Environmental activist Bill McKibben calls Matthys Levy's WHY THE WIND BLOWS “a straightforward, fascinating and powerful users' guide to the planet.” Levy set out to write an entertaining primer about the weather, but his research led him to take a strong stand on climate change and to present his findings at a technical meeting in China.

VERMONT - May 1, 2007, marks the official publication of Why the Wind Blows, the sixth popular science book written by Matthys Levy, Chairman Emeritus of Weidlinger Associates and structural designer of many unique structures, including the Georgia Dome, the Javits Center, and the Rose Center for Earth and Space. He was also the Principal Investigator of the most complete study of the World Trade Center collapses to date.

As co-author of Why Buildings Fall Down and Why the Earth Quakes, Levy is no stranger to making dry and difficult subjects more accessible. For this book, he chose stories of key explorers to shape his narrative: Ferdinand Magellan, who was credited with being the first person to circumnavigate the globe (1511); Edward Whymper, the first man to conquer the Matterhorn (1860); and Sir John Franklin, who led a disastrous expedition to discover the Northwest Passage (1845).

Franklin’s story was pivotal, as Levy soon discovered that the same Northwest Passage that defeated Franklin is predicted to become ice-free and passable by ships in summer within a decade. As a result, while readers will learn the basics about weather, they will also learn facts about the vast “uncontrolled experiment” of global warming. It is the perfect introduction to the subject of weather for anyone impressed by the unanimity of opinion expressed by the more than one thousand scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Two climatologists peer reviewed the book: Dr. Margaret A. LeMone and Dr. Alan K. Betts, who are members respectively, with Levy, of the National Academy of Engineering and the Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering.

Levy stresses that there is no single solution to the irreversible damage we’ve already caused, and although he gives an account of the most promising strategies from carbon credits and carbon sequestering to alternative energy sources, he doesn’t’ think that our current knowledge will usher us past the threshold of safety. “Kyoto is only a feeble beginning. A dramatic and costly effort by all countries is our only hope to achieve what may seem like impossible reductions. We need a gathering of scientists much like the one that created the atom bomb, but towards a more peaceful and life-affirming result.”

Levy believes that governments need to take an active role in solving this problem and that individuals should push their elected officials to act. China, for instance, was very receptive to his ideas when he presented a paper that is essentially the book’s last chapter at the International Association of Shell and Spatial Structures. in October 2006. But that doesn’t necessarily translate into action. Even Vermont, the “Green State,” where Levy lives and which is full of well-intentioned forward-looking people, lags behind California in the regulations it has enacted.