Bill McGuire

The author takes a look at claims that global warming is causing volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis, and finds them wanting. Then, after evaluating those claims (which he does quickly), he spends the rest of the book examining the impact that climate change, particularly increases in sea level and decreases in ice cover, will have on the geologic phenomena of the earth. He is both pessimistic and cautious, with the proper caution of a scientist working from a limited data base. Since other rapid warming periods have happened in the past, we are able to collect some data, and he discusses the scope of that, as well as what the findings are. The problem is, the findings are frequently contradictory. The author wraps up with his own conclusions and his own predictions. The book is a solid piece of work, and doesn't move past the data without extreme caution, which is a plus. The main down side is the frequent annoying comma errors; fortunately, they are not the sort that render the book difficult to read. I feel I can recommend this book to my students.… (mais)

This book gives an overview of the natural disasters that could seriously disrupt our current society. The threats covered are global warming, ice age, volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, asteroids and comets.

The sections on global warming and ice age take up the first half of the book, but really could have been condensed into a single, much shorter chapter. While I didn't disagree with a lot that he had to say, I would have liked him to present more of the scientific evidence he kept saying was so clear and irrefutable. These chapters were more political than I expected, and seemed to convey more opinions than facts.

I found the second half of the book much more interesting and informative. The author gave plenty of facts about geological hazards, comets and asteroids, and presented various different theories in a fairly balanced way. I wish the entire book had been written in the same manner.

Overall, the writing was engaging and mildly humorous.… (mais)