The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

Futures From the Frontiers of Climate Science

Paul Behrens

Academic, physicist and environmental expert Paul Behrens presents a radical dual analysis of our world in which consumption growth is outpacing population growth. Setting out the pressing existential threats we face, he writes, in alternating chapters, of what the future could look like, at its most optimistic and pessimistic, and details the steps we can take to ensure our survival. Arguing that structural problems need structural solutions, he examines key areas in which political will is required, including women’s education, food and energy security, biodiversity and economics.

Behrens uses accessible prose and eye-catching statistics to paint two potential futures for humanity. His book will change the way you live – and convince you that ‘Hope lies in acting, and seeing other people act. Hope needs you around. It needs your energy and your will’.

• “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—is a page-turner”

  James Shapiro, author of Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare