H IS FOR HOPE

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.