With speed and violence : why scientists fear tipping points in climate change / Fred Pearce.

Includes bibliographies and index.

I. Welcome to the anthropocene. The pioneers: the men who measured the planet's breath -- Turning up the heat: a skeptic's guide to climate change -- The year: how the wild weather of 1998 broke all records -- The anthropocene: a new name for a new geological era -- The watchtower: keeping climate vigil on an Arctic island -- II. Fault lines in the ice. Ninety degrees north: why melting knows no bounds in the far north -- On the slippery slope: Greenland is slumping into the ocean -- The shelf: down south, shattering ice uncorks the Antarctic -- The Mercer legacy: an Achilles heel at the bottom of the world -- Rising tides: saying "toodle-oo" to Tuvalu -- III. Riding the carbon cycle. In the jungle: would we notice if the Amazon went up in smoke? -- Wildfires of Borneo: climate in the mire from burning swamp -- Sink to source: why the carbon cycle is set for a U-turn -- The doomsday device: a lethal secret stirs in the permafrost -- The acid bath: what carbon dioxide does to the oceans -- The wind of change: tsunamis, mega-farts, and mountains of the deep -- IV. Reflecting on warming. What's Watts?: Planet Earth's energy imbalance -- Clouds from both sides: uncovering flaws in the climate models -- A billion fires: how brown haze could turn off the monsoon -- Hydroxyl holiday: the day the planet's cleaner didn't show for work -- V. Ice Ages and Solar Pulses. Goldilocks and the three planets: why Earth is "just right" for life -- The big freeze: how a wobble in our orbit triggered the ice ages -- The ocean conveyor: the real day after tomorrow -- An Arctic flower: clues to a climate switchback -- The pulse: how the sun makes climate change -- VI. Tropical heat. The fall: the end of Africa's golden age -- Seesaw across the ocean: how the Sahara Desert greens the Amazon -- Tropical high: why an ice man is rewriting climate history -- The curse of Akkad: the strange revival of environmental determinism -- A chunk of coral: probing the hidden life of El Niño -- Feeding Asia: what happens if the monsoon falters? -- VII. At the Millennium. The heatwave: the year Europe felt the heat of global warming -- The hockey stick: why now really is different -- Hurricane season: raising the storm cones after Katrina -- Ozone holes in the greenhouse: why millions face radiation threat -- VIII. Inevitable surprises. The dance: the poles or the tropics? Who leads in the climatic dance? -- New horizons: feedbacks from the stratosphere -- Conclusion: another planet -- Appendix: the trillion-ton challenge.

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