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Frozen Earth: The Once and Future Story of Ice Ages
In this engrossing and accessible book, Doug Macdougall explores the causes and effects of ice ages that have gripped our planet throughout its history, from the earliest known glaciation―nearly three billion years ago―to the present. Following the development of scientific ideas about these dramatic events, Macdougall traces the lives of many of the brilliant and intriguing characters who have contributed to the evolving understanding of how ice ages come about. As it explains how the great Pleistocene Ice Age has shaped the earth's landscape and influenced the course of human evolution, Frozen Earth also provides a fascinating look at how science is done, how the excitement of discovery drives scientists to explore and investigate, and how timing and chance play a part in the acceptance of new scientific ideas.
Macdougall describes the awesome power of cataclysmic floods that marked the melting of the glaciers of the Pleistocene Ice Age. He probes the chilling evidence for "Snowball Earth," an episode far back in the earth's past that may have seen our planet encased in ice from pole to pole. He discusses the accumulating evidence from deep-sea sediment cores, as well as ice cores from Greenland and the Antarctic, that suggests fast-changing ice age climates may have directly impacted the evolution of our species and the course of human migration and civilization. Frozen Earth also chronicles how the concept of the ice age has gripped the imagination of scientists for almost two centuries. It offers an absorbing consideration of how current studies of Pleistocene climate may help us understand earth's future climate changes, including the question of when the next glacial interval will occur.
Macdougall describes the awesome power of cataclysmic floods that marked the melting of the glaciers of the Pleistocene Ice Age. He probes the chilling evidence for "Snowball Earth," an episode far back in the earth's past that may have seen our planet encased in ice from pole to pole. He discusses the accumulating evidence from deep-sea sediment cores, as well as ice cores from Greenland and the Antarctic, that suggests fast-changing ice age climates may have directly impacted the evolution of our species and the course of human migration and civilization. Frozen Earth also chronicles how the concept of the ice age has gripped the imagination of scientists for almost two centuries. It offers an absorbing consideration of how current studies of Pleistocene climate may help us understand earth's future climate changes, including the question of when the next glacial interval will occur.
267 pages, Hardcover
First published September 15, 2004
30 people are currently reading
415 people want to read
About the author
Doug Macdougall
8 books37 followersDoug Macdougall is a former Professor of Earth Sciences (now Emeritus) at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. Born in Toronto, he currently resides in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
May 17, 2012
Frozen Earth: The Once and Future Story of Ice Ages, is a great book about the Ice age and the gradual acknowledgement made by scientific society of the existence of ice ages. Doug Macdougall, the author of Frozen Earth, mentions different scientific and non-scientific figures who have contributed in making the theory of Ice age. He writes about how they comprehended the causes of ice age and the evidence current landscape provides. He talks about Louis Agassiz frequently because of this contribution of putting forward the Theory of Ice Age for the first time. His main objective for this book was to tell stories about glaciation of Earth and how mankind came to recognize it and the importance of glaciation in shaping Earth.
Macdougall gives reasons and his own critiques on many scientific discoveries he mentions in the book. This makes it more than a story and more like a narrative with comments. He illustrates in this book that any conclusions made on Ice Age was dependent on deep observations made by many naturalists, philosophers even and scientists. Some of these observations at times tend to be scientific. However, he explains all of them well enough that any person with little scientific background can understand it.
As the book progresses, the contents gets more and more scientific which can be frustrating at times. But it does not happen too often that one would want to keep the book down. Also, for the first half of the book, in each chapter he mentions one important historical figure who contributed in understanding glaciation on Earth in the past. He writes their life history and as one moves from one figure to another, it sometimes does feel like he is deviating from the subject matter.
Overall, Frozen Earth is an informative book. To anyone, who is interested in Ice Age or was fascinated with Ice Age movies and wanted to learn more about Ice Age, this is a worthy book to read. Moreover, this book can also be used in certain courses which focus on Earth’s landscape.
