Eco Reading by

There is no Planet B by Mike Berners-Lee

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:17:03 UTC

Feeding the world, climate change, biodiversity, antibiotics, plastics, pandemics - the list of concerns seems endless. But what is most pressing, and what should we do first? Do we all need to become vegetarian? How can we fly in a low-carbon world? How can we take control of technology? And, given the global nature of the challenges we now face, what on Earth can any of us do, as individuals? Mike Berners-Lee has crunched the numbers and plotted a course of action that is full of hope, practical, and enjoyable. This is the big-picture perspective on the environmental and economic challenges of our day, laid out in one place, and traced through to the underlying roots - questions of how we live and think.

100 Things to Know about Saving the Planet by Jerome Martin

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:17:16 UTC

How could plastic-eating bacteria help reduce waste? Can a river be given human rights? Could we generate all the power we need from the sun and the wind? How do woolly sweaters help penguins in peril? Would building a giant sunshade in space stop the world from overheating? Find the answers to these questions and more in this exciting book full of big, small and unexpected ways to save the planet.

The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres & Tom Rivett-Carnac

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:17:29 UTC

We can survive the climate crisis. This book shows us how. We have two choices for our future, which is still unwritten. It will be shaped by who we choose to be right now. So, how can we change the story of the world? The Future We Choose is a passionate call to arms from former UN Executive Secretary for Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, and Tom Rivett-Carnac, senior political strategist for the Paris Agreement. We are still able to stave off the worst and manage the long-term effects of climate change, but we have to act now. We know what we need to do, and we have everything we need to do it. Practical, optimistic and empowering, The Future We Choose is a book for every generation, for all of us who feel powerless in the face of the climate crisis. This is the final hour: it can be our finest. But we must act now.

No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:17:40 UTC

The history-making, ground-breaking speeches of Greta Thunberg, the young activist who has become the voice of a generation 'Everything needs to change. And it has to start today' In August 2018 a fifteen-year-old Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, decided not to go to school one day. Her actions ended up sparking a global movement for action against the climate crisis, inspiring millions of pupils to go on strike for our planet, forcing governments to listen, and earning her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. This book brings you Greta in her own words, for the first time. Collecting her speeches that have made history across Europe, from the UN to mass street protests, No One Is Too Small to Make A Difference is a rallying cry for why we must all wake up and fight to protect the living planet, no matter how powerless we feel. Our future depends upon it.

How to Change Everything by Naomi Klein

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:17:50 UTC

The first book for younger readers by internationally bestselling social activist Naomi Klein: the most authoritative and inspiring book on climate change for young people yet.

Warming seas. Superstorms. Fires in the Amazon. The effects of climate change are all around us. Reforestation. School-strikes for climate change. Young people are saving the world and you can join them because you deserve better. Are you ready to change everything? From the Great Barrier Reef to Hurricane Katrina to school environmental policies to Greta Thunberg - climate change impacts every aspect of the world you live in and you have the power to lead the way by enacting change.

The Climate Book ed. by Greta Thunberg

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:18:02 UTC

We still have time to change the world. From the world's leading climate activist, this is the essential book for making it happen. Created by Greta Thunberg in partnership with over 100 climate experts working around the globe, with her commentaries throughout and updates for this new paperback edition to reflect the latest research, The Climate Book equips us with knowledge, and gives us hope.

Our Biggest Experiment by Alice Bell

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:18:13 UTC

Alice Bell takes us back to climate change science's earliest steps in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to the advancing realisation that global warming was a significant problem in the 1950s and right up to today, where we have seen the growth of the environmental movement, climate scepticism and political responses like the UN climate talks. As citizens of the twenty-first century, it can feel like history has dealt us a rather bad hand in the climate crisis. In many ways, this is true. Our ancestors have left us an almighty mess. But they left us tools for survival too, and Our Biggest Experiment tells both sides of the story. The message of the book is ultimately hopeful; harnessing the ingenuity and intelligence that has long driven the history of climate change research can mean a more sustainable and bearable future for humanity.

