Michael Mann is an American climatologist and Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania.

Having read various books on the climate crisis now, we expected his latest book to comprise the latest summary of evidence to validate the heating of the earth’s atmosphere.

Not at all. In fact, Mann has written a compelling analysis of the fossil fuel industry’s efforts to deny and deflect the escalating emergency. It’s stark.

He goes on to provide us all with a framework for continuing to demand systemic change from our politicians and policy makers. Rather than lay the onus on us as individuals (which has been a primary deflection tactic of big petroleum until now) to decarbonise, we must recognise the role of business in global warming and demand legislative overhaul to expedite the transition to clean energy.

Despite what we might read, it’s not too late to avert the worst effects, but as a matter of urgency, we do need to start having very different open conversations about the future we want.