Frank Oldfield is an Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Geography, University of Liverpool.

• 1. Defining and exploring the key questions; 2. An introduction to models and modelling; 3. The palaeo-record: approaches, timeframes and chronology; 4. The palaeo-record: archives, proxies and calibration; 5. Glacial and interglacial worlds; 6. The transition from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene; 7. The Holocene; 8. The Anthropocene – a changing atmosphere; 9. The Anthropocene – changing land; 10. The Anthropocene: changing aquatic environments and ecosystems; 11. Changing biodiversity; 12. Detection and attribution; 13. Future mean global temperatures and sea-level; 14. From the global to the specific; 15. Impacts and vulnerability; 16. Sceptics, responses and partial answers.

'This is a remarkable text. It takes both method and data and subjects them to rigorous analysis … there are numerous books on the global warming debate but this is the first seen that actually looks in detail at the substance behind the article. This is a definite 'must buy' for both institutional and personal shelves.' British Ecological Society