Review of Eugene Linden’s The Winds of Change

 
Review of Eugene Linden’s The Winds of Change
Eugene Linden’s book The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of
Civilizations offers an interesting overview of the impact of some of the most disastrous
historical events on drastic climate change, notifying people about global warming. Eugene
Linden, an environmental journalist, prefers to write about the environment, nature, and social
issues. "Linden is the winner of numerous journalistic awards and in 2001 was named by Yale
as a Poynter Fellow in honor of his work in environmental journalism” (Linden, 2006, p. 20). In
his book, Linden explains some paleo-climatic and oceanographic issues and proves that
climate change and weather are the main causes for destruction of civilizations throughout
centuries. The book is a real achievement and worth one's admiration.
In this book, Linden considers how disastrous historical events lead to climate change
on the Earth, and how the climate and weather change affect the human society. The author
provides lots of evidences of significantly deteriorated societies in the history, such as
Greenland's Norse settlements, Byzantine, Peruvian, and Central America's Mayan civilization,
modern Syria's Akkadian Empire, Assyrians, and Minoans. After explaining the unfavorable
results that climate change caused in the past, Linden considers the present and then the future
with a whole number of questions. “The Winds of Change places climate change, global
warming, and the resulting instability in historical context and sounds an urgent warning for the
future” (Linden, 2006, p. 23).
Linden makes it very clear that sudden climate change led to the fall of many
civilizations in the past. His emphasis on history along with reliable and highly precise data
from new scientific techniques clearly reveals that climate change must have destroyed
agriculture and economies, encouraged migrations and spread of diseases, challenged the
legitimacy of rulers, and may have been the reason to start wars (Hamilton, 2006). The author
considers both scientific and historical record and explores the pieces of evidence signifying
that climate has been a cruel killer of the society. The author also suggests, “the same could
happen to us. Evidence of climate change flickers bursts of extreme climate instability
transitional to permanent change are already upon us” (Hamilton, 2006, para 2). Although the 
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author concludes using historical evidence, his motive to alarm people about the climate change
and global warming must be appreciated.
The book is a well-structured and thought-provoking literary work containing lots of
interesting information and potent arguments related to drastic climate change and its effect on
society. “Linden’s presentation of scientists’ theories on historical climate change will provoke
readers concerned about the implications of global warming for modern civilization”
(Hamilton, 2006, para 2). Linden’s exploration of climate’s role in the past disasters will
greatly help the readers understand, foresee, and avoid future risks. The present and future
society being aware of the risks connected with climate change have fair chances to prevent and
avoid future disasters. This ideas is revealed in the following lines, “But we have a crucial
advantage over past civilizations that were blindsided by climate change, Linden assures us –
we can learn from their misfortunes” (Linden, 2006).
Overall, this book is a well-structured narrative that gives us an account of the impact of
climate on civilization. Linden gracefully interlaces history and science through a thoughtprovoking narration. The book is worth reading because of its interesting and provocative style.
This book is a must- read for everyone who is not indifferent to global warming and,
consequently, human’s future.
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References
Hamilton, L. (2006, February). Book reviews Winds of Change, by E. Linden. BookPage.
https://bookpage.com/reviews/4511-eugene-linden-change-weather-sciencenature#.Xp7K7sgzZPY
Linden, E. (2006). The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of
Civilizations. Simon & Schuster.