At the end of the hottest year on record, it is the time for bold statements and bolder questions about the climate, our society, and the role we play. Two books published this fall take opposing views on the matter. In Overshoot , Andreas Malm and Wim Carton offer a scathing critique of ideologies that ignore the reality of climate change and pander to entrenched interests; in What If We Get It Right , Ayana Elizabeth Johnson guides readers through a rich landscape of possibility, and showcases diverse, joyful voices that are already addressing a broad range of environmental issues. — Overshoot – How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown opens with a sobering account of the past three years, written in the style of a historical recap. The authors do not pull punches when they describe this darkest time in our history: following a temporary dip in emissions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, nations and oil companies embarked on a gleeful, hell-bent-for-leather rampage of exploration, production, and burning of fossil fuels. ExxonMobil had its largest cash flow in a decade in 2021, while Saudi Aramco enjoyed $161 billion in profits in 2022, the “most a fossil fuel company … had ever made.” Not only did sales of fossil fuels explode, the authors state, but exploration did, too: “What all of this amounted to was a fossil fuel frenzy, instigated right on the threshold of 1.5°C of global warming.” Theodor Adorno, say the authors, expressed it best when he said, “Society has lost control of itself.” Climate ActionJoin a growing movement of people determined to make a positive difference.JOIN THE EARTH.ORG MOVEMENT This is one of the many pithy quotes from other experts included in Overshoot . A highlight of this volume is the extensive reviews of other works […]