With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change (39 page)
Read With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change Online
Authors: Fred Pearce
Table of Contents
i. THE PIONEERS The men who measured the planet's breath
2. TURNING UP THE HEAT A skeptic's guide to climate change ....... io
3. THE YEAR How the wild weather of 1998 broke all records
4. THE A N T H R O P O C E N E A new name fora new geological era
5. THE WATCHTOWER Keeping climate vigil on an Arctic island.....
6. NINETY DEGREES NORTH Why melting knows no bounds in the far North
7. ON THE SLIPPERY SLOPE Greenland is slumping into the ocean....
8. THE SHELF Down south, shattering ice uncorks the Antarctic
9. THE MERCER LEGACY An Achilles heel at the bottom of the world
io. RISING TIDES Saying "toodle-oo" to Tuvalu
i i. IN THE JUNGLE Would we notice if the Amazon went up in smoke?
12. WILDFIRES OF BORNEO Climate in the mire from burning swamp
13. SINK TO SOURCE Why the carbon cycle is set fora U-turn
14. THE DOOMS DAY DEVICE A lethal secret stirs in the permafrost......
15. THE ACID BATH What carbon dioxide does to the oceans
16. THE WINDS OF CHANGE Tsunamis, megafarts, and mountains of the deep .............. 9o
17. WHAT'S WATTS? Planet Earth's energy imbalance ............. ioi
18. CLOUDS FROM BOTH SIDES Uncovering flaws in the climate models
i 9. A BILLION FIRES How brown haze could turn off the monsoon
20. HYDROXYL HOLIDAY The day the planet's cleaner didn't show up for work
21. GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE PLANETS Why Earth is "just right" for life
22. THE BIG FREEZE How a wobble in our orbit triggered the ice ages..
23. THE OCEAN CONVEYOR The real day after tomorrow............
24. AN ARCTIC FLOWER Clues to a climate switchback
2 5. THE PULSE How the sun makes climate change
26. THE FALL The end of Africa's golden age
27. SEESAW ACROSS THE OCEAN How the Sahara Desert greens the Amazon
28. TROPICAL HIGH Why an ice man is rewriting climate history....
29. THE CURSE OF AKKAD The strange revival of environmental determinism
3o. A CHUNK OF CORAL Probing the hidden life of El Nino
31. FEEDING ASIA What happens if the monsoon falters?
32. THE HEAT WAVE The year Europe felt the heat ofglobal warming.
33• THE HOCKEY STICK Why now really is different
34• HURRICANE SEASON Raising the storm cones after Katrina
35. OZONE HOLES IN THE GREENHOUSE Why millions face radiation threat
36. THE DANCE The poles or the tropics? Who leads in the climatic dance?
37. NEW HORIZONS Feedbacks from the stratosphere