Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid: The Fraught and Fascinating Biology of Climate Change

by Thor Hanson

Overview

*A New York Times Editor's Choice pick
*Shortlisted for the 2022 Pacific Northwest Book Awards

A beloved natural historian explores how climate change is driving evolution 

In  Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid, biologist Thor Hanson tells the remarkable story of how plants and animals are responding to climate change: adjusting, evolving, and sometimes dying out. Anole lizards have grown larger toe pads, to grip more tightly in frequent hurricanes. Warm waters have caused the development of Humboldt squid to alter so dramatically that fishermen mistake them for different species. Brown pelicans have moved north, and long-spined sea urchins south, to find cooler homes. And when coral reefs sicken, they leave no territory worth fighting for, so aggressive butterfly fish transform instantly into pacifists.  

A story of hope, resilience, and risk, Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid is natural history for readers of Bernd Heinrich, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and David Haskell. It is also a reminder of how unpredictable climate change is as it interacts with the messy lattice of life. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541672390
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	11/01/2022
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	175,102
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 5.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Thor Hanson is a conservation biologist, Guggenheim Fellow, and author of award winning books including Buzz, Feathers, The Impenetrable Forest, and The Triumph of Seeds. He lives with his wife and son on an island in Washington State.
 
www.thorhanson.net

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Introduction: Thinking About It xi

Part 1 The Culprits (Change and Carbon) 1

Chapter 1 Nothing Stays the Same 3

Chapter 2 Mephitic Air 17

Part 2 The Challenges (and Opportunities) 29

Chapter 3 Right Place, Wrong Time 31

Chapter 4 The Nth Degree 45

Chapter 5 Strange Bedfellows 57

Chapter 6 The Bare Necessities 69

Part 3 The Responses 83

Chapter 7 Move 85

Chapter 8 Adapt 101

Chapter 9 Evolve 117

Chapter 10 Take Refuge 135

Part 4 The Results 151

Chapter 11 Pushing the Envelope 153

Chapter 12 Surprise, Surprise 173

Chapter 13 That Was Then, This Is Now 189

Conclusion Everything You Can 207

Acknowledgments 215

Glossary 217

Notes 221

Bibliography 247

Index 267

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/28/2021

Biologist Hanson (Buzz) takes readers under the wings of birds, into the shade of spruce trees, and underground to learn about 55-million-year-old fossils in this exciting exploration of nature’s response to climate change. “Understanding biological responses to climate change can help us find our place within it,” Hanson writes. “Simply put, if bush crickets, bumblebees, and butterflies can learn to modify their behaviors, then it stands to reason that we can too.” As he moves across time and habitats, he visits Walden Pond, where temperatures have risen an average 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit since Thoreau’s time; watches Alaskan grizzly bears take a pass on salmon in favor of elderberries; and observes saplings along the Des Moines River migrating to safer terrain than that populated by old growth. Hanson introduces readers to an array of scientists documenting these changes and conducts his own often humorous experiments: during a failed fossil hunt in a childhood stomping ground, he’s “a middle-aged stranger in a pandemic mask, carrying a backpack and a hammer,” and decides “it was time to leave.” With contagious curiosity, Hanson nimbly avoids pedantic, moralistic admonishments. Nature-lovers will be thrilled to see science so vividly described, and will marvel at the incredible ingenuity of creatures across the globe. Agent: Laura Blake Peterson, Curtis Brown. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Hanson is an affable guide and storyteller, with a knack for analogy, a sense of humor and the natural curiosity of a scientist.”—Jonathan Balcombe, The New York Times

“A masterful storyteller, Hanson interweaves his own formative experiences into the narrative…The book’s forward-looking approach seems intended to encourage readers’ curiosity about climate change, with the notion that, once suitably informed, they will feel compelled to take action.”
 —Science

"Open[s] trapdoors onto the vivid lives of other beings in hopes of giving humans a close-grained understanding of our role in habitat change and the varieties of adaptation that may be in store for our species too.”
 —The Atlantic

A Publishers Weekly Pick for Book of the Week—Publishers Weekly

“An engaging author who has celebrated the wonders of nature in books about feathers, seeds, forests and bees, he’s an ideal guide to a topic that might otherwise send readers down a well of despair.”
 —Science News

“A wonderfully engaging tour of Earth’s plant and animal kingdoms.”—Times Literary Supplement

"An outstanding introduction to a global threat."—Portland Book Review

“With contagious curiosity, Hanson nimbly avoids pedantic, moralistic admonishments. Nature-lovers will be thrilled to see science so vividly described, and will marvel at the incredible ingenuity of creatures across the globe.”—Publishers Weekly

“VERDICT: This compelling read will spark the interest of everyone who cares about what is happening to the natural world.”—Rachel Owens, Library Journal

“Hanson writes a hopeful and compelling story exploring various climate adaptations in the animal and plant worlds with a rare combination of engrossing clarity and robust interrogation. He encourages us to lift our own voices and actually assert change. Each enormously engaging essay proves what I've known for some time: Thor Hanson is a marvel whose enthusiasm for this planet is utterly contagious.” —Aimee Nezhukumatathil, New York Times bestselling author of World of Wonders

“One of our finest writers of literary natural history takes on the most crucial topic of our times—how will life itself respond to a warming world? —and brings back answers both utterly beguiling and strangely reassuring. This is arguably the most significant discussion of the biology of global warming I know, brought to us in the intelligent, wise, and beautiful prose we've come to rely upon Thor Hanson to deliver. If you read only one book on climate change this year, let it be this one.” 

—Robert Michael Pyle, Ph.D., author of Wintergreen and Nature Matrix

“Thor Hanson’s clear-eyed science writing meets its best topic yet in this book. While governments and publics joust over climate change, biologists studying all the ways wild animals are already responding to it are five steps ahead of the game. Hanson takes his readers on a tour of this cutting edge in our rapidly-changing world. Yes, there are looming extinctions. But before you wring your hands in despair, read this book. As it always has, life finds a way.”—Dan Flores, New York Times bestselling author of Coyote America

"Thor Hanson is not just a scientist and writer—he is a gifted raconteur, filled with wonder and love for the wild earth. In Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid Hanson brings his unique perspective to this time of ecological crisis. Rather than just a warming planet, we find stories from the infinite and varied tangle of life, with every being—from bacteria to birds—seeking to adapt with ingenuity and resilience. This book bears witness to the individual stories so often lost in climate headlines, and invites us all to live with greater depth and awareness as we seek a hopeful path forward."

 —Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Rooted and Mozart's Starling

From the Publisher

★ 09/01/2021

Biologist Hanson (Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees) explores ways in which plants and animals adjust to climate change, which fall into three categories: move, adapt, or die. While humans dither about what our responses should be, other species have been getting on with it. Hanson begins with a history of thought about the natural world and the carbon dioxide molecule, then delves into how nature is already shifting in response to changing climate. Not all species are doomed, he writes; the organisms that thrive will be those that display the most flexibility in response to shifts in temperature. For instance, trees can leaf out earlier in the year, and insects may be able to emerge sooner. However, birds, whose migration patterns depend on shortening or lengthening days, will arrive at the same time of year to find that their food sources have already bloomed or hatched. Sea creatures who migrate northward with warming water have the potential to upset the ecosystems they encounter along the way. VERDICT This compelling read will spark the interest of everyone who cares about what is happening to the natural world.—Rachel Owens, Daytona State Coll. Lib., FL

Library Journal