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105th out of 105 books
—
25 voters
The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities
by
Mike Tidwell
If, like many Americans, you believe the ongoing tragedy of Hurricane Katrina was a once-in-a-lifetime fluke, you need to read this book. In the coming years and decades, the safety of your region, your town, your home may depend on the warnings you'll encounter on these pages. That's because the exact same conditions that created the Katrina catastrophe and destroyed New...more
Hardcover, 196 pages
Published
August 8th 2006
by Free Press
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Tidwell is a committed environmentalist who was familiar with the New Orleans area before Hurricane Katrina and keenly felt the losses. He says that the hurricane's destruction was allowed to happen through man-made alterations to the land. His premise is global warming is allowing the same thing that happened in New Orleans to happen to other economically important coastal cities around the world. Whether you believe in global warming or not his arguments about destruction of barrier wetlands i...more
Oct 05, 2008
Jonathan
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
from-ashes-to-pheonix
It probably isn't a bad idea to read a book about global warming this year, and I guess it might as well be this one.
I heard about this book, because the author was being interviewed on one of the public radio stations in Baltimore. The thing that really caught my attention was that Tidwell had spent time along the Gulf Coast before Katrina/Rita and had interesting anecdotes about why Gulf Coast residents were sure a storm like either Katrina or Rita was coming. He has a whole book about that ca...more
I heard about this book, because the author was being interviewed on one of the public radio stations in Baltimore. The thing that really caught my attention was that Tidwell had spent time along the Gulf Coast before Katrina/Rita and had interesting anecdotes about why Gulf Coast residents were sure a storm like either Katrina or Rita was coming. He has a whole book about that ca...more
Nov 12, 2007
Rory
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those who would like to know what we can do to avoid catastrophe.
Takoma Park resident Mike Tidwell lays out the wide-reaching effects of climate change and presents a worst-case scenario for what will happen if we don't quickly and drastically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Tidwell literally predicted Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it caused in his 2003 book Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast. This book takes the stance, "The debate as to whether humans are causing climate change is over, now here is what w...more
I found this book whiny and unhelpful. Tidwell does a great job of setting the scene and explaining that mistakes have been made. Where's the real solutions, though? Not everyone will go for a corn stove. Rachel Carson wrote "Silent Spring," and DDT is basically nonexistent today. Tidwell won't stop global warming with this book.
(originally posted 2008-01-10 01:14:04)
(originally posted 2008-01-10 01:14:04)
Some of the material is a little dated now, but this book has a powerful and still timely message. The devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina was predicted ahead of time, it was preventable-- had the US been willing to spend 14 billion dollars-- and what happened there is likely to happen again, not only in New Orleans but in other coastal cities such as Miami and New York. Author Mike Tidwell says that due to the continuing warming of the oceans, "We are rapidly exporting to every coas...more
Good book, but I wish the author had added footnotes or endnotes to the book to provide more detail on his sources. It was interesting to read that some of the things that we think might help New Orleans (trying to reign in the MS river) may hurt the area since it interrupts the natural flooding and land rebuilding process.
Great topic, but this author is a total ego-maniac. His efforts to have a smaller carbon footprint are notable, but he is very judgmental. It's not practical or economical for everyone. I had to teach this book in a class that I taught and found it very difficult. The students were not receptive to his writing.
Wow, really makes you think about what is happening to our earth. Good ideas on things you can do at home to save energy. Crazy that we have the technology to stop global warming, we really need a national energy policy to make people use it!
Worth the read. Scary truth about climate change, seas rising, Katrinas waiting to happen. Lots of bibliography but no direct footnotes.
I struggled to finish is book because I believe every word is true and because it is so depressing to contemplate our own systematic self-annihilation.
A potentially life-altering read. I was a little reluctant at first, as the first few chapters present some really tough facts about what we're doing to the planet and what it, in turn, is going to do to us. But the later chapters, in which he discusses the technologies that already exist and the small changes each of us can make to change the world, are positively inspiring. Read this book and buy a copy for someone else.
The book did a good job explaining in what ways we could've prevented the destruction of New Orleans. The author is credible because he wrote a book a few years prior to Katrina foretelling her destruction.
The rest of the book was very repetitive and watered down. It is a great read for someone who is naive to the idea of global warming.
The rest of the book was very repetitive and watered down. It is a great read for someone who is naive to the idea of global warming.
This was a really good book, the only problem was this guy was so goddamn repetitive with his sentences that it got really annoying. It explains in great detail why hurricanes and weather ruin coastal cities so horribly, thanks to knocking down trees and wetlands for homes, businesses and making way for oceanic freight deliveries.
It started off a bit preachy - I kept thinking he just going on and on, but he ended with some real and practical ideas on how to deal with this looming crisis. Pretty good and a fairly easy read.
Mar 14, 2008
Tina
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
nonfiction,
green-living
Scary stuff. His descriptions of post-Katrina New Orleans was particularly hard to read.
May 09, 2013
Cooper Clark
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Apr 23, 2013
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Mike Tidwell is founder and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a grassroots nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in Maryland, Virginia, and DC. He is also an author and filmmaker who predicted in vivid detail the Katrina hurricane disaster in his 2003 book Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’...more
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