Climate Change for Beginners by Andy Prentice

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:18:25 UTC

Climate Change is having an enormous impact on the world around us. This book uses simple language and vivid illustrations to explain complex questions clearly. How does the climate work? What are we doing to change it? What can we do differently to avoid the worst outcomes? Why do we all find change so hard?

Plastic Soup by Michiel Roscam Abbing

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:18:38 UTC

Plastics have transformed every aspect of our lives. Yet the very properties that make them attractive--they are cheap to make, light, and durable--spell disaster when trash makes its way into the environment. Plastic Soup: An Atlas of Ocean Pollution is a beautifully-illustrated survey of the plastics clogging our seas, their impacts on wildlife and people around the world, and inspirational initiatives designed to tackle the problem. In Plastic Soup, Michiel Roscam Abbing of the Plastic Soup Foundation reveals the scope of the issue: plastic trash now lurks on every corner of the planet. With striking photography and graphics, Plastic Soup brings this challenge to brilliant life for readers. Yet it also sends a message of hope; although the scale of the problem is massive, so is the dedication of activists working to check it. Plastic Soup highlights a diverse array of projects to curb plastic waste and raise awareness, from plastic-free grocery stores to innovative laws and art installations.

Save the World: There is No Planet B by Louise Bradford

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:18:44 UTC

There is little doubt that our beautiful planet is now under huge threat; our weather is more extreme, plastic litters our oceans, industrial production and farming methods wreak havoc on the environment and mass deforestation has led to the extinction of many species. Carry on this way and it's almost certain that sea levels will continue to rise, there will be extreme heatwaves, loss of the polar ice caps and mass pollution; in short, a very worrying future for us all. We need to take action before it's too late, and we can all do our bit to help. This guide is full of simple tips we can all incorporate into our daily lives, and will demonstrate how small eco-friendly changes can have a huge positive effect on the world around us. They might even save the planet.

Our Final Warning by Mark Lynas

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:18:52 UTC

We are living in a climate emergency. But how much worse could it get? Will civilisation collapse? Are we already past the point of no return? What kind of future can our children expect? Rigorously cataloguing the very latest climate science, Mark Lynas explores the course we have set for Earth over the next century and beyond. Degree by terrifying degree, he charts the likely consequences of global heating and the ensuing climate catastrophe. These escalating consequences can still be avoided, but time is running out.

The Book of Hope by Jane Goodall & Douglas Abrams

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:19:02 UTC

Looking at the headlines?the worsening climate crisis, loss of biodiversity, political upheaval?it can be hard to feel optimistic. And yet hope has never been more desperately needed. In this urgent book, Jane Goodall, the world's most famous living naturalist, and Douglas Abrams, the bestselling co-author of The Book of Joy, explore through intimate and thought-provoking dialogue one of the most sought after and least understood elements of human nature: hope. In The Book of Hope, Jane focuses on her "Four Reasons for Hope": The Amazing Human Intellect, The Resilience of Nature, The Power of Young People, and The Indomitable Human Spirit.

Fire Weather by John Valliant

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:20:18 UTC

In May 2016, Fort McMurray, Alberta, the hub of Canada's oil industry, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster turned entire neighbourhoods into firebombs and drove 90,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon. Through the story of this apocalyptic conflagration, John Vaillant explores the past and the future of our ever-hotter, more flammable world. For hundreds of millennia, fire has been a partner in our evolution, shaping culture and civilization. Yet in our age of intensifying climate change, we are seeing its destructive power unleashed in ways never before witnessed by human beings. With masterly prose and cinematic style, Vaillant delves into the intertwined histories of the oil industry and climate science, the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern wildfires, and the lives forever changed by these disasters. Fire Weather is urgent reading for our new century of fire.

Check out our Cli-Fi eco fiction list!

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:20:41 UTC

Hope in Hell by Jonathon Porritt

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:21:39 UTC

Climate change is the defining issue of our time. We know, beyond reasonable doubt, what the science now tells us. Just as climate change is accelerating, so too must we – summoning up a greater sense of urgency, courage and shared endeavour than humankind has ever seen before. And we don’t get to defer this endeavour even as we struggle to bring the continuing pandemic under control. Indeed, it’s crucial that we use this moment to promote economic recovery in a way that simultaneously addresses the Climate Emergency. Fortunately, more and more people around the world now realise this is going to be a massive challenge for the rest of their lives. In Hope in Hell, Porritt confronts that dilemma head on. He believes we still have time to do what needs to be done, but only if we move now – and move together. In this ultimately upbeat book, he explores all these reasons to be hopeful: new technology; the power of innovation; the mobilisation of young people – and a sense of intergenerational solidarity as older generations come to understand their own obligation to secure a safer world for their children and grandchildren.

