This reads very much like John Krakauer, on the environment--in the best possible way. While it's undoubtedly alarming, Weisman has the skill and foresight to keep it from being alarmist. It's not a cautionary tale, but rather a thought experiment with some keen observations along the way. As with Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven, you're left to draw your own conclusions...but it would be very difficult to conclude that humans can continue our current relationship with the planet indefinitely. This seems like a great book to give to nay-sayers of environmental collapse. For those of use who are already convinced, it provides a variety of reasons to dig deeper (the chapters on plastic and nuclear energy are particularly terrifying). Read it.