In recent years, world climate changes have drawn more attention than at any other time in history. What we once called "crazy weather," just a few years ago, is now beginning to be seen as a part of a logical and, in part, predictable pattern, an awesome natural force that we must deal with if man is to avoid disaster of unprecedented proportions.

Climates of Hunger is a book of paramount importance for our time. It will be essential reading not only for professionals in the field—including agricultural meteorologists, political scientists, geographers, sociologists, and business counselors—but for all who are concerned in any way with environmental trends, world and domestic food supplies, and their effects on human institutions.

Reid A. Bryson is one of the world’s most astute, productive, and best-known climatologists. His work has been appeared or been reported in the New York Times, Fortune, Science, Time, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, and numerous other national and international publications. Bryson is professor of meteorology and geography at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and director of the Institute for Environmental Studies, which he helped to create. Thomas J. Murray is a professional writer who specializes in the presentation of scientific information to nonscientists. He has served with the Institute for Environmental Studies and the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and has been a consultant to a National Academy of Sciences committee.