Breathe by Sadiq Khan

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:21:45 UTC

Seven ways green politics goes wrong. Seven ways to get it back on track. Fatalism. Apathy. Cynicism. Deprioritisation. Hostility. Cost. Gridlock. When green campaigners and politicians lose the debate, this is why. Now, the Mayor of London draws on a decade in the corridors (and cycle lanes) of power to explain how, in practice, to win the climate argument. His book will help create a world where we can all breathe again.

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times by Paul Behrens

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:21:58 UTC

The environmental emergency is the greatest threat we face. Preventing it will require an unprecedented political and social response. And yet, there is still hope. Academic, physicist, environmental expert and award-winning science communicator Paul Behrens presents a radical dual analysis of a civilisation on the brink of catastrophe. Setting out the pressing existential threats we face, he writes, in alternating chapters, of what the future could look like, at its most optimistic and pessimistic, and details the steps we can take to ensure our survival. In lucid and clear-sighted prose, Behrens argues that structural problems need structural solutions, and examines critical areas in which political will is necessary, including women’s education, food and energy security, biodiversity and economics.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:22:40 UTC

Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide toward certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions-suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise.

This Book Will Save the Planet by Dany Sigwalt

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:22:52 UTC

Our planet is in crisis. The ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, wildfires are raging… and those most affected by global warming are marginalised communities across the globe. But all is not lost – there’s still time for each and every one of us to make a difference. Through the lens of intersectionality, author Dany Sigwalt lays out the framework for how we can come together to fight climate change, and how we can work to put people over profit. The planet is not protected if all its inhabitants are not; the people are not protected if the planet they inhabit is not. In this book, you will:

Discover the core principles of climate justice
Learn how solidarity, community and mutual aid can change the world
Find out how to use your privilege to stand-up for other people

A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:23:07 UTC

I am David Attenborough. At time of writing, I am 93 years old. I've had an extraordinary life. It's only now that I appreciate how extraordinary. As a young man, I felt I was out there in the wild, experiencing the untouched natural world - but it was an illusion. The tragedy of our time has been happening all around us, barely noticeable from day to day - the loss of our planet's wild places, its biodiversity. I have been witness to this decline. A Life on Our Planet contains my witness statement, and my vision for the future - the story of how we came to make this, our greatest mistake, and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right. We have the opportunity to create the perfect home for ourselves and restore the wonderful world we inherited.

Earthshot by Colin Butfield

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:23:21 UTC

The Earthshot concept is simple: Urgency + Optimism = Action. We have ten years to turn the tide on the environmental crisis, but we need the world's best solutions and one shared goal - to save our planet. It's not too late, but we need collective action now. The Earthshots are unifying, ambitious goals for our planet which, if achieved by 2030, will improve life for all of us, for the rest of life on Earth, and for generations to come.

The Great Melt by Alister Doyle

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:24:23 UTC

The time for action is now. The fate of the world’s coasts rests on a knife edge as global warming melts ice sheets and glaciers from the Alps to the Andes. The choices we make now will determine whether oceans rise by a coast-swamping 1 metre by 2100 or whether we can save our coastal communities. From the glaciers of Antarctica and the high Andes, to the small island states of the Pacific and the coastal cities of Miami, New York, Venice and Rotterdam – Alister Doyle tracks the thaw that threatens life as we know it, shining a light on the most vulnerable people at the shoreline who are already moving inland, on the scientists puzzling about what is going on, and on the ideas about how to limit the damage.

