In a running subplot De Villiers tracks the course of Hurricane Ivan, which came to life in spring 2004 as a turbulent air system in the Darfur region of Sudan, slowly made its way across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and, with erratic zigs and zags, slammed the Gulf Coast and split, one half heading all the way up the Eastern seaboard to de Villiers' home in Nova Scotia. Along the way Ivan
reached Category 5 three times, the only recorded hurricane ever to do so. The storm that devas-tated Galveston, Texas, in 1900 made it all the way to Europe and onward to Siberia.
Small local events can translate into big changes in the nature and direction of a storm. De Villiers gives a sympathetic account of how weather data is gathered, and notes its increasing accuracy, while conceding that prediction remains half art, half science.
Wind, as the sailors in The Odyssey found out when they untied the wind-filled bags given by Aeolus, can be full of surprises. In 2002 a team of wind-tunnel researchers tried to unravel the mysteries of the hellish winds that torment players at the 12th hole at Augusta National golf course. The scientists created a scale model of the so-called Amen Corner, with tiny trees and tiny people (all men, presumably) and artificial wind. After painstaking study, they concluded that there was no relation between the prevailing winds and the winds that blew over the hole, so golfers teeing off might as well pray.
Maddening, unpredictable wind might offer a way out of the global energy crisis however. De Villiers concludes by examining the debate over global warming and the
commercial potential of wind farms. He is lucid and skeptical. Both sides exaggerate shamelessly. But look to the Danes, who have designed quiet, stylish windmills that generate nearly all of the renewable-source energy that
accounts for 27 percent of that country's power.
The wind still bloweth where it listeth, but everybody has some, and some have a lot. In a beautiful, wind-powered world, Scotland could be the new Saudi Arabia.
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