Turned out Nice: How the British Isles Will Change as the World Heats Up - Tapa blanda

'Kohn, one of Britain's platoon of first-class popular science writers, injects some delightful coolness and subtlety into [the climate change debate] ... An imaginative journey through different parts of the British isles, crammed with detail. From egrets to thorium and nuclear fusion, the spread of beavers and kites to the prospects of British cattle-farming and the coming winter wheat boom, Kohn fills his pages with vivid specifics, drawn from an awesome-looking library of research ... This is a good primer for anyone who wants to think about the British future without being suicidal or consciously blinkered. --Andrew Marr, FT

'[A] talented writer who has tackled a range of social and scientific subjects ... Kohn's exhaustive research offers up a series of fascinating insights ... His readiness to delve into diverting minutiae during his journeys around his chosen habitats constantly enlivens his meticulous unravelling of the consequences of our excesses upon our home turf.' --Independent on Sunday

'The sheer volume of erudition that he brings to bear on this topic is itself a sign of hope.' --Observer

This book is a precise and fiercely honest projection of what we know about climate change into the future of one small corner of the planet: the islands of Britain and Ireland. Kohn looks closely at six landscapes and one city to show how our world will have altered over the course of the century. These islands will, compared with the parched Mediterranean lands, let alone a devastated Africa, be fairly benign places to live. But we will have paid a terrible price for our relative good fortune. Our parks will be arid brown fields; private automobile use unheard of; water will be severely rationed; significant stretches of our beloved coastline will have been sacrificed to the sea. Some of our flora and fauna will have vanished; exotic animals and pests will flourish. Vast numbers of marginalized human migrants will be here. Surveillance and restriction of our movements will be taken for granted. Walking in what is left of 'nature' will be nearly impossible. Terrible summer fires in our upland areas will be commonplace. This is a report from the near future that we cannot afford to ignore.