
Our Fragile Moment
How Lessons from Earth's Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis
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Narrated by:
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Tim Campbell
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By:
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Michael E. Mann
About this listen
In this sweeping work of science and history, the renowned climate scientist and author of The New Climate War shows us the conditions on Earth that allowed humans not only to exist but thrive, and how they are imperiled if we veer off course.
For the vast majority of its 4.54 billion years, Earth has proven it can manage just fine without human beings. Then came the first proto-humans, who emerged just a little more than 2 million years ago—a fleeting moment in geological time. What is it that made this benevolent moment of ours possible? Ironically, it’s the very same thing that now threatens us—climate change.
The drying of the tropics during the Pleistocene period created a niche for early hominids, who could hunt prey as forests gave way to savannahs in the African tropics. The sudden cooling episode known as the “Younger Dryas” 13,000 years ago, which occurred just as Earth was thawing out of the last Ice Age, spurred the development of agriculture in the fertile crescent. The “Little Ice Age” cooling of the 16th-19th centuries led to famines and pestilence for much of Europe, yet it was a boon for the Dutch, who were able to take advantage of stronger winds to shorten their ocean voyages.
The conditions that allowed humans to live on this earth are fragile, incredibly so. Climate variability has at times created new niches that humans or their ancestors could potentially exploit, and challenges that at times have spurred innovation. But there’s a relatively narrow envelope of climate variability within which human civilization remains viable. And our survival depends on conditions remaining within that range.
In this book, renowned climate scientist Michael Mann will arm listeners with the knowledge necessary to appreciate the gravity of the unfolding climate crisis, while emboldening them—and others--to act before it truly does become too late.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2023 Michael E. Mann (P)2023 PublicAffairsListeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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A renowned climate scientist shows how fossil fuel companies have waged a thirty-year campaign to deflect blame and responsibility and delay action on climate change, and offers a battle plan for how we can save the planet.
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A good overview of the status of Climate Politics
- By Kathleen M. Lee on 02-15-21
By: Michael E. Mann
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Descent into Darkness
- Pearl Harbor, 1941, A Navy Diver's Memoir
- By: Edward C. Raymer
- Narrated by: Peter Johnson
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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On December 7, 1941, as the great battleships Arizona, Oklahoma, and Utah lie paralyzed and burning in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. A crack team of U.S. Navy salvage divers headed by Edward C. Raymer are hurriedly flown to Oahu from the mainland. Their two-part orders are direct and straightforward: (1) rescue as many trapped sailors and Marines as possible, and (2) resurrect what remains of America's once mighty pacific fleet. Descent Into Darkness tells their story.
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A Massive Disappointment
- By Matthew on 10-14-15
By: Edward C. Raymer
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Lucid Dying
- The New Science Revolutionizing How We Understand Life and Death
- By: Sam Parnia MD PhD
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Today, for the first time in history, the scientific exploration of death and what happens when we die is real, active and ongoing. Contrary to popular perceptions, this subject is no longer the remit of philosophy, religion, or personal opinion. Truly remarkable scientific discoveries that will fundamentally affect everyone’s lives now and in the future are taking place, yet very few people are aware of them. Most people—including scientists and doctors—maintain strong beliefs about death and its experience. Those beliefs are rooted in traditional, and often cultural, notions of death.
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Excited to See Scientific Rigor Applied to This Vital Topic
- By Mav on 08-27-24
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A Fatal Inheritance
- How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical Mystery
- By: Lawrence Ingrassia
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Ingrassia lost his mother, two sisters, brother, and nephew to cancer—different cancers developing at different points throughout their lives. And while highly unusual, his family is not the only one to wonder whether their heartbreak is the result of unbelievable bad luck, or if there might be another explanation. Through meticulous research and riveting storytelling, Ingrassia takes us from the 1960s—when Dr. Frederick Pei Li and Dr. Joseph Fraumeni Jr. first met, not yet knowing that they would help make a groundbreaking discovery that would affect cancer patients for decades to come.
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A Layman's Explanation of Cancer
- By Kristin V. Johnson on 08-11-24
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The Genesis Book
- The Story of the People and Projects That Inspired Bitcoin
- By: Aaron van Wirdum
- Narrated by: Christian Neale
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Bitcoin did not appear out of nowhere. For decades prior to Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention, a diverse group of computer scientists, privacy activists, and heterodox economists tried to create a digital form of money that could operate independently of government control. The Genesis Book tells the story of the people and projects that inspired the invention of the world’s first successful peer-to-peer electronic cash system.
