Originally skeptical of global warming, Flannery spent years compiling his own research. What he learned is sobering. Human beings are weather makers whose production of carbon dioxide is polluting the planet at a devastating rate. Species are disappearing, the natural world is changing, and weather events, like Hurricane Katrina, are becoming increasingly disastrous. But as Flannery shows, there are cleaner ways to live, and doing so is the only way to avoid global catastrophe.