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Young adult book reviews for ages 12 and up - middle school and high school students




*We Are the Weather Makers: The History of Climate Change* by Tim Flannery, adapted by Sally M. Walker- young adult book review  
We Are the Weather Makers: The History of Climate Change
by Tim Flannery, adapted by Sally M. Walker
Grades 7+ 320 pages Candlewick October 2009 Hardcover    

We Baby Boomers thought we could change the world, and we were right. In our lifetime, we have created unprecedented environmental destruction, destroyed thousands of species, and increased the number and intensity of natural disasters. The damage that we’ve done continues unabated– glaciers melt, the ozone layer disappears, water and air are heavy with poisons.

While we go on our merry way in blissful denial, our children and grandchildren are left to clean up our mess. Tim Flannery’s book We Are the Weather Makers is an optimistic tool box to help them survive their legacy.

Of course, climate change is a hot-button topic, but We Are the Weather Makers manages to take the middle ground, presenting a clear and fair examination of the problems, both natural and human-induced. Flannery kicks off with a history of global environmental change, providing a necessary foundation of solid facts and consequences. There’s a concise overview of atmospheric science and the increase of CO2 over time, as well as the wide-ranging effects it has on the planet.

Flannery’s description of endangered habitats is a particularly damning piece of evidence against our thoughtless and short-sighted behavior. From the poles to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, species are lost to extinction every day as a direct result of environmental changes that occur faster than plants and animals can adapt.

Using what is known of our past, Flannery extrapolates a bleak future that is rushing toward us at warp speed. Without significant changes in human behavior, he points out, we can expect even greater natural disasters, mass extinctions, and irreversible and catastrophic health crises to occur and it all will occur while we, the culprits, are still alive. The final conclusion, nevertheless, is chilling: “We, with our greenhouse-gas-producing activities, may bring an entire era to an end.”

Why, then, have I called this an optimistic book? Perhaps that’s just my own wishful thinking, but Flannery seems to believe that we can still save ourselves. Underscoring the cover’s dedication – ‘For the generation who will act on global warming — is the book’s dedication to Malia and Sasha Obama, representative of the young people who are forced to take responsibility for what their parents’ generation has done.

We Are the Weather Makers contains “Call to Action” boxes – ideas that young people can implement to turn this world around. These are simple but important activities that really will make a difference if enough of us take a moment to engage in them, and they are workable for the very youngest reader. For example, one Call to Action suggests active celebration of Arbor Day, while another encourages replacing incandescent bulbs with CFLs.

Malia, Sasha, and their peers will inherit the world we created. Their generation is our last, best hope for redemption; because they will suffer immediate consequences of our actions, theirs may be an era of responsible behavior and pre-emptive action. If they are to be successful, however, they will need to learn from our mistakes so that they can avoid repeating them.

We Are the Weather Makers should be THE textbook in every middle school science class, ensuring that young people recognize what they are dealing with and how they can handle it. Perhaps they can even retrain their elders and, by their honorable and responsible behavior, shame us into making amends for the crimes we’ve committed against nature and our own children.
 
Young adult book reviews for ages 12 and up - middle school and high school students

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  Deborah Adams/2010 for curled up with a good kid's book  






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