Download or read book The Uninhabitable Earth written by David Wallace-Wells and published by Tim Duggan Books. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The Uninhabitable Earth hits you like a comet, with an overflow of insanely lyrical prose about our pending Armageddon.”—Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • The New York Times Book Review • Time • NPR • The Economist • The Paris Review • Toronto Star • GQ • The Times Literary Supplement • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible—food shortages, refugee emergencies, climate wars and economic devastation. An “epoch-defining book” (The Guardian) and “this generation’s Silent Spring” (The Washington Post), The Uninhabitable Earth is both a travelogue of the near future and a meditation on how that future will look to those living through it—the ways that warming promises to transform global politics, the meaning of technology and nature in the modern world, the sustainability of capitalism and the trajectory of human progress. The Uninhabitable Earth is also an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation—today’s. LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD “The Uninhabitable Earth is the most terrifying book I have ever read. Its subject is climate change, and its method is scientific, but its mode is Old Testament. The book is a meticulously documented, white-knuckled tour through the cascading catastrophes that will soon engulf our warming planet.”—Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times “Riveting. . . . Some readers will find Mr. Wallace-Wells’s outline of possible futures alarmist. He is indeed alarmed. You should be, too.”—The Economist “Potent and evocative. . . . Wallace-Wells has resolved to offer something other than the standard narrative of climate change. . . . He avoids the ‘eerily banal language of climatology’ in favor of lush, rolling prose.”—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times “The book has potential to be this generation’s Silent Spring.”—The Washington Post “The Uninhabitable Earth, which has become a best seller, taps into the underlying emotion of the day: fear. . . . I encourage people to read this book.”—Alan Weisman, The New York Review of Books

Download or read book Body Heat written by Mark Samuel BLUMBERG and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether you're a polar bear giving birth to cubs in an Arctic winter, a camel going days without water in the desert heat, or merely a suburbanite without air conditioning in a heat wave, your comfort and even survival depend on how well you adapt to extreme temperatures. In this entertaining and illuminating book, biopsychologist Mark Blumberg explores the many ways that temperature rules the lives of all animals (including us). He moves from the physical principles that govern the flow of heat in and out of our bodies to the many complex evolutionary devices animals use to exploit those principles for their own benefit. In the process Blumberg tells wonderful stories of evolutionary and scientific ingenuity--how penguins withstand Antarctic winters by huddling together by the thousands, how vulnerable embryos of many species are to extremes of temperature during their development, why people survive hour-long drowning accidents in winter but not in summer, how certain plants generate heat (the skunk cabbage enough to melt snow around it). We also hear of systems gone awry--how desert species given too much water can drink themselves into bloated immobility, why anorexics often complain of feeling cold, and why you can't sleep if the room is too hot or too cold. After reading this book, you'll never look at a thermostat in quite the same way again. Table of Contents: Introduction 1. Temperature: A User's Guide 2. Behave Yourself 3. Then Bake at 98.6°F for 400,000 Minutes 4. Everything in Its Place 5. Cold New World 6. Fever All through the Night 7. The Heat of Passion 8. Livin' off the Fat 9. The Light Goes Out Epilogue Bibliography Acknowledgments Index Reviews of this book: There's a little twinkle in Mark Blumberg's eye as he explains the role of temperature in life on Earth, that essential gleam that makes books about science successful and appealing...His writing is clear, a fine balance of explanation, example and ideas. --Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Book Review Reviews of this book: The need to maintain body temperature within a narrow range is the biggest single influence on physiology and behaviour, as Mark Blumberg explains in this little gem of a book, Body Heat...Blumberg describes the exquisite mechanisms developed by different species to generate, conserve or lose body heat. --John Bonner, New Scientist Reviews of this book: This is one of those books that leaves you for a few heady days in possession of a new key to all mysteries. Written entertainingly for a popular audience, the book argues that the evolved behaviour and physical characteristics of most creatures, from the tiniest nematode worm to the largest whale, is governed by the need to maintain a comfortable body temperature. --Emma Crichton-Miller, The Telegraph Reviews of this book: Blumberg...presents a thoroughly interesting book on body temperature and its many influences, loaded with a marvelously broad range of topics related to the biology of body temperature. From structural adaptations, such as ear size, circulatory patterns, and body shape that have evolved to help maintain body temperature, to psychological effects of temperature, the physiology of fevers, and even sexual-thermal metaphors used in everyday conversation. A host of fascinating aspects of how species respond to temperature changes are also discussed...Body Heat is great reading, certain to produce an enlightened appreciation for how body temperature control is critical for all organisms. --M. A. Palladino, Choice Reviews of this book: Mark S. Blumberg, in Body Heat, also takes the role of temperature in human affairs onto a global stage, but his metaphors, languages and conclusions are neither biblical nor prophetic. Instead he wants to remind us just how narrow our margins of tolerance are against that ultimate enemy: cold...Blumberg loves his subject, is convinced of its importance, and he wants to put across the intrinsic interest of temperature physiology to a larger audience. He retains a light touch--and because he is an active researcher in his own right, is able to bring new information and new insights to his pages. --Jonathan Kingdon, Times Literary Supplement This book is a real treat. Mark Blumberg takes something we normally hardly think about, and makes it into a fascinating topic, with colorful examples from fields as disparate as etymology and entomology. You probably will be repeating many of the stories he tells to those around you, as you discover why a fever may be good for you, or how babies generate their own heat, or how eating disorders interact with body temperature problems. It's entertaining, interesting, and great fun. --Michael Leon, University of California, Irvine This is an engaging enchilada of a book, wrapping up cold feet, a warm heart, hot sex, and chili peppers, for easy digestion by the general science consumer. Delicious! --Bernd Heinrich, University of Vermont, and author of The Hot-Blooded Insects: Strategies and Mechanisms of Thermoregulation

