15 climate change books released around COVID-19 – Readers list 2

Featuring 15 climate change books in this reading list written by a diverse group of scientists, journalists, and activists, these 15 titles offer insight into why we’re in a crisis – greenhouse emissions, of course, but also corporate malfeasance and social inequality.

Just to give you a recap, this blog is part 2 of the Readers list. If you haven’t explored the books that I have captured in 15 Climate Change Books to read in 2022 – Readers list 1, I recommend you to check out this list as well, or probably read them before.

The scariest thing about infectious diseases is that they are immediate, personal, and radically change the way we live, and they often threaten the lives of people in our close circle.

Many people see climate change as a slow-motion Armageddon, where its risks seem irrational and its causes seem abstract. It’s easy to think “I didn’t cause this” and “I ain’t affected directly.” But there is another perspective. Regardless of what you believe about climate change, if you are concerned about it, you can take steps now to improve the health of you and those who you love and care about.

This pandemic teaches us that people are motivated by what matters to them personally and practically. Climate change can be combated just by taking steps to make people healthier in the present – disease burdens like obesity, heart disease, and cancer are a big burden on our health right now. Our efforts need to increase in educating people about preventable diseases and what can be done to prevent them.

#1

Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World

According to The New York Times, Katharine Hayhoe is “one of the nation’s most effective communicators” on climate change. She knows how to bridge all sides of the conversation.

For Hayhoe, finding shared values is the key to connecting our individual identities to meaningful collective action when it comes to changing hearts and minds. She is known in her field as an icon and named as a chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy – and the book is not another doomsday tale. The book explores science, faith, and human psychology from a multilayered perspective.

Saving Us shows how small conversations can have astonishing results thanks to a combination of interdisciplinary research and personal experience. With its tools, Hayhoe helps you start a dialogue with your loved ones about how each of us can play a role in advancing change for the better.

AuthorKatharine Hayhoe
Pages320
My completion time16 Days
My personal rating4.5 out of 5.0 stars

#2

Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change

There is no getting around the fact that we are causing the climate crisis with our carbon-intensive lifestyles and if we are going to fix it – or even slow it down – it is going to affect all of us. But we can do something about it.

Professor Dieter Helm describes in Net Zero what each of us needs to do, whether we are individual citizens, local citizens, national citizens, or global citizens, in order to truly curb climate change.

Prof. Dieter Helm’s Net Zero is an approach to reduce carbon emissions and increase carbon absorption that will stop us from causing climate change. The book explores the reasons for the failures of the past 30 years and explains how and why the next 30 years can succeed. It is a must-read for anyone who hears the clamor of the Extinction Rebellion and other conservation groups but wonders what they can do to contribute.

AuthorDieter Helm
Pages304
My completion time12 Days
My personal rating4.5 out of 5.0 stars

#3

Imagine It!: A Handbook for a Happier Planet

In this book, you can learn easy ways to do away with old, planet-destroying habits, and to replace them with new, healthy ones. It inspires, supports, and offers easy steps for you to take to live in better balance with our planet.

“Imagine It!” looks at getting rid of plastic, paper, water, and hazardous chemicals by changing some of our food, clothing, and transportation habits. Each of these shifts is covered in a different chapter of the book. Each excerpt provides a short explanation of the shift, followed by clear steps for replacing old habits with new ones.

We can imagine a cleaner, healthier world, thanks to Laurie David and Heather Reisman. They know change happens when people understand their part in bringing it about.

AuthorLaurie David
Pages256
My completion time14 Days
My personal rating4.5 out of 5.0 stars

#4

How To Save Our Planet: The Facts

We are witnessing a rapid rise in climate change awareness. Science has proven to us that we are facing a global environmental crisis. How to Save Our Planet is a call to action, certain to empower everyone to make positive changes.

You should have no illusions about what lies ahead for the 21st century: climate change, environmental destruction, global poverty, and ensuring everyone’s safety.

It may be true that we have the technology, the resources, and the money; it may also be true that the innovators, entrepreneurs, and scientists are already here, but we lack the policy and political direction to make your vision of a better world a reality. So we need a plan to save our planet.

Maslin inspires optimism in these difficult times with his book, How to Save Our Planet. With a focus on humanity’s history as a species, individuals’ potential, and the power of collective action, Maslin explores how we can save our precious planet.

Our planet stands on the brink of disaster. It is up to us to save our planet from ourselves and then from each other.

