Thursday, February 22, 2007
" The Weather Makers " by Tim Flannery
" THE WEATHER MAKERS " BY TIM FLANNERY
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For the last 10,000 years, Earth's thermostat has been set to an average surface temperature of around 57 degrees F . On the whole, this has suited our species splendidly, and we have been able to organise ourselves in a most impressive manner. Finally, over the century, we have created a truly global civilization.
Given that in all of Earth history, the only other creatures able to organise themselves on a similar scale are ants, bees, and termites - which are tiny in comparision and have concomittantly small resource requirements - this is quite an achievement.
Earth's themostat is a complex and dilicate mechanism. At the hearth of it lies carbon dioxide, which plays a critical role in maintaining the balance necesary to all life. It is also a waste product of the fossil fuels that almsot every person on the plante uses for heat, transport, and other energy requirements. On dead planets such as Venus and Mars, CO2 makes up most of the atmosphere, and it would do so here too - if living things and Earth's processes did not keep withing bounds.
As it is, CO2 makes up around three parts per 10,000 in Earth's atmosphere. It's a modest amount, yet, it has a disproportionate influence on the plant's tempature. Because we create CO2 every time we drive a car, cook a meal, or turn on alight, and because the gas lasts around a centure in the atmosphere, the proportion of CO2 in the air we breath is rapidly increasing.
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Tom Flannery has written many books on Ecology. This particular book, " the weather makers " got 4.5.
From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Mammologist and paleontologist Flannery (The Eternal Frontier), who in recent years has become well known for his controversial ideas on conservation, the environment and population control, presents a straightforward and powerfully written look at the connection between climate change and global warming. It's destined to become required reading following Hurricane Katrina as the focus shifts to the natural forces that may have produced such a devastating event. Much of the book's success is rooted in Flannery's succinct and fascinating insights into related topics, such as the differences between the terms greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change, and how the El Niño cycle of extreme climatic events "had a profound re-organising effect on nature." But the heart of the book is Flannery's impassioned look at the earth's "colossal" carbon dioxide pollution problem and his argument for how we can shift from our current global reliance on fossil fuels [...]. Flannery consistently produces the hard goods related to his main message that our environmental behavior makes us all "weather makers" who "already possess all the tools required to avoid catastrophic climate change." Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Link here :
http://www.amazon.com/Weather-Makers-Changing-Climate-Means/dp/0871139359/sr=1-1/qid=1172163587/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9888563-0212052?ie=UTF8&s=books
Another book, ' The Future Eaters ' ( those who eat our future ) has gotten 4.5 star rating.
From Library JournalDuring the ice ages, when the sea level was low, Australia, New Guinea, Tasmania, and smaller islands reemerged as a single landmass known as Meganesia, connected to Antarctica. Harsh conditions selected those species most adapted to the cold: amphibians, marsupials, monotremes?species with lower metabolic rates and low energy needs. When Meganesia separated from Antarctica 36 million years ago, species extinctions began. Isolated from the rest of the world, Australia developed unique flora and fauna to become a land rich in minerals and fossils but having the poorest soil of any continent because of geological inactivity. The first Australians consumed without replacing resources they would need in the future; later-arriving Europeans destroyed even more. In this fascinating, thought-provoking ecological history of his homeland, Flannery, a senior research scientist at the Australian Museum in Sydney, reveals how humans?and other species?transplanted out of their original habitat become "future eaters" by the indiscriminate consumption of a land's resources. Flannery voices his theories and opinions while also presenting opposing viewpoints, creating a well-balanced, extremely readable treatise. Highly recommended for all collections.?Gloria Maxwell, Kansas City P.L., KansasCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information
Link here :
http://www.amazon.com/Future-Eaters-Ecological-History-Australian/dp/0802139434/sr=1-4/qid=1172163587/ref=sr_1_4/002-9888563-0212052?ie=UTF8&s=books
Another one has gotten a 5-star." Astonishing Animals: Extraordinary Creatures and the Fantastic Worlds They Inhabit (Hardcover) .
Book Description
From the authors of A Gap in Nature, a breathtaking visual adventure showcasing ninety of the world's most astounding creatures. Sumptuous birds of paradise, amazing soft-shell turtles, frogs that look like tomatoes, and terrifying fish (including the deep-water angler fish from Finding Nemo) are just some of the extraordinary creatures that can be found in Tim Flannery and Peter Schouten's new book, Astonishing Animals. Superbly illustrated in lifelike full-color paintings, Astonishing Animals details ninety of the world's most amazing animals from around the world. In this book you will find the Hairy Seadevil, the spectacular Sulawesi Naked Bat, and in the depths of the limestone caves in Slovenia, the Olm, a pink, four-legged, sightless salamander that lives for a hundred years. In fascinating vignettes, Flannery offers the true evolutionary tale of how each of these bizarre creatures came to look the way they do. Alongside each historical account is a stunning hand-painted color reproduction (life-size in the original painting) by Schouten. Filled with purple-faced apes, jagged-toothed dolphins, and antlered lizards, Astonishing Animals is a remarkable collection of the world's most incredible creatures and the stories behind their remarkable survival into a modern age.
