Research Catalog

Title

With speed and violence : why scientists fear tipping points in climate change / Fred Pearce.

Author

Pearce, Fred.

Publication

Boston : Beacon Press, [2007], ©2007.

Supplementary Content

Publisher description

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxvi, 278 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"As Fred Pearce began working on this book, normally cautious scientists beat a path to his door to tell him about their fears and their latest findings. With Speed and Violence tells the stories of these scientists and their work - from the implications of melting permafrost in Siberia and the huge river systems of meltwater beneath the icecaps of Greenland and Antarctica to the effects of the "ocean conveyor" and a rare molecule that runs virtually the entire cleanup system for the planet."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

• Climatic changes
• Climatic changes > History > Chronology

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographies and index.

Contents

Chronology of climate change -- The cast -- Preface : the chimney -- 1. The pioneers : the men who measured the planet's breath -- 2. Turning up the heat : a skeptic's guide to climate change -- 3. The year : how the wild weather of 1998 broke all records -- 4. The anthropocene : a new name for a new geological era -- 5. The watchtower : keeping climate vigil on an Arctic island -- 6. Ninety degrees north : why melting knows no bounds in the far North -- 7. On the slippery slope : Greenland is slumping into the ocean -- 8. The shelf : down south, shattering ice uncorks the Antarctic -- 9. The Mercer legacy : an achilles heel at the bottom of the world -- 10. Rising tides : saying "toodle-oo" to Tuvalu -- 11. In the jungle : would we notice if the Amazon went up in smoke? -- 12. Wildfires of Borneo : climate in the mire from burning swamp -- 13. Sink to source : why the carbon cycle is set for a u-turn -- 14. The doomsday device : a lethal secret stirs in the permafrost -- 15. The acid bath : what carbon dioxide does to the oceans -- 16. The winds of change : tsunamis, megafarts, and mountains of the deep -- 17. What's Watts? : planet earth's energy imbalance -- 18. Clouds from both sides : uncovering flaws in the climate models -- 19. A billion fires : how brown haze could turn off the monsoon -- 20. Hydroxyl holiday : the day the planet's cleaner didn't show up for work -- 21. Goldilocks and the three planets : why earth is "just right" for life -- 22. The big freeze : how a wobble in our orbit triggered the ice ages -- 23. The ocean conveyor : the real day after tomorrow -- 24. An arctic flower : clues to a climate switchback -- 25. The pulse : how the sun makes climate change -- 26. The fall : the end of Africa's golden age -- 27. Seesaw across the ocean : how the Sahara Desert greens the Amazon -- 28. Tropical high : why an ice man is rewriting climate history -- 29. The curse of Akkad : the strange revival of environmental determinism -- 30. A chunk of coral : probing the hidden life of El Nino -- 31. Feeding Asia : what happens if the monsoon falters? -- 32. The heat wave : the year Europe felt the heat of global warming -- 33. The hockey stick : why now really is different -- 34. Hurricane season : raising the storm cones after Katrina -- 35. Ozone holes in the greenhouse : why millions face radiation threat -- 36. The dance : the poles or the tropics? : who leads in the climatic dance? -- 37. New horizons : feedbacks from the stratosphere -- Conclusion : another planet -- App. The trillion-ton challenge.

ISBN

• 9780807085769 (hardcover : alk. paper)
• 0807085766 (hardcover : alk. paper)

LCCN

2006019901

OCLC

• ocm70131163
• SCSB-5325562

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries