Tales of the Earth: Paroxysms and Perturbations of the Blue Planet [Paperback]

Charles Officer (Author), Jake Page (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195090489 | ISBN-13: 978-0195090482 | Publication Date: May 19, 1994

In Maryland, late in the Spring of 1816, the snow fell brown, and blue, and even red. Brown snow fell in Hungary that year, and in the village of Taranto in southern Italy, where any snow is rare, the red and yellow snow caused great alarm. In New England, 1816 was called the Year Without a Summer. Crops failed throughout America, the price of corn and wheat soared, and farmers (lacking feed) sold off livestock, bringing about a collapse in beef and pork prices. In western Europe it was even worse, with food riots and armed mobs raiding bakeries and grain markets. This turmoil followed a catastrophic volcanic eruption a year earlier on the other side of the world--the April 1815 explosion of the volcano Tambora, on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa--a blast heard almost a thousand miles away in Sumatra. In Tales of the Earth, Charles Officer and Jake Page describe--often through eye-witness accounts and through the commentary of prominent figures--some of the great events of environmental history. From natural catastrophes such as the Tambora eruption, the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755, and the ice ages, to manmade disasters such as the nuclear fallout from Chernobyl, the killer smog of 1952 in London which killed some four thousand people, acid rain, and the progressive depletion of the ozone layer, Officer and Page provide phenomenal accounts of the earthshattering events that have changed the course of history. A fascinating discussion of nature's power over humanity, as well as the trouble humanity makes for nature, Tales of the Earth will interest anyone concerned with the environmental and the natural world.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Geologic history has been marked by many great events, including eruptions of huge volcanoes, impacts of objects from space, extinctions, and drastic climatic changes. More recently, human activity has begun to have effects that may equal in magnitude some of these natural events. Officer, a respected scientist, has teamed up with Page, a well-known writer and coauthor with Eugene Morton of Animal Talk ( LJ 3/15/92), to produce this nicely written review of natural and human-induced events and changes. They end the work by emphasizing the need to live in harmony with the planet. There are no revelations here, but this solid work can be recommended for general science collections.
- Joseph Hannibal, Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Big-league environmental events--chronicled in absorbing, illuminating style by Officer (Earth Sciences & Engineering/Dartmouth) and Page (Songs to Birds, reviewed below, etc.). The authors present a grab bag of awesome earthly happenings, concentrating on events so stupendous that they changed the course of history, or are in the process of doing so: the volcanic eruptions of Santorini and Tambora (with a look at continental drift); the Black Plague; dinosaur extinction; human impact on the face of the Earth, and so on. Along their way--which moves roughly from geologic to climatic to human-inspired events--Officer and Page lace their narrative with numerous astonishing, if lesser- scaled, incidents from blue snow to purple haze, and they maintain their poise while tackling such meaty topics as paleomagnetism and isotope geochemistry. The authors get beyond simple (or knotty) mechanics by supplying the historical context, allowing the events to take on a life of their own. Unwieldy theories like plate tectonics are dissected with ease, and many of the discussions are almost allegorical in power--e.g., on population and resource-use- -which is appropriate considering that Officer and Page throw light upon numerous biblical miracles (such as the parting of the Red Sea, which they speculate may have resulted from waters bulging up from deep-sea seismic disturbances, combined with lunar attraction). A work of science that reads like a good mystery--and that's entertainment. (Thirty-eight line drawings and seventeen halftones) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (May 19, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195090489
• ISBN-13: 978-0195090482
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,256,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much to Commend, September 7, 1998

By 

Peter G. Roode (Gainesville, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tales of the Earth: Paroxysms and Perturbations of the Blue Planet (Paperback)

This book deals (on a general-public level) with various catastrophes, geologic and otherwise, that have impacted life on earth. There are separate chapters on volcanoes, earthquates, floods, pandemics, mass extinctions, etc. One should bear in mind the author's long standing opposition to the Alvarez hypothesis of meteoric impact as the defining cause of the Cretaceous Mass Extinction. They give only one side of the story. And their objections to the now widely accepted Alvarez Theory have all been satisfactorily answered. Aside from this, however, this is a well worthwhile book. It's later chapters are devoted to human impact on nature, ozone depletion, carbon dioxide build up, and the exponential curves of population growth, energy consumption. "Ignorance is the essence of the problem that humanity faces..." is how they phrase the current problem, finally concluding that now is the time to "Think Globally and Act Globally". One can only too heartily agree.