Experts Tell Us the Best Books On Solving Climate Change

Many environmentalist books use a wide lens when examining solutions to climate change, but examining scope through such a wide lens often leaves readers feeling helpless in the face of climate change, a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. I’m recommending Sustainable Minimalism because the text zeroes in on the small but incredibly impactful ways in which everyday readers can tweak daily habits to save the planet, reduce carbon footprints, save money, and eliminate stress and anxiety. It’s nearly impossible for the average reader to tackle the fossil fuels industry head-on, but Sustainable Minimalism provides a realistic roadmap for everyday readers to do what they can by starting home.

I used to be a not-so earth friendly person. I drove a gas guzzler – I didn’t recycle, and on top of that I didn’t pay attention to climate change. I never thought it was a hoax, but I felt like no matter what I did, the world would not change for the better. I was given this book from my daughter, who (you guessed it) is an environmental science major at UC Santa Cruz. Not only did it open my eyes to what we can do to avoid the dangers of climate change, but it also showed me the nuances that individuals, cities and countries have to do in order to solve this crisis. My favborite chapters are about Norway and how they used waste to create energy, and how Costa Ricans are building a society that is 100% eco-friendly (not to mention that they are the only country operating on 100% renewable energy resources.) Bill Gates is an innovator and a genius when it comes to everything he has done in the business/technology world, and as he perfectly writes in this book – with no world to innovate in, what is point of progress society forward if the planet that it is living on uninhabitable?

There are books on how we as individuals can save the planet, and there are books on how we can influence businesses and elected officials to save the planet. And they usually leave me feeling helpless. But The Soil Will Save Us not only provides a radical new (to me) step forward in ‘fixing’ our climate problems, but it takes us to the basics: not technology, not politics, but back to nature itself. Gardening, and working on improving the quality of soil, will not only help the ecosystem and the environment, it will also soothe our souls. And there are scientists, farmers, and ordinary citizens galore working on this mission already. A big part of this book’s conviction is due to the author’s lovely writing, which is almost as important as the facts when it comes to swaying the reader. Kristin Ohlson is a journalist and author with a family history in gardening. She combines science and storytelling to leave the reader in no doubt of this fact: we need healthy soils for a healthy world. And we can start healing the soil today.

Everyone’s favorite progressive author Naomi Klein tackles climate change and capitalism in this 2014 book. Of course, that these C words go hand in hand, and even the hardest proponents of capitalism know it deep down. This book is shocking only to MSM apparently, as they continue to praise capitalism as the best social and economic construct that ever existed and will exist.

This book makes saving the earth an exciting, wonderful, and exhilarating task, not a burden or obligation we have to fulfill to keep the world from dying. We still can save the world from pollution and climate change – and in the process, we can make it into something wonderful.