The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization.

BRIAN FAGAN

For most of human existence, the world's climate has transitioned from cold to warm and back again. Thanks to data being retrieved from cores drilled in oceans floors, ice sheets, and high-altitude glaciers around the world, scientists have learned much about the many changes that accompany these fluctuations. Fagan explains how humans' relationships to the natural environment have likewise fluctuated. We're currently in a warming period that has lasted 150 years, longer than any warming period over the past 1,000 years. Fagan believes that the cause is greenhouse gases. From previous warming periods, he explains how drought in Asia led to agriculture and the drying of the Sahara prompted cattle herding in the Nile Valley, However, while we adapted in the past, Fagan is concerned that we won't this time, because the costs will become prohibitive and a nomadic response will be less feasible. Basic, 2004, 284 p., b&w illus., hardcover, $26.00.