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hey_linnea's review against another edition
2.0
not for me. There were a lot of pages spent on the background and history around bitumen mining before getting to the fire.
lauraabrahamsen's review against another edition
5.0
Currently my #1 for non-fiction in 2023.
I learned so much from this book. Vaillant uses the 2016-2017 Fort McMurray fire in Alberta as the lens to look at everything—how we got to the Petrocene era and where we may go from here.
Geography, geology, philosophy, history, meteorology—everything pertains, and in the summer of 2023, I understand so much more now.
I learned so much from this book. Vaillant uses the 2016-2017 Fort McMurray fire in Alberta as the lens to look at everything—how we got to the Petrocene era and where we may go from here.
Geography, geology, philosophy, history, meteorology—everything pertains, and in the summer of 2023, I understand so much more now.
natertot's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
readbyashleyd's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
This book was just beyond stunning. It’s frightening, horrifying and all too real but I firmly believe everyone should read it. It’s only going to become more relevant as the years go on, things aren’t going to get any better. Probably one of the best and most haunting nonfiction books I’ve read this year. Highly recommend!
megdrews's review against another edition
5.0
A must-read for anyone who wants to enjoy an incredibly crafted non-fictional account of a terrifying experience with wildfire in a small Canadian town. Valliant does an incredible job integrating impactful climate and fire science data with this heartbreaking story. I couldn't stop turning the pages on this one.
cwreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.25
libraryrat44's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
4.5
Picked from my general TBR list.
The Lucretius Problem is a mental defect we all fall victim to, in which someone thinks the worst thing that can happen is the worst thing that CAN happen. This defect is at the heart of Fire Weather.
In 2016, a fire like none seen before decimated Fort McMurray in Alberta. Trees didn't just burn down. They were vaporized in the extreme heat. And, when the fire hit the city, 88,000 people were driven out of their homes.
Having dealt with wildfires for years, and thinking they'd seen the worst of them in the past, residents and first responders were caught unawares.
The other instance of the Lucretius Problem comes from climate science, and the people who have ignored it. Scientists started talking about the Greenhouse Effect in the 1800s. And that talk turned into warnings about how the Earth warming would affect human beings.
Some ignored the warnings in lieu of profit. But others feel into the defect in question. "I've seen the temperature go up before. Nothing very bad happened. So nothing that bad COULD happen." As we've seen in recent years, it was a horrible failure of imagination.
Fire Weather is compelling science writing. And I really don't give a shit about science, so that's saying something. And as Valliant chronicles the 2016 fire, the book starts to feel like a thriller. He even has room for some very human moments, like when a man sneaks into an evacuated area to liberate his Harley.
Highly recommended. I think this will be on college syllabi in 20 years, when the kids are learning about the beginnings of the climate disaster.