I thought this was a very original look at the impact of climate change, especially on different species of animal and plants. Very thought provoking.

received an e-ARC of this book by the author and publishing via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book. You can find a link to my Goodreads Review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3930066701

I really enjoyed this book on climate change. It took a different tack showing that some animals and plants are adapting to climate change without playing down the severity of the climate change crisis. It was also interesting to read how ancient animals and plants adapted to climate change from studying the paleontological record. While our warming climate is still a dire threat and needs to be taken seriously it was nice reading something that wasn't all doom and gloom. The author's personal anecdotes as well as the ones he related from conversations with other scientists made this a very readable book. Now I want to read the author's other books.

I would absolutely recommend this book to others, both the general public and those. There are (rightfully) many books about climate change, but Hanson's focus on climate adaptation and response by wildlife is fascinating and unique. The structure of the book and writing style make it accessible and engaging.

This book has the potential to be as influential to the popular science audience as Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel". Unlike many popular books about climate change, it doesn't aim to convince the reader of the truth or immediacy of the threat. Instead this book starts from the assumption that climate change is not only real, but of immense concern to the reader. From this starting point, the author leads the reader through a survey of studies by many scientists in highly varied fields of how climate change is currently affecting many species on our planet. Some of these species are making surprising and innovative evolutionary changes, some are altering their diet or physically moving their home territory, and some seem doomed to extinction. Throughout, the author maintains a pace that is both comprehensible to a non-specialist in the field as well as highly interesting. His ultimate conclusion, that people need to "worry smart" about how they are willing to modify their behaviors to alter climate change is prescient without being admonishing. Overall, this is a fabulous book!

Editorial note: On page 436, there is an "effecting" that should be changed to "affecting".

Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid: The Fraught and Fascinating Biology of Climate Change by Thor Hanson
PUBLISHERS: Basic Books
ISBN-13: 9781541672420
ON SALE: September 28th 2021
PAGE COUNT: 304

The joy of receiving an ARC of an upcoming Thor Hanson book has been one of the happiest moments of 2021 for me. His previous books on seeds, feathers, and bees rekindled my interest in plant biology from my undergraduate days and a specific interest in honeybees. The upcoming book is an account of the biological factors that come into play concerning climate change.

The book has four parts discussing a) culprits, b) challenges, c) responses, and d) results of global warming and its effects on the ecosystem. A cursory glance through studies on evolution from a historical standpoint, the formulation of the idea of “punctuated equilibrium” which tells us that evolutionary change occurs in sudden and rapid bursts followed by long periods of stability, and 18th and 19th-century studies on the nature of carbon dioxide by chemists like Arrhenius, Priestley, and Tyndall comprise the short first part as an introduction into the causative agents of increasing temperatures. In Hanson’s usual style, these chapters have his own experiments sometimes carried out with his son Noah and add a touch of relatability to the reader.

I was intrigued to learn about Henry David Thoreau’s data on the flora and fauna around Walden Pond which makes for a time capsule of phenology (the study of seasonal changes). This data is being used to compare with modern flowering and nesting observations for changing climate. Hanson’s books always inspire you to think about your neighbourhood and observe the nature around you more closely. And just like in the Walden Pond, an Alstonia tree outside my window has been blooming early in the autumn because of warming seasons. These early flowering species confuse the pollinators (birds and bees) who come late in the season to find the end of blooming. Such a phenomenon is called “time mismatches” by biologists. On the other hand, high temperatures are shifting organisms from their feeding grounds gradually sometimes causing overlap of species in a particular zone. Throughout these disadvantageous situations, organisms show tendencies to adapt and find new ways to be resilient until they can’t do it anymore. That’s when populations start dropping dead. Just check out the case of the mountain pine beetles in North America chomping their way northward due to warm winters and leaving behind dead timber in their wake.

The problem is multifactorial as often a biological problem is. Warmer temperatures, in summary, are narrowing habitat overlap, increasing threats of predation, microbes, and parasites, and declining specialist organisms while opportunists struggle to survive.

So what are animals and plants doing currently as temperatures increase? They are responding by moving, adapting, evolving, and taking refuge. This constitutes the third part of the book and the most interesting of all. Here’s a statistic to consider. All over the world between 25–85% of all species are in the process of relocating as a result of climate change. Sound familiar? Humans are on the move too. Hanson provides a tiny remark towards the end of the book about how humans responded to the Little Ice Age and it resulted in human migration due to economic adversity. Though it was a long spell of freezing temperatures it was a drastic climate change that had a domino effect on the socio-economic makeup of the 17th-century world. For a delightful study pick up Global Crisis by Geoffrey Parker.

