Our Future Earth

Description

An ambitious and already much-acclaimed new book that seeks to change the way we think about climate change. Paleoclimatologist Curt Stager vividly describes how the decisions we make about the environment in the 21st century will affect the next 100,000 years of life on this planet, and how today's environmental debate is missing the long-term evidence. By considering the Earth's history over millions of years, this book changes our understanding: Most people accept that our planet is warming and that humans played the key role in causing it. We worry about the next few hundred years, yet miss its long-term magnitude. So what will the world look like? Curt Stager draws on geological history to show that the greatest threat to humans will not be global warming, but global cooling. When that hot 'backlash' eventually happens is entirely up to us: We have already put off the next Ice Age, but whether our descendents will see an ice-free Arctic, miles of submerged coasts, or an acidified ocean can still be decided. Whether we continue to pollute or rein ourselves in for the sake of future generations, the world will be vastly different. This lucid book will force climate sceptics, activists, and everyone in between think again about our future earth.

Curt Stager is an ecologist, paleoclimatologist, and science writer with a Ph.D. in biology and geology from Duke University. He has published over three dozen climate- and ecology-related articles in major journals including Science and Quaternary Research, following research into the long-term history of climate in Africa, South America and the polar regions. He has written for popular audiences in periodicals such as National Geographic.

Fascinating and measured - at last someone is taking the long view -- Mark Lynas, author of Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet Our Future Earth is a richly informative and deeply persuasive book - one that will be relevant for generations -- Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe This intriguing and thought-provoking view of the far future is an essential read for all interested in the full force of climate change -- Paul Andrew Mayewski, Director of the Climate Change Institute, author of The Ice Chronicles