Turned Out Nice: How the British Isles will Change as the World Heats Up - Tapa blanda

'The sheer volume of erudition that he brings to bear on this topic is itself a sign of hope.' -- Observer >> '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 th prospects of British cattle-farming and the coming winter wheat boom, Kohn fills his pages with vivid specifics, drawn from an awesomelooking 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 >> 'Marek Kohn seems the right person to deliver chapter and verse. He is 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 >> ' 'He is careful to base his predictions solidly in recent industrial history and scientific research. In a graphic, gripping vision of bad things to come, he warns against the current complacency of short-term thinking and temporising inactivity.' -- The Times >> 'He is no climate change denier, and his prognostications are frequently unsettling. However, for almost every negative he also seems to find a positive ... For Kohn, the climate change glass is both half empty and half full.' -- Scotsman >> 'A lucid, thoughtful and intimate geography of the British Isles ... The story of what Britons will soon have to cope with is all the more compelling set against the backdrop of their landscape evolving over thousands of years. The book is also distinguished by not being apocalyptic.' -- New Scientist >> 'Marek Kohn, a science writer of rare gifts ... has read everything, ingested all the research, and tried to imagine himself into every corner of Britsh life in 2100 ... It's a hugely learned piece of work, skillfully compressed into under 300 pages.' -- Daily Mail >> 'As a science writer, he revels in technical ingenuity ... Kohn has done his homework.' -- Independent >> 'Part futurology, part travelogue, Turned Out Nice is an original and persuasive approach to its subject.' -- Sunday Times >> 'It's a pleasure to turn to Marek Kohn's grimly realistic and yet in many ways inspiring accounts of how global warming will affect Britain. A richly detailed, engrossing readable history of how Britian came to be the way it is, Turned Out Nice is also a riveting description of what Britain is likely to become. The future Kohn presents is robustly grounded in science, and disturbing.' -- --John Gray, New Statesman

'A tour de force of information and speculation ... Mr Kohn gives a depth to the scenarios of which he speaks that the numbers and maps of more mundane climate prognostication can never match ... recommend the book to anyone interested in how the British relate to their land. It also encourages a pragmatic rebooting of those relations. The need to choose how to adapt to the future highlights the choices about town planning, or forestry, or coastal defences, or immigration that have shaped the present. It encourages the reader to think of the practicalities of what goes where, and why ... Mr Kohn s book is a richer, harder and more rewarding read than Mr Kahn s. But both share a welcome desire to look at what climate change means in a world that can adapt to it and what can hinder that adaptation. They look at the opportunities as well as the costs; they encourage as well as warn. And both remember that there will be some things that cannot be saved, even though others may not be lost.' --Economist

Marek Kohn's Turned Out Nice is nothing less than a portrait of Britain (and Ireland) a hundred years in the future, based on scientific evidence surrounding climate change that is available to us now. Beautifully written, and imbued with a love of these islands' unique landscapes, it will change they way you think about the climate and global warming. It is not an alarmist tract. Kohn is a fiercely honest writer and a biologist by training. He makes it clear that some parts of Britain will be more like the nicer regions of today's Mediterranean. But we will pay a price for this good fortune. Our parks will be arid brown fields; private automobile use will probably be unheard of; water will be severely rationed; significant stretches of our beloved coastline will have been sacrificed to the sea. Floods on these coasts and in certain river valleys will make them uninhabitable. Some of our flora and fauna will have vanished; exotic animals and pests will flourish. Vast numbers of marginalised 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. As the severe flooding in Somerset shows, Turned Out Nice is more relevant than ever: it is a report from the near future that we cannot afford to ignore.