INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! NATIONAL BESTSELLER Finalist for The Los Angles Times Book
Prize in Science & Technology Finalist for the Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in
Journalism Most Anticipated Book by The New York Times The Washington Post The Los Angeles
Times • A Next Big Idea Book Club Selection • The New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice •
NPR Favorite Books of the Year • Los Angeles Times Best Books of the Year • The Economist Best
Books of the YearJeff Goodell's masterful bracing (David Wallace-Wells) investigation exposes
through stellar reporting artful storytelling and fascinating scientific explanations (Naomi
Klein) an explosive new understanding of heat and the impact that rising temperatures will have
on our lives and on our planet. Entertaining and thoroughly researched (Al Gore) it will
completely change the way you see the world and despite its urgent themes is injected with
eternal optimism (Michael Mann) on how to combat one of the most important issues of our time.
When heat comes it’s invisible. It doesn’t bend tree branches or blow hair across your face to
let you know it’s arrived…. The sun feels like the barrel of a gun pointed at you.” The world
is waking up to a new reality: wildfires are now seasonal in California the Northeast is
getting less and less snow each winter and the ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctica are
melting fast. Heat is the first order threat that drives all other impacts of the climate
crisis. And as the temperature rises it is revealing fault lines in our governments our
politics our economy and our values. The basic science is not complicated: Stop burning
fossil fuels tomorrow and the global temperature will stop rising tomorrow. Stop burning
fossil fuels in 50 years and the temperature will keep rising for 50 years making parts of
our planet virtually uninhabitable. It’s up to us. The hotter it gets the deeper and wider our
fault lines will open. The Heat Will Kill You First is about the extreme ways in which our
planet is already changing. It is about why spring is coming a few weeks earlier and fall is
coming a few weeks later and the impact that will have on everything from our food supply to
disease outbreaks. It is about what will happen to our lives and our communities when typical
summer days in Chicago or Boston go from 90° F to 110°F. A heatwave Goodell explains is a
predatory event— one that culls out the most vulnerable people. But that is changing. As
heatwaves become more intense and more common they will become more democratic. As an
award-winning journalist who has been at the forefront of environmental journalism for decades
Goodell’s new book may be his most provocative yet explaining how extreme heat will
dramatically change the world as we know it. Masterfully reported mixing the latest scientific
insight with on-the-ground storytelling Jeff Goodell tackles the big questions and uncovers
how extreme heat is a force beyond anything we have reckoned with before.
