100 Best Climate Change Books of All Time

Barack ObamaThe president also released a list of his summer favorites back in 2015: All That Is, James Salter The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr (Source)

Bill GatesThe Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert. Climate change is a big problem—one of the biggest we’ll face this century—but it’s not the only environmental concern on the horizon. Humans are putting down massive amounts of pavement, moving species around the planet, over-fishing and acidifying the oceans, changing the chemical composition of rivers, and more. Natural... (Source)

Jeff Bezos"In his autobiography, Walmart's founder expounds on the principles of discount retailing and discusses his core values of frugality and a bias for action — a willingness to try a lot of things and make many mistakes. Bezos included both in Amazon's corporate values," Brad Stone writes. (Source)

Elizabeth KolbertDavid Wallace-Wells argues that the impacts of climate change will be much graver than most people realize, and he's right. The Uninhabitable Earth is a timely and provocative work. (Source)

Shane ParrishI don't know a lot about climate change, but I'm interested in learning more in this big gnarly topic. Wallace-Wells offers a potential portrait of what could happen, using science to show us how our lives will almost inevitably change. He also explores possibilities for what living in this new world could do to politics, our economy, our health, etc. While outcomes are impossible to know with... (Source)

Jonathan Safran FoerMost of us know the gist, if not the details, of the climate change crisis. And yet it is almost impossible to sustain strong feelings about it. David Wallace-Wells has now provided the details, and with writing that is not only clear and forceful, but often imaginative and even funny, he has found a way to make the information deeply felt. (Source)

Peter KareivaThis is the ideal environmental sciences textbook—only it is too interesting and inspiring to be called a textbook. (Source)

Andreas KuhlmannDrawdown is an exceptional example of cooperation between some of the sharpest thinkers on climate and energy matters, an atlas that has the potential to save the planet. (Source)

John ElkingtonI am blown away by Drawdown. Like hearing an advance copy of Sergeant Pepper, back in the day. (Source)

Elon MuskI recommend people read a book called Merchants of Doubt. All they need to do is create doubt. (Source)

Dan BloomThe novel isn’t about global warming per se. It’s a fable, a poetic fable, with a strong cast of memorable characters. (Source)

James BradleyFlight Behaviour offers a counter-example to the argument social realism is not fit for purpose when it comes to climate change (Source)

Bill GatesI found this to be an interesting follow-up to the excellent Guns, Germs, and Steel. It examines the downfall of some of history's greatest civilizations. (Source)

Matthew YglesiasI wanted to get a book on my list that is actually enjoyable to read, so not everything is quite so dry and dull as a narrative. I also wanted to include something that reflects the growing importance of environmental and ecological concerns to progressive politics in America. This is relatively new to the agenda – it’s only been in the last 30 to 35 years. But going forward, one of the most... (Source)

Stefan LessardHe should read this book I’m almost finished with. Jared Diamond is one of my favorite historical authors. https://t.co/f9JLYlsc4v https://t.co/KtPgMZaWen (Source)

Naomi OreskesQuite a lot, as anyone who reads the book will see. It’s absolutely fascinating on a number of levels. First, we have a famous, articulate and politically astute novelist taking up the issue of climate change. I think that’s extremely important because one of the arguments that Amitav makes in this book, which I agree with one hundred percent, is that for too long this problem has been discussed... (Source)

Aleks KrotoskiWatts has been looking at the small world phenomenon to identify whether the web itself has shrunk our world, and in fact it hasn’t. (Source)

Rosamund McDougallIt’s a very fast-moving explicit scenario about what might happen on earth to all of us, with each degree of global warming temperature rise. (Source)

Barack ObamaAs 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved. It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before. Here’s my best of 2018... (Source)

Bill GatesThis was a breakthrough to me. The framework Hans enunciates is one that took me decades of working in global development to create for myself, and I could have never expressed it in such a clear way. I’m going to try to use this model moving forward. (Source)

Nigel WarburtonIt’s an interesting book, it’s very challenging. It may be over-optimistic. But it does have this startling effect on the readers of challenging widely held assumptions. It’s a plea to look at the empirical data, and not just assume that you know how things are now. (Source)

Gaia VinceField Notes was refreshing, a trailblazer. Kolbert actually went to communities affected, on the frontline of climate change. (Source)

Kate MarvelKolbert gives glimpses into what climate change actually means. She shows the interconnectedness of climate and ecosystems and society. (Source)

John GreenThis harrowing, compulsively readable, and carefully researched book lays out in clear-eyed detail what Earth's changing climate means for us today, and what it will mean for future generations... It's a thriller in which the hero in peril is us (Source)

Elizabeth KolbertJeff Goodell has taken on some of the most important issues of our time, from coal mining to geoengineering. In The Water Will Come, he explains the threat of sea level rise with characteristic rigor and intelligence. The result is at once deeply persuasive and deeply unsettling. (Source)

