Discover Well-Read Black Girl Books and the projects reshaping publishing →

Book Summary and Reviews of The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock

The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock

The Revenge of Gaia

Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity

by James Lovelock

  • Critics' Consensus (1):
  • Published:
  • Jul 2006, 192 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

Gaia Theory tells us that the entire Earth, including the atmosphere, oceans, biosphere and upper layers of rock, functions as a single living superorganism, regulating its internal environment much as an animal regulates its body temperature and chemical balance. But now, says the theory's founder, James Lovelock, that organism is sick. It is running a fever born of a sun whose intensity is slowly growing over millions of years, and an atmosphere whose greenhouse gases have recently spiked due to human activity. Earth will adjust to these stresses, but on time scales measured in the hundreds of millennia - and in the meantime, humanity faces a severe test. It is already too late, Lovelock says, to prevent the global climate from "flipping" into an entirely new equilibrium state that will leave the tropics uninhabitable, force much of humanity to flee to the poles, and threaten civilization along the way. In the tradition of Silent Spring and The Diversity of Life, this is a call to action to address a major threat to our collective future.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred review. Lovelock's pro-nuke enthusiasm, unexpected from one of the mid-20th century's most ardent environmental thinkers, is the well-reasoned core of this urgent call for braking at the brink of global catastrophe." - PW

"His final testament about the catastrophe of global warming is probably the most important book for decades." - Daily Telegraph

This information about The Revenge of Gaia was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Information

For the other point of view see Nuclear Power is Not The Answer by Helen Caldecott, publishing in September.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked The Revenge of Gaia, try these:

  • London Calling jacket

    London Calling

    by Edward Bloor

    Published 2008

    About this book

    In the summer after 7th grade Martin meets a boy in a dream who will change his life forever. Where did this boy come from? Is he a dream? But how can his dreams be set in London during the Blitz? How can he wake up with a head full of people and facts and events that he certainly didn't know when he went to sleep--but which turn out to be ...

  • Willow Run jacket

    Willow Run

    by Patricia Reilly Giff

    Published 2007

    About this book

    The sequel to Lily's Crossing. When Meggie's father moves to Willow Run to take a job building planes, Meggie desperately misses her home; but then she meets Patches and Harlan, other kids like her whose parents have come here to do their part in the war. She faces questions about courage, and what it takes to go into battle and how to ...

  • The House of Tailors jacket

    The House of Tailors

    by Patricia Reilly Giff

    Published 2006

    About this book

    In Dina, Patricia Reilly Giff has created one of her most engaging and vital heroines. Readers will enjoy seeing 1870s Brooklyn through Dina’s eyes, and share her excitement as she discovers a new world. (Ages 9+)

We have 6 read-alikes for The Revenge of Gaia, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

More Science, Health and the Environment

Browse all Science, Health and the Environment books

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
When No One Else Will
by Amanda Skenandore
1940s Chicago nurse risks everything at an illegal women’s clinic during a high-profile trial of courage and sisterhood.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    The Jellyfish Problem
    by Tessa Yang
    A marine biologist rescues a Maine island menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish in this inventive debut.
  • Book Jacket
    Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young
    by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
    Son of Weather Underground radicals recounts life on the run and decades of revolutionary struggle.
  • Book Jacket
    Look What You Made Me Do
    by John Lanchester
    A propulsive tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.
Who Said...

When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Q S, S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.