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The Goldilocks Planet: The 4 Billion Year Story of Earth's Climate
Climate change is a major topic of concern today and will be so for the foreseeable future, as predicted changes in global temperatures, rainfall, and sea level continue to take place. But as Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams reveal in The Goldilocks Planet, the climatic changes we are experiencing today hardly compare to the changes the Earth has seen over the last 4.5 billion years.
Indeed, the vast history that the authors relate here is dramatic and often abrupt--with massive changes in global and regional climate, from bitterly cold to sweltering hot, from arid to humid. They introduce us to the Cryogenian period, the days of Snowball Earth seven hundred million years ago, when ice spread to cover the world, then melted abruptly amid such dramatic climatic turbulence that hurricanes raged across the Earth. We read about the Carboniferous, with tropical jungles at the equator (where Pennsylvania is now) and the Cretaceous Period, when the polar regions saw not ice but dense conifer forests of cypress and redwood, with gingkos and ferns. The authors also show how this history can be read from clues preserved in the Earth's strata. The evidence is abundant, though always incomplete--and often baffling, puzzling, infuriating, tantalizing, seemingly contradictory. Geologists, though, are becoming ever more ingenious at deciphering this evidence, and the story of the Earth's climate is now being reconstructed in ever-greater detail--maybe even providing us with clues to the future of contemporary climate change.
And through all of this, the authors conclude, the Earth has remained perfectly habitable--in stark contrast to its planetary neighbors. Not too hot, not too cold; not too dry, not too wet--"the Goldilocks planet."
[Description taken from the Oxford University Press's web site.]
Indeed, the vast history that the authors relate here is dramatic and often abrupt--with massive changes in global and regional climate, from bitterly cold to sweltering hot, from arid to humid. They introduce us to the Cryogenian period, the days of Snowball Earth seven hundred million years ago, when ice spread to cover the world, then melted abruptly amid such dramatic climatic turbulence that hurricanes raged across the Earth. We read about the Carboniferous, with tropical jungles at the equator (where Pennsylvania is now) and the Cretaceous Period, when the polar regions saw not ice but dense conifer forests of cypress and redwood, with gingkos and ferns. The authors also show how this history can be read from clues preserved in the Earth's strata. The evidence is abundant, though always incomplete--and often baffling, puzzling, infuriating, tantalizing, seemingly contradictory. Geologists, though, are becoming ever more ingenious at deciphering this evidence, and the story of the Earth's climate is now being reconstructed in ever-greater detail--maybe even providing us with clues to the future of contemporary climate change.
And through all of this, the authors conclude, the Earth has remained perfectly habitable--in stark contrast to its planetary neighbors. Not too hot, not too cold; not too dry, not too wet--"the Goldilocks planet."
[Description taken from the Oxford University Press's web site.]
256 pages, Hardcover
First published March 21, 2012
19 people are currently reading
237 people want to read
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February 19, 2021
The authors of this book are no climate experts, but a geologist and paleobiologist, both with serious academic credentials; they thus are fully equipped to look into the deep past of our planet and to attempt to reconstruct the evolution of the climate. Obviously, this is not an easy task, and while the authors do their best to make their story as comprehensible as possible, their explanation remains quite technical, which does not always make the reading easy. What charmed me most about this book is how cautious the authors remain, and how often they point out gaps in our knowledge, in the guesswork associated with certain observations, which often leads to apparent or real contradictions. All of this provides a picture of the enormous complexity of the climate system, which is understandable when you consider how many astronomical, geological, chemical and biological factors and processes are combined in it. The authors do better justice to this complexity than, for example, Lewis Dartnell in his Origins: How The Earth Made Us.
Despite their caution, Zalasiewicz and Williams venture to estimate what is currently going on, namely the warming of our climate due to the production of greenhouse gases. Although they remain reticent, their conclusion still is staggering, namely that our world will look very different in 30 to 50 years at the latest. If I understand them correctly, a temperature increase of 5 to 8 degrees is almost inevitable, and therefore also a noticeable rise in the ocean level, coupled with almost unpredictable drastic changes in weather phenomena (sudden, fierce cold spells in some places, other wind and sea currents, etc.), all with far-stretching consequenses. “We are vigorously rocking a boat that has shown a marked tendency to capsize.” It is not really reassuring that the authors as a great lesson from their historical overview conclude that our earth has always found a new, provisional equilibrium after a while (in 10,000 of years), which is always very different from what came before.
A bit more on this in my History-account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Despite their caution, Zalasiewicz and Williams venture to estimate what is currently going on, namely the warming of our climate due to the production of greenhouse gases. Although they remain reticent, their conclusion still is staggering, namely that our world will look very different in 30 to 50 years at the latest. If I understand them correctly, a temperature increase of 5 to 8 degrees is almost inevitable, and therefore also a noticeable rise in the ocean level, coupled with almost unpredictable drastic changes in weather phenomena (sudden, fierce cold spells in some places, other wind and sea currents, etc.), all with far-stretching consequenses. “We are vigorously rocking a boat that has shown a marked tendency to capsize.” It is not really reassuring that the authors as a great lesson from their historical overview conclude that our earth has always found a new, provisional equilibrium after a while (in 10,000 of years), which is always very different from what came before.
A bit more on this in my History-account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Read
October 21, 2024The prologue to this book immediately formulates a great ambition: “As regards climate, history has repeated itself on this planet, sometimes many times over—perhaps never in exactly the same way, but similarly enough to begin to draw some reasonable conclusions as to how and even as to why climate changed as it did.”
What follows is a fairly detailed account of the evolution the Earth's climate, at least as far as it can be reconstructed. Because that is something that is very striking in this book: the enormous complexity of the evolution that our planet went through, and certainly the climate. But also the observation that for at least the last 3 billion years the earth has been able to maintain a form of global equilibrium, which allowed to develop and maintain life, even if it sometimes was a 'close call'. This was accompanied by constant ups-and-downs, long periods of stability (albeit in what would now be 'hellish' circumstances for us) and sudden warmings or cooldowns, triggered by sometimes relatively accidental factors (such as the breaking of a giant ice dam in North America 13,000 years ago, that caused a brief but drastic cooling).
Zalasiewicz and Williams provide an insight into how scientists from different disciplines (geology, biology, chemistry, astronomy, etc.) are gradually trying to create a picture of the evolution of climate. That happens in fits and starts, with many uncertainties and sometimes false traces, so that the fact remains: “some of the workings of the Earth's climate remain profoundly enigmatic”. To me, this kind of humility raises the credibility of this book. Anyway, their account shows that the share of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere does play a role in the global temperature on earth, and therefore also in the global climate, although they point out that this can sometimes be accompanied by large regional differences.
