Overheated: The Human Cost of Climate Change

In his latest, UC Berkeley law professor Guzman (How International Law Works) illustrates the exact ways that climate change will harm humanity. To persuade naysayers, one section is addressed to skeptics and picks apart articles that diminish the imperative nature of the crisis, while citing environmental science to show just how the planet will continue to change if action isn't taken. The book is at its best in these moments, dealing directly with the effects higher temperatures have on specific communities. Californian farming, reliant on accumulated snow for watering plants, will suffer if weather systems continue to change; an indigenous Bolivian community (the Uru Chipaya) that thrives on glacial runoff will be forced to alter its livelihood as glaciers melt at an expedited rate; and the disaster in Darfur is linked to a drought that threw Sudanese coexistence into devastation. Guzman advocates global cooperation to reduce the rate of greenhouse gas emissions and prevent "the most severe effects of a warming world." Although the book falters with some less grounded examples regarding disease, Guzman's argument is thoroughly researched and will discourage doubters. Agent: Susan Schulman, Susan Schulman: A Literary Agency. (Feb.)