Robert William Sandford's Storm Warning: Water and Climate Security in a changing world.

• Author: Bocanegra, Omar Antonio Anduaga
• Position: Book review

Robert William Sandford, Storm Warning: Water and Climate Security in a Changing World (Rocky Mountain Books, 2006)

Storm Warning, a very informative and scientific-data oriented book, seems to aspire to create a bridge between past experiences, modern research data, the process of acquisition of knowledge and policy-making in the light of water issues, global warming, and the need of action-taking of the government and people in Canada. To this end, the author provides scientific-research conclusions; comparative analysis of data (mostly in response to skeptical views to climate change); a historical-agreement timeline regarding different water and climate protection related treaties in Canada; and, finally, a consolidated policy roadmap synthetizing the conclusions of his analytical journey to provide a way to finally be aware and give real steps to take action before "the storm finally arrives."

While the book clearly advocates for people to wake up to the existence of a rapid-rate warming of waters and climate in general, readers, who may be still skeptical or disagree with his ideas, would still enjoy the analysis from a multidisciplinary approach around water issues. The author includes different approaches from a variety of fields such as science, policy-making, international relations, public affairs, trade, and economics. Moreover, what is most interesting, the author includes the role of aborigines and their communities in the building of a society with more conscience of what is happening in regards to global warming in the Northwest Canada territories.

This combination guarantees the reader will enjoy a transversal-mental discussion, which would only enrich her arguments in favor or against the topic. The goals of this book seem to be, first and foremost, to create awareness; share scientific date to help the reader start identifying where he stands on the topic; and, finally, provide a way for the reader to be more involved in finding solutions by creating a bridge between science and public policy.

For someone who is not familiar with the climate change topic, this book is without doubt a good place to begin. Sandford presents the concrete case of Canada for every discussion he provides, which serves as a tangible reference for the readers. To orient the readers, the book provides a description of the current problems and regulations at the federal and local levels; identifies social and governmental problems as absence of...