It is still being debated whether humankind has changed the planet irreversibly. Today, progress is our raison d'être, an eternal promise of a better quality of life. But behind the impressive history of progress, there hides another one. It's a story written by powerful people: political leaders, industrialists, chemists, lobbyists and financiers of all kinds who, in two centuries, have shaped our way of life, up until the advent of a new era that carries within the seeds of climate change: the Anthropocene.