Inhabit

A moving portrait of the people most affected by the climate crisis, and the ones doing the most to survive, from the international climate reporter at The New York Times

Somini Sengupta knows intimately how catastrophic the climate crisis really is. Her reporting on life on a hotter Earth has brought her to every corner of the globe, and not just for stories on rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, and air pollution. She has also bore witness to the devastating, rippling toll of these changes, including refugee crises, mass protests, skyrocketing prices, and geopolitical conflicts. But she’s also seen the best that humanity has to offer: community, generosity, creativity, and an unyielding will to forge onwards.

Inhabit is an ode to that indominable human spirit and a portrait of its practical manifestations. In her travels around the world to meet the people who are building resilience and survival methods to climate change, Sengupta meets policy wonks, entrepreneurs, scientists, farmers, artists, and others, all innovative, all courageous enough to strive for a livable and thriving future, even if they don’t live to see it.

Structured around three major themes of climate destruction and innovation—what we eat, how we move, and where we dwell—Inhabit brings readers up close to the individuals and communities at the forefront of battling increasing global temperatures, erratic weather patterns, shrinking habitats, and deforestation. In “Eat,” Sengupta takes us to the fields of Ahmedabad, where Indian farmers are adopting more climate resilient grains, and to northeast Brazil, where land previously used for cattle grazing is now the testing ground for regenerative cacao forests. In “Move,” we weave through the streets of Nairobi with electric motorbike drivers, and stroll along stretches of Paris’s nearly 2,500 miles of new bike lanes. And in “Dwell,” Sengupta learns how Coloradan residents are fire-proofing their homes in ever-drier climates, and how Singaporean architects are designing literal urban jungles to combat the heat.

Through it all, Sengupta humanizes the climate crisis in a way that makes it more urgent and personal, but also more hopeful. When big changes eludes us, Sengupta says, and companies continue to prioritize short-term profit and countries continue to prioritize short-term power, we must look to “human-sized” action. With Inhabit, Sengupta delivers a roadmap for repair, a blueprint for hope, and a clarion call for immediate action, large and small.