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Don't read this one first.

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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.

A gripping and scary look into our climatic future	Customer Rating:
This book is an excellent summary of current knowledge of global warming. The future looks frightening. I've decided to do my part by cutting back on driving and getting solar panels.

The Planet has been here before & Lynas is wrong

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In 1000 AD the Vikings sailed, sleeveless, to Greenland and Newfoundland. The Greenland glaciers were all but gone, and the valleys were verdant. Scotland's climate was similar to that of Southern France today. The Scots had vineyards and produced lots of wine. The rest of the world did not succumb to drought. The polar bears did not go extinct, and oceans did not rise to high as to flood London and (to come) New York. Lynas is stark raving mad, and so are those who fall for this literary tripe. Global temperatures have been cycling, with a five degree Celsius amplitude, for 800 million years. We have been dealing with a peak of several of the cycles involved, and they are due to decline. The foolish arrogance of those who presume that anthropogenic CO2 is somehow overwhelming those cycles will be looked upon as having as much intelligence as those who sank women in ponds to see if they are witches. Those who sank were innocent! Those who floated were sentenced to death for being witches. Even if global warming caused a two degree warming it would take a century or more for significant changes to ocean levels to materialize. In such a period of time shoreline property values would be affected by the aging of buildings (to worthless) and the perception of young investors to live elsewhere. "Elsewhere" might mean 200 or 300 miles farther towards the poles in order to experience the same conditions they would now experience. Given the time frame anyone could adjust. Whereas the draconian measures presently advocated to solve this non-crisis would do far more harm than the crisis would at its worst. Even "Chicken Little" is calm in the face of perceived crisis, compared to the scaremongering nonsense of Lynas, Gore, Suzuki (Canada) et al.

There is still time

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In this book, the author, Mark Lynas, has taken great effort to obtain original publications and to document the effects of climate change as the Earth warms one degree Celsius at a time. It is not a pretty picture. We do not have to go all the way to six degrees to see massive disruptions occurring. With only one or two degrees, we may see extensive droughts in many regions, the dying of coral reefs, and rising ocean levels. As dire as the predictions are, the reality may be much worse. Climate change has accelerated beyond the predictions of only one or two years ago. Instead of increasing at the rate of 2 ppm each year as stated by Lynas in this book, the CO2 in the atmosphere increased by 2.4 ppm in 2007. The concentration of methane, a greenhouse gas, which had been stable, also increased. In this book, the prediction for an ice-free Artic Ocean in the summer is for 2020. However, there were reports at the end of 2007 that NASA climate scientists are predicting the summer of 2012 as the date for an ice-free Arctic. The ice in question is floating sea ice. Its melting will not raise the level of the world's oceans. However, an ice free Arctic Ocean will absorb more sunlight, increasing the Arctic warming trend. If the Arctic Ocean is ice free, can the collapse of the Greenland ice cap be far behind? There is enough ice on Greenland to raise the world's sea level by more than 20 feet. We may not have to wait generations to see the effects of climate change become apparent. However, we still do have time to slow greenhouse gas emissions. It will take concerted efforts on the part of all the countries of the world to change to non-carbon emitting sources and more efficient use of energy. It is still possible to save the planet. I also recommend the books With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change about recent scientific investigations and their implications for global warming, and Global Warning: The Last Chance for Change, which details the politics of climate change.

"Six Degrees:" An Excellent Description of What's Coming

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This book reads like a good mystery novel; a real page-turner. Lynas has condensed thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers on climate history and current climate change into a riveting depiction of what is in store for the world as global-warming gasses continue to accumulate. The format documents the changes that can be expected as the global average temperature increases one degree at a time. He makes a strong case that, unless warming is confined to 2 degrees Centigrade or less, "feedback loops" will cause irreversible "runaway" warming that likely will cause mass extinction of life on the planet. This book is a "must-read," especially for leaders of government, industry and academe.