Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet

First edition
Author	Mark Lynas
Language	English
Genre	Science, Non-fiction
Publisher	Fourth Estate
Publication date	2007, 2008 in USA
Publication place	Great Britain
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	358p.
ISBN	978-0-00-720905-7
OCLC	76359874
Followed by	The God Species

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet is a 2007 non-fiction book by author Mark Lynas about global warming. The book looks and attempts to summarize results from scientific papers on climate change.

Contents

The first chapter describes the expected effects of climate change with one degree Celsius (1 °C) increase in average global temperature since pre-industrial times.

The second chapter describes the effects of two degrees average temperature and so forth until Chapter 6 which shows the expected effects of an increase of six Celsius degrees (6 °C) average global temperature. The effects are also compared to paleoclimatic studies, with six degrees of warming compared back to the Cretaceous. ^{[citation needed]}

Special coverage is given to the positive feedback mechanisms that could dramatically accelerate climate change. The book explains how the release of methane hydrate and the release of methane from melting permafrost could unleash a major extinction event. Carbon cycle feedbacks, the demise of coral, the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and extreme desertification are also described, with five or six degrees of warming potentially leading to the complete uninhabitability of the tropics and subtropics, as well as extreme water and food shortages, possibly leading to mass migration of billions of people.

TV show

A National Geographic Channel TV programme, Six Degrees Could Change The World,^[1] was produced after the book won the Royal Society Prize in 2008.^[2]

2020 Update

In April 2020, the author published a rewritten and updated version of the book: Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency (ISBN 978-0008308551).^[3]

See also

• The Age of Stupid
• Environmental migrant
• Tipping point (climatology)
• Environmental issues with coral reefs

References

1. Six degrees could change the world on YouTube
2. "Shortlisted entries". royalsociety.org. The Royal Society. Retrieved 2014-04-11.
3. Book announcement/promotion (independent source needed)

External links

• What will climate change do to our planet?, The Sunday Times, March 11, 2007. Summary of some of the book's key scenarios.
• Six steps to hell, The Guardian, 23 April 2007. Summary article by the book's author.
• "After Words interview with Lynas on Six Degrees, March 15, 2008". c-spanvideo.org. C-SPAN Video Library. February 5, 2008. Retrieved August 10, 2016.