Description: Providing a post-COP26 perspective on the climate emergency, Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant's Guide acknowledges that it is now practically impossible to keep this side of the 1.5°C dangerous climate-change guardrail. The upshot is that we can no longer dodge the arrival of a disastrous, all-pervasive climate breakdown that will come as a hammer blow to global society and economy. Bill McGuire, Professor of Geophysical and Climate Hazards, explains the science behind the climate crisis, painting a blunt but authentic picture of the sort of world our children will grow old in, and our grandchildren grow up in, a world that we catch only glimpses of in today's blistering heatwaves, calamitous wildfires, and ruinous floods and droughts. Bleak though it is, the picture is one we must all face up to, if only to spur genuine action--even at this late stage--to stop a harrowing future from becoming a truly cataclysmic one.
Brief description: Bill McGuire is Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London, a co-director of the New Weather Institute, where he also blogs, and a contributor to the 2012 IPCC report on climate change and extreme events. His books include A Guide to the End of the World and Waking the Giant. He also writes for many publications, including The Guardian and New Scientist.