We’re characters in a thriller, you and I. Not as reader and author – as protagonists. The writing of said thriller has been in progress for as long as anyone can remember, and its title has been changing constantly. Right now it’s called Climate Crisis. Pandemic. Digitalization. Terror. In the past, it was Cold War, Arms Race and, before that, Second World War, First World War.
Yet never before have we been exposed to as many horrors all at once as today. So it’s only human if you’ve temporarily stopped paying attention to protecting the climate to deal with a pandemic. Which, however, changes nothing about the fact that climate change is probably the greatest existential threat in human history – and one that can’t be reasoned with any more than a virus can. Time to get active again. The good news: We can meet this challenge – with knowledge, willpower, positive thinking, creativity, love for life on our planet, and a bit of the individual heroism you need when you’re in a thriller. Starting now, all of us – including you – has a leading role!
In this book – evidence-based, captivating, and never lacking in humor – Frank Schätzing outlines different scenarios for our future, in some of which we have failed, in others prevailed. We get to know the protagonists and antagonists, decisionmakers in politics, economics, and society, and meet activists, denialists, and conspiracy theorists. Then the author opens up the overwhelming panorama of what is possible and shows us how we can escape the climate trap and still manage to make everything ok – no, better – again. We can save the world; we just have to want to.
