Elizabeth Kolbert (born July 6, 1961) is an American author and journalist. Since 1999, she has been a staff writer for The New Yorker, where she has covered politics and the environment.[1]
Kolbert has traveled across the globe, visiting scientists and researchers to discuss global warming and climate change. Her work has taken her to Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Australia, and Iceland in the discovery of science and the impacts of human life to the planet.[6]
When visiting Northwestern during an interview, Kolbert was asked what influenced her focus on climate change, Kolbert said this:
I ended up going to Greenland and standing atop 10,000 feet of ice on the Greenland Ice Sheet. It was astonishing and I remember one of the Danish scientists with me saying, 'We’re not picking up a climate change signal here yet, but the physics are impeccable. Climate change is here. There’s no arguing with it.' It was an eye-opening, life-altering experience and led to a three-part series for The New Yorker (“The Climate of Man”) that set me down this path.[7]
Early life
Kolbert spent her early childhood in the Bronx. Her family then relocated to Larchmont, where she remained until 1979.
Kolbert’s grandfather was a Nazi refugee from Germany. Kolbert recounts that through his life, he had been a fan of author Karl May’s writing, specifically on the West. Later, when he had immigrated to the US, Kolbert’s grandfather would take Kolbert’s mother and
Yale University
siblings out West. Kolbert’s mother continued this tradition with her kids.[8] “And as I say, they did make a big impression on me and I thought I, too, should go have adventures out West.”
Kolbert’s father, was an eye doctor and her mother, Marlene Kolbert, was a stay-at-home mom. Although she stayed active within their community, participating on the school board and their local neighborhood politics.[8]
Elizabeth Kolbert started working for The New York Times as a stringer in Germany in 1983. "I’d worked on the high-school paper; I’d worked on the college paper. I’ve always been attracted to journalism. And I wrote a bunch of stuff that actually made it into the travel section of The New York Times. And then I came back and got a really entry-level job."[8] In 1985, she went to work for the Metro desk. Kolbert served as the Times' Albany bureau chief from 1988 to 1991 and wrote the Metro Matters column from 1997 to 1998. She published several profiles in the New York Times magazine on figures such as former Governor Mario M. Cuomo[9] and former U.S. Senator Alfonse D’Amato.[10]
Jakobshavn icefjord in West Greenland, one of the places Kolbert visited on her travels
While Kolbert originally focused on political articles and reporting, she soon refocused her work and dialed in on environmental reporting and research. In an interview with Columbia Climate School Kolbert said, “In 1999, I went to work at The New Yorker and started to think about stories that would have a longer shelf life than the latest political squabble. In 2001, I went to Greenland with the New York Air National Guard. That trip made a big impression on me and sort of set me on the path to becoming a science writer.”[16]
Kolbert’s writing for The New Yorker ranges from aerospace to environmental politics. Her work has been seen in a variety of formats: books, long essays, reviews, and reports. Through Kolbert’s work and research she has written well over 100 pieces for The New Yorker—many she used in her eventual publications; and her focus on contributions to the study and research for Climate Change is clear.
The Prophet of Love: And Other Tales of Power and Deceit was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2004. Prior to Kolbert’s deep focus on environmental reporting and politics, she published The Prophet of Love: And Other Tales of Power and Deceit. It provides a look into Kolbert’s more political journalism writing, as well as a glimpse into the early 2000’s and the political scene. The book includes a collection of articles about New York politics and public figures such as Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, and Rev. Al Sharpton. All but one of the articles were originally published in The New Yorker.
Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2006. This book was one of Kolbert’s first major publications focusing on climate change and the environment. Kolbert’s research she collected from interviews, ground work, and her science knowledge is delivered in a comprehensible way to most science and science-not readers. Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change was noted as one of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of the year in 2006.[25] In the book, Kolbert travels around the world to document how climate change is significantly affecting the environment and make these scientific developments accessible to a wide audience. In her writing Kolbert uses contrast to emphasize the severity of our ecological crisis and discusses ancient civilizations as a parallel to our modern world.[13]
The now extinct Great Auk
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History was published in 2014 and was Kolbert’s breakthrough in the writing and journalism world.
