Summary and Reviews of The Future Earth by Eric Holthaus

The Future Earth by Eric Holthaus

The Future Earth

A Radical Vision for What's Possible in the Age of Warming

by Eric Holthaus
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Paperback:
  • Jun 2020, 256 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

The first hopeful book about climate change, The Future Earth shows readers how to reverse the short- and long-term effects of climate change over the next three decades.

The basics of climate science are easy. We know it is entirely human-caused. Which means its solutions will be similarly human-led. In The Future Earth, leading climate change advocate and weather-related journalist Eric Holthaus ("the Rebel Nerd of Meteorology"—Rolling Stone) offers a radical vision of our future, specifically how to reverse the short- and long-term effects of climate change over the next three decades.

Anchored by world-class reporting, interviews with futurists, climatologists, biologists, economists, and climate change activists, it shows what the world could look like if we implemented radical solutions on the scale of the crises we face.

  • What could happen if we reduced carbon emissions by 50 percent in the next decade?
  • What could living in a city look like in 2030?
  • How could the world operate in 2040, if the proposed Green New Deal created a 100 percent net carbon-free economy in the United States?

This is the book for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the current state of our environment. Hopeful and prophetic, The Future Earth invites us to imagine how we can reverse the effects of climate change in our own lifetime and encourages us to enter a deeper relationship with the earth as conscientious stewards and to re-affirm our commitment to one another in our shared humanity.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

The Future Earth is an attempt by meteorologist and science journalist Eric Holthaus to write a different kind of book about the current and future state of the environment. Holthaus is from Kansas, where irrigation for farming is draining the Ogallala Aquifer at an alarming rate. As a scientist, but also as a parent, he was desperate for some hope. Holthaus makes a clear case for the need for creativity and revolution. Drawing on the notion of the cyclical economy (also known as "doughnut economics," Kate Raworth's term), he imagines a move away from dichotomies like capitalism and socialism and towards schemes of stewardship and cooperation. We don't often recommend books with 3-star ratings on BookBrowse, but have chosen to feature this one because of the gravity of its message...continued

Full Review (823 words)

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access, become a member today.

(Reviewed by Rebecca Foster).

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book



Solastalgia, Eco-anxiety and Ecological Grief

New Orleans flooded after Hurricane Katrina In The Future Earth, Eric Holthaus describes having climate-related depression. Over the last two decades, we have become more attuned to the mental effects of worry about the environment. In 2003, Australian environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht coined the word "solastalgia," a variation on "nostalgia" that draws on the connotations of "desolation" and "solace." While "nostalgia" might be used to describe homesickness, solastalgia refers to a sense of mourning for a place that no longer exists. Inspired by his knowledge of the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, a landscape irreversibly altered by coal mining and pollution, Albrecht defined the concept as "an emplaced or existential melancholia experienced with the negative ...

This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked The Future Earth, try these:

  • The Climate Book jacket

    The Climate Book

    by Greta Thunberg

    Published 2024

    About this book

    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.

  • The Book of Hope jacket

    The Book of Hope

    by Jane Goodall, Douglas Abrams

    Published 2022

    About this book

    More by this author

    In this urgent book, Jane Goodall, the world's most famous living naturalist, and Douglas Abrams, the internationally bestselling co-author of The Book of Joy, explore through intimate and thought-provoking dialogue one of the most sought after and least understood elements of human nature: hope.

We have 8 read-alikes for The Future Earth, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Husbands
    by Holly Gramazio
    The Husbands delights in asking: how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options?

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Antidote
    by Karen Russell

    A gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town.

  • Book Jacket

    Girl Falling
    by Hayley Scrivenor

    The USA Today bestselling author of Dirt Creek returns with a story of grief and truth.

  • Book Jacket

    Jane and Dan at the End of the World
    by Colleen Oakley

    Date Night meets Bel Canto in this hilarious tale.

Who Said...

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

T B S of T F

and be entered to win..