At a level accessible to the educated lay reader, this book describes the changes human activities have produced in the global environment from 300 years ago to the present day. It offers a comprehensive and authoritative inventory of human impact in its varied forms - on the oceans, atmosphere, and climate - ranging from long-standing alterations to new and surprising ones that have emerged in recent years, from environmental disasters to success stories of environmental management, and false alarms. This balanced, non-polemical survey will interest all those concerned about the environment and the likely fate of the planet.