The Vanishing Earth: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Extraction
Aug 2026 · Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Ebook
448
Pages
About this ebook
"The Vanishing Earth is urgent and immersive. Crawford asks not just what we are losing but why we can't stop." --Greg Grandin, Pulitzer Prize-Winner and author of America, América
From the acclaimed author of The Edge of the Plain, journey to the ravaged frontiers of extractive industry and the promising, often radical alternatives emerging just as we reach the point of exhausting the earth's natural resources.
Over the last half-century, humanity has taken more from the Earth than in all prior history combined. The planet is littered with the vast scars of extraction – yet, ironically, it is only by confronting the ruins of our 'old' world that we can find the path towards the 'new'.
In The Vanishing Earth, James Crawford, born into a landscape and family steeped in fossil fuels, takes readers to the literal and ideological frontiers of extraction. Beginning with the story of humanity's decoupling from nature, Crawford embarks on an epic journey to five resource landscapes rapidly trending towards exhaustion: landscapes of rock, metal, sand, water and thought. From the salt flats of Chile's Atacama Desert lithium mines to the 'sacrifice zone' of Florida's phosphorus-rich Bone Valley, and even chillingly advanced attempts to harvest personal data from the brain itself, Crawford explores some of the most extreme scenes of the Anthropocene. Along the way, he asks what lies behind our insatiable appetites and explores emerging alternatives that might just spare our vanishing natural resources, transform our economies, and save our relationship with nature itself.
From the acclaimed author of The Edge of the Plain, journey to the ravaged frontiers of extractive industry and the promising, often radical alternatives emerging just as we reach the point of exhausting the earth's natural resources.
Over the last half-century, humanity has taken more from the Earth than in all prior history combined. The planet is littered with the vast scars of extraction – yet, ironically, it is only by confronting the ruins of our 'old' world that we can find the path towards the 'new'.
In The Vanishing Earth, James Crawford, born into a landscape and family steeped in fossil fuels, takes readers to the literal and ideological frontiers of extraction. Beginning with the story of humanity's decoupling from nature, Crawford embarks on an epic journey to five resource landscapes rapidly trending towards exhaustion: landscapes of rock, metal, sand, water and thought. From the salt flats of Chile's Atacama Desert lithium mines to the 'sacrifice zone' of Florida's phosphorus-rich Bone Valley, and even chillingly advanced attempts to harvest personal data from the brain itself, Crawford explores some of the most extreme scenes of the Anthropocene. Along the way, he asks what lies behind our insatiable appetites and explores emerging alternatives that might just spare our vanishing natural resources, transform our economies, and save our relationship with nature itself.
"The Vanishing Earth is urgent and immersive. Crawford asks not just what we are losing but why we can't stop." --Greg Grandin, Pulitzer Prize-Winner and author of America, América
From the acclaimed author of The Edge of the Plain, journey to the ravaged frontiers of extractive industry and the...
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About the author
James Crawford is an acclaimed historian, publisher and broadcaster. His book Fallen Glory was selected as a Sunday Times Must Read, and a Book of the Year by the New Statesman and the Independent. His latest, The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World earned rave reviews in The New York Review of Books and The Washington Post, and was featured on CNN's Amanpour. He lives in Edinburgh.
James Crawford is an acclaimed historian, publisher and broadcaster. His book Fallen Glory was selected as a Sunday Times Must Read, and a Book of the Year by the New Statesman and the Independent. His latest, The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World earned rave reviews in The ...
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