When someone told me that World Without End by Jean-Marc Jancovici and Christophe Blain outsold Asterix when it was published in France in 2021, I was sceptical to put it mildly. If I know how attached the French are to their beloved bandes dessinées, I also know how much they love their brie and beef bourguignon; it seemed a bit unlikely they would take to their hearts a book whose alternative title might be: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Climate Change But Were Too Afraid to Ask.
But there it is. The title was indeed a word-of-mouth sensation, and now it has been translated into English (by Edward Gauvin) ahead of publication in the UK and the US, where the Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert, has already asked, only half jokingly, if it might not save the planet. So what’s its secret? In the end, I think, it’s that Jancovici and Blain come at their subject with such a lack of dogmatism. In many respects, their message is extremely bleak: if, for instance, average temperatures rose by 4C compared with today (we’ve already had such increases during heatwaves), people born today could find themselves in a place where it would be impossible to survive outdoors before their lifespan is up. But Jancovici, in particular, is determined to remain hopeful and realistic. Eat your cheese, he says. Enjoy your (rare) burgers. But let these things be treats, not the stuff of every dejeuner.