The most controversial part of this book inevitably is the last one, in which they explicitly discuss the share of human activity in the evolution of climate. The authors leave no doubt that this share indeed is identifiable, and they do not hesitate to confirm the term Anthropocene (Jan Zalasiewicz apparently was the first to formally plead for this term to indicate a new geological period). The main argument for this is that although the global trend of global temperature has been clearly downward over the last 5 million years (broken by relatively short periods of warming up), there has been a noticeable upward trend since about 10,000 years that has accelerated very much over the last 200 years. It cannot be a coincidence that the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere is now about as high as it was roughly 3 million years ago, in the Pliocene. But here too the authors remain cautious: “Is this warming necessarily human-made, a result of carbon emissions? Perhaps not. There is an inherent caution and skepticism in science, and rightly so. But, it is highly likely — much more likely than not — that the temperature trend is anthropogenic.” This book was published in 2012. In the rapidly evolving climate science, that already is quite some time ago. Zalasiewicz and Williams have made it clear to me that our understanding of the evolution of the Earth's climate is advancing at a tremendous rate, and that we are gaining a better understanding of its complexity. It is precisely this complexity, set against the extreme values that we record at the moment, that should cause us to be very concerned, and act accordingly, whilst maintaining a healthy critical view, based on ruthless and always ongoing scientific study.
What follows is a fairly detailed account of the evolution the Earth's climate, at least as far as it can be reconstructed. Because that is something that is very striking in this book: the enormous complexity of the evolution that our planet went through, and certainly the climate. But also the observation that for at least the last 3 billion years the earth has been able to maintain a form of global equilibrium, which allowed to develop and maintain life, even if it sometimes was a 'close call'. This was accompanied by constant ups-and-downs, long periods of stability (albeit in what would now be 'hellish' circumstances for us) and sudden warmings or cooldowns, triggered by sometimes relatively accidental factors (such as the breaking of a giant ice dam in North America 13,000 years ago, that caused a brief but drastic cooling).
Zalasiewicz and Williams provide an insight into how scientists from different disciplines (geology, biology, chemistry, astronomy, etc.) are gradually trying to create a picture of the evolution of climate. That happens in fits and starts, with many uncertainties and sometimes false traces, so that the fact remains: “some of the workings of the Earth's climate remain profoundly enigmatic”. To me, this kind of humility raises the credibility of this book. Anyway, their account shows that the share of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere does play a role in the global temperature on earth, and therefore also in the global climate, although they point out that this can sometimes be accompanied by large regional differences.
The most controversial part of this book inevitably is the last one, in which they explicitly discuss the share of human activity in the evolution of climate. The authors leave no doubt that this share indeed is identifiable, and they do not hesitate to confirm the term Anthropocene (Jan Zalasiewicz apparently was the first to formally plead for this term to indicate a new geological period). The main argument for this is that although the global trend of global temperature has been clearly downward over the last 5 million years (broken by relatively short periods of warming up), there has been a noticeable upward trend since about 10,000 years that has accelerated very much over the last 200 years. It cannot be a coincidence that the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere is now about as high as it was roughly 3 million years ago, in the Pliocene. But here too the authors remain cautious: “Is this warming necessarily human-made, a result of carbon emissions? Perhaps not. There is an inherent caution and skepticism in science, and rightly so. But, it is highly likely — much more likely than not — that the temperature trend is anthropogenic.” This book was published in 2012. In the rapidly evolving climate science, that already is quite some time ago. Zalasiewicz and Williams have made it clear to me that our understanding of the evolution of the Earth's climate is advancing at a tremendous rate, and that we are gaining a better understanding of its complexity. It is precisely this complexity, set against the extreme values that we record at the moment, that should cause us to be very concerned, and act accordingly, whilst maintaining a healthy critical view, based on ruthless and always ongoing scientific study.
June 27, 2023
The 'Goldilocks Zone,' or habitable zone, refers to the range of distances from a star where conditions are just right for liquid water to exist on a planet's surface. While Earth is currently the only known planet supporting life, this book focuses on a different aspect. It provides a comprehensive overview of Earth's climate and its continuous evolution over the span of 4.5 billion years. It is quite a remarkable achievement considering the book's concise length of 324 pages. The authors acknowledge the challenge of condensing such a vast history into a 90,000-word book, where each word represents approximately 50,000 years.
While reading this book, I must admit that I found myself occasionally losing interest during the sections that described the early stages of Earth's climate. However, my attention was captivated when the book delved into the Holocene era, which particularly interested me. Nevertheless, I appreciate having read the initial parts of the book, as they provided a valuable global perspective on recent climate changes.
Unfortunately, this book was published in 2012. The authors, while acknowledging the possibility of non-human causes for rising temperatures, consider them unlikely. Since then, our understanding of the impact of human activities on climate change has greatly expanded to the fact that most scientist now consider human impact on the changing climate as most likely (read: the only possible factor) .Therefore, this book is already outdated. Nevertheless, we can certainly forgive the authors for this as it is challenging to keep up with the rapid pace of scientific advancements.
Despite these minor shortcomings, the book's broad scope and remarkable clarity outweigh any issues. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in climatology as it provides a comprehensive understanding of Earth's climate history.
While reading this book, I must admit that I found myself occasionally losing interest during the sections that described the early stages of Earth's climate. However, my attention was captivated when the book delved into the Holocene era, which particularly interested me. Nevertheless, I appreciate having read the initial parts of the book, as they provided a valuable global perspective on recent climate changes.
Unfortunately, this book was published in 2012. The authors, while acknowledging the possibility of non-human causes for rising temperatures, consider them unlikely. Since then, our understanding of the impact of human activities on climate change has greatly expanded to the fact that most scientist now consider human impact on the changing climate as most likely (read: the only possible factor) .Therefore, this book is already outdated. Nevertheless, we can certainly forgive the authors for this as it is challenging to keep up with the rapid pace of scientific advancements.
Despite these minor shortcomings, the book's broad scope and remarkable clarity outweigh any issues. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in climatology as it provides a comprehensive understanding of Earth's climate history.
November 3, 2020
Highlights:
1) The Earth’s climate history is wild... This makes the Holocene epoch (esp. past 10,000 years) particularly ideal (“Goldilocks”) for humans (i.e. corresponding to agriculture, thus surplus and civilizations).
2) Despite this remarkable stability, relatively slight fluctuations have resulted in social crises, revealing the fragility of civilizations and our dependence to the Goldilocks climate.
