Windfall, McKenzie Funk
Windfall, McKenzie Funk
List: $24.47 | Sale: $17.13
Club: $12.23

Windfall
The Booming Business of Global Warming

Author: McKenzie Funk

Narrator: Sean Runnette

Unabridged: 10 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/21/2014

Synopsis

Global warming’s physical impacts can be separated into three broad categories: melt, drought, and deluge. Funk travels to two dozen countries to profile entrepreneurial people who see a potential windfall in each of these forces.

The melt is a boon for newly arable, mineral rich regions of the Arctic, such as Greenland—and for the man-made snow trade. Drought creates opportunities for private firefighters working for insurance companies as well as for fund managers backing south Sudanese warlords who control local  farmland. The deluge—rising seas, surging rivers, and superstorms—has been our most distant concern, but for Dutch architects designing floating cities and American scientists patenting hurricane defenses, the race is on.

By letting climate change continue unchecked, we are choosing to adapt to a warming world. Containing the resulting surge will benefit some, but much of the planet will suffer. McKenzie Funk has investigated both sides, and what he has found will shock us all.

About McKenzie Funk

McKenzie Funk is a journalist who writes for Harper's, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, The London Review of Books, Outside, Bloomberg Businessweek, and the New York Times Magazine. His first book, Windfall, won a PEN Literary Award and was shortlisted for an Orion Award and Rachel Carson Book Award. A National Magazine Award finalist and winner of the Oakes Prize for Environmental Journalism, Funk was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, where he studied economics and systems thinking. He lives near Seattle with his wife and two sons.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Cwiegard on December 06, 2013

Really excellent example of good research journalism applied to the topic of global warming. But rather than repeating the basic science, author Funk chooses to explore the weird and scary economic sector of global warming profit-making. Maybe you thought that global warming was a hoax, or that it i......more

Goodreads review by Sourav on July 01, 2022

Reading this book might lead to feeling of cynicism on climate change efforts undertaken as of now. Think of this hypothesis - if we are unable to directly stop the effects of global warming, what is likely to happen and how can we profit out of this effect? This book will take you through anecdotes......more

Goodreads review by Richard on July 21, 2015

McKenzie Funk’s book, Windfall, explores the question, “What are we doing about climate change?” Readers are introduced to ambitious speculators who are eager to make enormous profits on new opportunities resulting from a warming planet. They are not investing in research for sharply reducing carbon......more

Goodreads review by Sean on June 24, 2019

Funk spent six years travelling and researching for this book. The book is very fact-heavy and I found it challenging to read more than one chapter at a time. Still, this is an insightful read. I've always thought of climate change in rather abstract terms of scientific/economic/environmental issues......more

Goodreads review by Robert on July 08, 2015

Very interesting. It would take two or many other books to cover such a vast theme but I consider the author does it pretty well. I thought at first it was a book for ideas on how/where to invest and take advantage of Climate Change, and it does in a way. If it is not detail in how to do it it gives......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List