Climate Emergency Atlas by Dan Hooke

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:24:32 UTC

Our house is on fire - it's time to wake up to the climate crisis facing planet Earth before it's too late. Which countries generate the highest CO2 emissions? Which coastal cities are most vulnerable to rising sea levels? What will the polar ice caps look like in 10 years' time? Which countries have successfully harnessed renewable energy sources? This unique graphic altas tells you everything you need to know about the current climate emergency, and what we can do to turn things around. Packed with facts and figures and more than 30 dynamic maps, Climate Emergency Atlas is clear and easy to understand, making it the perfect reference guide for all young climate activists.

Guardians of the Planet by Clive Gifford

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:24:52 UTC

This environmentally positive book contains everything children need to become guardians of the planet. Kids can learn how to become keepers of the coasts, friends of the forests, home heroes and much more through a mix of compelling facts, creative activities and proactive tips. Key environmental topics are clearly explained, and the easy-to-follow projects and suggestions help to put the issues in an everyday context. From reusing clothes and composting food to reducing water waste and giving wildlife a helping hand, this book will encourage children to engage with environmental problems and inspire them to take care of our wonderful planet.

Tomorrow is Too Late ed. by Grace Maddrell

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:25:03 UTC

In Tomorrow Is Too Late, Grace Maddrell collects testimonies of activism and hope from young climate strikers, from Brazil and Burundi to Pakistan and Palestine. These youth activists are experiencing the reality of the climate crisis, including typhoons, drought, flood, fire, crop failure and ecological degradation, and are all engaged in the struggle to bring these issues to the centre of the world stage. Their strength and determination show the urgency of their cause, and their understanding that the generations above them have failed to safeguard their environment. With contributors aged between eight and twenty-five, this is an inspiring collection of essays from the most vital generation of voices in the global struggle for climate justice, and offers a manifesto for how you can engage, educate, and inspire change for a more hopeful future.

The Ecology Book

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:25:17 UTC

Your Ecological Questions, Simply Explained: How do species interact with each other and their environment? How do ecosystems change? What is biodiversity and can we afford to damage it? This fresh new guide looks at our influence on the planet as it grows, and answers these profound questions. If you thought it was difficult to learn about this field of science, The Ecology Book presents the information in an easy to follow layout. Learn the key theories, movements, and events in biology, geology, geography, and environmentalism from the ideas of classical thinkers in this comprehensive guide.

Race for Tomorrow by Simon Mundy

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:26:03 UTC

In this compelling journey through twenty-six countries, Simon Mundy traces how the struggle to respond to the climate crisis is rapidly reshaping the modern world - shattering communities, shaking global business and propelling waves of cutting-edge innovation. Telling unforgettable human stories, meeting scientists and business tycoons, activists and political leaders, this is an account of disaster and survival, of frantic adaptation and groundbreaking innovation, of hope, and of the forces that will define our future.

Hot Air by Peter Stott

FHS_Library — 2024-10-15 09:27:03 UTC

Ours is the age of global warming. Rising sea levels, extreme weather, forest fires. Dire warnings are everywhere, so why has it taken so long for the crisis to be recognised? Here, for the first time, climate scientist Peter Stott reveals the bitter fight to get international recognition for what, among scientists, has been known for decades: human activity causes climate change. Across continents and against the efforts of sceptical governments, prominent climate change deniers and shadowy lobbyists, Hot Air is the urgent story of how the science was developed, how it has been repeatedly sabotaged and why humanity hasn't a second to spare in the fight to halt climate change.

Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie

FHS_Library — 2024-11-11 08:22:17 UTC

We are bombarded by doomsday headlines that tell us the soil won't be able to support crops, fish will vanish from our oceans, that we should reconsider having children. But in this bold, radically hopeful book, data scientist Hannah Ritchie argues that if we zoom out, a very different picture emerges. The data shows we've made so much progress on these problems, and so fast, that we could be on track to achieve true sustainability for the first time in history. 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, from the virtues of eating locally and living in the countryside, to the evils of overpopulation, plastic straws and palm oil. It will give you the tools to understand what works, what doesn't and what we urgently need to focus on so we can leave a sustainable planet for future generations. These problems are big. But they are solvable. We are not doomed. We can build a better future for everyone. Let's turn that opportunity into reality.

