From Publishers Weekly:
This outsize volume is slated to appear as its companion PBS series is aired. A superb pop-science writer and a columnist in Sciences, Weiner seems to have steeped himself in the lore, legends and most up-to-date scientific knowledge about our planet. His book teems with little-known and often startling facts about Earth's origins, its geology, its climate, its relationship to its cosmic environment, its dependence on a sun which itself is burning out, and finally its unique character as the abode of an incredible variety of living species, including humans, whose existence shapes its destiny. A profusion of photos lends the book visual exhilaration; color shots as recent as a Space Shuttle photos of hurricane Elena are included. Here, explored profoundly and comprehensively, is Mother Earth seen as unbearably preciousthe more so since Weiner does not discount chances of a possible "nuclear winter," naming his readers as "the first generation of the long goodbye." Major ad/promo; BOMC main selection; author tour.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal:
This attractively illustrated book is a companion volume to the recent public television series of the same name. The book stands well on its own as a summary of current discoveries and as an up-to-date synthesis of current thinking in many of the branches of the earth sciences. Plate tectonics, oceanography, climatic change, the composition of the other planets, the workings of the sun, the origin of natural resources, and the origin and future of life on Earth are among the topics discussed. While it has a few minor errors and would have profited from additional diagrams, this book can serve as a useful introduction to the earth sciences for the layperson. Joseph Hannibal, Cleveland Museum of Natural History agriculture & animal husbandry
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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