Nixon Goes to Chinatown

Grist's Dave Roberts talks to the New Yorker's Elizabeth Kolbert about global warming and her influential new book on the subject, Field Notes from a Catastrophe. It's a longish Q and A, but you should read it. And, in fact, you have to if you want to find out what the title of this post is about. I shouldn't have to explain everything.

In the Times book review today, by the by, Motoko Rich looks at how multiple titles on the same subject have hit bookstores at the same time. On the subject of global warming, the mob of titles includes Ms. Kolbert's, Eugene Linden's Winds of Change and Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers. (One might conceivably add Mark Bowen's Thin Ice to the list.)

Asked how she felt about the company (and competition), Kolbert, says, "When you're claiming that something is the biggest problem facing the world, you cannot be surprised that other people are writing about the same topic. You'd be insane."

Currently, only Mr. Flannery currently makes the Times' (extended) bestseller list for hardcover nonfiction, at number 33. You can read the first chapter here.

That's no small feat. After all, as subject matter goes, it's hard to imagine material any drier or more difficult and depressing than global warming. For any book on climate change, bestsellerdom was a long shot. Having read Mr. Flannery's book, however, (though not yet Kolbert's) I can only add my own little measure of praise. Everyone should read it.