The Blue Planet, Textbook and Laboratory Manual: An Introduction to Earth System Science

by Brian J. Skinner, Stephen C. Porter

A unique introduction to the holistic view of the Earth. Stresses the systems approach, showing the energy flows and links between the Earth's different parts—the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and the solid Earth—and the balance in the global environment that exists as a result of these interactions. Every chapter opens with a topical essay dealing with research on the subject matter and closes with a guest essay written by a researcher in the field. Special attention has been paid to select full-color artwork and photographs which illuminate discussions.

Genres: Science, Environment, Nonfiction, School, Nature, Earth Sciences

784 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 1994

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish Science books had been this good in grade school. Very easy to read and understand and great at making the connections between systems.

[Mick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!

[Soph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good textbook for my intro envsci class. Very interesting subject matter (although I’m biased as an env policy major). I like how this was framed as earth systems, with tight connections and comparisons made between different spheres of the Earth, rather than simply individual Earth functions with surface-level correlations. That’s kind of me stating the obvious since this class was about earth systems, but oh well. The book was well-written and could definitely veer a little into pontification on occasion, but for the most part was quite accessible as someone who had no previous envsci background. However, there were numerous grammatical and spelling errors (like more than 5), which is disappointing for the copy editing industry, since this is a standard college class intro text. However, the errors were lovely little Easter eggs for me because I caught all of them while stressfully cramming late at night in Mudd and that was very exciting.

I’m counting this as read bc we did every single one of the 18 chapters in this book (in 10 weeks! Oh quarter system) and I did, in fact, at least skim every page. Also, I’m woefully behind on my reading goal, but that’s unrelated, of course..

[Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would say that this is the second best textbook that i had to read for a class!!! it was interesting and there were pictures and graphs to explain things really well so it wasn't overwhelming and all just pages of text after text after text.