The Physics of Climate Change by Lawrence M Krauss

FHS_Library — 2024-11-11 08:23:20 UTC

The news is full of hotly debated and divergent claims about the impacts and risks of climate change. Lawrence Krauss, one of the world’s most respected physicists and science popularizers, cuts through the confusion by succinctly presenting the underlying science of climate change. The Physics of Climate Change provides a clear, accurate and accessible perspective on climate science and the risks of global inaction. Krauss’s narrative explores the history of how scientists progressed to our current understanding of the Earth’s climate and its future. Its generous complement of informative diagrams and illustrations allows readers to assess which climate predictions are securely based on analysis of empirical data, and which are more speculative.

Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet by George Monbiot

FHS_Library — 2024-11-11 18:38:53 UTC

Farming is the world's greatest cause of environmental destruction - and the one we are least prepared to talk about. We criticise urban sprawl, but farming sprawls across thirty times as much land. We have ploughed, fenced and grazed great tracts of the planet, felling forests, killing wildlife, and poisoning rivers and oceans to feed ourselves. Yet millions still go hungry. Now the food system itself is beginning to falter. But, as George Monbiot shows us in this brilliant, bracingly original new book, there is another way.Regenesis is a breathtaking vision of a new future for food and for humanity. Drawing on astonishing advances in soil ecology, Monbiot reveals how new discoveries about the world beneath our feet could allow us to grow more food with less farming, and transform our relationship with the living planet. He meets the people who are unlocking these methods, from the fruit and vegetable grower who is revolutionising our understanding of fertility; through breeders of perennial grains, liberating the land from ploughs and poisons; to the scientists pioneering new ways to grow protein and fat. Together, they show how the tiniest life forms could help us resolve the biggest of our dilemmas: how to feed the world without devouring the planet.

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate by Naomi Klein

FHS_Library — 2024-11-11 18:44:39 UTC

Forget everything you think you know about global warming. It's not about carbon - it's about capitalism. The good news is that we can seize this existential crisis to transform our failed economic system and build something radically better. Klein exposes the myths that are clouding the climate debate. You have been told the market will save us, when in fact the addiction to profit and growth is digging us in deeper every day. You have been told it's impossible to get off fossil fuels when in fact we know exactly how to do it - it just requires breaking every rule in the "free-market" playbook: reining in corporate power, rebuilding local economies and reclaiming our democracies. You have also been told that humanity is too greedy and selfish to rise to this challenge. In fact, all around the world, the fight back for the next economy is already succeeding in ways both surprising and inspiring. Climate change, Klein argues, is a civilizational wake-up call, a powerful message delivered in the language of fires, floods, storms, and droughts. Confronting it is no longer about changing the light bulbs. It's about changing the world - before the world changes so drastically that no one is safe.

Either we leap - or we sink.

How to Manage Your Eco-Anxiety by Anouchka Grose

FHS_Library — 2024-11-12 08:30:02 UTC

Drawing on years of experience as a psychoanalyst, Anouchka Grose shares cutting-edge insights on how to manage your eco-anxiety. You’ll find out how to validate your emotions. You’ll learn how to build your resilience. You’ll even discover the comfort that can be found in your community. Ten accessible steps will help you understand your eco-anxiety, and the toolkit at the end of each step will allow you to grow with the knowledge and learn how your are part of the solution. You'll finish this book feeling equipped with the solutions and practical action needed to make a real difference to the planet, to others, and to yourself.

Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty

FHS_Library — 2024-11-12 08:31:39 UTC

Diary of a Young Naturalist chronicles the turning of 15-year-old Dara McAnulty's world. From spring and through a year in his home patch in Northern Ireland, Dara spent the seasons writing. These vivid, evocative and moving diary entries about his connection to wildlife and the way he sees the world are raw in their telling. Diary of a Young Naturalist portrays Dara's intense connection to the natural world, and his perspective as a teenager juggling exams and friendships alongside a life of campaigning. "In writing this book," Dara explains, "I have experienced challenges but also felt incredible joy, wonder, curiosity and excitement. In sharing this journey my hope is that people of all generations will not only understand autism a little more but also appreciate a child's eye view on our delicate and changing biosphere."

