I know that some of you already have quite a few reading challenges set up for 2008, but here is another for anyone who still has some space open in their reading calendar. Since 2008 is the UN International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE) I thought I'd take the opportunity to brush up on my earth science. I've always been fascinated by geology and associated disciplines, but haven't delved into them much. I did take a geology course in university but it wasn't much of a success because of all the uninspiring memorization that was required. However I find that when geoscience it is presented in the right way, it can be completely fascinating and even mindblowing.
To get started, let's look at the ten themes for the Year of Planet Earth (with links to pdf brochures on each theme):
The tricky part of this is finding interesting, accessible books on these topics. One could just buy a basic college textbook and cover the whole gamut at once, but for anyone without a science background that might be hard going. I plan to read Canada Rocks (which was sponsored by the IYPE), but I don't imagine that would be of much interest to readers south of the border.
[MAJOR EDIT FOLLOWS]
A simpler approach might be to divide the earth into its parts. Perhaps you've noticed that the IYPE logo has four coloured sections. They represent the parts of our planet that are studied by earth scientists:
- Lithosphere: the rocky (and molten) part of our planet
- Hydrosphere: the oceans and the water cycle
- Biosphere: evolution and the global ecosystem
- Atmosphere: our thin, blue blanket of air
Of course these parts of our planet all interact and overlap. The size and density of the planet gives it enough gravity to hold on to the atmosphere. The spinning iron core generates a magnetic field that deflects the cosmic rays that would otherwise fry us. Water, as vapour in the atmosphere and in our vast oceans, regulates the temperature of the atmosphere and makes life possible. Life, in turn, modifies all these things—trading oxygen for carbon dioxide, breaking rocks and being turned into them, soaking up water and breathing it into the air, and evolving unfathomable complexity over the last 4 billion years or so.
For practical purposes we have to break these systems up and study them piece by piece until we know enough to put them together again. So, we have the disciplines of geology (study of the lithosphere), oceanography and hydrology (study of the hydrosphere), ecology and paleontology (study of the biosphere), and meterology and climatology (study of the atmosphere).
What I propose for this reading challenge is to read one book about each of these four parts of our planet, or two or three books on geology (since there are so many of them), and one on another topic. To make choosing easier, I've split up a starter list of suggested titles into the four parts: (my picks are in bold)
Lithosphere
- Roadside Geology of ________ (26 titles and counting)
- Canada Rocks: The Geologic Journey by Nick Eyles and Andrew Miall
- A Short History of Planet Earth by J.D. Macdougall
- Earth: An Intimate History by Richard Fortey
- Earthquakes in Human History and Volcanoes in Human History by Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and Donald Theodore Sanders
- Krakatoa: The Day the Earth Exploded by Simon Winchester
- Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
- Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell
- The Seashell on the Mountaintop by Alan Cutler
- Plate Tectonics by Naomi Oreskes
- Reading the Rocks by Marcia Bjornerud
- The Earth in Turmoil by Kerry Sieh
- The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester
- Snowball Earth by Gabrielle Walker
- The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discovery of Earth's Antiquity by Jack Repcheck
- Volcano Cowboys: The Rocky Evolution of a Dangerous Science by Dick Thompson
Hydrosphere
- Ocean by Robert Dinwiddie and Louise Thomas
- Fresh Water by E.C. Pielou
- Cadillac Desert: The West and its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner
Biosphere
- Planet Earth by Alastair Fothergill
- Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth by Andrew H. Knoll
- T. Rex and the Crater of Doom by Walter Alvarez
Atmosphere
- An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore
- Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World by Nick Lane
- Thin Ice by Mark Bowen
Judging by the reviews from readers, these are all very well-written and entertaining books intended for the general reader. Some focus on the story of the earth, and others focus on the stories of the scientists who study it. As always, suggestions are welcome, and I'll be interested to see what people pick to read. Happy Year of Planet Earth!
My picks:
Bling for your blog:
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