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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Para lembrar que somos animais
Pelos confins do mundo e além, Halliday condensa de forma impressionante o que há de único em cada época/período terrestre a partir de diferentes sites arqueológicos ao redor do globo. Pela inversão da ordem cronológica, a cada capítulo nos afastamos cada vez mais de um mundo - ainda que não familiar - mais parecido com o nosso. Ao longo do caminho, é impossível não se maravilhar com a geração de novos oceanos e continentes e climas e espécies e vida! Tanta vida!
Mas não só de respostas se faz a paleontologia. As teorias e mistérios são tão parte do deslumbramento quanto os eventos já provados. Me preenche de uma alegria imensa pensar que, apesar de não sermos capazes de participar de todo esses bilhões de anos, podemos ter noção de tanto que já acometeu nosso planeta, com quem compartilhamos esse espaço um dia e de como somos, inerentemente, seres naturais forjados na cacofonia de nossos muitos ancestrais & de outros elementos que nos permitiram ser em primeiro lugar.
Enfim, em seu épilogo, o autor se volta ao mundo determinado pela ação para aborda as mudanças climáticas preocupantes e seus possíveis efeitos devatadores caso continuemos business as usual. Ele utiliza a similaridade com extinções anteriores para ilustrar esse perigo. Porém, Halliday adiciona, a diferença crucial é de nunca antes haver uma única espécie que soubesse como mudar esse curso. Com uma esperança comovente, ele sentencia o único caminho viável: "Sacrifício, um ato de permanência."
Pelos confins do mundo e além, Halliday condensa de forma impressionante o que há de único em cada época/período terrestre a partir de diferentes sites arqueológicos ao redor do globo. Pela inversão da ordem cronológica, a cada capítulo nos afastamos cada vez mais de um mundo - ainda que não familiar - mais parecido com o nosso. Ao longo do caminho, é impossível não se maravilhar com a geração de novos oceanos e continentes e climas e espécies e vida! Tanta vida!
Mas não só de respostas se faz a paleontologia. As teorias e mistérios são tão parte do deslumbramento quanto os eventos já provados. Me preenche de uma alegria imensa pensar que, apesar de não sermos capazes de participar de todo esses bilhões de anos, podemos ter noção de tanto que já acometeu nosso planeta, com quem compartilhamos esse espaço um dia e de como somos, inerentemente, seres naturais forjados na cacofonia de nossos muitos ancestrais & de outros elementos que nos permitiram ser em primeiro lugar.
Enfim, em seu épilogo, o autor se volta ao mundo determinado pela ação para aborda as mudanças climáticas preocupantes e seus possíveis efeitos devatadores caso continuemos business as usual. Ele utiliza a similaridade com extinções anteriores para ilustrar esse perigo. Porém, Halliday adiciona, a diferença crucial é de nunca antes haver uma única espécie que soubesse como mudar esse curso. Com uma esperança comovente, ele sentencia o único caminho viável: "Sacrifício, um ato de permanência."
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Otherlands is a beautifully detailed travelogue through the history of life on earth starting from the familiar and most recent Pleistocene to the bizarre and alien dawn of multicellular life in the Ediacaran. This book really illustrates how much profound change has happened over hundreds of millions of years and how life has survived and responded to that change. I found it inspirational and hopeful, even when addressing the world wide and devastating change humans have inflicted.
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
challenging
informative
relaxing
slow-paced
adventurous
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Incredibly unique. On almost every page, there was some nugget that put me in awe at the breadth of life on this planet. Halliday brings these ancient places completely alive - at times it feels like visiting alien planets.
He has a great eye for impactful details. As he takes you back through time, you realise that nothing is really permanent if you take a wide enough lens. We go back before flowers were invented. Back before birds learned to sing. Back before trees were made of wood. Back before soil. Before eyes. To times when the moon was literally closer and brighter. When days were only 22 hours and many of the stars in the night sky didn't even exist yet. This book is one-of-a-kind
It's not perfect. There are moments when the Latin names of various species gets hard to follow. And the beautiful little sketches of one creature per chapter emphasise how hard it is to visualise the other things. You'll spend a lot of time pausing your reading to google search images which does break the flow. This would make spectacular source material for a graphic novel.
But I recommend this highly for anyone with a curious mind. Easy to dip in and out of this as each chapter stands alone.
Some of the details that blew my mind:
● The meteor that killed the dinosaurs was extra destructive because it hit a part of the world's crust with oil reserves underneath. Incinerated it all immediately
● The fact that the largest waterfall in earth's history was created as the Mediterranean literally refilled like a bathtub blew my mind.
● His section on procreation and how thr amniotic sac is a relic of our earliest ancestors leaving the oceans. Human "waters breaking" is the "miniature ocean each of us creates to protect ourselves as we develop".
● "The great raft" on the mississipi river. Importance of logjams to river health and ecosystems
● "The great dying". He creates a truly apocalyptic vision as Siberian eruptions spew out enough lava to fill the Mediterranean. Covered land the size of Australia. Burned coal deposits and turning earth into a candle.
He has a great eye for impactful details. As he takes you back through time, you realise that nothing is really permanent if you take a wide enough lens. We go back before flowers were invented. Back before birds learned to sing. Back before trees were made of wood. Back before soil. Before eyes. To times when the moon was literally closer and brighter. When days were only 22 hours and many of the stars in the night sky didn't even exist yet. This book is one-of-a-kind
It's not perfect. There are moments when the Latin names of various species gets hard to follow. And the beautiful little sketches of one creature per chapter emphasise how hard it is to visualise the other things. You'll spend a lot of time pausing your reading to google search images which does break the flow. This would make spectacular source material for a graphic novel.
But I recommend this highly for anyone with a curious mind. Easy to dip in and out of this as each chapter stands alone.
Some of the details that blew my mind:
● The meteor that killed the dinosaurs was extra destructive because it hit a part of the world's crust with oil reserves underneath. Incinerated it all immediately
● The fact that the largest waterfall in earth's history was created as the Mediterranean literally refilled like a bathtub blew my mind.
● His section on procreation and how thr amniotic sac is a relic of our earliest ancestors leaving the oceans. Human "waters breaking" is the "miniature ocean each of us creates to protect ourselves as we develop".
● "The great raft" on the mississipi river. Importance of logjams to river health and ecosystems
● "The great dying". He creates a truly apocalyptic vision as Siberian eruptions spew out enough lava to fill the Mediterranean. Covered land the size of Australia. Burned coal deposits and turning earth into a candle.
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced