Since you have a science background, I'll strongly recommend the recent short book The Physics of Climate Change by Lawrence Krauss, which details how our CO2 e

Since you have a science background, I'll strongly recommend the recent short book The Physics of Climate Change by Lawrence Krauss, which details how our CO2 emissions change the planet's temperature. It's fairly basic thermodynamics and was predicted with decent accuracy over a century ago. Also there are several chapters in Hansen's book Storms of My Grandchildren that go into the geological record, with multiple lines of evidence that all point to a similar sensitivity of the planet's average temperature to CO2 levels. (Regarding invasive diseases, I meant primarily things affecting forests.)