Link here :
http://www.amazon.com/Astonishing-Animals-Extraordinary-Creatures-Fantastic/dp/0871138751/sr=1-6/qid=1172163587/ref=sr_1_6/002-9888563-0212052?ie=UTF8&s=books
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For the last 10,000 years, Earth's thermostat has been set to an average surface temperature of around 57 degrees F . On the whole, this has suited our species splendidly, and we have been able to organise ourselves in a most impressive manner. Finally, over the century, we have created a truly global civilization.
Given that in all of Earth history, the only other creatures able to organise themselves on a similar scale are ants, bees, and termites - which are tiny in comparision and have concomittantly small resource requirements - this is quite an achievement.
Earth's themostat is a complex and dilicate mechanism. At the hearth of it lies carbon dioxide, which plays a critical role in maintaining the balance necesary to all life. It is also a waste product of the fossil fuels that almsot every person on the plante uses for heat, transport, and other energy requirements. On dead planets such as Venus and Mars, CO2 makes up most of the atmosphere, and it would do so here too - if living things and Earth's processes did not keep withing bounds.
As it is, CO2 makes up around three parts per 10,000 in Earth's atmosphere. It's a modest amount, yet, it has a disproportionate influence on the plant's tempature. Because we create CO2 every time we drive a car, cook a meal, or turn on alight, and because the gas lasts around a centure in the atmosphere, the proportion of CO2 in the air we breath is rapidly increasing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Flannery has written many books on Ecology. This particular book, " the weather makers " got 4.5.
From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Mammologist and paleontologist Flannery (The Eternal Frontier), who in recent years has become well known for his controversial ideas on conservation, the environment and population control, presents a straightforward and powerfully written look at the connection between climate change and global warming. It's destined to become required reading following Hurricane Katrina as the focus shifts to the natural forces that may have produced such a devastating event. Much of the book's success is rooted in Flannery's succinct and fascinating insights into related topics, such as the differences between the terms greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change, and how the El Niño cycle of extreme climatic events "had a profound re-organising effect on nature." But the heart of the book is Flannery's impassioned look at the earth's "colossal" carbon dioxide pollution problem and his argument for how we can shift from our current global reliance on fossil fuels [...]. Flannery consistently produces the hard goods related to his main message that our environmental behavior makes us all "weather makers" who "already possess all the tools required to avoid catastrophic climate change." Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Link here :
http://www.amazon.com/Weather-Makers-Changing-Climate-Means/dp/0871139359/sr=1-1/qid=1172163587/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-9888563-0212052?ie=UTF8&s=books
Another book, ' The Future Eaters ' ( those who eat our future ) has gotten 4.5 star rating.
From Library JournalDuring the ice ages, when the sea level was low, Australia, New Guinea, Tasmania, and smaller islands reemerged as a single landmass known as Meganesia, connected to Antarctica. Harsh conditions selected those species most adapted to the cold: amphibians, marsupials, monotremes?species with lower metabolic rates and low energy needs. When Meganesia separated from Antarctica 36 million years ago, species extinctions began. Isolated from the rest of the world, Australia developed unique flora and fauna to become a land rich in minerals and fossils but having the poorest soil of any continent because of geological inactivity. The first Australians consumed without replacing resources they would need in the future; later-arriving Europeans destroyed even more. In this fascinating, thought-provoking ecological history of his homeland, Flannery, a senior research scientist at the Australian Museum in Sydney, reveals how humans?and other species?transplanted out of their original habitat become "future eaters" by the indiscriminate consumption of a land's resources. Flannery voices his theories and opinions while also presenting opposing viewpoints, creating a well-balanced, extremely readable treatise. Highly recommended for all collections.?Gloria Maxwell, Kansas City P.L., KansasCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information
Link here :
http://www.amazon.com/Future-Eaters-Ecological-History-Australian/dp/0802139434/sr=1-4/qid=1172163587/ref=sr_1_4/002-9888563-0212052?ie=UTF8&s=books
Another one has gotten a 5-star." Astonishing Animals: Extraordinary Creatures and the Fantastic Worlds They Inhabit (Hardcover) .
Book Description
From the authors of A Gap in Nature, a breathtaking visual adventure showcasing ninety of the world's most astounding creatures. Sumptuous birds of paradise, amazing soft-shell turtles, frogs that look like tomatoes, and terrifying fish (including the deep-water angler fish from Finding Nemo) are just some of the extraordinary creatures that can be found in Tim Flannery and Peter Schouten's new book, Astonishing Animals. Superbly illustrated in lifelike full-color paintings, Astonishing Animals details ninety of the world's most amazing animals from around the world. In this book you will find the Hairy Seadevil, the spectacular Sulawesi Naked Bat, and in the depths of the limestone caves in Slovenia, the Olm, a pink, four-legged, sightless salamander that lives for a hundred years. In fascinating vignettes, Flannery offers the true evolutionary tale of how each of these bizarre creatures came to look the way they do. Alongside each historical account is a stunning hand-painted color reproduction (life-size in the original painting) by Schouten. Filled with purple-faced apes, jagged-toothed dolphins, and antlered lizards, Astonishing Animals is a remarkable collection of the world's most incredible creatures and the stories behind their remarkable survival into a modern age.
Link here :
http://www.amazon.com/Astonishing-Animals-Extraordinary-Creatures-Fantastic/dp/0871138751/sr=1-6/qid=1172163587/ref=sr_1_6/002-9888563-0212052?ie=UTF8&s=books
