History Under Pressure: Peter Frankopan on How Nature Writes the Planet's History With Us
Peter Frankopan, historian: If we go back to the beginnings of recorded history, we'll notice that nearly all the world's great texts warn of some environmental catastrophe.
By Jacek Stawiski and Peter Frankopan
Jacek Stawiski: Your monumental book The Earth Transformed: An Untold History was published in Polish this year. What is it? An environmental history of the planet?
Peter Frankopan: "Environmental history," "natural history," or "global history" — I'm happy with any of those. For me, it's global history: the history of people set within the history of the planet.
When we think about history, we usually mean the history of people. We describe a few thousand years, starting in Egypt or the Middle East. But in geological time, the Earth is 4.5 billion years old. And our history is closely bound up with the history of the Earth.
