Ripples on the cosmic ocean An environmental history of our place in the solar system

Georgetown University environmental history professor Degroot (The Frigid Golden Age), offers a captivating examination of how humans' developing understanding of the solar system has shaped public affairs on Earth. Outer space, he explains, is an ever-changing arena; the sun spews plasma, and asteroids and comets zoom past planets, sometimes colliding at immense speeds. Changes in the cosmos have had wide-ranging effects here on Earth, Degroot argues. They've spurred new technology to study and perhaps communicate with other planets, influenced culture, shaped geopolitics, and awakened humanity to existential threats. Changes in Venus's atmosphere, for example, led scientists to investigate whether climate change and ozone depletion were happening on Earth, while dust storms on Mars prompted studies concluding that nuclear war on Earth would be detrimental to the planet. The resulting publicity campaigns reduced nuclear tensions during the Cold War. Now, Degroot notes that humans are increasingly making their own "ripples" in the cosmos, as the current space race presents the possibility of settling elsewhere in the solar system or exploiting other planets' resources. Adroitly integrating science and history, Degroot effectively demonstrates that Earth is entangled in a dynamic "cosmic mosaic." This accessible and eloquent volume both entertains and educates. Photos. (Oct.)

Taking the wide view. From the ancients to the Newtonians, humans found comfort in the regularities of the heavens--the rising and setting of the sun, the steady light of the fixed stars. But the invention of telescopes in the 17th century revealed more erratic changes in the cosmos, arrhythmias in the scheme of things that spurned the steady cycles of wake and sleep, sow and harvest. In this gorgeously illustrated, richly researched book, Degroot, an environmental historian at Georgetown University, explores the ways in which "real or perceived changes in cosmic environments shaped affairs on Earth." In the late 1700s, the astronomer William Herschel discovered that the sun's brightness is inconstant and that changes in solar output can affect our weather and food production. Solar storms turned out to wreak havoc on technology. A 1967 burst of radio waves that scrambled U.S. radar stations left Air Force officers thinking the Soviets had jammed their equipment. Space weather can mean the difference between war and peace, but, on the flip side, Degroot suggests, our understanding of space is itself a reflection of earthly sociopolitical and cultural concerns. Tracing fascinating tales of astronomers, scientists, and reporters who conjectured the existence of massive cities, forests, and even beavers on the Moon, Degroot reveals that they were seeing their own zeitgeist through their telescopes. When, for instance, scientists saw canals on Mars, powerful El Niño and La Niña events on Earth were causing massive droughts that killed millions. "The idea that Martians had engineered their planet to survive the ultimate drought naturally captured widespread attention, and, for a while, convinced many scientists," Degroot writes. His historical analysis is so persuasive that, when he espouses a kind of techno-utopian vision of space exploration at the book's end, it's hard not to read that, too, as a reflection of the hopes and anxieties of our present age. A sweeping, stunning account of our place in the cosmos and its place in us. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.