A team of scientists in 2017 had an opportunity to study lizard populations in the Caribbean and note their behaviour following Hurricane Irma and Maria. The team used leaf-blowers to test how lizards held onto surfaces at various wind speeds. Ingenious experiment for an ingenious trait evolved on islands prone to hurricanes. The result showed lizards that survived the hurricane had larger sticky toepads and longer forelimbs to hold onto branches than the lizards observed before the hurricane. The traits for holding onto branches firmly were selected. A massively popular scientific finding brought hundreds of viewers online to see the lizards in action. The finding was published in Nature titled Hurricane-induced selection on the morphology of an island lizard. Natural selection at work within a few generations can be reversible too in which case the traits might disappear and reappear according to the needs.

The final part of the book discusses the unpredictability of climate change models and how despite that artificial intelligence is helping in predicting habitat and range shifts of particular animals. Hanson writes about ways that paleobotany, paleogeography, and study of ice cores in polar caps provide a glimpse into the mass extinctions that occurred in the past and what can be learned from them. The author presses on a crucial point that past events have shown rapid climate change coupled with environmental stressors amplified in mass extinctions in certain cases and others only modest adaptations by species. The future of climate change science is exciting and full of possibilities. How changing climate patterns cause genetic drifts is yet to be explored on a massive scale so merry things for upcoming undergrads in universities. So where does this leave the reader? Doing every bit you can to be mindful of the changes around you. That is where the book concludes.

The book is not at par with the previous books by Hanson but certainly provides compact information about how species react to their changing surroundings and the latest research concerning it. A valuable bibliography section at the end and numerous references are helpful for biologists but might leave the non-specialist reader wanting a bit more.

Conservation biologist Thor Hanson’s eminently readable exposition on climate change is informative and satisfying, ranging around the world and through time. This well-researched book elucidates biological and paleontological research in addition to recent studies of climate change.
Highly enjoyable, and very highly recommended.

Descriptions of climate change generally start with a review of basic chemistry and meteorology that may be useful but can be deadly dull for the general reader. Hanson instead writes with the descriptive flare of a naturalist, describing basic principles of how climate change affects ecosystems and individual organisms with brief but intriguing examples. This is not a textbook nor is it, given its topic, without some sense of wonder and hope at the amazing adaptability of nature. A very readable story of how climate change leads to changes in our natural environment for nature lovers and the curious.

I usually love the books Thor Hanson writes, but this one is a bit of a disappointment. This book didn't contain anything I didn't already know even though some of the examples used were new to me. The topics discussed were also covered in a rather superficial manner and I dearly wanted to know more about the topics and also more examples. I found the first two chapters were incredibly boring, and the last three chapters the most interesting. If you know nothing about the effects of climate change on animals and plants you might find this book interesting, but otherwise this is a superficial and weak offering with nothing new to add to the discussion. It's basically a bland salad instead of a decent meal you can sink your teeth into.

Sorry, Dr. Hanson, but your books on seeds, feathers and bees were much better than this one.

NOTE: I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid by Thor Hanson is nonfiction science book. This book is about how plants, animals, and even ecosystems evolve or perish in climate change. Mountain pine beetles for example thrive in heat and they destroy pine trees, whereas elfin pine butterflies rely on pine needles to grow because that is there food source. Also, how ochre sea stars (starfish) became diseased due to disease outbreak from ocean rising temperatures. This book has many many more. I enjoyed reading this and have learned a lot. Thank you to Perseus Books, Basic Books and Netgalley for giving me chance to read this. Loved it!

Thanks to Netgalley and Basic Books for a copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid is an accessible look into how nature is adapting (or isn't) to climate change, and what the implications of these adaptations are.

I'm a biochemist with a bare grasp on ecology. Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid never seemed to oversimplify the research results, nor did it make it too hard to understand without extra ecology reading. I appreciate that in any science-based book.

The stories told to emphasize the points made were interesting and not too long or short. I think they'd be understandable to anyone with a basic science education, which is a feat of science communication. Hanson's communication style is clear and relaxed. It tells the facts, but not in such detail that it feels like reading an academic paper.

The focus of the book is different than anything I've seen in books about climate change. The author offers a new perspective on climate change without undermining or feeling the need to lengthily debate the seriousness of the situation.

I recommend Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid to anyone with a serious interest in science or a mild interest in ecology and climate change.

I enjoyed this book, but I wanted more.

'Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid' is a pleasing addition to the pop science shelf. Hanson is skilled at communicating his and others' science, and I appreciated how he so often "grounded" the reader with personal scenes involving him visiting a certain place, or examining the fauna and floral in his local area. There's also some great one-liners on the scientific process.

Where the book feels thinner is the proportion spent on actual case studies and examples. Very few species and ecosystems are looked at in any real detail (the "plastic squid" barely get a page, if I recall). It honestly feels like a bit of a rush job. I don't know if this is partly down to the pandemic - in the book, the author frequently bemoans not being able to travel to certain places and having to speak to people by phone instead - but I wish it had been given more time to fully develop. It feels more like a novella of science writing, instead. Given how rapidly the story of climate and our planet is changing, I'm certain there's plenty more to write on "climate change biology" - this book has whetted my appetite, but it hasn't satisfied it.

(With thanks to Perseus Books and NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review)