Sink or Swim: How the world needs to adapt to a changing climate

by Susannah Fisher

Overview

The world needs to adapt to climate change – but how? What are the key problems and hard choices that lie ahead for the global community? This book reveals all.

Heatwaves, wildfires, hurricanes and flooding caused by climate change are already impacting people and nature. Adaptation until now has been incremental with governments and institutions tinkering around the edges of current systems. This will not be enough.

Sink or Swim explores the hard choices that lie ahead concerning how people earn a living, the way governments manage relationships between countries, and how communities accommodate the movement of people. Should people be encouraged to move away from the coast? How can global food supplies be managed when parts of the world are hit by simultaneous droughts? How can conflict be handled when there isn't enough water?

Drawing on cutting edge research, interviews with experts, and practical examples from across the world, Susannah Fisher tells the story of the tough choices on adaptation that lie ahead, and looks at ways we can still have a liveable planet later in this century and beyond. Will we choose to sink or swim?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399414050
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	11/04/2025
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.32(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Susannah Fisher is a Principal Research Fellow at University College London and works as a researcher and advisor supporting governments, cities, climate funds and communities adapt to climate change.

Table of Contents

1. Fiddling as the World Burns

2. A Narrow Window of Opportunity

3. The Story of Adaptation so Far

4. Not Fast or Fast enough

5. People on the Move

6. Food Justice

7. Risking Nature

8. Fighting Fire

9. Sitting in Boiling Water

10. Starting to Swim

Editorial Reviews

Fisher brilliantly outlines how climate adaptation must happen with people, not for people. A crucial roadmap for turning climate paralysis into determined action, where it counts the most.” —Christiana Figueres, author of The Future We Choose and former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

“If you only read one book about climate adaptation, Sink or Swim should be it. Susannah Fisher takes us to the heart of the hard choices we now face about how to adapt to climate crisis, from managing people on the move, to how we grow food, sustain nature and avoid conflict. An impassioned but grounded and highly accessible account of the science, politics and ethics of trying to protect life on a rapidly warming planet.” —Peter Newell, author of Power Shift

From the Publisher