Race for Tomorrow

Climate change isn't just changing our physical environment - it's transforming the global landscape of industry, technology, what we eat, how we farm, what resources are valued, where it's safe to live and so much more besides. This book looks at the rapid changes cascading through our world and meets the people on the frontlines. Which business leaders will conquer clean energy, fake meat, genetic engineering and catastrophe insurance? How could one man's flood defence plan save Venice from going underwater? How are indigenous people in the Amazon using technology to combat deforestation? How might cutting-edge scientists in India develop crops to withstand extreme drought? How can entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley revolutionise the technology of the future? What does it mean if activists succeed in suing fossil fuel companies for their damages? Moving beyond the blizzard of abstract statistics so often associated with climate change, Simon Mundy encounters the real crises underway - from wildfires to droughts to floods to economic peril - and the people most urgently embroiled. He introduces the most promising science, the most heated debates and the most unexpected paths to hope, survival and stunning innovation. Travelling 25 countries across six continents, this book is neither a polemic nor a manifesto. Mundy meets CEOs in Shanghai, cobalt miners in Congo, maverick scientists in Siberia and rural farmers in Mongolia to lay bare the desperate challenges faced by humanity - and the breath-taking resourcefulness being mustered in response. The decisions and discoveries made now will define every element of the future for people in every corner of the planet.