Macdougall gives reasons and his own critiques on many scientific discoveries he mentions in the book. This makes it more than a story and more like a narrative with comments. He illustrates in this book that any conclusions made on Ice Age was dependent on deep observations made by many naturalists, philosophers even and scientists. Some of these observations at times tend to be scientific. However, he explains all of them well enough that any person with little scientific background can understand it.
As the book progresses, the contents gets more and more scientific which can be frustrating at times. But it does not happen too often that one would want to keep the book down. Also, for the first half of the book, in each chapter he mentions one important historical figure who contributed in understanding glaciation on Earth in the past. He writes their life history and as one moves from one figure to another, it sometimes does feel like he is deviating from the subject matter.
Overall, Frozen Earth is an informative book. To anyone, who is interested in Ice Age or was fascinated with Ice Age movies and wanted to learn more about Ice Age, this is a worthy book to read. Moreover, this book can also be used in certain courses which focus on Earth’s landscape.
February 4, 2022
Written in 2009 this explains that the Earth is four and a half Billion years old, so there is a need for a birthday card somewhere. Begins with profiles of various men who ponder the past of the Earth using different methods of examination.
Goes into drilling ice cores to examine atmosphere of the past using air bubbles captured within drilled content, then goes into evolution and advancements of species due to various alterations. B/W images and charts, occasional insight.
Goes into drilling ice cores to examine atmosphere of the past using air bubbles captured within drilled content, then goes into evolution and advancements of species due to various alterations. B/W images and charts, occasional insight.
December 4, 2012
This is one nerdy book - and I loved it! Climate science is so fascinating. I could have been a paleoclimatologist. Instead I read books like this. It really helped me frame climate change into a much longer perspective.
August 17, 2019
Fascinating account of ice ages and how they were discovered
This is an absolutely fascinating account of the various ice ages that have periodically taken over the earth. From the ancient "Snowball Earth" (sometimes called "Slushball Earth," 550 to 850 million years ago) in which the entire planet was more or less frozen from pole to pole, to the "Younger Dryas," a cold spell beginning 12,800 years ago and lasting for about 1,200 years, to "Little Ice Age" in Europe (700 to 150 years ago) to the "year without a summer," in 1816, UCSD Professor of Earth Sciences Doug MacDougall chronicles the ebb and flow of glacial advance and retreat in a most interesting and informative manner.
Much of this is a historical account of how scientists discovered the past ice ages through geology and the study of cores taken from the Antarctic, the Arctic, from the sea floor, and from still standing glacial ice packs. MacDougall explains how these cores are read to reveal climate changes in the past based on evidence from isotopes, pollen, and bubbles of trapped atmospheric gases. It is really amazing how much information can come from such minute bits of evidence.
In the early chapters MacDougall recalls the first scientists who became aware of the earth's climate in previous ages--Louis Agassiz, James Croll, Milutin Milankovitch and others. MacDougall recalls their efforts to get their ideas accepted by the geological establishment. It is fascinating to see how gradually it was realized that great rocks had arrived at various places, having been carried there by ancient glaciers. A particularly interesting story is how the Channeled Scablands of the Columbia Plateau in Washington were created when the glacial Lake Missoula sudden broke through the melting ice and drove an immense wall of water clear to the Pacific Ocean.
Part of his concentration is on the glacial and interglacial periods that have characterized the environment during the rise of the genus homo and especially the last 150,000 years or so during which homo sapiens have evolved. Chapter Ten, "Ice Ages, Climate, and Evolution" is devoted to how the advance and retreat of the ice affected the evolution of hominids and other animals and plants.
For those of us who might be worried about global warning it is perhaps refreshing to be warned that we are still living in an ice age. MacDougall writes, "We are in a warm period, one of the many interglacial intervals that have occurred throughout the Pleistocene Ice Age [now three million years old]." (p. 233)
Near the end of the book MacDougall looks at today's climate and takes into account the warming due to human activities, in particular the burning of fossil fuels. But he is not alarmed. He notes that the atmosphere on the planet Venus (surface temperature 485 degrees Centigrade, more than hot enough to melt lead) is almost all CO2 while that on earth is less than four-tenths of one percent CO2. No runaway greenhouse effect seems likely here any time soon. MacDougall explains the carbon dioxide cycle on earth and assures us that most CO2 is locked up in limestone. (p. 238)
While he seems unconcerned about global warming (taking the very long view) he does remark that "It is difficult to comprehend how further additions [of CO2] to the atmosphere at current rates could fail to raise global temperatures and possibly influence the course of the [current] Pleistocene Ice Age." (p. 241) Still he ends the book with this (possibly understated) possibility: "...mankind may inadvertently bring the Pleistocene Ice Age to a premature close, ushering in another long period of ice-free existence for our planet."
