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. |
What people are saying - Write a review
User ratings
5 stars |
| ||
4 stars |
| ||
3 stars |
| ||
2 stars |
| ||
1 star |
|
LibraryThing Review
User Review - LibraryCin - LibraryThingIn this book, the author divides the chapters to look at what would happen as the global average temperature rises 1 degree Celsius, 2 degrees, 3, 4, 5, and 6 degrees. More fires and drought in ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - ghr4 - LibraryThingMark Lynas's Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, written in 2008, presents in devastating detail the likely trajectory of the climate change crisis if we remain on our current course. Lynas ... Read full review
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Africa agricultural already Antarctic Arctic Arctic Ocean areas Atlantic atmosphere Australia Botswana carbon cycle carbon dioxide century cities Climate Change Climate Dynamics Climate Model coast coastal collapse coral Cretaceous crops decades decline desert drought Earth ecosystems 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 wave 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 Nino North northern ocean once Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum peak percent permafrost plants Pliocene polar poles population projected rainfall reefs region release river rock scenario Science scientists sea ice sea levels Simulated six degrees snow soils South southern species storms suggests summer surface three degrees tion today's tonnes tropical two-degree warmer western winds winter