Flannery

Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Global warming has a sleuth of scientific evidence confirming the phenomenon's existence. If left long enough, the energy imbalance will mean the difference between survival and destruction of our species.

With a little help from you, right now, the developing giants of Asia might even avoid the full carbon catastrophe in which we, the industrialised world, find ourselves so deeply mired. We are the generation fated to live in the most interesting times, for we are now the weather makers and the future of biodiversity and civilisation hangs on our actions. Tim Flannery has done his best to fashion this manual on the use of Earth’s thermostat. Now it’s over to you.

©2013 Tim Flannery (P)2013 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Critic reviews

"Catastrophic weather seems to be occurring more frequently - and the technology to cut CO2 emissions exists now. Is there a global will to do so? With The Weather Makers, Tim Flannery delivers an almighty wallop to that debate. The general reader can absorb it and feel enlightened; the scientific reader can, and must, use it as a springboard for further research." ( The Monthly)

"Mammologist and paleontologist Flannery ( The Eternal Frontier), who in recent years has become well known for his controversial ideas on conservation, the environment, and population control, presents a straightforward and powerfully written look at the connection between climate change and global warming. It's destined to become required reading following Hurricane Katrina as the focus shifts to the natural forces that may have produced such a devastating event. Much of the book's success is rooted in Flannery's succinct and fascinating insights into related topics, such as the differences between the terms greenhouse effect, global warming, and climate change, and how the El Nino cycle of extreme climatic events 'had a profound re-organising effect on nature'. But the heart of the book is Flannery's impassioned look at the earth's 'colossal' carbon dioxide pollution problem and his argument for how we can shift from our current global reliance on fossil fuels to a hydrogen-based economy. Flannery consistently produces the hard goods related to his main message that our environmental behavior makes us all 'weather makers' who 'already possess all the tools required to avoid catastrophic climate change'." ( Publishers Weekly)

"It would be hard to imagine a better or more important book." (Bill Bryson)