Planet Aqua
Rethinking Our Home in the Universe
Format:Hardback
Publisher:John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Published:6th Sep '24
Should be back in stock very soon
What would happen if we were to awaken one day and suddenly realize that the world we live in appeared eerily alien, as if we’d been teleported to some other distant world? That frightening prospect is now. Our planetary hydrosphere, which animates all of life on Earth, is rebelling in the wake of a global warming climate, spurring biblical spring floods, devastating summer droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires and powerful autumn hurricanes and typhoons, wreaking havoc on ecosystems and society.
For too long we have misjudged the very nature of our existence and to what we owe our lifeline. We have come to believe that we live on a land planet when the reality is that we live on a water planet, and now the Earth’s hydrosphere is rewilding in the throes of a changing climate, taking our species and our fellow creatures into a mass extinction event as it searches for a new equilibrium.
Jeremy Rifkin calls on us to rethink our place in the universe and realize that we live on Planet Aqua. He takes us on a new journey into the future where we will need to reassess every aspect of the way we live – how we engage nature, govern society, conceptualize economic life, educate our children, and even orient ourselves in time and space. The next stage in the human journey is to rebrand our home Planet Aqua and learn how to readapt to the waters of life.
Underpinned by robust research, this major new work by one of the world’s leading public intellectuals aims to redefine the very core of our existence on Planet Aqua.
“Forget the idea that we live on a land planet. After reading Rifkin’s eye-opening account of our Planet Aqua, a water planet, you will never look at the Earth in the same way again. It’s a much-needed new dimension of the climate conversation, and a smart read for business leaders navigating our changing world.”
Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever and past President of the International Chamber of Commerce
“Planet Aqua will shock most people. Rifkin points out that instead of living on a land planet, we actually live on a water planet – fresh, salt, and frozen – and this changes all of our long-held beliefs. Now, climate change is rapidly disrupting the hydrosphere, taking us into a foreboding future of floods, droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, and hurricanes, pushing many species to extinction, including our own. Rifkin’s Planet Aqua gives us an entirely new story about our home in the universe that hopefully will change the way we think, act, and thrive alongside our fellow creatures on a water planet.”
Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace
“With Planet Aqua, Jeremy Rifkin presents a thought-provoking and absorbing vision of humanity’s future that centers on water as the ‘the animating source of life.’ It’s a compelling and persuasive read that redefines our relationship with the Earth’s most complex and vital sphere.”
Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group
“Rifkin’s prescient Planet Aqua is a beck and call to humanity, like God’s instruction to Noah in the face of the catastrophic deluge in the book of Genesis. He reminds us that the future of the planetary hydrosphere will determine our own fate and the fate of our fellow creatures – a prophetic message that we need to absorb, reflect, and act on.”
Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
ISBN: 9781509563739
Dimensions: 231mm x 160mm x 36mm
Weight: 612g
360 pages