Tipping Point for Planet Earth: How Close Are We to the Edge? - Hardcover

Barnosky, Anthony D.; Hadly, Elizabeth A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1250051150 ISBN 13: 9781250051158

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 2016

Synopsis

Four people are born every second of every day. Conservative estimates suggest that there will be 10 billion people on Earth by 2050. That is billions more than the natural resources of our planet can sustain without big changes in how we use and manage them.

So what happens when vast population growth endangers the world’s food supplies? Or our water? Our energy needs, climate, or environment? Or the planet’s biodiversity? What happens if some or all of these become critical at once? Just what is our future?

In Tipping Point for Planet Earth, world-renowned scientists Anthony Barnosky and Elizabeth Hadly explain the growing threats to humanity as the planet edges toward resource wars for remaining space, food, oil, and water. And as they show, these wars are not the nightmares of a dystopian future, but are already happening today. Finally, they ask: at what point will inaction lead to the break-up of the intricate workings of the global society?

The planet is in danger now, but the solutions, as Barnosky and Hadly show, are still available. We still have the chance to avoid the tipping point and to make the future better. But this window of opportunity will shut within ten to twenty years. Tipping Point for Planet Earth is the wake-up call we need.

About this title

About the Authors

ANTHONY D. BARNOSKY is the Professor of Integrative Biology, University of California. A renowned paleobiologist, he has spent 30 years conducting research related to past planetary changes, and what they mean for forecasting the changes to come on Planet Earth in the next few decades.

ELIZABETH A. HADLY holds the Paul S. and Billie Achilles Professorship of Environmental Biology at Stanford University. She has spent more than 25 years studying environmental change in landscapes all over the world, conducting primary research on how living and fossil species can reveal the ways in which current human impacts are influencing ecological systems.

Edition details

• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1250051150
• ISBN 13: 9781250051158
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272