12 Best Books on Climate Change Loved by Environmentalists and Climate Activists

Last Updated: January 01, 2023

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The world is bearing glaringly evident unprecedented threats posed by the climate change in the year 2023. While the climate crisis and risk were projected to be thing of future, the existential threats of recent heatwaves in Europe, devastating floods, Californian wildfires and various other climate-induced disaster are hovering around the world now more than ever.

While the disasters and risk posed by them is severe on the planet and humankind, there is still many climate actions one can take at an individual level to reduce their vulnerability to climate change. For instance, an individual can simply acquire much information by reading a book that suffice climate change, its impacts, role anyone can play to reduce climate risks and make informed decision about the planet.

These are some of the best books on Climate Change loved and read by environmentalists and climate activists.

Biodiversity and Climate Change: Transforming the Biosphere

As the impacts and consequences of Climate Change are more evident and dramatic in present times, this book is a revised edition to the 2005 volume Climate Change and Biodiversity, which includes the latest and more emerging topics. It involves the analysis of the increasing climate change impacts on our biosphere and ways to address climate impacts.

Edited by Thomas E Lovejoy and Lee Hannah, this book documents the worsening climate change impacts like species extinction, ocean acidification happening all over the world. The book also attempts to find the solutions to these emerging climate crises and guide towards a better, safer future.

What Can I do? My Path from Climate Despair to Action

Jane Fonda who is a renowned climate change activist herself and constantly uses her platform to encourage her huge fan base to Climate movement writes this book. In her book, she integrates her personal journey as an activist along discussions and speeches with other famous activists and celebrities and inspiring people who look upon her.

This book is one of the loved book by environmentalist and climate activists as it identifies hard-hitting realities of the climate change and the action we need to carry out to tackle the climate crisis. For anyone wanting to know and get involved in Climate Change movement, climate actions, this is one of the good read on how to be involved and how can an individual choice of things make collective difference on the planet against climate crisis.

The New Climate War

The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet is a book on climate change written by Michael E. Mann. He is the American climatologist and geophysicist. This book was published in the year 2021. In this book, the author talks about the different roles and actions of fossil fuel industries to delay actions and responses on climate change.

The author in his book draws the battle lines between the people and the polluters. Author also provides with an action plan for forcing our governments and institutions to wake up and make a real change rather than an inefficient one.

All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis

Edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katherine K. Wilkinson, a book full of essays with poetry and arts encompasses diverse compilation of scripts from women who share their idea, passion, inspiration and solutions to fight against climate crisis and to save the staggering loss by climate change impacts.

While the climate movement is moving forward and women are also majorly impacted and has great role to play in climate change, this book essays the powerful voices of varieties of activists, scientists but all women in the climate movement to tackle impacts of climate crisis. It is a essential read for anyone wanting to learn about a women’s perspective to one of the global environmental challenge.

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate

This Changes Everything is a New York Times bestseller published in 2014 by Naomi Klein. With this book, the author urges to understand how the capitalism is a great barrier in dealing with climate change. This book is based on the detailed academic research and offers an example on how shifting to renewable energies will help to curb down the detrimental effect of climate change.

This is one of the provocative book about the capitalism’s failure to address the climate crisis, its opportunities and threats. This book generally covers science as well as politics and the dire need to change. Thus, the author gives us two options either to change or collapse and learn how economy must live within the planet’s capacity.

Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution 

Written by Peter Kalmus, an American scientist and writer, who initiated his journey to curb his carbon emission and be the agent of change to continue climate revolution. This book inspires the people to take actions at their individual level in order to live in alignment with the environment, thus is one of the loved books by environmentalist and climate activist.

This book help the readers to understand the scope and magnitude of challenge the world faces due to climate change and thus motivate them to choose the course of actions of what can be done and how can they change their lifestyle to curb down their emission to help the planet.

As long as Grass Grows

As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock is one of a good reviewed book on climate change. It has been listed as best book on climate change with higher ratings by many organizations and websites. An American author Dina Gilio-Whitaker published this nonfiction book in 2019.

The book emphasizes on the indigenous people and their resistance to environmental injustice. It focuses on the importance of indigenous knowledge in protecting and conserving the environment. The book appeals modern environmentalists to encompass indigenous knowledge and resistance on environmental injustice and climate change adaptation for a sustainable future.

Half-Earth : Our Planet’s Fight for Life

Written by Edward O. Wilson, the book proposes a unique idea of setting aside half of the earth as wilderness to protect the beauty of the natural world along with human existence. It gives warning that the earth’s biodiversity might be at the verge of extinction if the precautions are not adopted.

The idea proposed by the author in this book is quite captivating and unique that must be explored and thus it is one of the loved books by environmentalist and climate activists who constantly seek for the different opportunities to conserve biodiversity and heal the planet Earth from the human induced impacts.

Losing Earth: The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate Change

The book Losing Earth by Nanthaniel Rich performs a good job of essaying how the world has discarded the effects of climate change from decades and how the human have contributed to the rise in global climate change. From the era of industrial revolution, the world has significantly warmed by more than 1 degree Celsius.

The book depicts the evidences of the climate change from the long time back while it was politically denied until its consequences are quite visible as of now. It devises how the rise of fossil fuel industry along with the climate change deniers added to the failure to address the climate change thus is a must read by the environmentalist and climate activists to make the sense of our past, present and future decision.

Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency

Author Mark Lynas attempts to display how the world will look like if the atmospheric greenhouse gases emission continue to rise, the level of warming continue to rise from 1 to 6 degrees. The author depicts how each degree warming in the earth’s climate shapes the geophysical characteristics of Earth.

The book has massive details on why the global rise in temperature can wreak havoc on the planet and educate the general people about the catastrophic consequences of climate change. Thus, the book is one of the intriguing and informative book loved by environmentalist and climate activist that emphasis on the warning of the climate extremities our planet is facing at the unprecedented rate.

The Uninhabitable Earth – David Wallace-Wells

Written by Davis Wallace-Wells, the Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming conveys the focus on the consequences of the global warming on the Earth. The book is a wonderful read for anyone who wants to gain insight on the chaos the climate change is likely to bring on the planet Earth.

The book by Wallace-Wells portrays the groundbreaking brutal reality brought upon by the climate change like floods, food shortages, refugees’ emergencies, wildfires etc. and the magnitude of the tribulations human and the planet will face. The book is a detailed version of his famous article titled as The Uninhabitable Earth, and puts less emphasis on the solutions and rather clarify the magnitude of the crisis.

No one is too small to make a difference - Greta Thunberg

Young climate activist and one of the powerful voice of today’s generation, Greta Thunberg pens down her thoughtful and meaningful speeches in No one is too small to make a difference. Thunberg is one of the impactful and leading protesters to stand in the climate change protests to urge the political actions against the climate risks.

Her book is a powerhouse collection of her eleven speeches as a voice of future generation where readers witness Greta’s deliberate attempts to raise awareness regarding climate change impacts and urges immediate actions by the politicians and government.

Conclusion: Best Books on Climate Change

Thus, the weight of the scientific evidences that proves climate change consequences is affecting our planet is overwhelmingly huge and they cannot be ignored. A small individual effort can contribute largely for the collective effort to curb down the climate crisis. Learning is the best thing one can divulge into to understand about climate change, its impacts and its mitigation.

Books related to climate change accumulates, interprets, argues and provides with the useful information regarding environment and climate change issues. They provides with newer perspective for researchers and assists in climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Books includes meaningful information on least researched area and hence provides with scientific data along with strong advocacy for sustainable future.