Apocalyptic Planet : Field Guide to the Everending Earth

by CHILDS, CRAIG

• ISBN13: 9780307379092
• ISBN10: 0307379094
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-10-02
• Publisher: Pantheon

Summary

An exhilarating, surprising exploration of our globe: a combination of science and adventure that reveals the ways in which our world is constantly moving toward its end and of how we can change our place within the cycles that rule the planet. In a riveting narrative, Craig Childs makes clear the fact that ours is not a stable planet; that it is prone to sudden, violent natural disasters and extremes of climate. He refutes the idea of an apocalyptic end to earth, and finds clues to the more inevitable end in some of the most physically challenging places on earth. He travels from the deserts of Chile, the driest in the world, to the genetic wasteland of central Iowa, to the site of the drowned land bridge of the Bering Sea, uncovering the micro-cataclysms that predict the macro: forthcoming ice ages, super volcanoes, and the conclusion of planetary life cycles. Childs delivers a sensual feast in his descriptions of the natural world, and a bounty of unequivocal science that provides us with an unprecedented understanding of our future.