The weather makers : how man is changing the climate and what it means for life on Earth / Tim Flannery.

The slow awakening -- 1: Gaias tools -- Gaia -- The great aerial ocean -- The gaseous greenhouse -- The sages and the onion skin -- Times gateways -- Born in the deep freeze -- Making the long summer -- Digging up the dead -- 2: One in ten thousand -- The unraveling world -- Peril at the poles -- The great stumpy reef? -- A warning from the golden toad -- Liquid gold: changes in rainfall -- An energetic onion skin -- Playing at Canute -- 3: The science of prediction -- Model worlds -- The commitment and approaching extreme danger -- Leveling the mountains -- How can they keep on moving? -- Boiling the abyss -- The pack of jokers -- Civilization: out with a whimper? -- 4: People in greenhouses -- A close-run thing -- The road to Kyoto -- Cost, cost, cost -- People in greenhouses shouldnt tell lies -- Engineering solutions? -- Last steps on the stairway to heaven? -- 5: The solution -- Bright as sunlight, light as wind -- Nuclear Lazarus? -- Of hybrids, minicats, and contrails -- The last act of God? -- The carbon dictatorship? -- Times up -- Over to you.

"Originally published in 2005 by Text Publishing Company, Melbourne, Australia"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [326]-348) and index.

Warning that climate change is fast becoming an issue that "will dwarf all others combined," Flannery (U. of Adelaide, Australia) uses these pages to summarize the scientific evidence regarding climate change for a general audience. He has sought to be comprehensive in coverage, discussing the role of climate change in the evolution of the earth, the natural and anthropogenic driving factors of climate change, the range of environmental effects thought to be connected to the phenomena, global models and predictions, and technology- and policy-based solutions. Annotation #169;2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.