John Vaillant/Fire Weather: on the front lines of a burning world

[cbabe]

Vintage books/Random House 2024
Pulitzer finalist, National Book finalist

Alberta oil town burns down.

Side trips to other fire disasters.

Add in all the science of climate change and fire physics. History of geology and science discoveries.

Parallels to first kill all the beavers (Hudson Bay Corp) then kill the land, air, and water (all other multinationals).

The emotional dissonance as the unthinkable happens.

And irony. Oil workers escaping Armageddon in oil driven cars. Oil workers homes full of oil products exploding in five minutes.

Valiant strives to be nonjudgmental but underneath I think he’s screaming: you fools!

[Bayard]

1. Put this on my wish list

Thanks!

[hatrack]

2. Just finished it - absolutely brilliant.

That chapter that talked about fire behavior in houses with "legacy" furnishings (wood, cotton, horsehair, metal) vs. "modern" (petroleum in everything you sit on, watch and listen to) was mind-blowing.

[cbabe]

3. Yes. We're deep into the petrocene. Can anyone go through a day not touching plastic?

[likesmountains 52]

4. It was such a great book.

So much more than a book about a fire. He's an excellent story teller that keeps your interest through the human interest aspect of what occurred and the science, geology and political history. After reading Fire Weather I decided to read another of his books, The Tiger which I also strongly recommend.