Escaping Nature

Greenhouse gas emissions from industry and agriculture are warming the planet quickly. The book lists the consequences: rising seas, ocean acidification, melting permafrost, powerful storms, wildfires, floods, deadly heat waves, droughts and tsunamis. It also points to food shortages, crops with lower nutritional value, and armed conflict over dwindling water supplies. Billions of people may become climate refugees, and tropical diseases could spread into temperate regions.

Higher levels of CO2, allergens, dust and other particulates will harm physical and mental health and may even lower cognitive ability. The poor bear a disproportionate share of the damage. Nature suffers as well, and climate change could eventually bring about a sixth mass extinction.

In Escaping Nature, Orrin H. Pilkey and his coauthors propose concrete responses to these threats. Their argument is that while the world's governments are slow to take real action on mitigation, people can adapt to a hotter world. They point to technological innovation, behavioral change, nature-based solutions, political change and education as the means.