Virginia Climate Fever

How Global Warming Will Transform Our Cities, Shorelines, and Forests

By Stephen Nash

As visiting senior research scholar at the University of Richmond, Stephen Nash explores the stunning local aspects of climate disruption. This digestible work employs enough facts and visuals to demonstrate the amount of damage that global warming promises for the Old Dominion.

Nash, a journalist, takes the reader with him as he travels around Virginia, talking with scientists, citizens, officials and business people. Through these encounters, Nash reveals that our temperature averages will gradually rise during the next hundred years, essentially turning Virginia into present-day Alabama. Graphs show increasing numbers of days with temperatures surpassing 90 degrees, with drastic consequences for life-forms from trees to fish, and to both rural and city-dwelling humans.

Nash’s most compelling passages deal with sea level rise and the increasingly formidable threat of property destruction in the Hampton Roads region. This trend could result in climate refugees as limited financial resources cover only the costs of protecting high-value infrastructure and leave homeowners behind.

Throughout the book, Nash compares two scenarios of human response to global warming, labeled “business as usual” and “work and hope,” while maintaining that Virginians are not entirely the masters of their fate because global warming is a problem that requires a global response.

This book is fact-based and never overstated, making it mandatory reading for Virginians seeking a primer on a complex topic. — Review by Hannah Wiegard, Appalachian Voices Virginia Campaign Coordinator