3) The Anthropocene is a proposed new epoch (with growing acceptance) signalling significant human impact, includes anthropogenic climate change:
a) When considering systems, the authors warn of latency, i.e. locking into processes requiring long recovery times (relative to human lives), unforeseen tipping points and positive (self-reinforcing) feedbacks, etc. While climate change deniers (see Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming) focus on science's uncertainties, it is indeed this very uncertainty over the consequences of disturbing Earth's precarious Goldilocks climate (and awareness of Earth's volatile climate history) that is so concerning...
b) They highlight that average temperature comparisons can hide for the layperson the extremes in temperature where disasters frequently occur.
c) While there are many unknowns with varying degrees of uncertainty, the authors focus on sea-level rise from melting glaciers (many cities are ports). Some of the theories involving rapid melting in Earth’s history (i.e. end of snowball/slushball earth) are biblical in scale and shockingly acute, i.e. hundreds of years (although volcanoes were involved in the theories)!
d) The other focus is on carbon emissions causing ocean acidification, and the destruction of marine life.
4) The Holocene/Anthropocene was 2/10 of the book. Most of this book covers the back-and-forth ice age (glacial and interglacial) vs. greenhouse periods in a rather haphazard manner (see below). The specific theories of specific events/phenomenon reminded me that reality is wilder than fiction. However, without a more structured approach, I’m still at a loss how to piece all this together (from astronomical phenomenon like sun flares and Milankovitch cycles to rock/mineral weathering to the impact of microorganism metabolism).
5) The specific examples did help me appreciate the application of natural sciences, esp. chemistry. Indeed, the Earth is treated like a crime scene investigation; rocks are seen as processes rather than just objects (...yes, I’m here going to compare this with Marx’s conception of "capital” as processes).
To-be-found-elsewhere:
--Following a historical materialist approach to social research, I try to have ongoing science readings in related fields. So, I found myself looking for a light popular science book on the climate system to read alongside The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (and the heap of political economy books I’m always wading through).
…Alas, I need more practice with this topic and thus need a more systematically organized book; in taking on such a vast systems topic like the Earth’s climate history, this book simply dives into the mess (the chronological climate history, interspersed with stories in the history of scientific thought) without taking enough time to set out general concepts and to reiterate them throughout the chapters.
--A much better structured intro is Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System (with the bonus of legit radical political economy). I realized just reviewing the “History of Earth” wiki page would have provided some structure (esp. all the different time classifications and their comparative magnitudes) to build from.
--I've also been looking for accessible + engaging videos since many people don't read; I still need to find something more accessible (since these videos assume you do read), but Mexie is excellent:
-Climate Change 101: https://youtu.be/Dohwus7rXqY
-Climate Change & Capitalism: https://youtu.be/ltmd-POalpo
1) The Earth’s climate history is wild... This makes the Holocene epoch (esp. past 10,000 years) particularly ideal (“Goldilocks”) for humans (i.e. corresponding to agriculture, thus surplus and civilizations).
2) Despite this remarkable stability, relatively slight fluctuations have resulted in social crises, revealing the fragility of civilizations and our dependence to the Goldilocks climate.
3) The Anthropocene is a proposed new epoch (with growing acceptance) signalling significant human impact, includes anthropogenic climate change:
a) When considering systems, the authors warn of latency, i.e. locking into processes requiring long recovery times (relative to human lives), unforeseen tipping points and positive (self-reinforcing) feedbacks, etc. While climate change deniers (see Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming) focus on science's uncertainties, it is indeed this very uncertainty over the consequences of disturbing Earth's precarious Goldilocks climate (and awareness of Earth's volatile climate history) that is so concerning...
b) They highlight that average temperature comparisons can hide for the layperson the extremes in temperature where disasters frequently occur.
c) While there are many unknowns with varying degrees of uncertainty, the authors focus on sea-level rise from melting glaciers (many cities are ports). Some of the theories involving rapid melting in Earth’s history (i.e. end of snowball/slushball earth) are biblical in scale and shockingly acute, i.e. hundreds of years (although volcanoes were involved in the theories)!
d) The other focus is on carbon emissions causing ocean acidification, and the destruction of marine life.
4) The Holocene/Anthropocene was 2/10 of the book. Most of this book covers the back-and-forth ice age (glacial and interglacial) vs. greenhouse periods in a rather haphazard manner (see below). The specific theories of specific events/phenomenon reminded me that reality is wilder than fiction. However, without a more structured approach, I’m still at a loss how to piece all this together (from astronomical phenomenon like sun flares and Milankovitch cycles to rock/mineral weathering to the impact of microorganism metabolism).
5) The specific examples did help me appreciate the application of natural sciences, esp. chemistry. Indeed, the Earth is treated like a crime scene investigation; rocks are seen as processes rather than just objects (...yes, I’m here going to compare this with Marx’s conception of "capital” as processes).
To-be-found-elsewhere:
--Following a historical materialist approach to social research, I try to have ongoing science readings in related fields. So, I found myself looking for a light popular science book on the climate system to read alongside The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (and the heap of political economy books I’m always wading through).
…Alas, I need more practice with this topic and thus need a more systematically organized book; in taking on such a vast systems topic like the Earth’s climate history, this book simply dives into the mess (the chronological climate history, interspersed with stories in the history of scientific thought) without taking enough time to set out general concepts and to reiterate them throughout the chapters.
--A much better structured intro is Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System (with the bonus of legit radical political economy). I realized just reviewing the “History of Earth” wiki page would have provided some structure (esp. all the different time classifications and their comparative magnitudes) to build from.
--I've also been looking for accessible + engaging videos since many people don't read; I still need to find something more accessible (since these videos assume you do read), but Mexie is excellent:
-Climate Change 101: https://youtu.be/Dohwus7rXqY
-Climate Change & Capitalism: https://youtu.be/ltmd-POalpo
November 5, 2015
This is one of those books that I've been looking for a long time to explore. I didn't even realize it until I started listening. What the book does is takes the timeline of the geology and climate of the earth, and then explains the what and where in great detail. It was full of pure awesome. I can't tell you how many times I went back and re-listened to entire chapters because I was so into what I was getting out of it.
I HIGHLY recommend this one. It's a true pop-sci book, but it manages to be completely packed with meaty science and history at the same time. Total win.
I HIGHLY recommend this one. It's a true pop-sci book, but it manages to be completely packed with meaty science and history at the same time. Total win.
February 22, 2022
Firstly, I loved it! Did I read about things I already knew? Yes...but, there was information present that I haven't encountered yet about those things, as well as some thoughts on them that hadn't occurred to me. And there was a substantive bit of stuff that I was heretofore unawares. :)
This is perhaps a great book for those who deny Human-caused climate change as "natural cycles" as, yes, there are definitely cycles and the Earth has changed many, many times, but we are definitely having an impact that goes against the cycle. My favorite quote was: "The Earth's climate is an angry beast, and we're poking it with a stick."
This book will hit both ways. Is it too late for us to change anything and undo the damage? Most assuredly, yes. We've done fucked up. Climate change is not our grandchildren's problem, it was our grandparent's problem. However, it is possible that the Earth's own equilibrium will adjust and adapt and mitigate some damage...maybe...but we've probably irrevocably doomed the oceans, particularly the coral reefs.
