The most urgent story of our times, brilliantly reframed, beautifully told: how we had the chance to stop climate change, and failed.

'Nathaniel Rich's account starts in Washington in the 1990s and tells the story of how climate change could have been stopped back then, if only the powerful had acted. But they didn't want to.' Observer
By 1979, we knew all that we know now about the science of climate change - what was happening, why it was happening, and how to stop it. Over the next ten years, we had the very real opportunity to stop it. Obviously, we failed. Nathaniel Rich tells the essential story of why and how, thanks to the actions of politicians and businessmen, that failure came about. It is crucial to an understanding of where we are today.
'The excellent and appalling Losing Earth by Nathaniel Rich describes how close we came in the 70s to dealing with the causes of global warming and how US big business and Reaganite politicians in the 80s ensured it didn't happen. Read it.' John Simpson
'An eloquent science history, and an urgent eleventh-hour call to save what can be saved.' Nature
'To change the future, we must first understand our past, and Losing Earth is a crucial part of that when it comes to the environmental battles we're facing.' Stylist

Rich brilliantly relates the story of how, in 1979 . . . policymakers [were alerted] to the existential threat, only to see climate treaties fail in a welter of 'profit over planet' a decade later. An eloquent science history, and an urgent eleventh-hour call to save what can be saved.