Perilous Planet Earth: Catastrophes and Catastrophism Through the AgesPerilous Planet Earth places our present concern about the threat to Earth from asteroids and comets within an historical context, looking at the evidence for past events within the geological and historical records. The book looks at the way in which prevailing views about modes of global change have changed dramatically over the years. It also considers the way in which catastrophic events are now seen to have influenced the course of evolution in the distant past, as well as the rise and fall of civilizations in more recent times. Professor Palmer argues that the better we understand our past, the greater the likelihood that we will be able to take appropriate action to preserve our civilization for the future. |
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Contents
Hutton fact and fiction about the origins of modern gradualism | 15 |
Cuvier and Lamarck choosing between extinction and evolution | 22 |
Natural theology and Noahs Flood the highwater mark of catastrophism | 35 |
Catastrophism uniformitarianism and idealist philosophy | 41 |
Lyell triumphant gradualism dominates geology | 54 |
Darwin and evolution | 59 |
After the Origin the triumph of evolutionary gradualism | 71 |
Phyletic gradualism | 93 |
From 1980 to the present day catastrophism strikes back | 166 |
Into the new millennium evolution today | 179 |
Chaos in the Solar System | 187 |
Catastrophes on Earth | 196 |
The death of the dinosaurs iridium and the KT extinctions | 214 |
The continuing KT debate | 227 |
Mass extinctions and the course of evolution | 243 |
Cyclic processes and mass extinctions | 273 |
Gradualist perceptions of human evolution | 104 |
Heretical catastrophists | 113 |
Atlantis rational and irrational theories of a lost civilisation | 124 |
Evolutionary mass extinctions and neocatastrophism | 132 |
Punctuated equilibrium a new evolutionary perspective | 148 |
Human evolution gradual or punctuational? | 160 |
The uncertain origins of humankind | 286 |
Ice Ages in the Pleistocene Epoch | 301 |
Modern views of Atlantis | 315 |
Natural catastrophes and the rise and fall of civilisations | 335 |
Conclusions | 362 |
Other editions - View all
Perilous Planet Earth: Catastrophes and Catastrophism through the Ages Trevor Palmer No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Perilous Planet Earth: Catastrophes and Catastrophism Through the Ages |
| Author | Trevor Palmer |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, 2003 |
| ISBN | 0521819288, 9780521819282 |
| Length | 522 pages |
| Subjects | › › Science / Earth Sciences / General Science / Earth Sciences / Geology Science / Physics / Geophysics |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |