by Jeff Goodell
First published 2023
Rising temperatures are transforming Earth faster than most people realize. Award-winning environmental journalist Jeff Goodell argues that heat drives every other climate impact we face today. California now expects annual wildfires. The Northeast receives less snow each winter. Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets melt at accelerating rates. Goodell examines what happens when summer temperatures in Chicago or Boston regularly hit 110°F instead of 90°F. He explains why spring arrives weeks earlier and fall comes weeks later, affecting food supplies and disease patterns. The author reveals how heatwaves function as predatory events that target vulnerable populations, but warns this selectivity is changing. As extreme heat becomes more frequent and intense, it will affect everyone more equally. Goodell combines current scientific research with field reporting to show how heat exposes weaknesses in government, politics, economics, and social values. He demonstrates that stopping fossil fuel use immediately would halt temperature rise immediately, while waiting fifty years means fifty more years of rising heat. The book explores how extreme temperatures will make large areas of the planet nearly unlivable and examines the broad changes already reshaping our world.
Genres: environment, non-fiction, 21st-century, climate-change
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: informative, investigative-journalism
Setting: California, Chicago, Boston, Arctic, Antarctic
Period: Present Day
400 pages · Hardcover · Little, Brown and Company