Download or read book Gaia written by James Lovelock and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gaia, in which James Lovelock puts forward his inspirational and controversial idea that the Earth functions as a single organism, with life influencing planetary processes to form a self-regulating system aiding its own survival, is now a classic work that continues to provoke heated scientific debate.

Download or read book Life Temperature and the Earth written by David W. Schwartzman and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life, Temperature, and the Earth analyzes and modifies important aspects of the Gaia hypothesis in light of geochemical, geophysical, mathematical, and paleontological data that were either ignored or unavailable when the hypothesis was developed. Schwartzman argues that the Earth's climatic temperature has been biologically regulated amid the backdrop of variable volcanic outgassing and an evolving sun.

Download or read book Climate Change written by The Royal Society and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-02-26 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate Change: Evidence and Causes is a jointly produced publication of The US National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society. Written by a UK-US team of leading climate scientists and reviewed by climate scientists and others, the publication is intended as a brief, readable reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and other individuals seeking authoritative information on the some of the questions that continue to be asked. Climate Change makes clear what is well-established and where understanding is still developing. It echoes and builds upon the long history of climate-related work from both national academies, as well as on the newest climate-change assessment from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It touches on current areas of active debate and ongoing research, such as the link between ocean heat content and the rate of warming.

Download or read book Taking the Temperature of the Earth written by Glynn Hulley and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2019-06-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking the Temperature of the Earth: Steps towards Integrated Understanding of Variability and Change presents an integrated, collaborative approach to observing and understanding various surface temperatures from a whole-Earth perspective. The book describes the progress in improving the quality of surface temperatures across different domains of the Earth’s surface (air, land, sea, lakes and ice), assessing variability and long-term trends, and providing applications of surface temperature data to detect and better understand Earth system behavior. As cooperation is essential between scientific communities, whose focus on particular domains of Earth’s surface and on different components of the observing system help to accelerate scientific understanding and multiply the benefits for society, this book bridges the gap between domains. Includes sections on data validation and uncertainty, data availability and applications Integrates remote sensing and in situ data sources Presents a whole earth perspective on surface temperature datasets, delving into all domains to build and understand relationships between the datasets

Download or read book Life Temperature and the Earth written by David W. Schwartzman and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life, Temperature, and the Earth analyzes and modifies important aspects of the Gaia hypothesis in light of geochemical, geophysical, mathematical, and paleontological data that were either ignored or unavailable when the hypothesis was developed. Schwartzman argues that the Earth's climatic temperature has been biologically regulated amid the backdrop of variable volcanic outgassing and an evolving sun.

Download or read book Ice Time written by Thomas Levenson and published by HarperCollins Publishers. This book was released on 1989 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A description of how climate science has evolved and how man's intervention in the environment is affecting climate. Levenson (a producer of the NOVA television series) examines discoveries which have contributed to our understanding of climate, and discusses such issues as acid rain, the greenhouse effect, deforestation, and nuclear winter.

Download or read book The Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2007-07-26 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The search for life in the solar system and beyond has to date been governed by a model based on what we know about life on Earth (terran life). Most of NASA's mission planning is focused on locations where liquid water is possible and emphasizes searches for structures that resemble cells in terran organisms. It is possible, however, that life exists that is based on chemical reactions that do not involve carbon compounds, that occurs in solvents other than water, or that involves oxidation-reduction reactions without oxygen gas. To assist NASA incorporate this possibility in its efforts to search for life, the NRC was asked to carry out a study to evaluate whether nonstandard biochemistry might support life in solar system and conceivable extrasolar environments, and to define areas to guide research in this area. This book presents an exploration of a limited set of hypothetical chemistries of life, a review of current knowledge concerning key questions or hypotheses about nonterran life, and suggestions for future research.

Download or read book Gaia written by J. E. Lovelock and published by Oxford Paperbacks. This book was released on 2000-09-28 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic work is reissued with a new preface by the author. Written for non-scientists the idea is put forward that life on Earth functions as a single organism.

