Structure

The Uninhabitable Earth is structured in four sections, the middle two of roughly equal length, with the opening and concluding sections being much shorter. The first section, "Cascades," is an introduction whose grave rhetoric is intended to shock readers and shake loose any lingering indifference to or complacency about climate change. The second section, "Elements of Chaos," is composed of twelve chapters, each of which isolates and examines in detail the environmental, biological, and social threats global warming poses to human populations, from famine to wildfires to economic collapse. The third section, "The Climate Kaleidoscope," is composed of six chapters, each of which approaches climate change through one of the many human vantage points Wallace-Wells identifies as composing the kaleidoscope -- narratives, technology, ethics. In the brief concluding section, "The Anthropic Principle," Wallace-Wells makes his case for using a human sense of exceptionalism as an empowering force...