Faster Than Fear asks a big question about humanity's future: In the face of climate change, will we cope or collapse, collaborate or compete, avoid it or accept the challenge? From one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of climate change, Faster Than Fear is based on George Marshall’s 25 years’ experience researching public attitudes and behaviors on the subject. His conclusion: the existing assumptions about our future behaviors are superficial and often incorrect.

In his engaging new book, Marshall rejects predictions of collapse and argues that individuals, societies, governments, and economies will adapt to future impacts. It shows how people are already finding ways to come together to fight this existential threat. This much, he says, is hopeful. However, Marshall warns, our psychological, political, and economic capacity for adaptation could also be a fatal weakness, leading us to abandon any ambition to stabilize the climate. He systematically maps how this could unfold, arguing powerfully that this would be a betrayal of the future.

Faster Than Fear is not another book forecasting inevitable climate catastrophe. Rather than offering a prediction, it is a projection based on our current responses and how we can still break these patterns. However, we can only do this if we name them, understand them, and actively resist them. There is still time. This is what makes this book so urgent and necessary.