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Waking the Giant
- How a Changing Climate Triggers Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Volcanoes
- Narrated by: George Orlando
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
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Waking the Giant
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Summary
An astonishing transformation over the last 20,000 years has seen our planet changed from a frigid wasteland into the temperate world within which our civilization has grown and thrived. This dynamic episode in our planet's history, right at the close of the Ice Age, saw not only a huge temperature hike but also the Earth's crust bouncing and bending in response to the melting of the great ice sheets and the filling of the ocean basins - dramatic geophysical events that triggered earthquakes, spawned tsunamis, and provoked a series of eruptions from the world's volcanoes. In Waking the Giant, Bill McGuire argues that now that human activities are driving climate change as rapidly as anything seen in post-glacial times, the sleeping giant beneath our feet is stirring once again. When and if it finally wakes, we should all be afraid - very afraid. Could we be leaving our children not only a far hotter world, but a more geologically unstable one too?
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What listeners say about Waking the Giant
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Chris Young
- 06-10-17
Worrying but detailed account of Earth processes
Fascinating book, not terrifically read but you get used to the audio.
Full of terrifying information for our race and underlining the need for urgent action this is a must read for anyone engaging with climate science and Geo-physics.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Caro
- 20-04-14
Fascinating book
This is such an interesting book, but I think I will have to buy it in print form because the narrator is not for me. He seems to be reading it for the first time and perhaps because of this gives lots of words the wrong emphasis, muddling up the meaning of what was actually written. His voice is pleasant enough, just the delivery grates.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Craig
- 10-06-13
Waking Up
What made the experience of listening to Waking the Giant the most enjoyable?
The fundamental concept of ice melting leading to seismic activity is newish to me. I enjoyed the sober and restrained tone of Bill McGuire's discussion of this and other concepts. McGuire's illustration of concepts was just wonderful - mindblowing you could say to non-geologists.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Greenland. I'm concerned whether Greenland manages to lose weight.
What about George Orlando’s performance did you like?
Clarity. His voice has a pleasant warmth, and was able maintain an even tone throughout.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No. However I have purchased the ebook to read it separately again.
I am frustrated a bit sometimes identifying exactly where I am in an ebook, and an audiobook, when I want to re-read a chapter (relevant in a science book).
Any additional comments?
The Guardian newspaper environmental writer Fred Pearce rates this book highly. That is a powerful endorsement.
3 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rock lady
- 02-02-18
Just couldn't listen anymore
This is an INCREDIBLE story, but the narrator really needed to have been mentored by someone more geologically savvy. The pronunciations and grammatical errors were a bit much. I ordered the actual book so I could finish it.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- John
- 03-11-22
Truly scary.
After reading several climate books by major authors, I got the distinct impression that they were not telling all because of the fear of being labeled an alarmist. This book tells us of what has happened in the past and it is truly worrisome.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- F. Scott Humphrey
- 11-03-22
a cacophony of mispronunciations
This is an amazing collection of interesting scientific facts and opinions. But I have never heard a larger collection of mispronounced proper nouns in my life. At first I thought it was me, and maybe I've always missed out on the academic/intellectual pronunciation of certain words. But this reader absolutely slaughters the pronunciation of everything from epocs to the names of Hawaiian volcanoes. Most of the time the gross mispronunciations are just comical, but occasionally one must stop and rewind the book and listen again just to figure out what the heck the reader is talking about.