Which brings me to the question, if the earth does become more or less permanently as hot and muggy as a Jurassic swamp, what will it mean for human beings? There will be less land available since the melting of the glaciers would raise sea level some 60 meters, drowning New York and London, not to mention much of Florida and a host of South Pacific islands, Bangladesh, and other low-lying lands. Will we live most of our lives indoors in air-conditioned buildings? Will the verdant plants and fantastic diversity of creatures characteristic of tropical jungles be all around us? Will dragon flies be as big as birds?
On the other hand, suppose, as MacDougall intimates, that the forces affecting the earth's climate dwarf our puny doings. In that case the present interglacial will come to a close and the immediate future will be cold as the ice once again advances from the poles. As MacDougall points out, the air will be dryer with all that water locked up in ice, and great parts of the planet will be desert and the winds will blow the sand around the globe (as happened before during such periods as evidenced by the core samplings). I am reminded of the poet Robert Frost's dilemma, "Fire or Ice?" Probably our lives will not end in such extremes, but our way of life may change dramatically, and many will endure great hardships.
On the third hand, is it possible, maybe even probable, that we human beings will be able to affect the climate in such a way as to stave off the extremes? One of the cold-amplifying effects of great sheets of ice over the earth is to reflect sunlight and further cool the planet. Might not humans spread dark matter over the ice, melting it? Or in the case of too much CO2 or other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, might humans somehow find a way to sink such gases and cool things down?
This is a distinguished work, very well written, beautifully edited, full of fascinating information about how cold the earth has been in the past (and how cold it might become again) and why.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
This is an absolutely fascinating account of the various ice ages that have periodically taken over the earth. From the ancient "Snowball Earth" (sometimes called "Slushball Earth," 550 to 850 million years ago) in which the entire planet was more or less frozen from pole to pole, to the "Younger Dryas," a cold spell beginning 12,800 years ago and lasting for about 1,200 years, to "Little Ice Age" in Europe (700 to 150 years ago) to the "year without a summer," in 1816, UCSD Professor of Earth Sciences Doug MacDougall chronicles the ebb and flow of glacial advance and retreat in a most interesting and informative manner.
Much of this is a historical account of how scientists discovered the past ice ages through geology and the study of cores taken from the Antarctic, the Arctic, from the sea floor, and from still standing glacial ice packs. MacDougall explains how these cores are read to reveal climate changes in the past based on evidence from isotopes, pollen, and bubbles of trapped atmospheric gases. It is really amazing how much information can come from such minute bits of evidence.
In the early chapters MacDougall recalls the first scientists who became aware of the earth's climate in previous ages--Louis Agassiz, James Croll, Milutin Milankovitch and others. MacDougall recalls their efforts to get their ideas accepted by the geological establishment. It is fascinating to see how gradually it was realized that great rocks had arrived at various places, having been carried there by ancient glaciers. A particularly interesting story is how the Channeled Scablands of the Columbia Plateau in Washington were created when the glacial Lake Missoula sudden broke through the melting ice and drove an immense wall of water clear to the Pacific Ocean.
Part of his concentration is on the glacial and interglacial periods that have characterized the environment during the rise of the genus homo and especially the last 150,000 years or so during which homo sapiens have evolved. Chapter Ten, "Ice Ages, Climate, and Evolution" is devoted to how the advance and retreat of the ice affected the evolution of hominids and other animals and plants.