Funnily enough, our own environmental controls may be making things worse. When nature spews this much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it's usually caused by a volcano, which puts a lot of particulate matter in the air and dims the sun, thus the increased warming is offset by the dimming nature of the particles. We, however, are both adding the carbon dioxide and ensuring that we have clear skies, which is probably increasing the warming effect...especially when coupled with the decrease in forest cover.
This is perhaps a great book for those who deny Human-caused climate change as "natural cycles" as, yes, there are definitely cycles and the Earth has changed many, many times, but we are definitely having an impact that goes against the cycle. My favorite quote was: "The Earth's climate is an angry beast, and we're poking it with a stick."
This book will hit both ways. Is it too late for us to change anything and undo the damage? Most assuredly, yes. We've done fucked up. Climate change is not our grandchildren's problem, it was our grandparent's problem. However, it is possible that the Earth's own equilibrium will adjust and adapt and mitigate some damage...maybe...but we've probably irrevocably doomed the oceans, particularly the coral reefs.
Funnily enough, our own environmental controls may be making things worse. When nature spews this much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it's usually caused by a volcano, which puts a lot of particulate matter in the air and dims the sun, thus the increased warming is offset by the dimming nature of the particles. We, however, are both adding the carbon dioxide and ensuring that we have clear skies, which is probably increasing the warming effect...especially when coupled with the decrease in forest cover.
February 26, 2024
Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish this. Although there were snippets that were quite interesting these were few and far between, with pages of very dry analysis making up the rest.
I found this read very much like a text book rather than an entertainment. The reader would certainly benefit from having a grasp of things like the sequence of the paleontological periods and tectonic plate movements in order to follow easily what was being discussed. Eventually I found it became too much like hard work for the little insight I was getting for me to carry on.
I found this read very much like a text book rather than an entertainment. The reader would certainly benefit from having a grasp of things like the sequence of the paleontological periods and tectonic plate movements in order to follow easily what was being discussed. Eventually I found it became too much like hard work for the little insight I was getting for me to carry on.
Read
August 3, 2022This was a pretty good book, albeit a bit confusing and quite dense. However, it really has opened my eyes more than any other books I've ever read before, it is incredibly informative and is just a snapshot of what our earth's climate history is.
February 13, 2017
This one gets three stars for several reasons. First, if you don't actually know anything about geological history, this is a tough book because the language is very thick and hard to decipher if you don't understand the lingo at all. They try to keep it easy as possibly for the layman, but the subject matter still fights them at every turn. Second, it just feels a little dull covering 4+ billion years of history in under 250 pages. There were times I wanted them to elaborate a bit more. Finally, the idea of climate change comes in more as an afterthought in the final chapter, they really don't take much time supporting their ideas and giving enough concrete ideas and evidence to back it up. That's not to say there isn't some quality facts here. There certainly are, but it just could be more indepth and take more time explaining it to those of us who really are just trying to understand the real ins and outs of climate change and our climate's history.
Read
April 22, 2013551.609 Z22 2012
July 2, 2017
The Goldilocks Planet: The Four Billion Year Story of Earth's Climate takes a look at the Earth's climate from the planet's formation to the current age and then takes a look at what our future climate might look like. In this book, the authors reconstruct and describe how the Earth's climate has continuously altered over its 4.5 billion-year history. The story can be read from clues preserved in the Earth's strata, in fossils, in ancient air samples, in mineral samples, extinction events etc. The book describes how changes in the global and regional climate range from bitterly cold to sweltering hot, from arid to humid, and they have impacted enormously upon the planet's evolving animal and plant communities, and upon its physical landscapes of the Earth. However, in spite of this, the Earth has remained consistently habitable for life for over three billion years - in stark contrast to its planetary neighbours. Not too hot, not too cold; not too dry, not too wet, it is aptly known as 'the Goldilocks planet'.
This book is wonderfully written! And so interesting! Minimal personal anecdotes, not too much biographical detail (just enough to be interesting) and lots of lovely, juicy science - all explained to be easily understandable but not simplified to be completely useless. The authors have also included numerous helpful diagrams and graphs. I wouldn't call this a popular science book, but it isn't a text book either. I wish more science books were written like this book.
This book is wonderfully written! And so interesting! Minimal personal anecdotes, not too much biographical detail (just enough to be interesting) and lots of lovely, juicy science - all explained to be easily understandable but not simplified to be completely useless. The authors have also included numerous helpful diagrams and graphs. I wouldn't call this a popular science book, but it isn't a text book either. I wish more science books were written like this book.
February 9, 2023
This book is fairly technical and probably only necessary for a geology or climatology student, if you’re interested in climate change or geology it’s good but if you aren’t it can feel rather dry at times. Overall I would say it’s a good book but requires a significant interest in the subject, the book itself can only produce so much of the interest.
September 13, 2022
Geologists writing eloquently about the deep history of Earth's climate, there is not much more wonderful! I needed to read some pages more than once as the science is complex, but I found it extremely rewarding when the ideas fell into place.
October 24, 2022
A geological history of the earth, with one text-letter for every 50,000 years.
Well done and of moderate interest to me. If I had known what this book was about I would have read it years earlier. Oh well, it was pretty good.
Well done and of moderate interest to me. If I had known what this book was about I would have read it years earlier. Oh well, it was pretty good.
February 27, 2019
Excellent overview of Earth climate history from snowball Earth to Greenhouse Earth states. Excellent context setting that sheds light on the scale and speed of past climate change events.
January 26, 2020
3.75 stars. Review to follow soon.
November 6, 2016
An interesting overview of the geological history of our planet.
March 15, 2015
Coney Zealley
FDSCI 209
Bro. Tonks
16 Mar. 2015
Capstone Book Review: The Goldilocks Planet
The Goldilocks Planet, an insipid look at the climate of earth by Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams. And not just on the current weather, but on everything from the very beginning. Four Billion years of history all packed into 267 pages. And I thought it was impressive if we ever got past the industrial age in history class.
The earth has had a vacillating climate system from its beginning. The Goldilocks Planet explores each of these “ice age-hothouse” ages. We start with the Primordial Climate, a time when the earth was about as habitable and friendly as middle school. “Hades” is the name given to it, and for a reason. Luckily our quaint little planet would cool it’s temper and swing into a more comfortable temperature.
