Purchase
The Story of Wind and Weather
Walker & Company
April 2006
352 pages ISBN: 0802714692 Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
Although sometimes enormously destructive, wind is also one
of the elements that make life on Earth possible. Without
it, the intense solar radiation beating down on the tropics
would have no way of escaping. Wind warms the higher
latitudes and moderates the equatorial regions, and carries
evaporated moisture from oceans to land, where the moisture
descends as rain. Wind sculpted the rivers that nurtured the
earliest of human civilizations. Even hurricanes are an
essential part of the planet’s self-regulatory system.
Windswept is the story of humankind’s long struggle to
understand wind and weather—from the wind gods of ancient
times to early discoveries of the dynamics of air movement
to high-tech schemes to control hurricanes. Marq de Villiers
is equally adept at explaining the science of wind as he is
at presenting dramatic personal stories of encounters with
gales and storms. Running through his narrative is the
dramatic story of Hurricane Ivan, the only storm on record
to three times reach Category 5 status (sustaining winds
greater than 155 miles per hour) in its path of death and
destruction from the Sahara to North America, where it
traveled from Texas to Newfoundland. We have made great strides in understanding how wind affects
weather, but much is left to learn about how global warming
and pollution may impact the winds themselves. The stakes
are high because, as Hurricane Katrina so vividly reminded
us, anything that affects the winds eventually affects human
life.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|