The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming

The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming is a 2019 non-fiction book by the American journalist David Wallace-Wells. Subtitled Life After Warming, the book explores the projected meteorological, sociological, and psychological consequences of climate change over the course of the 21st century. A New York Times bestseller, The Uninhabitable Earth appeared on numerous best books of the year lists, including those of The Economist, Time, and NPR. It is adapted from Wallace-Wells’s 2017 New York magazine article of the same name. This study guide refers to the 2020 edition published by Tim Duggan Books.

In the book’s first of four parts, Wallace-Wells cites a vast body of research to emphasize the urgency of the threat posed by climate change. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, the planet has warmed by about one degree Celsius. While that may not sound like a dramatic spike, some scientists believe that it is the fastest rate at which the planet has warmed in the past 66 million years. That this warming is the result of human activity—specifically, greenhouse gases caused by the burning of fossil fuels—is the conclusion of an overwhelming majority of climate scientists.

Current climate projections suggest that by 2100, post-Industrial warming could reach anywhere between two and five degrees Celsius, or potentially up to eight. The specific consequences of these projections are sorted into the next 12 chapters, which comprise Part 2 of the book. First, Wallace-Wells explores the harm caused by direct heat. For example, deadly heat waves have increased fiftyfold since 1980. In the following chapter, the author argues that climate change stands to erase much of the progress the global community has made in addressing world hunger over the past few decades, as the area suitable for growing grain continues to shrink.

He moves on to the topic of sea-level rise, which, despite being one of the most familiar and intuitive consequences of global warming, is also one of the least understood. The cascading effects of polar ice sheet melt could lead to a wide range of potential outcomes, all of them potentially devastating for cities like Miami Beach and Jakarta. As Wallace-Wells goes on to discuss how climate change causes bigger and more terrifying wildfires and hurricanes, he is hesitant to characterize these phenomena as natural disasters. While these disasters do form naturally, they are made far more intense by the consequences of manmade global warming.

Water shortages are another potentially grievous consequence of climate change. While there is technically plenty of freshwater to feed the world’s 8 billion people and billions more, waste and poor infrastructure have caused 2.1 billion people to lack access to safe drinking water, a number that only stands to increase as resources dry up in many areas. Meanwhile, increased carbon emissions have caused a phenomenon known as ocean acidification, killing coral reefs and transforming aquatic ecosystems. On the topic of air pollution, the author points out that 10,000 people die a day of complications related to dirty air, which is a consequence of the same fossil fuel emissions warming the planet. The author also highlights the danger of disease-causing microbes that may be released when Arctic permafrost melts.

In Part 3, Wallace-Wells addresses some of the societal and cultural consequences of climate change. He points to the role a devastating drought played in the lead-up to the Syrian Civil War, adding that environmental pressures are frequent factors in the radicalization of insurgents. Climate change will even change how humans tell stories. In film and television, global warming will no longer be a subject, he argues; it will be a setting—a persistent metanarrative in everything from romantic comedies to war movies. Wallace-Wells also ponders how capitalism and attitudes toward it will adapt to climate change. On one hand, resource scarcity may increase people’s faith in markets. On the other, the inequalities that will be laid bare and intensified as the planet warms could lead to a political revolution. Further, such a revolution could lead to the rise of a global authoritarian figure, as citizens willingly give up certain freedoms in exchange for a coordinated effort to address climate change at an international level.

Finally, in Part 4, the author explores what’s known as the “anthropic principle” and the notion that humanity’s inherent narcissism may be redirected as a form of empowerment in the fight against climate change.