BOOK BITS - THE TBILISI, GEORGIA, WEATHER CATASTROPHE - ZOO WILD ANIMALS ON THE LOOSE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FLOODED CITY - Haven't we read it already on Kim Stanley Robinson's Trilogy Forty Signs of Rain?

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About ten years ago science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson published his trilogy "Forty Signs of Rain," "Fifty Degrees Below," and "Sixty Days and Counting".

On these novels he describes the chaotic effects of abrupt planet cooling in the city of Washington DC.  There are floods, freezing temperatures, and escaped zoo animals on the loose.   Animals adapt.  So do people.  These books are intelligent and thrilling.   They are fun to read. 
 
Reality is something else altogether.

The plight of enslaved, caged animals in zoos

 

Unfortunately many of them are in even greater danger in the wild, due to human cruelty and greed.

 

  

Tbilisi, Georgia - Hundreds of animals have been killed or have disappeared as a result of a massive river flood that caught the city by surprise.  Some animals have been murdered by authorities to prevent them from attacking the human population.  A few large carnivores are still on the loose, and only yesterday a man was attacked by a hungry white tiger. 

 

The iconic picture of a hippo that managed to escape the flood

and survive in the streets of Tbilisi.

 

See more images of this disaster

 

A time of freedom and confusion before he was taken to safety.

Saving a tranquilized crocodile that was found

under a pile of wood and debris

A zebra and other animals stand on a hill outside the zoo,

having managed to save themselves

 

 Bear tries to escape.  No details about his fate,

since so many large carnivores were simply shot by authorities.

 

The beautiful white tiger who is believed to have attacked a man. 

Murdered.

A dead lion.  Shot?

Bears.  Died in the flood, or most likely were shot by authorities.

The aftermath:  A city covered in mud and debris.

Over a dozen humans killed.  Homes destroyed.

Photos from Daily Mail:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3124318/Please-don-t-shoot-animals-unless-attacking-man-Flooded-Tbilisi-zoo-begs-police-not-kill-escaped-beasts-despite-warnings-getting-hungry.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3126681/Crocodile-rescued-muddy-wreckage-Georgian-zoo-human-tragedy-continues-rescuers-woman-s-body-apocalyptic-floods.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3127854/Escaped-white-tiger-flooded-Georgia-zoo-KILLS-man.html

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Outline of Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain, the first book in the trilogy, by Publishers Weekly

In this cerebral near-future novel, the first in a trilogy, Robinson explores the events leading up to a worldwide catastrophe brought on by global warming.

 

Each of his various viewpoint characters holds a small piece of the puzzle and can see calamity coming, but is helpless before the indifference of the politicians and capitalists who run America.

 

Anna Quibler, a National Science Foundation official in Washington, D.C., sifts through dozens of funding proposals each day, while her husband, Charlie, handles life as a stay-at-home dad and telecommutes to his job as an environmental adviser to a liberal senator.

 

Another scientist, Frank Vanderwal, finds his sterile worldview turned upside down after attending a lecture on Buddhist attitudes toward science given by the ambassador from Khembalung, a nation virtually inundated by the rising Indian Ocean.

 

Robinson's tale lacks the drama and excitement of such other novels dealing with global climate change as Bruce Sterling's Heavy Weather and John Barnes's Mother of Storms, but his portrayal of how actual scientists would deal with this disaster-in-the-making is utterly convincing. Robinson clearly cares deeply about our planet's future, and he makes the reader care as well. 

FYI: Robinson's Mars trilogy ( Red Mars, etc.) received one Nebula and two Hugo awards.

Source - http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-553-80311-2

More information on writer Kim Stanley Robinson
http://www.kimstanleyrobinson.info/

Other books by Kim Stanley Robinson
https://www.sfsite.com/lists/ksr.htm