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Life on a Little-Known Planet

Dispatches from a Changing World

Elizabeth Kolbert

$55

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English
JONATHAN CAPE
17 February 2026
Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Kolbert brings together her most urgent reporting and inspiring lessons from the frontline of the climate catastrophe - the defining challenge of our age

Urgent and inspiring lessons from the frontlines of the climate catastrophe - by one of our most important and influential environmental writers.

From Greenland's melting ice sheets to New Zealand's protected mountaintops, we join Kolbert on the road as she travels to the places most dramatically affected by climate change - revealing a world which is both dangerously fragile and remarkably resilient.

We encounter newly discovered species and meet the last surviving members of others, witness the power of rewilding up close and are reminded of the abounding wonders of our natural world. Along the way we also meet countless brilliant individuals who are steering us towards a better future- scientists harnessing AI to commune with whales; activists successfully lobbying for the rights of nature; and ordinary people making extraordinary moves, such as the Sams

islanders leading completely carbon-neutral lives.

The natural world is changing profoundly, and the threats to our planet are only growing more serious. Now is the time to deepen our understanding of this incredible world we are in danger of losing - and to act, while we still can.
By:  
Imprint:   JONATHAN CAPE
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 242mm,  Width: 161mm,  Spine: 29mm
Weight:   525g
ISBN:   9781847929051
ISBN 10:   1847929052
Pages:   320
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  ELT Advanced ,  Primary
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming

Elizabeth Kolbert is a prize-winning journalist, author and visiting fellow at Williams College, Massachusetts. She is the author of The Sixth Extinction, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, Under a White Sky and H is for Hope. She has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1999 and has been awarded the Blake-Dodd Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with her husband and children.

Reviews for Life on a Little-Known Planet: Dispatches from a Changing World

No one rivals Kolbert’s ability to write deeply, empathetically and engagingly about mankind’s relationship with the physical world ... She brings curiosity and persistence to the most important issues facing humankind -- Chris Goodall, author of What We Need to Do Now There is surely no better way to understand our changing world than through the uniquely engaging perspectives provided by Elizabeth Kolbert. Joining her on this round-the-world voyage to some of the most incredible places on Earth is a treat ... Immensely sobering yet also inspiring -- Chris Fitch, author of Wild Cities PRAISE FOR ELIZABETH KOLBERT'S PREVIOUS BOOKS One of the great science journalists, Kolbert has for many years been an essential voice, a reporter from the front lines of the environmental crisis ... Important, necessary, urgent and phenomenally interesting -- Helen Macdonald * New York Times * A meticulously researched and deftly crafted work of journalism that explores some of the biggest challenges of our age * Guardian * A wonderful book -- Barack Obama A terrific look at humanity's impact on the Earth -- Bill Gates [Kolbert is] the premier chronicler of humanity's thoughtless destruction of our habitat * 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 take of human hubris and imagination that could either end in flames or in a new vision of paradise * Rolling Stone * Our finest journalist on climate change * Chicago Tribune * Kolbert’s beat is examining the impact of humans on the environment, and she does it better than basically everyone * Lit Hub * What’s exceptional about Kolbert’s writing is the combination of scientific rigour and wry humour that keeps you turning the pages * National Geographic * Kolbert [has a] sculptor-like skill for making climate change feel tangible, happening before our eyes and beneath our fingers * Wired *


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