Under a White Sky

By Elizabeth Kolbert,

Book cover of Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future

Book description

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…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Under a White Sky as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I have to start with a confession: I buy many books on the climate and biodiversity crisis—as this is my main focus as a science journalist—but in many cases, I have to quit reading after several chapters. Even if they are of relevance—they often are simply too depressing and a mere accumulation of horrible facts.

This does not apply to the books of Elizabeth Kolbert—which is all the more amazing as her topic is hard stuff: How men alter and destroy nature, which we depend on. But nonetheless: I can´t stop reading it. Kolbert travels far and takes her readers…

In her portrayal of the vortex of technological fixes and counter-fixes that characterise modern humans' relationship with nature, Kolbert betrays a dark sense of humor. In a deadpan manner, she describes the unforeseen consequences of human ingenuity when applied to the natural world. In the end, she leaves us with no other outlook than that worse is still to come -- unless we fundamentally change our ways.

From Menno's list on biology in the Anthropocene.

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