Category Archives: Earth System Science readings

“The Global Carbon Cycle: A Test of Our Knowledge of Earth as a System”

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CITATION:
P. Falkowski et al. 2000. Science, vol. 290, pp. 291-296.
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ABSTRACT:
Motivated by the rapid increase in atmospheric CO2 due to human activities since the Industrial Revolution, several international scientific research programs have analyzed the role of Continue reading →

“A Safe Operating Space for Humanity”

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CITATION:
Rockström, J. et al. 2009. Nature, Vol. 461, pp. 472-475.
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ABSTRACT:

Johan Rockström and colleagues propose a new approach for defining preconditions for human development and predict that crossing certain biophysical thresholds could have disastrous consequences Continue reading →

“The Collapse of Western Civilization”

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CITATION:
Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway. 2014. The Collapse of Western Civilization (New York: Columbia University Press).
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ABSTRACT:
In this work of science-based fiction, the authors imagine a future world devastated by climate change. Dramatizing the science in ways traditional nonfiction cannot, the book reasserts Continue reading →

“An anthropogenic marker horizon in the future rock record”

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CITATION:
Corcoran, P.L., Moore, C.J., and Jazvac, K. 2014. GSA Today, Vol. 24, No. 6, pp. 4-8.
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ABSTRACT:
Recognition of increasing plastic debris pollution over the last several decades has led to investigations of the imminent dangers posed to Continue reading →

“Hidden order: How complexity builds adaptation”

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CITATION:
Holland, John H. 1995. Hidden order: How complexity builds adaptation. Reading, MA: Helix Books, Addison-Wesley.
ABSTRACT:
Relatively high and often extreme levels of variability and unpredictability currently characterize the amplitudes of Continue reading →