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High Tide

The Truth About Our Climate Crisis

Mark Lynas

Picador

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ISBN10: 0312303653
ISBN13: 9780312303655

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384 Pages

$19.00

CA$20.50

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A glacier disappears high in the Peruvian Andes. Floodwaters surge across the English countryside. Ten thousand Pacific Islanders evacuate their homeland. A dust storm turns day into night across the inner Mongolian plains. To many people, these events might seem unrelated. Not so. Even as scientists and other experts continue to debate the specifics, a climate crisis has crept up almost unnoticed on Planet Earth.

In this groundbreaking book, journalist and activist Mark Lynas reveals the first evidence—painstakingly collected over three years of traveling to far-flung corners of the globe—of how global warming is seriously affecting people's lives, not in the future, but in our world right now. And in doing so, Lynas offers a stark warning about the much worse dangers that lie ahead if nothing is done to reverse the current climate crisis.

Reviews

Praise for High Tide

"The American people have been subjected to one of the most pervasive misinformation campaigns ever undertaken . . . President Bush and his administration have met the global warming challenge with responses ranging from obfuscation to pretence to outright denial . . . [Americans] deserve the information to make informed choices, not just for their own sakes, but because the decisions made by Americans will—more than those of any other people—decide the fate of our planet over the coming century. For every time America votes, the world holds its breath. It is time for all of us to choose."—from the Preface to High Tide

"High Tide shows climate change is affecting real people right now. High Tide helps us all grasp the magnitude of global warming but also manages to be personal, lively, and human. It is an important, persuasive, and thought-provoking book."—Former Vice President Al Gore

"With High Tide, Mark Lynas has given us a tremendous gift: he has time-traveled into our terrifying collective future, a future that has already arrived in the farthest reaches of the globe. Go with him on this breathtaking, beautifully told journey—and I promise that you will come back changed, determined to alter the course of history."—Naomi Klein, author of No Logo

"Telling the story of climate change through [the author's] personal experience and those of ordinary individuals is strategically brilliant. The real-life stories—the human and emotional content—are what make High Tide a compelling and powerful read."—Nicols Fox, The Washington Post Book World

"Part tract, part travelogue, Lynas's smart, hip, and factual book wakes us up and guides us to action. High Tide is a lively, instructive primer for awareness and change."—Joy Williams, author of The Quick and The Dead

"[High Tide is] occasionally funny and caustic, and always readable."—Anthony Doerr, The Boston Globe

"Lynas brings a youthful idealism and intensity to his travels . . . His book is a clarion call to action . . . Clear, lucid, and informative."—Will Self, The New Statesman

"Thoroughly engaging and well-researched."—Clive Gamble, The Times Literary Supplement

"Scientific reports can describe the glacial retreat that is [now] occurring, but they could never be as powerful as [this book's introductory] before-and-after photographs . . . Rational and compelling . . . We badly need books like this."—Eamon Ryan, The Irish Times

"There will be many more books like High Tide, but this will be remembered as the first . . . An unusual book . . . Not unworthy of comparison with Orwell and certainly the breaker of new ground."—Michael McCarthy, The Independent

"Powerful . . . A harrowing prospect, brilliantly set out by Lynas."—J. G. Ballard, The Evening Standard

"A compelling work of reporting."—Fred Pearce, New Scientist

"Compelling and eloquent."—Peopleandplanet.net

"[An] alarming book."—The Sunday Times

Reviews from Goodreads

BOOK EXCERPTS

Read an Excerpt

1
Britain's Wet Season

It was still raining, and York station was in complete chaos. The railway track was underwater both north and east of the city, and trains for Edinburgh, Newcastle and Aberdeen were terminating there,...

About the author

Mark Lynas

Mark Lynas is a journalist, campaigner and broadcast commentator on environmental issues. He is a contributor to the New Statesman, Ecologist, Granta and Geographical magazines, and the Guardian and Observer in the UK. He lives in Oxford, England.