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
Book Reviews of Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet
Book Review: Makes the Point that Prevention of Warming is Necessary for our Survival
Summary: 5 Stars
Six Degrees does a great job at simply laying out what each degree of warming will do to our planet, and therefore to us. Mark Lynas is able to explain the effects of warming in an authoritative way because it's based on what the earth has already done in the past, with a warmer climate at various times eons ago. Although many think a warmer planet may not be a bad thing (too many cold winters in Buffalo?), this book is able to show that unless you are some exotic form of tropical algae, a warming world would be disastrous for you and human civilization.
The author describes why the hotter planet would be a bad thing. I know a lot of climate change skeptics correctly point out that in the past, the planet was a lot hotter than it is now, so what's the big deal? The reason why global warming is bad is because our entire ability to grow food has evolved only in the past 10,000 years - the most stable climate the planet has seen in millions of years, and even very small temperature increases of just 2, 3, or 4 degrees (Celsius) would wreak absolute havoc on our ability to grow enough food to feed the world. Imagine the conflicts of a modern Somalia magnified to every country in the world - not a pleasant thought.
The author probably does a better job of describing what even small temperature increases would do to us - wreaking havoc on food production, rising sea levels, etc., than actually making the case that humans are definitely creating a warmer world through all our fossil fuel combustion (showing that the warming is not part of a natural cycle). For more basic science on how we are warming the planet, I'd recommend The Discovery of Global Warming by Spencer Weart.
If this book doesn't scare you into taking global warming seriously, probably nothing will. In some ways, I'm not that happy about reading this book, because it points me to the frightening conclusion that given the inevitable time lag between knowing and acting, our human race is in for some very unpleasant times ahead for the next few hundred years; all because we did nothing to slow down global warming.
However, it's better to know the truth than believe a big lie, at least we can mitigate some of the worst changes if we have the political and personal will to do so, which will give us more time to adapt to a hotter, drier world with less arable growing land, and flooded low coastal areas.
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