How to Build a Habitable Planet: The Story of Earth from the Big Bang to Humankind – Revised and Expanded Edition by Charles H. Langmuir (PDF)

Description

A classic introduction to the story of Earth’s origin and evolution―revised and expanded for the twenty-first centurySince its first publication more than twenty-five years ago, How to Build a Habitable Planet has established a legendary reputation as an accessible yet scientifically impeccable introduction to the origin and evolution of Earth, from the Big Bang through the rise of human civilization. This classic account of how our habitable planet was assembled from the stuff of stars introduced readers to planetary, Earth, and climate science by way of a fascinating narrative. Now this great book has been made even better. Harvard geochemist Charles Langmuir has worked closely with the original author, Wally Broecker, one of the world’s leading Earth scientists, to revise and expand the book for a new generation of readers for whom active planetary stewardship is becoming imperative.Interweaving physics, astronomy, chemistry, geology, and biology, this sweeping account tells Earth’s complete story, from the synthesis of chemical elements in stars, to the formation of the Solar System, to the evolution of a habitable climate on Earth, to the origin of life and humankind. The book also addresses the search for other habitable worlds in the Milky Way and contemplates whether Earth will remain habitable as our influence on global climate grows. It concludes by considering the ways in which humankind can sustain Earth’s habitability and perhaps even participate in further planetary evolution.Like no other book, How to Build a Habitable Planet provides an understanding of Earth in its broadest context, as well as a greater appreciation of its possibly rare ability to sustain life over geologic time.Leading schools that have ordered, recommended for reading, or adopted this book for course use:Arizona State UniversityBrooklyn College CUNYColumbia UniversityCornell UniversityETH ZurichGeorgia Institute of TechnologyHarvard UniversityJohns Hopkins UniversityLuther CollegeNorthwestern UniversityOhio State UniversityOxford Brookes UniversityPan American UniversityRutgers UniversityState University of New York at BinghamtonTexas A&M UniversityTrinity College DublinUniversity of BristolUniversity of California-Los AngelesUniversity of CambridgeUniversity Of ChicagoUniversity of Colorado at BoulderUniversity of GlasgowUniversity of LeicesterUniversity of Maine, FarmingtonUniversity of MichiganUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillUniversity of North GeorgiaUniversity of NottinghamUniversity of OregonUniversity of OxfordUniversity of PortsmouthUniversity of SouthamptonUniversity of UlsterUniversity of VictoriaUniversity of WyomingWestern Kentucky UniversityYale University

