July 2023 has been the warmest month ever recorded, or something like that. Days are breaking records previously broken only two days prior. Climate change is right here and we should be worried.

How worried? The author lays it out well. Not only do we do poorly in extreme heat (and we do - hydration will only take you so far when temperatures rise?), but the food we eat doesn't do so well either. I gained a lot of perspective on how even small changes in heat can collapse crops and livestock and I'm pretty spooked by the whole thing.

The book is incredibly current, with data from 2022 and interesting conversations around covid response peppered through the book. That paired with the real threat of pathogens that might emerge as the planet warms really added to the sense of impending doom. We also got to travel around the globe, from Paris to the arctic, for a kaleidoscope of insights. The author did an amazing job of presenting a multitude of leading voices in climate science.

Recommended widely. An extremely important book for our time. Read it right now, but especially if these heatwaves and storms spook you, you can stomach hearing how big of a mess we're in, and if you need a ray of hope (a tiny one, because times are dire).


My only criticism of this book: all the temperatures are given in Fahrenheit. That was an objectively bad choice.