Fevered: Why a Hotter Planet Will Hurt Our Health—and How We Can Save Ourselves

Thus far, most nations don’t appear to have hit the threshold of alarm about climate change needed to convince policymakers to offer more than platitudes and empty promises. In her latest book, investigative journalist Marsa (Prescription for Profits: How the Pharmaceutical Industry Bankrolled the Unholy Marriage Between Science and Business), a contributing editor at Discover, drives home the personal implications of global warming, hoping to inspire change by showing how global warming affects health, resulting in rising rates of asthma, allergies, heart and lung disease, and cancer. Marsa focuses on the primary dangers connected to warming: the poleward creep of tropical disease ranges, declining air quality, heat stroke, increased frequency of extreme weather, and the risk of agricultural collapse. The author draws from real-world examples, including the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and more recent disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, to illustrate the hazardous world we are headed toward. All is not doom and gloom, however, as the author also supplies suggestions for mitigating actions that governments could take. Although at times Marsa seems to sail too close to the wind in her drive to inspire action, the rigor of the anthropogenic climate-change model seems unassailable to those in the reality-based community and the need for concrete action undeniable. (Aug.)