Sink or Swim: How the World Needs to Adapt to a Changing Climate by Susannah Fisher, a principal research fellow at University College London, urgently examines the challenging decisions required in the face of pressing climate change. Fisher asserts that the incremental approach of the past--making small changes with limited adoption--has not been enough to maintain a livable planet. She describes how the people and regions most vulnerable to catastrophe are the already impoverished populations who are least responsible for contributing to the climate crisis. Fisher grounds her discussion in the latest research and the immediate realities, detailing how global communities are already grappling with fallout from extreme weather events, such as heat waves, wildfires, hurricanes, and floods.
The bulk of Sink or Swim explores the difficult trade-offs and crucial choices facing governments, communities, and individuals around the world. Each chapter delves into complex, real-world issues that demand transformative action, such as whether people should be encouraged to move away from vulnerable coastlines, how to manage the stability of global food supplies, whether conflict will arise over increasingly scarce resources like water and, crucially, how solutions should be financed.
Readers of optimistic, actionable environmental works such as Bill Gates's How to Avoid a Climate Disaster will appreciate the practical nature of Fisher's book. Sink or Swim is an essential contribution to climate literature, providing an accessible and authoritative perspective that compels readers to move beyond paralysis and embrace the painstaking but necessary process of ensuring a sustainable and just future. --Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, Wash.