Daniel BryanLove @NaomiAKlein’s new book, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal. It makes powerful, compelling arguments for how we can not only combat climate change, but create a more just society in the process. Quotes and ideas in the thread #GreenNewDeal (Source)

Kwame Anthony AppiahFeels at the beginning like a series of short stories, each of which has some important thing about a tree or a kind of tree in it, but also holds some human character. You’d be a very strange person if you came away from this book not caring about what’s happening to the trees. (Source)

Sarah DryI had the experience of having the revelation that the author clearly hoped a reader would have, which is that what appears to be a book about distinct individuals—almost a book of short stories— turns out to be something more complex, in which all the characters are linked through time and space. (Source)

Martha Kearney@omrgriffiths @BBCPM @RobGMacfarlane Great idea. Loved that book. (Source)

Al GoreWhen the history of the climate crisis is written, Hansen will be seen as the scientist with the most powerful and consistent voice calling for intelligent action to preserve our planet's environment. (Source)

Mary RobinsonI’ve chosen Storms of my Grandchildren by the leading climate scientist James Hanson. Some 20 years ago, testifying in front of the US Congress, Hanson brought global warming to the world’s attention. What is of particular interest to me now is that he and I share a very real and personal concern; what future awaits our grandchildren if the world does not take appropriate action – NOW. (Source)

Mary RobinsonI’ve chosen Storms of my Grandchildren by the leading climate scientist James Hanson. Some 20 years ago, testifying in front of the US Congress, Hanson brought global warming to the world’s attention. What is of particular interest to me now is that he and I share a very real and personal concern; what future awaits our grandchildren if the world does not take appropriate action – NOW. (Source)

Matt HaigA brilliant book. Advocates a world war scale emergency response to climate change. And reminds us how much human behaviour can change for the better when the chips are down and we understand and FEEL like the stakes are high. https://t.co/GekPX3xwN0 (Source)

Matt HaigA brilliant book. Advocates a world war scale emergency response to climate change. And reminds us how much human behaviour can change for the better when the chips are down and we understand and FEEL like the stakes are high. https://t.co/GekPX3xwN0 (Source)

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Al Gore.@BillMcKibben’s new book “Falter” is a must-read for those grappling with hope and despair on the climate crisis. He paints a vivid portrait of the complex issues facing us as a species - and how we can move forward. I’m thankful to Bill for his leadership. (Source)

Ellen PageYou need to read @billmckibben’s new book, Falter. Truly. A must. Thank you @billmckibben for your endlessly inspiring and vital work. https://t.co/nTOyU14F4j (Source)

John KerryI’d start with Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, which looked at how pesticide use was harming, and in some cases killing, animals and humans, and really was the first book of its kind to illustrate this environmental destruction. I’ve been so involved in the environment for years and years and that has been a great guideline – it was really the awakening, if you will, to the environmental movement... (Source)

Adam WagnerVery excited to see the @ExtinctionR book in the wild! Some great essays and guides to protest. And turn to the back... https://t.co/RygUt78GvN (Source)

Barack ObamaHe may have the country’s finest experts at his fingertips, but it still doesn’t hurt to read up on environmental and economic issues. (Source)

Bill Gates[On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011.] (Source)

Jonathon PorrittThomas Friedman is an American commentator and a bit of a business guru. This book is lively, beautifully written, full of personal anecdotes. I should say that Friedman used to piss me off more than most other writers because he never talked about resources, climate change, population growth – these were invisible issues for him. Then, a few years ago, something changed and he started to address... (Source)

Fred KruppI love this message of hope and empowerment from @CFigueres former UNFCCC executive secretary. This book is exactly what we need. Get your copy today: https://t.co/XwRo3oQw0i https://t.co/VKpoJsZbiE (Source)

Bill GatesIf someone wants an overall view of how energy gets used, where it comes from, and the challenges in switching to new sources, this is the book to read. (Source)

Chris GoodallWhat the late David MacKay did was give us a rigorous understanding of the way that we use and generate energy. (Source)

Richard Betts@mark_lynas @nmrqip @ClimateAudit @Revkin @BillGates @UCSUSA @theCCCuk @rahmstorf Interesting that you think that. Maybe like Steve you encounter a vocal subset. I know many who are not anti-nuclear, especially since (a) Lovelock started talking about it (including at a Gaia meeting in Dartington in the mid-2000s) & (b) David Mackay published his famous book. (Source)

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

Matthew TaylorOryx and Crake is here because it’s about the logical conclusion of a whole set of processes that we could have called progress. In my lecture I talked about the logic of progress: the logic of science and technology, the logic of markets, the logic of bureaucracy. And if you want a wonderful dystopian vision of what happens if you take these forward without any recourse to ethical considerations... (Source)

