[oowolf]

How humans took control of climate: by William F. Ruddiman, Princeton University Press. 2007
Ruddiman's 500 page magnum opus "Climate Change Past and Future"(2000) was a very technical textbook.
This tome is much more digestible, being written with the layman in mind. If you believe anthropogenic climate change began with the industrial revolution, think again.
There are reviews, by better writers than me, here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/069113 ... 0691133980

[kjmclark]

Yeah, and a bit of a surprise for me was that Ruddiman thinks peak oil is a bigger problem than climate change. I got the book because it sounded like an interesting book on climate change from an expert. His key point on climate change is that we started long before people think; and if we hadn't, we probably would have entered an ice age a thousand years or so ago. However, we mucked with the climate and held the ice age off.

Then we found fossil fuels, and you know the rest. However, his take away message is that while climate change *will* be bad, he thinks peak fossil fuels is much more worrying for humanity. Excellent book, and very readable.