Escaping Nature: How to Survive Global Climate Change

by Orrin H. Pilkey, Charles O. Pilkey, Linda P. Pilkey-Jarvis, Norma J. Longo, Keith C. Pilkey

Overview

Industrial and agricultural greenhouse gas emissions are rapidly warming Earth’s climate, unleashing rising seas, ocean acidification, melting permafrost, powerful storms, wildfires, floods, deadly heat waves, droughts, tsunamis, food shortages, and armed conflict over shrinking water supplies while reducing nutritional levels in crops. Billions of people will become climate refugees. Hotter temperatures will allow tropical diseases to spread into temperate regions. Higher levels of CO2, allergens, dust, and other particulate matter will impair our physical and mental health and even reduce our cognitive abilities. Climate change disproportionately affects the world’s poor. It also harms Nature, and could ultimately trigger a sixth mass extinction. In Escaping Nature, Orrin H. Pilkey and his coauthors offer concrete suggestions for how to respond to the threats posed by global climate change. They argue that while we wait for the world’s governments to get serious about mitigating climate change we can adapt to a hotter world through technological innovations, behavioral changes, nature-based solutions, political changes, and education.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478027577
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	01/26/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	74 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Orrin H. Pilkey is Emeritus James B. Duke Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Duke University and the author and coauthor of many books.

Charles O. Pilkey is a former geologist turned freelance sculptor, writer, and illustrator.

Linda P. Pilkey-Jarvis is a geologist and coauthor with Orrin H. Pilkey of two books.

Norma J. Longo, a geologist and photographer, is coauthor with Pilkey of several books on coastal issues.

Keith C. Pilkey, an attorney concerned with legal issues of coastal development, is coauthor with Orrin H. Pilkey of two books about sea level rise.

Fred B. Dodson is a real estate developer who manages his organization’s affordable housing development activities.

Hannah L. Hayes is a scholar of climate justice, sustainable development, and disaster capitalism.

Table of Contents

Preface  vii
Acknowledgments  xi
Introduction  1
1. Earth  1
The Lessons of Geologic Time  7
The 2021 United Nations Climate Report  13
Famine  19
Permafrost  26
2. Air  35
Hurricanes  37
Tornadoes  50
Heat  56
Bad Air  65
3. Fire  75
Wildfires  77
Urban Firestorms  91
4. Water  95
Sea Level Rise  97
Ocean Acidification  112
Marine Heat Waves  117
Tsunamis  122
Floods  129
Drought  142
Water Supply  153
5. Space  165
Climate Refugees  167
Climate Havens  173
Green Cities  180
Health  191
Nature on the Move  200
The Biosphere  209
The Heart of the Matter  219
New Ideas  225
New Developments  231
Bug-Out Bags: “Preparedness Perfects Response”  233
To Learn More: Resources in Print and on Screen  235
References and Additional Sources  239
About the Authors  287
Index  289
 

Editorial Reviews

"The book explores the causes and manifestations of climate change, but also argues for ways to mitigate it and, in the meantime, adapt to it. . . . The response to such a future should not be despair, Pilkey and his co-authors argue. Rather it should be a combination of ingenuity and resilience. Find ways to rapidly reduce emissions and adjust to the changes that are already inevitable."

News & Observer - Ned Barnett

Escaping Nature provides an excellent overview of climate change consequences and suggestions on how to effectively deal with these challenges. This book is for all those who are seemingly overwhelmed by the complexity and confusion that the climate change news and debate generate. It could catch on like wildfire!

Sea Level Rise in Florida: Science, Impacts, and Options - Albert C. Hine

"Escaping Nature is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the full scope of the climate crisis and our potential responses to it. The authors have produced a work that is both a valuable reference and a compelling narrative that will likely serve as a crucial resource in the years to come as we grapple with the consequences of our changing world."

H-Oceans, H-Net Reviews - Laura Gattis

"On the challenge of wrapping our heads around climate change—and actually doing something about it. . . . An eminently sensible user’s manual for saving the planet."

Kirkus Reviews

"Escaping Nature is an illuminating, practical resource that summarizes the potential threats of climate change and recommends actionable steps to prepare and respond. . . . For an age when many feel overwhelmed by the uncertainties and threats of climate change, Escaping Nature shares a simple, straightforward action plan in a reasonable, encouraging voice."

Kristen Rabe

Presenting a concise overview of the many calamities facing humanity, Escaping Nature offers suggestions to mitigate climate change on the social and personal levels. For the nonspecialist but interested citizen, this book will be their source of content for many discussions over dinner and among friends for years to come.

The World’s Beaches: A Global Guide to the Science of the Shoreline - Joseph T. Kelley

"The book is a valuable resource for readers seeking to understand how extreme events in our environment are linked to global climate change, examining what has occurred in the recent decades and the various impacts. It also offers practical strategies for adaptation at the individual, community, and policy levels. It serves as a strong starting point for those new to the topic, offering valuable insights for navigating the climate crisis."

Geographical Review - An-Min Wu

2024-01-05
On the challenge of wrapping our heads around climate change—and actually doing something about it.

Pilkey, an earth scientist at Duke, and his contributors examine nearly every conceivable facet of how climate change is affecting life on Earth, emphasizing that it won’t just be human life that suffers. Yet humans are the chief culprits, and it’s up to humans to act, even as “we are not mentally equipped to prepare for a slow-moving abstraction like climate change that unfolds over decades and centuries.” It hardly helps that all the bad news about it has a numbing effect. Still, the author and his fellow contributors are confident that some positive action will ensue, since “we’ve been handed what is known in chess as a forced move.” There are paradoxical bits of good and bad news along the way: Flammable forest land area has declined by a quarter between 1983 and 2015, but only because so much forest has been swallowed up by farmland, and—bad news indeed—what we saw in the Lahaina conflagration of 2023 is likely to be repeated time and again: “urban firestorms…[that] will increase in scale and frequency, causing more death and destruction.” There are woes aplenty to report in these pages, but Pilkey and company offer ways in which readers can ameliorate them by taking viable steps such as establishing building codes that “require new houses to be made of fire-resistant materials”; outlawing water-intensive lawns in recognition that “drought and biodiversity loss have rendered the lawn aesthetic, especially as it is practiced in the United States, a hopelessly antiquated custom”; and making behavioral changes in daily life: “Eat more vegetables, drive less, and have fewer children....Stop building in areas at risk from wildfires, floods, sea level rise, storms, and so on.”

An eminently sensible user’s manual for saving the planet.

Kirkus Reviews