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Book Summary and Reviews of The Long Heat by Wim Carton, Andreas Malm

The Long Heat by Wim Carton, Andreas Malm

The Long Heat

Climate Politics When It's Too Late

by Wim Carton, Andreas Malm

  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Published:
  • Oct 2025, 656 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A scathing critique of proposals to geoengineer our way out of climate disaster, by the bestselling authors of Overshoot.

The world is crossing the 1.5°C global warming limit, perhaps exceeding 2°C soon after. What is to be done when these boundaries, set by the Paris Agreement, have been passed? In the overshoot era, schemes proliferate for muscular adaptation or for new technologies to turn the heat down at a later date by re­moving CO2 from the air or blocking sunlight. Such technologies are by no means safe; they come with immense risks and provide an excuse for those who would prefer to avoid limiting emissions in the present. But do they also hold out some potential? Can the catastrophe be reversed, masked or simply adapted to once it is a fact? Or will any such round­about measures simply make things worse?

The Long Heat maps the new front lines in the struggle for a liveable planet and insists on the climate revolution long overdue. In the end, no technology can absolve us of responsibility for our planet and each other.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"The bleak but enlightening follow-up to Overshoot…[Malm and Wim] urge an immediate end to the use of fossil fuels and encourage state-run carbon removal efforts. It's a startling and persuasive call to action." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Wim Carton and Andreas Malm's substantial social science text The Long Heat examines climate politics in the era of irrevocable temperature overshoot…a complex and insightful social science book that chronicles late-stage climate politics." —Foreword Reviews

"The Long Heat is a vital corrective to the public conversation about technology, ideology and the climate. If you still believe or hope that climate catastrophe can be averted through technological rather than political change, I urge you to read this book." —Sally Rooney, author of Normal People

"A searing critique of the reckless techno-fantasies and false promises peddled in the face of climate catastrophe" —Adam Hanieh, author of Crude Capitalism

This information about The Long Heat was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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More Information

Wim Carton is Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at Lund University, Sweden. He's the author of over 20 academic articles and book chapters on climate politics. His work has appeared in top journals such as Nature Climate Change, WIRES Climate Change and Antipode.

Andreas Malm is Associate Professor of Human Ecology at Lund University, Sweden. He is the author of several acclaimed books, such as, with the Zetkin Collective, White Skin, Black Fuel: On the Danger of Fossil Fascism. His book How to Blow Up a Pipeline is an international bestseller and has been turned into a feature film.

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