This book consists of chapter-length visits to world "hot" spots, where people are already coping with the consequences of climactic disruption. It reveals the process of climate change to be ongoing, serious and immediate. "This disturbing report, by a brilliant team of environmental journalists, portrays an industrial civilization on the verge of destroying its own conditions of existence. We are all captives, the authors warn us, on a runaway train. Can we change drivers soon enough to avoid the largest catastrophe in the last 10,000 years?." -- Mike Davis, author of Ecology of Fear and Dead Cities