Elemental: The New Geography of Climate Change and How We Survive It
The first comprehensive account of the geopolitics of climate change
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Elemental: The New Geography of Climate Change and How We Survive It
Narrated by:
Arthur Snell
Buy Now for £17.94
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Narrated by:
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Arthur Snell
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By:
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Arthur Snell
Summary
'A powerful, passionate and utterly convincing book.' - LORD PETER RICKETTS
From the water-stressed mountains of the Arabian Peninsula to the wildfires raging through America's most populated regions, the climate crisis is already affecting the lives of millions. As natural disasters and increased scarcity shake the established world order to its core, Elemental reveals an alternative future is still possible.
Within this century, the new era of extreme weather will threaten India's ability to grow rice, prevent southern Europe's farms from providing the continent with fresh produce, and make building in Saudi Arabia near impossible. While such unprecedented challenges inevitably drive conflict, they will also encourage innovation, upending economies and global power structures to create opportunities for new players and pioneering ways of living.
In this groundbreaking study, Arthur Snell visits rapidly changing societies to show how we can live on a warming planet. He presents a vision in which Africa powers Europe with solar energy, where autocratic oil states are no more, and new shipping routes across the melting Arctic bring Asia, Europe and North America closer than ever before. In Russia, huge areas of highly fertile land will be exposed by the melting ice for whoever can seize it, while China's stranglehold on rare minerals looks set to make it the world's leading superpower.
Through four sections - Earth, Air, Fire and Water - Elemental blends reportage with analysis and interviews with key experts, policymakers and politicians, to reveal the turbulent future we face - and the choices we need to make to avert disaster.©2026 Arthur Snell
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Critic reviews
An extraordinary mastery of geopolitics, combining years on the ground in the most challenging places, a raw instinct for politics and a deep ethical concern for the world in the face of climate catastrophe. A masterpiece. (Rory Stewart)
A powerful, passionate and utterly convincing book, which brings a diplomat's experience to bear on why climate change is driving conflict and disorder in our world and what can still be done to reverse these alarming trends. (Lord Peter Ricketts, former UK National Security Adviser, ex-head of the diplomatic service and UK ambassador to France)
A terrific, highly readable, clear-eyed assessment of the ways a hotter climate will dramatically upend the comforting certainties of our modern world. Essential analysis for policymakers and excellent preparation for all of us who have a stake in the new reality we're making. (Gaia Vince, author of Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval)
Which nations will rise, and which will fall, in our climate change-affected future remains uncertain, but Elemental is essential reading for anyone interested in these questions
Connects environmental crisis to geopolitics with urgent clarity.
Enlightening but often shocking. . . Although much of what he chronicles in Elemental is alarming, Snell is no doom-mongering pessimist. He offers a vision of the future in which change can be good news
I loved [it] . . . incredibly fascinating.
A tour de force.
He crosses the globe to explain the dynamics of climate change, its effects on the environment, on people and politics. The breadth of coverage is impressive, as is the analysis. But what stands out as most original and authoritative is the linkage to how nations are responding. As an ex-diplomat, Snell walks the corridors of power with ease and cogently links global warming to the breakdown of globalisation. He chronicles the manoeuvring of the strong as they seize the means to protect themselves in a world where the sources of prosperity and of life itself become more scarce. He also critiques regions of the world, notably the Middle East, where climate change is just another factor pointing to a bleak future.
But this is not all dystopian menace. He also highlights the technological changes being stimulated as the world seeks solutions, and paints some remarkable pictures of how climate change might lead to the emergence of new powers with the opportunity to produce game-changing quantities of renewable energy.
All in all, though, there is a backdrop of environmental changes already moving from "if" past "when" and on to "how much".
Intelligent, powerful, measured but frightening
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The arctic
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Wide look at how climate change affects humanity
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