Overview

A distinguished popular scientist provides the first major overview of our planetary weather system in the light of new developments such as global warming and El Ni-o. Our weather is changing, almost everyone agrees. But what really lies behind this? Very few of us understand that we live on a planet, and that the way our planet operates largely dictates our weather. Only when we know some surprising global fundamentals can we discover what is genuinely new and what is cyclical about today's weather - and what we can do about it. In a magnificent mixture of scientific fact, personal apprehension, global experience and intriguing revelation, the distinguished science writer, Anthony Smith, takes us on a tour of our world, showing in a new light what we often take for granted. Within this framework all the disturbing contemporary manifestations of our weather - global warming, ozone depletion, glacial retreat, drought, rising sea levels, the disruption of currents such as el Ni-o - and even catastrophes such as major volcanic eruptions and meteor impact - make more sense. And through it he tackles today's most urgent question- are we truly altering basic weather patterns to the detriment of life on Earth?

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9780099406297

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An altogether different, apocalyptic vision of a world spinning hopelessly out of control. The result makes for riveting, if decidedly disagreeable, reading. - The Scotsman

Are you an unofficial member of the flat earth society? Do you comprehend that your daily life is taking place on an 8000 mile diameter ball revolving in space quite unsupported except by gravitational forces from elsewhere. And that this ball orbits its star some 92 million miles away, one of a few hundred billion stars that make up the Milky Way galaxy? And that there are at least 100 billion other galaxies out there? One of this book's aims is to raise awareness of the simple fact that we live on a planet, since to understand the weather and the changes occurring you need to understand the planetary condition, with its solstices, equinoxes, gyrations and perturbations. Why do we have summer and winter? Smith, the distinguished science writer, takes us on a revealing tour of our world. with a wonderful mix of scientific fact and personal concern he explains the many manifestations of our weather to tackle the big question: is humankind altering the basic weather patterns and damaging the very world our life depends on? (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Ever since Blind White Fish in Persia, his first book, Anthony Smith has blended personal adventure with major subjects. His book, The Body was a bestseller which was then followed by The Seasons. In all he has written twenty-six books, travelled to seventy countries, presented numerous television programmes (notably with the BBC's Natural History Unit) and given very many radio talks. He was first to balloon over East Africa, has voyaged in Amazonia on his own steamboat, has motorbiked from Cape Town to London (and back again twenty-eight years later). He has also explored the underground qanats of Iran (even finding the world's first cave loach), built the first British gas airship (after the R101), and has five children.

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