Ian Whyte is a professor of historical geography at the University of Lancaster in England. His most recent book covers 12,000 years of human history, looking at how the fate of some civilisations depended on the interaction between societies and their environments.

The writing is a little academic, lacking the engaging style of Jarred Diamond and it covers well-known ground – Mayan civilisations, the extinction of big game in North America, the desiccation of the Aral Sea and China's Three Gorges Dam.

The examples start with societies that modified their environment to only a modest degree and goes on to societies whose environmental modifications may have impacts at a global scale.

This may be a book that's best left to anthropogenic environment change enthusiasts.