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Elemental: The New Geography of Climate Change and How We Survive It: The first comprehensive account of the geopolitics of climate change
With over 30 years' experience in conflict zones and fragile states, Arthur Snell travels from the heat of the Sahel to the Arctic Circle to show how climate change is coinciding with a breakdown in geopolitical order, increasing conflict and economic crises.
Within our lifetimes, rising temperatures, sea levels and scarcity will inevitably drive both conflict and mass migration globally. Natural disasters and the battle for rare minerals that are essential to clean energy will shake the established world order to its core within this century. When the rain wrecks India's ability to grow rice, the heat makes building impossible in Saudi Arabia, wildfires rage through America's most populated regions, and in Russia huge areas of highly fertile land are exposed by the melting ice, what will living on a warmer planet actually look like?
Here, for the very first time, historian and former British diplomat Arthur Snell delivers a comprehensive account of the geopolitics of climate change. 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.
Within our lifetimes, rising temperatures, sea levels and scarcity will inevitably drive both conflict and mass migration globally. Natural disasters and the battle for rare minerals that are essential to clean energy will shake the established world order to its core within this century. When the rain wrecks India's ability to grow rice, the heat makes building impossible in Saudi Arabia, wildfires rage through America's most populated regions, and in Russia huge areas of highly fertile land are exposed by the melting ice, what will living on a warmer planet actually look like?
Here, for the very first time, historian and former British diplomat Arthur Snell delivers a comprehensive account of the geopolitics of climate change. 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.
384 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 12, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Thank you to Wildfire / Headline / Hachette for the advanced reading copy.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Arthur Snell about this book for an author event at Rossiter Books.
Elemental is a fascinating exploration of how geo-politics may play out as climate change impacts us, often in unexpecting ways and not always negatively. It's a bit of a risk assessment of the world based on various aspects of climate change: from food security to migration, energy resources to disappearing countries, and melting ice caps to clean water shortage.
Arthur Snell considers the potential outcomes of some of the efforts to mitigate climate change and how they could or have lead to unintended consequences; for instance our successful global effort in reducing acid rain, which is of course a positive thing, has actually led to increased global temperatures. And how moving away from fossil fuels has led to a race for access to rare minerals and consequently we are creating a world where the power will move away from the West and middle East and into the hands of countries we have previously been more wary of alliancing ourselves with.
And talking of China, their ability to implement more long-term strategies has led to their dominance in many climate change solutions, leaving the West on the back foot as often our democratic processes and short term outlooks can hinder the strategic, and sometimes more authoritarian, thinking that is necessary.
It is abound with facts and science that is really clearly explained. Solar geo-engineering (weather control) and crop modification (changing rice from a C3 structure to a C4 more hardy structure) could be dry subjects potentially but they are written about engagingly and accessibly.
Highly recommended for people who have enjoyed Tim Marshall's Prisoners of Geography books.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Arthur Snell about this book for an author event at Rossiter Books.
Elemental is a fascinating exploration of how geo-politics may play out as climate change impacts us, often in unexpecting ways and not always negatively. It's a bit of a risk assessment of the world based on various aspects of climate change: from food security to migration, energy resources to disappearing countries, and melting ice caps to clean water shortage.
Arthur Snell considers the potential outcomes of some of the efforts to mitigate climate change and how they could or have lead to unintended consequences; for instance our successful global effort in reducing acid rain, which is of course a positive thing, has actually led to increased global temperatures. And how moving away from fossil fuels has led to a race for access to rare minerals and consequently we are creating a world where the power will move away from the West and middle East and into the hands of countries we have previously been more wary of alliancing ourselves with.
And talking of China, their ability to implement more long-term strategies has led to their dominance in many climate change solutions, leaving the West on the back foot as often our democratic processes and short term outlooks can hinder the strategic, and sometimes more authoritarian, thinking that is necessary.
It is abound with facts and science that is really clearly explained. Solar geo-engineering (weather control) and crop modification (changing rice from a C3 structure to a C4 more hardy structure) could be dry subjects potentially but they are written about engagingly and accessibly.
Highly recommended for people who have enjoyed Tim Marshall's Prisoners of Geography books.
May 20, 2026
In the play "Amadeus" by Peter Shaffer, Emperor Joseph II says to Mozart, "My dear young man, don't take it too hard. Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect." The Emperor is cast as a privileged buffoon in contrast to the genius, Mozart. And we are meant to laugh, which we dutifully do. After reading Arthur Snell’s book, this quote came back to me. I felt like saying to Mr Snell, “It’s a very well researched book, and you make some interesting connections between geo-politics and climate change. But there are just too many facts.” I may not have suggested that he cut some, though I might have. My bigger gripe is that they are badly organised. As a consequence, at times, I felt like I was drowning in them.
The overarching structure of the book just doesn’t work. He breaks it down into four sections representing the four elements of ancient Greece, earth, air, fire and water. Hence, the title of the book. The problem is that the facts that he includes in the different sections often seem to have only a very loose connection to the element, and to each other. As a consequence, the narrative does not engage the reader and left me feeling a bit bored.
The overarching structure of the book just doesn’t work. He breaks it down into four sections representing the four elements of ancient Greece, earth, air, fire and water. Hence, the title of the book. The problem is that the facts that he includes in the different sections often seem to have only a very loose connection to the element, and to each other. As a consequence, the narrative does not engage the reader and left me feeling a bit bored.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews