Tales of the Earth: Paroxysms and Perturbations of the Blue Planet - Softcover

Officer, Charles; Page, Jake

3.53

15 ratings by Goodreads

9780195090482: Tales of the Earth: Paroxysms and Perturbations of the Blue Planet

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195090489 ISBN 13: 9780195090482

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1994

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In Maryland, late in the Spring of 1816, the snow fell brown, and blue, and even red. Brown snow fell in Hungary that year, and in the village of Taranto in southern Italy, where any snow is rare, the red and yellow snow caused great alarm. In New England, 1816 was called the Year Without a Summer. Crops failed throughout America, the price of corn and wheat soared, and farmers (lacking feed) sold off livestock, bringing about a collapse in beef and pork prices. In western Europe it was even worse, with food riots and armed mobs raiding bakeries and grain markets. This turmoil followed a catastrophic volcanic eruption a year earlier on the other side of the world--the April 1815 explosion of the volcano Tambora, on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa--a blast heard almost a thousand miles away in Sumatra. In Tales of the Earth, Charles Officer and Jake Page describe--often through eye-witness accounts and through the commentary of prominent figures--some of the great events of environmental history. From natural catastrophes such as the Tambora eruption, the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755, and the ice ages, to manmade disasters such as the nuclear fallout from Chernobyl, the killer smog of 1952 in London which killed some four thousand people, acid rain, and the progressive depletion of the ozone layer, Officer and Page provide phenomenal accounts of the earthshattering events that have changed the course of history. A fascinating discussion of nature's power over humanity, as well as the trouble humanity makes for nature, Tales of the Earth will interest anyone concerned with the environmental and the natural world.

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About the Author:

Charles Officer is Research Professor in the Earth Sciences Department and Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. Jake Page writes a column for Destination Discovery called "Jake's Page." He has written for Smithsonian, National Geographic, Reader's Digest, and many other magazines.

Review:

"Each chapter is jam-packed with interesting anecdotes to help illustrate and drive home the impact of the various events described....A very entertaining and informative book to read...suggest it to anyone interested in the mechanisms (and their results) of the world in which we
live."--Douglas J. Galpin, Harvard University

"Fascinating, well-written accounts of some of the most publicized geological events--this book is easily-read by all levels, and could serve as supplemental reading for Introductory Geology lecture courses."--Dean A. Dunn, Ph.D., University of Southern Mississippi

"Tales of the Earth reads like 'Ripley's Believe It or Not' with footnotes, but the authors are never less than scholarly. They respond to catastrophe with curiosity, not panic: if we can't banish natural disasters, we can at least learn to be better stewards of the planet."--Newsweek

"A splendid book, well-illustrated and engagingly written, skillfully blending vivid eyewitness accounts of natural catastrophes and man-made accidents with lucid discussion of their scientific explanation and human impact."--Frank H.T. Rhodes, President, Cornell University

"Exceptionally lively....From hundreds of millions of years ago to this summer, from droughts and ice ages and volcanoes to the black plague, Officer and Page prance from topic to topic across the aeons, providing an irresistible combination of history, speculation, humor and 'hard science'
explanation."--Washington Post Book World

"Disasters make good reading. Charles Officer and Jake Page, a scientist and a science journalist, respectively, understand that."--The Boston Sunday Globe

"A fascinating and informative read."--The Seattle Times

"Big-league environmental events--chronicled in absorbing, illuminating style by office...The authors present a grab bag of awesome earthly happenings, concentrating on events so stupendous that they changed the course of history, or are in the process of doing so....A work of science that
reads like a good mystery--and that's entertainment."--Kirkus Reviews

"Ravaging ice, floods, titanic eruptions, noxious atmospheres, insidious plagues and extinctions, visitors from outer space, the enormous toll from imperceptible erosion over vast time....It's clear that we are still in danger when it comes to an Earth that constantly remakes itself from
inside and out. Here's compelling stories of a 'terra nova' full of violence and mayhem--with a dramatic sweep that has few parallels. And the discovery of these tales of Earth, full of great characters, remain the most compelling in all of science. But now a new and dangerous Force is loosed on
the world--humans! By connecting Earth's notorious past to the change we find around us today, Officer and Page provide a much needed perspective. If we can learn from the past, they believe we're up to the challenge of living with the Earth in the future."--Gregory Andorfer, Producer, Planet Earth,
Cosmos, and Space Age

". . . a well-written and interesting (in places almost fascinating) book." --C.W. Dimmick, Choice

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