This Is the Way the World Ends
How Droughts and Die-offs, Heat Waves and Hurricanes Are Converging on America
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ISBN10: 1250238625
ISBN13: 9781250238627
Trade Paperback
336 Pages
$18.00
CA$24.50
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 civilization in the shadow of the last ice age to the Industrial Revolution—we can get out of this box canyon by understanding the realities and 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.
Reviews
Praise for This Is the Way the World Ends
"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
"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
"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
"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 Reviews
"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
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BOOK EXCERPTS
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Einstein’s Warning
Most people have heard some version of the “Einstein letter” story—about the famous theoretical physicist Albert Einstein warning FDR that the Nazis were about to develop a nuclear bomb, which so alarmed...
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Jeff Nesbit
