Field Notes from a Catastrophe
by Elizabeth Kolbert
Bloomsbury, HK$148
Only two industrialised countries failed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change - the US and Australia. Even China, soon to be the biggest single carbon dioxide emitter due to its rapid growth, signed as an act of good faith. But George W. Bush and John Howard have marched lockstep far from reality, only to discover that voters - Australia goes to the polls by November, the US about 12 months later - are worried about impending environmental disaster. Hence, the unsurprising statement of concern about climate change from the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum in Sydney last Sunday. Australian zoologist Tim Flannery won over his compatriots with his clear explanation of what's at stake (species extinction), and what can and cannot be done about it, in The Weather Makers. Elizabeth Kolbert, a writer for The New Yorker, did the same for Americans with Field Notes From a Catastrophe, though her approach was 'a terrifying journey' to people and places affected by global warming. She reports 'foreboding, loss and fear for the next generation'. As one reviewer concluded: 'It should be a wake-up call to the world. Sadly, it feels more like an obituary.'