Books by Elizabeth Kolbert
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
by Elizabeth Kolbert
Elizabeth Kolbert won the Pulitzer Prize for her 2014 bestselling book, The Sixth Extinction, and her 2006 book, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, has also been recommended on Five Books, so it's no surprise that Under a White Sky has been anticipated environment/climate change books of the year. It's a look at what scientists are doing to save the planet, which can be very scary at times.
“Kolbert gives glimpses into what climate change actually means. She shows the interconnectedness of climate and ecosystems and society.” Read more...
The best books on Climate Change and Uncertainty
Kate Marvel, Scientist
“Even if we’re not technically in a mass extinction event like the one that did in the dinosaurs, it’s clear we are in the midst of a crash in species diversity and population size that is so devastating as to influence the operation of the Earth system as we know it. We’ve heard this quite a lot over the years, but Kolbert’s book brought it home in a more intimate, and a more damning way. There’s a calmness, and a detachedness in her writing that makes it that much more powerful and affecting” Read more...
The best books on Global Challenges
Rowan Hooper, Journalist
Interviews where books by Elizabeth Kolbert were recommended
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1
The Sixth Extinction
by Elizabeth Kolbert -
2
Frankissstein: A Novel
by Jeanette Winterson -
3
The Ministry for the Future: A Novel
by Kim Stanley Robinson -
4
Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
by Jason Hickel -
5
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
by Paul Hawken (editor)
The best books on Global Challenges, recommended by Rowan Hooper
The best books on Global Challenges, recommended by Rowan Hooper
Which are the most pressing global challenges we face today? In How to Spend a Trillion Dollars Rowan Hooper, a senior editor at the New Scientist, makes the case for the ones he considers the most urgent. Here, he recommends books that help illuminate some of those challenges—including the amazing resource that is ‘Project Drawdown’.
The best books on Extinction and De-Extinction, recommended by Beth Shapiro
Evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro tells us why it’s impossible to clone a mammoth, and why we might want to. She guides us through five inspiring books to get us thinking about extinction and the role genetics could potentially play in maintaining biodiversity.
The best books on Climate Change and Uncertainty, recommended by Kate Marvel
‘When we talk about climate change, we sometimes assume people will be swayed by one more graph, one more coherent argument. But that’s not how people work. More facts don’t change minds, and deeply held views don’t always dictate behaviour.’ How, then, to grapple with a future that ‘might be weirder than we realise’? Kate Marvel, Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University and NASA, recommends an essential reading list for those ready to confront climate change and the uncertainties it brings
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1
Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, nature and climate change
by Elizabeth Kolbert -
2
When The Rivers Run Dry: Journeys into the heart of the world's water crisis
by Fred Pearce -
3
Last Chance to See
by Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine -
4
The End of Nature
by Bill McKibben -
5
Our Dying Planet: An ecologist's view of the crisis we face
by Peter Sale
The best books on The Anthropocene, recommended by Gaia Vince
The best books on The Anthropocene, recommended by Gaia Vince
In 2015 Gaia Vince became the first woman to win the Royal Society’s science book of the year prize for her book, Adventures in the Anthropocene. She spent two years on the road investigating how communities across the world are coping with climate change. Here, she shares the five best books on climate change and the Anthropocene – the geological epoch of man.
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1
Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World
by Katharine Hayhoe -
2
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
by Elizabeth Kolbert -
3
Owls of the Eastern Ice
by Jonathan Slaght -
4
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
by Andreas Malm -
5
Electrify: An Optimist's Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future
by Saul Griffith
The Best Climate Books of 2021, recommended by Sarah Dry
The Best Climate Books of 2021, recommended by Sarah Dry
From the power of the individual to effect change to the large-scale government interventions needed, are we close to a tipping point in our efforts to combat climate change? Just in time to get up to speed for COP26, here’s a selection of the best climate books of 2021, selected for us by historian of climate science, Sarah Dry.
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1
A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future
by David Attenborough & Jonnie Hughes -
2
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
by Merlin Sheldrake -
3
Fathoms: The World in the Whale
by Rebecca Giggs -
4
Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape
by Cal Flyn -
5
Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change
by Dieter Helm -
6
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
by Elizabeth Kolbert
The Best Conservation Books of 2021, recommended by Charlotte Smith
The Best Conservation Books of 2021, recommended by Charlotte Smith
Many of us are increasingly alarmed at the damage human beings have done—and continue to do—to the natural world and would love to be better informed about what we need to do to protect our precious environment. Fortunately, every year, the Wainwright Prize picks out the best writing on global conservation—books that are not only informative but highly readable. Here, British journalist Charlotte Smith, chair of the judging panel, talks us through the books that made the 2021 shortlist and why it’s worth reading all of them.