The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate Crisis & The Fate of HumanityIn The Revenge of Gaia , bestselling author James Lovelock- father of climate studies and originator of the influential Gaia theory which views the entire earth as a living meta-organism-provides a definitive look at our imminent global crisis. In this disturbing new book, Lovelock guides us toward a hard reality: soon, we may not be able to alter the oncoming climate crisis. Lovelock's influential Gaia theory, one of the building blocks of modern climate science, conceives of the Earth, including the atmosphere, oceans, biosphere and upper layers of rock, as a single living super-organism, regulating its internal environment much as an animal regulates its body temperature and chemical balance. But now, says Lovelock, that organism is sick. It is running a fever born of the combination of a sun whose intensity is slowly growing over millions of years, and an atmosphere whose greenhouse gases have recently spiked due to human activity. Earth will adjust to these stresses, but on time scales measured in the hundreds of millennia. It is already too late, Lovelock says, to prevent the global climate from "flipping" into an entirely new equilibrium state that will leave the tropics uninhabitable, and force migration to the poles. The Revenge of Gaia explains the stress the planetary system is under and how humans are contributing to it, what the consequences will be, and what humanity must do to rescue itself. |
Other editions - View all
The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate Crisis & The Fate of Humanity James Lovelock Limited preview - 2007 |
The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate in Crisis and the Fate of Humanity James Lovelock No preview available - 2006 |
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abundance acid aerosol algae animals Arctic atmosphere become biodiversity biofuel biologists biosphere burning cancer carbon dioxide cells cent century chemical Chernobyl civilization climate change coal consequences constraints cool countryside Daisyworld danger desert Earth system ecosystems electricity emissions energy sources engine environment environmental Eocene Europe evolved farming fear forests fossil fuel fusion Gaia hypothesis Gaia theory Gaia’s gases glaciers global heating global warming green greenhouse grow growth happens hotter huge human hydrogen ice age industry IPCC James Lovelock land living Earth melting methane million years ago nations natural world nitrate nitrogen nuclear energy nuclear fission nuclear power ocean organisms oxygen planet planetary pollution power stations production radiation radioactive rain reactor regions regulation renewable energy rise rocks scientists sea level self-regulation solar species sulphur sun’s sunlight supply surface sustainable development temperature thought threat tropical urea waste wind energy
Popular passages
Page 8 - I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows, Where ox-lips and the nodding violet grows ; Quite over-canopied with lush woodbine, With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine...
Page xvi - The Earth System behaves as a single, selfregulating system comprised of physical, chemical, biological and human components. The interactions and feedbacks between the component parts are complex and exhibit multi-scale temporal and spatial variability.
Page 5 - The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988.
Page 11 - We have no time to experiment with visionary energy sources; civilization is in imminent danger and has to use nuclear...
Page xiv - Before this century is over, billions of us will die, and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains...