In recent years the news has been dominated by devastating hurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes, wildfires and floods, and data show that these hazardous events are increasing in frequency and strength. It is clear that our weather is becoming more extreme, with a warming world adding more energy to the atmosphere and increasing the power of these wind-fuelled events. With this in mind, Simon Winchester ’s opening question in The Breath of the Gods: the History and Future of the Wind might surprise readers: are Earth’s winds slowing down? There was, indeed, a decrease in wind speeds over land between the 1980s and 2010, which was ominously dubbed the Great Stilling. In fact, observations show a decrease in average wind speeds over land of between 5 and 15% over the last 50 years. So what is going on? Winchester – a writer and journalist with a background in geology – starts his quest to discover more atop the windiest place in the world, the summit of Mount Washington.…