Paul Behrens - The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Futures From the Frontiers of Climate Science

I underlined so many things I didnt know and will spend a long time considering the implications of what Ive learnt. Clear, concise, measured but urgent. Essential reading for all.

JAN CARSON
author of The Fire Starters

A powerful, up-to-date, and sometimes terrifying primer on the stupendous global problems we face today. By alternating good news and bad news chapters, Paul Behrens gives us a vivid, stereoscopic insight into the wicked challenges we humans face in coming decades.

DAVID CHRISTIAN
Professor of Russian and European History at Macquarie University and author of Origin Story: A Big History of Everything

Behrens provides a wealth of critically important facts, accessibly and insightfully related by presentations alternately slanted to pessimistic and optimistic attitudes an ideal structure for stimulating thoughtful discussion both in the classroom and public forum.

HERMAN DALY
Emeritus Professor at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland and author of Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development

An extraordinary distillation of science, policy, and common sense without being tedious or dismal the authors grasp of the complexity and urgency of our predicament is masterful. Deserves a large global readership.

DAVID ORR
Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College Emeritus and author of Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward

Paul Behrenss nod to Charles Dickens in his title The Best of Times, The Worst of Times is a fitting one, for Behrens writes with the verve of a novelist, and the story he tells how our environmental future is entangled in issues of equality, employment, housing, food, energy, and much else a page-turner. While there are many books out there on the impact of climate change, I know of no other book that weighs the evidence so even-handedly, from both optimistic and pessimistic perspectives, enabling readers to evaluate the scientific data in an informed way. This is an illuminating and deeply researched book, one that deserves a wide readership.

JAMES SHAPIRO
Professor of English at Columbia University and author of Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future

Scientists have warned that tipping points could drive the Earth System past a fork in the road to two different futures. This book beautifully written with a powerful format vividly describes what these futures might look like, and how we might steer society towards a liveable future.

WILL STEFFEN
Emeritus Professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University

Behrens is the friend that gives it to you straight: unflinching on the bad stuff, but he wont crush you with despair. This book is an excellent assessment of where we are and how we might proceed, as we navigate the uncharted terrain of the Anthropocene. Rich in complexity, deeply researched and, importantly, seeded with hope.

GAIA VINCE
author of Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made and Transcendence: How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time

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COPYRIGHT PAUL BEHRENS 2020

This edition first published in Great Britain in 2020 by The Indigo Press
Paul Behrens asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published in Great Britain in 2020 by The Indigo Press

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN : 978-1-911648-09-3
eBook ISBN : 978-1-911648-10-9

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Extract from The Principle of Hope , Ernst Bloch, 1954 reprinted courtesy of The MIT Press

For Caoilinn

Fraudulent hope is one of the greatest malefactors, even enervators, of the human race, concretely genuine hope its most dedicated benefactor.

Ernst Bloch , The Principle of Hope , 1954

Living successfully in a world of complex systems means expanding the horizons of caring. No part of the human race is separate either from other human beings or the global ecosystem. It will not be possible in this integrated world for the rich in Los Angeles to succeed if the poor in Los Angeles fail, or for Europe to succeed if Africa fails, or for the global economy to succeed if the global environment fails.

Donella Meadows , Thinking in Systems , 2008

The problem with the secular narrative is not that it assumes progress is inevitable It is the belief that the sort of advance that has been achieved in science can be reproduced in ethics and politics.

John Gray , Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia , 2007