Books about climate change: reviewed
Here is a selection of books related to climate change for Climate Corner at Nailsworth Library. These were recommended by Dr Richard Erskine of NailsworthCAN who has provided short reviews of the books. Other book reviews will be added in due course. All these books are available to reserve through Nailsworth library.
'The Last Bear' by Hannah Gold is an inspiring story of a vulnerable yet fiercely brave 11 year old girl and a bear she befriends. It is an epic adventure of hopefulness that when twinned with action overcomes adversity. There are so many lessons subtly woven into this book - on love, loss, fear, hope, and climate change - with the lightest of touches and a lot of heart. A masterpiece.
Many of Greta Thunberg’s speeches at rallies, Parliaments, the United Nations and elsewhere are gathered in this collection ‘No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference’. Given our climate crisis and ecological breakdown, why isn’t action to deal with it our No. 1 priority, she asks? Few people have the depth of knowledge and insight she imparts. We must listen to this most powerful voice calling for action.
‘Climate Change’ by HRH The Prince of Wales, Tony Juniper and Emily Schuckburgh is a brief but comprehensive introduction to climate change - causes, impacts and solutions - from the Ladybird Expert series. It’s impressive how much ground is covered in such a compact book. For those wanting to dig deeper, an annex is provided by the Royal Meteorological Society on their website.
‘This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate’ by Naomi Klein is a powerful political book. It exposes the many forces and deep denial that have prevented concerted action on climate change, and the ethical issues arising from this. This book is not for the feint-hearted, but is a powerful call for action. The analogy between ending the dominance of fossil fuels and ending slavery is convincing: ultimately, it is a moral case that must be made, not merely an economic one.
If you ever wanted to know the carbon footprint of a tomato, a tonne of steel or your shower in the morning, then ‘How Bad Are Bananas: the carbon footprint of everything’ by Mike Berners-Lee is definitely the book for you. It is an entertaining but extremely useful book, packed with surprises. It is recommended to anyone wanting to understand the behavioural changes that will really make a difference.
Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense due to man-made global warming. What is new is the ability to say how much climate change increased the chance of a particular event. This is the extreme weather attribution science that Friederike Otto and others have pioneered. Her book ‘Angry Weather: Heat waves, floods, storms and the new science of climate change’ is a non-technical personal account of her journey into this revolutionary science. It is a powerful testimony and compelling read.
‘Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future’ by Elizabeth Kolbert is at times a darkly comical chronicle of the follies of mankind in its relationship with nature. Introducing a new species into a country to ‘solve’ one problem, only to create much worse; emitting so much CO2 that some are now imagining ways to shade the Earth. There is no end to our ignorance and lack of imagination as to dire unintended consequences. Madcap engineered solutions become the remedies of last resort, loaded with jeopardy and moral hazard.
‘There Is No Planet B: A handbook for the make or break years’ by Mike Berners-Lee is a practical yet visionary book. Practical, in that he has well researched answers to many questions: “Is local best?”, “How useful is wind energy?”, and numerous others. Visionary, in that he espouses the need for a new set of 21st Century ‘thinking skills’ that will enable everyone in society to negotiate solutions not just to climate change, but to all the injustices it exposes.
