""New tools have emerged to allow us to precisely describe the atmospheric conditions, the earth's temperature and climate, and how plants and animals interacted with these over four billion years of earth history. Not only have geoscientists conducted an enormous amount of new research on atmospheric evolution and climate change, but the importance of the intimate connection between climate and life has become much better understood and ppreciated. The idea for this book came from Don's teaching a course called "Blue Planet" for a college class of both geology majors and non-majors. There are several textbooks out there for this market, but they are much too detailed and technical for the average undergraduate, especially the undergraduate who is not a geology major. By teaching this course for a general audience of undergraduate non-science majors, Don has learned how to tell the incredible story of earth's climatic evolution, and the amazing interactions between climate and life that make the earth unique among planets, without going too far into the technical details of geochemistry and biochemistry and atmospheric science. This book focuses on the interaction between climate and life. It is written for the general lay reader with minimal training ingeochemistry or atmospheric science. As with previous books in this informal ""the story of x in 25 discoveries"" series, this one also introduces the personal stories of the important scientists who made these discoveries, and the remarkable circumstances under which they were made. Each chapter begins with an anecdote of an important scientist, or an individual historical discovery, that led to the ideas discussed in the chapter. The book concludes with the Ice Ages, the climate of the Holocene, and finally the last 50 years of anthropogenic climate change-why we know it's real and human-caused, and what we can do about it.""--
Over 4.5 billion years, Earths climate has transformed tremendously. Before our more temperate recent past, the planet swung from one extreme to anotherfrom a greenhouse world of sweltering temperatures and high sea levels to a snowball earth in which glaciers reached the equator. During this history, we now know, living things and the climate have always influenced and even shaped each other. But the climate has never changed as rapidly or as drastically as it has since the Industrial Revolution.
In this lively and entertaining book, Donald R. Prothero explores the astonishing connections between climate and life through the ages, telling the remarkable stories of the scientists who made crucial discoveries. Journeying through the intertwined evolution of climate and life, he tackles questions such as: Why do we have phytoplankton to thank for the air we breathe? What kind of climate was necessary for the rise of the dinosaursor the mammals, their successors? When and how have climatic changes caused mass extinctions? Prothero concludes with the Ice Ages and the Holocene, the role of climate in human history, and the perils of anthropogenic climate change. Understanding why the climate has changed in the past, this timely book shows, is essential to grasping the gravity of how radically human activity is altering the climate today.
In this lively and entertaining book, Donald R. Prothero explores the astonishing connections between climate and life through the ages, telling the remarkable stories of the scientists who made crucial discoveries.
