- Hardcover: 248 pages
- Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (2 May 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0230553826
- ISBN-13: 978-0230553828
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.9 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 385,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
'The book does not disappoint, as we are taken on a meteorological journey through time, discovering the planet has a turbulent, disaster-prone history' - Current World Archaeology
'An entertaining, state-of-the-art overview of key issues in paleoclimatology...Chris Turney's new book is a great addition to a legacy of climate science literature.' - Holocene
'Ice, Mud and Blood has the readability of a novel with the feel of an interesting college lecturer. From the moment you begin to read it, it is hard to put the book down.' - Celsias.com
'Turney writes calmly and clearly about warming, cooling and other enormous climatic events in earth's geological past. He explains why they add to scientific concern about human greenhouse gas emissions, not detract as sceptics contend. A top contribution to the global warming debate.' - Australian
'Chris Turney's Ice, Mud and Blood is lively, well-researched, and up-to-date. A summary of key discoveries by scientists about past climate change, it ranges widely across time and all over the planet. Turney begins many of these stories with delightful anecdotes about people who centuries ago stumbled on confusing observations that in time came to be understood as the result of climate change.' Professor William F. Ruddiman, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, USA and author of Plows, Plagues and Petroleum
'Chris Turney has unveiled a climate crystal ball. It's made of ice, covered in mud, and tells the past and likely future of life on Earth. Join him as he delves expertly into the layered depths of climatic history and exposes the stark warnings to all fossil-fuelled humanity that they hold.' Dr Dave Reay, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, UK and author of Climate Change Begins at Home
'A great read on a critically important subject. Turney's best book yet.' Tim Flannery, Professor, Earth& Life Science, Macquarie University
'Ice, Mud and Blood is just what the global warming debate needs – a sober but passionate account of past climate change by a leading climate scientist that builds to an uncompromising climax: unnatural climate change is here and it's only going to get worse. With a great eye for a story and a quirky turn of phrase, Turney tells how human history has twisted and turned at the helm of a capricious Nature. All the more frightening then to hear that the environmental challenges we face in the coming decades go beyond anything our species has ever had to contend with. A timely rallying call from someone on the frontline.' Dr Iain Stewart, School of Earth, Ocean and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, and presenter and author of the BBC's Earth: Climate Wars
'A sobering and vividly told tale' New Scientist
'Chris Turney is an outstanding young scientist and this book explores the changing climate and the risks facing us today' Devon Life
'It has been an exciting time to be a scientist working in this area, and Chris Turney's book Ice, Mud and Blood conveys that excitement wonderfully.' - Nature
'Written with humour and personal flair, Ice, Mud and Blood is a must-read for anyone concerned about the issues we face as we get closer and closer to the tipping point, when the effects of climate change will be unstoppable. 8/10' - inthenews.co.uk
'Its virtues are the same as his previous book, the careful documentation of exactly how we know what we know, and less dictation of the conclusions…If you want just one book, not too thick or too technical, that will give you the intellectual tools to at least understand what the climate change experts are talking about, this is the one.' - www.scienceblogs.com
Dr Dave Reay, - School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, UK and author of 'Climate Change Begins at Home'
'Chris Turney has unveiled a climate crystal ball. It's made of ice, covered in mud, and tells the past and likely future of life on Earth. Join him as he delves expertly into the layered depths of climatic history and exposes the stark warnings to all fossil-fuelled humanity that they hold.'
