Stephan Faris Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Interview

Stephan Faris, author of Forecast: A Journey to the Frontiers of Climate Change, from the Amazon to the Arctic, from Darfur to Napa Valley, talks about his book and provides a brief insight into his personal life.

What is unique about Forecast and what does Forecast contribute to the current dialogue concerning the environment?

What I tried to do in Forecast is show how traditionally environmental concerns, in this case climate change, are really about much more than "the environment." As I show in the book, climate change will change (and is changing) the way we live. While proving direct causation is always tricky, there's a strong case to be made that climate change has contributed to fighting in Darfur and demographic changes along the coasts of the U.S. It's altered the distribution of diseases, the taste of wine and the geopolitics of the north pole. It also has the potential to spark catastrophe.


In Forecast, you write about the present-day impact of global warming and how climate shifts have impacted the globe in the past. You essentially use the past and present climatic and social response to global warming to predict problems the world is likely to encounter in the future. If humans were to change their damaging behavior, do you think your predictions for the future could be reversed? Or have we reached the point of no return?

We've already contributed enough greenhouse gases to ...