Cover Image: Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid

Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid

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Member Reviews

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

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I did not finish this book before it was archived.
The 40% I read was an interesting approach to a book on climate change that was easy to follow.

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An extremely enlightening piece of accessible science writing that grabs you from the start. I plan to recommend this to as many book clubs as I can.

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This was a wow book for me. The information you get from here really makes you stop and think about the effect us humans are having on the world around us. We are constantly bombarded with statements of irreversibility of the effect we have, but this is mostly given in form of generalised statements. Reading specific examples of that really hammers the problem home. Would really recommend this book to everyone who is looking for an easy to understand book that deals with the most serious issue facing us as a species today.

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Trees climbing mountains. Lizards evolving in weeks and months to withstand hurricanes. Grizzly bears abandoning salmon for berries.

Thor Hanson brings an insatiable curiosity, along with a healthy dose of storytelling and humor, to the subject of how life is adapting, in real time, to a changing planet.

It’s fascinating. And it’s made me realize that I’d better throw out the “expected range” advice in all of my older birding books. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in the world around us.

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*I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley and the publishers.*

An informative, enjoyable and ultimately hopeful exploration of the intersections between climate change and evolutionary biology. For anyone interested in the impacts of the climate crisis on the natural world, this is a fascinating look at how species have adapted to planetary changes throughout geological history, and in the present day. Due to my studies and work, I'm well versed in the mechanics and effects of climate change and had a general idea of how it impacts various species, but I still learned a lot from this in-depth look at the topic. It was really interesting to see the types and variety of research being done all over the planet. This book is so well-researched, and I appreciated the efforts the author made to incorporate a wide range of voices and expertise.

I also enjoyed the author's tone and style of writing, with humorous and relevant anecdotes and commentary. It was very readable and easily understandable. This is a book that can be read and enjoyed by people with an environmental background as well as those who don't have much previous knowledge. A lot of environmental writing is (quite understandably) very depressing these days, so it's refreshing and heartening to read this perspective - that while the challenges are great, nature is more resilient in some ways than we would think. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone interested in the topic!

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Not my favorite Thor Hanson (that would be The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History), but a fascinating and engaging read, as always!

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This book almost gave me hope about the future re: climate change, which is saying something. It's a great introduction to the natural world's response to mankind's murder-suicide pact with the ecosystem. I would prefer some more science in it, but that's just because I'm a scientist by training and not a concern for most of the book-reading populace

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I started reading this, but the content was dense and I had to pace myself, this meant that I did not catch up before the book expired.
It is a collection of information that introduces people to the varying ways animals have adapted to the pollution of their natural habitats. The first few chapters that I read, consisted of generic introductory information but worked its way up after that.
It is a good way to introduce oneself to the occurring in nature. I would recommend it to anyone curious about the topics mentioned in the blurb

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Hanson creates an easy to follow exploration of climate change and its effect on various species. This book take a look at how different species of plants and, particularly. animals are evolving before our very eyes in order to deal with the effects of climate change. It also takes in interesting approach to extinction in the animal kingdom, discussing how humanity has created a plague on animals causing some of them to become extinct, but how some other species may have become extinct naturally through evolution. While the effects of climate change are undeniable for some species, others are using it as an opportunity to adapt and evolve potentially even creating new species variants in the process.

Overall, this book is fascinating. It is exceptional in that it takes a difficult topic set and presents it in an easy to read and follow writing style. My only complaint with this is that the images are in black and white and I wish they were in color, it would have made the book all the more interesting, especially when there is a lot of discussion on color in different species.

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4 stars

I am grateful to Perseus Books for sending me an advanced copy of this book for early review.

I have been enjoying reading more climate non-fiction recently, and I'm really glad that I picked this one up. It was short, concise, and well structured. I think the conversational tone in this book made its science heavy content accessible and enjoyable, and I would be interested in reading more from this author.

This book presented some interesting concepts and addressed some common misconceptions. Primarily, it discusses the responses various organisms have to climate change; however, it points out the errors in assuming that the response is always detrimental and that these changes happen gradually. Hanson provides us with a good selection of examples from trees to birds, lizards, squid, and even bears. These examples show how things in nature are constantly adjusting and while some of these adjustments aren't sustainable, sometimes creatures are able to accommodate the changes.

