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The more political arguments against Ruddiman are more easily dismissed, however.
Synthesis and Evaluation
It must be acknowledged -- and is, in fact, acknowledged by Ruddiman -- that there is not complete scientific certainty that the current warming trend the Earth is experiencing, if indeed it is experiencing one, is the result of human behavior, and specifically the use of fossil fuels. The evidence that Ruddiman presents in Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum, however, clearly suggests that human beings have the potential to cause worldwide environmental change, and if this potential has existed in the past it must exist a thousand-fold now. Though there are scientific questions and possible problems with Ruddiman's argument, these questions and arguments are no more certain in their conclusions than Ruddiman is with his, leaving it up to each individual to decide what the truth is and ultimately ending in a lot of senselessly heated disagreement rather than rational debate.
What the reality of the situation comes down to is this: there is some evidence that human beings have caused, and are currently causing, changes to global temperatures through the release of greenhouse gases. If human beings truly are causing global warming,...
If this action is taken and human beings were not the cause of the warming, no harm would have been done by moving to more renewable and cleaner energy resources. Whether or not William F. Ruddiman is correct in his assertions, then, we might as well behave as if he is.
References/FossilFuelClimateControl.pdf
However, the type and evolution of the particular nature of the climate change experienced by the earth seems clearly due to the impact of human existence. Ruddiman takes a roughly chronological approach, and slowly takes the reader through the history of climatic shifts -- before humans became tillers of the land and afterwards. Major milestones in human history correspond with major anomalies in the earth's climate and atmospheric levels
He also cites some of the possible positive benefits to the global warming that is being experienced, while questioning the more dire predictions that have been made in this regard. Ruddiman is not refuted in this article, but the questions that lie at the foundations of his theories are clearly and explicitly exposed. Silver, Cheryl Simon. One Earth, One Future. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 1992. This author provides a broad
He describes how wild grains and animals were domesticated, as well as the new technologies that made farming possible (sickles, baskets, pestles, gourds, irrigation, the wheel, the plow). He uses a chart to plot these movements. His evidence is mainly archeological, historical, and botanical with heavy doses of appeal to imaginary scenarios. Its power to convince is narrational. His ultimate point in cataloguing this change is to assert how,
Humanity might not have the same effective power over the environment when fossil fuels run out. While this assumption is certainly believable, humans will not doubt reach a point where the greenhouse gas absorbing plants and bodies will no longer be able to keep up with human activity. This will further exacerbate the problem of human-caused global climate change. On the other hand, if humans are able to develop