The Change in Weather
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Summary
The book is enormously ambitious, beginning with the birth of the Earth 4.6 billion years ago and continuing to the present, spanning from the "Big Bang" to the summer of 2022, when war and extreme heat converged. Organized chronologically into 25 chapters, it runs from "The World at Dawn" (c. 4.5 billion years ago–c. 7 million years ago) to "Approaching Ecological Limits" (c. 1990–present). Most of the text focuses on the past ten thousand years, but the opening chapters already place humanity within the scale of geological time: humanity's existence on Earth is but "a blink of an eye" on the longer geological timeline.
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- General readers interested in world history and global history
- Readers concerned with climate, ecology, and environmental issues
- Students and teachers in history, geography, and environmental science
- Those who enjoy grand long-duration narratives and are willing to rethink the course of civilization
Not a good fit for
- Readers who want only short-term figures and events and lack patience for geological time
- Readers expecting a pure natural-science data handbook rather than historical narrative
- Readers who need quick single conclusions and are unwilling to accept multi-factor analysis
Reading tips
- Read the opening chapters on geological time first to establish the "humanity is but a blink" frame of reference before continuing.
- Read in chronological order, but at the end of each chapter review the table of contents to confirm that period's place on the timeline.
- Mark passages on the interplay of climate, geography, and human activity as you read, then connect them into your own thread afterward.
- Read chapters alongside current extreme-weather or ecological news to appreciate how the long-term perspective connects to reality.
About the publisher
Guangdong People's Publishing House is a comprehensive publisher whose list spans Eastern philosophy, philosophical works, history, foreign literature, documentary literature and classical literature. Its holdings include 255 titles, with representative books such as Wang Yangming's Instructions for Practical Living, Plato's Republic, Jiang Tingfu's Modern Chinese History, Natsume Soseki's I Am a Cat, Albert Camus's The Stranger, Nazi Germany and the Philosophers: A Man's Exile, The Winter of Literature: Artists under Hitler's Rule in 1933, and the five-volume Three Words and Two Slaps. Its authors and translators include Wang Yangming, Plato, Jiang Tingfu, Natsume Soseki, Albert Camus, Ding Wei, Xu Jianxiong and Li Yumin. The publisher balances philosophical classics, historical works and translated foreign literature, with attention to both classical and documentary literature. Public information is limited, so this introduction focuses on the publishing directions reflected in its catalog.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 作者简介
- 献词
- 序言
- Part 1 黎明时分的世界 （约公元前45亿—前700万年）
- Part 2 人类的起源 （约公元前700万—前1.2万年） On the Origins of Our Species
- Part 3 人类与生态系统的互动 （约公元前1.2万—前3500年） Human Interactions with
- Part 4 最早的城市与贸易网络 （约公元前3500—前2500年） The First Cities and Tra
- Part 5 入不敷出的风险 （约公元前2500—前2200年） On the Risks of Living Beyo
- Part 6 第一次“连接时代” （约公元前2200—前800年） The First Age of Connectiv
- Part 7 思考自然与神 （约公元前1700—前300年） Regarding Nature and the Divi
- Part 8 草原边疆与帝国的形成 （约公元前1700—前300年） The Steppe Frontier and F
- Part 9 罗马暖期 （约公元前300—公元500年） The Roman Warm Period
- Part 10 古代晚期的危机 （约500—600年） The Crisis of Late Antiquity
- Part 11 帝国的黄金时代 （约600—900年） The Golden Age of Empire
- Part 12 中世纪暖期 （约900—1250年） The Medieval Warm Period
- Part 13 疾病与新世界的形成 （约1250—1450年） Disease and the Formation of
- Part 14 生态视野的拓展 （约1400—1500年） On the Expansion of Ecological
- Part 15 新旧世界的融合 （约1500—1700年） The Fusion of the Old and the
- Part 16 对自然和人类的掠夺 （约1650—1750年） On the Exploitation of Natur
- Part 17 小冰期 （约1550—1800年） The Little Ice Age
- Part 18 大分流与小分流 （约1600—1800年） Concerning Great and Little Di
- Part 19 工业、资源开发和自然界 （约1800—1870年） Industry， Extraction and t
- Part 20 动荡时代 （约1870—1920年） The Age of Turbulence
- Part 21 打造新乌托邦 （约1920—1950年） Fashioning New Utopias
- Part 22 重塑全球环境 （20世纪中期） Reshaping the Global Environment
- Part 23 忧虑加深的时代 （约1960—1990年） The Sharpening of Anxieties
- Part 24 濒临生态极限 （约1990年至今） On the Edge of Ecological Limits
- 结论：失乐园
- 致谢
- 注释和参考文献
- 关于作者
FAQ
Does this book start with the Big Bang?
Why does most of the book focus on the past ten thousand years?
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About the author
Peter Frankopan is an author known for a cross-regional perspective and a narrative approach. The library currently holds three of his works: The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, The First Crusade, and The Change in the Weather. These works show that his writing spans history, politics, and popular science: he examines the broad patterns of long-term exchange and conflict across Eurasia, looks closely at a specific historical event in the First Crusade, and extends his attention to climate and environmental change. His books often reorganize material through a long-term lens, linking political structures, religious conflict, and natural factors, with clear narration and a strong sense of the whole. Because public information is limited, details of his personal life cannot be confirmed, but based on the works held here, he already displays a style that combines historical narrative with concern for present-day issues.
Public information about Fang Yu is limited; it is currently known that five of his works are held in the collection, covering world history, social culture, social science, and popular science. Judging from his representative works, his writing spans both ancient and modern times and East and West: The Imjin War and The War of Two Worlds: 2,500 Years of East-West Competition focus on historical conflicts and civilizational encounters; Patriarchy: The Beginning and End of Male Rule and The Truth About Wages examine social structures and everyday economic issues; while Changes in Weather turns to popular science. Overall, Fang Yu is skilled at using specific questions as threads, combining historical context with social analysis. His topics range widely while retaining a concern for real-world issues, making him a writer worth following for readers interested in the humanities, social sciences, and popular science.
