Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prologue: Growing up under global warming -- Living through the storm -- Three feet of water -- My daughter's earth -- Ask the climate question -- The two-hundred-year plan -- Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? -- In vino veritas : the business of climate adaptation -- How will we feed ourselves? -- While the rich avert their eyes -- "This was a crime" -- Epilogue: Chiara in the year 2020. For twenty years, Mark Hertsgaard investigated climate change, but it took the birth of his daughter to bring the truth home. Another revelation came when an expert advised that, without doubt, global warming had arrived, more than a hundred years earlier than expected. Now, with his daughter and the next generation in mind, Hertsgaard delivers a resounding, motivating message of hope that will spur activism among parents, college students, and all readers. He gives specifics about what we can expect in the next fifty years: Chicago's climate transformed to resemble Houston's; the loss of cherished crops and luxuries, such as California wines; the redesign of U.S. cities. Addressing problems we'll face very soon and revealing where they'll be most serious, Hertsgaard offers "pictures" of what unbiased experts expect, and looks at who is taking wise, creative precautions. Hot is, finally, a book about how we'll survive.--Publisher description.