Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction, has become one of the most important writers on the environment. Now she investigates the immense challenges humanity faces as we scramble to reverse, in a matter of decades, the effects we've had on the atmosphere, the oceans, the world's forests and rivers - on the very topography of the globe. By turns inspiring, terrifying and darkly comic, this is an utterly original examination of the challenges we face.