High Tide by Mark Lynas

Reviewed by Stan Ellis

This is not a scary book unless you understand the processes and incidents Lynas encounters.  The story, if it is one, starts by explaining when Lynas was young his father held a Geological post in Peru from 1979 to 1982.   His job was to examine the Peruvian rock formation.  Lynas’s Father came across a glacier called Jaabamba, 5200 metres up on the Eastern side of the Peruvian Andes showing a fan shaped glacier.  His quest is to see the glacier again in this millennium, 20 years on, to see what state it is in.

Lynas proves Global Warming is a feature of everyday life for some people, finding a ‘Baked Alaska’ where lakes are vanishing due to permafrost being melted and where inhabitants are thankful for the Alaskan oil pipeline because of oil money being paid to them.  He journeys to a group of Pacific Islands, east of Papua New Guinea called collectively Tivalu.  On Tivalu Mark reveals that a root crop called pulaka is dying.  Unfortunately due to the fact that these groups of islands are very low lying, on a coral base with sea levels encroaching on the land every year, salt is destroying the crop.  The islanders are also under threat to the extent that New Zealand has offered to accommodate those who wish to leave.

Lynas travels to Inner Mongolia to experience the dust clouds emanating from Denshang and reaching as far as Beijing.  He also follows the Hurricane Intercept Research Team’s efforts to monitor hurricanes in North Carolina and finds sea warming to be an endemic factor in the increase velocity of hurricanes.  Lynas ends by taking a parting shot at the USA for ruining Kyoto and maintaining it’s oil based economy causing 23% of the Carbon Dioxide emissions worldwide.

This is an impressive book, easily read, well put together and a must read if we are ever to combat global warming.  Incidentally when he finally gets to Jacabamba in Peru the glacier is all but vanished.  That’s global warming for you folks!