Quarterly Book Club

Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel about Our Changing Planet by Kate Marvel 

From the sellers: "A captivating exploration of climate change that uses nine different emotions to better understand the science, history, and future of our evolving planet. Scientist Kate Marvel has seen the world end before, sometimes several times a day. In the computer models she uses to study climate change, it’s easy to simulate rising temperatures, catastrophic outcomes, and bleak futures. But climate change isn’t just happening in those models. It’s happening here, to the only good planet in the universe. It’s happening to us. And she has feelings about that.  

Human Nature is a deeply felt inquiry into our rapidly changing Earth. In each chapter, Marvel uses a different emotion to explore the science and stories behind climate change. As expected, there is anger, fear, and grief—but also wonder, hope, and love. "

The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It by Genevieve Guenther 

"A groundbreaking investigation into the propaganda justifying the fossil-fuel economy, The Language of Climate Politics offers readers powerful new ways to talk about the climate crisis that will help create transformative change.

In an illuminating analysis, Dr. Genevieve Guenther shows that the climate debate is not, in fact, neatly polarized, with Republicans obstructing climate action and Democrats advancing climate solutions. Partisans on the right and the left often repeat the same fossil-fuel talking points, and this repetition produces a centrist consensus upholding the status quo, even as global heating accelerates.

What If We Get It Right? by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson 

Our climate future is not yet written. What if we act as if we love the future?  

Through clear-eyed essays and vibrant conversations, infused with data, poetry, and art, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson guides us through solutions and possibilities at the nexus of science, policy, culture, and justice. Visionary farmers and financiers, architects and advocates, help us conjure a flourishing future, one worth the effort it will take—from every one of us, with whatever we have to offer—to create.

Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie

Packed with the latest research, practical guidance, and enlightening graphics, this book will make you rethink almost everything you’ve been told about the environment. Not the End of the World will give you the tools to understand our current crisis and make lifestyle changes that actually have an impact.

I Want a Better Catastrophe by Andrew Boyd 

An existential manual for tragic optimists, can-do pessimists, and compassionate doomers. 

Fire Weather by John Vaillant

"An expansive book that is at once a gripping tale of calamity, a deft primer on the science of fire, a historical account of the rise of the fossil fuel industry, and a profoundly humane examination of the biological and political drivers of the climate crisis. Through its central story—an intimately told account of the catastrophic 2016 wildfire in Fort McMurray, a booming oil town in Alberta, Canada—John Vaillant offers a haunting and deeply-researched vision of our combustible future."

The Treeline by Ben Rawlence

For the last fifty years, the trees of the boreal forest have been moving north. The Treeline takes us along this critical frontier of our warming planet from Norway to Siberia, Alaska to Greenland, Canada to Sweden to meet the scientists, residents and trees confronting huge geological changes. It is a journey of wonder and awe at the incredible creativity and resilience of these species and the mysterious workings of the forest upon which we rely for the air we breathe. Blending reportage with the latest science, The Treeline is a story of what might soon be the last forest left and what that means for the future of all life on earth.

The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World by Roman Krznaric

What does it mean to be a “good ancestor”? Are there ways to internalise the rights of unborn future generations in our legal and economic frameworks? And perhaps most critically, why is it important to do so? As the consequences of short-term thinking threaten our environmental, social and economic stability, Krznaric proposes that we begin thinking long-term, not in terms of years or decades, but to plan with the centuries and millennia to come at the forefront of our minds. 

Not Too Late, edited by Rebecca Solnit

Guided by Rebecca Solnit’s typical clear-eyed wisdom and enriched by photographs and quotes, Not Too Late leads readers from discouragement to possibilities, from climate despair to climate hope.

Adventures in Ecoland by Barbara Greenleaf

Climate-focused book with a sense of humor ~ and now we know laughter is good medicine:) 

"In 43 short, personal essays such as, "Meat Me Halfway," "Bye, Bye Bathtub," and "Clothes, Clothes Everywhere and Not a Thing to Wear," I bring sustainability home.
I start out each piece with a cute anecdote. Then I go on to explain one particular, newsy, aspect of the environment, what organizations are working to improve the situation, and how each of us can pitch in. I include lots of background information plus motivating, eminently do-able actions that any non-scientific person can take. The object of my approach can be summed up as: 'You laugh and you learn.'"

Our Shared Storm, by Andrew Dana Hudson

Combining fiction and nonfiction and employing speculative tools for scholarly purposes, Our Shared Storm explores not just one potential climate future but five possible outcomes dependent upon our actions today.  

Hope Matters by Elin Kelsey

Hope Matters boldly breaks through the narrative of doom and gloom to show why evidence-based hope, not fear, is our most powerful tool for change. Kelsey shares real-life examples of positive climate news that reveal the power of our mindsets to shape reality, the resilience of nature, and the transformative possibilities of individual and collective action. And she demonstrates how we can build on positive trends to work toward a sustainable and just future, before it’s too late.

Generation Dread, by Britt Wray

In this book, Britt Wray seamlessly merges scientific knowledge with emotional insight to show how intense feelings are a healthy response to the troubled state of the world. The first crucial step toward becoming an engaged steward of the planet is connecting with our climate emotions, seeing them as a sign of humanity, and learning how to live with them. We must face and value eco-anxiety, Wray argues, before we can conquer the deeply ingrained, widespread reactions of denial and disavowal that have led humanity to this alarming period of ecological decline. 

Under the Sky We Make by Kimberly Nicholas

In her book, Nicholas does for climate science what Michael Pollan did more than a decade ago for the food on our plate: offering a hopeful, clear-eyed, and somehow also hilarious guide to effecting real change, starting in our own lives. Saving ourselves from climate apocalypse will require radical shifts within each of us, to effect real change in our society and culture. But it can be done. It requires, Dr. Nicholas argues, belief in our own agency and value, alongside a deep understanding that no one will ever hand us power—we are going to have to seize it for ourselves.

Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation, by Paul Hawken

Regeneration offers a visionary new approach to climate change, one that weaves justice, climate, biodiversity, equity, and human dignity into a seamless tapestry of action, policy, and transformation that can end the climate crisis in one generation. It describes how an inclusive movement can engage the majority of humanity to save the world from the threat of global warming, with climate solutions that directly serve our children, the poor, and the excluded. This means we must address current human needs, not future existential threats, real as they are, with initiatives that include but go well beyond solar, electric vehicles, and tree planting to include such solutions as the fifteen-minute city, bioregions, azolla fern, food localization, fire ecology, decommodification, forests as farms, and the number one solution for the world: electrifying everything.

EyeWitness: Minnesota Voices on Climate Change from Climate Generation

This book is a collection of short stories, poems, and artwork that speak to the diverse range of perspectives from Minnesotans and their experiences of climate change.