Revolutions That Made the Earth.
Material type:
TextPublisher: Oxford : Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2013Copyright date: ©2011Description: 1 online resource (438 pages)Content type: - text
- computer
- online resource
- 9780191501760
- 551
- GE26.3
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Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
The Earth that sustains us today was born out of a few remarkable, near-catastrophic revolutions, started by biological innovations and marked by global environmental consequences. The revolutions have certain features in common, such as an increase in complexity, energy utilization, and information processing by life. This book describes these revolutions, showing the fundamental interdependence of the evolution of life and its non-living environment. We would not exist unless these upheavals had led eventually to 'successful' outcomes - meaning that after each one, at length, a new stable world emerged.The current planet-reshaping activities of our species may be the start of another great Earth system revolution, but there is no guarantee that this one will be successful. The book explains what a successful transition through it might look like, if we are wise enough to steer such a course.This book places humanity in context as part of the Earth system, using a new scientific synthesis to illustrate our debt to the deep past and our potential for the future.
Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- List of Abbreviations -- Part I: Introduction -- Chapter 1: Origins -- Chapter 2: Carbon and oxygen -- Chapter 3: Russian dolls -- Chapter 4: The revolutions -- Part II: Theory -- Chapter 5: The anthropic Earth -- Chapter 6: The critical steps -- Chapter 7: Playing Gaia -- Part III: The oxygen revolution -- Chapter 8: Photosynthesis -- Chapter 9: The trial of the oxygen poisoners -- Chapter 10: The Great Oxidation -- Part IV: The complexity revolution -- Chapter 11: Life gets an upgrade -- Chapter 12: When did eukaryotes evolve? -- Chapter 13: The not-so-boring billion -- Chapter 14: The Neoproterozoic -- Part V: Interlude -- Chapter 15: Animals and oxygen -- Chapter 16: The grand recycling coalition -- Chapter 17: Rolls of the dice -- Part VI: A new revolution? -- Chapter 18: Climate wobbles -- Chapter 19: The origins of us -- Chapter 20: Review -- Chapter 21: Where next? -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.
The Earth that sustains us today was born out of a few remarkable revolutions, started by biological innovations and marked by global environmental consequences. Humanity's planet-reshaping activities may be the latest example. By understanding the past revolutions, we can help steer current global change toward a sustainable outcome.
Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Reviews provided by Syndetics
CHOICE Review
Lenton and Watson (both, Univ. of East Anglia, UK) are the academic descendants of James Lovelock, the coinventor (along with Lynn Margulis) of the Gaia hypothesis. They continue the Gaian recognition of life on Earth not as a separate entity but as an integrated system that includes substantial portions of the "physical" world, particularly the biologically reactive gasses and compounds in the atmosphere and oceans. This is an up-to-date version of such integrated views of Earth history as a time series of stable environmental states, or steps, each of which is punctuated by biologically induced "revolutions." The book covers the big picture of environmental evolution through the history of atmospheric oxygen and other biologically reactive gasses in the atmosphere. This is largely a Precambrian (4.6 to 0.5 billion years ago) story, and the coverage is quite good, whether or not one agrees with the authors' views on evolutionary biology. The presentation style is initially annoying, but after the hokey content, there is considerable explanation of the basic science needed to understand interdisciplinary material. For that reason, this work may become one of the better avenues for the intelligent undergraduate to grasp the scientific version of the Gaia hypothesis. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. P. K. Strother Boston CollegeThere are no comments on this title.