The Uninhabitable Earth

Life After Warming

by David Wallace-Wells

310 pages

English language

Published Jan. 18, 2019 by Tim Duggan Books.

(4 reviews)

It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible--food shortages, refugee emergencies, climate wars and economic devastation.

An "epoch-defining book" (The Guardian) and "this generation's Silent Spring" (The Washington Post), The Uninhabitable Earth is both a travelogue of the near future and a meditation on how that future will look to those living through it--the ways that warming promises to transform global politics, the meaning of technology and nature in the modern world, the sustainability of capitalism and the trajectory of human progress.

The Uninhabitable Earth is also an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation--today's.

Praise for The Uninhabitable Earth: …

Praise for The Uninhabitable Earth:

"The Uninhabitable Earth is the most terrifying book I have ever read. Its subject is climate change, and its method is scientific, but its mode is Old Testament. The book is a meticulously documented, white-knuckled tour through the cascading catastrophes that will soon engulf our warming planet."--Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times

"Riveting. . . . Some readers will find Mr. Wallace-Wells's outline of possible futures alarmist. He is indeed alarmed. You should be, too."--The Economist

"Potent and evocative. . . . Wallace-Wells has resolved to offer something other than the standard narrative of climate change. . . . He avoids the 'eerily banal language of climatology' in favor of lush, rolling prose."--Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

"The book has potential to be this generation's Silent Spring."--The Washington Post

"The Uninhabitable Earth, which has become a best seller, taps into the underlying emotion of the day: fear. . . . I encourage people to read this book."--Alan Weisman, The New York Review of Books

No.1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "The Uninhabitable Earth hits you like a comet, with an overflow of insanely lyrical prose about our pending Armageddon."--Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon

With a new afterword

Source: Publisher

9 editions

Sean Bala reviewed The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells

Review of 'The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

"The Uninhabitable Earth" by David Wallace-Wells is a necessary book. It comprehensively lays out the possible consequences for humans and the earth as a result of climate change. It is immensely sobering stuff. It really hits you hard. I hate to fault such an important book but I found that the parts of the book did not feel like they cohered together that well. The book is essentially divided into three parts - an introductory essay about his growing fears about climate change and fears about the cascading effects of changes that will compound each other. The second looks at twelve different areas that will most likely be affected by climate change. The final part looks at the possible sources of our lack of engagement with the topic or our lack of action. I found the later part the most interested while the introductory essay was something I really had …

Utsob Roy reviewed The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells

Review of 'The Uninhabitable Earth' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Clear, concise, to-the-point, a must read.

coucou

rated it

Feb. 5, 2023

melangell

rated it

March 16, 2020