AuthorMark A. Maslin
Pages256
My completion time15 Days
My personal rating4.2 out of 5.0 stars

#5

The Citizen’s Guide to Climate Success: Overcoming Myths that Hinder Progress

I think it can be challenging at times to solve climate change and to figure out what changes we can all make to help.

The book offers hope. Mark Jaccard uses the most recent research to describe the actions and policies that are absolutely essential for a sustainable future (phasing out coal power plants and gasoline vehicles, carbon tariffs).

In order to contribute to a sustainable, affordable energy transition in both developed and developing countries, we can all make a few key lifestyle changes, instead of feeling paralyzed and pursuing ineffective efforts. The book even demonstrates how to distinguish climate-sincere politicians from those who are insincere, increasing the chance of electing and retaining these leaders.

A clear and simple strategy designed to solve the greatest problem of our time by combining the personal and the political is offered in The Citizen’s Guide to Climate Success.

AuthorMark Jaccard
Pages296
My completion time15 Days
My personal rating4.2 out of 5.0 stars

#6

Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth

Climate change as a threat to humanity can be faced, accepted, and transformed into a hero that is needed to protect the environment and humankind. Facing the Climate Emergency gives people the tools to confront climate change, face their negative emotions, and channel them into protecting the environment.

People are worldwide feeling deep pain about ecological destruction and their role in it as we accelerate toward the collapse of civilization and the natural world. Yet we often feel paralyzed by fear. Help is at hand. Turning negative emotions into action to address the climate crisis. How to feel the pressures of the climate crisis and accept your fears, anger, grief, guilt, and other emotions.

Become a climate hero, become a “climate warrior,” and maximize your impact by joining the Climate Emergency Movement. Includes readings, reflection questions, and exercises you can complete with like-minded friends or colleagues.

With motivation, guidance, and support, Facing the Climate Emergency is a guide for the suffering many who are looking for answers and looking to leave “normal” behind and take up the path of the climate warrior, rising up to the challenge of our time.

AuthorMargaret Klein Salamon
Pages160
My completion time7 Days
My personal rating4.2 out of 5.0 stars

#7

Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change

We explore how cities are at the forefront of the climate change crisis as they drive the change. How will climate change affect our lives? Where will its effects be most pronounced? Are we doing enough to stave off the crisis? Ashley Dawson argues that cities are at the forefront of climate change due to their high carbon emissions, as well as their front-line position as victims of rising sea levels.

There are currently over 200 megacities around the world located in coastal zones, yet few of them have built adequate flood defenses against the floods that will increasingly threaten their shorelines. Most continue to build luxury waterfront condos for the elite and industrial buildings. Climate change exacerbates carbon emissions while raising water levels threaten coastal residents.

In Extreme Cities, A disturbing portrait of the future of our cities is presented by Dawson. He describes attempts by residents of Staten Island, New York, and Shishmaref, Alaska to relocate, the plans of Holland to defend against the seas, and the development of New York City prior to and after Hurricane Sandy. In his view, the best hope for transforming our cities into more just and equitable cities is not in fortified sea walls, but in urban movements that already fight for this.

AuthorAshley Dawson
Pages240
My completion time12 Days
My personal rating4.2 out of 5.0 stars

#8

The Hydrogen Revolution: a blueprint for the future of clean energy

Imagine the world in 2050. We’ve finally expelled the shadow cast by climate change. The planet is stabilized. We have thriving rainforests and coral reefs. This isn’t just wishful thinking; it could become a reality.

It is only by embracing hydrogen that we can reach true, clean energy. Hydrogen is simple to produce and use. Once it is produced, it can be stored, transported, piped, even burned. Hydrogen from renewable sources can be moved around the world using existing infrastructure, effectively storing sunlight. If you burn hydrogen, all you get is water.

The first step to healing the climate is to change the way we think about it, as energy expert Marco Alverà points out in this book. All we need is to start thinking big if we wish to achieve our goal. There is hope, for us and our planet, and this guidebook will provide you with the tools necessary to save the world, whether you are a policymaker, a business person, an activist, or simply curious.

AuthorMarco Alverà
Pages304
My completion time17 Days
My personal rating4.2 out of 5.0 stars

#9

Revolutionary Power: An Activist’s Guide to the Energy Transition

It was Hurricane Maria that toppled Puerto Rico’s power grid in September 2017, following which a nearly year-long power outage vividly illustrated the intersection between climate change and race and access to electricity.

