Ben Rawlence
Ben Rawlence is an award-winning writer, activist and educator. He wrote two books about the human consequences of environmental catastrophe in Africa: Radio Congo, about the people living in the wreckage of Eastern Congo’s resource wars, and City of Thorns, about people fleeing famine and climate-driven war in the Horn of Africa. After moving to Wales and beginning to research the coming impacts of climate change closer to home, his attention turned to the Arctic Circle and the boreal forest. What he discovered led to his third book, The Treeline, and to a dawning realisation that we needed to prepare—and soon—for major changes to our ways of life. Rawlence co-founded the Black Mountains College to promote new ways of thinking and learning, new ways of seeing ourselves, and new ways of interacting with the non-human world.
Books by Ben Rawlence
“The Treeline is a journey around the Arctic Circle, which is also—at the moment—just about the growing limit of trees in the north. It’s a journey of discovery of what’s happening to that treeline as the planet warms, and what that might mean for humanity as a whole. We meet individual species in six chapters around the top of the world, from Scotland, Scandinavia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. We also meet scientists and people living in those regions. It’s a blend of travelogue and science. And I hope it’s both a journey of wonder, as the reader experiences these incredible places and incredible people, but also an invitation to reflect on what’s happening and weave in some of the anthropology and sociology about why we are where we are.” Read more...
The best books on Climate Adaptation
Ben Rawlence, Environmentalist
“What I really love about the book is that it’s an account of how people form and continue their lives in the most extreme and challenging circumstances; people cling to these bits of normality and construct a life that, although so different to that of the reader’s, you can recognise – their aspirations and goals and desire for an education or good job or love, or whatever it is. I find something very appealing about that; the bravery of finding a semblance of normality in these extreme situations.” Read more...
The Best Narrative Nonfiction Books
Samira Shackle, Journalist
Interviews with Ben Rawlence
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1
The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis
by Amitav Ghosh -
2
Reconsidering Reparations
by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò -
3
Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
by Jason Hickel -
4
Ideas to Postpone the End of the World
by Ailton Krenak, translated by Anthony Doyle -
5
A Small Farm Future
by Chris Smaje
The best books on Climate Adaptation, recommended by Ben Rawlence
The best books on Climate Adaptation, recommended by Ben Rawlence
The future is uncertain; perhaps the only thing we do know is that, in terms of the environment and the climate, there is no going back. Ben Rawlence, the author and activist, selects five of the best books on climate adaptation—nonfiction works that might guide our path through a world of rising temperatures, melting ice caps, and shifting forests.
Interviews where books by Ben Rawlence were recommended
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1
Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall
by Anna Funder -
2
Nothing to Envy
by Barbara Demick -
3
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
by Katherine Boo -
4
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
by Patrick Radden Keefe -
5
City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp
by Ben Rawlence
The Best Narrative Nonfiction Books, recommended by Samira Shackle
The Best Narrative Nonfiction Books, recommended by Samira Shackle
Narrative nonfiction is a style of writing that takes the facts and dramatises them to create novelistic retellings of real life events. Samira Shackle, author of Karachi Vice, a book that offers vivid insight into the lives of five of the city’s residents, recommends five books that have inspired her—and explains how a writer might begin to carve ‘plot’ and ‘characters’ from reams of research material.
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1
Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948
by Madeleine Albright -
2
City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World's Largest Refugee Camp
by Ben Rawlence -
3
The New Threat from Islamic Militancy
by Jason Burke -
4
Not in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence
by Jonathan Sacks -
5
Little Bee: A Novel
by Chris Cleave
The best books on Refugees, recommended by David Miliband
The best books on Refugees, recommended by David Miliband
One out of every 122 people in the world today is displaced by conflict. David Miliband, president of the IRC, chooses five books to help us think constructively about refugees and the causes of the current crisis.
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1
The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis
by Amitav Ghosh -
2
Reconsidering Reparations
by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò -
3
Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
by Jason Hickel -
4
Ideas to Postpone the End of the World
by Ailton Krenak, translated by Anthony Doyle -
5
A Small Farm Future
by Chris Smaje
The best books on Climate Adaptation, recommended by Ben Rawlence
The best books on Climate Adaptation, recommended by Ben Rawlence
The future is uncertain; perhaps the only thing we do know is that, in terms of the environment and the climate, there is no going back. Ben Rawlence, the author and activist, selects five of the best books on climate adaptation—nonfiction works that might guide our path through a world of rising temperatures, melting ice caps, and shifting forests.
