"Afterword to the Paperback Edition copyright c2006 by Tim Flannery."--Title page verso. "Originally published in 2005 by Text Publishing Company, Melbourne, Australia"--Title page verso. Includes bibliographical references (pages 326-348) and index.

The slow awakening -- pt. 1. Gaia's tools -- Gaia -- The great aerial ocean -- The gaseous greenhouse -- The sages and the onion skin -- Time's gateways -- Born in the deep freeze -- Making the long summer -- Digging up the dead -- pt. 2. One in ten thousand -- The unraveling world -- Peril at the poles -- 2050 : the great stumpy reef? -- A warning from the golden toad -- Liquid gold: changes in rainfall -- An energetic onion skin -- Playing at Canute -- pt. 3. The science of prediction -- Model worlds -- The commitment and approaching extreme danger -- Leveling the mountains -- How can they keep on moving? -- Boiling the abyss -- The pack of jokers -- Civilization : out with a whimper? -- pt. 4. People in greenhouses -- A close-run thing -- The road to Kyoto -- Cost, cost, cost -- People in greenhouses shouldn't tell lies -- Engineering solutions? -- Last steps on the stairway to heaven? -- pt. 5. The solution -- Bright as sunlight, light as wind -- Nuclear Lazarus? -- Of hybrids, minicats, and contrails -- The last act of God? -- 2084 : the carbon dictatorship? -- Time's up -- Over to you -- Postscript -- Afterword -- Afterword to the paperback edition -- Climate change checklist -- Green power. Sometime this century the day will arrive when the human influence on the climate will overwhelm all other natural factors. Over the past decade, the world has seen the most powerful El Nino ever recorded, the most devastating hurricane in two hundred years, the hottest European summer on record, and one of the worst storm seasons ever experienced in Florida. With one out of every five living things on this planet committed to extinction by the levels of greenhouse gases that will accumulate in the next few decades, we are reaching a global climatic tipping point. [This book] is both an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future. Along with a riveting history of climate change, [the author] offers specific suggestions for action for both lawmakers and individuals, from investing in renewable power sources like wind, solar, and geothermal energy, to offering an action plan with steps each and every one of us can take right now to reduce deadly CO2 emissions by as much as 70 percent. --Book cover.