It swung right into being the Snowball Earth, though I’d certainly like to avoid being hit by that on the playground. The entire earth, even down to the equator iced and slushed over. But nature likes to correct itself. It takes a billion years, but hey, better late than never. I cannot say honestly that “the cold never bothered me” and it certainly bothered the inhabitants of the time. So earth heated back up into a greenhouse. I’d tell you all about the axis tilt changing, hyperthermals, the dinosaurs that lived and how they are able to tell us about the weather by the way their corpses fossilized, and all that fun stuff—but that would be spoiling. And Ice Age the movie has already stolen the thunder on the next period of hiemal existence, but as the whimsically named chapter announces “The Ice Returns” and we see yet another climate switch.
Not that it’s ever bothered earth before. I bet you can guess what happens next. And then next again. If so, you’re smart enough to read this book yourself, so have at it. Zalasiewicz and Williams explore all the different causes and proofs of these weather changes until we get to the present day. For behold, something has disturbed the Cycle of Indecision and is forcing the earth on an upward temperature journey. If the answer alludes you, look in a mirror and you should be able to find at least the species of the perpetrators, if not an actual one.
The last chapter of the book explores humanity’s impact on out poor little globe’s climate. The amount of carbon that we put into the air and its effect on the general temperature. By looking at the patterns of the past and general trends today, the authors have come to the chilling conclusion that global warming is real, the polar icecaps are in danger of melting and the oceans on course to acidifying. And it will only get worse. Humans are only the start of the problem; earth will take care of the rest as it goes through a positive feedback cycle. Out of the pan and into the fire doesn’t even begin to explain it.
Their solution? Reduce the carbon footprint and put a carbon tax out there to “encourage” companies to be more ecologically friendly. We live on the Goldilocks planet, probably the only place in the universe that we would be able to survive. Let’s not ruin it’s perfection with our reckless abandon.
So pick up The Goldilocks Planet, a guaranteed delight if you’re interested in climate and ridiculous vocabulary. If not? I’d suggest a different use of time. Like banging your head against a brick wall, or pulling out your toenails. An informative book, with almost enough explanation for the layman to understand and though proofing of their claims of what the climate patterns were. The pictures were less than desirable. Black and white, not exactly relevant or helpful. As fascinating as the dinoflagellate cyst Apectodinium homomorphum is, I think maybe a chart of the climate cycle would have been more useful. Or maybe a picture of what it might have looked like. I’d even take a smiley face.
It’s not that the author’s lacked writing ability, I was very impressed with theirs. They even used humor, which was probably the only reason I made it through the book alive. Grammar and syntax wise, this was a masterpiece! Way to write towards their audience! I just wasn’t it. So, my overall take? Given the choice to read it again, I’d pass. Will I publically burn it? No, but I may groan in such a way that makes those nearby call 911. For all those palaeoclimatolists out there, have at it. I’ll go read The Lightning Thief. That talks about weather…
FDSCI 209
Bro. Tonks
16 Mar. 2015
Capstone Book Review: The Goldilocks Planet
The Goldilocks Planet, an insipid look at the climate of earth by Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams. And not just on the current weather, but on everything from the very beginning. Four Billion years of history all packed into 267 pages. And I thought it was impressive if we ever got past the industrial age in history class.
The earth has had a vacillating climate system from its beginning. The Goldilocks Planet explores each of these “ice age-hothouse” ages. We start with the Primordial Climate, a time when the earth was about as habitable and friendly as middle school. “Hades” is the name given to it, and for a reason. Luckily our quaint little planet would cool it’s temper and swing into a more comfortable temperature.
It swung right into being the Snowball Earth, though I’d certainly like to avoid being hit by that on the playground. The entire earth, even down to the equator iced and slushed over. But nature likes to correct itself. It takes a billion years, but hey, better late than never. I cannot say honestly that “the cold never bothered me” and it certainly bothered the inhabitants of the time. So earth heated back up into a greenhouse. I’d tell you all about the axis tilt changing, hyperthermals, the dinosaurs that lived and how they are able to tell us about the weather by the way their corpses fossilized, and all that fun stuff—but that would be spoiling. And Ice Age the movie has already stolen the thunder on the next period of hiemal existence, but as the whimsically named chapter announces “The Ice Returns” and we see yet another climate switch.
Not that it’s ever bothered earth before. I bet you can guess what happens next. And then next again. If so, you’re smart enough to read this book yourself, so have at it. Zalasiewicz and Williams explore all the different causes and proofs of these weather changes until we get to the present day. For behold, something has disturbed the Cycle of Indecision and is forcing the earth on an upward temperature journey. If the answer alludes you, look in a mirror and you should be able to find at least the species of the perpetrators, if not an actual one.
The last chapter of the book explores humanity’s impact on out poor little globe’s climate. The amount of carbon that we put into the air and its effect on the general temperature. By looking at the patterns of the past and general trends today, the authors have come to the chilling conclusion that global warming is real, the polar icecaps are in danger of melting and the oceans on course to acidifying. And it will only get worse. Humans are only the start of the problem; earth will take care of the rest as it goes through a positive feedback cycle. Out of the pan and into the fire doesn’t even begin to explain it.
Their solution? Reduce the carbon footprint and put a carbon tax out there to “encourage” companies to be more ecologically friendly. We live on the Goldilocks planet, probably the only place in the universe that we would be able to survive. Let’s not ruin it’s perfection with our reckless abandon.
So pick up The Goldilocks Planet, a guaranteed delight if you’re interested in climate and ridiculous vocabulary. If not? I’d suggest a different use of time. Like banging your head against a brick wall, or pulling out your toenails. An informative book, with almost enough explanation for the layman to understand and though proofing of their claims of what the climate patterns were. The pictures were less than desirable. Black and white, not exactly relevant or helpful. As fascinating as the dinoflagellate cyst Apectodinium homomorphum is, I think maybe a chart of the climate cycle would have been more useful. Or maybe a picture of what it might have looked like. I’d even take a smiley face.
It’s not that the author’s lacked writing ability, I was very impressed with theirs. They even used humor, which was probably the only reason I made it through the book alive. Grammar and syntax wise, this was a masterpiece! Way to write towards their audience! I just wasn’t it. So, my overall take? Given the choice to read it again, I’d pass. Will I publically burn it? No, but I may groan in such a way that makes those nearby call 911. For all those palaeoclimatolists out there, have at it. I’ll go read The Lightning Thief. That talks about weather…
July 31, 2012
This review was posted on Lenz Blog, 17 June 2012:
I just bought the Kindle version of "The Goldilocks Planet, The 4 billion years story of Earth's climate". And I submitted the following review at Amazon, which I hope will appear on that site shortly.
Update: Amazon has kindly decided to publish the review.
Errors in grammar and spelling:
1. At location 977, the text reads: "So when a palaeontologist looks at the fossils of penguins and walruses 100 million years hence, he, she, or it will discern".
This must be "he or she".
Update: As "David" in comments points out, 100 million years in the future there might possibly be neutral paleontologists, so it is not necessarily a mistake in grammar. It is still something that irritated me.
