Recommended Books

Truly one of my favorite people, Moore gave up an endowed chair in Moral Philosophy to combat climate change for the duration. Here she offers a luscious set of essays poignant and hefty, anguished and icy, passionate and inspiring. Read them and sing.

I loved this book for its utterly fresh angle on climate disaster as well as Bengal-born Ghosh’s quiet, erudite reflection on why it is so difficult for Americans even to conceive of the reality of what is facing us. It is devastatingly revelatory.

If you want to know how bad it can get, McPherson’s your man. He has been warning of certain climate doom for decades. This slim volume is only one of many diatribes in which he has predicted climate clamp-down by 2026. Do the arithmetic and weep.

By the founder of 350.org and dean of popular climate writing, this, his most recent book, offers us a perfect storm of the disasters that lie ahead if we don’t pay attention: artificial intelligence, genetic manipulation, and climate meltdown. Read and tremble.

In this, the first book about climate change, McKibben argues that “Nature,” to which we have always been subordinate, has now become subordinate to us, and that we are not exercising this power wisely. The book paved the way for the term, “Anthropocene”.

Here’s the book that “outed” climate change into the public at large. Gore first got religion when he learned of the impact of CO2 on global heating. Scorned by conservatives, he has proven tragically right and remains a key climate pioneer.

The sub-title has it right. If you want a comprehensive selection of countless ways we can address climate change, this is it; includes food, energy, buildings, land use, transporta­tion, and more. Loaded with concrete ideas. Google it to find an array of supportive links.

If you are looking for ways to convince people that addressing climate change is urgent, or that it’s even real, this book is one of the best. Marshall shows how peer pressure, trusted communicators, social norms, and in-group loyalty can make a real difference.

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is prize-winning reporter Dan Egan’s compulsively readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come.

The environmental crisis under way is unique in human history. Those alive today will decide the fate of humanity. The leaders of the most powerful state in human history are dedicating themselves to destroying the prospects for organized human life. At the same time, there is a solution, which is the Green New Deal. 

Klein really means what her title says. In this searing critique of our current economic arrangement, she connects the dots among capitalism, racial justice, economic inequality, and climate. She also devastates the idea that dimming the sun will somehow save us.

How a climate scientist and suburban father cut his climate impact down to one tenth the US average and became happier because of it. This story merges science, spirituality, and practical knowledge to offer a deeply optimistic message: living without fossil fuels is not only possible, it can be better.