As scientists carefully search for clues in the sun and storm patterns from our distant past, they are gradually writing a new history of Earth's climate. It is now apparent that alterations in our climate can happen quickly and dramatically. Physical evidence reveals that centuries of slow, creeping climate variations have actually been punctuated by far more rapid changes. While this new paradigm represents a significant shift in out picture of Earth's past, the real question is what is means for our future. Scientists have long recognized the threats posed by global warming, but they must now consider that the natural behaviour of climate is perhaps a greater threat than we imagined. And the fact that changes in climate can happen much more quickly than we had originally thought - perhaps in the course of a human lifetime - makes it clear that science has a lot of questions to answer in this area. What are the mechanisms for triggering significant climate change? In what ways should we expect this change to manifest itself? When will it likely happen? "Climate Crash" seeks to answer these questions, breaking the story of rapid climate change to a general public that is already intensely curious about what science has to say on the topic.
Climate Crash
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Several good recent books, such as Richard B. Alley's Two-Mile Time Machine (2000) and Spencer R. Weart's Discovery of Global Warming(2003), have considered various aspects of radical climate change. Cox's overview covers those books' main topics and others. Each chapter has a particular focus. The first limns the original field research on polar ice, which occurred as part of a 1930 expedition to Greenland directed by the father of plate tectonics, Albert Wegener, who died, a victim of the cold, during it. The second concerns the 1930s discovery of a severe cold period directly preceding the last 12,800 years of the Holocene epoch. Succeeding chapters follow different avenues of subsequent research and theory, which together paint a dauntingly complex portrait of climate change. Abrupt shifts are common, and civilizations have perished during geologically "short" but deadly cold spells. The two chapters on the plethora of theories and of possible climatological causative factors make the most formidable reading, but the last chapter, "Surprises," which cites evidence indicative of an approaching cold-shift and cautions that not enough is known to say whether human action, such as artificially increasing greenhouse gases, could push-start it, is the most provocative. Alley's book had a similarly cautionary conclusion and was just as well written, but Cox's more summary work is the book to read first and to circulate to the most readers. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"John Cox guides us through the intricacies of the latest research behind controversies surrounding abrupt and long-term climate change. He provides a succinct analysis of cutting-edge climatological research into a fundamental issue for all of humanity." - Brian Fagan"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 54 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Even though the subtitle of the book is "Abrupt Climate Change and What It Means for Our Future" [in which the author does a good job at showing why the future of our planet's climate is still unknown and possibly unknowable], the real importance of John D. Cox's Climate Crash is the book's detailed description of at least 80 years of research on the past climates of the planet Earth. Cox, a science journalist well versed in the earth sciences, shows step-by-step how scientists have arrived at the conclusion that the Earth's climate can shift very quickly [on scales of years or decades] from state to state. This is important information for anybody interested in the current scientific and political debates concerning the future of our planet's climate. My only complaint is that the book contains a few typos [In chapter 1, we meet Alfred Lohar Wegener, but at the beginning of chapter 3, he's Alfred Wegner. I'm sure the ghost of Alfred Lothar Wegener doesn't mind - it's nice to see him mentioned in a context other than plate tectonics.] If you read this book and then you still think that NOT dealing with the level of anthropogenic greenhouse gases is an okay way to go, you're a much braver person than I am! I enjoyed Climate Crash immensely and recommend it to anyone with an interest in climatology, geology, polar research, or the scientific method.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Despite the title of this book, which I'm sure must have been chosen by the publisher to sell the book, this is an extremely clear and well written account of the evidence for abrupt climate change in ice cores, ocean floor sediments, and the like. That sounds boring, but the book is anything but. I read it twice in succession because it does such a great job of providing the context for understanding current issues in climate science, and because the story is written in such a compelling fashion. Cox is a science journalist, and a good one. The book is pitched, I think, for someone who has had some science courses in college, but requires no specialized knowledge of climate science. I've been replacing all the light bulbs in my house with compact florescents ever since I read this excellent book!
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By Chaxelle
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This erudite journalist, (yes they do exist), has compiled the history of paleoclimatology into a highly readable and even exciting text. Following the progress of the science right on up to 2003 reads like a novel. The science's big discovery is that climate is not a big stasis machine slowly going from ice ages to warm periods and back again. Rather, confirmed proxy data reveal natural changes to have been abrupt, a decade or two, and frequent particularly during the ice ages on a global scale as well as during the present era on a regional scale.
The historical curves are a series of spikes rather than a smooth sine wave. Forcing causes are unknown but immediate causes have been identified. Climate history shows a chaotic system, not a linear one, which throws into question whether or not future climate can even be predicted. Are there feedback loops of large significance? What are the initiators? Nature behaves like this on its own but there is no doubt that man's influence is there as well. Climate Change, Regions, Land Use and the many ways that man influences climate... these should be our focus and not the political term, global warming, with its sole focus on carbon dioxide. This book will give you a whole new understanding of climate
The historical curves are a series of spikes rather than a smooth sine wave. Forcing causes are unknown but immediate causes have been identified. Climate history shows a chaotic system, not a linear one, which throws into question whether or not future climate can even be predicted. Are there feedback loops of large significance? What are the initiators? Nature behaves like this on its own but there is no doubt that man's influence is there as well. Climate Change, Regions, Land Use and the many ways that man influences climate... these should be our focus and not the political term, global warming, with its sole focus on carbon dioxide. This book will give you a whole new understanding of climate
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Climate Can Change Quickly
Climate Crash is an excellent book that shows that climate is far more unstable than conventional wisdom thought possible, with our planet's climate tending towards either very... Read more
Published on May 7, 2009 by Glenn Gallagher
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just how quickly do major climate changes occur?
I was taught that climate is what you expect, and that weather is what you get. But it appears that in times of climate change, climate itself can be unpredictable. Read more
Published on August 27, 2007 by Jill Malter
5.0 out of 5 stars
. . . tugging the dragons tail.
This is not the topic Al Gore is writing about, the effects of global warming. John Cox is looking at historic climate change, the coming and waning of past ice ages. Read more
Published on July 4, 2007 by Wolf Roder
4.0 out of 5 stars
A needed book
There are many misconceptions among the general population about climate and global warming. This book doesn't address global warming per se, but it is a good place to start if you... Read more
Published on June 15, 2007 by J. Dykstra
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thought Provoking
A very readable and thought provoking exposition on what climate change will mean to us all. Forget the idea that this process will be slow and gradual. Read more
Published on May 21, 2007 by Hugh Murdoch