2. At location 1387, the text says "In the forests, roamed animals." The comma needs to be removed.
3. At location 1413, the text says "More about these oxygen crises anon." And at location 2671 it reads "But more of that anon."
I am sorry, but I don't understand that at all. It would make sense if "anon" were replaced with "later" or "in another chapter".
4. At location 2868, the text says "Even when found, they not easy to interpret." That must be "they are not easy to interpret."
5. At location 3469 it says "The test centred on..." That should probably be "centered" instead.
Interesting and important fact:
I was well aware of the fact that the greenhouse effect on Venus is extremely strong. This is a basic premise of my recent global warming science fiction novel "Great News". What I did not realize is that Venus actually receives less sunlight at its surface than does the Earth (location 214), because of the massive reflective cloud cover. And even with less energy coming in to the planet surface than to ours, temperatures at surface level are well over 400 degrees Celsius.
The more you know, the less sure things become:
As someone interested in global warming, I know basic facts like the effect of CO2 on the climate. In contrast, when reading this introduction to the exact science of climate history, I learn of many discussions on the finer points of reading the clues remaining after millions of years. One thing one can learn from this book is that the climate is extremely complex to begin with, even when discussing what is happening right now, with ever more data available, and even more so when discussing history millions or billions of years ago. Or when discussing the future.
So the authors, as respectable climate scientists, need to say something like "global warming is extremely likely to be caused by humanity."
In contrast, I would just say "it sure and definitely is", since I neither know nor care about all the detail.
The missing discussion of Venus syndrome:
The authors spend over 90.000 words talking about the history and future of the climate. But somehow they manage to avoid addressing the most important question of all. Earth right now has a "Goldilocks" climate. Will that stay that way, or can we somehow set off a runaway feedback loop that boils the planet just like Venus? James Hansen says we can, and I would expect a book on this topic to discuss his ideas.
5 Stars:
I would recommend buying and reading this book to anyone interested in climate issues, which should include everyone on the planet. There is no other question so important as climate change. And I think everyone can learn from this introduction to climate history.
I personally found it over a Twitter link by New York Times journalist Andy Revkin, who wrote that this book is high on his to-read list. As well it should be, in my humble opinion. The link went to a blog post at the Oxford University Press blog (the publishers), with the title "Time-travelling to distant climates". The science fiction angle in that title got my interest. And the blog post, written by the authors of the book, is a nice short description of the book.
I just bought the Kindle version of "The Goldilocks Planet, The 4 billion years story of Earth's climate". And I submitted the following review at Amazon, which I hope will appear on that site shortly.
Update: Amazon has kindly decided to publish the review.
Errors in grammar and spelling:
1. At location 977, the text reads: "So when a palaeontologist looks at the fossils of penguins and walruses 100 million years hence, he, she, or it will discern".
This must be "he or she".
Update: As "David" in comments points out, 100 million years in the future there might possibly be neutral paleontologists, so it is not necessarily a mistake in grammar. It is still something that irritated me.
2. At location 1387, the text says "In the forests, roamed animals." The comma needs to be removed.
3. At location 1413, the text says "More about these oxygen crises anon." And at location 2671 it reads "But more of that anon."
I am sorry, but I don't understand that at all. It would make sense if "anon" were replaced with "later" or "in another chapter".
4. At location 2868, the text says "Even when found, they not easy to interpret." That must be "they are not easy to interpret."
5. At location 3469 it says "The test centred on..." That should probably be "centered" instead.
Interesting and important fact:
I was well aware of the fact that the greenhouse effect on Venus is extremely strong. This is a basic premise of my recent global warming science fiction novel "Great News". What I did not realize is that Venus actually receives less sunlight at its surface than does the Earth (location 214), because of the massive reflective cloud cover. And even with less energy coming in to the planet surface than to ours, temperatures at surface level are well over 400 degrees Celsius.
The more you know, the less sure things become:
As someone interested in global warming, I know basic facts like the effect of CO2 on the climate. In contrast, when reading this introduction to the exact science of climate history, I learn of many discussions on the finer points of reading the clues remaining after millions of years. One thing one can learn from this book is that the climate is extremely complex to begin with, even when discussing what is happening right now, with ever more data available, and even more so when discussing history millions or billions of years ago. Or when discussing the future.
So the authors, as respectable climate scientists, need to say something like "global warming is extremely likely to be caused by humanity."
In contrast, I would just say "it sure and definitely is", since I neither know nor care about all the detail.
The missing discussion of Venus syndrome:
The authors spend over 90.000 words talking about the history and future of the climate. But somehow they manage to avoid addressing the most important question of all. Earth right now has a "Goldilocks" climate. Will that stay that way, or can we somehow set off a runaway feedback loop that boils the planet just like Venus? James Hansen says we can, and I would expect a book on this topic to discuss his ideas.
5 Stars:
I would recommend buying and reading this book to anyone interested in climate issues, which should include everyone on the planet. There is no other question so important as climate change. And I think everyone can learn from this introduction to climate history.
I personally found it over a Twitter link by New York Times journalist Andy Revkin, who wrote that this book is high on his to-read list. As well it should be, in my humble opinion. The link went to a blog post at the Oxford University Press blog (the publishers), with the title "Time-travelling to distant climates". The science fiction angle in that title got my interest. And the blog post, written by the authors of the book, is a nice short description of the book.
April 11, 2020
2017.03.11–2017.03.20
Afterthought: books like this might be better read visually, to appreciate the mind-boggling numbers (i.e., general scale of things in time/space/energy).
Contents
Zalasiewicz J & Williams M (2012) (08:51) Goldilocks Planet, The - The 4 Billion Year Story of Earth's Climate
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Prologue
A Brief Word on Time
01. Primordial Climate
• Alternative histories
• The climate of Hades
• The evidence of the earliest strata
• Steps towards greenhouse ideas
• The mystery of the faint early Sun
• A super-hot Archaean?
02. Earth as a Snowball
• The earliest glaciations
• The iron oceans
• The Great Oxygenation Event
• The long warmth
• Budyko’s frozen world
• The evidence of the rocks
• Planet of ice
• Alternative worlds
• A model snowball
• Underneath the ice
• The limestone connection
• Escape from the planet of ice
• Dawning of a new age
03. Between Greenhouse and Icehouse
• The battle of Carnival and Lent
• The patterns of complex life
• The calcite metronome
• A different world
• Graptolites and climate belts
• A Welsh journey
• Carbon
• Causes
• The green land
• The Late Palaeozoic Icehouse
04. The Last Greenhouse World
• The Arctic forests
• The climate conundrum
• The rhythms of a warm world
• The hyperthermals
05. The Ice Returns
• The land of the giant penguins
• Discovery of the Antarctic
• Remote sensing the past fifty million years
• Towards the Rosetta Stone of climate
• Anatomy of a tipping point
• Clues to a global glaciation
• The carbon dioxide drawdown
• The growth and destruction of mountains
• The isolation of Antarctica
• The last of the Antarctic tundra
• Opposing Antarctic histories
06. The Last of the Warmth
• The Pliocene Pan-American
• Why does the Pliocene matter?
