A Guide To The End Of The World : Everything You Never Wanted To Know | Date: 28 April 2011, 05:13
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A Guide To The End Of The World : Everything You Never Wanted To Know
by Bill Mcguire
* ISBN: 0192802976
* ISBN-13: 9780192802972
* Format: Hardcover, 212pp
* Publisher: Oxford University Press
* Pub. Date: August 2002
Thousands of people die every year from floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes and typhoons. Yet compared to what the Earth endured in prehistoric times-lethal volcanic winters, deadly asteroid collisions-our civilization has developed against a backdrop of relative geological calm. Will this calm last? A Brief Guide to the End of the World looks at the frightful prospects that await us in the 21st century and beyond. Bill McGuire, a leading expert in the field of geological hazards, admits that the omens are less than encouraging. Only 10,000 years after the last Ice Age, the Earth is sweltering in some of the highest temperatures it has ever seen. Overpopulation and the relentless exploitation of natural resources, combined with rising temperatures and sea levels induced by greenhouse gases, are increasing the likelihood of natural catastrophes, from continuing El Ninos, to large-scale glacial melting, to mega-tsunami. Even more disturbing is the near certainty that we are headed toward another asteroid or comet collision on the scale of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. In this provocative and immensely readable guidebook, McGuire discusses when these catastrophic events are likely to take place, how they will effect our global society, and what we can do to increase our chances of survival--from emissions reductions, to massive geo-engineering schemes, to the colonization of space. Illustrated with photographs and diagrams, and backed by meticulous research, A Brief Guide to the End of the World sheds new light on the extraordinarily vulnerability of our planet, and on our capacity to withstand the dramatic changes Mother Nature has in store for us in the distant--or not so distant--future.
Contents
A Guide To The End Of The World : Everything You Never Wanted To Know
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Foreword
Table Of Contents
List Of Illustrations
1 A Very Short Introduction To The Earth
Danger: Nature At Work
The Earth: A Potted Biography
Hazardous Earth
Natural Hazards And Us
Facts To Contemplate
2 Global Warming: A Lot Of Hot Air? 33
Debate, What Debate?
The Pat Global Warming Experiment
Hothouse Earth
The Good, The Bad, And The Downright Mad
Facts To Fret Over
3 The Ice Age Cometh 65
How To Freeze A Planet
Charles Dickens, White Christmases, And The Little Ice Age
A Very British Ice Age
Out Of The Frying Pan Into The Fridge
Facts To Fret Over
4 The Enemy Within: Super-eruptions, Giant Tsunami, And The Coming Great Quake 93
Hell On Earth
A Watery Grave
The City Waiting To Die
Facts To Fret Over
5 The Threat From Space: Asteroid And Comet Impacts 135
The Astronomical Event Of The Century
The Cosmic Sandstorm
When Worlds Collide
How Would You Like To Die?
Facts To Fret Over
Epilogue 169
Appendix A: Threat Timescale 175
Appendix B: Geological Timescale 177
Further Reading 179
Index 181
From Barnes & Noble
Global warming, the next ice age, killer astroids, and super volcanoes are all here in this scientifically accurate assessment of the perils facing planet earth. Bill McGuire, a professor of geophysical hazards at University College, London, should know what he is talking about. Though deadly serious, McGuire does indulge in some tongue-in-cheek with his "Facts to fret over" sections at the end of each chapter. After all, some of these hazards do have rather long time frames, such as two super-eruptions per 100 millennia. The perfect book for doom-and-gloom lovers.
From the Publisher
Is the planet Earth on a crash course with cataclysmic natural disaster?
Thousands of people die every year from floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes and typhoons. Yet compared to what the Earth endured in prehistoric times-lethal volcanic winters, deadly asteroid collisions-our civilization has developed against a backdrop of relative geological calm. Will this calm last? A Brief Guide to the End of the World looks at the frightful prospects that await us in the 21st century and beyond.
Bill McGuire, a leading expert in the field of geological hazards, admits that the omens are less than encouraging. Only 10,000 years after the last Ice Age, the Earth is sweltering in some of the highest temperatures it has ever seen. Overpopulation and the relentless exploitation of natural resources, combined with rising temperatures and sea levels induced by greenhouse gases, are increasing the likelihood of natural catastrophes, from continuing El Ninos, to large-scale glacial melting, to mega-tsunami. Even more disturbing is the near certainty that we are headed toward another asteroid or comet collision on the scale of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. In this provocative and immensely readable guidebook, McGuire discusses when these catastrophic events are likely to take place, how they will effect our global society, and what we can do to increase our chances of survival--from emissions reductions, to massive geo-engineering schemes, to the colonization of space.
Illustrated with photographs and diagrams, and backed by meticulous research, A Brief Guide to the End of the World sheds new light on the extraordinarily vulnerability of our planet, and on our capacity to withstand the dramatic changes Mother Nature has in store for us in the distant -- or not so distant -- future.
Kirkus Reviews
Professional prophet of doom McGuire (Geophysical Hazards/University College London; Raging Planet, not reviewed) surveys the natural hazards threatening Life As We Know It and concludes that a wide assortment of cataclysmic Big Ones are on the way. Writing of the inevitability—though not necessarily the imminence—of some natural event that could drastically alter or even terminate human life on earth, the author deals with the fragility of earth (yes, it’s fragile), global warming (yes, it’s real), ice ages (yes, another will come), volcanoes (yes, they remain a threat), and extraterrestrial dangers (no, not UFOs; yes, asteroids and comets). This is not a good book to share with a depressed friend. On our restless planet there are 1,400 earthquakes per day, a volcanic eruption per week, 40 hurricanes per year. "The picture I have painted is certainly bleak," quips McGuire, "but the reality may be even worse." And so it is. Ice ages are periodic and, oddly, can be triggered by the kind of global warming now in progress. "Super-eruptions" of volcanoes do occur. If, for example, Yellowstone were to go off as it did 650,000 years ago, it would not damage just Yogi Bear; the preeminence of the US would end, states McGuire, and the global economy would nose-dive. On an even grimmer note, he reproduces a scary chart that shows the orbits of planet-bashing asteroids near the earth. There is, he says, a 100% chance that a big one will hit us again. (Remember that 10-kilometer rock that did in the dinosaurs 65 million years ago?) When it does, death will be instant for those it lands near or on, slow and miserable for the rest who survive to confront "cosmic winter" as sunlight is unable topenetrate the cloud of dust kicked up by the collision. Have a nice day, says our Cassandra, for that may be all that remains. (38 b&w illustrations) .
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