Table of Contents
Foreword 8
Introduction 12
Act I
1 Three revolutions that shaped our planet 19
2 A Scottish janitor and a Serbian mathematician discover Earth's hair trigger 33
3 A "wise man" arrives 40
4 The Goldilocks epoch 47
Color plates A
Sleeping giants: Antarctica A1
Rupture with the past A2-3
The Earthshot A4
Act II
5 Three scientific insights have changed how we view Earth 65
6 Planetary boundaries 74
7 Hothouse Earth 89
8 Emergency on planet Earth 96
Color plates B
Sleeping giants: The Amazon B1
The Great Acceleration B2-3
Planetary boundaries B4
Act III
9 Planetary stewardship 107
10 The energy transition 118
11 Feeding 10 billion people within planetary boundaries 129
12 Inequality is destabilizing Earth 142
Color plates C
Novel entities C1
The network effect C2-3
A planet transformed C4
13 Building tomorrow's cities 155
14 The population bomb defused 165
15 Taming the technosphere 171
16 A global economy within planetary boundaries 182
Color plates D
Pathways to stabilize Earth D1
Look back at what we have achieved D2
The Global Safety Net D3
The rise in complexity: Major ruptures in the evolution of Earth D4
17 Earthshot politics and policies 196
18 The roaring 2020s: Four tipping points are converging 204
19 Wise Earth 219
Sources 228
Index 233
Acknowledgments 240
Picture credits 240