The Climate Book: The Facts and the Solutions

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars | 1,029 ratings

Price: 22.5

Last update: 01-29-2025


About this item

We still have time to change the world. From Greta Thunberg, the world's leading climate activist, comes the essential handbook for making it happen.

You might think it's an impossible task: secure a safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed never seen, against all the odds. There is hope—but only if we listen to the science before it's too late.

In The Climate Book, Greta Thunberg has gathered the wisdom of over one hundred experts—geophysicists, oceanographers and meteorologists; engineers, economists and mathematicians; historians, philosophers and indigenous leaders—to equip us all with the knowledge we need to combat climate disaster. Alongside them, she shares her own stories of demonstrating and uncovering greenwashing around the world, revealing how much we have been kept in the dark. This is one of our biggest challenges, she shows, but also our greatest source of hope. Once we are given the full picture, how can we not act? And if a schoolchild's strike could ignite a global protest, what could we do collectively if we tried?

We are alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity. Together, we can do the seemingly impossible. But it has to be us, and it has to be now.

* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF of climate charts and trends from throughout the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.


Top reviews from the United States

  • George
    5.0 out of 5 stars Our wakeup call, and a great complement volume to David Simon's Meatonomics
    Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2023
    I am only up to page 50 of 436, as I write this. But with some 85 essays written by legitimate climate authorities, and each section punctuated with one of 18 rallying-calls written by Greta, '"telling it like it is," this is a book we need to read slowly, like a new standard edition of the bible.

    With due respect for the effort required then, and intending to leave no leaf unturned, I checked with Amazon about the page margins. According to the Amazon fellow I spoke to, who was talking to me from South Africa, nobody has yet said anything about them. See the image of an open book attached to this review. What you will see, and throughout the book, is that every even-numbered page has its margins skewed to the right. A pointed statement calling out the reason why our world is in so much trouble?

    In any event, the left margin is 1 1/2 inches from the left side of the page. The right margin is a little less than 1/4 inch from the seam, so close to the seam that you have to make considerable effort to keep the right edge of the text in view where you can read it. The fellow from South Africa and I, all we could think, is that this was not likely just a bookbinder’s oversight. But seems more to be perhaps a nicely suggestive way to say that this book is meant to ‘put us on edge,’ nevertheless. That we might be provoked to take action! That we must pay greater attention now to what’s really going on as far as the climate is concerned, and in fact to everything else that is connected to it. Also as the book cover graphically suggests, with its red-hot letters perilously close to the right edge, or perhaps just one step further and we’re at ‘no man’s land?’ Where all life on earth could disappear, all burned up, and every species gone extinct?

    Yet, not to fret. We’ve got this. All we need do is to summon up our best selves, wherever we may have misplaced them, shake ourselves into waking mode, read this most important book cover-to-cover, and make every effort humanly possible to save this planet, and all our lives living on it. Call this God’s will, and this book our newly revised ‘climate bible,’ and we wouldn’t be wrong. As let’s say, maybe this is the way His kingdom is supposed to come. And our world finally owned by everyone.

    I cannot recommend this book more highly. Share it with everyone you know.

    I would only add, at this late date (3/30/23) beyond having read The Climate Book about a month ago, and based on my further reading so far up to page 134 in another great book, Meatonomics (2013) by David R. Simon, that Greta could have gone further. I have counted in the index at the end of her book, only eight citations referring to the plant-based diet that several of her contributors and she mention as important, but it would seem only in passing. While in Simon's book, the underlying problem with our climate is clearly, and with his lawyer’s hand, shown to be all about the impact of animal agriculture that has morphed into a monster sickness affecting all aspects of our daily lives and society.

    Though the USA is the home of the "American dream," as we are seeing, it has fast turned into our "worst nightmare," well on its way to upsetting the whole world with its same sickness, its penchant for animal agriculture gone wild with factory farming (CAFOs) and its shameless, shady politics so far kept out the public’s eye. While all along, the perfect solution, as Simon and many others have effectively proved, is for us all to just stop buying and consuming meat, dairy, cheese, eggs, even fish, all animal products of any kind. The science has been known for decades that plants, plus a Vitamin B-12 supplement and flaxseed meal for your Omega 3s, have all the protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals that we need to live supremely healthy, productive lives. That, as we switch to an exclusively plant-based, organic diet, as I did eight years ago, the rest of the world around us will relax, with more than plenty of nutritious plant-based foods to go around, as everyone quietly wakes up into a brand new day, living life on our earth as it is absolutely meant to be lived.
    Customer image
    George
    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Our wakeup call, and a great complement volume to David Simon's Meatonomics

    Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2023
    I am only up to page 50 of 436, as I write this. But with some 85 essays written by legitimate climate authorities, and each section punctuated with one of 18 rallying-calls written by Greta, '"telling it like it is," this is a book we need to read slowly, like a new standard edition of the bible.

    With due respect for the effort required then, and intending to leave no leaf unturned, I checked with Amazon about the page margins. According to the Amazon fellow I spoke to, who was talking to me from South Africa, nobody has yet said anything about them. See the image of an open book attached to this review. What you will see, and throughout the book, is that every even-numbered page has its margins skewed to the right. A pointed statement calling out the reason why our world is in so much trouble?

