This book explores the way in which human culture and technology have altered the environment through time. The contributors, drawn from a wide variety of disciplines, including anthropology, biology, history, physics and atmospheric science, explore the relationship between humans and the environment as an ongoing process, not just as a recent artifact of the post-Industrial Revolution world. Through an examination of the past and an analysis of the present, they cast light on the short-term strategies and long-term consequences of human behaviour on the environment.