Review of Kolbert's 'Field Notes From A Catastrophe'

"In Shishmaref, Alaska, she met people who were abandoning their tiny island home because, with less sea ice around it as a buffer against storms, their houses and land were being carried away."

"In Iceland, a man monitoring glacial advance and retreat passed on the prediction that by the end of the next century, his country, where glaciers have existed for more than two million years, will be essentially ice-free."

"On the Greenland ice cap, well away from the coast, researchers gathering meteorological data were surprised to see melt 'in areas where liquid water had not been seen for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years.'"

"She visits the Netherlands, where rising sea levels caused by global warming are expected to swallow up large parts of the country. In areas where there are already periodic floods, a construction firm has started building amphibious homes."

"Another field trip took her to Washington, where she was treated to double-speak by an under secretary charged with explaining the administration's position on climate change. 'Astonishingly,' she comments in a rare show of heat, 'standing in the way' of progress seems to be President Bush's goal."