“We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it.”
When it comes to something as pressing as climate change, being up-to-date with the latest developments is key. Thankfully, scientists, journalists, commentators and authors are here to keep readers in the loop with the latest climate change books. From groundbreaking natural observations, eye-opening revelations and impassioned calls-to-action, join us at What We Reading as we dive into the best climate change books and take stock of how our efforts to create a more sustainable planet are panning out.
Losing Earth: A Recent History – Nathaniel Rich
First up on our list of the most essential climate change books is Nathaniel Rich’s Losing Earth – a comprehensive look back at how the efforts to save our planet were first formed. The book introduces readers to the brave characters who convinced the world to start acting before it became too late.
Spanning the decade between 1979 and 1989, Losing Earth maps the human dynamics of climate change. It delves into how political and social awareness of the crisis was awakened and explores the rise of climate denialism, misinformation, propaganda, and a myriad of political failings that threatened to halt progress in its tracks. The result is a compelling and timely story of how we got to where we are and where we still need to go in the future.
This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs. The Climate – Naomi Klein
Nominated for Best Non-Fiction in the Goodreads Choice Awards and recognized as one of the best climate change books for addressing how human greed has thwarted global conservation efforts, This Changes Everything is a 2014 science book by award-winning journalist Naomi Klein.
In this provocative read, Klein argues that it is capitalism, rather than carbon, that is the true driving force behind global warming. Expertly breaking down some of the murkiest myths surrounding the issue, from the feasibility of switching off fossil fuels to the notion that human societies are supposedly too greedy to help themselves, This Changes Everything is as eye-opening as it is empowering. Klein’s book remains an essential read for understanding, confronting, and meeting the biggest challenge facing the twenty-first century.
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming – David Wallace-Wells
The true horrors and extent of global warming are vividly portrayed in David Wallace-Wells’ renowned travelogue, The Uninhabitable Earth. This 2019 book on climate change takes readers on a global tour of the destruction and lasting damage that global warming is inflicting on our planet, providing up-close and detailed descriptions of what the future of the planet will look like unless something dramatic is done.
A stark and impassioned call to action, The Uninhabitable Earth guides readers through wildfires raging month after month, refugee crises, food shortages, and environmental catastrophes that will render large swaths of the planet inhospitable. As one of the best climate change books that illuminate the scope of devastation humanity has already inflicted, Wallace-Wells’ book is an absolute must-read.
Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired To Ignore Climate Change – George Marshall
One of the most perplexing, and often frustrating, aspects of the climate change discussion is how, despite overwhelming scientific evidence, many still remain ignorant, deny, or ignore the issues facing the planet. George Marshall attempts to unravel this conundrum with his witty and thoroughly researched 2014 book, Don’t Even Think About It.
Featuring stories from Nobel Prize-winning scientists, Tea Party activists, liberal environmentalists, and conservative evangelists, Don’t Even Think About It is a profound work that explores how our values, assumptions, and prejudices can take on lives of their own. It provides a stunningly detailed look at the common features that bind both climate change activists and naysayers together. Through understanding what makes us similar, Marshall argues that we can make progress in addressing climate change. Equally about climate change and the qualities that make us human, Don’t Even Think About It provides new perspectives on how we can address the threats posed by climate change.
The Climate Book: The Facts And The Solutions – Greta Thunberg
Greta Thunberg, the world’s most famous climate change activist, has played a pivotal role in rallying an entire generation behind the pressing threats it poses. Her 2022 science work, The Climate Book, is a collection of insights, expertise, and findings from over a hundred experts – geophysicists, oceanographers, meteorologists, engineers, economists, mathematicians, historians, philosophers, and indigenous leaders. All of them teach readers everything they need to know about the crisis.
Thunberg also shares her own stories and discoveries from years of demonstrating, shedding light on the stunning amount that authorities had previously kept hidden from us. An impassioned and scholarly resource, The Climate Book conveys a message of hope about what we can achieve when we work together.
Check Out These 2022 Climate Change Books
The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death On A Scorched Planet – Jeff Goodell
After years as an award-winning journalist on the frontlines of the environmental crisis, Jeff Goodell’s The Heat Will Kill You First stands as his most provocative work to date. This 2023 science book tackles the evidence of rising temperatures across the globe and how it stands as the primary driver for the cataclysmic effects of climate change in the future.
Exposing the fragile fault lines in our global governments’ policy-makers and businesspeople, The Heat Will Kill You First delves into the extreme ways in which rising heat levels are already severely impacting our planet. Blending the latest scientific developments with on-the-ground reporting, Goodell’s book takes readers through everything from disease outbreaks to food shortages, leaving them with no doubt over the urgent need for action.
Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save The World – Jason Hickel
The world may gradually be waking up to the threat posed by climate change, and Jason Hickel takes aim at its primary architect in his book, Less Is More. This ambitious work argues that our ever-increasing expansion is devastating the natural world and puts forward the idea that degrowth is the only way in which it may be healed.
Hickel contends that shifting our mindset away from the domination and exploitation of the Earth’s natural landscapes is the only way to find a balance of reciprocity with our planet’s ecology, fitting for the twenty-first century. Less Is More offers a profound post-capitalist vision that is more fulfilling, enabling human flourishing and reversing ecological breakdown. By taking less, we can become more.
Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case For Hope And Healing In A Divided World – Katharine Hayhoe
United Nations Champion of the Earth, climate scientist, and evangelical Christian Katharine Hayhoe offers a new angle on saving our future in her 2021 book, Saving Us. Renowned as one of the most effective communicators of climate change in the world, Hayhoe argues that, while grounded scientific realities are vital, identifying shared values is the biggest way of driving collective change.
Saving Us navigates thorny issues such as data distrust, indifference to imminent threats, and resistance to proposed solutions with ease. Employing a multilayered approach that draws on personal experiences, scientific findings, and interdisciplinary research, Hayhoe’s work is not a doomsday book about a planet on fire. Instead, it is a shining example of the extraordinary results that can come from small conversations.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
