Books : A Guide to the End of the World: Everything You Never Wanted to Know
List Price: $14.95Price: $5.98 You Save: $8.97 (60%)as of 03/21/2010 13:43 EDT details
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 550
EAN: 9780192804525
ISBN: 0192804529
Label: Oxford University Press, USA
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 216
Publication Date: September 09, 2004
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Thousands of people die every year from floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes and typhoons. Yet compared to what the Earth endured in prehistoric times-lethal volcanic winters, deadly asteroid collisions-our civilization has developed against a backdrop of relative geological calm. Will this calm last? A Brief Guide to the End of the World looks at the frightful prospects that await us in the 21st century and beyond. Bill McGuire, a leading expert in the field of geological hazards, admits that the omens are less than encouraging. Only 10,000 years after the last Ice Age, the Earth is sweltering in some of the highest temperatures it has ever seen. Overpopulation and the relentless exploitation of natural resources, combined with rising temperatures and sea levels induced by greenhouse gases, are increasing the likelihood of natural catastrophes, from continuing El Ninos, to large-scale glacial melting, to mega-tsunami. Even more disturbing is the near certainty that we are headed toward another asteroid or comet collision on the scale of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. In this provocative and immensely readable guidebook, McGuire discusses when these catastrophic events are likely to take place, how they will effect our global society, and what we can do to increase our chances of survival--from emissions reductions, to massive geo-engineering schemes, to the colonization of space. Illustrated with photographs and diagrams, and backed by meticulous research, A Brief Guide to the End of the World sheds new light on the extraordinarily vulnerability of our planet, and on our capacity to withstand the dramatic changes Mother Nature has in store for us in the distant--or not so distant--future.
Average Rating: 
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Dr. Bill McGuire, a volcanologist by training, and a Professor of Geophysical Hazards at the University College in London, England, is a man worth one's attention when it comes to discussing massive, if unlikely, disasters.
McGuire has been criticized by some as a self-aggrandizing Cassandra. This envy-based criticism becomes invalid as one reads this and other works by him on the such subjects as mega-tsunamis, supereruptions, climate change, (both warmer and colder), giant earthquakes, ... Read More
Rating:  -
If you want to know all about all sorts of terrible things that will kill you, everyone you know and end civilization as we know it, read this book!
You'll be scared and worried and yet you will be powerless to do anything.
Complete waste of time.
Rating:  -
There's a lot to worry about here, and frankly I'm worried. The main disaster that I didn't know about until I read this intriguing little book is the volcanic "super-eruption." Take your standard volcanic blast and multiply it by something like a thousand and one begins to get the picture. Not only that, but a super-eruption isn't necessarily going to happen around the old fault lines or Vulcan sites. No, a super-eruption with enough power to usher in a "volcanic winter" can happen suddenly without ... Read More
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