This is a series of field trips into the myriad of places across the globe where the increasing evidence of approaching disaster is being observed, discussed, and reacted to in ways that has to give the reader pause.

Eskimos are abandoning a small island in the Artic Ocean, even as the surrounding ice cap that once protected from wind and storm damage, melts into oblivion as a direct result of the Greenhouse Effect. In Alaska, as myopic politicans insist on drilling for more the last drop of oil, climate change is forcing people to leave their homes and, as Kolbert explains, their ways of life. An absolute must-read as readers are advised to put two and two together, and not wait for the commander-in-chief to see the light from a Texas ranch.