Andrew Smith's Reviews > How the Earth Works

A series of forty eight lectures, each lasting around thirty minutes, delivered by Michael E. Wysession, PHD – Professor of Geophysics at Washington University in St. Louis. Part of the Great Courses collection provided by Audible (many of them free to members.). This set takes us from the formation of everything – the Big Bang – right through to speculation around whether life exists beyond this planet. It’s thorough, sometimes a little too detailed for me but enthusiastically delivered by a man who clearly knows his subject.

There’s a lot of geology here, but all of the other major sciences feature too. Some early facts that grabbed me included:

- 20% of all humans who have ever lived are alive today

- Most of what each of us is – the atoms- are actually billions of years old

We’re walked through the formation of our planet and a good deal about how it functions, which includes some pretty eye opening news (to me) regarding how Plate Tectonics work and how this has delivered substantial changes that to Earth’s geography over time. There’s also a lot here about weather and severe events that impact us, such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Towards the end there’s a really interesting section on natural resources: how they’re being depleted and what options are open to us in the future. Some more facts stood out to me here, such as:

- The US uses circa 25% of the world’s oil but only has around 2% of the world’s reserves

- Saudi Arabia covers a third of one percent of Earth’s surface but owns 25% of the world’s oil

The final sections looking beyond planet Earth were possibly the highlights for me. It seems that in our galaxy only Mars offers a haven should we be forced to leave our planet – but this presupposes that water is found there (the scientists think this is likely). Though even on Mars life would be tough – and very cold! Wider afield, it all becomes pretty much guesswork but there seems to be a distinct possibility that we are indeed the only planet on which life as we know it exists.