Ebook ´ The Attacking Ocean288 pages

Mobi The Attacking Ocean

Ebook ´ The Attacking Ocean 288 pages ì The past fifteen thousand years the entire span of human civilization have witnessed dramatic sea level changes which began with rapid global warming at the end of the Ice Age when sea levels were than 700 feet below modern levels Over the next eleven millennia the oceans climbed in fits and starts TEs to live fish and tradeSince 1860 the world has warmed significantly and the ocean's climb has speeded The sea level changes are cumulative and gradual; no one knows when they will end The Attacking Ocean from celebrated author Brian Fagan tells a tale of the rising complexity of the relationship between humans and the sea at their doorsteps a complexity created not by the oceans which have changed but little What has changed is us and the number of us on eart In this book Brian Fagan takes a look at the changing sea levels over the entire span of human civilization from the end of the Ice Age to our current levels He also takes a look at the complex relationship between the growing human population and the oceans along which we live Fagan provides a variety of case examples over a variety of ages all over the globe that show how rising ocean levels are as ancient as the Earth and that humans have usually adapted to the changing sea levels There is also some discussion on how the Netherlands and a few other countries have dealt with reclaiming or at least keeping the ocean at bay; and how feasible politically and financially these options are for poorer countries Fagan also briefly discusses the deleterious effect that the destruction of coastal estuaries mangroves barrier islands and wetlands as well as excessive ground water pumping has on mitigating the effects of storm surges hurricanes tsunamis and floods etc Fagan also provides a brief explanation why rising sea levels are important for example in terms of loss of agricultural land and increased salinity in ground water resulting in less food production; loss of living land resulting in large migrations to other places that don’t want or can’t afford an excessive influx of people; the destruction of coastal citiesvillages; and large financial expenditure to rebuild damaged infrastructure or flood barriers etcThe book is fairly interesting and well written but the various examples tend to have a lot of similarities probably made unavoidable by the nature of the subject One interesting feature of this book is the second table of contents which arranges chapters in terms of regions rather than chronologically providing an alternative reading order Maps of the different regions are provided but these don’t show up very well in the ebook

Epub ´ The Attacking Ocean ñ Brian M. Fagan

Readily to new coastlinesGlobal sea levels stabilized about six thousand years ago except for local adjustments that caused often uite significant changes to places like the Nile Delta So the curve of inexorably rising seas flattened out as urban civilizations developed in Egypt Mesopotamia and South Asia The earth's population boomed uintupling from the time of Christ to the Industrial Revolution The threat from the oceans increased with our crowding along shor The framing bothered me from the start the sea is not attacking but it is a good overview of the many times and places where human settlements have been inundated

Brian M. Fagan ñ The Attacking Ocean Pdf

The Attacking Ocean The past fifteen thousand years the entire span of human civilization have witnessed dramatic sea level changes which began with rapid global warming at the end of the Ice Age when sea levels were than 700 feet below modern levels Over the next eleven millennia the oceans climbed in fits and starts These rapid changes had little effect on those humans who experienced them partly because there were so few people on earth and also because they were able to adjust I started reading this shortly after watching Blackfish and man Depressing But fascinating The Attacking Ocean is a sometimes dense but still riveting nonfiction book about how rising sea levels have affected and are continuing to affect land mass and civilization Fagan also talks about how these higher sea levels are responsible for the increasing severity of cycloneshurricanes and tsunamis It’s a sobering eye opening book I knew—in generalities—that global warming was affecting the ocean and severe weather but this book really drills down on the issues Its objective academic tone makes the really scary bits even scarier The statistics listing thousands upon thousands of people killed by severe storms the probability that Bangladesh could basically disappear into the ocean within a few generations the emergency evacuation plans for refugees that some South Pacific islands have in place since they know their island could virtually disappear within the century the impact of coastal erosion on traditional fishing villages in AlaskaIt goes on and on And it’s pretty terrifying Still the book is far from sensational It’s packed full of hard won research statistics and data and Fagan makes it clear he’s not hypothesizing about much except the WHEN The If is not in uestion any longer basically Put this in the context of Hurricane Sandy which he talks at length about and it hits really close to home—no pun intended It seems like Fagan has no real agenda or call to action except to discuss historical events and enlighten people about how current events are being impacted by increasing global warming Fagan’s lack of solutions might be the scariest thing about this book Is there any turning back? Is there a solution globally or locally that could actually reverse some of this? Fagan seems to think we’re pretty far gone The Attacking Ocean is well worth the read but be forewarned When I say it’s academic it’s very academic If you can’t stand footnotes this is not your book Let me direct you to the new Bridget Jones novel I’m kidding