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| Global Warring: How Environmental, Economic, and Political Crises Will Redraw the World Map |  | Author: Cleo Paskal
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Category: Book
List Price: $27.00
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Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 413,972
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 0230621813
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.485
EAN: 9780230621817
ASIN: 0230621813
Publication Date: January 5, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In a perfect storm, the environment, the global economic system and geopolitics are all undergoing rapid, uncontrolled change. In the same way that the climate is in a state of flux, exhibiting erratic behavior before settling into a new norm, in the wake of the global economic crisis, many of the assumptions about the Western economic system have been destroyed, which leads to some troubling questions: How vulnerable is the United States to more devastating hurricanes like Katrina? What will the opening of the Arctic mean for Russian access into North American waters? Will China's lack of clean, fresh water undermine its global ambitions? Will India's increasingly erratic monsoon affect its economic growth? Global Warring takes a hard look at these questions. Journalist and analyst Cleo Paskal identifies problem areas that are most likely to start wars, destroy economies and create failed states. Examining the most likely environmental change scenarios, she illuminates the ways in which they could radically alter human existence. A fascinating tour through our uncertain future, Global Warring also offers a controversial new way forward for the global economy and the worldwide environmental crisis.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Must-Read for the 21st Century March 13, 2010
Jacqui Denomme
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
To start off with, I must say that if we were to decide to elect a world government at some point in the near future and author Cleo Paskal ran for office I would not only vote for her, I would offer to be on her campaign team. The depth and breadth of her grasp of the coming effects of what she calls 'Environmental Change' (a much broader and more appropriate term than the more commonly used 'global warming' or 'climate change) is phenomenal.
I learned so much in this relatively short but very dense and impeccably researched book that put much of what I read in the news into perspective. I also benefited from the crash course in geopolitics that she delivers and appreciated her ability to hold both macro and micro-perspectives of the changes that have occurred in our past and that are to come in the future.
Her chart on page 244 is a must-read for anyone in the world who has a position of governance or influence. It is a brilliant synthesis of four aspects of preparedness for the potential hazards of the environmental changes that we are in the middle of and can expect more and more of. She describes three aspect of preparedness: 'Reinforce, Rescue, and Recovery' or preparation FOR potential disasters, planning for rescue when they occur, and the repair and cleanup afterward (which of course includes 'reinforce' in the event of another disastrous event). For each of these three aspects, there are four segments of society that must be involved and act according to their domain: Governments, the Private Sector, Society (NGO's, faith-based groups, community organizations, neighbourhoods, etc) and the Media. She goes on to give examples of how some nations have excelled in some areas but come up short in others.
Western nations have a complacency that some other lesser-developed nations do not have and this could put us in a very bad position if a disaster happens (she cites Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans).
One could apply this chart to the recent Haitian earthquake and it is easy to see where Haiti excelled and where they came up short (obviously in the 'reinforce aspect)
Cleo Paskal believes that we should be proactive rather than reactive in anticipating environmental change. She referred, for example, to the effects of thawing permafrost and the damage that is already causing current infrastructure. For example, rail lines built on permafrost are buckling under the thawing earth, something not previously accounted for that MUST be accounted for as new infrastructure is built. This was something that I'd not thought of before.
I could type pages about this book, how informative and enlightening and intelligent it was and it's ability to open my eyes to the possible opportunities and potential difficulties we are going to be facing as communities, nations and global citizens. I think the chief benefit for me, having read many books on this topic previously, was the global perspective, the concern with 'environmental change' as opposed to just carbon emissions, which many other books on this topic focus on and the influence of geopolitics on world events. The concept of nationalist capitalism that the author describes (China for one practices this) was very illuminating as well.
This book was not written to incite fear but rather to inform in a broad sense and provide very clear and practical prescriptions so that we can weather the upcoming environmental storms as well as we can. This is why I hope that anyone and everyone who has some 'clout' on whatever scale gets to read it and digest the ideas therein and hopefully help guide our good ship planet earth into a long future.
(I have also recently read Stewart Brand's newest book "Whole Earth Discipline: an Ecopragmatist's Manifesto" and enjoyed it immensely. It's focus was on the potential of technology to help us adapt to environmental change so a positive, although very different, companion to this book if you enjoy this topic. As a very vocal environmentalist since the sixties (and author of the Whole Earth Catalogue) it was very interesting to hear him retract some of his former views based on new knowledge).
Herding Cats February 5, 2010
Noah Weisbord
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
The strength of this book lies in Paskal's capacity to relate a broad set of disparate and dynamic physical and social scientific findings into a coherent projection about the future. She does a surprisingly good job of herding cats. This well-crafted projection calls for an immediate set of policy responses which make sense. Because of the urgency of the writing and the author's sense of humor, this book is a page-turner. I recommend it to academics and non-academics interested in the relationship between international law and the use of force.
-Noah Weisbord, Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Duke Law School
eye opening March 7, 2010
J. Estrela-Reis (Mtl. QC)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
important read for any person. information need in our world. more to saving the planet beyond your prius parked out front...
 Clever arguments based on totally flawed premises March 20, 2010
Gerald MULLER
0 out of 15 found this review helpful
The trouble with this book is that the premises are completely false. There will be no global warming. This does not mean that there are not many issues to tackle on this planet, the first one, in my opinion, is getting rid of banksters, Timmys and the likes. When we get some more sense, we can spend time on the far future.
In other words, there are more pressing matters.
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