Download or read book Rare Earth written by Peter D. Ward and published by Springer. This book was released on 2007-05-08 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What determines whether complex life will arise on a planet, or even any life at all? Questions such as these are investigated in this groundbreaking book. In doing so, the authors synthesize information from astronomy, biology, and paleontology, and apply it to what we know about the rise of life on Earth and to what could possibly happen elsewhere in the universe. Everyone who has been thrilled by the recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and the indications of life on Mars and the Jovian moon Europa will be fascinated by Rare Earth, and its implications for those who look to the heavens for companionship.

Download or read book Evolution of Earth and its Climate written by O.G. Sorokhtin and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2010-10-29 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book reviews the current physical theory of Earth's global evolution, its origin, structure and composition, the process of Earth's core formation, Earth's energy, and the nature of its tectonomagnetic activity. The book also deals with the origin of the Moon and its influence on our planet's evolution. Based on the integral positions of this theory, the book analyzes the issues of the origin of the hydrosphere and atmosphere, and the conception and evolution of life on Earth. The monograph also reviews the adiabatic theory of the greenhouse effect developed by the authors, and the effects of nitrogen-consuminging bacteria and of periodic changes in the precession angle on its climate. In particular, these effects cause the onset and periodicity of ice ages and a significant climate warming during the periods of supercontinent appearance (like Pangaea in the Mid-Mesozoic). * challenges current thinking about climate change on the basis of sound geological data. * helps the reader make informed decisions about Earth-process related problems. * challenges the reader to critically analyze both theory and data

Download or read book Losing Earth written by Nathaniel Rich and published by Picador. This book was released on 2020-03-05 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By 1979, we knew all that we know now about the science of climate change - what was happening, why it was happening, and how to stop it. Over the next ten years, we had the very real opportunity to stop it. Obviously, we failed.Nathaniel Rich's groundbreaking account of that failure - and how tantalizingly close we came to signing binding treaties that would have saved us all before the fossil fuels industry and politicians committed to anti-scientific denialism - is already a journalistic blockbuster, a full issue of the New York Times Magazine that has earned favorable comparisons to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and John Hersey's Hiroshima. Rich has become an instant, in-demand expert and speaker. A major movie deal is already in place. It is the story, perhaps, that can shift the conversation.In the book Losing Earth, Rich is able to provide more of the context for what did - and didn't - happen in the 1980s and, more important, is able to carry the story fully into the present day and wrestle with what those past failures mean for us in 2019. It is not just an agonizing revelation of historical missed opportunities, but a clear-eyed and eloquent assessment of how we got to now, and what we can and must do before it's truly too late.

Download or read book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster written by Bill Gates and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible—plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.

Download or read book Earth System Science A Very Short Introduction written by Tim Lenton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-02-25 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When humanity first glimpsed planet Earth from space, the unity of the system that supports humankind entered the popular consciousness. The concept of the Earth's atmosphere, biosphere, oceans, soil, and rocks operating as a closely interacting system has rapidly gained ground in science. This new field, involving geographers, geologists, biologists, oceanographers, and atmospheric physicists, is known as Earth System Science. In this Very Short Introduction, Tim Lenton considers how a world in which humans could evolve was created; how, as a species, we are now reshaping that world; and what a sustainable future for humanity within the Earth System might look like. Drawing on elements of geology, biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics, Lenton asks whether Earth System Science can help guide us onto a sustainable course before we alter the Earth system to the point where we destroy ourselves and our current civilisation. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Download or read book The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change written by David E. Reichle and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2023-02-28 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Global Carbon Cycle and Climate Change: Scaling Ecological Energetics from Organism to the Biosphere, Second Edition examines the global carbon cycle and energy balance of the biosphere, following carbon and energy through increasingly complex levels of metabolism—from cells to ecosystems. Utilizing scientific explanations, analyses of ecosystem functions, extensive references, and cutting-edge examples of energy flow in ecosystems, this is an essential resource to aid in understanding the scientific basis of the role of ecological systems in climate change. Includes new chapters on dynamic properties of the global carbon cycle, climate models and projections, and managing carbon in the global biogeochemical cycle. Addresses the scientific principles governing carbon fluxes at successive hierarchical levels of organization, from cells to the biosphere Illustrates - through data and diagrams - the complex processes by which carbon moves in the global biogeochemical cycle Provides new information on tipping points for climate change and why there are climate deniers

Download or read book A Matter of Degrees written by Gino Segre and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2003-07-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a wonderful synthesis of science, history, and imagination, Gino Segrè, an internationally renowned theoretical physicist, embarks on a wide-ranging exploration of how the fundamental scientific concept of temperature is bound up with the very essence of both life and matter. Why is the internal temperature of most mammals fixed near 98.6°? How do geologists use temperature to track the history of our planet? Why is the quest for absolute zero and its quantum mechanical significance the key to understanding superconductivity? And what can we learn from neutrinos, the subatomic "messages from the sun" that may hold the key to understanding the birth-and death-of our solar system? In answering these and hundreds of other temperature-sensitive questions, Segrè presents an uncanny view of the world around us.