The Change in the Weather

Updated with a new afterword, including information on the warmest winter of the century.

Is something going on with the weather?

A record-setting heat wave that just won't release its blistering grip...balmy winter weeks followed by a sudden crippling snowstorm...torrential rainfalls deluging areas untouched by flood for decades....And coast-to-coast, an endless parade of dramatically televised weather disasters -- each seemingly more extreme than the last.

Examining today's headline-making questions through the authoritative lens of science and history, New York Times science reporter William K. Stevens offers this definitive look at the science of climatic change. He introduces us to the international community of scientists whose newfound consensus -- the earth is indeed getting warmer, and human activity is at least partially at fault -- remains a topic of fierce debate.

How did we get here? How much worse will it get? How dramatically will it change life as we know it, and how quickly? The answers and their implications could not be more profound. And Stevens helps us understand both the science and politics we'll need to know in the coming years, offering an informed speculative glimpse at what may be in store for the end of our new century.

An armchair scientist's guide to the science of climate -- past, present, and future -- The Change in the Weather is an eye-opening and authoritative exploration of today's world and tomorrow's uncertainty.

William K. Stevens is a science reporter for The New York Times. The author of Miracle Under the Oaks: The Revival of Nature in America, he lives in Montclair, New Jersey.