Earth transformed / William F. Ruddiman.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

A Mystery: Wrong-Way Greenhouse-Gas Trends: Natures Climatic Cycles -- Wrong-Way Methane Trend -- Wrong-Way Carbon Dioxide Trend -- PART 2 Early Agriculture: Answer to the CO2 and CH4 Mysteries?: The Fertile Crescent and Europe -- China and Southern Asia -- The Americas -- Africa, Australia, and Oceania -- PART 3 Debating a New Hypothesis -- Early Farming and Per Capita Land Use -- How Should Interglacial Gas Trends Be Compared? -- Natural Versus Anthropogenic CH4 Sources: Closer Scrutiny -- Natural Versus Anthropogenic CO2 Sources: Closer Scrutiny -- How Science Moves Forward: Falsification -- Paradigm Shifts -- An Emerging Paradigm for the Anthropogenic Era? -- Early Human Effects on Climate -- Is the Next Glaciation Overdue? -- Other Climatic Effects of Early Land Clearance -- The End of Northern Hemisphere Glaciations -- Small Steps Back Toward an Ice Age -- The Little Ice Age -- Were the Drops in CO2 and CH4 Natural? -- Mass Human Mortality and CO2 Decreases -- Effects of Humans on Short-Term Greenhouse-Gas Reductions

It's a question that has engaged climate scientists for more than a decade: Not if human activity impacts the environment, but when did that impact start to be significant? Was it in the mid-18th century, as long believed, with the Industrial Revolution producing huge amounts in greenhouse gas emissions? Or did it actually begin thousands of years earlier, as a result of the discovery and spread of agricultural practices?