Elemental

How Five Elements Changed Earth’s Past and Will Shape Our Future

By: Stephen Porder

Narrated by: Christopher Ragland

Length: 7 hrs

Publisher's summary

This audiobook narrated by Christopher Ragland reveals how life itself shapes Earth using the elemental constituents we all share

It is rare for life to change Earth, yet three organisms have profoundly transformed our planet over the long course of its history. Elemental reveals how microbes, plants, and people used the fundamental building blocks of life to alter the climate, and with it, the trajectory of life on Earth in the past, present, and future.

Taking listeners from the deep geologic past to our current era of human dominance, Stephen Porder focuses on five of life’s essential elements—hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. He describes how single-celled cyanobacteria and plants harnessed them to wildly proliferate across the oceans and the land, only to eventually precipitate environmental catastrophes. He then brings us to the present, and shows how these elements underpin the success of human civilization, and how their mismanagement threatens similarly catastrophic unintended consequences. But, Porder argues, if we can learn from our world-changing predecessors, we can construct a more sustainable future.

Blending conversational storytelling with the latest science, Porder takes us deep into the Amazon, across fresh lava flows in Hawaii, and to the cornfields of the American Midwest to illuminate a potential path to sustainability, informed by the constraints imposed by life’s essential elements and the four-billion-year history of life on Earth.

©2023 Stephen Porder (P)2023 Princeton University Press

Critic reviews

“Stephen Porder has written an accessible primer on the deep origins of Earth’s carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorous cycles—the remarkable but under-appreciated system of checks and balances that makes the world habitable. Elemental is essential reading for anyone who eats, breathes, or requires water, and a civics lesson on how we can all become better biogeochemical citizens.”—Marcia Bjornerud, author of Timefulness: How Thinking like a Geologist Can Help Save the World

“What makes life on Earth possible? A simple question, but as Stephen Porder shows us, the answer is fascinating, complex, and absolutely vital. Told through the relationship of microbes, plants, and humans to the elements that make us—from phosphorus to carbon—this book introduces the chemical innovations that have shaped our planet. Part engaging tour through science at the intersection of biology and chemistry, part deep history that gives us tools for the future, Elemental gives us a lively look at the stuff of life itself.”—Bathsheba Demuth, author of Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait

“In Elemental, Stephen Porder explains why humans are both part and parcel of an Earth system that has endured for billions of years and a rare departure from the norm. His engaging, accessible, and ultimately optimistic account illuminates the remarkable innovations of modern humans, their consequences for the Earth as a whole, and what we can do to safeguard our environmental future.”—Andrew H. Knoll, author of A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters

An accessible explanation of climate change & the need to eat less red meat

As someone who grew up on a farm and has a masters degree in materials science I may not be the best judge of how easy Dr. Porder's explanation will be for other people to follow; nevertheless, I thought this was a clear and engaging explanation of the science behind why the climate changes we are experiencing are caused by humans and a compelling call to action. The early chapters set the framework for why action is necessary. His description of specific actions we can take individually and collectively, and the impact these changes can make to alter the trajectory for future generations, inspire me to take action.

Excellent explanation of fundamentals of life

Porter ends on realistic but positive take on the constraints of life on a planet with over 8 billion needy humans who have terra formed the earth. He offers some practical actions we can each take to make life sustainable to avoid ending up like cyanobacteria.

the easy cognitive narrative level.

the global use and abuse of agriculture for red-meat consumption and urban sprawl among the five continents.

A scientific presentation for non scientists

As an engineer by profession I really appreciate the way the book was written, all the chapters go into the necessary elements and explanations to understand the message and solutions presented by the author.