A dramatic opening view of 2018’s Hurricane Florence as observed from the International Space Station sets the tone, and Salt goes on to make sure that young “climate champions” understand how extreme weather and the climate change it heralds are affecting much of the world right now. Following introductory notes on the differences between the two and how scientists can track long-term changes in climate, the author surveys ominous events in seven regions, from 122 degree F temperatures in British Columbia in June of 2021, followed by massive floods and landslides the following November, to Australia’s “Black Summer” of 2019-20, in which an estimated three billion animals were killed in wildfires. Salt reports on the current “megadrought” in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico, which has resulted in water shortages and forced changes in immigration patterns, and examines how ice melt at the “Third Pole” (the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountain ranges) led in 2022 to devastating floods and public health emergencies that affected millions in Pakistan. Inset profiles of active “champions,” diverse in terms of race and culture, and remedial initiatives, many of them Indigenous-led activities, inject at least a few flickers of optimism, but the telling photos of dry lake beds, burned-out woodlands, flooded streets, and flattened buildings only underscore the message that we are in trouble right now.

Includes index.