“[Hope Jahren] leads us on a journey across time and space, outlining thoughts and beliefs from Mesopotamia to her tiny Minnesota hometown. Along the way she discusses the impact of everything from population growth to Norwegian fishing to nuclear power. She takes this approach in order to present climate change as a result of broader dysfunctions having to do with consumption habits that, she says, don’t even make us happy.... It’s an argument that contrasts with the recent spate of climate books, which opt to pummel readers with facts and guilt. Jahren, who first came to prominence with the best-selling memoir Lab Girl, instead writes delicately, like the whispery scrape of a skate tracing a figure on the ice.” (The New York Times Book ​Review)

“If there’s one book all of us should read about the state of the environment, it’s this one..... [Jahren] pulls off the feat of presenting climate change without emotional baggage through accessibility and humor.” (The Washington Independent Review of Books)

“A concise and personal yet universally applicable examination of a problem that affects everyone on planet Earth.... [Jahren] doesn’t use scare tactics or shrill warnings.... She clearly shows how the amount of waste created by the privileged could provide plenty for those less privileged.” (Kirkus Reviews)