Customer Reviews
This book could save your life - By: B. W. Labey, 06 Oct 2008 
This is the best book on the subject I have ever read & I feel it should be mandatory for all school children over 12 years old. I have been following the global warming debate for over 20 years now (both as an environmentalist & former journalist) from its early days when there were a few very worried scientists getting trashed by the politicians to protect big business, to now when we have thousands of very worried leading scientists & terrified experts of the highest calibre getting trashed by politicians to protect big business. This book is vital & I only wish it could have appeared ten years ago when we still had a chance of making a real difference. The science that Lynas reviews is the best available to us & he communicates difficult subject matter very clearly & with real skill. For such a dry subject (no pun intended) the book is actually quite gripping but it doesn't fall into the easy trap of trivialising or sensationalising the raw data. Let's face it, these are terrifying enough on their own. Read it, it could save your life.
Lynas paints a possible apocalyptic future for us all - By: Daniel Storey, 01 Oct 2008 
Mark Lynas had spent monthsin libraries reading & taking notes about future global weather changes from scientific journals & from his studies he has put together this book.
The book explains to the reader what would happen to the planet if it were to get six degrees hotter over the next 100 years.
Each chapter explains what would happen to world as it got 1 degree hotter.
Chapter 1 explains what would happen if the planet got one degree hotter & chapter 6 finishes by explaining what would happen if the planet got six degrees hotter.
This book is not easy to digest as it paints a very apocalyptic future for us humans should climate change not be halted.
In the final chapter Mark explains how we can prevent this scenario ever happening.
A very different book from Al Gore's inconvient truthin a sense that this book looks at what could happen rather than what is happening now.
If the subject global warming interests you than this book is well worth a read & will give you a great insightin future life on earth if we fail to act now.
'business as usual' .... I don't think so. - By: phil mars, 22 Jul 2008 no politition could read this book & stayin office with 'business as usual' without beingin total denial. not sensationalin it's presentation, but leaves little to the imagination. Surely we've had it, haven't we? Don't leave too much money to your children - it will be of little use.
BAFFLED - By: Mrs. Susan E. Wells, 17 Jun 2008 
One thing baffles me about this book by an evangelical warmista - & I wish Lynas would answer. He has not addressed one simple proven fact... thatin the last 10 years the globe has been cooling quite markedly at a time when carbon emissions have never been higher. How does he square this with his alarmist views ? The fact is that a very great many reputable scientists the world over question whether anything we do has any effect on our climate - though clearly we pollute our environment & destroy the habitat for other creatures; but that is a different issue. The globe has warmed & cooled, warmed & cooled, for many billions of years & our climate has changed & will continue to change regardless of these tiny specks called humans.
Global warming was until around 2,000, since when the globe has been cooling. Will it warm up again ? Who knows ? There are only computer projections & we know those cannot not even get the long range weather forecast right for the British Isles
A worthwhile read - shame the only picture is the naff cover design. - By: Gareth Greenwood, 16 Jun 2008 In some ways this is just another popular book about climate change, which perhaps is why the publishers opted for the (IMO unnecessary) "look-at-me" cover. But, then, only the inept judge books by their covers.
Lynas approaches climate change by describing things that may happen when average global temperatures rise by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 degrees respectively & provides successive chapters for these scenarios. This presentation sequence is, IMO, very effective.
Writing for the non-specialist audience, he takes a broad-brush approach choosing, rightly IMO, not to burden the reader with details but giving a 50-page Notes section at the end listing references to details referred toin the text. On the downside, there are no diagrams - not even line graphics. For me this detracted from the presentation, which I found otherwise very engaging.
So much, then, for how he says things. I would, however, have some criticisms of what he says. First of all, though he claims that anthropogenic carbon emissions are causing global warming, whether they are it's sole cause is a matter open to legitimate debate. (No - I'm not a warming-skeptic, just a little obsessional about the science.) Given the reaction from scientifically illiterate skeptics, I do worry that people who write about global warming, particularlyin the popular science genre, simply don't give a balanced view.
There is substantial scientific evidence that global temperature variations & CO2 levels have varied widelyin the pre-human past. It is possible that all human CO2 emissions are doing are adding a little more feedback to what is otherwise a natural process. This is not an argument for not moderating such emissions, but it should alert us to be very careful about deciding what we do about climate change. It may be that even substantial emission reductions can change outcomes only to a limited extent. In that case carbon sequestration & measures to raise Earth's albedo might be better investments than the current green orthodoxy.
Still, I hope this goes to a second edition & that if it does, they'll:
(a) drop the naff cover design & put some pictures & diagrams - & above all MAPS - inside,
and
(b)be more balanced about the causes of global warming.
I'd recommend this book as an introduction to climate change for any lay reader who hasn't yet read anything about it (if that's possible). On the other hand I'd encourage anyone who does read it to look at other material on offer. Climate change is a complex subject and, with the best willin the world, nobody can do it justicein the popular science genre.
