Metacritic Books

The Weather Makers
by Tim Flannery

ISBN: 0871139359
Atlantic Monthly Press, 352 pages, $24.00
Nonfiction Current Events & Politics, Science & Nature
Released 03/12/2006

Scientist Tim Flannery presents evidence that climate change is in fact occurring, and examines the causes and effects of global warming.

Overall Metascore

This is an average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

78 / 100

Critic Reviews

Outstanding The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Andrew Nikiforuk
This authoritative and maddeningly important book will fuel dinner arguments, spark school debates and rudely challenge the self-satisfied truffle-eaters and climate deniers among Calgary's oil elite.
Outstanding Library Journal Gloria Maxwell
Flannery's powerful warning is a quick-start guide that will inspire readers to make a difference by changing their environmental behaviors. [Mar 2006]
Outstanding Kirkus Reviews
A powerful and persuasive book, sure to provoke strong reaction. Oct 2005, p.1122]
Outstanding Publishers Weekly
Flannery consistently produces the hard goods related to his main message that our environmental behavior makes us all "weather makers" who "already possess all the tools required to avoid catastrophic climate change." [Oct 2005, p.44]
Outstanding Washington Post Thomas Hayden
It's as if having earned his scientific capital, Flannery is now ready to spend it, and in so doing he delivers a tour de force. Here, finally, we have an authoritative, scientifically accurate book on global warming that sparkles with life, clarity and intelligence, rather than settling for being merely important.
Outstanding Daily Telegraph Susan Elderkin
A serious, lucid and far from dry examination of everything involved in the climate change story, from greenhouse gases to political corruption, by an informed and cool-headed field zoologist from Australia.
Outstanding Entertainment Weekly Wook Kim
An enthralling crash course in climate change that benefits from Tim Flannery's offhand interdisciplinary brilliance (moving, in a few pages, from discussions of South African flora to deep-sea fishes to the environmental impact of cities).
Favorable Booklist Gilbert Taylor
After disturbing his audience with predictions of the imminent disappearance of coral reefs and polar bears, Flannery verbally accosts the industries and politicians he believes are responsible. [Mar 2006]
Favorable The Economist
He mercilessly dissects the alternatives—particularly the idea of replacing hydrocarbon fuels with hydrogen, which he regards as expensive and probably technically unfeasible.
Favorable Chicago Tribune Brenda Fowler
An almost encyclopedic review of the issue of global warming.
Favorable The Guardian Paul Brown
A refreshingly different perspective. While most of the book takes a global view, he pulls no punches in his assessment of his own government's contribution to the mess, and is acerbic about its motives, policies and abilities.
Favorable Christian Science Monitor Lori Valigra
The mix of detailed science and clear language will please both the casual reader and the arm-chair climatologist.
Favorable San Francisco Chronicle Steve Heilig
Flannery has done his job well, presenting the climate story engagingly in clear language, short paragraphs and avoiding overwrought scaremongering -- although those with ties to oil, automotive and other such industries will probably dispute that.
Favorable Slate Rob Nixon
His robust, charismatic voice escorts us effortlessly through 300 million years of climatic variations. The long view is his forte.
Favorable Boston Globe Bill McKibben
A useful if very long account of the workings of the atmosphere, the recent history of earth's climate, and the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution.
Mixed Boston Globe Bill McKibben
A useful if very long account of the workings of the atmosphere, the recent history of earth's climate, and the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution.
Mixed The New York Times Janet Maslin
Detail-packed to the point of terrible fascination.
Mixed The New York Times Book Review Carl Zimmer
Flannery makes a different mistake, sometimes overreaching in his attempt to make an absolutely overwhelming case.
Unfavorable Los Angeles Times Mark Svenvold
Our thinking isn't going to change if our hearts aren't changed, and our hearts won't be changed, I'm afraid, by the often jumpy and scattershot chapters of Flannery's book.

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