Reading List

The Future is Wild, by Dougal Dixon, John Adams
Official Blurb:
Imagine the world in the far distant future -- a world without humans, a world so different from ours that, until now, it''s been impossible to consider.
What creatures will roam the land or swim in the oceans? The Future Is Wild brings to life a world of amazing creatures and sets them loose in our imagination.
Based on fundamental biological and evolutionary principles, they could -- and may yet -- exist:
5 million years from now.
It cannot fly, but the carakiller is the Amazon''s swiftest predator.
100 million years from now.
Toratons, descendents of tortoises, are the biggest animals ever to walk the Earth.
200 million years from now.
Warrior terabytes disable victims by spraying chemicals at them.
In five million years, Northern Europe and North America are covered by ice sheets. Only the hardiest, most adaptable species are able to survive. In 100 million years, Earth is a global hothouse, brimming with life. Another 100 million years and Earth is a single, huge supercontinent and one vast, warm ocean.
Using state-of-the-art computer animation, The Future Is Wild is able to transform the imagination into actual images, creating a living world of strange creatures and extraordinary habitats.

From the perspective of both sci-fi and real science geekiness, the book's premise of guessing at envirionmental conditions in the far future, and how organic life will adapt to meet those conditions makes for entertaining reading. Also refreshing is the way that the authors reassert scientific impartialiaty: they credit humans for some of the changes that are making our environment more hostile, but not all of them. The "Human Era" as they dub it, is still a tiny sliver of time, bracketed by hundreds of millions of years of extreme climate change, and the challenge of biological adaptation, or extinction.

There is also a DVD of the 3-part tv series, which is an entertaining diversion for those of you who enjoy nature documentaries:

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