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Honorable Mention for the 2012 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Earth Sciences, Association of American Publishers””[T]his classic history of our common home with the latest discoveries in planetary science . . . is a cutting-edge exploration of the Earth’s evolution from the Big Bang to the advent of human civilization.” ― Barnes & Noble Review”To be worth being this unwieldy, a book ought to do something pretty remarkable. And that’s just what How to Build . . . does, as you can tell from its subtitle, The Story of Earth from the Big Bang to Humankind. Now that’s what you call a large canvas.”—Brian Clegg, Popular Science”Like any good story, the tale that Langmuir and Broecker tell is a complex, weaving narrative that would be ideally placed on your bookcase between James Kasting’s How to Find a Habitable Planet and Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee’s Rare Earth. . . . As non-astronomers they cover the initial cosmological and astronomical sections adequately, but as the book develops towards explaining the processes that make Earth habitable, the authors’ expertise really comes to the fore. . . . How to Build a Habitable Planet is Earth’s story, but Langmuir and Broecker conclude with a nod to exoplanets and the search for alien life. Could it one day also become another planet’s story?” ― Astronomy Now”The authors . . . have taken on a mighty task. You cannot underestimate the accuracy of their scholarship, or its thoroughness.”—Heather Couper, BBC Sky at Night”This is a completely different book, wholly updated but also more detailed and more comprehensive. Yet, it keeps the bright flavour of the old version, and remains accessible without compromising on accuracy. . . . How to Build a Habitable Planet is an accurate and enjoyable read.”—Euan G. Nisbet, Nature Geoscience”Enormous advances have been made in the Earth sciences in the years since the original volume appeared. In addition, climate change has become a much more urgent topic. The revised version aims to bring the science up to date and to give a current environmental perspective. In this undertaking, Broecker has been joined by Langmuir, who now becomes first author. Their approach of providing each chapter with a clear introduction and summary will help greatly in accommodating the lay reader. . . . We can be grateful to the authors that they had the initiative and energy to undertake a scientific synthesis of such broad scope. . . . All who are concerned with the global environment and who wish to be scientifically well-informed in relation to it will find the book a worthwhile and inspirational challenge.”—Ray Bates, Irish Times”[Langmuir and Broecker] strike a nice balance with roughly an equal number of chapters devoted to life, earth, and extraterrestrial processes. . . . What makes it work is the authors’ admirable job of focusing tightly on how the many processes they outline feed into life’s makeup or systems needed to support it.” ― Choice”Although this 718 page book is over twice as long compared to the first edition, it is still a comfortable read both for earth scientists as well as nonspecialists. The diverse topics dealt with have been skillfully stitched together and each chapter provides lucid descriptions, logical discussions and a nice summary. This book could be an useful text for undergraduate students in earth sciences and with necessary supplements, could also be used for advanced courses in earth sciences.”—Ramananda Chakrabarti, Current Science”I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a well-informed exploration of the theories behind building a habitable planet. Although complex in some places, it is still accessible to many and is overall a very useful addition to any astrobiologist’s library.”—Samantha Rolfe, Astrobiology Society of GB”This classic account of how our habitable planet was assembled from the stuff of stars introduced readers to planetary, Earth, and climate science by way of a fascinating narrative. Now it has been made even better.” ― Lunar and Planetary Information Bulletin”Generally speaking, the book by Langmuir & Broecker is very reader friendly. . . . It can become an essential reading for both beginners and professionals in geology, palaeontology, and other natural sciences. Geoscience educators will also praise it. . . . This book is a very good addition to the conventional textbooks on general geology, and it can be recommended for students as advanced reading.”—Dmitry A. Ruban, Palaontologie Allgemein Review “In this comprehensive and engaging tour of environmental science, world-leading authorities Charles Langmuir and Wally Broecker provide the residents of the only habitable planet we know with the essential knowledge of how we got here and where we might be going.”―Richard Alley, Pennsylvania State University”As NASA continues to assess the habitability of our planetary neighbor, Mars, this insightful and approachable book is a timely reminder of how important it is to understand the habitability of our own Earth. Comprehensive and up-to-date, it exposes how ideas, imperfect understanding, and controversies drive scientific knowledge forward.”―Roger Everett Summons, Massachusetts Institute of Technology”This is a magnificent book, a successful and very worthwhile revision of its legendary and coveted first edition. The new edition offers more than a minor dusting off of the material. There are some completely new chapters and the authors have also done a good job of introducing newer discoveries. This book is more timely than ever, and I greet this revision with uncontained enthusiasm.”―Raymond T. Pierrehumbert, University of Chicago”This book is exceptionally well written and easy to read. The authors have taken a huge and complex topic and simplified it, removed the jargon, used analogies common to everyday experience, and as a result made a book that should be accessible and enjoyable to readers with little background in science.”―Becky Alexander, University of Washington From the Inside Flap “In this comprehensive and engaging tour of environmental science, world-leading authorities Charles Langmuir and Wally Broecker provide the residents of the only habitable planet we know with the essential knowledge of how we got here and where we might be going.”–Richard Alley, Pennsylvania State University”As NASA continues to assess the habitability of our planetary neighbor, Mars, this insightful and approachable book is a timely reminder of how important it is to understand the habitability of our own Earth. Comprehensive and up-to-date, it exposes how ideas, imperfect understanding, and controversies drive scientific knowledge forward.”–Roger Everett Summons, Massachusetts Institute of Technology”This is a magnificent book, a successful and very worthwhile revision of its legendary and coveted first edition. The new edition offers more than a minor dusting off of the material. There are some completely new chapters and the authors have also done a good job of introducing newer discoveries. This book is more timely than ever, and I greet this revision with uncontained enthusiasm.”–Raymond T. Pierrehumbert, University of Chicago”This book is exceptionally well written and easy to read. The authors have taken a huge and complex topic and simplified it, removed the jargon, used analogies common to everyday experience, and as a result made a book that should be accessible and enjoyable to readers with little background in science.”–Becky Alexander, University of Washington From the Back Cover “In this comprehensive and engaging tour of environmental science, world-leading authorities Charles Langmuir and Wally Broecker provide the residents of the only habitable planet we know with the essential knowledge of how we got here and where we might be going.”–Richard Alley, Pennsylvania State University”As NASA continues to assess the habitability of our planetary neighbor, Mars, this insightful and approachable book is a timely reminder of how important it is to understand the habitability of our own Earth. Comprehensive and up-to-date, it exposes how ideas, imperfect understanding, and controversies drive scientific knowledge forward.”–Roger Everett Summons, Massachusetts Institute of Technology”This is a magnificent book, a successful and very worthwhile revision of its legendary and coveted first edition. The new edition offers more than a minor dusting off of the material. There are some completely new chapters and the authors have also done a good job of introducing newer discoveries. This book is more timely than ever, and I greet this revision with uncontained enthusiasm.”–Raymond T. Pierrehumbert, University of Chicago”This book is exceptionally well written and easy to read. The authors have taken a huge and complex topic and simplified it, removed the jargon, used analogies common to everyday experience, and as a result made a book that should be accessible and enjoyable to readers with little background in science.”–Becky Alexander, University of Washington About the Author Charles H. Langmuir is the Higgins Professor of Geochemistry at Harvard University. Wally Broecker is the Newberry Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and the author of Fixing Climate and The Great Ocean Conveyor (Princeton), among other books. Both are members of the National Academy of Sciences. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Nice condition

