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Liked It “This was an extremely interesting and relatively quick read. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the world-wide authority on what is in store for the future of our planet in terms of global warming. Based on the best available scientific data from world-renouned scientists,...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“This was an extremely interesting and relatively quick read. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the world-wide authority on what is in store for the future of our planet in terms of global warming. Based on the best available scientific data from world-renouned scientists, the 2007 edition predicts a maximum of 5.8 degree Celcius increase by 2100 with an average prediction of 3 degrees.
Nicole R wrote this review Monday, October 27 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Lynas dedicates a chapter of his book to each of these degrees, describing the consequences to ecological, economic, and societal infrastructures by making comparisons to when the Earth last saw that type of temperature increase and forcasting forward based on current global conditions. In the One Degree chapter, Lynas paints a picture of inconvenience as opposed to catastrophe to humans with perhaps even some pleasant improvements (much of northern US would become available for extended cultivation). But, as the chapters progress to the dreaded 6 degree mark, the senarios become more and more dire eventually ending in a world extremely different from the one we currently live in, one in which the human population is decimated and the remaining populace must struggle to survive. These chapters were fantastic and talked about individual regions as opposed to the world as a whole, a much more realistic approach than a simple global average. The history lessons from deep history were interesting and I learned as much about the Earth's past as I did about it's increasingly bleak future.
After painting a picture he compares to Dante's 6th Circle of Hell, Lynas then discusses what we must do to prevent the final picture. I found the first part of this chapter to be a bit redundant. He starts by describing why he thinks the global carbon emissions need to be firmly capped at 450 ppm (current levels are about 380 ppm). He did a nice job describing his reasoning the first time and the additional 4 were not needed. After this though, he transitioned into what we can do to meet these strict yet realistic goals and spent a good portion talking about the Pacala-Socolow wedge method (very interesting, if you haven't heard of it please google it!). He actually described the extent these wedges help and put into very understandable terms exactly what kind of change these would entail.
Overall, a great book that doesn't give a worst-case-senario that many people have grown desensitized to but instead explains each degree step in great detail while admiting that the realistic result is most likely in the middle. If you are skeptical of global warming because you can't see how a 2 degree celcius rise in global temperatures will result in anything more than a decreased use of your furnace (a topic that is hard to grasp for many people...scientists included!) I greatly encourage you to pick up this book!
A small side note: for those of you extremely interested in the concept of anthropogenic global warming and what the IPCC says about it, you can access the latest report (2007) online in its entirety.”
“The most frightening book on global warming I have ever read. The author,Mark Lynas,really did his homework. We have much work to do. ~Judy”
Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC) wrote this review Tuesday, July 1 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I've only just started reading this book, but so far so good. I'll update when I finish. I'm interested in what others have to say!”
Tom wrote this review Friday, March 28 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Chokerende læsning. De færreste gør sig klart, hvad konsekvenserne af 2-3-4-5 eller 6 graders global opvarmning (formentlig) vil betyde. En virkelig øjenåbner af en bog.”
Kristian S wrote this review Thursday, February 7 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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