Portland Public Library

Betting the farm on a drought, stories from the front lines of climate change, Seamus McGraw

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-175) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Betting the farm on a drought

bibliography

893721369

Seamus McGraw

stories from the front lines of climate change

Climate change has become one of the most polarizing issues of our time. Extremists on the left regularly issue hyperbolic jeremiads about the impending destruction of the environment, while extremists on the right counter with crass, tortured denials. But out in the vast middle are ordinary people dealing with stronger storms and more intense droughts than they've ever known. Seamus McGraw takes us on a trip along America's culturally fractured back roads and listens to farmers and ranchers and fishermen, many of them people who are not ideologically, politically, or in some cases even religiously inclined to believe in man-made global climate change. He shows us how they are already being affected and the risks they are already taking on a personal level to deal with extreme weather and its very real consequences for their livelihoods. McGraw also speaks to scientists and policymakers who are trying to harness that most renewable of American resources, a sense of hope and self-reliance that remains strong in the face of daunting challenges

Sundance -- Comfortable in our ignorance -- Kindergarten in a fallout shelter -- Preaching to the choir -- Running from a grizzly in your slippers -- The other white meat -- Flying by wire -- Notes from the ivory clock tower -- "I never met a liberal before" -- The year the creeks stopped freezing -- "It's what I do" -- Penguins tumbling off an ice sheet