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Full Description
The Earth as a Cradle for Life aims to fill the gap between readers who have a strong and informed scientific interest in the environment (but no access to the journal literature), and their desire for a basic understanding of the environment. It provides a comprehensive account, and requires no advanced mathematical skills. It will also satisfy a need for a textbook on fundamental science for students in tertiary environmental science courses that may otherwise neglect the underlying basis of their subject.The Earth as a Cradle takes a step back from common perceptions of the environment, and presents a new fundamental perspective. It draws attention to observations that have been neglected or discounted for reasons the authors found invalid, and which allow a more coherent account of the environment than is possible without them.Misunderstandings about the environment are common, even in the scientific community. They arise in part from the multi-disciplinary nature of the subject and the difficulty in keeping all relevant observations in mind and assessing their validity. These misunderstandings are often consequences of the band-wagon effect: when an idea is reinforced by repeated quotation and becomes difficult to contradict even when it is in obvious conflict with observations. This is especially so in a subject with strong media interest and conflicting commercial interests — and Cradle sweeps these considerations aside and presents a new environmental scenario.This book draws on several decades of research by the authors on fundamental Earth science, and presents probing insights on environmental questions that are not widely recognized — even in the professional community. For this reason it will become a landmark in the environmental science and Earth science literature.
Contents
Physical and Astronomical Foundations: "The Age of the Earth as an Abode Fitted for Life" (Lord Kelvin, 1899); Rotation, Tides and the Moon; The Variable Sun and Other Astronomical Effects; The Magnetic Field; The Evolving Earth: Internal Heat and the Evolution of the Earth; The Oceans; Planetary Atmospheres and the Appearance of Free Oxygen; Thermal Balance, the Greenhouse Effect and Sea Level; Environmental Crises and Mass Extinctions of Species; Stability of the Environment; Inorganic Mineral Deposits as Products of an Evolving Environment; Fossil Fuels, Buried Carbon and Photosynthetic Oxygen; Human Influences: Effects of Fossil Fuel Use; A Comparison of Human Energy Use with Natural Dissipations; The Cradle is Rocking; A Summary of Salient Conclusions.
