WITH SPEED AND VIOLENCE

Reviewed 9/20/2007

With Speed and Violence, by Fred Pearce

WITH SPEED AND VIOLENCE
Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change
Fred Pearce
Boston: Beacon Press, March 2007

Rating:

5.0

High

ISBN-13 978-0-8070-8576-9
ISBN-10 0-8070-8576-6 278pp. HC $24.95

Errata

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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