Read all about it: a climate action book list

Some highlights over the years

Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the weeds of the day-to-day grind and sound bites of short-form content. Reflecting on these 12 books reminded me about the bigger picture of why I do what I do.

Start here: holistic views of climate action

1. Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air by David MacKay

Climate action is not just about energy, but electrification and decarbonizing the grid will make or break if we succeed. This book by the late Cambridge professor is an excellent first-principles, approachable insight into the math and scale of the energy transition. Don’t let the equations scare you - they’re a masterclass in problem solving and back-of-the-envelope calculations, made extraordinarily readable with visuals, personal anecdotes, and a sense of (dare I say British) humor. It’s also all freely available online.

2. All We Can Save edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson

An anthology of essays and poetry by a wide range of women (and personal heroes) in the environmental movement. The diverse perspectives (albeit North America-centered) are grounded by heart-centered leadership to break from the cycles of extraction, whether the outspoken youth activists, Indigenous people standing their ground with their intuitive wisdom, and all others who challenged authority and the way things are. Reading and discussing the book chapter by chapter with my Circle made the experience all the more richer and empowering. To those who are on their climate journey, it’s a book to turn to time and time again when the going gets tough.

3. Speed and Scale by John Doerr

Written like a true investor, Doerr frames his approach to climate solutions like growing and managing a company. He lays out OKRs, or Objectives and Key Results, for each of the six segments of emissions that need to be eliminated as well as the four accelerants, all under the overall objective of net-zero emissions by 2050. This framework helps prioritize and structure the scale of the solutions needed and steps to achieve them.

Cli-Fi: novels for (science) fiction lovers

4. The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

Balancing optimism and disturbing realism, this novel imagines a plausible future in which climate change takes its course, but humans finally take some action. The chapters intersperse storylines, including that of the head of the Ministry - a new UN organization representing and safeguarding the future generations, a survivor of a devastating heatwave, as well as commentary on the socio-political-economic system. A little chaotic, definitely thought provoking, and simultaneously hopeful and jarring.

5. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

A realist dystopian novel written from the point of view of a diary of a young African American woman, as she documents the hellish world around her, as social structures have broken and become violent down due to political corruption, climate change, and social inequality. I was amazed by Butler’s prescience – the book was written in 1995 and set in 2025 but reads eerily like a modern commentary on American politics, society, and climate change. (There’s also a sequel, Parable of the Talents, that I have yet to read.)

6. The Overstory by Richard Powers

A 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that follows nine intertwining lives, all with trees playing some role in their lives whether through eco-activism, a family heritage, or a life’s work. Without being personified characters themselves, the trees are given a voice through the human characters that are influenced by them and recognize their magic - and ultimately confront unconscientious capitalism and the laws and systems that uphold it.

Dive deeper: choose your own adventure

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

A powerful argument that free-market capitalism is the root cause of climate change and that we must fundamentally rethink our economic system. Klein exposes how the current economic and political systems encourage extractivism and monopoly and links the climate crisis and poverty with a call for redistributive and equitable forms of economic development. The last section of the book highlights movements that have tangibly prevented further extraction – whether the Blockadias preventing mines from being dug or accessed, or Indigenous people asserting their rights to clean air and water – giving us the fire and courage to push for our planetary and human rights. Also see Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics (also expanded further in her eponymous book) as a potential framework for the way forward.

8. The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

An absorbing read that was equal parts educational and story-like, Wohlleben’s personification of the trees allows us to understand the dynamic life cycle and character of the slow moving yet ingenious creatures. Some facts strike me with wonder to this day, like that trees have an underground network connecting the root systems to communicate with and even help their surrounding community of trees regardless of species, that slow growth gives trees more resilience and allows them to reach their full lifespan and height, and that older, undisturbed forests are less unkempt than their counterparts because lack of sunlight prevents growth of bushes and understory.

9. Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

An investigative journalistic read about the food system and industrialized agriculture. Pollan frames modern American agriculture driven by ‘simplification’ for the sake of measurable predictability, even at the expense of natural beneficial processes or even efficiency. This includes corn becoming the base currency of food production, whether for rearing cows (who are given antibiotics so that they can eat corn instead of grass) or producing snacks and fast food; or subsidies that incentivize the farmer to overproduce a few monocrops, rather than letting economics and nature dictate diversification. Large corporations absorb most of the value in this convoluted chain, leaving consumers with little freedom or awareness of what they are consuming and often misinformed by ‘supermarket pastoral’ narratives like ‘free range’ chicken. A sobering picture for a food-enthusiast and an environmentalist, being aware of the true source and cost of our food is one step in empowering us to make better choices for ourselves and nature. For a foray into what an alternative agricultural system could look like, One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka is both a radical and OG place to start.

10. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

A lovely insight into Indigenous knowledge and wisdom, which finally are gaining recognition as a core part of ecological regeneration and climate action. Kimmerer bridges the scientific ‘Western’ and relational Indigenous world through her own journey of being educated in the traditional scientific system yet rediscovering the value of her heritage’s practices and traditions. She beautifully infuses lessons on the humility we need in approaching nature with gratitude, mindfulness, and an abundance mindset where nature will care for us if we care for it.

11. Cities for People by Jan Gehl

This book by the Danish architect transformed the way I saw the urban world around me. It covers key principles of designing cities centered around livability, coincidentally (or not) aligned with environmental sustainability. Happy City by Charles Montgomery is another favorite of mine in the urban planning & sustainable cities category.

12. CDR Primer edited by Jennifer Wilcox, Ben Kolosz, and Jeremy Freeman

We’ve reached an era where carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is necessary to maintain a habitable planet, alongside emissions reduction and mitigation. While the economics and policies of carbon management are still shaking out, a diversity of technologies and business models are emerging across a spectrum of nature-based to engineered, and this primer helps to put them in context and categories as well as explaining some of the science and engineering behind them. Another resource that is freely available online.