| WITH SPEED AND VIOLENCE Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change Fred Pearce Boston: Beacon Press, March 2007 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-8070-8576-9 | ||||
| ISBN-10 0-8070-8576-6 | 278pp. | HC | $24.95 | |
| Page 7: | "He began monitoring carbon-dioxide levels in the mid-1950s, first in the bear-infested hills of the state's Yosemite National Park..." |
| "bear-infested"? The bears were there first. It's a poor choice of words. |
| Page 66: | "By one calculation, approaching 6 trillion tons of water evaporates from the jungle each year..." |
| Number error: S/B "evaporate". |
| Page 90: | "Fifty-five million years ago, more than a trillion tons of methane burst from the ocean, sending temperatures soaring by up to 18°F extinguishing two thirds of the species in the ocean depths, and causing a major evolutionary shock at the surface." |
| Missing comma and hyphen: S/B "18°F, extinguishing two-thirds". |
| Page 127: | "For one thing, they [Venus, Earth, and Mars] are hot, with thin solid crusts hiding large molten cores." |
| The evidence for a molten core on Mars is thin. It has a fragmentary magnetic field, which argues against a molten core. |
| Page 137: | "Jim Hansen calculates that at the height of the last glaciation, [snow] reduced the amount of heat absorbed by the planet's surface by some 4 Watts per 10.8 square feet." |
| This is equivalent to 4W/m2. It's puzzling that Pearce insists on using English units in this clumsy way. He does so again on pages 159, 169, and in other places. |
| Page 168: | "The wet Sahara and the era known more generally as the African Humid Period began around 13,000 years ago, as the ice age abated; and, except for the Younger Dryas hiatus, it lasted right through to the end of the golden age." |
| Number error: S/B "they lasted". |
| Page 228: | "This view seems to be confirmed by Steve Goldstein, of Columbia University, who has used analysis of a rare earth called neodymium..." |
| S/B "a rare earth element called neodymium". |
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