| Description |
xiii, 305 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Machine derived contents note: Preface ix -- Part One -- The Time Travelers -- 1. The Guillotine and the Bell Jar 3 -- 2. The Cryptic Moth 13 -- 3. "Endless and as Nothing" 24 -- Part Two -- The World Eaters -- 4. "Quest for the Black Diamond" 39 -- 5. Cleopatra's Needles 54 -- 6. Vulcan's Anvil 66 -- 7. The Phantom of the Open Hearth 75 -- 8. "The Dynamo and the Virgin" 92 -- Part Three -- The Dwellers In The Crystal Palace -- 9. Native Son 105 -- 10. "Never a Man" 116 -- 11. Threshold 135 -- 12. A Tap on the Shoulder 145 -- 13. Pendulum 158 -- 14. A Death in the Amazon 172 -- 15. The Climatic Flywheel 192 -- 16. Cassandra's Listeners 210 -- 17. Signs and Portents 222 -- 18. Scenarios 235 -- 19. Kyoto 254 -- Coda 269 -- Bibliography 279 -- Acknowledgments 293 -- Index 295 -- Preface ix -- Part One -- The Time Travelers -- 1. The Guillotine and the Bell Jar 3 -- 2. The Cryptic Moth 13 -- 3. "Endless and as Nothing" 24 -- Part Two -- The World Eaters -- 4. "Quest for the Black Diamond" 39 -- 5. Cleopatra's Needles 54 -- 6. Vulcan's Anvil 66 -- 7. The Phantom of the Open Hearth 75 -- 8. "The Dynamo and the Virgin" 92 -- Part Three -- The Dwellers In The Crystal Palace -- 9. Native Son 105 -- 10. "Never a Man" 116 -- 11. Threshold 135 -- 12. A Tap on the Shoulder 145 -- 13. Pendulum 158 -- 14. A Death in the Amazon 172 -- 15. The Climatic Flywheel 192 -- 16. Cassandra's Listeners 210 -- 17. Signs and Portents 222 -- 18. Scenarios 235 -- 19. Kyoto 254 -- Coda 269 -- Bibliography 279 -- Acknowledgments 293 -- Index 295 |
| Summary |
There is no longer any doubt that the earth is warming: the question remains, why? For historian Gale Christianson, the emergence of global warming is one of the most compelling stories in the history of humankind, made all the richer for having been a slowly developing phenomenon. Finding the clues to global warming both deep in the past and right before our eyes, Christianson introduces a memorable and unlikely cast of characters and events. Scientists, inventors, and other pioneers are woven into the narrativeamong them, Joseph Fourier, the French natural philosopher who, at the turn of the nineteenth century, first envisioned the Earth as a bell jar, Richard Arkwright, who launched the modern factory system, and chemist Charles Keeling, who accidentally discovered, in 1955, that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were rising. Their stories, in Christianson's crystal prose, urgently lead us to rethink what used to be called "man's place in nature." |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliography and index |
| Subject |
Global warming -- History.
|
| LC no. |
98055251 |
| ISBN |
0094800308 |
|
0802713467 (paperback) |
|
9780094800304 (paperback) |
|
