Books
Top Picks
Among the growing list of our recommended climate books it’s becoming increasingly hard to know where to start. Here are some books to begin with based on what we think is their overriding message:
How bad can it get?: “The Uninhabitable Earth” – David Wallace-Wells
What can we do about it?: “Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming” – ed Paul Hawken
Who is stopping us making progress?: “The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet” – Michael E. Mann
What choices do we have?: “The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis” – Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac
How do we talk to others about the problem?: “Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World” – Katharine Hayhoe
See details and links in our recommended list below.
Recommendations
A growing selection of books that provide a good grounding, by publication date:
“Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air” – David J C Mackay – (pdf) – Dec 2009
“Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life” – Edward O. Wilson – March 2016
“Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming” – ed Paul Hawken – Penguin Books – Apr 2017
“Storming The Wall: Climate Change, Migration and Homeland Security” – Todd Miller – Sept 2017
“The Global Warming Express” – Story by Marina Weber
Pictures by Joanna Whysner – Dec 2017
“The End of Ice” – Dahr Jamail – The New Press – Jan 2019.
“The Uninhabitable Earth” – David Wallace-Wells – Penguin Random House – Feb 2019
“Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?” – Bill McKibben – Henry Holt & Co – Apr 2019
“This Civilisation Is Finished: Conversations on the End of Empire – And What Lies Beyond” – Rupert Read, Samuel Alexander – Simplicity Institute – May 2019
“On Fire: the Burning Case for a Green New Deal” – Naomi Klein – Simon and Schuster – Sept 2019
“The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis” – Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac – Alfred A. Knopf – Feb 2020
“The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here” – Hope Jahren – Penguin Random House – Mar 2020
“At the Precipice: New Mexico’s Changing Climate” – Laura Paskus – University of New Mexico Press – Sept 2020
“The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet” – Michael E. Mann – PublicAffairs – Jan 2021
“How to Prepare for Climate Change: A Practical Guide for Surviving the Chaos” – David Pogue – Simon and Schuster – Jan 2021
“How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” – Bill Gates – Penguin Random House – Feb 2021
“Under the White Sky: The Nature of the Future” – Elizabeth Kolbert – Crown Publishing – Feb 2021
“Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World” – Katharine Hayhoe – Simon & Schuster – Sept 2021
“Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge” – Erica Geis – Univ Chicago Press – June 2022
See our Wiki for more reading materials on the crisis.