Tim @RealscientistsThe theme of hopelessness was the most profound I thought, as the narrative rattles through the devastatingly self-conscious decay of the main character's mind, the echoes of his life writhing and senescing inside his withering brain. Please read this great book :) https://t.co/1XVpw92bbb (Source)

Naomi OreskesI chose this book for a couple of reasons. As you said, the politics of climate change is a difficult and dark subject and none of the books I have chosen so far is exactly an upbeat read. So, it is helpful in all this to find a way to keep a sense of humour. It’s not always easy but Tom Toles does that. And, of course, satire can be one of the most effective means of communication. So, I thought... (Source)

Mario Picazo@MichaelEMann @TomTolesToons Thanks! love the book! (Source)

Brian BoyerOne book that’ll be in my bag: Parable if the Sower. It’s a brilliant, prescient read and, like all of Butler’s work, has much to teach us about justice. But it’s also informed my thinking about teamwork, and (surprise!) project management. https://t.co/NrPd9uiV2c (Source)

Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)

George MonbiotThe Shock Doctrine explains some of the mechanisms by which patrimonial capital acquires power and enhances its wealth. It’s a brilliant piece of work, and one of those rare books that changes the way you perceive the world. (Source)

Mat WhitecrossIt starts with the theory that moments of crisis have been utilised by the right wing in the US and other countries to manipulate people into following their agenda. (Source)

Donna DickensonNaomi Klein’s argument is that capitalism actually requires deliberately engineered shocks to the economic systems. (Source)

Gaia VinceThe End of Nature is the fundamental book about the global planetary change that we’re undergoing. (Source)

Tim O'ReillyI am loving @KateRaworth’s book Doughnut Economics. It puts #inequality in a far broader context, connecting a great many 21st century problems with a single vision. Every business leader and every policy maker should read it. For a quick summary, see https://t.co/harwQvlLlC (Source)

George MonbiotDoughnut Economics tries to reconcile an environmental vision with the vision of widely shared prosperity. (Source)

Fernando Lelo Larrea🍩Amazing book by @KateRaworth #DoughnutEconomics . I really wish all my Economics students can read it. Fundamental rethinking of our science and what lays ahead. https://t.co/oWUL1TwSYh (Source)

John Lilly@fredmcclimans First author to win 3 Hugos in a row. So: not bad! First book strongest imho, but all of it great. (Source)

Jacquelyn Gill@MaraWilson It’s such an amazing book. One of my all-time favorites—and the entire trilogy is that strong! (Source)

Bill McKibbenVery few people have sounded more important alarms about our climate future, and very few people have paid a higher price for doing so. Michael Mann is a hero, and this book is a remarkable account of the science and politics of the defining issue of our time. (Source)

Bill NyeChanged the way most of us understood the natural history of Earth. Ours is only the second species known to be capable of changing the climate of an entire planet. (Source)

Leonardo DiCaprioCheck out Michael Mann's book "The Hockey Stick & the Climate Wars" about his battle against climate denialism. (Source)

Joe GebbiaWas hugely influential. (Source)

Kate RaworthHelped me to reimagine how industry could be designed to work with, rather than against, the cycles of the living world. (Source)

Naomi OreskesIt is a very dark book and, by recommending it, I’m not suggesting I necessarily agree with everything in it or even necessarily agree with his ultimately bleak assessment, but I do think it’s an extremely important book. I say that for two reasons. I think he’s fundamentally right about the essential point, which is that we have a tremendously difficult time assimilating just how serious this... (Source)

Bill Gates[On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012.] (Source)

Andrew CurryThis is such a depressing book. This is The Limits to Growth: The Thirty Year Update. A lot of people, what they remember about The Limits to Growth is it was published in 1971 and was completely lambasted by economists, technologists, lots and lots of people. What it has sitting underneath it is a model of the world, a model of the world economy, which links population, food, industrial... (Source)

Jonathon PorrittThis is a report produced in 1972, but it’s still as current now as it was then and is still available today. It was commissioned by the Club of Rome and produced by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. What they did was simply to look at projections for world population, industrialisation, pollution, food production and resource depletion and draw up models of what would happen to the earth in... (Source)

Dennis BushnellGwynne Dyer is one of the few who are both courageous enough to tell the unvarnished truth, and have the background to understand, not misrepresent the inputs. This book does a superb job of detailing the merging realities of climate/energy. These realities are not pretty. (Source)

Amory B. LovinsAnyone still complacent about climate change will find Climate Wars instructive and disturbing. These articulate insights into climate geopolitics by Gwynne Dyer are an important tool for understanding why the climate challenge is big, hard, and vital to human survival — yet soluble if we pay attention now. (Source)

