Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part one. There is such a thing as society. Falling apart -- Deviant and proud -- Work-force -- Addicted to comfort -- Dead zone -- Help addicts, but lock up the casual users of cocaine.

Part two. Lost youth. Rewild the child -- The child inside -- Amputating life close to its base -- 'Bug splats' -- Kin hell -- The sacrificial caste -- A modest proposal for tackling youth -- Pro-death.

Part three. The wild life. Everything is connected -- Civilization is boring -- End of an era -- The population myth -- The dawning.

Part four. Feeding frenzy. Sheepwrecked -- Ripping apart the fabric of the nation -- Drowning in money -- Small is bountiful.

Part five. Energy vampires. Leave it in the ground -- Applauding themselves to death -- The grime behind the crime -- Going critical -- Power crazed.

Part six. Riches and ruins. The impossibility of growth -- Curb your malthusiasm -- Kleptoremuneration -- The self-attribution fallacy -- The lairds of learning -- The man who wants to Northern rock the planet -- The gift of death.

Part seven. Dance with the one who brung you. How the billionaires broke the system -- Plutocracy's boot boys -- How did we get into this mess? -- Going naked.

Part eight. Out of sight, out of mind. The Holocaust we will not see -- The empire strikes back -- Unremitting pain -- Bomb everyone.

Part nine. Holding us down. A global ban on leftwing politics -- Innocent until proved dead -- The paranoia squad -- Union with the devil.

Part ten. Finding our place. Someone else's story -- Highland spring -- A telling silence -- The values of everything.

George Monbiot is one of the most vocal, and eloquent, critics of the current consensus. In this selection from his journalism over the last seven years, he anatomises the state we are in: the devastation of our environment, the crisis of inequality, the corporate takeover of Nature, our obsessions with growth and profit and the decline of the political debate over what to do. While his diagnosis of the problems in front of us is clear-sighted and reasonable, he also develops solutions to challenge the current politics of fear.