Planet Earth Author:Weiner The companion volume to the original PBS television series. — The television series and this book are propelled by the revolutionary ideas based on discoveries that could not have been made 30 years ago. For at the beginning of the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958), there were no space probes or manned space systems. There were no high... more »-speed computers, miniature high-precision electronic instruments, modern radio telescopes, or communication satellites. There were no submersibles with which to explore the ocean depths, and no one had drilled the ocean floor to confirm the theories of magnetic reversal and sea-floor spreading.
We have learned more in the past 30 years than in the previous 300. Most significantly, we have acquired the ability to radically change the face of Planet Earth--for good or ill. And we have come to realize that science can no longer be separated from its implications.« less