Dead Mars, Dying Earth

Rating:
Summary: Unflinching and provocative
Review: "Dead Mars, Dying Earth" is a meticulous and elegantly crafted story of two worlds. The authors take us on a rigorous journey from dry and inhospitable Mars (where the remains of an apparent extraterrestrial civilization beckon) to Earth of the early 21st century, poised on the edge of ecological catastrophe as a result of global warming. Is our planet heading for the same fate that befell Mars, our closest planetary neighbor, and if so, what can we do about it? The questions raised by Brandenburg and Paxson are as horrifying as their proposed remedies are optimistic; Brandenburg, a plasma physicist, urges the development of clean fusion technology to take the place of our suicidal fossil fuel economy.

Urgent and arresting, "Dead Mars, Dying Earth" has already been called the "Silent Spring" of the new millennium. Read either as a behind-the-scenes expose of the forbidden science of planetary SETI or as an erudite work of comparitive planetology, this unflinching look at what our species is doing to our planet deserves a vast audience.

Rating:
Summary: Unflinching and provocative
Review: "Dead Mars, Dying Earth" is a meticulous and elegantly crafted story of two worlds. The authors take us on a rigorous journey from dry and inhospitable Mars (where the remains of an apparent extraterrestrial civilization beckon) to Earth of the early 21st century, poised on the edge of ecological catastrophe as a result of global warming. Is our planet heading for the same fate that befell Mars, our closest planetary neighbor, and if so, what can we do about it? The questions raised by Brandenburg and Paxson are as horrifying as their proposed remedies are optimistic; Brandenburg, a plasma physicist, urges the development of clean fusion technology to take the place of our suicidal fossil fuel economy.

Urgent and arresting, "Dead Mars, Dying Earth" has already been called the "Silent Spring" of the new millennium. Read either as a behind-the-scenes expose of the forbidden science of planetary SETI or as an erudite work of comparitive planetology, this unflinching look at what our species is doing to our planet deserves a vast audience.

Rating:
Summary: INTERESTING EXCURSION AVOIDS BECOMING HARD HITTING EXPOSE
Review: DEAD MARS, DYING EARTH by John E. Brandenburg and Monica Rix Paxson, follows in the footsteps of R. Buckminster Fuller. Among Fuller’s final writings, his 1978 OPERATING MANUAL FOR SPACESHIP EARTH (reissued September 2000(...)) sounded dire warnings for sustaining life on Earth. Fuller’s thesis was that Earth is a spaceship carrying us around the sun. While mankind increasingly exploits Earth’s resources, global catastrophe will surely follow our collective failure to correct ongoing damage to Earth’s delicately balanced environment. Not mincing words, Fuller warned of the descendents of the "Great Pirates," blinded by their ambition and greed,who seek to control Earth’s economy at the cost of our natural environment in Spaceship Earth.

Brandenburg and Paxson tangentially refer to the seminal 1998 book on global warming THE HEAT IS ON: THE CLIMATE CRISIS, THE COVER-UP, THE PRESCRIPTION by Pulitzer Prize journalist Ross Gelbspan ((...)). In addition to reviewing the data leading to recent recommendations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, investigative reporter Gelbspan exposes the misinformation campaign by the three trillion dollar per year fossil fuel industry which has effectively confused the public. Brandenburg and Paxson stick more closely to science than to politics in discussing Earth’s environmental degradation.

In a less critical and hard hitting message than Fuller's and Gelbspan's, Brandenburg and Paxson review data from Mars and Earth at the turn of the millennium by updating what is known from scientific experiments conducted in space, in Earth's atmosphere and on the ground. Brandenburg worked as a geophysicist on several Mars space probe projects while Paxson concentrated on Earth's atmospheric changes. They do not speculate that Mars once supported life similar to Earth's, and that it destroyed itself. Rather, Mars is presented as a laboratory in which presently well defined conditions are a harbinger of what Earth's environment can rapidly evolve into under mankind's influence.

Adding to the book's interest are anecdotes from Brandenburg's and Paxson's personal scientific experiences. Their experiences support their underlying hypothesis that earth can become like Mars if nothing or too little is promptly done globally to stop the process. From time to time, the anecdotes cause the book to meander, risking losing the reader. Yet the authors manage to bring us back to the central thread of their thesis of this usually complicated subject. Here and there, a few errors should have been corrected during copy editing of this book. For example: page 147 and on

By and large, DEAD MARS, DYING EARTH is a good and interesting book. It contains many solidly scientific examples in making its case that unless Earth's citizens take collective action for correcting current trends, our planet will very rapidly in geo-astronomical terms become a dead planet resembling Mars. But if it had also provided specific politically practical ways in which to accomplish Earth's rescue mission, Brandenburg and Paxson may have possibly provided us with a great book. Nevertheless, DEAD MARS, DYING EARTH is an important book for those trying to visualize where our planet is heading, and who meanwhile can acquire up to date scientific information in layman's terms of what is known about our neighboring, dead planet Mars.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: Dead Mars, Dying Earth is one of the most inspiring, scary and, ultimately, energizing books I've ever read--a sort of boot camp for planetary transformation.

Also, it's not just another serious, boring science book. Even though the book's science is authoritative, it reads like a Hollywood script: One remarkable, true story after another draws you further and further into the recognition of how planets live and die and of just how much trouble our Earth is in. Then, after the plunge into the dark night of Earth's possible future, authors Brandenburg and Paxson pick you back up, tell you a couple wonderful stories and leave you stoked to manifest its eminently sensible solutions-- solutions which show how we can reverse our current global warming crisis with both planet AND economy intact.

So pick up Dead Mars, Dying Earth and get on with the great work ahead. After all, what could be more satisfying than safeguarding this beautiful, living planet as the haven for all you know and love?

Rating:
Summary: Read Dead Mars, Dying Earth!
Review: For many years I've studied both astronomy and the environmental movement. I've been trying to grasp the scope of humanity's degradation of natural resources by observing our current situation in the context of our place in the solar system and the Milky Way galaxy. It is not comforting to, on the one hand, see how rare and precious life is, and on the other hand to see how the human race is botching up being alive. Upon finishing Dead Mars, Dying Earth, I knew I had found what I had sought for years--a concise summary of and solution to the human dilemma. I was filled with a sense of hope and urgent purpose which far surpassed feelings of dread for our collective future. For herein lies not only a sobering warning, but also a plan of action, designed by today's scientists.

Later when I went to the bookcase to pick the next book to read, nothing caught my eye. Apparently I had indeed found what I had been seeking for years~an understanding of Earth's history and glimpses of the future, in comparison to our most similar neighbor, Mars. Thanks to the authors, Dr. Brandenburg & Ms. Paxson, for fulfilling this student's quest.

Dennis Hughes, Publisher SHARE GUIDE

Rating:
Summary: Should be required reading in all High Schools and Colleges!
Review: I learned more from this book than in following the news for 30 years. It is amazing how we are not told critical information by our corporate media.

If this book got the media exposure it should get, it would have a greater impact than Rachel Carson's well-known book of the 1960's "Silent Spring" -- which initiated a massive protest over the dangers of pesticides.

This book presents background environmental information like an exciting story.... Authors use marvelous metaphors. One theme of the entire book is the analogy that living on our world is like being on the Titanic.... it is a blockbuster of a book.... it should be required reading of our President and our entire Congress.

Rating:
Summary: Ouch...
Review: Ok, the book is good because it does try to open your eyes on environmental problems. The book is not so good because Brandenburg is a little bit alarmist, but I won't really complain about that. The but is quite bad because Brandenburg seems to have some score to settle with someone, and IT SHOWS! A little bit partial, uh? And the book is really bad, because some of the science in there is completely bogus, and it stains all the rest...

Rating:
Summary: Content differs from the title...
Review: The book is ok in opening the mind to an idea and a relevant one, and raises a fundamental question all right... but that needed 10 crisp pages. Most of the book is desultory and digressive, with a forced storylike approach that seems almost artificial and is definitely distracting. The author also is bold enough to come with his baggage of biases, which is again often re-narrated, to a point where his patriotism, anti communism, anti Russia and Cold war references bring about a nausea; since it seems unrelated to the issue being raised.

The issue really raised is how Earth is dying with Global warming, and is probably going to end up like Mars. But the book veers with so many different digressions and irrelevant narrations... it gets lost.

This is not a book you should read, instead a good Asimov novel is a better bet.