Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet
by Mark Lynas
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mark LynasEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-01-22
ISBN: 142620213X
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: National Geographic
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9781426202131
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet
Book Review: Oh Dear!
Summary: 1 Stars
Oh Dear!
Unquestionably Mark Lynas's 'Six Degrees' ranks amongst the ten worst books I have ever read.
Constructed as a supposed account of how average global temperature increases will impact the planet, and derived from information primarily provided by the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, Six Degrees reads more like a novel loaded with emotive adjectives than a book that accuratley projects the global climatic conditions of the future.
Each of the six chapters applies random accounts of 'one study' by 'such and such' suggesting that...The whole book is a random collection of random studies examining random locations across the planet.
Lynas, a journalist, has made a very poor attempt at science. He has correctly stated that climate models are limited by their own operative capacity - but he has based the whole book on climate models! He fails to acknowledge that human understanding of the climate system is limited and therefore so is our ability to predict possible impacts of climate change.
The book is loaded with contradictions, scientific flaws, and baseless arguments. Pick any page and soon enough you will find something undeniably incorrect in his prophecies, facts or data. And how he managed to write such an account using the IPCC without quoting their emissions scenarios is just absurd (although he does apply scientists research to a small table he supposedly constructed himself in the last chapter).
Like the random dribble (I have trouble beleiving it was even published)he has given us, I have chosen a few random pages for analysis:
Chapter 1: Any scientist is knowledgable of Milkanovitch cycles and varying solar output but Lynas probably hasn't read about these yet.
He quotes an article he read in Nature (well done Lynas) of the disapperance of frogs. Err apparently frog disappearances are attributed to fungal bodies weakening their amphibious skin layers.
Typically pessimistic he fails to acknowledge the benefits of global warming - new industries / extensive farmlands opening / new fisheries and new oil reserves for exploitation.
He raves on about CO2 emitting nations being the causative factor forcing inhabitants of low island states to migrate. Errr perhaps identifying how to account for emissions (ie per capita / historic / volume / producer or end user) might be a little constructive Lynas.
Chapter 2: Are you referring to James Hansen or Jim Hansen from NASA?
Chapter 2 is an emotive rant about possible climatic scenrios - rain / storms / drought / yet he provides no reference to government bodies today addressing possible adaptation, mitigation or geo-engineering (ever heard that word Lynas?) solutions.
He also describes in detail about the future impacts in Lima, Peru (probably in response to the holiday he took there as a student). Errr ever heard of the current and politically infectious drought in La Paz, Bolivia, which is directly the result of climate change, and only next door?
Chapter 3: Oh Dear, it just gets worse!
Will Pakistan become a failed state? Hmmmm, for those of you who don't know (Lynas included) a failed state is a nation that cannot yield economic decline whilst adopting the policies that initially caused the economic collapse.
Hmmm, what does that make Pakistan? oh! a failed state - not to be one in the future as a consequence of climate change. Oh dear!
And I do love, quote, "The resentment felt by Muslims towards Westerners will be tame by comparison." (compared to that felt by climate migrants). Errr - an education on modern day Islam will enlighten you with amazement to learn that the majority of Muslims love Western lifestyles.
Chapter 4: Things really start warming up!
A few things any reader should know...China still has 400 million peasants ( a peasant is a peron who lives on less than US$2 per day).
The Younger Dryas event saw average global temperatures drop 11 degrees C in ten years - so what we are experiencing today is not the fastest rate of global climate change experienced in history!
Peak oil will not happen!!! Lynas states himself that more than one quarter of todays known reserves are thought to exist under the artic circle, and tapping is (thankfully) being inaugurated there today.
And Lynas - errr have you ever given a seconds thought as to the massive oil reserves under Antarctica?
And just to humour us, 'insurance claims will increase by 37 per cent, amounting to billions.' Thirty seven per cent of what!!!!!!
Chapter 5: The book just gets funnier - errr if the author had bothered to do his homework instead of visiting the local library and writing summarized accounts of journal articles - he might already know that desertification is already happening in the Amazon / that one third of the landmass of China is already desert / and has he ever heard of the Nubian aquifer under Northern Africa???
Furthermore, pinpointing climate change as the sole driver of political unrest in Sudan is funny! Ever heard of the Christian south and the Muslim north Lynas?
Food riots may be the result of climate change - but they never get a mention. Hmmmmm.
Chapter 6: Humour yourself!!!!
Lynas is not qualified to write on such a topic. Quoting talented researchers and authors including Jared Diamond and James Lovelock is an insult to such revered thinkers. (From what he has written I'm not convinced Lynas understands Lovelock's Gaia theory).
Definitely not worth the paper it is printed on. The hardcover of Mark Lynas's Six Degrees comes with an inscription on the front, "Please Recycle This Book." My advice is recycle it before you start to read it. My copy went straight to the bin.
Peter Walker BSc MEBM
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