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Sep 06, 2011

Paul rated it:

The subject of this book is the fast approaching Global Fry-Up. Oh, I hear you cry, spare me another jeremiad about this boring topic! Yes – I’m with you. It is horribly tiresome. Okay, every time you turn on the news you get death, financial crisis, war, ghastliness. The news is always bad except for the last little bit of amusing oddness they throw in to stop you hanging yourself from your wardrobe door. Let's add to that the general feeling that many people have as they get older that every More...

9 comments like (9 people liked it)

Sep 11, 2009

Jessica rated it:

Reading this book was like meeting someone, falling madly in love, and finding out she's got a terminal illness, all in the space of twenty minutes. It's been a decade since I've thought about Science, and not being much of a nature girl I forgot how mindblowingly amazing and complex the Earth is. The best parts of this book really reminded me of that.

Did I say terminal illness? That's a bad metaphor, since disease seems sort of just to passively happen; also, we tend to think of ill More...

15 comments like (21 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2008

Joe added it

Read this on my step-father's request. I think he might have been trying to get me to shit my pants.

This is, roughly, one part robust scientific journalism and one part ecological-apocalypse-torture-porn. Working from several decades worth of scientific inquiry into both our current climate situation and periods of vast geologic/climactic upheaval, Lynas gives us a best guess global picture of what happens as the temperature rises, degree by degree, from one (sucky) to six (extinction More...

2 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 12, 2008

Gordon rated it:

This is an superb book for anyone interested in global warming, which should include all who inhabit this planet. It paints a picture of what happens to the Earth at each step as it warms up by one additional degree Celsius, all the way up to six degrees above today's temperature. Needless to say, things get very ugly by the time we get to three degrees, let alone six. The latter translates to another mass extinction. Which, come to think of it, we're already going through.

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 07, 2012

Whitaker rated it:

This is the first non-fiction book I've read in one go. It's edge-of-the-seat gripping. I'm not going to do a review because I don't think I have the time and energy to defend this against the anti-climate-change crowd. To them, all I say is that I hope you fall on the right side of the demographic line: above 40 and no kids. For a proper review, check out The Guardian (plus a summary by the author). More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 09, 2008

Annie rated it:

Disturbing. But what else can you expect from a book on the real life consequences of global warming? This one truly is a bit of a horror story, however well-researched or written, it takes a bit of determination to read through as the scenarios are fairly glum, particulary the likely extinction of so many species. Hard to absorb all of that.
One point the author makes is that we simply don't know what to expect from all of this melting and heating up, things could rock and roll right away More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 30, 2010

Steve rated it:

This is the scariest book I've read in a long, long time.

It lays out in detail what each degree of global warming will entail (the current expected range of warming is somewhere between 1.5 and now possibly up to 8 degrees Celsius), and how that will affect life on Earth. We are already locked into experiencing the first chapter, which is the likely return of the American Great Plains to desert. Each successive chapter just gets worse, and describes positive feedback systems which will More...

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Oct 16, 2010

Rhys rated it:

I've read many climate change books and this is up there with the best. I initially distrusted the book because it was written by a journalist and not a scientist but it soon becomes clear that this is far more a science book than a ranting journo. The author skilfully draws together his research into a terrifying format of a world affected by first one, then two, then three degrees warming. By the time you get to what would happen at six degrees of warming you are pretty much desensitised to th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 10, 2009

Lara rated it:

This text should be required reading for participation in the planetary exchange of resources; i.e. breathing, drinking, eating, excreting.

What Lynas has provided here is a comprehensive summary of international research on climate change and carbon emissions from a variety of perspectives and methodologies. The result is a harrowing projection of the kinds of shifts in ecosystems around the world - water tables, weather patterns, food production, biodiversity, ocean acidity - tha More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 08, 2009

Ascexis rated it:

I read Six Degrees won the Royal Society popular science book of the year thingy in 2008 -- you know, solid science, but actually readable! Let me tell you, I'm only up to four degrees, and I'm *freaked*. I was having a conversation the other day about how global warming isn't about long hot summers, but a couple of degeres increase on average, across a whole year. Which is true, as it turns out but didn't go Nearly Far Enough. This guy is going through what happens at each of one through six d More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 07, 2010

Kirsten rated it:

I have a strong background in environmental science, but a good friend of mine does not. We both read this book, and neither one of us got bored. They liked the fact that it was fast paced, and I liked the fact that he explained things reasonably well to the point that I didn't have to explain everything he talked about to him.
I like that this book moves pretty quickly, though I would have liked to see more detail on some topics, I understand that this book was not written for me. It More...

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May 31, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

I read this for research for a story I'm working on. I like the way he combines many scientific studies for an overall picture. Degrees one through three are the strongest, five and six rely a lot more on ancient geologic and paleo knowledge to extrapolate possible scenarios, and these chapters are sketchier for it. I found the concluding chapter a little underwhelming, but the author's in a sticky spot as one hates to be totally depressing yet it seems pretty clear that politically no one is in More...

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Jul 21, 2011

Mark rated it:

Full of evidence and very readable. This book is the best explanation I've found about what climate change means. The author lets the evidence and projections speak for themselves, and they are alarming.

Everyone should read this book. Why is this information not being yelled from the housetops and part of every politician's speech?

The scientists so far have done a poor job of explaining to the rest of us what climate change means. Al Gore's film The Inconvenient Truth a More...

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May 27, 2008

Tripp rated it:

Back in the high school days, a teacher probably showed you a movie with car crash victims or some horrifying images of lesion studded genitalia to warn you of the dangers of bad driving and over-frequent sexual behavior. Like those teachers, Mark Lynas with his book Six Degrees is trying to scare you and your government into shaping up.

The book describes what would happen to the Earth as the average surface temperature increases, degree by degree (Celsisus.) Each degree presents a n More...

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Feb 28, 2008

Lesley rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jun 10, 2008

James rated it:

This is one of the most frightening books I have ever read. The author started by looking at all the available data and projections about global warming, a.k.a. climate change. He found that depending on a number of variables, the consensus of the relevant experts, based on both current and geological data, is that the average temperature of Earth's surface will rise by anywhere from one to six degrees Centigrade by the latter half of the 21st century, hence the title. Of course, six degrees Ce More...

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Feb 18, 2009

Ross rated it:

The 2007 IPCC summary of Climate Change science, the most authoritative yet produced, estimates that the planet will experience warming of one to six degrees Celsius by the end of this century. But what the hell does that mean, exactly? Mark Lynas answers that question in frightening detail by gathering, summarizing, and narritivifying (if that is a new word, I claim it) scores of the most up-to-date journal articles estimating the likely effect of each degree warming. The bad news: mitigation w More...

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Jun 04, 2011

Steve rated it:

Probably the scariest book I have ever read. The book is organised into six chapters each describing, given current knowledge and historical evidence, how the world would be affected with an additional degree of warming. If you are not familiar with the projections or the issues around rising temperatures, then this book is a bit of an eye-opener and you are in for a shock. The style is very accessible (compared to the ‘international reports’ and scientific papers it is based on!) and while the More...

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Nov 10, 2008

Kendal rated it:

I'm not really a big person on doom and gloom in respect to global warming, but it looked like an interesting book. I always seem to expect these subject matter books to target blame on me as a person and say it is all my fault... yada yada. This book did a great job of just looking at the past facts and the various studies and hitting a comparison. Of course humans are involved, but the author blames the whole race, not the individual.

For the most part the book was very well written More...

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Apr 11, 2009

Christopher Rex rated it:

Could've been much better. For one, it needs MAPS. It would've made the book much more engaging. In parts he writes more "colloquially" which is actually more interesting. But, then he'll shift gears w/ a prolonged scientific discussion. It gets tiresome by about 4 degrees. It's a shame, b/c this is a very necessary topic and discussion. Good try, all in all.

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Jul 04, 2010

Billie rated it:

This is information from a number of major climate studies arranged by degrees of global warming; that is, the "two" chapter takes the data from many studies and describes the conclusions drawn about the how the planet and its inhabitants would change with two degrees of global warming. Because of this technique, the data are sometimes contradictory, but give a good picture of the range of conclusions. Like any serious work on climate change, this is a frightening book, particularly More...

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Jul 02, 2009

Rachelle is currently reading it

I picked this up thinking it was a novel. I almost put it back - but then thought I should force myself to read it. I think I am bothering my family with all the statistics I am quoting from the book! It is a bit of a "downer" - but provides us with information we should all know. I am getting through this slowly but surely.

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Dec 11, 2010

Steven rated it:

This truly was an eye opener for what could be in store for us in the coming century. I particularly liked the fact the author made it easily readable while at the same time making you aware of the science behind things and making sensible as opposed to sensationalist predictions about our future.

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Sep 29, 2010

Greg rated it:

This book lays out a number of the biggest tragedies to come for the different levels of climate disruption that will come if humanity does not take significant measures to prevent the disruption is it causing. I recommend it highly. For more on this topic, see: http://www.imaja.com/lists/globalwarming...

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Aug 05, 2009

Paul rated it:

The author lays out degree by frightening degree the consequences of of man induced climate change. He has reviews all the know literature on the subject and backs up his conclusions by referencing all the sources. Good read.

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Oct 06, 2009

NormalForNorfolk rated it:

Very informative and interesting read. Each chapter based around one degree of global warming and it's in depth consequences. Very well referenced and a good source for ES in the future.

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Apr 11, 2009

Philip rated it:

This book presents an excellent picture of what the future could hold if we fail to confront the issue of climate change very soon. Lynas basically distills the many different scientific reports from different groups of scientists into a description of most-likely scenarios. He presents each subsequent chapter as a scenario of a progressively one degree higher temperature. He also explains the climate feedbacks that will worsen the situation very well, and explains how they feed off on another. More...

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Dec 12, 2008

Sam rated it:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was well written and interesting and used fcts to support the situations described. Very thought provoking and a must read for everyone

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Jan 30, 2010

Melitta rated it:

Details scenarios of environmental collapse. Data gathered from many sources, very well researched, well put together. These are things everybody should know about.

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Jan 21, 2010

Jen added it

A good book. It is now a few years old so would like to see some of the newest information out there. I think most of the observations are based on solid data about climate history but would like to double check.

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