Life on a Little-Known Planet

Life on a Little-Known Planet

By Elizabeth Kolbert

Pages

320

Rating

4.13

Year

2025

NatureScienceEnvironmentClimate ChangeNonfiction

Description

From her series The Climate of Man to her book The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert’s work has shaped the way we think about the environment in the twenty-first century. Collected in Life on a Little-Known Planet are her most influential and thought-provoking essays.

An intrepid reporter and a skillful translator of scientific ideas, Kolbert expertly captures the wonders of nature and paints vivid portraits of the researchers and concerned citizens working to preserve them. She takes readers all around the globe, from an island in Denmark that’s succeeded in going carbon neutral, to a community in Florida that voted to give rights to waterways, to the Greenland ice sheet, which is melting in a way that has implications for everyone. We meet a biologist who believes we can talk to whales, an entomologist racing to find rare caterpillars before they disappear, and a climatologist who’s considered the "father of global warming," among other scientists at the forefront of environmental protection.

The threats to our planet that Kolbert has devoted so much of her career to exposing have only grown more serious. Now is the time to deepen our understanding of the world we are in danger of losing.

A landmark collection of Elizabeth Kolbert's most important pieces about climate change and the natural world.

Endorsements

"To be a well-informed citizen of Planet Earth, you need to read Elizabeth Kolbert." — Rolling Stone

Elizabeth Kolbert — Pulitzer Prize winner

The Climate of Man — National Magazine Award