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Very informative!
- By Amazon Customer on 03-24-25
By: Aaron van Wirdum
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Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation
- Why Physicists Are Studying Human Consciousness and AI to Unravel the Mysteries of the Universe
- By: George Musser
- Narrated by: Alan Peterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Neuroscientists have painstakingly built up an understanding of the structure of the brain. Could this help physicists understand the levels of self-organization they observe in other systems? These same physicists, meanwhile, are trying to explain how particles organize themselves into the objects around us. Could their discoveries help explain how neurons produce our conscious experience? Exploring these questions and more, George Musser tackles the extraordinary interconnections between quantum mechanics, cosmology, human consciousness, and artificial intelligence.
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Strong Start, Discursive Ending
- By Oliver on 01-17-24
By: George Musser
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Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them
- A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity
- By: Antonio Padilla
- Narrated by: Antonio Padilla
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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For particularly brilliant theoretical physicists like James Clerk Maxwell, Paul Dirac, or Albert Einstein, the search for mathematical truths led to strange new understandings of the ultimate nature of reality. But what are these truths? What are the mysterious numbers that explain the universe? In Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them, the leading theoretical physicist and YouTube star Antonio Padilla takes us on an irreverent cosmic tour of nine of the most extraordinary numbers in physics, offering a startling picture of how the universe works.
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Exciting, Strange, Difficult = Meh
- By Michael on 05-23-23
By: Antonio Padilla
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On Trails
- An Exploration
- By: Robert Moor
- Narrated by: Robert Moor
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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From a talent who’s been compared to Annie Dillard, Edward Abbey, David Quammen, and Jared Diamond, On Trails is a wondrous exploration of how trails help us understand the world—from invisible ant trails to hiking paths that span continents, from interstate highways to the Internet.
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Great to listen to while I was on the trail!
- By Ken Jacobsen on 09-24-24
By: Robert Moor
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Under a White Sky
- The Nature of the Future
- By: Elizabeth Kolbert
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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That man should have dominion “over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it’s said we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. The question we now face is: Can we change nature, this time in order to save it? Elizabeth Kolbert, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction, takes a hard look at the new world we are creating.
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Feel Sorry For Your Grandchildren
- By Allen Moody on 02-28-21
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One Garden Against the World
- In Search of Hope in a Changing Climate
- By: Kate Bradbury
- Narrated by: Kate Bradbury
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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One Garden Against the World is a call to action for all of us – gardeners, communities and individuals – to do more for wildlife and more for the climate. Climate change and biodiversity loss go hand in hand, but if we work together, it’s never too late to make a difference.
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A beautifully written call to action
- By Susan on 03-02-25
By: Kate Bradbury
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Turning to Stone
- Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks
- By: Marcia Bjornerud
- Narrated by: Rebecca Stern
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Earth has been reinventing itself for more than four billion years, keeping a record of its experiments in the form of rocks. Yet most of us live our lives on the planet with no idea of its extraordinary history, unable to interpret the language of the rocks that surround us. Geologist Marcia Bjornerud believes that our lives can be enriched by understanding our heritage on this old and creative planet. Contrary to their reputation, rocks have eventful lives—and they intersect with our own in surprising ways.
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Very unusual book by a profound writer
- By F Shaw on 09-17-24
By: Marcia Bjornerud
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The Burning Shore
- How Hitler's U-Boats Brought World War II to America
- By: Ed Offley
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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On June 15, 1942, as thousands of vacationers lounged in the sun on Virginia Beach, a massive fireball erupted from a convoy of oil tankers steaming into Chesapeake Bay. By the next day, three ships lay at the bottom of the channel, victims of Lieutenant-Commander Horst Degen and his crew on the German submarine U-701. In The Burning Shore, acclaimed military reporter Ed Offley presents a thrilling account of Degen's rampage along the American coast and of US Lieutenant Harry J. Kane's quest to bring him down.
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Ugh, Perhaps a Second Listen is Required?
- By Matthew on 09-05-15
By: Ed Offley
What listeners say about Our Fragile Moment
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- Francesca Rheannon
- 01-24-24
The best book on the science of climate change for the general public! 
A brilliant explanation of how Earth’s past can help us understand our future. The most important takeaway? That if we act now, with the tools that we have, we can avert the worst ravages of climate disruption. 
