A Climate of Truth
Why We Need It and How To Get It

To get anywhere on climate, we must radically raise standards of honesty in our politics, media and businesses. Here's how.

Mike Berners-Lee (Author)

9781009440066, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 March 2025

386 pages
19.8 x 12.8 x 2 cm, 0.41 kg

'Do you want to understand the 'polycrisis'? Mike Berners-Lee takes you inside it. The crucial demand saturating this book is that - hard as it sometimes is - we have no alternative but to tell and face the truth. This book will provide you with crucial help in accepting this, and gives you vital information on what we all might do about it.' Rupert Read, Co-director of the Climate Majority Project and author of Why Climate Breakdown Matters

We have most of the technology we need to combat the climate crisis - and most people want to see more action. But after three decades of climate COPs, we are accelerating into a polycrisis of climate, food security, biodiversity, pollution, inequality, and more. What, exactly, has been holding us back? Mike Berners-Lee looks at the challenge from new angles. He stands further back to gain perspective; he digs deeper under the surface to see the root causes; he joins up every element of the challenge; and he learns lessons from our failures of the past. He spells out why, if humanity is to thrive in the future, the most critical step is to raise standards of honesty in our politics, our media, and our businesses. Anyone asking 'what can each of us do right now to help?' will find inspiration in this practical and important book.

Introduction
1. The challenge ahead
2. Standing further back
3. The outer layer of the polycrisis
4. The middle layer of the polycrisis
5. The core of the polycrisis
6. Truth – the single most critical lever
7. Getting truth into politics
8. Getting truth into the media
9. Getting truth into business
10. The evolutionary challenge and where each of us fits in
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Appendix 4.

Subject Areas: Meteorology & climatology [RBP]