We are the Weather

From the bestselling author of Eating Animals and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - a brilliant, fresh take on climate change and what we can do about it

Climate crisis is the single biggest threat to human survival. And it is happening right now. We all understand that time is running out - but do we truly believe it? And, caught between the seemingly unimaginable and the apparently unthinkable, how can we take the first step towards action, to arrest our race to extinction?

We can begin with our knife and fork. The link between farming animals and the climate crisis is barely discussed, because giving up our meat-based diets feels like an impossible ask. But we don't have to go cold turkey. Cutting out animal products for just part of the day is enough to change the world.

The task of saving the planet will involve a great reckoning with ourselves - with our all-too-human reluctance to sacrifice immediate comfort for the sake of the future. But we have done it before and we can do it again. Collective action is the way to save our home and way of life. And it all starts with what we eat, and don't eat, for breakfast.

With his distinctive wit, insight and humanity, Jonathan Safran Foer presents the essential debate of our time as no one else could, bringing it to vivid and urgent life and offering us all a much-needed way out.

Review: Read this book. Saving Planet Earth starts right here, right now * Stella McCartney *

We Are The Weather: Saving The Planet Begins At Breakfast is optimistic not because Foer minimises the crisis, but because of his claim that ordinary people have a chance of ameliorating it . . . I have not had meat at lunch since I read the book, and that makes me feel even better than having solar panels. * The Times *

A warning: this is a life-changing book and will alter your relationship to food forever * Observer *

Since I finished the book I have been following his advice. I hope others will too. The future of the planet is in our hands - or rather, it's on our plates * The Times *

Jonathan Safran Foer has laid down an urgent challenge with this book. Thought-provoking, humane and incisive, We Are the Weather confronts our personal entanglement in the climate crisis through the food on our plates. A necessary book about the way we eat and the enormous difference our daily choices can make. -- Julian Hoffman

Safran Foer's new approach, measured and moderate, gives me hope * Observer *

In a style rarely found in books about global catastrophe, [Foer] interweaves personal stories, bulleted factoids and a delicious serving of metaphor. The effect is dazzling. * The Washington Post *

Eye-opening . . . In this follow-up to his influential Eating Animals, [Foer] brings both personality and passion to an issue that no one has figured out how to address in a way that inspires an adequate response. * The New York Times Book Review *

Beautiful, powerful writing that's made me rethink the way I eat. -- Samin Nosrat, author of Salt, Fat, Acid Heat

Foer's message is both moving and painful, depressing and optimistic * Publisher's Weekly *

Foer's new book urges the reader gently towards incremental adjustments - the idea being that if enough of us observe them, difference can be made * Monocle *