At the pace of a thriller he carries us through about 300 million years...a pleasure to read, alive with Flannery's wonder at the natural world.

Wide-ranging in scope, passionate in tone, generally persuasive and easy to read' Andrew Goudie, The Times Higher Education Supplement.

Flannery writes easily and well.., this is an excellent as well as comprehensively alarming book about the human prospect, and I warmly commend it' Crispin Tickell, Literary Review.

Acclaimed naturalist, conservationist, philosopher and adventurer Tim Fla nnery has explored every corner of the globe - from the tropical heat of the rainforests to the exquisite beauty of Australia's coral reets, from the snows of Kilimanjaro to the melting ice sheets of the Antarctic - to diiscover how the earth's climate has Changed over millenn,ia, and how we are now changing it ourselves.

Whether looking at the demise of the polar bear or the warming of the oceans, this moving and inspiring book shows how the slightest imbalance now has the power to shape our future and that of the entire world - and what wn can do about it.

FOREWORD

MAP

THE SLOW AWAKENING

PART  1 GAIA'S TOOLS

GAIA

THE GREAT AERIAL OCEAN

THE GASEOUS GREENHOUSE

THE SAGES AND THE ONION SKIN

TIME'S GATEWAYS

BORN IN THE DEEP-FREEZE

MAKING THE LONG SUMMER

DIGGING UP THE DEAD

PART 2 ONE IN TEN THOUSAND

PERIL AT THE POLES

2050: THE GREAT STUMPY REEF?

A WARNING FROM THE GOLDEN TOAD

AN ENERGETIC ONION SKIN

PLAYING AT CANUTE

PART 3 THE SCIENCE OF PREDICTION

MODEL WORLDS

THE COMMITMENT, AND APPROACHING EXTREME DANGER

LEVELLING THE MOUNTAINS

BOILING THE ABYSS

THE PACK OF JOKERS

CIVILISATION:OUT WITH A WHIMPER?

PART 4 PEOPLE IN GREENHOUSES

A CLOSE-RUN THING

THEROADTO KYOTO

COST, COST, COST

PEOPLE IN GREENHOUSES SHOULDN'T TELL LIES

ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS?

LAST STEPS ON THE STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN?

PART 5 THE SOLUTION

BRIGHT AS SUNLIGHT,LIGHT AS WIND

NUCLEAR LAZARUS?

OF HYBRIDS; MiNICATS AND CONTRAILS

THE LAST ACT OF GOD?

2084: THE CARBON DICTATORSHIP?

TIME'S UP

OVER TO YOU

POSTSCRIPT

AFTERWORD

CLIMATE CHANGE CHECKLIST

GREEN POWER

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

REFERENCES

INDEX