Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change Paperback – December 26, 2006

I listened to the audio version of this book about a year ago. Kolbert's treatment of this subject is carefully researched, her presentation of the facts is thoughtful and logical. The overall presentation of her story is engaging.I rated this book as five stars because it a very easy to understand description of what is happening with regard to climate change. It also explains the differences between weather and climate which unfortunately get mixed into many discussions on climate.If you want to get caught up on this subject and be able to discuss this topic intelligently with almost anyone, this is the book that I recommend that you read.Kolbert's style, is similar to another favorite author of mine on the topic of the environment: David Quammen.If you enjoyed reading: "Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change" I think that you would enjoy reading Quammen's book: "The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction", it will open your eyes to the long term consequences of destroying habitats for other species of plants and animals on our planet. You will learn about amount of evolutionary biology and natural selection,how habitats affect the biodiversity of species and why species biodiversity matters to humanity.Like Kolbert's book. Quammen has made this subject accessible to nearly anyone who has a desire to understand this subject.

I very much enjoyed reading Kolbert's book "Field Notes from a Catastrophe" and would recommend this book for advanced students (undergraduate, graduate) or professionals that have some knowledge on this topic. During my reading I begun to learn other stories that I had not previously heard about in relation to climate change. Hearing these stories kept me interested and wanting to learn more the entire book. I spent many hours post-reading on the internet doing research on different topics she had brought up in the book to get a better understanding on them. It is not that she didn't explain them well, it was simply she told a quick chapter on them which made me want to learn all of the details. As a scientist, I understood why every chapter in this book has no relation to any of the other chapters, but I do believe this could be a downfall to the book when referring to someone who wants to read a "story" about climate change. Each chapter is divided into a different time, a different place, a different experience, and a different thing relating to climate change. This book does not tell you a story, instead if focuses on teaching the readers actual facts about what is happening with our climate and reasons why we should start becoming more proactive. I am very glad I decided to read this book and will gladly recommend this book to other professions seeking additional information on climate change.

The title of this book is apt: Field Notes. Whether the word Catastrophe is equally apt, or merely good salesmanship, can be left undecided for the moment. Chapter by chapter, Ms Kolbert has written honestly and earnestly. Chapter 2, for instance, recounts the historical development of the concern over global warming, clearly and fairly, in a mere nine pages. Chapter 3 outlines the recent studies of glaciers, and the possible implications of those studies, with equal brevity and clarity. Chapter 1 sets a passionate tone for the whole book, confronting the fearful sense of global warming at the level of villagers whose lives are already impacted; I have kayaked many times in the Seward Peninsula region, over a span of 25 years, and I've personally felt the real urgency that Ms. Kolbert reports. Each chapter of the book is in fact an essay unto itself. Ms. Kolbert is a front-line journalist, not a climatologist. That is the source of her stylistic clarity, obviously, and of her daring in reporting on the crisis at multiple levels. It also makes her vulnerable to the dogmatic deniers of anthropogenic climate change, as is colorfully exhibited in the several ranting one-star reviews on this page.

This work is eloquent and frightful. The author works in a style reminiscent of John McPhee, going into the field and interviewing the principal players who generate and interpret the data on global warming and its implications. The text is understated, considering the downward spiral of the earth and its resources and the grim future of humanity that the book portrays. The book is short, and could certainly have been plumped in content by more specifics. However, its brevity focuses the mind. The world is primed to take us all on a wild ride through hell. The massive scope of the problem, and the massive effort required to even mitigate or postpone the inevitable are made painfully clear. The lack of more than modest government response to the catastrophe that looms is also well described. This book makes an excellent companion piece to the just released 4th report by the IPCC. Buy it, read it, share it. If nothing is done, the world will become uninhabitable (or at least exceedingly unpleasant) within this century.