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  • Published: 17 February 2026
  • ISBN: 9781847929051
  • Imprint: Bodley Head
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $55.00

Life on a Little-Known Planet

Dispatches from a Changing World

  • Elizabeth Kolbert



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 Samsø 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.

  • Published: 17 February 2026
  • ISBN: 9781847929051
  • Imprint: Bodley Head
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $55.00

Praise for Life on a Little-Known Planet

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 terrific look at humanity's impact on the Earth

Bill Gates

A wonderful book

Barack Obama

A meticulously researched and deftly crafted work of journalism that explores some of the biggest challenges of our age

Guardian

[Kolbert is] the premier chronicler of humanity's thoughtless destruction of our habitat

Washington Post

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

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

Elizabeth Kolbert's writing illuminates the world's complexities in vivid colour. No one contextualises the natural world better than she does, and no one is able to describe its many facets better than her

Harriet Rix, author of The Genius of Trees

Kolbert is a masterful, thought-provoking reporter

Boston Globe

Kolbert's reporting is, as always, skilful and subtle

Guardian
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