| Fragile Earth: Views of a Changing World (Collins) | 
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| Authors: Collins With Contributors, Mark Lynas, Tim Flannery, Fred Pearce, Elizabeth Kolbert, Bjorn Lomborg, Guy Dauncey, Michael Allaby
Publisher: Collins
Category: Book
List Price: £30.00
Buy New: £2.95
You Save: £27.05 (90%)
New (9) Used (7) from £2.92
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 28661
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.7
Dimensions (in): 11.2 x 9.9 x 1
ISBN: 0007233140
EAN: 9780007233144
ASIN: 0007233140
Publication Date: September 4, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Glimpses of the neighbourhood March 13, 2007
Anybody left harbouring doubts about the reality of climate change will be relieved of them by this book. The images of how glaciers are disappearing, the sea rising to threaten coastal communities or the ravages of intense storms are a jarring sight. The Collins team has performed an outstanding service in compiling such a span of places and conditions in demonstrating what is happening and is likely to occur in our future. With added commentary from a selected group of those interested in environment issues, this is a valuable visual package.
The book is comprised of eight chapters of categorised imagery and one of comment on future conditions. Opening with such natural phenomena as earthquakes, tsunamis and cyclones and tornadoes, the images of human activity follow. Although the natural forces are the stuff of The Weather Channel, there are some human-created conditions that will be novel to many. Dutch land reclamation from the sea was depicted in our childhood reading, but the images of a set of man-made islands off the coast of Dubai may be something of a jolt. Looking like some flower or a bizarre insect, they are known as the "Palm Islands" for their resemblance to that plant.
Water, in one of its many forms, takes up a significant portion of the book. Glaciers may seem remote and of little value except for tourism, but some cities, such as Lima, Peru, rely on glaciers as a water source. The loss of glaciers means far more than the loss of a city's supply. As the Polar, Greenland and Canadian snow and ice melt away in rising temperatures, lowland civilisations are threatened with inundation. It may be easy to overlook the drowning of a Pacific Island nation like Tuvalu, but the millions of people displaced by flooding in Bangladesh will be a challenge its neighbours will have to cope with. The map depicting this flooding is hard to interpret in human terms - the scale is too small. Nevertheless, there are people in that zone of beige marked on the map.
The comments concluding the book are of interest, but reading them is a chore. In its effort to give modernity to the book, the page and print colours are far too close for proper readability. However, the reading is worth the effort for such articles as those by Mark Lynas and Tim Flannery. The editors, struggling to deliver a "balanced" presentation, slipped Bjorn Landstrom, the "Sceptical Environmentalist", in as a naysayer. Claiming to have observed the images, he then puts forward the notion that "technology" will save the species. Where Lima will obtain its water or how the Bangladeshi will be replanted elsewhere without social impact, seems to have escaped his notice. The editors might have found a more rational sceptic to include, but those are becoming as rare as the Golden Toad. Nevertheless, it is the images and explanations of their import that render the book an indispensible tool. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
A must buy! January 4, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Having brought 2 of these books as presents i took a sneaky peek inside them. Wow! fantastic pictures, information and very thought provoking. I am about to buy one for myself having heard that one of the presents (a Christmas present) was picked up by a visitor of the receiver and they stayed up half the night looking / reading it! Can't get a fairer review than that!
awesome! October 23, 2006
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
A fantastic, thought provoking and somewhat frightening view of our planet. This book is a must for anyone with even a vague interest in environmentalism, its superb photographs tells a shocking story of the changing face of this earth.
unputdownable.
Chilling vision of how we are transforming the planet October 20, 2006
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Stunning book showing breathtaking photographs of changes happening to the world. Many of the photographs are shown as before and after giving real context to the rapid changes that are happening such as coastal erosion, glacier melting and rivers flooding. There are also informative pages with statistics, maps and text on each subject discussed in the book.
The final chapter gives an interesting insight into what the future may hold for us.
This book really brings geography alive - I just wish it had been available when I was at school.
Was a great gift for my environmentalist sister... October 19, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Beautiful book, and the images are absolutely amazing - how can anyone deny that global warming doesn't exist (George W Bush!?). My sister really liked it as well - backs up everything that she has been saying for a long time. It's an ideal gift for anybody who cares whether or not their coffee table is built from wood sourced from sustainable forests or not - great pictures and a conscience.
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