For those of us who might be worried about global warning it is perhaps refreshing to be warned that we are still living in an ice age. MacDougall writes, "We are in a warm period, one of the many interglacial intervals that have occurred throughout the Pleistocene Ice Age [now three million years old]." (p. 233)
Near the end of the book MacDougall looks at today's climate and takes into account the warming due to human activities, in particular the burning of fossil fuels. But he is not alarmed. He notes that the atmosphere on the planet Venus (surface temperature 485 degrees Centigrade, more than hot enough to melt lead) is almost all CO2 while that on earth is less than four-tenths of one percent CO2. No runaway greenhouse effect seems likely here any time soon. MacDougall explains the carbon dioxide cycle on earth and assures us that most CO2 is locked up in limestone. (p. 238)
While he seems unconcerned about global warming (taking the very long view) he does remark that "It is difficult to comprehend how further additions [of CO2] to the atmosphere at current rates could fail to raise global temperatures and possibly influence the course of the [current] Pleistocene Ice Age." (p. 241) Still he ends the book with this (possibly understated) possibility: "...mankind may inadvertently bring the Pleistocene Ice Age to a premature close, ushering in another long period of ice-free existence for our planet."
Which brings me to the question, if the earth does become more or less permanently as hot and muggy as a Jurassic swamp, what will it mean for human beings? There will be less land available since the melting of the glaciers would raise sea level some 60 meters, drowning New York and London, not to mention much of Florida and a host of South Pacific islands, Bangladesh, and other low-lying lands. Will we live most of our lives indoors in air-conditioned buildings? Will the verdant plants and fantastic diversity of creatures characteristic of tropical jungles be all around us? Will dragon flies be as big as birds?
On the other hand, suppose, as MacDougall intimates, that the forces affecting the earth's climate dwarf our puny doings. In that case the present interglacial will come to a close and the immediate future will be cold as the ice once again advances from the poles. As MacDougall points out, the air will be dryer with all that water locked up in ice, and great parts of the planet will be desert and the winds will blow the sand around the globe (as happened before during such periods as evidenced by the core samplings). I am reminded of the poet Robert Frost's dilemma, "Fire or Ice?" Probably our lives will not end in such extremes, but our way of life may change dramatically, and many will endure great hardships.
On the third hand, is it possible, maybe even probable, that we human beings will be able to affect the climate in such a way as to stave off the extremes? One of the cold-amplifying effects of great sheets of ice over the earth is to reflect sunlight and further cool the planet. Might not humans spread dark matter over the ice, melting it? Or in the case of too much CO2 or other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, might humans somehow find a way to sink such gases and cool things down?
This is a distinguished work, very well written, beautifully edited, full of fascinating information about how cold the earth has been in the past (and how cold it might become again) and why.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
August 26, 2014
The book is a decade old, but still very interesting, as it treats in large part the history of the scientific investigation into ice ages. Especially the parts on the Pleistocene (which is most of the book) are good. The part on the Snowball Earth-period periods was less informative because necessarily more speculative. The last of those periods was more than 600 million years ago, so there is not much solid evidence. The chapter on the relation between the last ice age and human evolution was not too strong - the author is not a specialist in human evolution and the idea that the changing conditions during the ice age played a roile in human evolution is indeed a theory, but the evidence should be carefully weighed against evidence for other theories, which the author did not do. Even so, te chapter was informative, and the book was a pleasant read.
October 12, 2016
Merytorycznie ocenić nie jestem w stanie, ale dla pasjonatów nauki - bardzo ciekawa rzecz. W pierwszej części mocno biograficzna; sylwetki badaczy XIX stulecia, mimo niewątpliwego uroku, trochę mnie wymęczyły. Im dalej w las, tym jednak robi się ciekawiej. Całość nie tylko pokazuje stan wiedzy (i, co ważne, niewiedzy), ale też stanowi fascynującą historię odkrywania tajemnic lodu. Autor odważnie wychodzi poza temat samego klimatu, szukając skutków epok lodowcowych dla flory, fauny, ewolucji człowieka a nawet dla krajobrazu innych planet (które, rzecz jasna, też klimatycznie "żyją"). Książka daje szerszą perspektywę dla dyskusji o efekcie cieplarnianym.
