Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

H Is for Hope

Climate Change from A to Z

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
In twenty-six essays—one for each letter of the alphabet—the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction takes us on a hauntingly illustrated journey through the history of climate change and the uncertainties of our future.
Climate change resists narrative—and yet some account of what’s happening is needed. Millions of lives are at stake, and upward of a million species. And there are decisions to be made, even though it’s unclear who, exactly, will make them.
In H Is for Hope, Elizabeth Kolbert investigates the landscape of climate change—from “A”, for Svante Arrhenius, who created the world’s first climate model in 1894, to “Z”, for the Colorado River Basin, ground zero for climate change in the United States. Along the way she looks at Greta Thunburg’s “blah blah blah” speech (“B”), learns to fly an all-electric plane (“E”), experiments with the effects of extreme temperatures on the human body (“T”), and struggles with the deep uncertainty of the future of climate change (“U”).
Adapted from essays originally published in The New Yorker and beautifully illustrated by Wesley Allsbrook, H Is for Hope is simultaneously inspiring, alarming, and darkly humorous—a unique examination of our changing world.
  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      February 1, 2024
      A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist explores the climate crisis in 26 short essays. In this book, Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction and Field Notes from a Catastrophe, adapts articles she wrote for the New Yorker and organizes them alphabetically to offer a brief historical account of climate change. At the beginning, the author tells the story of Svante Arrhenius, the 19th-century Nobel Prize-winning physicist who first deduced that humans were altering the Earth's climate through carbon-emitting activities. Kolbert then moves to the present day with the letter B, which she uses to reference climate activist Greta Thunberg's infamous 2021 "blah, blah, blah" speech, which critiqued empty political calls to preserve the planet. The pieces that follow explore many elements of the current global situation and its effects. Scientists all over the world are making strides in the development of green technologies that will "electrify everything" using renewable resources like the wind. Major contributors such as the U.S. have passed legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, which has authorized more than $350 billion to go to climate initiatives--but not everyone is willing to act. Those who defend corporate interests or are unwilling to end fossil fuel dependence (i.e., Republicans) stand in the way of much-needed progress. In the meantime, increasing damage to the environment is creating a new class of climate refugees who may increasingly be met with xenophobia from their more fortunately situated counterparts. Illustrated throughout with vivid pen-and-ink-style drawings by graphic artist Allsbrook, the book both informs and disturbs us about the climate uncertainties facing humankind, but never without offering glimmers of hope. Its accessibility, readability, and thoughtfulness will undoubtedly appeal to a wide audience. Other entries include "Green Concrete," "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs," and "Quagmire." An intelligently provocative and well-presented look at the world's most pressing issue.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      March 1, 2024
      Kolbert, New Yorker staff writer and author of such commanding environmental works as The Sixth Extinction (2014) and Under the White Sky (2021), joins forces with illustrator extraordinaire Allsbrook to brilliantly and unnervingly subvert the usually upbeat alphabet-book format. Twenty-six pithy and piercing essays draw on history, science, statistics, fieldwork, politics, ethics, and social observations to present the jarring facts about the climate crisis. Kolbert's tone is exemplified in this statement in "A," which is for Nobel laureate Svante Arrhenius, who, at the close of the nineteenth century, created the first climate model: "Here we all are, watching things fall apart. And yet deep down, we don't believe it." "B" is from Greta Thunberg's lament over "thirty years of blah, blah, blah" instead of actual climate action. Kolbert charts the obstacles to building a new clean energy grid and "climate change's many compounding injustices," stating that the "ethical challenge is as big, or perhaps even bigger, than the technical challenge." She continues, "But let's try to stay positive." Visually stunning and bracingly forthright, this is an invaluable climate primer.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

Loading