One of my goals for 2022 is to read *at least* one climate book a month. Here are the 12 books I’ve put on my “to read” list for the year. They are fiction and non-fiction, some are climate specific, while others are about broader environmental or sustainability topics. I hope there’s at least one book on this list that appeals to you. They are not written in any kind of order.

There’s not necessarily a logic to the books I’ve chosen, they’re just the ones that look most interesting to me. There are dozens of interesting climate books out there and even if you don’t read any of these, I’d encourage you to look for a book that appeals to you. Whether you want to learn more about the science, or some specific implication of climate change, whether you want to read a contrarian opinion or you want to learn how to talk with your kids about it, there are books out there.

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells – This book explores some worst-case scenarios for climate. Written by a novelist, it created quite an impact when it was published in 2019.

All We Can Save – Perhaps the antithesis if Well’s work, this is an anthology of stories about hope and climate. I believe all of the stories were written by women.

Half Earth by E.O. Wilson – The late Harvard professor was a champion of biodiversity. He was also my commencement speaker when I graduated college. He advocated for habitat conservation for most of his life, and proposed that we set aside 50% of the land and water for nature.

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson – The acclaimed novelists’ most recent work has shown up on a number of “best climate book” lists. This “Cli-fi” novel was published in 2020 and follows characters as they attempt to prevent the worst of climate change.

The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac – From the lead negotiators at the 2015 Paris Climate Summit, they present their vision for meeting the Paris goals and discuss the consequences if we fall short. I suspect this is will be the most approachable of the books. If you’ve never read a climate book before, it may make sense to start with this one.

Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change by George Marshall – Published in 2014, this book explores climate psychology. There are still millions of people who deny the reality of climate change, and hopefully this book can shed some light on how we can get through to them.

As Long as the Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock by Dina Gilio-Whitaker – Environmentalism has a serious racism problem and white voices are often elevated at the expense of everyone else. Indigenous people have been fighting for environmental justice for centuries and that history is often lost.

Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration and Homeland Security by Todd Miller: The UN estimates that there may be as many as 1 billion climate refugees by 2050. That number dwarfs all previous refugee crises and our systems simply aren’t prepared to handle it. The vast majority of these people will be come from poor tropical countries and threaten to overwhelm temperate climate havens.

Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope by Katharine Hayhoe: One doesn’t usually associate evangelical Christianity with climate action, but that’s exactly who Katharine Hayhoe is. In fact she’s often accused of being a false Christian because of it. This books is specifically aimed at climate activists who are trying to connect with so-called climate skeptics, particular if they are conservative Christians. Hayhoe argues that the messenger is often more important than the actual message. Someone without credibility will never be convincing.

Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in on generation by Paul Hawken – A sequel to Hawken’s book Drawdown, this book goes beyond net zero emissions and into something he calls the “regeneration” movement. I suspect this will be the most ambitious and optimistic of all the books on the list.

The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World by Roman Krznaric – Climate change is a multigenerational problem. We will not see the full effects in our lifetimes, whether we do everything right or we completely fail. Our cultural outlook has become extremely short-term, and it has pretty significant consequences. Long-term thinking has a rich history in many cultures around the world, but it’s sadly lacking in our modern, hectic, American-style culture that predominates at the moment.

Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth – This may be the most technical book on the list. I’ve seen Raworth speak about her theory, which is simple in principle if not in practice. Imagine the world is two concentric circles. The smaller circle represents the minimum amount of resources needed for everyone on earth to have a decent standard of living. The larger circle represents the maximum resources we can use sustainably. The goal is to stay between those two circles, this area is referred to as the doughnut.

I’d be very interested to know if anyone reads these and what their opinions are.

Next week I plan to discuss the most important climate actions we can take as individuals.

That’s all for now, stay safe and have a nice (long) weekend.

How to Prepare for Climate Change by David Pogue is a reference guide for dealing with the changing climate. Rather than single narrative structure, it is more of a reference book. You may find that you don’t need to read it from cover to cover to get the full value from the book.

The overwhelming sense you get is one of inevitability. Pogue acknowledges that life will not go back to the way it was, and he tries to give us tools to help us deal with the coming changes. He admits in the beginning that each chapter is a fairly high level look at each topic, and that it would make sense for the reader to delve deeper into the topics that are relevant to them.

Pogue starts with an overview of the changes we can expect, and makes it clear that things are going to get worse before they get better. He then covers a basic overview of climate science before getting into the heart of the book. Each chapter covers a different climate topic from the perspective of an individual. Largely written for a suburban homeowner, if you’re a renter or an urban resident you may find some of the content a little irrelevant (unless, like me, you plan to move out to the suburbs at some point in the future).

The focus of the book in on personal resilience, in fact the first chapter covers mental resilience. I like this apporoach because I do think that mental resilience is the bedrock of physical and financial resilience.

Chapter 3 is an interesting look at the geography (in the United States) of climate change impacts. He speculates which areas of the country will be the most insulated from climate change. He starts with two simple rules: move away from the coasts, and move north. He concludes that the Great Lakes and Pacific Northwest are going to be the most livable areas in the country by mid century. Pogue presents a future where people are leaving cities like Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Las Vegas for climate havens like Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee, and Detroit, essentially a reversal of the previous 70 years of US internal migrations.

