Product Description

The authors argue that the Earth is more than simply our birthplace, it is the thing that gave us birth. Their book invites readers to follow the journey our planet has undergone over the the last four billion years - starting at a time when there was no dry land. Life began around volcanoes on the floor of the primordial ocean. Their eruptions formed the Earth's crust and the first living creatures appeared. But then why did the dinosaurs become extinct? How were the Himalayas formed, over seven million years ago? Was the legend of Noah and the flood based on a real event? Simon Lamb and David Sington attempt to answer these questions and others, tracing evolution to the end of the 20th century. The focus is on the views of contemporary scientists who have effectively changed the way we think about the world, elaborating on the complex relationship between human beings and our ever-changing planet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #212756 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The subtitle to Earth Story is to be taken literally. This remarkable book and the accompanying TV series set out to explain with imagination and scientific rigor The Shaping of Our World. No other planet in the solar system exhibits such frenetic geological activity. The Earth's mass is in continual flux as heat from the mantel, rising to the comparatively cool surface, stirs the tectonic plates upon which the continents ride, shuffling constantly. Lamb and Sington show how the climatic effects this shuffling engenders make life possible--but they go further. Without life, they argue, there is no temperature control mechanism on the planet's surface. Without that, there can be no oceans--Earth would, like Venus, lose its water to evaporation. And without oceans to act as a lubricant there can be no movement of tectonic plates. According to this argument only a planet which can sustain life can be geologically frenetic. The Earth's geology and biology, then, are part of a single mechanism.

Earth Story is no mere TV tie-in; its erudition is the equal of the best popular science, and its full-colour illustrations have the clarity and precision of classic school and college texts. On the other hand the photography, as one might expect from a documentary tie- in, is frequently breath- taking. If all this makes Earth Story sound like a chimera, well so it is--but as a medium for such an all-encompassing theory of geological and biological change this concatenation of popular science, college illustration and gosh-wow photography could hardly be bettered. --Simon Ings

Customer Reviews

Everything you need to know about the planet we call Earth!
As a first year geography student, I was recommended to buy this book by my lecturers. My first thought was that it would be dense, waffley text, and of little interest. However, I was very wrong! The 'Earth Story' is a fascinating book (based on the BBC TV series of the same name), covering billions of years of the Earth's history, and answering those questions like how the Earth was formed, how our climate is carefully controlled by the location of the continents and what triggers ice ages. The text is easy to understand, and broken up by some truly amazing photographs from around the globe (and from outside the globe!), making this book an excellent purchase for anyone - you don't need to be a student to buy this book, but simply have an interest in the amazing planet we live on! A must buy!!!

Excellent book! Really interesting! Great pictures!
Having followed the series on television, which was very interesting, I immediately went out to buy this book, which turned out to be even better. It gives really good detail on all areas, yet everything is explained so clearly that it makes no difference how much or how little you know about the topic. As a university geography student I find this book extremely useful for references and basic explanations, or simply for reading out of interest. If you're any way interested in anything to do with geography, geology, or simply knowing about our planet, this book is the one to read! Excellent!

An excellent book, well worth the money
I'm not a geologist, but I'm finding this book riveting (about 1/2 way through at the moment).

Loosely following the TV programme, it adds more detail, lots of clear diagrams and drawings, and lucid text.

Each chapter is on a separate topic, which makes it well suited to reading over an extended period, and though there are certainly links between the chapters, they are almost self contained, so you dont have to remember all the details of the previous ones. I'd say this is the best book I have bought for quite a while.