The world itself won't end, of course. Only ours will: our livelihoods, our homes, our cultures. And we're squarely at the tipping point. Longer droughts in the Middle East. Growing desertification in China and Africa. The monsoon season shrinking in India. Amped-up heat waves in Australia. More intense hurricanes reaching America. Water wars in the Horn of Africa. Rebellions, refugees and starving children across the globe. These are not disconnected events. These are the pieces of a larger puzzle that environmental expert Jeff Nesbit puts together. Unless we start addressing the causes of climate change and stop simply navigating its effects, we will be facing a series of unstoppable catastrophes by the time our preschoolers graduate from college. Our world is in trouble - right now. This Is the Way the World Ends tells the real stories of the substantial impacts to Earth's systems unfolding across each continent. The bad news? Within two decades or so, our carbon budget will reach a point of no return. But there's good news. Like every significant challenge we've faced - from creating civilisation in the shadow of the last ice age to the Industrial Revolution - we can get out of the boxed canyon by understanding the realities, changing the worn-out climate conversation to one that's relevant to every person. Nesbit provides a clear blueprint for real-time, workable solutions we can tackle together.
Advanced Praise for This Is the Way the World Ends
"Nesbit's clear, concise style is supported with current scientific findings that anyone will find easy to connect with and understand. This prescient and timely book seeks to bring climate change into the realm of relatability. Recommended for all readers"
--Library Journal
"With This is the Way the World Ends Jeff Nesbit has delivered an enlightening - and alarming - explanation of the climate challenge as it exists today. Climate change is no far-off threat. It's impacting communities all over the world at this very moment, and we ignore the scientific reality at our own peril. The good news? As Nesbit underscores, disaster is not preordained. The global community can meet this moment -- and we must."
--Senator John Kerry, former Secretary of State and 2004 Democratic Party presidential nominee
"Combating climate change and its consequences is an urgent task because humanity needs to save not the planet but itself, declares former White House staffer Nesbit in this nonpartisan call-to-arms. This vital summary of dire facts offers no-nonsense proposals for a way forward."
--Publishers Weekly
"A passionate overview of human-induced global warming whose effect on climate, agriculture, ecosystems, and extinction is approaching a point of no return...That there is a large audience for this genre is a cause for optimism--perhaps the only one."
--Kirkus
"Nesbit, the executive direct of Climate Nexus, lays out why we're all screwed, but he also presents hope: We've solved other problems in the past, he writes, and we can do it again."
--The Revelator
"Like watching an accident unfold in slow motion, Jeff Nesbit reveals the dire future that could await all of us in This is the Way the World Ends. With every gripping turn of the page, you will pray he's wrong, as you fear he's right."
--Seth M. Siegel, New York Times bestselling author of Let There Be Water
"Jeff Nesbit is indispensable. Want to know what's happening now on climate change -- and how we can still shield our kids from climate chaos? Read Jeff's book."
--David Gelber, Emmy Award-winning producer for 60 Minutes
"In this series of harrowing dispatches, Jeff Nesbit takes readers to the front lines of climate change - the bleaching coral reefs, melting glaciers, and thirsty cities where the crisis in the planet's ecosystems is glaringly apparent. Though most Americans are still relatively sheltered from these unfolding calamities, Nesbit argues that the transformation of these ecosystems and the human communities that depend on them are harbingers of a grim future for us all - unless we do something dramatic to slash carbon emissions. Luckily, Nesbit has some concrete and politically canny proposals for how to make this happen. Nesbit's book is essential reading for everyone interested not just in environmental issues but in the looming global geopolitical clashes sparked by the climate crisis."
--Ashley J. Dawson, Princeton University
"If you care about the fate of the planet and the future of civilization, the book you are holding in your hands is essential reading."
--Justin Gillis, award-winning former New York Times journalist
"Few people understand the depth of the planet's vulnerabilities as well as Jeff Nesbit - he's uniquely placed to write a touchstone book for understanding the world we're daily creating."
--Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature
"If you only read one book on why Earth's changing climate system matters - right now - this is it. Read this book."
--David Kessler M.D., author of Capture: Unraveling the Mystery of Mental Suffering and The End of Overeating
"A wide-ranging and lucid survey of climate change and its often-surprising global consequences. Ultimately, Nesbit challenges us to save not just our world but our humanity."
--Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club
"This is a must-read that lays out the clear and present dangers of climate change -- and what we must do to avoid global catastrophe."
--Rhea Suh, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
