All that changed in August of 2010.
At that time, what I WAS into was, The Colbert Report. One night that August, Stephen Colbert had a woman come on the show to talk about her new book. Her name was Dr. Heidi Cullen and her book was, The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet.
After listening to her short interview I knew I HAD to read her book!
Dr. Cullen was smart, funny, and not only knowledgeable, but able to talk to non-weather people (like you and me), and not leave us going, "uhhhhhh, whaaat?"
Her book made it to my Christmas list that year, but once again, Santa let me down. I ended up buying it for myself, and had no buyers-remorse. It was an excellent read.
Dr. Heidi Cullen is a research scientist for a nonprofit organization called, Climate Central. They actually have some great videos on their site. I have already borrowed one for a previous post, and will definitely be using more in the future. Dr. Cullen has worked for The Weather Channel, lectures at Princeton, is a member of the American Meteorological Society, has spoken on all sorts of television programs, and my favorite tidbit, lives in Princeton, NJ! All of this information can be found on the back cover of her book.
Her book focuses on climate, climate change, and the possible future of our planet and weather. She does an exceptional job of explaining what climate change is and how it works. I did not take any physics or chemistry classes in college, am absolutely horrid at math, and yet I was able to understand the concepts in this book. Not only did I understand the book, but I enjoyed reading it as well!
I certainly can't say that about all the non-fiction books I have read, or have tried to read.
The second part of her book was a look at weather predictions around the world. One that really stuck with me was about The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in Australia.
As it turns out the GBR and its beautiful corals are very sensitive to temperature and the acidity of the ocean water. When the water gets too warm, and it doesn't even have to be that much warmer, the algae that lives in the coral leaves and takes all those gorgeous colors with it. Now you only see the white of the coral itself. The coral then weakens and can die, because not only does the algae provide colors but also nutrients. This is called coral bleaching.
The book explains so much more than what that video covers. Dr. Cullen talks to scientists working with the GBR, and explains how they are working to protect this treasure. She also predicts what could occur if climate change continues unchecked.
For those of you more interested in issues closer to home she also covers Central Valley in California and New York, New York. The book was published in 2010 and she actually made this prediction for September 2013, "And in September 2013, with the Yankees not even looking to play in the postseason, the Atlantic Ocean reawakened and one specific hurricane seemed to be in a New York state of mind."
Hmmm, Superstorm Sandy, October 2012? Sure, she was off by little over a year, and her storm was Category 3 Hurricane Homer, but she did predict the flooding. She even states in her book, "managed to flood the subway as well as the PATH train systems at the station in Hoboken, New Jersey, shutting down these transportation systems for almost a week." Pretty eerie. Not all her predictions are worst-case scenario though. She has NYC learn from the storms and adapt by building storm-surge barriers, raised airport runways, re-zoned coastal areas, and so forth.
Dr. Cullen has been referred to as an alarmist, but honestly, sometimes we need to hear about the worst that could happen. Will all these tragic predictions come true? Will the coral reefs die, the ice caps melt, and many more plants and animals become extinct? Possibly. We need to be aware of all predicted outcomes, and understand all the possible consequences of our actions. This book instructs, and opens your mind to possibilities we many not want to consider, but should.
After flipping through the book again to write this post, and looking at the different predictions, I think I am going to give it another read! I highly recommend that you give this book a try too.
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