The No1 Ethical retailer for Books, CD’s, DVD’s & Games
30 Day Refund Guarantee

Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet we Made

Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet we Made

by Gaia Vince (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2014

    $5.81
Synopsis

This book was shortlisted for the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2015. We live in epoch-making times. Literally. The changes we humans have made in recent decades have altered our world beyond anything it has experienced in its 4.5 billion-year history - we have become a force on a par with earth-shattering asteroids and planet-cloaking volcanoes. As a result, our planet is said to be crossing a geological boundary - from the Holocene into the Anthropocene, or Age of Man. Gaia Vince decided to quit her job at science journal Nature, and travel the world at the start of this new age to explore what all these changes really mean - especially for the people living on the frontline of the planet we've made. She found ordinary people solving severe crises in ingenious, effective ways. Take the retired railway worker who's building artificial glaciers in the Himalayas, for example, or the Peruvian painting mountains white to retain snowfall. Meet the villagers in India using satellite technology to glean water; and the women farmers in Africa combining the latest genetic discoveries with ancient irrigation techniques; witness the electrified reefs in the Maldives and the man who's making islands out of rubbish in the Caribbean. Alongside these extraordinary - and inspiring - stories, Gaia looks at how humanity's changes are reshaping our living planet, transforming our relationship with the natural world, and explores how we might engineer Earth for our future.

$5.81

Quantity

2 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 448
 Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Published: 03 Jul 2014
ISBN 10: 0701187352
ISBN 13: 9780701187354
Book Overview: We are entering a new geological epoch -- the Anthropocene, or Age of Man. Gaia Vince travelled the world to understand what this new age will mean for us, and future generations

Media Reviews
A heroic and important work -- Bryan Appleyard Sunday Times An excellent book... Vince writes with great freshness and vigour, and her stories are hard to stop reading Daily Telegraph It holds a mirror up to humanity and says: look what you have done to the world, the only world you will ever have... in every sense a good book, as well as a compelling read Guardian A masterpiece... a wondrous, remarkable, but heart-rending story Ecologist A masterpiece... a wondrous, remarkable, but heart-rending story Ecologist A story of optimism about how 10 billion people can in future live together and prosper... Fresh and unencumbered, Vince glides from ecology to economics, politics to philosophy, seeing it all through the people she meets New Scientist Ambitious and provocative... brilliant -- Philip Hoare, author of LEVIATHAN and THE SEA INSIDE Literary Review Vince's broader discussions of the biological and Earth science are as cogent as her close reportage Nature A beautifully human and optimistic book filled with stories of ordinary people who simply refuse to give up -- Howard Falcon-Lang BBC Focus A beautifully written book that raises the most profound question of our time: How should we live? In the past, this has been primarily a personal question. But, as Gaia Vince amply demonstrates, what was once a personal question has become the central question for us as a species -- and the fate of nearly every species on our planet (including our own) rests on our answer. -- Ken Caldeira, Professor of Environmental Earth Systems Sciences, Stanford University A richly textured account of the post-wilderness years (and this year's winner of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books) -- Sumit Paul-Choudhury Literary Review A richly textured account of the post-wilderness years (and this year's winner of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books) -- Sumit Paul-Choudhury Literary Review
Author Bio
Gaia Vince is a journalist and broadcaster specialising in science and the environment. She has been the front editor of the journal Nature Climate Change, the news editor of Nature and online editor of New Scientist. Her book Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet we Made won the 2015 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, The Times, Science, Scientific American, Australian Geographic and the Australian. She has a regular column, Smart Planet, on BBC Online, and devises and presents programmes about the Anthropocene for BBC radio. She blogs at WanderingGaia.com and tweets at @WanderingGaia.