Author: Ajay Singh Chaudhary, "The Exhausted of the Earth" at the San Francisco Public Library

Ajay Singh Chaudhary discusses his new book The Exhausted of the Earth: Politics in a Burning World. Climate change is not only about the exhaustion of the planet, it’s about the exhaustion of so many of us, our lives, our worlds, even our minds. So, what is to be done? Replacing Promethean, romantic and apocalyptic fairytales with a new story, The Exhausted of the Earth outlines the politics and the power needed to alter the course of our burning world far beyond, far better than, mere survival.

This program, part of SFPL's Everybody's Climate 2024 program series, was recorded on July 28, 2024.

"Destined to be a classic, a touchstone in global climate struggles to come... The Exhausted of the Earth is a gift to a world burning to learn."
— Raj Patel, New York Times and international bestselling author of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things

"Opens new horizons for urgent and immediate climate action. A must-read for our times"— Julia Steinberger, Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, University of Lausanne

"An important book about why business as usual is not going to get us out of the climate crisis; and indeed why any progress will require people to stand up to that business as usual in new, large-scale ways."— Bill McKibben, environmentalist, journalist and founder of Third Act.

Ajay Singh Chaudhary is the executive director of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research and a core faculty member specializing in social and political theory. He has written for The Guardian, The Nation, The Baffler, n+1 and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other venues.