Award-winning journalist Eugene Linden wrote his first story on climate change, for Time magazine, in 1988; it was just the beginning of his investigative work, exploring all ramifications of this impending disaster. His important book FIRE AND FLOOD: A People’s History of Climate Change, from 1979 to the Present represents his definitive case for the prosecution as to how and why we have arrived at our current dire pass, closing with his argument that the same forces that have confused the public’s mind and slowed the policy response are poised to pivot with astonishing speed, as long-term risks have become present-day realities and the cliff’s edge is now within view.

Starting with the 1980s, Linden tells the story, decade by decade, by looking at four clocks that move at different speeds: the reality of climate change itself; the scientific consensus about it, which always lags reality; public opinion and political will, which lag further still; and, perhaps most important, business and finance.  Now, however, the seasons of fire and flood have crossed the threshold into plain view.  The whole system is teetering on the brink, and the odds of another housing collapse, for starters, are much higher than most people understand. There is a path back from the cliff, but we must pick up the pace. FIRE AND FLOOD shows us why, and how.

Winner of the American Meteorological Society’s Louis J. Battan Award for 2023.

Eugene Linden is an award-winning journalist and author on science, nature, and the environment. His previous book on climate change, Winds of Change, explored the connection between climate change and the rise and fall of civilizations, and was awarded the Grantham Prize Special Award of Merit. For many years, Linden wrote about nature and global environmental issues for TIME where he garnered several awards including the American Geophysical Union’s Walter Sullivan Award.