Under a Green Sky - Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can

According to University of Washington paleontologist Peter D. Ward, all but one of the major extinction events in the history of the world have been brought on by climate change-the same global warming that occurs today. In Under a Green Sky, he examines the causes of the Permian extinction, an event more than 200 million years ago so cataclysmic that it destroyed more than 90% of all species and nearly 97% of all living things. This near-total devastation was caused by a warming of the earth due to rising levels of carbon dioxide. Ward explains how that extinction, as well as four others, happened, and then applies those chilling lessons to the present day, showing how the ancient past may hold the key to earth''s future.

About the author

Dr. Peter D. Ward is a professor of biology and earth and space sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. He also serves as an astrobiologist with NASA. Ward is the author of more than a dozen books, including the highly acclaimed Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe with Donald Brownlee and Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth's Ancient Atmosphere.

Product details

• Authors: Peter D Ward, Peter D. Ward, Peter Douglas Ward
• Publisher: Harper Perennial USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 25.03.2008
• EAN: 9780061137921
• ISBN: 978-0-06-113792-1
• No. of pages: 256
• Dimensions: 137 mm x 203 mm x 15 mm
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Non-fiction book > Nature, technology > Natural science; SCIENCE: Life Sciences / Biology, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES: BUSINESS, SCIENCE: Global Warming & Climate Change, SCIENCE: Earth Sciences / Geography, NATURE: Ecology, SCIENCE: Earth Sciences / Geology, SCIENCE: Paleontology, SCIENCE: Earth Sciences / Mineralogy, NATURE: Rocks & Minerals