"The Weather Makers is both an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future. Originally somewhat of a global-warming skeptic, Tim Flannery spent several years researching the topic and offers a connect-the-dots approach for a reading public that has received patchy and misleading information on the subject. Pulling on his expertise as a scientist to discuss climate change from a historical perspective, Flannery also explains how it is interconnected across the planet." "Along with a history of how climate change has shaped our planet's evolution, Flannery offers specific suggestions for action for both lawmakers and individuals, from investing in renewable power sources like wind, solar, and geothermal energy, to offering an action plan with steps each and every one of us can take right now to reduce deadly CO<sub>2</sub> emissions by as much as 70 percent." - jacket
Setting / LocationDeep Space
Story EraContemporary / Future
Protagonist / CoreThe weather makers Lead Character
"With Sam Goldwyn's famous saying 'Never predict anything - especially the future' firmly in mind, Jonathan Margolis begins with a chastening, and often amusing, look at the history of futurology as predicted by H. G. Wells, George Orwell, Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Hawking, and Bill Gates, among others. Margolis then takes courage in both hands and sets out to describe the world that's yet to come. Politics, society, medicine, war, home, work, travel, and space are all destined for great changes."--BOOK JACKET.
"Tipping Point for Planet Earth explains why Earth is headed for a tipping point, a change so fast, dramatic, and unexpected that humanity will reel at the consequences. Midway through this century, there will be more than nine billion people on the planet. Already we are using most of the arable land that exists and overfishing the oceans. Water, too, is becoming scarce in many places. The services that humans depend upon--like a supply of clean water, food production, and protection from disease--are subject to dangerous threats as well. We can still keep humanity moving forward by ensuring that the negative changes that are accumulating do not outweigh the positive ones. Tipping Point for Planet Earth offers sensible solutions to our most pressing problems. The grand challenge of the 21st century is to change the endgame from one that looks like a train wreck, to one that sees the train carrying us all into a bright future"--
This is the story of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, through its extraordinary fifty years at the heart of the civil rights movement and the struggle for justice in America.Mary Frances Berry, the commission's chairperson for more than a decade, author of My Face Is Black Is True ("An essential chapter in American history from a distinguished historian"--Nell Painter), tells of the commission's founding in 1957 by President Eisenhower, in response to burgeoning civil rights protests; how it was designed to be an independent bipartisan Federal agency--made up of six members, with no more than three from one political party, free of interference from Congress and presidents--beholden to no government body, with full subpoena power, and free to decide what it would investigate and report on.Berry writes that the commission, rather than producing reports that would gather dust on the shelves, began to hold hearings even as it was under attack from Southern segregationists. She writes how the commission's hearings and reports helped the nonviolent protest movement prick the conscience of the nation then on the road to dismantling segregation, beginning with the battles in Montgomery and Little Rock, the sit-ins and freedom rides, the March on Washington.We see how reluctant government witnesses and local citizens overcame their fear of reprisal and courageously came forward to testify before the commission; how the commission was instrumental in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965; how Congress soon added to the commission's jurisdiction the overseeing of discriminating practices--with regard to sex, age, and disability--which helped in the enactment of the Age Discrimination Act of 1978 and the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.Berry writes about how the commission's monitoring of police community relations and affirmative action was fought by various U.S. presidents, chief among them Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, each of whom fired commissioners who disagreed with their policies, among them Dr. Berry, replacing them with commissioners who supported their ideological objectives; and how these commissioners began to downplay the need to remedy discrimination, ignoring reports of unequal access to health care and employment opportunities.Finally, Dr. Berry's book makes clear what is needed for the future: a reconfigured commission, fully independent, with an expanded mandate to help oversee all human rights and to make good the promise of democracy--equal protection under the law regardless of race, color, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or national origin.From the Hardcover edition.
In this sweeping history, bestselling author Amy Chua explains how globally dominant empires -- or hyperpowers -- rise and why they fall. In a series of brilliant chapter-length studies, she examines the most powerful cultures in history -- from the ancient empires of Persia and China to the recent global empires of England and the United States -- and reveals the reasons behind their success, as well as the roots of their ultimate demise. Chua's analysis uncovers a fascinating historical pattern: while policies of tolerance and assimilation toward conquered peoples are essential for an empire to succeed, the multicultural society that results introduces new tensions and instabilities, threatening to pull the empire apart from within. What this means for the United States' uncertain future is the subject of Chua's provocative and surprising conclusion. - Publisher.
The weather makers by Tim Flannery | Literally Just Books