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First Sentence
Imagine a world of wildly escalating temperatures, apocalyptic flooding, devastating storms and catastrophic sea level rise. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Imagine a world of wildly escalating temperatures, apocalyptic flooding, devastating storms and catastrophic sea level rise. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A very readable primer aimed at the general public on what is now known about past climate change and how scientists have determined this. In covering this Turney introduces us to many of the pivotal figures that over the centuries have contributed to our knowledge and understanding. Ice Mud and Blood covers the history of the science as well as the science of climate change. The book covers `snowball earth', why earth cooled since the time of the dinosaurs, the discovery of ice ages and the mechanisms that caused them, changes to earths' climate (when the Sahara was green, Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age etc) since the end of the last ice age up until present; the roles played by the oceans, ocean currents, volcanoes, tectonic plates, astronomical (Milankovitch) cycles and much else besides. Importantly the author also describes in an easy to understand way how scientists arrived at their findings and conclusions. Turney also explains the role of CO2 and why the current scientific consensus is that higher levels of greenhouse gases will raise earth's temperature with corresponding shifts to climate and weather. One lesson from human history is that we should be asking the question "will climate change mean things get wetter or dryer where I live?" Extremes of climate can have profound effects on human society's ability to support itself. This book is worth reading alongside Brian Fagan, William Boroughs and other writers in this field.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In Ice, Mud and Blood, Chris Turney sets out to provide a brief potted story of the Earth's climate history. This covers the whole range of time, from deep geological times 500 million years ago but concentrating on the more recent 100,000 years or so
It is a book I would very much like to recommend - it is written by an academic in a nice friendly style but I think there are two drawbacks. First he is not very good on his narrative. He tends to meander off, indeed giving a fascinating sidelights into the history of the various topics, but at the end of each chapter I found that too often I said to myself: what exactly have I learned in this chapter?
The second problem is that he tends to pull his punches when it comes to controversies. Climate change is a highly contentious subject and one would very much like to have a book where they are explained. For instance, he mentions Mike Mann's hockey stick theory on page 189 but he gave no indication that this is an incredibly controversial theory that is under attack both by the archaeologists for omitting the mediaeval warm period and I gather by the mathematicians too. Similarly in dealing with the Vostok ice core -- which he explained in a fascinating aside -- he mentions briefly the problem that apparently it shows that the increase in greenhouse gases appears to follow changes in temperature and not to precede them -- but then he doesn't really explain why this evidence should be not be admitted.
I like to recommend this book wholeheartedly and give it five stars, but in the final judgement it is a little disappointing and only really deserves three stars.
It is a book I would very much like to recommend - it is written by an academic in a nice friendly style but I think there are two drawbacks. First he is not very good on his narrative. He tends to meander off, indeed giving a fascinating sidelights into the history of the various topics, but at the end of each chapter I found that too often I said to myself: what exactly have I learned in this chapter?
The second problem is that he tends to pull his punches when it comes to controversies. Climate change is a highly contentious subject and one would very much like to have a book where they are explained. For instance, he mentions Mike Mann's hockey stick theory on page 189 but he gave no indication that this is an incredibly controversial theory that is under attack both by the archaeologists for omitting the mediaeval warm period and I gather by the mathematicians too. Similarly in dealing with the Vostok ice core -- which he explained in a fascinating aside -- he mentions briefly the problem that apparently it shows that the increase in greenhouse gases appears to follow changes in temperature and not to precede them -- but then he doesn't really explain why this evidence should be not be admitted.
I like to recommend this book wholeheartedly and give it five stars, but in the final judgement it is a little disappointing and only really deserves three stars.
Format:Hardcover
This is great short book, written in a highly accessible style, offers a number of very interesting insights into some of the ways how scientists have reconstructed past climates.
Whilst Turney does tend to go off on tangents and sometimes the chapters prove a little inconclusive (as mentioned in other reviews) this both adds interesting narrative to the story and represents a more fair discussion of the topic than is often presented in many other popular science books.
I would strongly recommend this book to readers from a wide range of backgrounds, but perhaps especially to those who feel they want more information on the claims made by science with regards to future climate changes, and those entering higher education from college/school level study.
All in all, a very entertaining book.
Whilst Turney does tend to go off on tangents and sometimes the chapters prove a little inconclusive (as mentioned in other reviews) this both adds interesting narrative to the story and represents a more fair discussion of the topic than is often presented in many other popular science books.
I would strongly recommend this book to readers from a wide range of backgrounds, but perhaps especially to those who feel they want more information on the claims made by science with regards to future climate changes, and those entering higher education from college/school level study.
All in all, a very entertaining book.
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