• The Pliocene viewed through a PRISM
• Reconstructing the atmosphere of the Pliocene
• Building models of a Pliocene world
• The Antarctic Peninsula
• The shells of Cockburn Island
• Patterns of climate
• Pliocene high seas
• Along the Armadillo highway
07. Into the Icehouse
• Ymir’s legacy
• Global signals of northern ice
• Mountain masses and ocean gateways
• A snowgun in the Pacific
08. The Glacial World
• Beginnings
• Astronomy and oceans
• The two worlds of the Ice Age
• The message in the ice
• The case of the missing carbon
• The millennial pattern
• The world as affected by ice
• Where the winds blow
09. Birth and Death of the Holocene
• The human touch
• A diversity of interglacials
• Preludes to warmth
• Shaping the Holocene world
• Patterns in Holocene climate
• The last thousand years
• The Sun’s heartbeat?
• The child that never grows old
• After the Holocene
10. The Anthropocene Begins
• Alternative futures
• The early Anthropocene hypothesis
• The carbon transfer
• How to warm a planet
• The carbon rise
• Climate now
• Effects of warming
• Global change
• The future of the Anthropocene
• Ocean waves
• Climate of change?
Notes
Further reading
References
Index
Afterthought: books like this might be better read visually, to appreciate the mind-boggling numbers (i.e., general scale of things in time/space/energy).
Contents
Zalasiewicz J & Williams M (2012) (08:51) Goldilocks Planet, The - The 4 Billion Year Story of Earth's Climate
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Prologue
A Brief Word on Time
01. Primordial Climate
• Alternative histories
• The climate of Hades
• The evidence of the earliest strata
• Steps towards greenhouse ideas
• The mystery of the faint early Sun
• A super-hot Archaean?
02. Earth as a Snowball
• The earliest glaciations
• The iron oceans
• The Great Oxygenation Event
• The long warmth
• Budyko’s frozen world
• The evidence of the rocks
• Planet of ice
• Alternative worlds
• A model snowball
• Underneath the ice
• The limestone connection
• Escape from the planet of ice
• Dawning of a new age
03. Between Greenhouse and Icehouse
• The battle of Carnival and Lent
• The patterns of complex life
• The calcite metronome
• A different world
• Graptolites and climate belts
• A Welsh journey
• Carbon
• Causes
• The green land
• The Late Palaeozoic Icehouse
04. The Last Greenhouse World
• The Arctic forests
• The climate conundrum
• The rhythms of a warm world
• The hyperthermals
05. The Ice Returns
• The land of the giant penguins
• Discovery of the Antarctic
• Remote sensing the past fifty million years
• Towards the Rosetta Stone of climate
• Anatomy of a tipping point
• Clues to a global glaciation
• The carbon dioxide drawdown
• The growth and destruction of mountains
• The isolation of Antarctica
• The last of the Antarctic tundra
• Opposing Antarctic histories
06. The Last of the Warmth
• The Pliocene Pan-American
• Why does the Pliocene matter?
• The Pliocene viewed through a PRISM
• Reconstructing the atmosphere of the Pliocene
• Building models of a Pliocene world
• The Antarctic Peninsula
• The shells of Cockburn Island
• Patterns of climate
• Pliocene high seas
• Along the Armadillo highway
07. Into the Icehouse
• Ymir’s legacy
• Global signals of northern ice
• Mountain masses and ocean gateways
• A snowgun in the Pacific
08. The Glacial World
• Beginnings
• Astronomy and oceans
• The two worlds of the Ice Age
• The message in the ice
• The case of the missing carbon
• The millennial pattern
• The world as affected by ice
• Where the winds blow
09. Birth and Death of the Holocene
• The human touch
• A diversity of interglacials
• Preludes to warmth
• Shaping the Holocene world
• Patterns in Holocene climate
• The last thousand years
• The Sun’s heartbeat?
• The child that never grows old
• After the Holocene
10. The Anthropocene Begins
• Alternative futures
• The early Anthropocene hypothesis
• The carbon transfer
• How to warm a planet
• The carbon rise
• Climate now
• Effects of warming
• Global change
• The future of the Anthropocene
• Ocean waves
• Climate of change?
Notes
Further reading
References
Index
April 25, 2012
I don't know why it is, but for me (and possibly for many general readers), books on earth science tend to be most dull read in all of popular science. I suppose biology is interesting because it's how we work, and physics and cosmology are interesting because it's how the universe works... but earth science is saddled with impenetrable names for different periods of time, plenty of climate variations (yawn) and a lot of mud and bits of stone. As someone once said to me, 'When you've seen one stone, you've seen them all.' Of course a geologist would wince at this and start telling us about all the different rock formations, but after five minutes we'd all be asleep, so it wouldn't really help. Similarly, it's very difficult to get excited about the history of the climate - it has similar snooze-making capabilities.
This makes writing an accessible book on earth science an uphill struggle, but I think, on the whole Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams have achieved it. The book is subtitled 'the four billion year story of earth's climate' and traces through the different eras and eons and goodness knows what how and why the climate has changed, whether it is to form a snowball (or slushball) or to get excessively hot in modern terms. Despite all these variations, once life got going it seems to have clung on, hence the 'Goldilocks' bit. Once the Earth got over its initial formation, it seems to have stuck quite closely to a climate range that made life possible.
After being indoctrinated by the Royal Society of Chemistry, who assure me that the only way to write sulfur is with an 'f' these days, I was slightly surprised that the equally erudite OUP went for the 'sulphur' spelling, but that apart I certainly couldn't complain about the science. But the nice surprise was the way the authors managed some engaging storytelling that made the book enjoyable to read. I would be going too far to say that this was a page turner I could put down, but it was much more readable than I thought it would be.
Even so, I can only give it three stars, because in the end the bogeyman of earth science and historical climatology wins over. It does all get a little samey and lacking in interest. The authors do everything they can to keep us with them, but the subject matter still gives them a hard time. Perhaps the best bit is appreciating just how speculative some of the assertions are, based on very indirect assumptions - in this respect it gives cosmology a run for its money.
If you want or need to read about the way the Earth's climate has changed in history, this is a brilliant book - but if you only have a casual interest, it could be more of a struggle to stay with it.