The overall tone of this book was optimistic. By giving a variety of examples and outcomes, Hanson is able to address a serious and difficult topic like climate change in a way that is not fatalistic and condemning.

I enjoyed this and would recommend to anyone who wants a shorter climate non-fiction read that is both informative and enjoyable.

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<i>Hurricane Lizards & Plastic Squid</i> is Hanson’s newest popular science book, which covers climate change biology - how species are responding to rapid changes in global temperature. It is roughly split into three sections - the challenges (ecological mismatches, narrowing habitats, declining opportunities for specialists), the responses (move, adapt, evolve, take refuge) and what we might be able to anticipate for the future (not much).

While this is some super accessible science writing, I also found it… super boring. I feel like I’d peripherally heard of most of the ideas here, and the repeated format got old (talking about a scientist, a sentence or two on what they look like, and Hanson’s method of communication with them, their graduate studies, a quote, and then a picture insert). Typically I like it when science authors bring in the human aspect of a research project (Elisabeth Kolbert does it really well), but it didn’t feel engaging here. I think part of this is due to Hanson’s rapid movement through different examples. Nothing is talked about for super long - “plastic squid” literally got half a page - so my eyes did a lot of glazing over. I think focusing on fewer examples would have been better here.

One interesting note about tone - I’ve found that a lot of new books about climate change have dropped the let-us-do-better tone, and have instead embraced the we-fucked-up-we-got-ourselves-here-now-what slant. The latter has really resonated with me, so Hanson’s cautiously optimistic and hopeful viewpoint felt a little flat.

I know Hanson is well-loved and have seen his book covers everywhere, but I’m honestly hesitant to try anything else by him. If others felt similar about this book, but liked his older stuff - let me know!

2.5 stars, generously rounded up.

I voluntarily obtained a digital version of this book free from Netgalley and Perseus Books in exchange for an honest review.

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This combination of climate change and biology was super interesting and a new way to look at the topic. A very interesting and readable approach, and a way that gave me new context for the urgency for action.

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Thank you to Perseus Books and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The cover caught my eye, the title made me realize I had to read this book. this is a different take on climate change than we normally see. We can dig our heads in the sand (figuratively) for only so long, until we see that other species are either dying, or they are adapting. Noting that at least 25% of the animal population is on the move, or changing, is unbelievable, but true. Plants are not left out, and they too show that we will be seeing new alterations as time goes on. It's happening rapidly enough that our generation might get to witness some of this.
Hopefully, we'll learn, and we too will adapt and change.

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Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid caught my eye immediately, not only for its title but for its subject: climate change biology. Although humans have the ability to escape within our heads
and pretend things which are happening aren’t, really, plants and other animals live much closer to Earth and cannot remove themselves from facts. When faced with the threat of climate change, they must either move, adapt, or die. I have previously read of how some plants and animals have adapted to intense environmental challenges created by human activity (Unnatural Selection), was eager to dive into this one. Given the complexities of global ecosystems, it’s not surprising to learn that altered circumstances are throwing things into disarray: one potentially disastrous trend is inducing mismatches between plant blooms and the re-emergence of their pollinators. The struggle for survival is not a recent development, though, and both flora and fauna alike are altering themselves to survive: starfish are withering in the warming waters of the Eastern seaboard, but now able to expand into northern waters once too frigid for their tolerance. At least a quarter of the Earth’s animal population is actively on the move, changing its ranges, and possibly up to 80% of populations are in flux. Plants, too, are getting in on the action – trees moving their ranges uphill, or dandelions altering their leave shapes. Although the weirding effect is potentially catastrophic, it’s also an exciting if unnerving time to be a biologist, given the extraordinary display of plasticity we now have the opportunity to witness.

