In the middle record high temperatures , flooding , drought a forest fires leaders convene for the next round of UN climate talks later this month aimed at curbing the centuries-old trend of humans spewing into the atmosphere  more and more greenhouse gases. For hundreds of years, humans have shaped the world around them to their advantage: They have drained lakes to protect infrastructure, wealth, and people. They mined billions of tons of coal and then oil and gas to power empires and economies. The appeal of harnessing nature and burning fossil fuels as a path to prosperity jumped from nation to nation, each eager to secure their own energy. People who claimed to have the power to control the nature and energy resources around them saw the environment as a tool to be used for progress, historians say. Over hundreds of years, this impulse also changed the climate  planet - and brought its inhabitants to the brink of disaster. (DANA BELTAJI)