Angry Weather - (World Weather Attribution) by Friederike Otto (Paperback)

About the Book

"Massive fires, widespread floods, Category 4 hurricanes--shocking weather disasters dominate news headlines every year, but not everyone agrees on what causes them. Renowned University of Oxford researcher Friederike Otto provides an answer with attribution science, a revolutionary method for pinpointing the role of climate change in extreme weather events. Anchoring her book with the gripping, day-by-day story of Hurricane Harvey, which caused over a hundred deaths and $125 billion in damage in 2017, Otto reveals how attribution science works in real time, and determines that Harvey's terrifying floods were three times more likely to occur due to human-induced climate change. This new ability to determine climate change's role in extreme weather events has the potential to dramatically transform society--for individuals, who can see how climate change affects their loved ones, and corporations and governments, who may see themselves held accountable in the courts. Otto's research laid out in this groundbreaking book will have profound impacts, both today and for the future of humankind"--Dust jacket flap

Book Synopsis

From leading climate scientist Dr. Friederike Otto, this gripping book reveals the revolutionary science that definitively links extreme weather events--including deadly heat waves, forest fires, floods, and hurricanes--to climate change.

"Meet the forensic scientists of climate change; if you like CSI, you'll be equally enthralled with the skill and speed these folks exhibit. But the stakes are infinitely higher!" --Bill McKibben, author of Falter and The End of Nature

Tied with Hurricane Katrina as the costliest cyclone on record, Hurricane Harvey caused catastrophic flooding and over a hundred deaths in 2017. Angry Weather tells the compelling, day-by-day story of the World Weather Attribution unit--a team of scientists that studies extreme weather events while they're happening--and their race to track the connection between the hurricane and climate change. As the hurricane unfolds, Otto reveals how attribution science works in real time, and determines that Harvey's terrifying floods were three times more likely to occur due to human-induced climate change.

At the forefront of cutting-edge climate science, Friederike Otto uncovers how the new ability to determine climate change's role in extreme weather events can dramatically transform how we view the climate crisis: from how it will affect those of us who are most vulnerable, to the corporations and governments that may find themselves held accountable in the courts. The research laid out in Angry Weather will have profound impacts, both today and for the future of humankind.

Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute.

Review Quotes

"A good overview of the climate-change issue, the evolution of climate change in the industrial era, the politics over the issue, and the responsibilities of the industrialized world--in particular, corporations and governments--to help repair the damage. The result is a most timely book."
--Booklist

"For the fact-minded, Otto's arguments are incontrovertible."
--Kirkus Reviews

"This elegant new branch of climate science [will] have profound implications for public policy and planning, and will lead to even more useful research in the future."
--Vancouver Sun

"Angry Weather is all about science, but it is not all technical. It is a readable book for those who have limited knowledge of weather and climate systems. Otto provides succinct scientific explanations throughout the book to ensure her main points are supported by science but still understandable and relevant to the main message."
--Alternatives Journal

"Attribution science--climate forensics, or reverse engineering--is a new discipline explained in this book with passion and verve by one of its creators. Fredi Otto is destined to be one of those rare scientists whose name becomes well known in the wider world."
--Mark Denny, author of Making Sense of Weather and Climate: The Science Behind the Forecasts

"Angry Weather introduces us to the forensic scientists of climate change; if you like to watch CSI, you'll be equally enthralled with the skill and speed these folks exhibit. But the stakes are infinitely higher!"
--Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

"[A] thrilling work of nonfiction... If readers were holding any doubt about climate's effects on weather before picking up this book, that doubt will be eviscerated before the last gripping page."
--Literary Hub

"This fascinating book takes us on a voyage across the cutting edge of climate science that irrevocably alters our perspective of the world in which we live and the future it holds. I wish I could make this book required reading for the world."
--Katharine Hayhoe, UN Champion of the Earth

About the Author

Friederike (Fredi) Otto is a physicist, philosopher, climate researcher, senior lecturer at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London. Otto is also the co-founder and lead on the international project World Weather Attribution, which assesses the human influence on extreme weather and has been profiled in the New York Times, Nature, and other outlets. Otto was named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People of 2021 and and as one of the top 10 people who helped shape science in 2021 by the journal Nature.