The New York Times bestseller: a searing examination of the impact that temperature rise will have on our lives and what we can do to stop it
'This searing plea for a better, fairer and cooler future should be read by anyone with skin in the game – which is every single one of us.'—NAOMI KLEIN
'Entertaining and thoroughly researched, Jeff Goodell brings the subject of climate-driven extreme heat to life in his comprehensive look at heat's substantial impact on humanity's past, present, and future." —AL GORE
'When heat comes, it's invisible. It doesn't bend tree branches or blow hair across your face to let you know it's arrived...The sun feels like the barrel of a gun pointed at you.'
Extreme heat is a first order threat that drives all other impacts of the climate crisis. As the temperature rises, fault lines are revealed in our governments, politics, economy and values.
From award-winning author and Rolling Stone journalist Jeff Goodell, this book is about the extreme ways in which our planet is already changing. It is about the impacts of heat on everything from our food to disease outbreaks, our houses and our jobs.It is about what will happen to our lives and our communities when typical summer days go from 30°C to 43°C. A heatwave, Goodell explains, is a predatory event, one that culls the most vulnerable people. But that is changing. As heatwaves become more intense and more common, they will become more democratic.
Masterfully reported, mixing the latest scientific insight with on-the-ground storytelling and interviews, Goodell tackles the big questions and uncovers how extreme heat is a force beyond anything we have reckoned with before.
'Jeff Goodell asks us to imagine the impact on our minds and bodies, our communities and economies. Heat is essential reading for anyone who cares about the future.' —ELIZABETH KOLBERT
'It is already a new world, hotter than ever before in human history and getting rapidly hotter still. Heat is a masterful, bracing, vivid portrait of the future we now know will be shaped, like clay, by that heat – a godlike force, as Goodell writes, governing all life conducted under its profound and brutal reign.' —DAVID WALLACE-WELLS