How Bad Are Bananas? by Mike Berners-Lee

FHS_Library — 2024-11-12 08:32:46 UTC

How Bad Are Bananas? was a groundbreaking book when first published in 2009, when most of us were hearing the phrase 'carbon footprint' for the first time. Mike Berners-Lee set out to inform us what was important (aviation, heating, swimming pools) and what made very little difference (bananas, naturally packaged, are good!). This new edition updates all the figures (from data centres to hosting a World Cup) and introduces many areas that have become a regular part of modern life - Twitter, the Cloud, Bitcoin, electric bikes and cars, even space tourism. Berners-Lee runs a considered eye over each area and gives us the figures to manage and reduce our own carbon footprint, as well as to lobby our companies, businesses and government. His findings, presented in clear and even entertaining prose, are often surprising. And they are essential if we are to address climate change.

The Nutmeg's Curse by Amitav Ghosh

FHS_Library — 2025-04-17 17:28:22 UTC

The history of the nutmeg is one of conquest and exploitation - of both human life and the natural environment - and the origin of our contemporary climate crisis. Tracing the threats to our future to the discovery of the New World and the sea route to the Indian Ocean, The Nutmeg's Curse argues that the dynamics of climate change are rooted in a centuries-old geopolitical order constructed by Western colonialism. The story of the nutmeg becomes a parable revealing the ways human history has always been entangled with earthly materials - spices, tea, sugarcane, opium, and fossil fuels. Our crisis, Ghosh shows, is ultimately the result of a mechanistic view of the earth, where nature exists only as a resource for humans to use for our own ends, rather than a force of its own, full of agency and meaning.

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells

FHS_Library — 2025-04-17 17:31:25 UTC

It is worse, much worse, than you think. The slowness of climate change is a fairy tale, perhaps as pernicious as the one that says it isn't happening at all, and if your anxiety about it is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible, even within the lifetime of a teenager today. Over the past decades, the term "Anthropocene" has climbed into the popular imagination - a name given to the geologic era we live in now, one defined by human intervention in the life of the planet. But however sanguine you might be about the proposition that we have ravaged the natural world, which we surely have, it is another thing entirely to consider the possibility that we have only provoked it, engineering first in ignorance and then in denial a climate system that will now go to war with us for many centuries, perhaps until it destroys us. In the meantime, it will remake us, transforming every aspect of the way we live-the planet no longer nurturing a dream of abundance, but a living nightmare.

Field Notes from a Catastrophe: A Frontline Report on Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert

FHS_Library — 2025-04-17 17:33:03 UTC

Elizabeth Kolbert's environmental classic Field Notes from a Catastrophe first developed out of a groundbreaking, award-winning three-part series in The New Yorker. She expanded it into a still-concise yet richly researched and damning book about climate change: a primer on the greatest challenge facing the world today. In the years since, the story has continued to develop; the situation has become more dire, even as our understanding of it grows. Now Kolbert returns to the defining book of her career, with new chapters on ocean acidification, the tar sands, and a Danish town that's gone carbon neutral. Field Notes from a Catastrophe remains as necessary as ever, and a must-read for our moment.

High Tide: How Climate Crisis is Engulfing Our Planet by Mark Lynas

FHS_Library — 2025-04-17 17:34:01 UTC

The No Logo of climate change – a book that shows how global warming is not a theory we should still debate, but something that has already happened on a global scale. Climate change is not a concern for the future. It's happening right now. In this book – based on the latest scientific evidence – the author takes us around the world to show the impact of global warming already being felt in people's lives. From sand-buried houses in China to thawing Alaskan plains, the author witnesses some of the worst effects of climate change at first hand. Some, like the floods in the UK, are near home. Others – like the drowning Pacific island of Tuvalu – are a world away from the exhaust pipes and factory chimneys that are actually causing global warming. But this isn't simply an inventory of disaster, it's a wry look at how people around the globe are coping as their world changes at unprecedented speed. In the process, the author eats whale blubber in Alaska, swims in shark-infested waters off the Great Barrier Reef and struggles to the top of Andean peaks in Peru. An adventure with a conscience and an argument with an urgent purpose, High Tide is an extremely important book.