Description

Imagine a world of wildly escalating temperatures, apocalyptic flooding, devastating storms and catastrophic sea level rise.  This might sound like a prediction for the future or the storyline of a new Hollywood blockbuster but it’s something quite different: it’s our past. 

In a day and age when where we’re bombarded with worrying forecasts for future climate, it seems hard to believe that such things could come to pass.  Yet almost everywhere we turn, the landscape is screaming out that the world is a capricious place. The problem is if we don’t tune in, the message is lost.  We need to decipher the past and learn from it.

In Ice, Mud and Blood, I explore the changing climate and the risks facing us today as we continue to drive our planet to new extremes.  A podcast of the Introduction can be found by clicking here.

Reviews

‘Chris Turney's 'Ice, Mud and Blood' is lively, well-researched, and up-to-date. A summary of key discoveries by scientists about past climate change, it ranges widely across time and all over the planet. Turney begins many of these stories with delightful anecdotes about people who centuries ago stumbled on confusing observations that in time came to be understood as the result of climate change.’

Prof. William F. Ruddiman, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, and author of Plows, Plagues and Petroleum.

'A great read on a critically important subject. Turney's best book yet.'

Prof. Tim Flannery, Earth and Life Science, Macquarie University, and author of The Weather Makers.

‘’Ice, Mud and Blood’ is just what the global warming debate needs – a sober but passionate account of past climate change by a leading climate scientist that builds to an uncompromising climax: unnatural climate change is here and it’s only going to get worse. With a great eye for a story and a quirky turn of phrase, Turney tells how human history has twisted and turned at the helm of a capricious Nature. All the more frightening then to hear that the environmental challenges we face in the coming decades go beyond anything our species has ever had to contend with. A timely rallying call from someone on the frontline.’

Dr Iain Stewart,  School of Earth, Ocean and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, and presenter and author of the BBCs Earth: Climate Wars

‘If you want just one book, not too thick or too technical, that will give you the intellectual tools to at least understand what the climate change experts are talking about, this is the one. I recommend bringing it to the beach and reading it there — you'll appreciate the rising tide and the ocean beaches a little more, and perhaps regard them with a little more respectful dread.’ Pharyngula

'A sobering and vividly told tale.' New Scientist

‘Turney writes calmly and clearly about warming, cooling and other enormous climatic events in earth's geological past. He explains why they add to scientific concern about human greenhouse gas emissions, not detract as sceptics contend. A top contribution to the global warming debate.’ The Australian