Perilous Planet Earth

Catastrophes and Catastrophism through the Ages

Trevor Palmer

532 pages, parution le 13/06/2003

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Résumé

Perilous Planet Earth places our present concern about the threat to Earth from asteroids and comets within an historical context, looking at the evidence for past events within the geological and historical records. The book looks at the way in which prevailing views about modes of global change have changed dramatically over the years. It also considers the way in which catastrophic events are now seen to have influenced the course of evolution in the distant past, as well as the rise and fall of civilisations in more recent times. Professor Palmer argues that the better we understand our past, the greater the likelihood that we will be able to take appropriate action to preserve our civilisation for the future.
Written in an engaging style that avoids jargon, the book will appeal to general readers and academics with an interest in evolution, geology, astronomy, social anthropology and history.

Introduction
Part I. Catastrophism: The Story of its Decline and Fall ... and Resurrection:
Section A. From prehistory to 1899: Catastrophism dominates for centuries, but then gives way to gradualism:
- 1. Mythology, religion and catastrophism
- 2. Hutton: fact and fiction about the origins of modern gradualism
- 3. Cuvier and Lamarck: choosing between extinction and evolution
- 4. Natural theology and Noah's Flood: the high-water mark of catastrophism
- 5. Catastrophism, uniformitarianism and idealist philosophy
- 6. Lyell triumphant: gradualism dominates geology
- 7. Darwin and evolution
- 8. After the Origin: the triumph of evolutionary gradualism
Section B: From 1900 to 1979: Gradualism reigns supreme:
- 9. Neo-Darwinism: the Modern Synthesis
- 10. Phyletic gradualism
- 11. Gradualist perceptions of human evolution
- 12. Heretical catastrophists
- 13. Atlantis: rational and irrational theories of a ‘lost' civilisation
- 14. Evolutionary mass extinctions and neocatastrophism
- 15. Punctuated equilibrium: a new evolutionary perspective
- 16. Human evolution: gradual or punctuational?
Section C. From 1980 to the present day: Catastrophism strikes back:
- 17. Evolution evolving
- 18. Into the new millennium: evolution today
- 19. Chaos in the Solar System
- 20. Catastrophes on Earth
- 21. The death of the dinosaurs: iridium and the K-T extinctions
- 22. The continuing K-T debate
- 23. Mass extinctions and the course of evolution
Part II. Catastrophes and the History of Life on Earth:
- 24. Extinctions large and small
- 25. Cyclic processes and mass extinctions
- 26. The uncertain origins of humankind
- 27. Ice ages in the Pleistocene epoch
- 28. Modern views of Atlantis
- 29. Natural catastrophes and the rise and fall of civilisations
- 30. Conclusions
- References
- Index

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Cambridge University Press
Auteur(s)	Trevor Palmer
Parution	13/06/2003
Nb. de pages	532
Format	18 x 25
Couverture	Relié
Poids	1250g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780521819282
ISBN13	978-0-521-81928-2