High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate is a 2005 book published by Princeton University Press and written by William Ruddiman, a paleoclimatologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia. He has authored and co-authored several different books and academic papers on the subject of climate change. This book however takes a more controversial approach by challenging the common conclusion of climate scientists that human induced climate change began with the industrial revolution through the widespread burning of fossil fuels. Scientists often refer to this period as the “Anthropocene” and define it as the era in which humans first began to alter the earth’s climate and ecosystems. Ruddiman contends that human induced climate change began as a result of the advent of agriculture thousands of years ago and resulted in warmer temperatures that could have possibly averted another ice age.