There's a potentially great book in here somewhere, but it needed a more through edit to reduce some of the repetition, turn the parade of statistics into human relatable stories and make many of the overly long sentence easier to navigate. It's a real pity as we genuinely do need a compulsively readable account of the current situation re: climate change.
The errors of storytelling in this account are further compounded by the author arguing for more compelling mainstream narratives that help breach our inbuilt biases and heretics. Physician heal thyself...
Lastly, the referencing. There are plenty of statements in this book where it's not clear if they are assertions by the author, or backed up by peer reviewed research (there is a sizeable notes section, but no individual referencing).
But if you haven't tossed your copy into the bin just yet, hold on - as it may still be worth a read. For it is probably impossible not to come away from this book without learning something new or even getting a minor epiphany.
For me, they included the obvious in retrospect ie forest wildfires turning carbon sinks into sources and even feedback loops to the mind blowing such as 96% of the world's mammals by mass being humans and their livestock. There is a frustratingly close to being compelling argument about AI which draws upon pithy quotes such as:
"When Silicon Valley tries to imagine superintelligence, what it comes up with is no-holds-barred capitalism."
and I'll definitely be digging deeper to find out more about Bostrom's existential risks (described variously depending on impact as Bangs, Crunches, Shrieks and Whimpers).
Then there's the perversely intuitive facts like school buildings accumulating CO2 concentrations at levels that may affect human cognition. Perhaps yawning at school isn't just due to the boring nature of the classes taught - especially on hot summer days (temperature also reduces human cognitive ability). Perhaps we may even lose our ability to think of a solution to climate change.
And the terrifying prospect of micro-organisms that we have co-existed with for millennia turning malevolent and causing new diseases.
On the politics side, it turns out that US military (even under Trump) treats climate change related threats seriously while China taking a slow walk to greening its industry may benefit it on the global geopolitical stage due to differences in how nations will be affected.
In the end, the doom laden view of our future Wallace-Wells presents is so total and pervasive - it's difficult not to be alarmed by the complex brutality of the problem of climate change.
Verdict: A good account of the possible future according to climate change hampered by the telling.
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