January 23, 2016
I could never get into this book. I ended up skimming it, just to say that I finished it (it was highly recommended by a friend). It contained too much detail about the early theories and theorists and not enough photos or illustrations to help me wrap my brain around some of the complex concepts. I definitely learned some things, but I would have preferred to get my info from an article in Scientific American.
October 20, 2015
Disappointing; the 2013 version is simply the 2004 book with a new preface; the 'recent' 2003 discovery is not discussed in detail, even though the data have been online since 2005 or so, and there are no suggested reading titles published after 2003. About half of the book is history; too little science to my liking, and no detailed references.
April 29, 2010
Pretty good soup-to-nuts on the ice-age cycles and how we come to know what we know. I like that the author left opinions out and mostly kept to relevant facts. Precession of the equinoxes, anyone?
September 7, 2017
Tells how the ice ages and their causes were discovered. The history of the study of earth's past climate.
November 30, 2018
Good basic intro to ice ages. Not too much technical details.
April 24, 2020
Good book but dated at this point. First 80% of the book is 5 stars but last couple chapters are questionable.
July 13, 2022
Didn’t care as much for the historical figure biographies in the book but appreciated them being there as they did have a few good quotes showing similarities to difficulties of today.
Likes the ice age history.
The end of the book is more speculative on how human evolution is wrapped up in ice ages. This is quite interesting and it seems as if the whole book builds to this. His claim is that other homo species weren’t as well adapted to ice ages and thus home sapiens might have evolved with/because of ice ages- the need to adapt to colder drier climates caused selection pressure for larger brains and bipedalism.
Also the climate can change quickly/ the younger dryas changed in a human lifetime.
Would have liked to see a graph of life forms along side the snowball earth claims as well.
Likes the ice age history.
The end of the book is more speculative on how human evolution is wrapped up in ice ages. This is quite interesting and it seems as if the whole book builds to this. His claim is that other homo species weren’t as well adapted to ice ages and thus home sapiens might have evolved with/because of ice ages- the need to adapt to colder drier climates caused selection pressure for larger brains and bipedalism.
Also the climate can change quickly/ the younger dryas changed in a human lifetime.
Would have liked to see a graph of life forms along side the snowball earth claims as well.
June 1, 2022
Everything you need
This book is a great reference on Ice age and the glimpse of what it was like back when the earth was practically freezing. Very well researched book that is a window into a part of the earth's climate cycle.
This book is a great reference on Ice age and the glimpse of what it was like back when the earth was practically freezing. Very well researched book that is a window into a part of the earth's climate cycle.
March 22, 2020
This was a lot more of the science of glaciers and ice sheets, which I like, but it didn't flow as well as I would like.
September 10, 2020
Closer to 3.5 stars
August 27, 2022
I'm glad that I read this book on a whim. It turns out that geology is fascinating and powerful.
January 24, 2016
This was a very decent, popular science level book about ice ages.
Of course, if you are interested in ice ages you are essentially reading geology which is always a challenge for me as I find geology one of the harder sciences to read about (no pun intended, but embraced nonetheless). When reading geology, there is almost always an element of the history of how the geological propositions came about and the characters responsible for them, this book is no exception there. It concludes with a couple of chapters relating the information we have read about past ice ages and cycles of the earth with the recent history of the middle ages, our current situation on earth today and the possible futures. While the marine environment is not a primary focus for this book, world wide climate change, continental drift and ice ages are the very essence of marine history, so I am including it in my Marine collection.
I found the twelve chapters to progress in a sensible order making the story of the ice ages linear and easy to follow,chapters 1 -4 were essentially the people who first hypothesised what might have happened, the slow discovery of continental shift, ice ages, glaciation on geological era. This section was a bit ponderous, but the stories of the geologists and their research made it readable enough.
Chapters 5 - 9 expanded on the science behind causation; once you accept (more or less, with some scientific argument) that ice ages have occurred, that planetary cycles are a thing and that glaciation is an important part of planetary history, then people start asking why and how. So there chapters explore the possible mechanisms involved in ice ages past.
