Reviews
"To be a well-informed citizen of Planet Earth, you need to read Elizabeth Kolbert. . . . It's a tribute to Kolbert's skills as a storyteller that she transforms the quest to deal with the climate crisis into a darkly comic tale of human hubris and imagination that could either end in flames or in a new vision of Paradise." --Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone "A superb and honest reflection of our extraordinary time." -- Nature "Important, necessary, urgent and phenomenally interesting . . . [Kolbert] has a marvelous eye for the quirky . . . and she wields figurative language in truly glorious ways." --Helen Macdonald, The New York Times Book Review "Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Kolbert's beat is examining the impact of humans on the environment and she does it better than basically everyone." --Lit Hub "What makes Under A White Sky so valuable and such a compelling read is Kolbert tells by showing. Without beating the reader over the head, she makes it clear how far we already are from a world of undisturbed, perfectly balanced nature--and how far we must still go to find a new balance for the planet's future that still has us humans in it." -- NPR "From the Mojave to lava fields in Iceland, Kolbert takes readers on a globe-spanning journey to explore these projects while weighing their pros, cons, and ethical implications." --Nation "An eye-opening--and at times terrifying--examination of just how far scientists have already gone in their attempts to re-engineer the planet." --Gizmodo "If you like your apocalit with a side of humor, she will have you laughing while Rome burns." -- MIT Technology Review "Brilliantly executed and urgently necessary." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A master elucidator, Kolbert is gratifyingly direct as she assesses our predicament between a rock and a hard place, creating a clarion and invaluable 'book about people trying to solve problems created by people trying to solve problems.'" -- Booklist (starred review) "Every paragraph of Kolbert's books has a mountain of reading and reporting behind it . . . Urgent, absolutely necessary reading as a portrait of our devastated planet." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "A tale not of magic-bullet remedies where maybe this time things will be different when we intervene in nature, but rather of deploying a panoply of strategies big and small in hopes that there is still time to make a difference and atone for our past. A sobering and realistic look at humankind's perhaps misplaced faith that technology can work with nature to produce a more livable planet." -- Library Journal (starred review), Praise for Under a White Sky "Brilliantly executed and urgently necessary."-- Publishers Weekly, starred review Praise for The Sixth Extinction "A wonderful book." President Barack Obama "[Kolbert] can write with elegiac poetry about the vanishing creatures of this planet, but the real power of her book resides in the hard science and historical context she delivers here, documenting the mounting losses that human beings are leaving in their wake." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "Beautifully written . . . an excellent book." --Jon Stewart, The Daily Show "Unlike a lot of people who write about the environment, Kolbert doesn't resort to hype. She just lays out the facts and wraps them in memorable anecdotes. It's a sobering but engaging and informative read." --Bill Gates "Riveting . . . It is not possible to overstate the importance of this book." -- San Francisco Chronicle "Your view of the world will be fundamentally changed. . . . Kolbert is an astute observer, excellent explainer and superb synthesizer, and even manages to find humor in her subject matter." -- The Seattle Times "Elizabeth Kolbert has established herself as one of our very best science writers. She has developed a distinctive and eloquent voice of conscience on issues arising from the extraordinary assault on the ecosphere. . . . The result is a clear and comprehensive history of earth's previous mass extinctions--and the species we've lost--and an engaging description of the extraordinarily complex nature of life." --Al Gore, The New York Times Book Review, "To be a well-informed citizen of Planet Earth, you need to read Elizabeth Kolbert. . . . It's a tribute to Kolbert's skills as a storyteller that she transforms the quest to deal with the climate crisis into a darkly comic tale of human hubris and imagination that could either end in flames or in a new vision of Paradise." --Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone "What makes Under A White Sky so valuable and such a compelling read is Kolbert tells by showing. Without beating the reader over the head, she makes it clear how far we already are from a world of undisturbed, perfectly balanced nature--and how far we must still go to find a new balance for the planet's future that still has us humans in it." -- NPR "From the Mojave to lava fields in Iceland, Kolbert takes readers on a globe-spanning journey to explore these projects while weighing their pros, cons, and ethical implications." --Nation "An eye-opening--and at times terrifying--examination of just how far scientists have already gone in their attempts to re-engineer the planet." --Gizmodo "If you like your apocalit with a side of humor, she will have you laughing while Rome burns." -- MIT Technology Review "Brilliantly executed and urgently necessary."-- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A master elucidator, Kolbert is gratifyingly direct as she assesses our predicament between a rock and a hard place, creating a clarion and invaluable 'book about people trying to solve problems created by people trying to solve problems.'" -- Booklist (starred review) "Every paragraph of Kolbert's books has a mountain of reading and reporting behind it . . . Urgent, absolutely necessary reading as a portrait of our devastated planet." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "A tale not of magic-bullet remedies where maybe this time things will be different when we intervene in nature, but rather of deploying a panoply of strategies big and small in hopes that there is still time to make a difference and atone for our past. A sobering and realistic look at humankind's perhaps misplaced faith that technology can work with nature to produce a more livable planet." -- Library Journal (starred review), "Riveting . . . Under a White Sky expertly mixes travelogue, science reporting and explanatory journalism." -- The Washington Post "To be a well-informed citizen of Planet Earth, you need to read Elizabeth Kolbert. . . . It's a tribute to Kolbert's skills as a storyteller that she transforms the quest to deal with the climate crisis into a darkly comic tale of human hubris and imagination that could either end in flames or in a new vision of Paradise." --Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone "A superb and honest reflection of our extraordinary time." -- Nature "[ Under a White Sky ] exhibits Kolbert's sculptor-like skill for making climate change feel