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kkocina
, May 08, 2013
Bill McGuire, a Professor of Geohazards at University College London, wrote the 2012 work of nonfiction that is entitled “Waking the Giant: How a changing climate triggers earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes. A detailed description of the interconnectedness of our earth’s systems described how humans affect each of these systems. The book argues the fact that our planet is experiencing a dramatic change over the last 20,000 years; civilization of humans and industrialization is causing our planet to warm, resulting in the melting of our world’s ice sheets, causing isostatic rebound that causes the abundance of earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes. To support his argument, he cites studies by other scientists to support his claim that humans are damaging our world through the emission of fossil fuels in our environment, thus warming the planet that is causing an increase in natural disasters due to these geophysical events.
Through out each chapter, he progressively introduces a new topic to our understanding of earth’s systems from the basis of earth’s beginning. For example, the author included the beginning of our earth while describing periods of inter-glacial and glacial periods that led up to the existence of humans. The reason why scientists are so worried about the future because they have previous evidence of humans in earth’s past. We know that humans have caused in increase in greenhouse gases, our planet tries to maintain homeostasis, and our planet has experienced warming before, but our planet is populated with billions of people that will be effected by global climate change if we don’t acknowledge our planet is changing and these disasters will have some effect on us in the very near future. And this concept is alarming to McGuire, which is one of the compelling reasons why he published, “Waking the Giant,” and why I picked to read it.
To better understand McGuire’s argument, he included graphs and examples to show scientific evidence of how our climate is warming rapidly, especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. To explain the warming temperatures, he used the “Hockey stick graph” that describes how our world is warmer now than at any time in the past millennium and the increase in temperature over the past hundred years is drastically higher over this specific time period. Over the course of the history of the earth, the earth has experienced periods of glacial and inter-glacial periods. Fluctuations of temperatures from as little as 1-3°C can change the climate of various locations over time. The reason why this climate change is so alarming this time is the fact that humans are influencing the climate through the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrialization that the earth “might not be able to fix by itself.”
Besides talking about the increasing global temperatures, McGuire expressed how the natural processes, like earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis might become more frequent and violent all across the world, but specifically in Alaska where glacier melting is already occurring at an terrifying rate. If humans don’t change their relaxed state of mind and way of life, there is going to be an increased number of natural disasters that will threaten many human lives. After analyzing millions of years of geologic history, McGuire drew the conclusion of how volcanic eruptions and collapses are stimulated by the disappearance of large ice sheets. Since the ice in glaciers is heavy, the water redistributes itself throughout the planet, thus affecting sea level and crust stability. As a result of the weight lifting off of the continents, the concept of isostatic rebound, or the “bouncing back” of the Earth after the crust was buried beneath kilometers of ice, can cause earthquakes and volcanoes in unstable zones, thus awakening the sleeping giant beneath of feet.
Besides the concept of isostatic rebound, the rising temperatures can cause increased rainfall, resulting in the increase of the occurrence of landslides. Both chapter 11 in our textbook about our dynamic planet and McGuire used the same example of the changing Alaska. Researchers from the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks used a variety of global positioning receivers to measure isostatic rebound of the crust following the retreat of the glacial ice following the last ice age cycle. This rebound unloaded a lot of weight off the crust. The scientists anticipated finding a slowed rate of crustal rebound in SE Alaska as they compared the rapid response of the first receding ice in the past. Instead, they discovered a rapid vertical motion on the Earth, averaging 36 mm, which is nearly an inch and a half per year. The scientists’ associate the quick rebound to the glacial ice melt and it’s melting over the past 150 years and the record warmth across Alaska. McGuire uses this example to reintegrate his point that our world is warming and vicious cycles could cause the increased activity of earthquakes and volcanoes in the future across the earth.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. From not knowing much about the history of earth, I liked how he included definitions, pictures, and explanations to demonstrate how our changing climate can trigger “the giant” that lives beneath us. McGuire referenced the concept of “waking the giant” throughout the whole book to emphasize how a warming planet can cause positive feedback loops in the earth systems. The term “awakening the giant” refers to the possibility of the increase of these natural processes, thus awakening a giant that “could bring havoc to a large amount of the population around the world.”
The giant is currently sleeping right now, but appears occasionally out of nowhere, like the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. In the past ten years, there has been an increased awareness of the natural disasters that occur all around the world, like the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. When this tsunami broke news, McGuire was shocked how much our planet has complete control over itself and we are at the mercy of our earth. In addition, these disasters can occur anywhere and will only increase as our climate in changing while humans seem to be the cause.
Being that McGuire used terminology and news stories that I could relate to, I could better understand the material and concepts that he was talking about. I would recommend this book to people who want to learn more about Earth’s history and become educated on what is occurring on our planet. The only thing I disliked about his book is that is tended to repeat himself a lot. I understood the theme of his book within the first couple chapters and the theme was repeated as each chapter began, making points redundant at times. That being said, the book could have been condensed down by a few chapters. I understand that a scientific community will analyze his book and McGuire wanted to add as much evidence from other scientific sources to support his argument. After reading the book and analyzing its pros and cons, I would definitely recommend the book because I learned so much that I didn’t know before. Our Earth is changing and we are responsible for making a difference for preserving it for the future.
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