Louise GrayIt’s a really powerful book and I know many people who it has made vegetarian. (Source)

Cal FlynJust out, and another one not to miss, is Jenny Offill’s Weather, her third novel and the follow-up to her wry, intelligent and heart-rending examination of marital infidelity, art and motherhood Dept. of Speculation, which cannot be recommended highly enough. As with Dept. of Speculation, Weather is built from fragments, some koan-esque and oblique, some directly reported, which Offill... (Source)

Alfred A. KnopfYou heard it here first: “the only book you need this February is WEATHER. It might be short, but it invites rereading, filled as it is with jokes, wry asides, brilliant observations, and, you know, pertinent information for surviving the years to come.” https://t.co/ajgR3Hxh8W (Source)

Leonardo DiCaprioThom Hartmann seeks out interesting subjects from such disparate outposts of curiosity that you have to wonder whether or not he uncovered them or they selected him. (Source)

Juliet DavenportI met Ian McEwan as part of the Cape Farewell programme. That is an organisation set up by a lovely man called David Buckland, who is a photographer and an artist. He wanted to create a social response to climate change. In other words, he wanted to get people like Ian McEwan to mix with the scientists and find out more about what is going on. So he took a lot of people – including Ian McEwan,... (Source)

Julian BondWhatever color you are, the green movement is your movement. I was proud to go to jail with Bill McKibben as a fellow protester against the Keystone XL pipeline. All you have to do is read this book. (Source)

Seth GodinNovels: The Windup Girl and Pattern Recognition are chock full of images and ideas that will stick with you for months. (Source)

Marvin LiaoMy list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make... (Source)

Jonathan Green@mmbrenn yes the best book i read last year without question. beautiful. harrowing. (Source)

Cal FlynHaving climbed the highest heights in his debut Mountains of the Mind, Macfarlane now dives down to the lowest of the lows. He goes caving in limestone caverns deep underground, rattles through salt mines under the sea in carts and stumbles across (literal) underground subcultures in the Paris catacombs, all interwoven with learned digressions into geological epochs and classical conceptions of... (Source)

Alastair HumphreysThe cleverest and nicest man in the world of travel writing has just published a brilliant new book which you should definitely buy. And so has @robgmacfarlane... 😂 https://t.co/7tWMRoB08W https://t.co/2UmUfDUqpt (Source)

Marvin LiaoMy list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make... (Source)

Adam MinterI like the book not only for being a thriller, but also because of the descriptions of how dangerous this work is, while someone else is getting rich off it. (Source)

Bill Gates[On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011.] (Source)

Carol GilliganThis asks why people with knowledge about climate change often fail to translate that knowledge into action. It describes many kinds of denial. (Source)

Juliet SchorNorway has high formal awareness of climate change. Yet Norgaard was in a skiing village with no snow and the villagers were all in denial about it. (Source)

Duncan ClarkHere’s a bit of light relief from the hardcore end of the discussion. How Bad are Bananas? was written by Mike Berners-Lee, whose job is to help businesses understand the carbon footprint of individual products. If Chris Goodall’s book is looking at technological solutions, this is looking at more lifestyle based solutions – lifestyle decisions that might be made by individuals or considered by... (Source)

David ShukmanThe book is not an easy read – at least sections of it aren’t. But it is remarkably clear about what science can do, and what it can’t. So a great phrase of his, which I like, is ‘Science always speaks with a conditional voice.’ There are always uncertainties about science. If you ask a serious climate scientist, ‘What is going to happen?’ their answer will be hedged around with uncertainties.... (Source)

Roger Pielke JrExplains not only why we have disagreements about climate change but why it’s important that we have such disagreements. (Source)

Matt RidleyIt’s a paean for three things he thinks the environmental movement should adopt and has got wrong. One is nuclear power, the other is GM food and the third is cities. (Source)

Bill GatesSmil is one of my favorite authors, and this is his masterpiece. He lays out how our need for energy has shaped human history—from the era of donkey-powered mills to today’s quest for renewable energy. It’s not the easiest book to read, but at the end you’ll feel smarter and better informed about how energy innovation alters the course of civilizations. (Source)

Chris GoodallThere isn’t a page you don’t learn something from. (Source)

Lexi AlexanderCongrats Doctor Hanna-Attisha. Well deserved. It’s a great book https://t.co/XgoMjECOOW (Source)

Ryan HolidayHoly shit, this book is good. Just holy shit. Even if it was just the main narrative–the chase to kill a man-eating Tiger in Siberia in post-communist Russia–it would be worth reading, but it is so much more than that. The author explains the Russian psyche, the psyche of man vs predator, the psyches of primitive peoples and animals, in such a masterful way that you’re shocked to find 1) that he... (Source)

TC BoyleSometimes nature strikes back, and in this book you really do root for the animal. (Source)