Windfall by McKenzie Funk

Windfall is a gripping account of how banks, energy companies, engineers, and entrepreneurs have turned a global crisis into a golden opportunity, harvesting short-term profits while sowing the seeds of future ruin.

The book explores how companies, people, and agencies across the planet are seeking an economic opportunity from global warming. The author, McKenzie Funk, travelled to all the continents for his research and separated global warming into three categories: Melt, Drought, and Deluge.

The book is divided into three sections, each tackling a different form of climate change. “Part One: The Melt” takes the author to Canada, where consideration is being given to the defense of the Northwest Passage as melting ice makes the area an increasingly attractive shipping route.

Another chapter in the section looks at the opportunities opening up for the once isolated nation of Greenland, where vast amounts of minerals are becoming more accessible as the country’s ice cap melts.

Greenland’s people must decide between seeking independence from Denmark as a means of keeping more of the wealth for themselves or remaining loyal to the country that has funded many amenities for them.

Money is also at issue with Royal Dutch Shell’s dilemma over the future of its energy interests and how technology devised in a desert country might save the melting Alps.

What I Liked

I though this was a fascinating read about something that is truly inevitable – someone is going to make a ton of money off a worsening climate.

What I Did Not Like

Not a whole lot, I mean, it’s a a bit depressing but it’s otherwise a strong book.