One of the remarkable things that AI enables is a much broader understanding of human knowledge than even an average literate individual can achieve. After developing a significant amount of my own thinking and research for this book, I began to notice references to other works that covered some of the same issues, and wondered whether I was saying anything different from what else was out there. After downloading samples of a dozen-and-a-half books for my Kindle, I entered their titles and authors into ChatGPT, and asked it to review them to identify themes and topics, and compare them with the chapters already available (as of July 2025).
After some moments of revealing its research and thinking, here’s some of what it replied (lightly edited for readability):
Below is a “guided tour” through 18 recent books that address humanity’s ecological-civilizational predicament, mapped onto the argument arc of Possible Planet: Pathways to a Habitable Future. Rather than a catalogue of blurbs, the discussion clusters the books by the questions they ask and the futures they foreground, and then notes where each thread resonates—or clashes—with the book‑in‑progress.
1 | Planetary limits & overshoot
Breaking Boundaries (Rockström & Gaffney) turns the nine‑boundary framework into a popular science thriller: cross six boundaries and civilisation’s life‑support “hair‑trigger” is primed.
Limits and Beyond (Bardi & Pereira, eds.) revisits Limits to Growth five decades on; the verdict is blunt—real‑world data now hug the “business‑as‑usual” collapse curve.
The Possible Planet Preface opens on exactly this terrain, naming overshoot as “invariably” leading to collapse unless we reinvent our relationship with Earth. Rockström’s biophysical dashboard provides the empirical scaffolding for that opening claim, while Limits and Beyond supplies the historical baseline: we were warned; we accelerated anyway.
2 | Scenarios of breakdown—or breakthrough
Earth4All (Dixson‑Decleve et al.) simulates two this‑century trajectories: Breakdown (status‑quo growth) versus Giant Leap (deep reform + wealth redistribution).
Where Earth4All quantifies global pathways, Possible Planet’s Table of Contents sketches an analogous fork: “The State of the Earth is Precarious” followed by “Pathways to a Habitable Future”. Both projects insist that choice still matters—even inside contraction.
3 | Degrowth, post‑growth & the economics of enough
Jason Hickel’s Less is More argues that ecological crisis is inseparable from a growth‑imperative rooted in colonial extraction and must be met with planned economic shrinkage in the global North.
The Future is Degrowth (Smelzer et al.) widens that lens, detailing policy levers (work‑time reduction, commons‑based provisioning) and societal shifts (care economies, technology moratoria).
These books align with Possible Planet’s chapter, ‘Reforming Capitalism and the Global Financial System,’ which identifies compound growth as a core design flaw and explores regenerative finance alternatives. Where Hickel and Smelzer press for systemic downscaling, Possible Planet adds a monetary-innovation angle (e.g., Carbon Coin) and bioregional localization to make that descent livable.
4 | Accelerationist climate playbooks
John Doerr’s Speed & Scale translates venture‑capital OKRs into a 1.5 °C action roadmap; Simon Sharpe’s Five Times Faster argues that every decarbonisation lever—policy, markets, sociocultural change—must quintuple its pace to avoid multi‑tipping‑point cascades.
Tom Steyer’s Cheaper Faster Better offers an investor’s optimism that tech‑cost curves and political activism can still “win the climate war,” while Rob Jackson’s Into the Clear Blue Sky threads a scientist’s hope that atmospheric restoration is feasible if we scale methane cuts and carbon removal now
Possible Planet’s Restoring the Carbon Balance chapter meets these accelerationists halfway: it endorses bold incentives (Global Carbon Reward) and—cautiously—solar‑radiation research, yet warns that without systemic finance reform, such speed narratives stall at the starting line
5 | Land, labour & speculative futures
Half‑Earth Socialism (Vettese & Pendergrass) promotes zoning half the planet for non‑human life, run by a democratically planned agro‑ecology.
Peter Frase’s Four Futures offers four post‑capitalist endgames—communism, rentism, socialism, exterminism—depending on how automation and ecological scarcity collide.
Both texts share Possible Planet’s interest in re‑territorialising governance. The Bioregionalism chapter argues that human settlements must align with watershed and ecoregional realities, effectively echoing Half‑Earth’s call for ecological redistricting but rooting agency the community level
6 | Consumption, supply chains & shadow costs
Peter Dauvergne’s Shadows of Consumption exposes the hidden ecological toll of five global commodities, challenging consumer‑side “green” fixes
That critique underpins Possible Planet’s reflection that ESG tweaks fail when financial logic externalizes planetary risk.
7 | Optimistic pragmatism & how‑to manuals
Hannah Ritchie’s Not the End of the World reframes climate data to show rapid gains are possible when solutions scale.
Will Lockett’s 50 Ways to Save the World is a survey of frontier tech—from enhanced rock weathering to autonomous seaweed barges—pitched at the enthusiastic lay reader (amazon.com).
These books mirror Possible Planet’s practical sections on Asset-Based Community Development and clean-energy finance, but diverge in tone: Ritchie and Lockett are bullish on techno-scale, whereas the Possible Planet narrative embeds tech within place-based, justice-centered frameworks.
8 | Psychology, culture & meaning in a damaged world
Clayton Page Aldern’s The Weight of Nature links heatwaves to aggression, trauma and cognitive drag, turning climate from external threat to embodied experience.
Dougal Hine’s At Work in the Ruins invites readers to grieve modernity and cultivate “world‑making” practices amid collapse.
The emotional terrain they till is central to Possible Planet’s New Transcendentalism and “Shifting Societal Norms” essays, which argue that cultural and spiritual realignment is prerequisite for any technical or economic fix.
9 | Convergences & divergences with Possible Planet
Theme Where the books converge with Possible Planet Key divergences Planetary ceilings Universal recognition of breached boundaries and overshoot Tech‑optimists underplay political economy; Possible Planetforegrounds finance & power Economic transformation Degrowth authors & Possible Planet both target growth imperatives Doerr/Steyer argue for faster growth in green sectors Spatial governance Half‑Earth & Bioregionalism both redraw maps around ecology Scale of authority: Half‑Earth envisions top‑down planning; Possible Planet favours nested, community‑led regions Psychological adaptation Aldern/Hine’s focus on grief mirrors chapters on meaning Ritchie’s data‑driven optimism omits the cultural‑spiritual dimension Solution portfolios Carbon Reward, OKR roadmaps, degrowth policies form a mosaic No single book couples regenerative finance, bioregional design and transcendental culture as tightly as Possible Planet
Take‑away
The current bookshelf is less a debate than a polyphonic rehearsal for the same drama: a civilization in overshoot groping for a livable descent.
Possible Planet stands out by stitching three strands—biophysical realism, regenerative‑finance pragmatism, and cultural‑spiritual renewal—into one narrative. Each of the reviewed books supplies a chapter’s worth of insight or cautionary tale; together they validate the project’s core contention: transforming “just about everything” is not optional, but possible—if we heed both the planetary dashboard and the inner work of becoming a species that can stay home on Earth.