Includes bibliographical references and index.

pt. one problem of abundance -- How fossil fuel use and emissions have been rising exponentially for hundreds of years. Why a safe future is incompatible with burning the world's remaining oil, coal and gas reserves. And how the political process is failing -- 1. curve -- 2. Heading for trouble fast -- 3. trillion-tonne limit -- 4. Too much fuel in the ground -- 5. No deal on the horizon -- pt. two Squeezing a balloon -- How efforts to reduce fossil fuel use often get cancelled out at the global system level. Why we therefore need to deal with the oil, coal and gas head on -- 6. Rebounds and ripples -- 7. People, money and technology -- pt. three What's stopping us? -- social, economic and political barriers to cutting fossil fuel use, from the financial value of the reserves and infrastructure to the psychology that stops us engaging with climate change -- 8. write-off -- 9. growth debate -- 10. great global slumber -- 11. problem of sharing -- pt. four Not just fossil fuels -- other ways we're warming the planet, such as soot from cooking fires and methane from livestock. How efforts to reduce these other drivers of climate change will be crucial to what happens in the next few decades -- 12. supporting cast -- 13. Food, forests and fuels -- pt. five What now? -- Six key steps that will help tackle climate change -- 14. Waking up -- 15. Capping the carbon -- 16. Pushing the right technologies - hard -- 17. Dealing with land and smoke -- 18. Making a plan B -- 19. What can I do?.