Chapter 10 - 12 more or less related this information to us as a species. First they look at how the ice ages and inter-glacial periods may have influenced the evolution of species, then they look at the possible influence on Hominids leading to Homo Sapience, and this section was really interesting. We are then taken on a review of how changing climate affected society in the more recent past; the little ice age of medieval Europe, it is a period I have always been quite interested in and this section was fascinating to me. There was then a brief application of all this knowledge we had been given to the current state of the earth and future possibilities of global warming. At no stage did I feel preached at, at no stage did the author tell us what we should do about it all that was presented were the facts as we know them. This was extremely restful.
I would recommend it to anyone with an armchair interest in geology, ice ages, climate change and similar.
Of course, if you are interested in ice ages you are essentially reading geology which is always a challenge for me as I find geology one of the harder sciences to read about (no pun intended, but embraced nonetheless). When reading geology, there is almost always an element of the history of how the geological propositions came about and the characters responsible for them, this book is no exception there. It concludes with a couple of chapters relating the information we have read about past ice ages and cycles of the earth with the recent history of the middle ages, our current situation on earth today and the possible futures. While the marine environment is not a primary focus for this book, world wide climate change, continental drift and ice ages are the very essence of marine history, so I am including it in my Marine collection.
I found the twelve chapters to progress in a sensible order making the story of the ice ages linear and easy to follow,chapters 1 -4 were essentially the people who first hypothesised what might have happened, the slow discovery of continental shift, ice ages, glaciation on geological era. This section was a bit ponderous, but the stories of the geologists and their research made it readable enough.
Chapters 5 - 9 expanded on the science behind causation; once you accept (more or less, with some scientific argument) that ice ages have occurred, that planetary cycles are a thing and that glaciation is an important part of planetary history, then people start asking why and how. So there chapters explore the possible mechanisms involved in ice ages past.
Chapter 10 - 12 more or less related this information to us as a species. First they look at how the ice ages and inter-glacial periods may have influenced the evolution of species, then they look at the possible influence on Hominids leading to Homo Sapience, and this section was really interesting. We are then taken on a review of how changing climate affected society in the more recent past; the little ice age of medieval Europe, it is a period I have always been quite interested in and this section was fascinating to me. There was then a brief application of all this knowledge we had been given to the current state of the earth and future possibilities of global warming. At no stage did I feel preached at, at no stage did the author tell us what we should do about it all that was presented were the facts as we know them. This was extremely restful.
I would recommend it to anyone with an armchair interest in geology, ice ages, climate change and similar.
February 7, 2024
Olen tähele pannud, et filmides jms tembeldatakse geoloogia jutkui B-kategooria teaduseks, mis miskipärast pole nii popp ja noortepärane (loe=huvitav) kui teised teadusharud. Ei tea küll, miks. Mina mõtlesin nt kuskil 2.-3. peatüki juures, et tahaks lausa sellel teemal tehtud dokumentaalfilme näha. Eestis on ju jääajaga saabunud rändrahne rohkem kui kokku lugeda annab. Ühte nägin lausa Viimsis toidupoes! Väga vahva on mõelda, kuidas jää neid kunagi ammu ühest paigast teise lohistas.
Üleüldse ma ei saa aru, miks ma üllatusin, et see raamat nii geoloogia-põhine oli. Ega pilvi uurides tõesti ei saa aimu, millal ja miks ja millise ulatusega jääajad olid. Muidugi on selle teadasaamiseks kivimite uurimine tulemusrikkam. 😃
Raamat oli kohati liiga teaduslik minu maitsele, ent peamiselt polnud minisugusel lihtinimesel liiga keeruline juttu jälgida. Kui jõudsin peatükini, kus kirjeldati kliimamuutuse mõju kunstile ja muusikale keskaja n-ö väikese jääaja kontekstis, siis vajus küll suu lahti, et mismoodi on üldse keegi tulnud selle peale, et sellist seost uurida! 😮 Uskumatult põnev!
