It argues that climate change will bring about large-scale, harmful consequences for habitability for life on Earth including humans, which it is too late to prevent.

He invokes a variety of explanations, including wishful thinking, ideology, consumer culture and active lobbying by the fossil fuel industry.

[5] The most immediate reason for the failure to act on global warming is seen to be the "sustained and often ruthless exercise of political power by the corporations who stand to lose from a shift to low- and zero-carbon energy systems".

Hamilton cites numerous journalists and authors who have documented the influence of large companies such as ExxonMobil, Rio Tinto Group and General Motors.

Secondly, he examines the roots of denial, both in terms of resistance to the evidence and in relation to the actors and agencies motivated to deny climate change.

[3] Hamilton suggests that the foundations of climate change denial lie in the reaction of American conservatism to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Hamilton contends that the conservative backlash against climate science was led by three prominent physicists – Frederick Seitz, Robert Jastrow, and William Nierenberg.

The Earth's climate would enter a chaotic era lasting thousands of years before natural processes eventually establish some sort of equilibrium.

But, according to Hulme, Hamilton has underestimated the "innovative and creative potential of collective humanity" and he has put too much faith in the infallibility of science's predictions about future climate risks.

Hulme believes that Hamilton "is placing too much weight on the foresight of science to provide his desired revolution, rather than calling for it more honestly and directly through political, psychological or spiritual engagement".

Munro also points out that some eminent climate scientists, like Princeton University's Michael Oppenheimer, remain optimistic that humanity will act before it is too late.