James Lovelock's bestselling The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back – and How we can Still Save Humanity is a dire warning against the unchecked growth of civilization.
'Despite all our efforts to retreat sustainably, we may be unable to prevent a global decline into a chaotic world ruled by brutal warlords on a devastated Earth...'
For thousands of years, humans have exploited the planet without counting the cost. Now Gaia, the living Earth, is fighting back. As the polar icecaps shrink and the global temperature rises, we approach the point of no return. Sustainable development, Lovelock argues, is no longer possible, and the only open to us may be a 'sustainable retreat'. This is the one book you must read to find out what is happening, how bad it will get – and how we can survive.
James Lovelock, who was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974, is the author of more than 200 scientific papers and the originator of the Gaia Hypothesis (now Gaia Theory). His many books on the subject include Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (1979), The Revenge of Gaia (2006), The Vanishing Face of Gaia (2009) and A Rough Ride to the Future (2014). In 2003 he was made a Companion of Honour by Her Majesty the Queen, in 2005 Prospect magazine named him one of the world's top 100 public intellectuals, and in 2006 he received the Wollaston Medal, the highest Award of the UK Geological Society.
"The most important book for decades"
– Andrew Marr
"The most important book ever to be published on the environmental crisis [...] Lovelock will go down in history as the scientist who changed our view of the Earth"
– John Gray, Independent
"Truly terrifying [...] Lovelock's arguments carry more conviction than anyone else's now writing"
– Peter Forbes, Daily Mail