Greta Thunberg has created a new book featuring 100 leading experts and activists on climate change in a bid to present an overview of how the challenges facing the planet connect, telling “the unvarnished truth” about how and why the world is changing.
The Climate Book, which will be published by Penguin on October 27, features the views of renowned scientists, climate experts and activists such as Johan Rockstrom, Michael E Mann, Katharine Hayhoe, Friederike Otto, Stefan Rahmstorf, Saleemul Huq and Carlos Nobre, as well as Thomas Piketty, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Naomi Klein and Amitav Ghosh.
They address melting ice shelves, indigenous sovereignty, fast fashion and the future of food, as well as the wider sustainability crisis.
Thunberg, 19, also shares her own stories of learning, demonstrating and uncovering greenwashing (the practice of crafting a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company’s products are more environmentally sound) around the world.
“This is the biggest story in the world, and it must be spoken as far and wide as our voices can carry, and much further still," she said.
“That’s why I have decided to use my platform to create this book, which is based on the best science currently available — a book that covers the climate, ecological and sustainability crisis holistically.
“Because the climate crisis is, of course, only a symptom of a much larger sustainability crisis. My hope is that this book might be some kind of go-to source for understanding these different, closely interconnected crises.”
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Workers sift through the rubbish from the Sharjah landfill to separate the recyclables. Jeff Topping / The National -
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Organisers and volunteers fill bags with used water bottles, old cans, bits of wood and a huge haul of plastic rubbish as they work their way along Hameem Beach in Al Dhafra. Delores Johnson / The National -
Every year the Netherlands embassy in Abu Dhabi, together with the Consulate General in Dubai, organises a teambuilding event. This was a beach clean-up in which 100 bags of rubbish were filled. Photo: Embassy of the Netherlands in Abu Dhabi -
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Solid waste bound for landfill at the Bee'ah waste management complex in Sharjah. The UAE is building one of the world’s largest waste-to-energy plants to process its growing amount of rubbish. Christopher Pike / Bloomberg -
Workers sort solid waste material at the Bee'ah waste management complex in Sharjah. Christopher Pike / Bloomberg
“In The Climate Book, Greta has proven herself to be one of our finest and most galvanising new writers," said Chloe Currens, editor of Penguin Press in London.
“In a series of sharp, insightful and impassioned chapters, which knit the book’s different parts together, she shares her own experiences and responds to what she’s learned.
“Her passages on government inaction render today’s greenwashing breathtakingly clear, and her call to climate justice is unignorable.
“This is a unique book, alive with moral purpose, which aims to change the climate conversation for ever.”
