The Collapse of Western Civilization by Naomi Oreskes presents a chilling future shaped by climate inaction. Reviewers praise its compelling narrative and informative blend of fiction and science, but some criticize its bleak outlook and lack of solutions. Despite minor flaws, it effectively raises urgent awareness about climate change.

A reader interested in The Collapse of Western Civilization by Naomi Oreskes would likely enjoy speculative fiction and environmental science. This book will appeal to those who appreciated the critical analysis in Jared Diamond's Collapse and the dystopian undertones of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View From the Future by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway is a speculative fiction novella set in the year 2300, narrated by a historian from the Second People’s Republic of China. The historian elucidates the consequences of climate change denial and inaction, leading to the downfall of Western civilization, marked by extreme weather events, environmental degradation, and a societal collapse that necessitated a massive human migration and a transition to a neocommunist government.

Informative / Dark / Unnerving / Challenging

- The Collapse of Western Civilization is a thought-provoking work by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway that imagines a future where scientists look back at the present to understand why humanity failed to prevent environmental catastrophe.
- The book serves as a companion to Oreskes and Conway’s earlier work, Merchants of Doubt, and extends their exploration of climate change denial into a fictional narrative form.
- Despite its fictional nature, the book incorporates real-world scientific data and modeling to construct a plausible future scenario, making it a unique blend of sci-fi and speculative non-fiction.

**The Historian**  
A fictional character who serves as the narrator, living in the Second People's Republic of China around or after 2300, and specializes in synthetic-failure paleoanalysis.

**Akari Ishikawa**  
A fictional genetic engineer from Japan who indirectly appears in Chapter 2, known for developing a lichenized fungus that absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere effectively.

Naomi Oreskes

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The Collapse of Western Civilization Summary and Study Guide

Background

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 1

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Chapter 2 The Collapse of Western Civilization Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Chapter 3-Epilogue

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Appendices

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Character Analysis

The Collapse of Western Civilization Character Analysis

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Themes

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The Collapse of Western Civilization

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