Association for Climate Health
Sharing ideas and strategies to fight climate change
Climate
Books and
Resources
Check out some of the thoughtful, well-written books which we have found useful!
An Inconvenient Sequel:
Truth to Power
Former Vice President Al Gore, who sparked awareness of the growing threat to climate health with his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, continues to call us to action. He poses three questions, then answers them with a positive YES: Must we change, can we change, and will we change? He connects the climate crisis with such diverse threats as the growing number and size of wildfires, new diseases, unprecedented heat waves, and the decline of fish in the oceans. He argues vigorously that we must and can change, and offers his “action handbook” showing how we can help the change come about.
Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution
Climate scientist Peter Kalmus shares his personal journey including his deepening spiritual connection with the Earth. His many conversations with others convinced him that sharing the facts about climate change did not result in people changing their behavior or their reliance on fossil fuels. Instead he began to change his own life, bicycling more, growing his own food, and so on, and found greater joy in his life while substantially reducing his family’s contributions to global warming.
More good references:
Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do about It, by Anna Lappe and Bill McKibben
Food lecturer Anna Lappe writes well about the carbon footprint of industrial agriculture and food processors, and how buying and eating more organic and whole foods can reduce these impacts. Adopting sustainable farming practices, supporting local farms, and making use of her 7 principles of a climate-friendly diet are actions any individual can adopt.
Clean, Green and Reliable, by Doug Plucknette and Chris Colson
A practical guide for industry, covering the 10 most common systems found in manufacturing, how to find and fix leaks, faulty alignment and other defects that lead to energy losses and higher climate footprint. Includes case studies for quantifying results.
Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, by Michael Pollan
While not strictly about the climate, reporter Michael Pollan has written several great books on food, food industries and agriculture. This book gives a variety of easy to understand rules-of-thumb for more healthful eating which generally also have the good side effects of protecting climate and soil health.
The Overstory: A Novel, by Richard Powers
A powerful, Pulitzer Prize winning novel intertwining nine characters who all have something to do with trees. You will be pulled in by each of these characters’ lives and find yourself gradually coming to appreciate the importance of trees in maintaining natural environments, the enduring place trees have in our hearts and personal histories, and the uncanny Rube Goldbergian ways that nature intertwines the well-being of trees, animals, microbes and humans. You don’t need any particular science background to enjoy this novel, but you will probably surprise yourself with how much you pick up, even if science is not your thing.
KIDS - Check out The Lorax, Dr Seuss. Ages 3 - 103
Written many years ago but still highly relevant, this picture book for ages 4-9 gives a highly understandable story of how human industry leads to environmental destruction. One mournful character introduces himself, “I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees,” and with that simple sentence your heart and imagination are engaged. Seuss’ whimsical language and pictures can convey a serious message like no one else can.
KIDS - Check out Many: The Diversity of Life on Earth, Nicola Davies. Ages 4-8
This beautiful picture book illustrates the vast richness of species in the natural world, yet ends with a message that some of this diversity is getting lost due to the thoughtless behavior of one particular species. Also by Nicola Davies, and of interest to children with an interest in science, is the delightful Tiny Creatures: The World of Microbes.
Beyond Books and Kindle ...
Netflix for the Environment - Check out Waterbear, a new streaming service of free, high-quality climate-centered documentaries https://www.waterbear.com/ . brought to you by Ellen Windemuth, Oscar award-winning producer of Netflix’ documentary My Octopus Teacher.
Inventing Tomorrow - This 2018 documentary follows a group of teen competitors focus on solving environmental threats for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. See Andrew Lapin’s thoughtful review for NPR https://www.npr.org/2018/08/29/642649050/saving-the-world-one-science-fair-at-a-time-inventing-tomorrow You can order the movie for free at this Amazon link.
The Climate Trail - This free survival game created by video game developer William Volk for iOS, Android, macOS or Windows allows players to see what life may be like with unchecked greenhouse gases, drought, wildfires and other possible dystopian futures. Interested? Download it at https://www.theclimatetrail.com/
Board games - Five Commercial board games which investigate aspects of climate change and make good gifts for your favorite gamesters https://grist.org/climate/5-board-games-for-a-world-thats-falling-apart/
TED Talk - Want a pep talk on how and why to talk with people who don’t agree with you about the climate? Something most of us prefer to do is avoid conflict - but it doesn’t actually have to involve conflict! Here's one climate scientist who argues the single most important thing we can do for the planet is to talk with the doubters and the people who hesitate to act. Listen to her TED talk - it's pretty persuasive. https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_hayhoe_the_most_important_thing_you_can_do_to_fight_climate_change_talk_about_it?rss
Sea Story by A. S. Byatt - A poignant love story ending with environmental disaster, this short story by English writer and poet A. S. Byatt begins with romance and ends in darkness, not so much due to climate but to environmental pollution with the penetration of plastics into the food chain. Read it - it’s definitely worth the time. The complete story can be found at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/15/as-byatt-short-story-sea
© 2024. All rights reserved.
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.