eShop USA > Books > The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future
The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future
List Price: $19.95Our Price: $13.57 You Save: $6.38 (32%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Save $5.00 when you spend $25.00 or more on Qualifying Items offered by Amazon.com. Enter code BMLSAVES at checkout.
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 551.60901
EAN: 9780691102962
ISBN: 0691102961
Label: Princeton University Press
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: July 01, 2002
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Studio: Princeton University Press
Related Items: Featured Listmania!
Editorial Review:Richard Alley, one of the world's leading climate researchers, tells the fascinating history of global climate changes as revealed by reading the annual rings of ice from cores drilled in Greenland. In the 1990s he and his colleagues made headlines with the discovery that the last ice age came to an abrupt end over a period of only three years. Here Alley offers the first popular account of the wildly fluctuating climate that characterized most of prehistory--long deep freezes alternating briefly with mild conditions--and explains that we humans have experienced an unusually temperate climate. But, he warns, our comfortable environment could come to an end in a matter of years.The Two-Mile Time Machine begins with the story behind the extensive research in Greenland in the early 1990s, when scientists were beginning to discover ancient ice as an archive of critical information about the climate. Drilling down two miles into the ice, they found atmospheric chemicals and dust that enabled them to construct a record of such phenomena as wind patterns and precipitation over the past 110,000 years. The record suggests that "switches" as well as "dials" control the earth's climate, affecting, for example, hot ocean currents that today enable roses to grow in Europe farther north than polar bears grow in Canada. Throughout most of history, these currents switched on and off repeatedly (due partly to collapsing ice sheets), throwing much of the world from hot to icy and back again in as little as a few years.Alley explains the discovery process in terms the general reader can understand, while laying out the issues that require further study: What are the mechanisms that turn these dials and flip these switches? Is the earth due for another drastic change, one that will reconfigure coastlines or send certain regions into severe drought? Will global warming combine with natural variations in Earth's orbit to flip the North Atlantic switch again? Predicting the long-term climate is one of the greatest challenges facing scientists in the twenty-first century, and Alley tells us what we need to know in order to understand and perhaps overcome climate changes in the future.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Informative, but not a great read.
The author, a scientist, actually did of OK job of keeping me interested in the book. The thing is... the discussion wasn't technical enough to warrant considering on that level. And perhaps it's just me, but it the author didn't provide any strong opinions or speculation of what may have happened and what may happen... just "layman" (weak) facts about how the tests were performed and what it probably means.
I think it would have been much better if the author would have included ... Read More
Rating:  - A perfect example of why you need a good editor
I found this book unreadable.
I don't often say that about a book. I can slog through the Code of Federal Regulations with the best of them. I've edited fiction for publication, and scientific reports. Alley's prose is some of the worst I have ever read. After 41 pages, I gave up. I was nauseated.
Technically, Alley makes some good points. His knowlege is first hand and primary observations. However, his prose is stilted and right out of the 17th Century. I got the impression ... Read More
Rating:  - Takes You Way Back
The Two-Mile Time Machine is a fascinating look into one of the most important scientific endeavors in recent history, the extraction of a two-mile ice core in Greenland that gives us clues to the past earth climate, with some startling revelations on how climate has changed abruptly in the past, and could do so in the near future. Very well-written first-hand account that's easy to read, steering clear of dense technical jargon that has hampered similar books.
If you are interested in learning ... Read More
Rating: - Richard Alley is a great storyteller.
Alley really knows how to write. This book is about the ice core record of past climate, the adventure of collecting the ice cores in Greenland, what drives climate change, and a bit about global warming. He makes analogies to everyday situations that humorously and clearly explain the science. A fun read.
Rating: - From Greenland's Icy Mountains
An excellent book in many ways, I'll mark the author down because he didn't answer questions he raised in my mind. For example, on page four he says that the climate in Greenland became fifteen degrees warmer in one decade 11,500 years ago! But he doesn't develop the point. I want to know what happens when the climate suddenly becomes that much warmer. We're worried about the extinction of the polar bear because the climate has gotten 5 degrees warmer over the last century. How did the polar bear survive a 15 ... Read More
Related Categories:
| |
 |