tangible, happening before our eyes and beneath our fingers." -- Wired "What makes Under A White Sky so valuable and such a compelling read is Kolbert tells by showing. Without beating the reader over the head, she makes it clear how far we already are from a world of undisturbed, perfectly balanced nature--and how far we must still go to find a new balance for the planet's future that still has us humans in it." -- NPR "From the Mojave to lava fields in Iceland, Kolbert takes readers on a globe-spanning journey to explore these projects while weighing their pros, cons, and ethical implications." --The Nation "Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Kolbert's beat is examining the impact of humans on the environment and she does it better than basically everyone." --Lit Hub "An eye-opening--and at times terrifying--examination of just how far scientists have already gone in their attempts to re-engineer the planet." -- Gizmodo "If you like your apocalit with a side of humor, she will have you laughing while Rome burns." -- MIT Technology Review "Brilliantly executed and urgently necessary." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A master elucidator, Kolbert is gratifyingly direct as she assesses our predicament between a rock and a hard place, creating a clarion and invaluable 'book about people trying to solve problems created by people trying to solve problems.'" -- Booklist (starred review) "Every paragraph of Kolbert's books has a mountain of reading and reporting behind it . . . Urgent, absolutely necessary reading as a portrait of our devastated planet." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "A tale not of magic-bullet remedies where maybe this time things will be different when we intervene in nature, but rather of deploying a panoply of strategies big and small in hopes that there is still time to make a difference and atone for our past. A sobering and realistic look at humankind's perhaps misplaced faith that technology can work with nature to produce a more livable planet." -- Library Journal (starred review), Praise for The Sixth Extinction "A wonderful book." President Barack Obama "[Kolbert] can write with elegiac poetry about the vanishing creatures of this planet, but the real power of her book resides in the hard science and historical context she delivers here, documenting the mounting losses that human beings are leaving in their wake." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "Beautifully written . . . an excellent book." --Jon Stewart, The Daily Show "Unlike a lot of people who write about the environment, Kolbert doesn't resort to hype. She just lays out the facts and wraps them in memorable anecdotes. It's a sobering but engaging and informative read." --Bill Gates "Riveting . . . It is not possible to overstate the importance of this book." -- San Francisco Chronicle "Your view of the world will be fundamentally changed. . . . Kolbert is an astute observer, excellent explainer and superb synthesizer, and even manages to find humor in her subject matter." -- The Seattle Times "Elizabeth Kolbert has established herself as one of our very best science writers. She has developed a distinctive and eloquent voice of conscience on issues arising from the extraordinary assault on the ecosphere. . . . The result is a clear and comprehensive history of earth's previous mass extinctions--and the species we've lost--and an engaging description of the extraordinarily complex nature of life." --Al Gore, The New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction returns to humanity's transformative impact on the environment, now asking: After doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it? RECOMMENDED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA AND BILL GATES - SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING - ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post - ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, Esquire, Smithsonian Magazine, Vulture, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal - "Beautifully and insistently, Kolbert shows us that it is time to think radically about the ways we manage the environment."--Helen Macdonald, The New York Times That man should have dominion "over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it's said we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. In Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. Along the way, she meets biologists who are trying to preserve the world's rarest fish, which lives in a single tiny pool in the middle of the Mojave; engineers who are turning carbon emissions to stone in Iceland; Australian researchers who are trying to develop a "super coral" that can survive on a hotter globe; and physicists who are contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere to cool the earth. One way to look at human civilization, says Kolbert, is as a ten-thousand-year exercise in defying nature. In The Sixth Extinction, she explored the ways in which our capacity for destruction has reshaped the natural world. Now she examines how the very sorts of interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the only hope for its salvation. By turns inspiring, terrifying, and darkly comic, Under a White Sky is an utterly original examination of the challenges we face., NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction returns to humanity's transformative impact on the environment, now asking: After doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it? RECOMMENDED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA AND BILL GATES * SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING * ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post * ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, Esquire, Smithsonian Magazine, Vulture, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal * "Beautifully and insistently, Kolbert shows us that it is time to think radically about the ways we manage the environment."--Helen Macdonald, The New York Times That man should have dominion "over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it's said we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. In Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. Along the way, she meets biologists who are trying to preserve the world's rarest fish, which lives in a single tiny pool in the middle of the Mojave; engineers who are turning carbon emissions to stone in Iceland; Australian researchers who are trying to develop a "super coral" that can survive on a hotter globe; and physicists who are contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere to cool the earth. One way to look at human civilization, says Kolbert, is as a ten-thousand-year exercise in defying nature. In The Sixth Extinction, she explored the ways in which our capacity for destruction has reshaped the natural world. Now she examines how the very sorts of interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the only hope for its salvation. By turns inspiring, terrifying, and darkly comic, Under a White Sky is an utterly original examination of the challenges we face.
