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Plants have profoundly moulded the Earths climate and the evolutionary trajectory of life. Far from being silent witnesses to the passage of time - plants are dynamic components of our world - shaping the environment throughout history as much as that environment has shaped them. In The Emerald Planet - David Beerling puts plants centre stage - revealing the crucial role they have played in driving global changes in the environment - in recording hidden facets of Earths history - and in helping us to predict its future. His account draws together evidence from fossil plants - from experiments with their living counterparts - and from computer models of the Earth System - to illuminate the history of our planet and its biodiversity. This new approach reveals how plummeting carbon dioxide levels removed a barrier to the evolution of the leaf; how plants played a starring role in pushing oxygen levels upwards - allowing spectacular giant insects to thrive in the Carboniferous; and it strengthens fascinating and contentious fossil evidence for an ancient hole in the ozone layer.Along the way - Beerling introduces a lively cast of pioneering scientists from Victorian times onwards whose discoveries provided the crucial background to these and the other puzzles. This understanding of our planets past sheds a sobering light on our own climate-changing activities - and offers clues to what our climatic and ecological futures might look like. There could be no more important time to take a close look at plants - and to understand the history of the world through the storie...