Product Description
Possibly the most graphic treatment of global warming that has yet been published, Six Degrees is what readers of Al Gore's best-selling An Inconvenient Truth or Ross Gelbspan's Boiling Point will turn to next. Written by the acclaimed author of High Tide, this highly relevant and compelling book uses accessible journalistic prose to distill what environmental scientists portend about the consequences of human pollution for the next hundred years. In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a landmark report projecting average global surface temperatures to rise between 1.4 degrees and 5.8 degrees Celsius (roughly 2 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of this century. Based on this forecast, author Mark Lynas outlines what to expect from a warming world, degree by degree. At 1 degree Celsius, most coral reefs and many mountain glaciers will be lost. A 3-degree rise would spell the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, disappearance of Greenland's ice sheet, and the creation of deserts across the Midwestern United States and southern Africa. A 6-degree increase would eliminate most life on Earth, including much of humanity. Based on authoritative scientific articles, the latest computer models, and information about past warm events in Earth history, Six Degrees promises to be an eye-opening warning that humanity will ignore at its peril.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 23 reviews)

Deserves more attention, especially from economists by Paula L. Craig (Falls Church, VA United States)

5 Stars
June 21, 2009
Lynas' is the best book I've seen on climate change. The chapters are organized very simply by what humanity would probably see with one degree of warming, two degrees of warming, etc. This makes the argument very easy to follow. This book has had far less attention than it deserves. The level of concern in most media outlets is simply not commensurate with the level of risk. Rome is burning, while the U.S. government throws fuel on the fire by bailing out dinosaur automobile companies and banks who bet big on further expansion of suburban sprawl. Major authors in mainstream publications, such as Fareed Zakaria at Newsweek magazine, are still producing optimistic predictions that almost ignore the possiblity of climate change (for example, see Zakaria's book The Post-American World). Note that a sustainable economy doesn't necessarily mean a low quality of life. For more on this, try The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies. If Lynas' book has a fault, it would be that it doesn't mention some of the simplest and cheapest ways of reducing carbon emissions. For example, the car-centered transportation system of the U.S. depends fundamentally on the availability of free parking. Most U.S. localities have regulations requiring huge numbers of parking spots; this amounts to a subsidy for cars that runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Eliminating such rules and other regulations that discriminate in favor of automobiles would have a huge effect. Take a look at Donald Shoup's book The High Cost of Free Parking.

Horrible, and Reasons Why by Cthulhu Wookie (Monrovia, CA)

1 Stars
June 16, 2009
Before I begin, this book was "interesting", that is the highlight of the positives... This book was written more for those that fear what they cannot control (recycling will barely put a damper on anything, even though I do it myself and insist all friends and family do for moral reasons). There is a trend of liberals that have, for lack of better terms, graduated from the beatnik niche of evening coffee house goers. The same "graduates" like to latch onto doom and fear, a more 'adult' parallel of 'emo' music, and silently scream to each other "we're all going to die, we're evil and deserve it." I'm not sure what wave of what generation this started in, but with technology it has advanced and become more widespread. I just wish people could learn to think for themselves. The concept is simple, and similar to cult behavior. Latch onto something (supposedly) horrific, instill that fear in others, gain their following (and bottomless wallet for your products and donations), get rich, and leave your sheep behind. Anyone worth their weight in salt knows the BS side of something, and the factual side of something, and is willing to share that with others. When something is completely one-sided, it begins to bring in the simpletons than need something to worry about, and scares off free-minded individuals. How does this relate to the book? It is long winded, but I try to bring up a point: the author slams case after statistic after theoretical horror of what our "future" holds, but never steps back to say "take the flip-side into consideration and exaggerated measures used to draw attention and come to your own conclusion." WAIT...wasn't this book printed on paper and not just given as a card with a coupon to download the PDF? Oh the hypocrisy!

Makes the Point that Prevention of Warming is Necessary for our Survival by Glenn Gallagher (Sacramento, CA)

5 Stars
May 04, 2009
Six Degrees does a great job at simply laying out what each degree of warming will do to our planet, and therefore to us. Mark Lynas is able to explain the effects of warming in an authoritative way because it's based on what the earth has already done in the past, with a warmer climate at various times eons ago. Although many think a warmer planet may not be a bad thing (too many cold winters in Buffalo?), this book is able to show that unless you are some exotic form of tropical algae, a warming world would be disastrous for you and human civilization. The author describes why the hotter planet would be a bad thing. I know a lot of climate change skeptics correctly point out that in the past, the planet was a lot hotter than it is now, so what's the big deal? The reason why global warming is bad is because our entire ability to grow food has evolved only in the past 10,000 years - the most stable climate the planet has seen in millions of years, and even very small temperature increases of just 2, 3, or 4 degrees (Celsius) would wreak absolute havoc on our ability to grow enough food to feed the world. Imagine the conflicts of a modern Somalia magnified to every country in the world - not a pleasant thought. The author probably does a better job of describing what even small temperature increases would do to us - wreaking havoc on food production, rising sea levels, etc., than actually making the case that humans are definitely creating a warmer world through all our fossil fuel combustion (showing that the warming is not part of a natural cycle). For more basic science on how we are warming the planet, I'd recommend The Discovery of Global Warming by Spencer Weart. If this book doesn't scare you into taking global warming seriously, probably nothing will. In some ways, I'm not that happy about reading this book, because it points me to the frightening conclusion that given the inevitable time lag between knowing and acting, our human race is in for some very unpleasant times ahead for the next few hundred years; all because we did nothing to slow down global warming. However, it's better to know the truth than believe a big lie, at least we can mitigate some of the worst changes if we have the political and personal will to do so, which will give us more time to adapt to a hotter, drier world with less arable growing land, and flooded low coastal areas.

The best book I've read so far on global warming. by Peoamom (Utah, USA)

5 Stars
May 04, 2009
I taught a graduate seminar this semester where we read several books in the popular press about global warming and climate change. Mark Lynas' book was based on scientific research and was by far the best at communicating the gravity of the situation. It was an easy read- we actually bought extra copies and are sending them out to legislators and other folks in a position to help make a change or who need to be informed. I highly recommend this book!

Don't read this one first. by J. Dykstra (Roswell, NM)

5 Stars
November 08, 2008
If you are new to global warming, I would suggest not reading this book first. If you do, you might find it to be a bit paranoid and based on questionable premises. However, if you read a couple other books first and have a good background on what the study of global warming is all about, this book fills a nice niche. It does something few other books do. The author has attempted to sift through a whole bunch of studies and rank them based on the rise in temperature they cover, hence the title, Six Degrees. In other words, all the studies he found about what the world would be like if temperatures went up one degree are summarized in chapter one, two degrees in chapter two, and so on. Obviously he's not a scientist, so his evaluation of the situation is more from a journalist's point of view, but it's interesting and a useful way of thinking about things nonetheless. The big payoff is at the end where he talks about the current siutation and what would need to be done to stabilize temperatures at different levels. He gives an unvarnished view of how dire things are. A lot of other books written by scientists kind of hint between the lines that it will be tough to achieve any progress, or that it's already too late. This book comes right out and says we have a massive task ahead of us. The author also briefly covers reasons why people like to deny or ignore global warming. He claims it's part of human nature. In any case, this book presents a grim picture of a worldwide society overshooting its ability to live sustainably in its environment.

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