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Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming
Published by Island Press
And also available from Amazon

Editorial Reviews

"This fascinating and frightening book begins where others on global warming leave off. Anthony Barnosky shows that we're not just heating up the planet, but changing its basic character: today's familiar animals and wild places may not be here tomorrow. For anyone who has grown attached to nature as we know it, this is an essential, eyeopening read." (Paul R. Ehrlich Bing Professor Population Studies, Stanford University)

"Barnosky is less gloomy than curious, able and straight-forward, flavoring his report with a sense of adventure and possibility; by the end of his discussion on humanity's fourpronged problem-global warming, habitat loss, introduced species and population growth-Barnosky will have readers looking to do more than change lightbulbs." (Publishers Weekly )

"Barnosky uses a unique approach to address the problem of global warming. Rather than dwell on human factors, he offers a host of examples from the past to illustrate how animals of previous era survived or failed to adapt. In straightforward language, this sensible climate-change book presents solid evidence from earth's deep history." (Booklist)

"Heatstroke is an important and useful addition to the library on climate change, bringing insights from deep-time ecological research to help illuminate the dire forecasts of which we're already so aware." (David Quammen author of The Song of the Dodo and The Reluctant Mr. Darwin)

"Since Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was published, books about global warming have been hot, hot, hot, with almost a glut of them published on the topic. Today we're featuring five of our favorites. Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming. The author, a paleoecologist, cites the discovery of a 'pizzly' - half polar bear, half grizzly - in the Arctic as a troubling sign that all is not right. He goes on to engagingly tell the tale of how other living things are evolving or devolving in response to climate change and warns about what could happen if biodiversity is further threatened." (Sierra Club)

"Barnosky likes ecosystems just as much as the next scientist, but in Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming, he argues brilliantly that conservation biology can no longer focus on saving them. The reason is simple: Thanks to global warming, the ecosystem we work to save today will have a different climate tomorrow." (The Washington Post)

"Writing with the eloquence of travel and nature-writing yet also cramming the book with data, he compares the combination of global warming and longer-standing ecological problems to "a wrecking ball breaking down in hours a building that took years to construct". What's needed, he says, is a new form of conservation focusing on savingnot only wild lands, but also on helping species adapt." (New Scientist)

"...spot on in his description of new and exciting scientific findings, portraying them in an accessible and compelling way...After reading Heatstroke, I felt the urge to go outside and experience nature at first hand, to develop a deeper appreciation for the life that climate change threatens." (Nature)

“… his writing is elegiac in places, and his symbolism vivid, ranging from palaeozoology and sedimentology to human history, conservation biology and globalization. … One of the real pleasures of Heatstroke is the integrated approach that Barnosky brings to his subject. It makes one feel that we ecologists have let the side down, by failing to insist 40 years ago that such thinking inform the fundamentals of human development planning.” (Trends in Ecology and Evolution)

"Readers will appreciate Barnosky's in-depth explanations of the latest modeling results and empirical data about nature's changing ecosystems as he presents them from an in-the-field perspective. Each chapter has a personal touch that offers the chance to really delve into the material as though you are an accompanying scientist on a guided tour. Such a format allows access to the first-hand emotions that professionals in the field are facing as they try to protect the Earth from further damage by human impacts and climate change." (The Ecologist)

" . . . instead of dwelling on the staggering evidence of our broiling Earth, he focuses on how we can make the best of a bad situation, arguing for conservation that both protects species and helps species adapt."(The Nature Conservancy)

"Anthony D. Barnosky explores what global warming will mean for nature as we know it. As the temperature rises, "the species we love, the ecosystem services that sustain us, and the wild places where we seek solace" will all undergo dramatic changes. We must use this crisis as an opportunity to change things now before it's too late for what Barnosky calls nature's "defacto museums." (worldchanging.com)