Elizabeth Kolbert
The New Yorker
Williamstown, MA, United States
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Past articles by Elizabeth:
The Burning of Maui
The governor called the fires Hawaii’s “largest natural disaster” ever. They would more accurately be labelled an “unnatural disaster,” Elizabeth Kolbert writes. → Read More
It’s Earth Day—and the News Isn’t Good
New reports show that ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting faster than anticipated, and other disasters loom. → Read More
The U.N. Issues a Final Warning on the Climate—and a Plan
The I.P.C.C. report contains no new data; nevertheless, it manages to alarm in new ways. → Read More
Why Did the Biden Administration Approve the Willow Project?
Elizabeth Kolbert on Joe Biden’s decision to approve the Willow project, a ConocoPhillips oil-drilling venture in the Arctic. → Read More
Why S.U.V.s Are Still a Huge Environmental Problem
Elizabeth Kolbert on the growth of S.U.V. sales, the shift toward heavier vehicles, and how these factors contribute to an increase in global carbon emissions. → Read More
Three Climate Reports: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Elizabeth Kolbert on various climate reports from the Biden Administration, the Rhodium Group, and more, and the urgency of decarbonizing the transportation sector. → Read More
How Did Fighting Climate Change Become a Partisan Issue?
Twenty years ago, Senator John McCain tried to spearhead an effort. What has happened to Republicans since then? → Read More
The Strange and Secret Ways That Animals Perceive the World
Nonhuman creatures have senses that we’re just beginning to fathom. What would they tell us if we could only understand them? → Read More
A Better Idea Than Releasing Oil from the Strategic Reserve
Elizabeth Kolbert writes about shifting fuel-economy standards for cars in America and how in the past such standards have actually incentivized carmakers to produce cars with poor fuel efficiency. → Read More
The Latest U.N. Climate Report Paints Another Grim Picture
The Secretary-General cites a “criminal” abdication of leadership. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case that may hamper emissions regulations. → Read More
Should Democratic Primary Voters Help Save the G.O.P. from Itself?
Elizabeth Kolbert writes about how voters not affiliated with the Republican Party could help the G.O.P. end up with more moderate candidates by voting in the G.O.P.’s primaries—in an act of crossover voting—in states that allow voters to cast ballots in the primaries of any party. → Read More
The Supreme Court Case That Could Upend Efforts to Protect the Environment
Elizabeth Kolbert writes about the Supreme Court case West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, a case that has received relatively little attention beyond legal circles, and how it may profoundly affect any efforts to curtail greenhouse-gas emissions. → Read More
Honoring the Legacy of E. O. Wilson and Tom Lovejoy
Elizabeth Kolbert writes about the nearly concurrent deaths of two of America’s leading naturalists, E. O. Wilson and Tom Lovejoy, and notes that the best way to appreciate their work would be to try to preserve the extraordinary diversity of life on earth. → Read More
Mining the Bottom of the Sea
The future of the largest, still mostly untouched ecosystem in the world is at risk. → Read More
Running Out of Time at the U.N. Climate Conference
To really appreciate America’s fecklessness, you have to go back to the meeting that preceded all the bad COPs—the so-called Earth Summit, in 1992. → Read More
Where Have All the Insects Gone?
Scientists who once documented new species of insects are now charting their perilous decline—and warning about what it will mean for the rest of us. → Read More
After Hurricane Ida, How Much Longer Can New Orleans’s New Levees Hold?
The city may be better protected today than it was before Katrina, but with every day that passes the protection is waning. → Read More
The U.N.’s Terrifying Climate Report
Scientists predict hotter heat waves and worse flooding in the decades ahead, but the catastrophe is evident everywhere this summer. → Read More
The Deep Sea Is Filled with Treasure, but It Comes at a Price
We’ve barely explored the darkest realm of the ocean. With rare-metal mining on the rise, we’re already destroying it. → Read More
Why Bitcoin Is Bad for the Environment
Elizabeth Kolbert writes about the excessive greenhouse-gas emissions produced by cryptocurrency-mining operations, and reports on old power plants in New York State that are being converted to provide electricity to mining farms in the region. → Read More