Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- How to Use This Book -- INTRODUCTION: DOCUMENTING GLOBAL CHANGE -- PART 1: POPULATION: Are We Too Many, or Are We Too Greedy? -- An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) -- COMMENTARY: Björn-Ola Linnér -- The Shadow of the World's Future (1928) -- Commentary: Alison Bashford -- "Ghost Acreage" (1962) -- COMMENTARY: Sverker Sörlin -- The Population Bomb (1968) -- COMMENTARY: Michael Egan -- PART 2: SUSTAINABILITY: Are We Limited by Knowledge or Resources? -- Sylvicultura oeconomica (1713) -- COMMENTARY: Paul Warde -- The Coal Question (1865) -- COMMENTARY: Paul Warde -- "Possible Limits of Raw-Material Consumption" (1956) -- COMMENTARY: Paul Warde -- The Limits to Growth (1972) -- COMMENTARY: Michael Egan -- PART 3: GEOGRAPHIES: Are Human and Natural Futures Determined or Chosen? -- The Pulse of Asia (1907) -- COMMENTARY: Carole Crumley -- "Nature Versus The Australian" (1920) -- COMMENTARY: Carolyn Strange -- The Northward Course of Empire (1922) -- COMMENTARY: Sverker Sörlin -- PART 4: "THE ENVIRONMENT": How Did the Idea Emerge? -- The Biosphere (1926) -- COMMENTARY: Pey-Yi Chu -- Deserts on the March (1935) -- COMMENTARY: Libby Robin -- Road to Survival (1948) -- COMMENTARY: Sverker Sörlin -- Silent Spring (1962) -- Commentary: Christof Mauch -- PART 5: ECOLOGY: How Do We Understand Natural Systems? -- Essay on the Geography of Plants (1807) -- COMMENTARY: Stephen T. Jackson -- "The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts and Terms" (1935) -- COMMENTARY: Libby Robin -- Fundamentals of Ecology (1953) -- COMMENTARY: Stephen Bocking -- Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems (1973) -- COMMENTARY: Libby Robin -- PART 6: TECHNOLOGY: Does Technology Create More Problems Than It Solves? -- The Tree of Science (1857) -- COMMENTARY: Jean-Baptiste Fressoz -- To Choose a Future (1972) -- COMMENTARY: Arne Kaijser.

"The Dynamics of Energy Systems and the Logistic Substitution Model" (1979) -- COMMENTARY: Paul Warde -- PART 7: CLIMATE: How Can We Predict Change? -- "On the Transmission of Heat" (1859) -- COMMENTARY: Mike Hulme -- "On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground" (1896) -- COMMENTARY: Sverker Sörlin -- "Seasonal Foreshadowing" (1930) -- COMMENTARY: Neville Nicholls -- "The Artificial Production of Carbon Dioxide and Its Influence on Temperature" (1938) -- COMMENTARY: James Rodger Fleming -- "Unpleasant Surprises in the Greenhouse?" -- "Climate and Atmospheric History of the Past 420,000 Years from the Vostok Ice Core, Antarctica" (1999) -- COMMENTARY: Tom Griffiths -- PART 8: DIVERSITY: Why Do We Need It, and Can We Conserve It? -- The Invaders (1958) -- COMMENTARY: Libby Robin -- The Forestry Projections and the Environment: Global-Scale Environmental Impacts (1980) -- COMMENTARY: Mark V. Barrow Jr. -- "What Is Conservation Biology?" (1985) -- COMMENTARY: Libby Robin -- "Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique" (1997) -- COMMENTARY: Rob Nixon -- PART 9: MEASURING: How Do We Turn the World into Data? -- An Investigation of the Currents of the Atlantic Ocean (1832) -- COMMENTARY: Sarah Cornell -- "Current Problems in Meteorology" (1957) -- COMMENTARY: Maria Bohn and Sverker Sörlin -- Nature's Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems (1997) -- COMMENTARY: Richard B. Norgaard -- The Economics of Climate Change (2006) -- COMMENTARY: Paul Warde -- PART 10: THE ANTHROPOCENE: How Can We Live in a World Where There Is No Nature Without People? -- "The 'Anthropocene''' (2000) -- COMMENTARY: Will Steffen -- "A Safe Operating Space for Humanity" (2009) -- COMMENTARY: Susan Owens -- "Reducing the Future to Climate: A Story of Climate Determinism and Reductionism" (2011).

COMMENTARY: Libby Robin, Sverker Sörlin, and Paul Warde -- Select Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Commentators -- Selection Credits -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z.