Bill McKibben, climate justice activist and founder of 350.org, professor of environmental studies, best-selling author, and journalist, needs little introduction. He has made enormous contributions to the public awareness of the need to prevent climate emergency. And he continues to promote important developments in the struggle, including Extinction Rebellion and the global September 20 climate strike.

In the thirty years between his widely read The End of Nature and the launch of his new book Falter, this year, the planet’s ecological fate has veered toward the worst-case scenario. Faced with climate emergency now, we urgently need books that convey our dire environmental circumstances and contribute to a political understanding that serves as a guide to action. McKibben’s Falter lives up to the first criteria, but fails badly on the second.