Description
Book SynopsisWhen climate scientist Joëlle Gergis set to work on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, the research she encountered kept her up at night. Through countless hours spent with the world’s top scientists to piece together the latest global assessment of climate change, she realised that the impacts were occurring faster than anyone had predicted. In Humanity’s Moment, Joëlle takes us through the science in the IPCC report with unflinching honesty, explaining what it means for our future, while sharing her personal reflections on bearing witness to the heartbreak of the climate emergency unfolding in real time. But this is not a lament for a lost world. It is an inspiring reminder that human history is an endless tug-of-war for social justice. We are each a part of an eternal evolutionary force that can transform our world. Joëlle shows us that the solutions we need to live sustainably already exist - we just need the social movement and political will to create a better world. Humanity’s Moment is a climate scientist’s guide to rekindling hope, and a call to action to restore our relationship with ourselves, each other, and our planet.
Trade Review"Scientists aren't cyborgs--studying the climate crisis comes with a deep emotional burden. Joelle Gergis has shouldered that burden and as a result has some useful ideas to share with the rest of us as we try to cope with the reality of what we've already done. It's a key part of trying to limit the damage--physical and spiritual--going forward."--Bill McKibben, author "The End of Nature" "In Humanity's Moment, Joelle Gergis, a leading climate scientist and gifted author, manages to unpack the science behind the climate crisis in a way that is authoritative, gripping, and very personal. Read her engaging, first-hand account of the latest UN climate report to have both hope and inspiration as we tackle the greatest challenge we have faced as a species."--Michael Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor, University of Pennsylvania, and author of "The New Climate War" "This book by a leading scientist is powerful, urgent, passionate, and clear, an explanation of the science of climate change and the kind of changes with which we need to meet it, changes in our energy policy, politics, and very imagining of the natural world and humanity's place in it. With its stubborn and well-grounded hopefulness, Humanity's Moment is a tool for engagement, whether you're new to the issue or could use some bolstering in your commitment."--Rebecca Solnit, author of "Orwell's Roses" and "Hope in the Dark"
Table of ContentsPrologue: Life on the frontline Part 1: The Head Chapter 1: Elemental Earth Chapter 2: The age of consequences Chapter 3: Fork in the road Chapter 4: Gradually, then suddenly Part 2: The Heart Chapter 5: Where the battle has been lost Chapter 6: Sea of humanity Chapter 7: Lost worlds Chapter 8: A thousand generations Part 3: The Whole Chapter 9: In all darkness, there is light Chapter 10: A new kind of politics Chapter 11: Life imitating art Chapter 12: Revolutions seem impossible until they become inevitable Epilogue: Homecoming Acknowledgments References Permissions Index
