Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-260) and index.

1. Introduction. -- 2. The nature of the problem. The development of climate science ; Climate change as public issue ; The age of climate diplomacy ; Concluding remarks -- 3. Obstacles to action. Scientific ignorance ; Politicizing science ; Facts and values ; The science/policy interface ; Organized denial ; Partisanship ; Political institutions ; The hardest problem ; Concluding remarks -- 4. The limits of economics. Economics and climate change ; The Stern Review and its critics ; Discounting ; Further problems ; State of the discussion ; Concluding remarks -- 5. The frontiers of ethics. The domain of concern ; Responsibility and harm ; Fault liability ; Human rights and domination ; Differences that matter ; Revising morality ; Concluding remarks -- 6. Living with climate change. Life in the anthropocene ; It doesn't matter what I do ; It's not the meat, it's the motion ; Ethics for the anthropocene ; Respect for nature ; Global justice ; Concluding remarks -- 7. Politics, policy, and the road ahead. The rectification of names ; Adaptation: the neglected option? ; Why we need more than adaptation ; The category formerly known as geoengineering ; The way forward ; Concluding remarks.

From the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference there was a concerted international effort to stop climate change. This book is about what climate change is, why we failed to stop it, and why it still matters what we do.