The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

Global warming is hardly new; in fact, the very long-term trend began about 12,000 years ago with the end of the Ice Age. Anthropologist Fagan (The Little Ice Age) focuses on the medieval warming period (ca. 800-1300), which helped Europe produce larger harvests; the surpluses helped fund the great cathedrals. But in many other parts of the world, says Fagan, changing water and air currents led to drought and malnutrition, for instance among the Native Americans of Northern California, whose key acorn harvests largely failed. Long-term drought contributed to the collapse of the Mayan civilization, and fluctuations in temperature contributed to, and inhibited, Mongol incursions into Europe. Fagan reveals how new research methods like ice borings, satellite observations and computer modeling have sharpened our understanding of meteorological trends in prehistorical times and preliterate cultures. Finally, he notes how times of intense, sustained global warming can have particularly dire consequences; for example, by 2025, an estimated 2.8 billion of us will live in areas with increasingly scarce water resources. Looking backward, Fagan presents a well-documented warning to those who choose to look forward. Illus., maps. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet

Possibly the most graphic treatment of global warming that has yet been published, Six Degrees is what readers of Al Gore's best-selling An Inconvenient Truth or Ross Gelbspan's Boiling Point will turn to next. Written by the acclaimed author of High Tide, this highly relevant and compelling book uses accessible journalistic prose to distill what environmental scientists portend about the consequences of human pollution for the next hundred years. In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a landmark report projecting average global surface temperatures to rise between 1.4 degrees and 5.8 degrees Celsius (roughly 2 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of this century. Based on this forecast, author Mark Lynas outlines what to expect from a warming world, degree by degree. At 1 degree Celsius, most coral reefs and many mountain glaciers will be lost. A 3-degree rise would spell the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, disappearance of Greenland's ice sheet, and the creation of deserts across the Midwestern United States and southern Africa. A 6-degree increase would eliminate most life on Earth, including much of humanity. Based on authoritative scientific articles, the latest computer models, and information about past warm events in Earth history, Six Degrees promises to be an eye-opening warning that humanity will ignore at its peril.

Ghosts Among Us: Uncovering the Truth About the Other Side

Ghosts Among Us: Uncovering the Truth About the Other Side

Everyone loves a good ghost story. Perhaps the human fascination with the supernatural stems from the fact that most of us, at some point in our lives, have experienced something we couldn't quite explain. From a very young age James Van Praagh was aware of a dimension that most of us cannot see, and he has dedicated his life to explaining it to the rest of us. Ghosts Among Us takes us on an incredible journey into the spirit world that brings to light one of our greatest mysteries—what happens to us after we die?
Van Praagh, the New York Times bestselling author and co-executive producer of the CBS series The Ghost Whisperer, shares his knowledge and life experience about ghosts, a subject that can seem to many of us both bizarre and terrifying. But when the world beyond is explained fully by an experienced guide, dismissal and apprehension can be turned into knowledge and inspiration. With incredible true ghost stories and surprising details about how ghosts actively participate in our lives, Van Praagh challenges us to question our perceptions and shows us how we can live more fully through understanding the world of spirits. Including eerily accurate readings, the author's development as a medium, and detailed how-to information, Ghosts Among Us is an all-encompassing guide to the supernatural.

Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want

Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want

Are you ready to transform your current thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions?　
Are you ready to shatter the illusion that it's not "spiritual" to want a fit body or financial wealth?
Are you ready to create outrageous results in every single area of your life?
You're in the right place.
Harmonic Wealth will propel you to where you want to go. This practical, results-based book will help you to push beyond your self-imposed limitations and show you how to get past all the reasons you think you can't have what you want.
Struggling to know what you want? That doesn't mean you're not perfect, it just means you're ready for a shift. And that's exactly why you picked up this book.
The result of more than twenty years of study and practical application by World Thought Leader and featured expert for The Secret, James Ray's Harmonic Wealth is based on extensive study of ancient wisdom traditions, cutting-edge findings in quantum physics and other scientific fields, not to mention years of hands-on, hard-won experience. Let this sought-after teacher show you what he's discovered about the secrets of attracting more than you've ever thought possible.　
Learn how to:
Heighten your creativity, intelligence,
intuition, and mental functioning.
Deepen your personal relationships and ramp up
your ability to attract the people you want in your life.
Achieve financial freedom.
Maximize your health and energy, and amplify
your physical strength.
Free yourself from unconscious limitations.
Vanquish the fears that have kept you stuck,
kept you from knowing and owning that you deserve the best.
If you've been having trouble with the Law of Attraction, you'll quickly learn the missing keys. Harmonic Wealth will reveal the formula for success in the Five Pillars: financial, relational, mental, physical, and spiritual. You'll see why having anything less than success in all of Five Pillars will never bring you true wealth, and you'll learn how to go 3 for 3 . . . how to have your thoughts, feelings, and actions working together in complete alignment. With these factors firing together, you'll create everything you desire and deserve.
Harmonic Wealth encourages you to get real and get creative about how to achieve your goals . . . and then walks you step by step through the blueprint for their attainment. Stop playing it safe. Stop living in fear. Start living in harmony right now, and know that everything you want is within your reach.

What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception

What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception

Scott McClellan was one of a few Bush loyalists from Texas who became part of his inner circle of trusted advisers, and remained so during one of the most challenging and contentious periods of recent history. Drawn to Bush by his commitment to compassionate conservatism and strong bipartisan leadership, McClellan served the president for more than seven years, and witnessed day-to-day exactly how the presidency veered off course.
In this refreshingly clear-eyed book, written with no agenda other than to record his experiences and insights for the benefit of history, McClellan provides unique perspective on what happened and why it happened the way it did, including the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, Washington's bitter partisanship, and two hotly contested presidential campaigns. He gives readers a candid look into who George W. Bush is and what he believes, and into the personalities, strengths, and liabilities of his top aides. Finally, McClellan looks to the future, exploring the lessons this presidency offers the American people as we prepare to elect a new leader.