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I received a free eARC from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid was a fascinating dive into the effects of climate change on the natural world. Thor Hanson, a natural historian, explore the ways various species are responding and adapting to climate change. From trees chasing the rain westward across the United States, to birds chasing temperatures further up mountains and further north, Hanson explores why this happens. He also looks at the myriad of other ways species are adapting, or failing to adapt; for example, lizards with larger toe pads and shorter back legs are able to hang on to trees during a hurricane, and those that survive produce offspring with those traits. He looks at plasticity, and shows that in times of rapid change, this ability to adapt quickly enables those species to survive, while species that have evolved to take advantage of a specific niche are more at risk of extinction.

Told in an engaging and conversational manner, Hanson relates scientific concepts and observations in an easy-to understand way for a general audience. The pacing is on the slower side, but this is a meandering sort of book that you can pick up and read a chapter at a time.

I recommend for readers who enjoy popular science, and those interested in climate change, ecology, and natural history.

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Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid by Thor Hanson is enjoyable and accessible science writing that will appeal to a large demographic. “When complex ideas are attached to a narrative, they immediately become more relatable,” Hanson writes in his introduction. And he does a marvelous job of telling stories of climate change’s impact on species whose ecosystems are changing, the species changing, or dying, in response. And as Hanson takes us across the world, the book is an ecological travelogue.

We humans have known climate change has been happening, yet continued to believe it was ‘coming.’ Changing our lives and cultures hasn’t happened. And now, plants and animals across the globe are showing us that the change is already here. They are modifying their behaviors, even if we haven’t.

We are seeing before our eyes rapid changes in climate and shifting ecosystems. What can we learn from species adapting to these changes?

Hanson visits Waldon Pond, a major source of harvested ice in Thoreau’s time, while he found ice barely 2″ thick in February. He tells stories of the “greatest redistribution of species since the last ice age,” as Gretta Pecl stated. Some plants and animals “roll with the punches.” That gives some hope.

The book is illustrated with photographs. The ‘hurricane lizards,’ for instance, are shown during a wind test to see how they coped with gale force winds. Those with the largest toe pads could cling better. Those lizards survived the hurricanes.

The book is as enjoyable to read as it is informative.

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The book focuses on how global warming is affecting nature and wildlife now, compared to documented history.

Every chapter is structured as: first, an into from the fascinating life of the author, with beautiful nature descriptions and his amazing experiences. Then a history/biology lesson of a specific area, followed by how rising temperatures has changed this area or species.

Warmer climate is affecting how animals eat, breed, migrate and change shape.
An interesting example given of starfish, that the increase of the water temperature causes an epidemic outburst that kills them.
Migration of birds, sea animals and even trees(!) causes a change in the new environment they invaded, as it does the one they left behind.
Climate change isn't new, we had many ups and downs in history but some vegetation and aminals made it through. This time it is happening too fast.
Only in the conclusion the author addresses what we can one person do to help slow it down, simply - everything we can. We must change our habits, and if everyone makes small steps it will add up.

Overall it was very interesting to learn about the behavior of different kinds of animals, the book has many pictures, and I learned about the amazing sea butterflies, go look them up!
The science was a bit heavy and I didn't understand it all, so I don't think it addresses the wide public. Also there where no links given for the studies, only a bibliography at the end, what makes it harder to search the exact study.

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A natural history for our planet during this time of climate change showing us how animals are adapting to their changing environments. Possibly using this resilience to give us a sign of hope yet also showing that inhabitants of this planet ,too, we must adapt and change. Those who do not change may no longer exist. Each essay examines a different example of these new adaptations.Written in terms easy enough for the non-scientist yet with enough depth for fellow naturalists.

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Thor Hanson has chosen to illustrate basic survival strategies used by living things when their environment changes. In this case the changes are due to a warming world. He decided to use storytelling as his vehicle because we remember stories. The stories concentrate on what is happening or has happened recently. It explains the varieties and limits of adaptation occurring as the climate changes. I feel this book is a good introduction for those who find the subject interesting, but don't want heavy science or controversy. Hanson's style is also suited to younger readers, even some middle school students. Although it is easy reading and seems light on detail there is actually a lot of information about the science within the stories. There is welcome emphasis on the interconnectedness of life and where it exists. Adaptation is ongoing and includes all of us. It doesn't hurt to know some basics about it.
A glossary, some interesting notes and a bibliography are included.

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