    In any event, the left margin is 1 1/2 inches from the left side of the page. The right margin is a little less than 1/4 inch from the seam, so close to the seam that you have to make considerable effort to keep the right edge of the text in view where you can read it. The fellow from South Africa and I, all we could think, is that this was not likely just a bookbinder’s oversight. But seems more to be perhaps a nicely suggestive way to say that this book is meant to ‘put us on edge,’ nevertheless. That we might be provoked to take action! That we must pay greater attention now to what’s really going on as far as the climate is concerned, and in fact to everything else that is connected to it. Also as the book cover graphically suggests, with its red-hot letters perilously close to the right edge, or perhaps just one step further and we’re at ‘no man’s land?’ Where all life on earth could disappear, all burned up, and every species gone extinct?

    Yet, not to fret. We’ve got this. All we need do is to summon up our best selves, wherever we may have misplaced them, shake ourselves into waking mode, read this most important book cover-to-cover, and make every effort humanly possible to save this planet, and all our lives living on it. Call this God’s will, and this book our newly revised ‘climate bible,’ and we wouldn’t be wrong. As let’s say, maybe this is the way His kingdom is supposed to come. And our world finally owned by everyone.

    I cannot recommend this book more highly. Share it with everyone you know.

    I would only add, at this late date (3/30/23) beyond having read The Climate Book about a month ago, and based on my further reading so far up to page 134 in another great book, Meatonomics (2013) by David R. Simon, that Greta could have gone further. I have counted in the index at the end of her book, only eight citations referring to the plant-based diet that several of her contributors and she mention as important, but it would seem only in passing. While in Simon's book, the underlying problem with our climate is clearly, and with his lawyer’s hand, shown to be all about the impact of animal agriculture that has morphed into a monster sickness affecting all aspects of our daily lives and society.

    Though the USA is the home of the "American dream," as we are seeing, it has fast turned into our "worst nightmare," well on its way to upsetting the whole world with its same sickness, its penchant for animal agriculture gone wild with factory farming (CAFOs) and its shameless, shady politics so far kept out the public’s eye. While all along, the perfect solution, as Simon and many others have effectively proved, is for us all to just stop buying and consuming meat, dairy, cheese, eggs, even fish, all animal products of any kind. The science has been known for decades that plants, plus a Vitamin B-12 supplement and flaxseed meal for your Omega 3s, have all the protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals that we need to live supremely healthy, productive lives. That, as we switch to an exclusively plant-based, organic diet, as I did eight years ago, the rest of the world around us will relax, with more than plenty of nutritious plant-based foods to go around, as everyone quietly wakes up into a brand new day, living life on our earth as it is absolutely meant to be lived.
    Images in this review
  • lgonnoisystreet
    5.0 out of 5 stars Straight talk on climate, and nuance too.
    Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2024
    The authors of the widely different scientific, sociological, and activist specialties focus on a diversity of problems or solutions. Thunberg bridges the sections with commentary that embodies the urgency of climate crises, implacably disects the lies and loopholes of the world climate conferences, negotiations and rule-making, and remains quite usefully nuanced with regard to solutions and activism.
  • Charles T.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent climate volume
    Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2023
    “The Climate Book” is an excellent source, and happy to support Greta Thunberg as a major activist—via royalties to her foundation. If she’s no longer a student, she’ll have to move into professional activities.
    She states that this book is primarily to interest others to become more active: “To solve the problem, we need to understand it.” And, there’s a good selection of capable voices in the volume for a wide view of climate issues.
    Two special insights, which I’ve published elsewhere:
    1. We should invest heavily in DAC (Direct Air Capture) to significantly reduce CO² and at same time convert all energy to solar. This would allow a 5-year period as a “temporary interim,” where we could eliminate or stop dangerous emissions (delay entropy) while figuring out how to implement complete solutions. Both paths require engineering to bring up to scale.
    2. Contrary to what most experts suggest, we must search for a realistic Silver Bullet, a solution to instantly solve our Climate Crisis. Humanity has ALWAYS relied on Silver Bullets for grand challenges: fire, farming, the wheel, alphabets, roadways and an army to build them as for ancient Rome, printing press, lenses (eyeglasses & telescopes), light bulbs, autos, airplanes, wireless data (radio & TV), computers, Internet, cell phones, and vaccines for disease! Dismissing such possibilities limits our natural abilities. Consider three geniuses: Walter Russell (Optic Dynamo-Generator and mystical light), Bucky Fuller (global energy grid and massive use of wind power), and Nikola Tesla (patented solar devices and system to transfer world energy through atmosphere). These three ALREADY solved our problem, but few understand their work. Other creative geniuses are here right now: Find the best Bullet!
    Greta’s book is wise, the more educated we become, the better we might solve our global challenges. We must do this. Kudos!
  • David
    4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of information
    Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2023
    This isn't a book for snowflakes, and it will challenge your critical thinking skills. What I liked about the book was how well it was written, and it was informative. What I didn't like was it was work. However people try to soften it, Greta Thunberg is a political activist and a very skilled one. In this book, Thunberg takes a broad view of what it takes to slow down climate change, and to my way of thinking, that suggests a hopeful future, so I didn't see the doom and gloom people talk about. Nevertheless, political activists are idealistcally preachy, and their reasoning often looks sketchy and contradictory; that is the substance of politics, and climate change and environmentalism have been political footballs for a long time. Thunberg knows her subject well, and climate change is a complex thing to explain (a balanced system off balance) but Thunberg appears to be a gifted spokesperson, and she wrangles the subject well. After I finished reading this book, there were things I did not agree with, and I am not a Greta Thunberg groupy at all; she is a skilled political activist trying to sell her brand of idealism. I am all in favor of slowing the progress of climate change, but let me be clear, Greta Thunberg is a cat with teeth and claws. Really, I liked this book, and it is certainly worth reading.

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