Some scientists have coined a new word to describe the age we are living in. They call it the anthropocene -- or age of man -- because of the dramatic way that humans are changing the planet.
Look at the evidence for global warming: nearly every major glacier in the world is shrinking, the permafrost is melting, sea levels are rising and the earth's surface is getting hotter. But what is frightening many scientists is the speed of these changes -- and the fear that it will be impossible to reverse them.
The writer Elizabeth Kolbert traveled around the world, talking to the people and places most affected by melting ice, warmer oceans, and raging forest fires. She says that Americans are among the only people in the world not to make the links between their own actions and the changing climate.