⭐It has over 200 pages and covers many subjects from the Big Bang to how humankind evolved. It goes into great detail about such things as how carbon dioxide stabilized the earth’s temperature, despite changes in solar luminosity, moving continents, periods of ice ages, reptile changes, vast changes in life, and the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere. All these things are examined in great detail including about how life produced oxygen, in the ocean, which produced life on land. In all it really pointed out how every thing is connected.

⭐This is an indispensable resource and the material is very accessible. The book starts with the Big Bang and describes the evolution of the universe: stars, galaxies, solar systems and their contents, and on to Earth. This background prepares us for the relationship between the co-evolution of our planet and the life it supports. This comprehensive, multi-dimensional approach makes us realize (1) that we are part of a huge interconnected bio-geo-chemical and physical network; and (2) that humans have a special responsibility to protect that natural network.

⭐The book itself was fairly good, deserves 4 stars, but I’m reviewing the Kindle version which I thought could be improved. I’ve bought several other textbooks for my Kindle and they all “look” like textbook pages which I really liked – this book was adapted to fit my Kindle reader settings for other books (particular font size and a sepia background for easier reading) but for textbooks or books with diagrams and tables, I think preserving the textbook formatting would be best.

⭐One of the most underrated science books ever which was written for the general public.So amazingly written!

⭐It was as expected. Used, but in good shape.

⭐For a class, a pretty good read

⭐it seems very detailed and will be a fun read. i got it as a geology major and am looking forward to seeing how everything comes together in the book at the end!

⭐This book is a “must read” for any of us human beings who live on this extraordinary planet. It is very well written, covers the whole story of our “Habitable Planet” from the onset of big bang through the effects mankind is now having on the delicate balance of forces set in motion 13+ billion years ago, in such a way any one who “takes on” a careful reading of this book can grasp. Yes, there is a lot of “science and math” — enough to satisfy even the most rigorous scholar, but is also written for those of us who can’t follow an equation or a chemical formula, the explanation in “plain English” is enough to allow any one to follow the lines of thought.After a careful reading of this book, for me it is a “must read” for all and any who take any responsibility at all for our lives as human beings and the real consequences of our actions, as individuals and as a race of intelligent Beings who really need to wake up to see the effects or our actions, and see the real choice in front of us to participate in these forces of Creation that are so clearly presented in this book, or perish as a race and perhaps even destroy the possibility for this planet to support live itself in the foreseeable future.Read it!

⭐While still in the process of reading this book, I can already give a few valid points.1. It is is extensive, taking a considerable time to read!2. It is very comprehensive, including a lot of detailed information that I was ignorant of.3. Each chapter is well written with a concise introduction and summary (excellent).4. Very much up to date.I would consider this book a ‘must’ for any undergraduate in the Earth Sciences. I only wish I had this book when I was a student….

⭐Ahhhh. Well. Need to get your head down to get into this one. Great read however takes commitment. Commitment well rewarded by insight into some really super stuff. Again, inspired by the new stuff going on with geochemistry and geochronology. If you are doing an Earth Science course, this is an absolute must read. Tough going at times but hey, well worth it!

⭐great if studying geography

⭐A great product.

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