The Atlas Of Disappearing Places: Our Coasts and Oceans In the Climate Crisis
Cristina Conklin and Marina Psaros. The New Press 2021
The authors have written stories about 20 different places around the Earth impacted by climate change. The changes are happening because the oceans are becoming more acidic, warming, having stronger storms, and rising levels. They discuss the ocean as a body with a disease.
The book combines science and art to tell stories about what has happened and the response to what has happened (e.g., New York city after Hurricane Sandy). Presented with each story is a “A View from 2050” that provides a glimpse to possible futures. They authors conclude with chapters entitled “What’s Next?”and “Towards Transilence”. Large leaps will be needed.
Recommend by Bill Jones
The Violence of Climate Change
Kevin J. O'Brien
Climate change is viewed as a primarily scientific, economic, or political issue. While acknowledging the legitimacy of these perspectives, O'Brien argues that we should respond to climate change first and foremost as a case of systematic and structural violence. Global warming is largely caused by the carbon emissions of the affluent, emissions that harm the poor first and worst. Climate change is violence because it divides human beings from one another and from the earth. O'Brien offers a constructive and creative response to this violence through practical examples of activism and nonviolent peacemaking.
Recommended by Greg Lewis
Oil, Power, and War: A Dark History
Matthieu Auzanneau
In this sweeping, unabashed history of oil, Matthieu Auzanneau takes a fresh, thought-provoking look at the way oil interests have commandeered politics and economies, changed cultures, disrupted power balances across the globe, and spawned wars. He upends commonly held assumptions about key political and financial events of the past 150 years, and he sheds light on what our oil-constrained and eventually post-oil future might look like.
Recommended by Steven Lesh
The Carbon Code, How You Can Become a Climate Change Hero
Brett Favoro
Our world is getting hotter, and it’s our fault. Our addiction to fossil fuels is destroying not only our ancient planet, but our modern civilization. How can we protect our fragile ecosystems while preserving our way of life? How can we respond to climate change deniers who mock the fact that environmental activists use fossil fuels? In short, how can your average concerned citizen live a normal life in a carbon-based economy without being justifiably called a hypocrite? In The Carbon Code, conservation biologist Brett Favaro answers these thorny questions, offering simple strategies to help you reduce your carbon footprint―without abandoning common sense.
Recommended by Evan Wise
Orbits and Ice Ages: The History of Climate
Dann Britt
Climate change has become a major political issue, but few understand how climate has changed in the past and the forces that drive climate. Most people don't know that fifty million years ago there were breadfruit trees and crocodiles on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, or that 18,000 years ago there was a mile-thick glacier on Manhattan and a continuous belt of winter sea ice extending south to Cape Hatteras. The History of Climate provides context of our current climate debate and fundamental insight how the climate works.
Recommended by Mark Day
The Future of Conservation in America, A Chart for Rough Waters
Gary Machlis & Jonathan Jarvis
85 pages
This is a turbulent time for the conservation of America’s natural and cultural heritage. From the current assaults on environmental protection to the threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, and disparity of environmental justice, the challenges facing the conservation movement are both immediate and long term. In this time of uncertainty, we need a clear and compelling guide for the future of conservation in America, a declaration to inspire the next generation of conservation leaders. This is that guide—what the authors describe as “a chart for rough water.”
Recommended by Ed Beshore