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The Rise Of Animals: Evolution And Diversification Of The Kingdom Animalia

Among the major events in evolutionary history, few rival in importance the appearance of animals. The Rise of Animals—a significant reference providing a comprehensive synthesis of the early radiation of the animal kingdom—fully captures this moment in geologic time.

Five of the world's leading paleontologists take us on a journey to the most important fossil sites that serve as unique windows to the earliest animal life—including the Ediacara Hills of Australia, the Russian taiga and tundra, the deserts of southwest Africa, and the rugged coasts of Newfoundland. Each of these places holds a rich fossil record that reveals how the animal form came into existence and why some groups succeeded while others failed. The authors describe the diversification of the Kingdom Animalia into the familiar body plans of today: from simple animals such as sponges to complex groups like mollusks, arthropods, echinoderms, and chordates that appear explosively in the Cambrian.

This exquisitely illustrated book reveals the early moments of an evolutionary process that eventually resulted in our own species. An essential resource for paleontologists, biologists, geologists, and teachers, The Rise of Animals is the best single reference on one of earth’s most significant events.

Climate Code Red: The Case for Emergency Action

In this meticulously documented call-to-action, David Spratt and Philip Sutton reveal extensive scientific evidence that the global warming crisis is far worse than official reports and national governments have indicated — and that we’re almost at the point of no return.

Serious climate-change impacts are already happening, more rapidly and at lower global temperature-increases than projected. As the USA’s most eminent climate scientist, James Hansen, told 15,000 of his colleagues at a conference in December 2007, significant ‘climate tipping’ points have already been passed. These include large ice-sheet disintegration, significant sea-level rises of up to five metres this century, and devastating species loss. The Arctic will soon be free of summer sea-ice — a century ahead of projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections — and the Greenland ice sheet is in imminent danger.

The tipping point for the loss of the Arctic sea-ice was around two decades ago, when temperatures were about 0.3°C lower than at present. Climate Code Red shows that further temperature increases of 2 degrees are effectively already in the system, and even a temperature cap of 2–2.4°C, which is proposed within the United Nations framework — and is far below what most governments are prepared to aim for — would take the planet’s climate beyond the temperature range of the last million years.

David Spratt and and Philip Sutton show that the unofficial, real projected speed of climate change— with temperature increases greater than 0.3°C per decade, and the consequent rapid shifting of climatic zones — will, if maintained, likely result in most ecosystems failing to adapt, causing the extinction of many species. The oceans will become more acidic, endangering much marine life.

This means that the dangers we all face are already much greater than the headlines indicate. According to climate scientists such as James Hansen, it is no longer a case of how much more we can ‘safely’ emit, but whether we can quickly enough stop emissions and produce a deliberate cooling before the earth’s climate system reaches a runaway trajectory that is beyond any hope of human restoration.

These imperatives are incompatible with ‘politics as usual’ and ‘business as usual’. Climate Code Red argues that there is an urgent need for all of us to recognise that we face a sustainability emergency — which requires a clear break from the politics of failure-inducing compromise. Even scientifically moderate goals (such as reducing emissions by 25–40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020) now require immoderate rates of technical and social change that are only achievable by shifting formally to an emergency footing.

Spratt and Sutton believe that we now need to think the unthinkable, because the case for emergency action is not so much a radical idea as an indispensable course we must embark upon if we are to return to a safe-climate planet.

Pasteur's Gambit: Louis Pasteur The Australasian Rabbit Plagueand A Ten Million Dollar Prize

In 1887, the desperate NSW Government of Sir Henry Parkes advertised an international competition for a biological cure for the rabbit plague then ravaging the farms of Australia and New Zealand. The competition, with a prize equivalent to $10 million today, would attract 1500 entries, and would generate a sensational episode in Australasian history that combined science, subterfuge, and scandal. In Paris, famous biologist Dr Louis Pasteur, struggling to raise the funds to open his prestigious Pasteur Institute, saw the Australasian rabbit competition as the answer to his financial prayers. For Pasteur was convinced he had the biological remedy to the rabbit plague. To Australia came Pasteur's dashing 25-year-old nephew, Adrien Loir, sent to prove Pasteur's remedy and return home within six weeks with the prize money. But Pasteur had not reckoned on sabotage by his greatest scientific rival, or on the self-interest of the competition's Australian and New Zealand judges, or the private agendas of local politicians. Young Loir, determined not to fail his uncle, was in for the fight of his life. PASTEUR'S GAMBIT, featuring a cast of characters ranging from great names in science to legendary French actress Sarah Bernhardt and a fast-talking Sydney larrikin, is the previously untold true story of an amazing episode in both scientific and national history.