HOME View All Genre

Book

Audiobook

GENRES 🌙 Dark

The Fate of the World - Bill McGuire

By Bill McGuire

Release Date: 2026-05-21

Genre: Science & Nature

(0 ratings)
Read Download
Why past climate change tells us it's almost too late.

A warning and a rallying-cry.

'Read it and weep, or read it and win' Chris Packham

Why winding the clock back 50 million years is a bad idea

The Fate of the World is a 4.6 billion-year history of the earth, which shows the deep roots of our current climate crisis. It puts contemporary global heating in the context of millennia of global history to seek out what past climate change can tell us about our future climate. It shows how what’s happening to our climate now compares with what happened in the geological past.

McGuire reveals that our climate already matches that of the last interglacial period – the Eemian – when sea levels were 6 to 9m higher, and is on track to mimic the Pliocene climate as soon as the 2030s, and the early Eocene hothouse later this century. We are rapidly rewinding the climate back 50 million years in a couple of centuries – and without urgent preparation, our civilization is very poorly placed to survive.

Nonetheless, this is a hopeful book. The geological record informs us that the future will be forbidding, but every ton of carbon we can stop being emitted and every fraction of a degree temperature rise we can prevent, will contribute towards making it less so.

If you read just one book on the climate crisis, make it this one.

About the author

Bill McGuire is Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London, a co-director of the New Weather Institute, and a patron of Scientists for Global Responsibility. He was a member of SAGE, the Science Advisory Group in Emergencies. He was also a member of the UK Government Natural Hazard Working Group. He lives in the Peak District.

The Fate of the World - Bill McGuire

By Bill McGuire

Release Date: 2026-05-21

Genre: Science & Nature

(0 ratings)
Read Download
Why past climate change tells us it's almost too late.

A warning and a rallying-cry.

'Read it and weep, or read it and win' Chris Packham

Why winding the clock back 50 million years is a bad idea

The Fate of the World is a 4.6 billion-year history of the earth, which shows the deep roots of our current climate crisis. It puts contemporary global heating in the context of millennia of global history to seek out what past climate change can tell us about our future climate. It shows how what’s happening to our climate now compares with what happened in the geological past.

McGuire reveals that our climate already matches that of the last interglacial period – the Eemian – when sea levels were 6 to 9m higher, and is on track to mimic the Pliocene climate as soon as the 2030s, and the early Eocene hothouse later this century. We are rapidly rewinding the climate back 50 million years in a couple of centuries – and without urgent preparation, our civilization is very poorly placed to survive.

Nonetheless, this is a hopeful book. The geological record informs us that the future will be forbidding, but every ton of carbon we can stop being emitted and every fraction of a degree temperature rise we can prevent, will contribute towards making it less so.

If you read just one book on the climate crisis, make it this one.

About the author

Bill McGuire is Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London, a co-director of the New Weather Institute, and a patron of Scientists for Global Responsibility. He was a member of SAGE, the Science Advisory Group in Emergencies. He was also a member of the UK Government Natural Hazard Working Group. He lives in the Peak District.

More by Bill McGuire

Hothouse Earth

Waking the Giant

Global Catastrophes

Global Catastrophes: A Very Short Introduction

Geophysical and Climate Hazards

Wereldbedreigende rampen

Monitoring Active Volcanoes

The Fate of the World

Climate Forcing of Geological Hazards

Surviving Armageddon

Related Articles