This book places the horrifying carnage unleashed on New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama by Hurricane Katrina. Climate has been humanity’s constant, if moody, companion and, at times, benefactor or tormentor.

The author reveals a recurring pattern in which civilisations become prosperous and complacent during good weather, only to collapse when the climate changes — such as during disease, blight and civil disorder.

He also considers how adaptable human societies are to alterations in weather. He offers several examples of societies that drastically deteriorated, such as Greenland’s Norse settlements in 1350, Central America’s Mayan civilisation around 950, modern Syria’s Akkadian Empire circa 2200 BC and others.

He also rescues scholars’ debates from the esoteric by embedding them in research on contemporary climate and its major factors, such as solar energy, the earth’s axial tilt and orbit, the drift of the continents and the distribution of heat by the ocean and atmosphere.

Relatively restrained in tone, and consequently more persuasive by its sobriety, his presentation of theories on historical climate change will provoke readers concerned about the implications of global warming for modern civilisation.