Nowhere Left to Go: How Climate Change Is Driving Species to the Ends of the Earth

by Benjamin von Brackel, Ayça Türkoglu (Translator)

Overview

Harrowing journeys of animals and plants—fleeing skyrocketing temperatures and mega-droughts—reported from the frontlines of the greatest migration of species since the Ice Age

As humans accelerate global warming while laying waste to the environment, animals and plants must flee to the margins: on scattered nature reserves, between major highways, or among urban sprawl. And when even these places become too hot and inhospitable, wildlife is left with only one path to survival: an often-formidable journey toward the poles as they race to find a new home in a warming world. Tropical zones lose their inhabitants, beavers settle in Alaska, and gigantic shoals of fish disappear—just to reappear along foreign coastlines.

Award-winning environmental journalist Benjamin von Brackel traces these awe-inspiring journeys and celebrates the remarkable resilience of species around the world. But the lengths these plants and animals must go to avoid extinction are as alarming as they are inspirational: Sea animals—like fish—move on average 45 miles a decade to cooler regions, while land animals—like beavers and butterflies—move 11 miles. As even the poles of the Earth heat up, we’re left with a stark and irreversible choice: Halt the climate emergency now, or face a massive die-off of species, who are increasingly left with nowhere else to go.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781615198610
Publisher:	The Experiment, LLC
Publication date:	07/05/2022
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	277,816
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Benjamin von Brackel is a renowned environmental journalist whose reporting on climate change has appeared in Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit, and Natur. He is the cofounder of Klimareporter°, an Environmental Media Prize-winning online magazine dedicated to the climate emergency, and coauthor of Angry Weather: Heat Waves, Floods, Storms, and the New Science of Climate Change. He is based in Berlin, Germany.

Table of Contents

Prologue: It Begins 1

I The Arctic: Predators without Prey

1 Hunters 17

2 Hunted 25

3 A Change of Regime in the Ocean 33

4 Where Are the Whales? 43

II New Residents in the Temperate Zone

5 The Bread-and-Butter Species Swim Away 51

6 It's Heating Up 67

7 The Forests Are on the Move 75

8 The Insects Advance 91

9 The Bumblebee Paradox 113

10 Cultural Assets under Threat: Japanese Kelp 131

III Exodus in the Tropics

11 A Dirty Little Secret 145

12 The Corals Move Out 149

13 An Abrupt Change of Regime 159

14 The Mountain Forest Begins to Climb 161

15 The Escalator to Extinction 167

16 From Rain Forest to Savanna 177

IV Solutions

17 Reboot 193

Epilogue: No More Illusions 221

Notes 229

Image Credits 261

Acknowledgments 263

Index 265

About the Author 280

Editorial Reviews

06/13/2022

Journalist von Brackel examines in his vivid debut how climate change has “set the animals and plants of the world in motion.” Early chapters take readers to the Arctic, where once “stoic communities” are being driven “to the verge of desperation” as thousands of lakes in the Alaskan tundra are created by beavers who fell trees, “dam rivers, and flood whole stretches of land.” The animals are “the latest in a long line of newcomers” to the area, von Brackel explains, and as they and other boreal creatures travel farther north, they wind up harming such “long-established species” as musk oxen, caribou, and the arctic fox, whose habitats are increasingly “restricted.” Mackerel, meanwhile, ended up near the coast of Iceland in a move that left marine biologists puzzled and poses “serious challenge” for the fishing industry, southern pine beetles are crawling northward, and pine and maple trees are shifting toward more suitable habitats. Von Brackel concludes with reasonable solutions to better meet “the needs of animals and plants,” which includes a call to conserve land that can serve as refuges for biodiversity. The result is a solid, memorable portrait of nature on the move. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"A changing climate will rearrange all life on Earth. In Nowhere Left to Go, Benjamin von Brackel examines what that rearrangement will mean not only for people—from indigenous whale hunters and global health experts to kelp collectors—but also for the species themselves, whose very existence is at stake."

Zach St. George

"Written like a thriller, this book is full of surprising observations of how plants and animals are already responding to climate change. I have seldom read such a successful combination of flawless research and linguistic dexterity."

Wolfgang Kießling

"This lively book chronicles the challenges conservationists face to chart a new future where species can adapt and cope. Humanity needs to do an environmental U-turn if we are to save the Earth’s biota and ourselves."

Eric Dinerstein

"Brackel examines question[s] that have arisen from the massive migrations spurred by global warming. The book discusses the research into how ecosystems might change as old species leave and new ones arrive, as well as the substantial implications for human societies."

Scientific American

"You can’t understand the next decades of life on earth if you don’t take in [this book’s] message. . . . Von Brackel ably chronicles the research at every latitude and on every continent . . . [and] writes movingly of indigenous communities now largely bypassed by the whales on which they’ve depended for food and cultural continuity because the small organisms on which the whales feed are moving as the temperatures warm."

Bill McKibben

"In hard truths with hints of hope, Nowhere Left to Go shows us how climate change is altering life as we know it. Engaging, elegant, and a thoroughly enjoyable read."

Camille Parmesan

"In Nowhere Left to Go, Benjamin von Brackel brings to life the reality of how climate change is affecting the biological world. It’s a fascinating read, and particularly pertinent for anyone who is concerned about the future of biodiversity."

Professor Chris D. Thomas

Brackel examines question[s] that have arisen from the massive migrations spurred by global warming. The book discusses the research into how ecosystems might change as old species leave and new ones arrive, as well as the substantial implications for human societies.”—Scientific American

“You can’t understand the next decades of life on earth if you don’t take in [this book’s] message. . . . Von Brackel ably chronicles the research at every latitude and on every continent . . .  [and] writes movingly of indigenous communities now largely bypassed by the whales on which they’ve depended for food and cultural continuity because the small organisms on which the whales feed are moving as the temperatures warm.”—Bill McKibben, New York Review of Books

“A solid, memorable portrait of nature on the move.”—Publishers Weekly

“In hard truths with hints of hope, Nowhere Left to Go shows us how climate change is altering life as we know it. Engaging, elegant, and a thoroughly enjoyable read.”—Camille Parmesan, coordinating lead author of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report

“In Nowhere Left to Go, Benjamin von Brackel brings to life the reality of how climate change is affecting the biological world. It’s a fascinating read, and particularly pertinent for anyone who is concerned about the future of biodiversity.”—Professor Chris D. Thomas, author of Inheritors of the Earth, and director of the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity

“Written like a thriller, this book is full of surprising observations of how plants and animals are already responding to climate change. I have seldom read such a successful combination of flawless research and linguistic dexterity.”—Wolfgang Kießling, lead author of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report

“This lively book chronicles the challenges conservationists face to chart a new future where species can adapt and cope. Humanity needs to do an environmental U-turn if we are to save the Earth’s biota and ourselves.”—Eric Dinerstein, Director of Biodiversity and Wildlife Solutions at RESOLVE and author of What Elephants Know

“A changing climate will rearrange all life on Earth. In Nowhere Left to Go, Benjamin von Brackel examines what that rearrangement will mean not only for people—from indigenous whale hunters and global health experts to kelp collectors—but also for the species themselves, whose very existence is at stake.”—Zach St. George, author of The Journeys of Trees

From the Publisher