The Earth as a Cradle for Life aims to fill the gap between readers who have a strong and informed scientific interest in the environment (but no access to the journal literature), and their desire for a basic understanding of the environment. It provides a comprehensive account, and requires no advanced mathematical skills. It will also satisfy a need for a textbook on fundamental science for students in tertiary environmental science courses that may otherwise neglect the underlying basis of their subject.
The Earth as a Cradle takes a step back from common perceptions of the environment, and presents a new fundamental perspective. It draws attention to observations that have been neglected or discounted for reasons the authors found invalid, and which allow a more coherent account of the environment than is possible without them.
Misunderstandings about the environment are common, even in the scientific community. They arise in part from the multi-disciplinary nature of the subject and the difficulty in keeping all relevant observations in mind and assessing their validity. These misunderstandings are often consequences of the band-wagon effect: when an idea is reinforced by repeated quotation and becomes difficult to contradict even when it is in obvious conflict with observations. This is especially so in a subject with strong media interest and conflicting commercial interests — and Cradle sweeps these considerations aside and presents a new environmental scenario.
This book draws on several decades of research by the authors on fundamental Earth science, and presents probing insights on environmental questions that are not widely recognized — even in the professional community. For this reason it will become a landmark in the environmental science and Earth science literature.
Contents:
- Physical and Astronomical Foundations:
- “The Age of the Earth as an Abode Fitted for Life” (Lord Kelvin, 1899)
- Rotation, Tides and the Moon
- The Variable Sun and Other Astronomical Effects
- The Magnetic Field
- The Evolving Earth:
- Internal Heat and the Evolution of the Earth
- The Oceans
- Planetary Atmospheres and the Appearance of Free Oxygen
- Thermal Balance, the Greenhouse Effect and Sea Level
- Environmental Crises and Mass Extinctions of Species
- Stability of the Environment
- Inorganic Mineral Deposits as Products of an Evolving Environment
- Fossil Fuels, Buried Carbon and Photosynthetic Oxygen
- Human Influences:
- Effects of Fossil Fuel Use
- A Comparison of Human Energy Use with Natural Dissipations
- The Cradle is Rocking
- A Summary of Salient Conclusions
Readership: General public, students, professionals, and researchers in the fields of environmental science, geology, geophysics, climatology, meteorology, oceanography, and environmental education.