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- Big Sur Steve
- 10-05-23
Clarity on where we currently stand on Global Warming.
Now that global warming deniers are losing audience with the current weather events we are all experiencing, a new form of apathy has taken hold. Instead of saying global warming is a “hoax” so pay no attention to it , a new wave of disinformation is spreading saying that it’s too late to do anything about global warming so why take measures to prevent it. Both narratives are being spread by fossil fuel producers who want to keep consumers hooked on their product regardless of the long term consequences.
This book carefully explains how the theory of global warming turned from theory into fact. If you are interested in reading the science behind global warming, you will enjoy this book. The biggest complaint I have about the audiobook is the reader. He consistently mispronounced the various geologic eras and epochs. Other than that, this geologist found the book insightful and inspiring as well. We’ve got time to steer the world towards a more manageable future, but not a lot.
One thing we can all participate in is helping to reforest the planet. If you don’t have property to put a few trees on there are plenty of credible tree planting groups that can help facilitate the tree planting process for you.
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- Noreen Wise
- 10-06-23
Unveiling the Secrets of Our Existence
Dr. Michael E. Mann's latest book, "Our Fragile Moment," is a captivating exploration of Earth's history and its relevance to the current climate crisis we face. This book is a treasure trove of valuable historical insights and scientific concepts that will ignite your imagination and deepen your understanding of our planet's past and its potential future.
Mann takes us on a fascinating journey through time, introducing us to captivating concepts like Daisy World, Snowball Earth, and the Silurian Hypothesis. With his engaging storytelling style, he effortlessly weaves together scientific research and historical evidence to paint a vivid picture of Earth's ancient climate and the lessons it can teach us.
One of the standout features of this book is its ability to make complex scientific concepts accessible to readers of all backgrounds. Mann's talent lies in his ability to distill complex ideas into digestible pieces, ensuring that everyone can grasp the significance of our planet's history and its implications for our future. Whether you are a seasoned climate scientist or a curious individual seeking to understand the climate crisis, this book is for you.
Moreover, "Our Fragile Moment" seamlessly integrates current events into its narrative, such as the mention of the recent film "Don't Look Up" starring Leonardo DiCaprio. This inclusion demonstrates the book's relevance to the present-day discourse on climate change and highlights the urgency of taking action.
In addition to the valuable historical and scientific information it provides, this book also inspires hope and empowers readers to become part of the solution. Mann's passion and dedication to combating climate change shine through his words, motivating readers to take individual and collective action to address this global crisis.
In conclusion, I highly recommend Dr. Michael E. Mann's "Our Fragile Moment" to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Earth's past and its implications for our present and future. This remarkable achievement not only educates but also inspires readers to actively engage in the fight against climate change. So, grab a copy, embark on this enlightening journey, and join the movement to ensure a sustainable future for the human race.
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- A. J. Wind
- 04-19-24
True grit
This is a well spoken and effective discussion of the climate change debate- useful for denialists and those who are activists. A very helpful contribution which enriches our understanding.
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- Nooper
- 10-03-23
Thanks
I was falling into doom. I appreciate your hard work. I’m going to share this book with my friends and family.
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- Daniel Tannenbaum
- 11-06-23
Compass to chart our direction
There is so much in this, the history of climate change is essential to see where we’re going.
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- Shawn Oueinsteen
- 06-03-24
Great Climate Science Book
Michael Mann surprised me by writing an extremely comprehensive, but easy to understand, climate science book. It covers a lot of the paleontology involved in climate science, but it doesn't slight the physics, chemistry, oceanography, meteorology, nor the human sociology. Mann is more against Doomism than many other climate scientists, and that comes through. He is more optimistic than most that we can stay under 1.5 degrees Celcius. But he does show how terrible climate change may be, especially if we get over 3 degrees C. Overall, it's a great book. Everyone should read it.
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- Deborah Ulrich
- 06-15-24
.A listen for everyone.
The detailed explanation of all information covered. I will listen again and again. Something for any listener.
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- R.C. Olson
- 12-30-24
Outstanding
It's a slow read, but an important one. Historical record of global climate is helpful for perspective on our moment in time. The Many discussions of scientific theories over the years is helpful to add credibility to the author 's assertions, though the details are at times tedious.
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- aaron
- 04-14-24
Comically bad.
Worth it for the laughs. Cheesy and inappropriate conclusions drawn from vastly different worlds and ignorance of timescales, resolution, and uncertainty.
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