Waking the Giant
Bill McGuire
Nearly any time a major natural disaster strikes — an earthquake in Japan,
an eruption in Chile — someone tries
to link it to climate change.
Usually such claims are bunk. But
McGuire, a geologist at University College London, shows that there can be
an underlying grain of truth. What
happens in the atmosphere, it turns
out, doesn’t stay in the atmosphere.
Climate change can in fact affect the
solid Earth and its natural hazards.
Consider the end of the last ice age,
some 12,000 years ago. Changes in
Today Earth is in the midst of simi-
lar kinds of changes. Greenhouse gases
The Story of Earth
Robert M. Hazen
Earth’s history is a saga of change. The
planet has evolved ever since it and its
solar system companions coalesced
from a massive interstellar cloud of gas
and icy dust. What was once a barren
lava planet is now a
teeming orb where life
occupies nearly every
conceivable niche on
and near its surface.
Cramming billions
of years of geologi-
cal evolution into a
single book is a daunting challenge,
but it’s one that Hazen, a geophysicist,
has risen to splendidly. He chronicles
the major events and eras in Earth’s
history, from “The Big Thwack” (a col-
lision with another planet thought to
have formed the moon) to the greening
of Earth’s landscape as life emerged
from shallow waters worldwide.
spew from power plants, the atmosphere is heating up and ice is melting
(though at a far smaller scale, at least
so far). Places like Alaska may serve as
the proverbial canary in the coal mine,
where melting ice leads to more quakes
and who knows what else.
McGuire lays out a strong case for
the interconnectedness of Earth sys-
tems, showing for instance how the
destabilization of
seafloor methane
may cause huge
underwater land-
slides and tsuna-
mis. Yet when it
comes to the most
crucial question, of
how future climate
change will affect the planet, even he
cannot say. Science is providing scary
hints about how fast Earth is changing,
but it cannot predict exactly what will
transpire.
Anyone looking for a guide to the
future may need to simply wait until
it is here. — Alexandra Witze
Oxford Univ., 2012, 320 p., $29.95
And, Hazen says, the “Boring Billion,”
an interval from 1.85 billion to 850
million years ago that many scientists
have viewed as uneventful in terms of
biological or geological evolution, probably wasn’t so boring after all. Recent
research suggests that supercontinents
came together and cracked apart at
least twice during this lengthy period.
After thoroughly reviewing Earth’s
past, Hazen peers into the planet’s
future. He looks ahead to near-term
warming triggered by greenhouse gases
and to the desertification of the planet
billions of years in the future as the sun
brightens and oceans boil away. In the
meantime, continents will continue to
shift, and microscopic life will scarcely
miss a beat. For eons to come — and
with or without humans, Hazen
notes — Earth will be a living planet of
blue oceans, green lands and swirling
white clouds. — Sid Perkins
Baby-making
Bart Fauser and
Paul Devroey
Two fertility doctors
describe modern
technologies and the
future of assisted
reproduction. Oxford Univ., 2011,
292 p., $29.95
Taste What
You’re Missing
Barb Stuckey
Learn why bacon is so
delicious and cilantro
is not for everyone in
this exploration of how
the senses of taste, smell, hearing
and sight influence the experience of
food. Free Press, 2012, 407 p., $26
The Science of Yoga
William J. Broad
A review of research
shows the demon-
strated benefits — and
risks — of various yoga
practices. Simon &
Schuster, 2012, 298 p., $26
Before the
Lights Go Out
Maggie Koerth-Baker
A journalist explores
society’s energy
options for the future,
including technologies
both old and new. Wiley, 2012,
225 p., $27.95
Snap
Katherine Ramsland
This exploration
of the neurosci-
ence behind “aha”
moments offers tips
for increasing the
odds of such spontaneous insights,
or “snaps.” Prometheus Books, 2012,
283 p., $25
How to Order To order these books or others,
visit www.sciencenews.org/bookshelf. A click on
a book’s title will transfer you to Amazon.com.
