At Work in the Ruins

"Hine's brilliant book demands we stare into [the] abyss and rethink our securest certainties about what is actually going on in the climate crisis."--Brian Eno, musician

"Maybe it's time to stop talking about climate change?"

For two decades, the writer and social thinker Dougald Hine has been among the most influential voices in the environmental debate. Then one day, he heard these words come out of his mouth--and realized that he would have to explain himself.

At Work in the Ruins tells the story of how our ways of talking about the world's troubles end up making everything worse. In eloquent, deeply researched prose, Hine traces the consequences of our over-reliance on the single lens of science and opens a window onto other ways of seeing the crises around and ahead of us. This is an invitation to find the paths that lead beyond panic and polarization, to take up the work that is worth doing in the ruins.

"One of the most perceptive and thought-provoking books yet written about the multiple intersecting crises that are now upending our once-familiar world. . . . Essential reading for these turbulent times."--Amitav Ghosh, author of The Great Derangement

"[A] rich book, which like a poetic or religious text deserves multiple readings."--British Medical Journal

"A deep reflection on the foundations of the destructive path humanity has been pushed on."--Dr. Vandana Shiva, author of Terra Viva

"Let [Hine's] song of loss and longing, his call to fugitivity, dispossess you of your steady gait and poise. Perhaps then we, collectively infected, might together witness the incomprehensible."--Bayo Akomolafe, author of These Wilds Beyond Our Fences