We need to rethink our current energy system in the face of climate change and increasing storms such as Maria, so we can provide reliable, locally sourced, and locally controlled energy without replicating existing structures of power and control. Baker provides the tools needed to remake the energy system so that those most at risk can take advantage of it with true humanity in Revolutionary Power. For the current unequal power dynamics to be upended, she argues that people of color, poor people, and indigenous people must all be involved with the creation of the new energy system.

This book presents a comprehensive roadmap for the transformation of energy, with an in-depth analysis of key energy policies that need to be addressed. Bakker, tells stories of those left behind by our current system and of those working to make it juster. As a queer woman of color, an energy justice activist, and a lawyer, she helps activists to shape our next energy system based on her experiences.

AuthorShalanda Baker
Pages264
My completion time14 Days
My personal rating4.0 out of 5.0 stars

#10

Biodiversity and Climate Change – Transforming the Biosphere

The physical and biological impacts of climate change are dramatic and sweeping. This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the critical interactions between biological diversity and climate change. Our rapidly growing understanding of these issues is urgently needed by those who care about the planet and manage natural resources.

Whether it is the human impact on extinction risk or ocean acidification, changing ecosystem services, or ecosystem restoration, this book presents a sweeping view of how climate change is transforming the biosphere.

AuthorThomas E. Lovejoy, Lee Hannah, Edward O. Wilson
Pages352
My completion time20 Days
My personal rating4.0 out of 5.0 stars

#11

SOS: What you can do to reduce climate change – simple actions that make a difference

Seth Wynes, a researcher on climate change who has written many books on the subject, explains how you can make a positive impact at home, at work, where you shop, eat and live. Decide which one thing you can change with this book to make a real and positive difference.

Despite its well-researched and well-documented findings, this book only suggests behaviors that are widely known to reduce carbon emissions, such as biking to work or taking public transportation, which is already widely known to reduce carbon emissions. There is a strong relationship between what you do and what happens to our planet. How many items can you check off of the list in this book to help save our planet?

AuthorSeth Wynes
Pages160
My completion time6 Days
My personal rating4.0 out of 5.0 stars

#12

99 Maps to Save the Planet: With an introduction by Chris Packham

This book contains a series of maps that are often shocking, amusing, eye-catching, but most importantly, full of important information.

Did you know that just 67 companies worldwide are responsible for 67 percent of global greenhouse emissions? Or that keeping a horse has the same carbon footprint as a 23,500-kilometre road trip?

Did you know how many countries use less energy than is consumed globally by downloading porn from the internet?

Do you know how much of the earth’s surface has been concreted over? Or how many trees would we have to plant to make our planet carbon-neutral?

The beautiful infographics in 99 Maps to Save the Planet provide us with an instant visual snapshot of the degradation of our environment. The information presented is extensive and incorporates the latest scientific research and data.

AuthorKatapult, Chris Packham
Pages208
My completion time12 Days
My personal rating4.0 out of 5.0 stars

#13

Our Changing Menu: Climate Change and the Foods We Love and Need

The increasingly complex relationship between weather & food is unpacked in Our Changing Menu. Whether you’re a chef, baker, restaurateur, or simply enjoy a good pizza or a cocktail, you’ll find that climate change is impacting our food system and our everyday lives.

The authors explore how the flavor of teas and spices have changed, how wheat is produced, and what vitamins are in rice as they explore the variety of before-dinner drinks and salads, main course and sides, and coffee and desserts. They wrap up their story with an introduction to global food and water systems, climate change causes and consequences, and what we, as a planet, can do to prevent such a catastrophe.

Food has always been at the core of our culture, but it is also at the heart of this book. We celebrate food and call to action to join together to help tackle the biggest challenge of the age.

AuthorMichael P. Hoffmann, Carrie Koplinka-Loehr, Danielle L. Eiseman
Pages246
My completion time14 Days
My personal rating4.0 out of 5.0 stars

#14

Can We Save the Planet?: A Primer for the 21st Century: 0 (The Big Idea)

AuthorAlice Bell
Pages144
My completion timeNot yet read
My personal ratingNot yet read

#15

Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith: How Changes in Climate Drive Religious Upheaval

AuthorPhilip Jenkins
Pages276
My completion timeNot yet read
My personal ratingNot yet read

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