A Hot Mess: How the Climate Crisis Is Changing Our World

by Jeff Fleischer

Overview

We already know what climate change is and many of us understand the human causes. But what will climate change do to our world? Who will be affected (spoiler: all of us!) and how will our lives change in the future? Topics include sea levels, extreme weather, drought, animal and plant extinction, and human and animal migration. Drawing on real-life situations and stories, journalist Jeff Fleischer takes an informed, approachable look at how our world will likely change as a result of our actions, including suggestions on what we can still do to slow down these unprecedented effects.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541597778
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/02/2021
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1260L (what's this?)
Age Range:	13 - 14 Years

About the Author

Jeff Fleischer is a Chicago-based author, editor, and journalist. He is the author of A Hot Mess: How the Climate Crisis Is Changing Our World (Zest Books, 2021), Votes of Confidence: A Young Person's Guide to American Elections (Zest Books, 2020 and 2016), Rockin' the Boat: 50 Iconic Revolutionaries (Zest Books, 2015) and The Latest Craze: A Short History of Mass Hysterias (Fall River Press, 2011). His fiction has appeared in more than seventy publications including The Chicago Tribune's Printers Row Journal, Shenandoah, The Saturday Evening Post, and So It Goes by the Kurt Vonnegut Library and Museum. He has a master's in magazine journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a bachelor's in both journalism and history from Indiana University.

Table of Contents

Introduction 6

Chapter 1 Climate Change 101 14

Chapter 2 A Change in the Weather 44

Chapter 3 Fire and Other Alarms 64

Chapter 4 The Tide Is High 88

Chapter 5 Life During Warming Time 110

Chapter 6 A Changing Social Climate 130

Chapter 7 So. What Can We Do About It? 152

Source Notes 176

Selected Bibliography 179

Further Information 183

Index 187

Editorial Reviews

"As the consequences of climate change become increasingly dire, there's a crucial need for up-to-date information. This science-and-social-studies crossover offers a global perspective of climate-related developments, showing how weather extremes have ecological, political, economic, and social repercussions that ripple across continents. Chapters concentrate on individual factors, providing the science behind concerns like rising sea levels, drought and forest fires, and vanishing environments; the narrative integrates these consequences into everyday-living scenarios, often doubling back to reinforce situations from previous pages. Chapters begin with a quote and are filled with maps, charts, insets, and photos, and there are chapter notes, a selected bibliography, and an annotated list of sources for further information. A final chapter, aptly introduced with a Greta Thunberg quote, concentrates on solutions, ranging from local (beach cleanups, roof farms) to national (the Biden administration's creation of a cabinet-level 'climate envoy' position) to international (the Montreal Protocol to save the ozone layer). This is a documented, balanced, and accessible update on an evolving crisis."—Booklist

From the Publisher

2021-09-15
An in-depth discussion of how climate change is affecting our world.

Numerous recent publications for young readers address the topic of climate change. By now, much of the information provided here regarding human causes is not new. However, the personal approach is: Fleischer begins with a discussion of Tuvalu, an island nation in the South Pacific that is losing land to climate change. In 2008, he traveled there on a journalism grant to study the effects on its inhabitants, including their fears about having to relocate when their country becomes uninhabitable, possibly within our lifetimes. The author then dives into an in-depth discussion of what climate change is; how climate change is impacting lives around the world; how it contributes to drought, fires, flooding, loss of habitat, and disease; and what can be done at this point to stop the damage. In summary, the book encourages young people to learn about these critical issues and then do something about them. To support his claims, Fleischer uses specific examples, recent scientific studies, maps, and informative sidebars, such as a poignant story regarding a koala that was trapped in the devastating Australian bushfires of 2019 and 2020. Additionally, the author’s conversational tone that includes the occasional pun will resonate well with the target audience.

A wealth of information and an engaging approach are certain to have a lasting impact. (source notes, bibliography, further information, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews