Description: "What would happen if we were to awaken one day and suddenly realize that the world we live in appeared eerily alien, as if we'd been teleported to some other distant world? That frightening prospect is now. Our planetary hydrosphere, which animates all of life on Earth, is rebelling in the wake of a global warming climate, spurring biblical spring floods, devastating summer droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires and powerful autumn hurricanes and typhoons, wreaking havoc on ecosystems and society."--
Review Quotes:
A Nature Best Science Books of 2024
"Forget the idea that we live on a land planet. After reading Rifkin's eye-opening account of our Planet Aqua, a water planet, you will never look at the Earth in the same way again. It's a much-needed new dimension of the climate conversation, and a smart read for business leaders navigating our changing world."
Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever and past President of the International Chamber of Commerce
"Planet Aqua will shock most people. Rifkin points out that instead of living on a land planet, we actually live on a water planet - fresh, salt, and frozen - and this changes all of our long-held beliefs. Now, climate change is rapidly disrupting the hydrosphere, taking us into a foreboding future of floods, droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, and hurricanes, pushing many species to extinction, including our own. Rifkin's Planet Aqua gives us an entirely new story about our home in the universe that hopefully will change the way we think, act, and thrive alongside our fellow creatures on a water planet."
Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace
"With Planet Aqua, Jeremy Rifkin presents a thought-provoking and absorbing vision of humanity's future that centers on water as the 'the animating source of life.' It's a compelling and persuasive read that redefines our relationship with the Earth's most complex and vital sphere."
Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group
"Rifkin's prescient Planet Aqua is a beck and call to humanity, like God's instruction to Noah in the face of the catastrophic deluge in the book of Genesis. He reminds us that the future of the planetary hydrosphere will determine our own fate and the fate of our fellow creatures - a prophetic message that we need to absorb, reflect, and act on."
Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
"An energetic, urgent call for imaginative, radical responses to environmental crises."
Kirkus Reviews
"an eye-opener"
The Revelator
"[Rifkin's] urgent book argues for Earth's Water to be seen more as a 'life source' than a 'commercial resource'."
Nature