The contemporary world is '_¦ too full? Too intense? Too fast? Too hot? Too unequal? Too neoliberal? Too strongly dominated by humans? All of the above, and more. Ours is a world of high-speed modernity, where acceleration has accelerated. It is an overheated world.This world is also paradoxical: Fossil fuels, the salvation of humanity for two centuries, has become our damnation. Modernity, which should weaken traditional group identities, has strengthened them. The information revolution has made humanity less well informed. Discussing energy, cities, waste, information and mobility, the book shows that most of the conflicts and tensions resulting from globalisation are clashes of scale, pitting the local against the transnational, the tangible against the abstract, the specific against the general. Written by an an anthropologist, the book offers a fresh perspective on the contemporary, interconnected world, and it also suggests what the anthropological perspective can contribute to the large conversation about where humanity is and should be going.