Review originally published on www.popularscience.co.uk and reproduced with permission
This makes writing an accessible book on earth science an uphill struggle, but I think, on the whole Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams have achieved it. The book is subtitled 'the four billion year story of earth's climate' and traces through the different eras and eons and goodness knows what how and why the climate has changed, whether it is to form a snowball (or slushball) or to get excessively hot in modern terms. Despite all these variations, once life got going it seems to have clung on, hence the 'Goldilocks' bit. Once the Earth got over its initial formation, it seems to have stuck quite closely to a climate range that made life possible.
After being indoctrinated by the Royal Society of Chemistry, who assure me that the only way to write sulfur is with an 'f' these days, I was slightly surprised that the equally erudite OUP went for the 'sulphur' spelling, but that apart I certainly couldn't complain about the science. But the nice surprise was the way the authors managed some engaging storytelling that made the book enjoyable to read. I would be going too far to say that this was a page turner I could put down, but it was much more readable than I thought it would be.
Even so, I can only give it three stars, because in the end the bogeyman of earth science and historical climatology wins over. It does all get a little samey and lacking in interest. The authors do everything they can to keep us with them, but the subject matter still gives them a hard time. Perhaps the best bit is appreciating just how speculative some of the assertions are, based on very indirect assumptions - in this respect it gives cosmology a run for its money.
If you want or need to read about the way the Earth's climate has changed in history, this is a brilliant book - but if you only have a casual interest, it could be more of a struggle to stay with it.
Review originally published on www.popularscience.co.uk and reproduced with permission
January 18, 2014
Appropriately, I fell asleep listening to Goldilocks last night! However, this version is not a fairy tale, it's the science of Earth's climate: The Goldilocks Planet. As a geoscientist with some familiarity of this subject I could visualize the classic maps and graphs referred to by the narrator of this audiobook, but for the general reader the hard copy/ebook versions would likely be preferable. The book covers all of the major concepts of palaeoclimate science that I would expect in upper level college class. While for me, Earth's history provides a fascinating narrative in itself, some readers may prefer more artistic license and literary imagination in illustrating past environments. The book treads a thin line between popular science and text book, with a smidgen of advocacy. For the purpose of predicting future climate change scenarios, the only data we have to corroborate our models comes from the past. The past is therefore the best place to begin for those looking to really understand the scientific context of modern climate change issues. I strongly recommend this book.
September 1, 2012
If you want to understand the Climate Change debates, this book is a proper introduction. The charts, alone, assist you in fathoming geological time scales. The key points of the book seem to be two - first, that Earth's climate in conducive to 'life as we know it' because of heat-trapping elements which formed an atmosphere to shield the planet's surface from solar radiation.
Secondly, that the planet's climate history can be compared to a respiratory system - taking in (storing) massive amounts of carbon prompted by tectonic plate movement and various wobbles in the earth's rotation and orbit, and subsequently releasing carbon. For a couple of centuries humanity has contributed to the later through industrial activity.
The warmer era toward which the planet is headed is not unique. The authors provide a glimpse of an earlier such era based on fossil and ice core samples.
If you want to understand the Earth as part of a solar 'system', this book does the job.
Secondly, that the planet's climate history can be compared to a respiratory system - taking in (storing) massive amounts of carbon prompted by tectonic plate movement and various wobbles in the earth's rotation and orbit, and subsequently releasing carbon. For a couple of centuries humanity has contributed to the later through industrial activity.
The warmer era toward which the planet is headed is not unique. The authors provide a glimpse of an earlier such era based on fossil and ice core samples.
If you want to understand the Earth as part of a solar 'system', this book does the job.
May 17, 2016
The title is wrong. It should be "World History: A Condensed Version of the Entire Story". That said, everything else is right. I have the Kindle edition and it's easy to get to the notes and back to the text. Illustrations fit nicely on the seven-inch screen. This is one of those books that you read while having access to Wikipedia for further embellishment when desired.
In addition to reading about the history of the earth, (it is not just climate, but the entirety of geophysics, with the necessary chemistry and paleontology) you are also reading about the history of earth science during the latter half of the twentieth century and the first dozen of this century.
The target audience is people with a college education who want something challenging. If you're not in that category, read something else, or read with a college-educated friend.
In addition to reading about the history of the earth, (it is not just climate, but the entirety of geophysics, with the necessary chemistry and paleontology) you are also reading about the history of earth science during the latter half of the twentieth century and the first dozen of this century.
The target audience is people with a college education who want something challenging. If you're not in that category, read something else, or read with a college-educated friend.
August 7, 2012
Excellent, extremely readable history of earths climate from silicic haze when the surface was still molten the snowball earth thru hothouse earth to icebox and now Holocene and anthropocene. May sound academic and dull but really engaging and wonderfully written. What a great summary drawing-together of the ten thousand or so geologic findings that have emerged since I studied geology (briefly) in college! So hard to make sense of the roiling mass that is the geologic literature, but this book does it effortlessly. Read it!
October 16, 2016
Had a big day of house cleaning up, so put on my headphones and listened to this book for a few hours. Absolutely wonderful. I am not a scientist, but I do like to read and watch docos on climate change, geology and earthquakes/volcanoes, so I can say that this book covered (very condensed mind you) the history of the planet and its climate science in about 300 pages! But its was done very well. Not too too scientific, not too pithy, good balance, lots of reasearch, well written and really interesting. Thoroughly recommend.
November 7, 2012
um, so somehow i thought this would be a good vacation read? definitely to sciencey for wine country heat daze...
still, i'm halfway through it and i'll probably finish it. mostly i'm bummed because the author spends way more words on the scientist involved and the study methodology than he does on trying to paint any imaginative/speculative picture of ancient earth climates. that would have been much more fun.
still, i'm halfway through it and i'll probably finish it. mostly i'm bummed because the author spends way more words on the scientist involved and the study methodology than he does on trying to paint any imaginative/speculative picture of ancient earth climates. that would have been much more fun.
August 17, 2014
Enlightening to me.
Enlightening to me.
If you are looking for more factors that must come into play about global warming. Everything in science must be proven fact. Well we sure make a good attempt to prove our point. I wonder if these scientists allow tours of their workshops like factories. If you are anything near to being scientific, you want to see the proof, for yourself, of course.
Enlightening to me.
If you are looking for more factors that must come into play about global warming. Everything in science must be proven fact. Well we sure make a good attempt to prove our point. I wonder if these scientists allow tours of their workshops like factories. If you are anything near to being scientific, you want to see the proof, for yourself, of course.
October 16, 2013
Superb introduction to this topic - one of the best books I’ve read this year. Using the most up-to-date scientific appraisals, the authors describe what is known about the 4 billion year history of Earth’s climate. Written for the layman, the book is easy to read, engaging and superbly written. Highly recommended.
September 25, 2020
This book was extremely informative - I have a new understanding of climate change after reading it. However, it was a bit difficult to get through just because of how academic it is. Overall, I really enjoyed it.
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