Plows, Plagues, And Petroleum

Summary

The impact on climate from 200 years of industrial development is an everyday fact of life, but did humankind's active involvement in climate change really begin with the industrial revolution, as commonly believed? William Ruddiman's provocative new book argues that humans have actually been changing the climate for some 8,000 years--as a result of the earlier discovery of agriculture. The "Ruddiman Hypothesis" will spark intense debate. We learn that the impact of farming on greenhouse-gas levels, thousands of years before the industrial revolution, kept our planet notably warmer than if natural climate cycles had prevailed--quite possibly forestalling a new ice age. Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum is the first book to trace the full historical sweep of human interaction with Earth's climate. Ruddiman takes us through three broad stages of human history: when nature was in control; when humans began to take control, discovering agriculture and affecting climate through CO2 and methane emissions; and, finally, the more recent human impact on climate change. Along the way he raises the fascinating possibility that plagues, by depleting human populations, also affected reforestation and thus climate--as suggested by dips in greenhouse gases when major pandemics have occurred. The book concludes by looking to the future and critiquing the impact of special interest money on the global warming debate. Eminently readable and far-reaching in argument, Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum shows us that even as civilization developed, we were already changing the climate in which we lived.

Author Biography

William F. Ruddiman recently retired as Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia.

List of Illustrations

Preface

xiii

Part One What Has Controlled Earth's Climate?

Climate and Human History

(12)

Part Two Nature in Control

Slow Going for a Few Million Years

(8)

Linking Earth's Orbit to Its Climate

(10)

Orbital Changes Control Ice-Age Cycles

(11)

Orbital Changes Control Monsoon Cycles

(9)

Stirrings of Change

(10)

Part Three Humans Begin to Take Control

Early Agriculture and Civilization

(11)

Taking Control of Methane

(8)

Taking Control of CO2

(11)

Have We Delayed a Glaciation?

(11)

Challenges and Responses

106

(13)

Part Four Disease Enters the Picture

But What about Those CO2 ``Wiggles''?

119

(8)

The Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Which One?

127

(12)

Pandemics, CO2, and Climate

139

(12)

Part Five Humans in Control

Greenhouse Warming: Tortoise and Hare

151

(8)

Future Warming: Large or Small?

159

(10)

From the Past into the Distant Future

169

(10)

Epilogue

Global-Change Science and Politics

179

(11)

Consuming Earth's Gifts

190

(5)

Bibliography

195

(2)

Figure Sources

197

(2)

Index

199

Supplemental Materials

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