Mark Lynas wins this year’s Royal Society prize for popular science writing.
16/6/2008 BBC Mark Lynas’ Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet has already been turned into a TV programme and is now almost certain to experience a jump in sales. The book explains how Earth will change for every degree rise in temperature – from droughts to mass extinctions.
Mr Lynas was presented with the winner’s £10,000 cheque at a ceremony hosted by the UK academy of science.
The award is one of the major publishing events of the year in the UK. Previous winners have included Bill Bryson, Stephen J Gould, Roger Penrose, and Stephen Hawking. Six Degrees uses published scientific data and interviews with leading researchers to illustrate the changes we could witness in a warmer world.
Professor Jonathan Ashmore, the chair of the judges, described the book as “compelling and gripping”.
“It presents a series of scientifically plausible, worst-case scenarios without tipping into hysteria,” he said.
“Six Degrees is not just a great read, written in an original way, but also provides a good overview of the latest science on this highly topical issue. “This is a book that will stimulate debate and that will, Lynas hopes, move us to action in the hope that this is a disaster movie that never happens. Everyone
should read this book.”
The bookies’ favourite had been A Life Decoded, the autobiography of genetics pioneer Craig Venter.
The six books shortlisted for the Royal Society’s General Prize were: A Life Decoded , by J Craig Venter ( Penguin Allen Lane ) Coral: A Pessimist in Paradise , by Steve Jones ( Little, Brown ) Gut Feelings by Gerd Gigerenzer ( Penguin – Allen Lane ) Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet , by Mark Lynas ( Fourth Estate ) The Sun Kings , by Stuart Clark ( Princeton University Press ) Why Beauty is Truth , by Ian Stewart ( Basic Books )