Jääaja-uurimiste algusaja kohta oli huvitav lugeda, et algselt üritati uusi teadusteooriaid siiski rajada Piiblist loetud teadmistele. Kui Piiblis on kirjas veeuputus, siis pidi see veeuputus ometi toimunud olema. Ja uued leiud naturaalteadustes tuli siis usuteadustega klapitada, et mõlemad versioonid ilusasti kattuks. 😉
Üleüldse ma ei saa aru, miks ma üllatusin, et see raamat nii geoloogia-põhine oli. Ega pilvi uurides tõesti ei saa aimu, millal ja miks ja millise ulatusega jääajad olid. Muidugi on selle teadasaamiseks kivimite uurimine tulemusrikkam. 😃
Raamat oli kohati liiga teaduslik minu maitsele, ent peamiselt polnud minisugusel lihtinimesel liiga keeruline juttu jälgida. Kui jõudsin peatükini, kus kirjeldati kliimamuutuse mõju kunstile ja muusikale keskaja n-ö väikese jääaja kontekstis, siis vajus küll suu lahti, et mismoodi on üldse keegi tulnud selle peale, et sellist seost uurida! 😮 Uskumatult põnev!
Jääaja-uurimiste algusaja kohta oli huvitav lugeda, et algselt üritati uusi teadusteooriaid siiski rajada Piiblist loetud teadmistele. Kui Piiblis on kirjas veeuputus, siis pidi see veeuputus ometi toimunud olema. Ja uued leiud naturaalteadustes tuli siis usuteadustega klapitada, et mõlemad versioonid ilusasti kattuks. 😉
April 5, 2013
I won't rehash what other reviewers have written about this excellent book except to say that I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Frozen Earth is organized as a series of biographical chapters focusing on different scientists who advanced our understanding of the history of Earth's glaciations stretching back several billion years. These biographical sketches include Louis Agassiz, James Croll, Milutin Milankovitch and others. I found this fascinating and it whet my appetite for more substantial biographies of these remarkable individuals. Unfortunately, in some cases further scholarship does not exist.
July 31, 2011
What a great book for the non-scientist who wants to learn about the scientists and the theories of ice ages. I know the current climate concern is over global warming, but a glacial advance seems way more frightening after reading this book. One issue that I had with the book is that it did not extend the theories forward in time to make an attempt at predicting when there will be a glacial advance again. This seemed like the next logical step and the author never went there. Overall impression: loved it!
December 21, 2016
Esse livro é simplesmente fantástico.
Une geologia, história da humanidade, evolução das espécies e clima de uma maneira que eu nunca tinha visto reunida em um único livro.
Era exatamente o tipo de livro que eu estava procurando. Não é tão denso em termos de exigência de conhecimento de geologia; um leigo dedicado pode ler tranquilamente. O autor usa a biografia dos pesquisadores sobre era do gelo para introduzir o conhecimento sobre a relação entre o clima e a geologia da Terra.
Certamente entra para a lista dos melhores livros que li em 2016.
(li o livro em inglês)
Une geologia, história da humanidade, evolução das espécies e clima de uma maneira que eu nunca tinha visto reunida em um único livro.
Era exatamente o tipo de livro que eu estava procurando. Não é tão denso em termos de exigência de conhecimento de geologia; um leigo dedicado pode ler tranquilamente. O autor usa a biografia dos pesquisadores sobre era do gelo para introduzir o conhecimento sobre a relação entre o clima e a geologia da Terra.
Certamente entra para a lista dos melhores livros que li em 2016.
(li o livro em inglês)
December 8, 2014
If you know nothing about Snowball Earth episodes and Ice Ages, this book is for you. Yes, think about skiing at the sea level near the equator,... it happened long ago. This book is truly informative and easy to read. Professor Macdougall did a superb job.
January 18, 2008
A good study of the origin and history of ice ages; very informative.
November 1, 2014
After reading this book, I come to the conclusion that we're screwed.
September 2, 2011
Great, concise overview of ice ages and why they occur, past, present and future.
April 6, 2017
Really outstanding (and astounding), one of the best science books that I've read.
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