David Beerling 2018. The Emerald Planet Oxford: OUP, 288 pp.

Eight concise and fascinating essays on the history of the planet and the biosphere. The author’s main method is to link modern knowledge about plant biology (eg numbers of stoma on leaves under different gas compositions) and to use that to better explain the data from palaeobotany. But more generally Beerling is very good at showing how independent data from other disciplines informs. Top example being concordance between atmospheric oxygen % from two different sources and occurrence over time of giant insects (whose size was made possible by higher oxygen levels). Karl Popper would object that there are an endless number of such possible convincing associations and that one should seek falsifying evidence instead but most even so …

Other chapters are equally enjoyable and informative essays on global warning in Earth history, leaf morphology and the atmosphere, the Eocene etc. And many pertinent vignettes on historical figures.