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Noah's Children by Huck Fairman Xlibris
book review by Peter M. Fitzpatrick
"We seem to be at a crossroad....one could lead us to great awareness, innovation and progress; the other to a slow descent into a dark age of shortages and contention."
Hamilton Warring is a middle-aged journalist and former biology professor at an east coast university struggling to awaken the world to the dangers of global warming. His specialized knowledge spurs him to launch a website called "Earthstudies." He hopes this will act as a kind of clearinghouse for the latest information about environmental crises. At the same time, he is struggling with loneliness and the frustration of not being able to really connect with his seventeen-year-old daughter. News of his ex-wife's remarriage to another man sends him on something of an emotional tailspin.
Ham flies to the west coast to interview several prominent marine biologists who fill him in on the effects of pollution in the Pacific Ocean. The news is even more distressing. But his loneliness is somewhat relieved upon meeting Carla, a woman in process of divorce. He then makes a visit to a Dr. Surovy in San Diego to learn about the effects of ocean "rivers" that control the warming and cooling of the waters. Before the interview is over however, Ham is out cold, the victim of a stroke. Now the need to spread the message about environmental disaster presses even harder.
The author has managed to merge environmentalism with an emotionally honest portrayal of middle-aged male frustration and hope. What could lapse into strident treatise on the dangers of climate change is saved by this human dimension. Ham is a truly lonely man, with perhaps only his beloved nature as a significant other. He can lose himself when lecturing on the need to love and protect it. His self cannot surrender so easily to other people, a trait he comes to recognize only by observing his daughter. Partly scientific activism and partly fearless self-exploration, the dangers of inaction and loss are made painfully clear by this brave writer.