But, of course pulling up stakes and moving is a pretty serious endeavor and not everyone can or is willing to do it. After all, not everyone fled the Dust Bowl for California. For those who plan to shelter in place, Pogue offers advice on improvements they can do to their homes to make themselves more resilient. Again, this is largely targeted at homeowners. Renters can’t exactly install a new water storage and filtration system, or completely replace their insulation. He goes through a number of extreme weather events that are forecasted to increase over time, like droughts, floods, storms, and especially heat waves. Of course, not all areas will be equally effected by these events and the reader is welcome to pick and choose the chapters they read.

For these subsequent chapters, the discussion is cursory at best. However, it is very useful to think about these various impacts and decide which ones are worth a deeper look (using other books and resources). I learned a lot from the chapter on water storage and filtration, I had never really thought about water but Pogue convinced me that I probably should. I think for people who are not in the sustainability or construction fields, Pogue’s chapters will be digestible and informative. After all, most of us won’t be doing these improvements ourselves, so maybe we don’t need to do a deep dive on how solar panels work or the R factor of various insulation materials.

Pogue ends with a discussion of the social chaos he expects to see. Of the topics discussed, this one is the most difficult to predict. To be honest, this part did not interest me as much. I think we’ve all learned over the past 18 months what to expect in a crisis, and we can probably predict how things will go if there is a water shortage or persistent heat waves.

Overall, I’d say this book is worth having on your bookshelf, especially if you live in the suburbs. Many of the improvements are probably cost effective and you can make them incrementally over time. The chapter on climate geography is especially enlightening and Pogue offers a number of helpful resources for determining just how vulnerable your property is. He gives links for government sites that show projected sea level rise, flood susceptibility, and other events. Even if you don’t plan to move, then you can at least try to prepare for the most likely disasters.

If you plan to live in an apartment for the next few decades, then I’m not sure how useful this is.

Overall, I think Pogue accomplished what he set out to do, and I would recommend adding How to Prepare for Climate Change to your reading list.

I love reading lists. I love the connective tissue between the titles, and the way a reading list builds on itself. Outside of a formal education setting, a reading list by a qualified recommender is one of the best ways to educate yourself on a topic.

The five titles were influential in my journey to understand and visualize climate change. You may be surprised, since only two of them are explicitly about climate, while the others are about connected subjects. One of them is a novel, while the other four are non-fiction. I don’t think it is necessary to read them in any order, and you may have already read some of them. I offer them here as a suggestion, and hope they can enrich your understand of climate and the challenges we face, as well as how we can adapt.

1. Creating Climate Wealth by Jigar Shah

If I can recommend one book about climate, it’s this one. Shah is one of my personal heroes, he currently runs the lending program at the Department of Energy, and after reading this book I think you will understand why. The takeaway is that climate change is an enormous opportunity to create wealth, and to dramatically improve our society in ways we don’t really understand yet. By approaching it like an opportunity rather than a threat, we change the psychology of the issue. We can use climate investment to build wealth, bring people out of poverty, and raise the global standard of living.

2. Animal ,Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Kingsolver is a novelist by trade, but this is a memoir. She and her family determined to grow their own food for an entire year, and she presents a funny, poignant and often difficult look at the challenges of doing so. This book is a must read for anyone who thinks they’re going to become more self-sufficient, particularly if they plan to grow their own food. As the climate becomes less stable, food resources may become more difficult, especially those that require specific climatic conditions to grow (like wine). Anyone with a plot of land may feel compelled to supplement their grocery budget with some home grown produce (or even meat, as Kingsolver did), I suggest they read this book before they do so.

3. The Grid by Gretchen Bakke

Bakke takes one of the driest and probably least sexy subjects around and makes it readable. This book is not exactly reassuring, and will have many readers wondering how they can secure their own access to electricity. As we’ve seen this year, extreme weather wrecks havoc on the grid, and long-term power outages will become more common. We will need heavy investment in the grid if we’re going to provide reliable acess

4. The Soil Will Save Us by Kristin Ohlson

This book really opened my eyes when I read it. Like most people these days, I was not very familiar with soil carbon. It turns out the precious topsoil that we’ve been losing at an alarming rate is also a major carbon sink. By implementing soil-saving, carbon-building practices, farmers can offset a significant amount of our carbon emissions. This would also have multiple benefits beyond reducing atmospheric carbon. If you want to understand the carbon cycle and the role that agriculture plays in climate stability, I’d highly recommend this book.

5. The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

This excellent novel by one of the best science fiction authors ever is far more complex than a typical post-apocalyptic story. What makes it interesting for us is that the apocalypse is not some surprise cataclysm like an alien invasion or a sudden catastrophe, the apocalypse is climate change. Butler presents a very realistic and vivid picture of what could very well happen in certain communities as the planet warms and the climate disabilizes. Issues of race, inequality, violence, and government neglect are presented in naked and at times gut-wrenching fashion. This book is well worth a read under its own merits, but for anyone who has trouble imagining what life might be like in a few decades, this work is a good place to start.