It was also adapted into a young readers version. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History argues that the Earth is in the midst of a modern, man-made, sixth extinction. In the book, Kolbert chronicles previous mass extinction events and compares them to the accelerated, widespread extinctions during our present time. She also describes specific species extinguished by humans, as well as the ecologies surrounding prehistoric and near-present extinction events. In an interview with the National Center for Science Education about her book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Kolbert specifies some of the topics discussed, “The book deals with climate change and it deals with ocean acidification and it deals with invasive species and it deals with habitat destruction.”[26] The target audience is the general reader, and scientific descriptions are rendered in understandable prose. The New York Times named it one of the ten best books of the year, the Guardian named it one of "100 best nonfiction books of all time,"[27] and it won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
Devil's Hole Pupfish
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future published in 2021 follows Kolbert through several projects she participates and reports on throughout her research. She discusses the implications of invasive species like the Asian Carp and the Cane Toad as well as touches on the deterioration of species like the Devil’s Hole Pupfish. Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future rose to become a bestseller and provides a fresh look into the scientific decisions and advancements the world is trying to take. “Under a White Sky is not exactly a message book. I would say it is more a ‘what’s the message?’ book. It looks at human interventions in nature, which often result in problems that demand new interventions.”[16]Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future focuses on the various kinds of environmental crises created by the Anthropocene and different degrees of technological solutions available to humanity to address them. Nevertheless, the book is also critical of full-blown techno-solutionism. The title refers to the most extreme climate change mitigation strategy, solar geoengineering, designed to reflect sunlight from the earth. Throughout the book she explores how a technological fix for one problem can lead to other problems, while acknowledging the important role these technologies might play. During an interview with Red Canary Magazine, discussing Under a White Sky, Kolbert says this when asked how people should think about nature, “I’m really interested in the book in this extraordinary moment that we live in, where it is increasingly difficult to draw the line between humanity and nature, because we’re such a powerful force on planet Earth.”[28]
H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z was published in 2024. H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z is one of Kolbert’s newer publications. Featuring twenty-six essays that frame the story as Kolbert discusses climate change, extinction, and our rocky future in writing suitable for the general reader. During her writing process for H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z, Kolbert participated in some field work that would hopefully help speculate the future of Earth. In a monitored experiment, Kolbert rides an exercise bike in 106 degree weather, a reality that Kolbert wants the rest of the world to understand.[29] A good portion of the writing featured in H is for Hope can be traced back to her New Yorker essays; and the book is illustrated allowing the contents to reach a wider age range and audience. Illustrated by artist Wesley Allsbrook, the book documents the history of climate change along with our uncertain future in twenty-six essays for each letter of the alphabet.
In an interview with Grist, led by Kate Yoder, when asked about her decision on structure in her book H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z, Kolbert stated:
Well, this book is my attempt to do that. I can’t give you the poster child for climate change that’s going to change everyone’s perceptions of it, or the story that’s going to finally cut through all the BS. Many approaches have been taken, some are more successful than others, but we still seem stuck. And I was really trying in this book to get around that problem, or fool around with that problem, that the traditional narratives don’t seem to work.[29]
Kolbert’s most recent book Life on a Little-Known Planet: Dispatches from a Changing World, published in 2025, brings a lot of Kolbert’s works together. It highlights some of her most impactful writing and articles she’s published throughout the years. Life on a Little-Known Planet was recognized as “one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, Time, Esquire, Smithsonian Magazine, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Library Journal. The book is a collection of Kolbert's stories on topics ranging from the rights of nature to the "insect apocalypse."
Personal life
Kolbert resides in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with her husband, John Kleiner, and three sons (Ned, Matthew, and Aaron).[30] Kolbert and her husband Kleiner married February 9, 1991 in Albany, New York. Her husband Kleiner graduated from Amherst College with a master’s degree from Cornell in Physics. He works as a English professor. Kolbert and her family keep their personal lives private. Not sharing a lot on social media, in interviews, or on her own website.
Recognition
2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Award[31]
2006 National Magazine Award for Public Interest[32]
Kolbert, Elizabeth & Francis Spufford, eds. (2007). The ends of the Earth: an anthology of the finest writing on the Arctic and the Antarctic. 1st U.S. ed. New York: Bloomsbury.
Kolbert, Elizabeth, ed. (2009). The best American science and nature writing 2009. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
"Focus 580; The Climate of Man," 2005-05-27, WILL Illinois Public Media, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed June 7, 2021.
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