For many years, as fossil plants emerged from the rocks, it was
believed that these records reflected changes in climate.
Plants, it was assumed, had to adapt to variations in weather
and other conditions. According to Beerling, plant life was
instead the major prompter of climate change. The balance of
atmospheric gases was determined by the micro-organisms floating
in the seas. The ability to absorb carbon dioxide, coupled with
the use of sunlight to convert that into nutrients gives plants
the power to shift gas quantities. During the early days, plants
exhaled oxygen. It was poison to most organisms, but those
capable of using it began the drive leading to today's life. In
this useful survey of all the forces forming today's world,
Beerling traces how plants "changed Earth's history". Following
his thesis requires the reader's close attention, since the
organisation of the material is necessarily loose - not fixed
chronology nor subject. The many topics to cover cannot be
neatly niched. To the author, the