Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter PlanetPossibly the most graphic treatment of global warming that has yet been published, Six Degrees is what readers of Al Gore's best-selling An Inconvenient Truth or Ross Gelbspan's Boiling Point will turn to next. Written by the acclaimed author of High Tide, this highly relevant and compelling book uses accessible journalistic prose to distill what environmental scientists portend about the consequences of human pollution for the next hundred years. In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a landmark report projecting average global surface temperatures to rise between 1.4 degrees and 5.8 degrees Celsius (roughly 2 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of this century. Based on this forecast, author Mark Lynas outlines what to expect from a warming world, degree by degree. At 1 degree Celsius, most coral reefs and many mountain glaciers will be lost. A 3-degree rise would spell the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, disappearance of Greenland's ice sheet, and the creation of deserts across the Midwestern United States and southern Africa. A 6-degree increase would eliminate most life on Earth, including much of humanity. Based on authoritative scientific articles, the latest computer models, and information about past warm events in Earth history, Six Degrees promises to be an eye-opening warning that humanity will ignore at its peril. |
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Africa agricultural already Antarctic Arctic Arctic Ocean areas Atlantic atmosphere Australia biodiversity carbon cycle carbon dioxide Climate Change Climate Dynamics Climate Model CO₂ coast coastal collapse coral Cretaceous crops decades decline desert drought Earth ecosystems El Niņo emissions energy Europe feedback fire flood future gases Geology Geophysical Research Letters glacial glaciers global temperatures global warming greenhouse gas Greenland Hadley Centre Hansen heat waves higher human hurricane ice cap ice sheet Impacts increase Indian IPCC Island kilometers lakes land layer major melt meters methane hydrate million monsoon mountain Nature Niņo North northern ocean Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum peak percent permafrost Planetary plants Pliocene polar poles population projected rainfall reefs region release river runoff scenario Science scientists sea ice sea levels Simulated six degrees snow soils South southern species storms suggests summer surface three degrees tion today's tropical two-degree warmer western winds winter