Why am I passionate about this?

I am an environmental scientist with over 25 years experience working on climate change and sustainability. 20 of those years were spent working internationally on environmental policy in developing countries, advising the World Bank and the OECD, and being a climate change negotiator in the UN. I am a thought leader who advised the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice and The Elders Foundation. In 2018 I co-founded my business, Change by Degrees, which works with people and organisations to transform business for good. I am passionate about fairness between people and between people and the planet and enjoy communicating in a hopeful and positive way about the future we can choose.


I wrote

How to Save Your Planet One Object at a Time

By Tara Shine,

Book cover of How to Save Your Planet One Object at a Time

What is my book about?

Sometimes it can feel overwhelming thinking about all that needs to be done to save our planet.

This book is…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimist's Guide to the Climate Crisis

Tara Shine Why did I love this book?

This is a book by two people who led the UN process to secure the Paris Agreement. 

They know what it takes to get over 190 countries to agree to work together to create a safer future. But this book is about more than that.

It is about you and your agency and how your mindset can help create positive change. It shows the power of optimism – stubborn optimism.

By Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked The Future We Choose as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

'Everyone should read this book' MATT HAIG
'One of the most inspiring books I have ever read' YUVAL NOAH HARARI
'Inspirational, compassionate and clear. The time to read this is NOW' MARK RUFFALO
'Figueres and Rivett-Carnac dare to tell us how our response can create a better, fairer world' NAOMI KLEIN

*****

Discover why there's hope for the planet and how we can each make a difference in the climate crisis, starting today.

Humanity is not doomed, and we can and will survive. The future is ours to create: it will be shaped by who we…


Book cover of Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future

Tara Shine Why did I love this book?

Mary Robinson is the former President of Ireland, an advocate for a people-centred and rights-based approach to climate action and my former boss.

In her book she tells the story of her own journey to climate justice and allows many of the people who influenced and informed her to tell their own stories.

Their experiences of the injustice of climate impacts on small islands, farmers, women, and workers make a compelling case for urgent, rights-based climate action.

By Mary Robinson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Climate Justice as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

_______________
'As an advocate for the hungry and the hunted, the forgotten and the ignored, Mary Robinson has not only shone a light on human suffering, but illuminated a better future for our world' BARACK OBAMA

SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH BOOK AWARDS 2018

Holding her first grandchild in her arms in 2003, Mary Robinson was struck by the uncertainty of the world he had been born into. Before his fiftieth birthday, he would share the planet with more than nine billion people - people battling for food, water, and shelter in an increasingly volatile climate. The faceless, shadowy menace of…


Book cover of Every Woman's Guide To Saving The Planet

Tara Shine Why did I love this book?

A very practical guide to actions everyone to take to live more sustainably from your house to voting and from getting around to what you buy.

Written by the founder of One Million Women in Australia it focuses on the power women have to lead action on climate change in the world.

By Natalie Isaacs,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Every Woman's Guide To Saving The Planet as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How to take action on climate change in your everyday life



When it came to climate change, Natalie Isaacs used to think it was someone else's issue. After all, what can one person do to make a difference? Then she cut her electricity bill by 20 per cent and saw how much money and pollution she'd saved.Feeling empowered, she embraced action instead of apathy and changed her life. She has never looked back.

In Every Woman's Guide to Saving the Planet, Natalie shares her journey from from climate bystander to international campaigner. Now the founder and CEO of the globally…


Book cover of Bright New World: How to Make a Happy Planet

Tara Shine Why did I love this book?

This is the children’s book I wish I had written. 

It is full of exciting ideas about how we can create a better future through innovation, technology, and care for nature and people. 

It inspires children about the possibilities of what lies ahead if human work together instead of adding to their anxieties through climate despair. 

Beautifully illustrated.

By Cindy Forde, Bethany Lord (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bright New World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

“In Cindy Forde’s environmentalist manifesto Bright New World, Earth’s perilous situation fades in comparison to vibrant, sustainable possibilities.”—ForeWord Reviews

Bright New World is a lavishly illustrated glimpse into a future not too far from our own time – a world in which today's children have grown up and tackled the world's most pressing social and environmental problems.

In a series of lush, detailed scenes, readers will enter a world of solar-powered vehicles, regenerated rainforests, skyscraper farms, insect-based snacks, recovering coral reefs, wave-powered electricity, and much more.

Bright New World's vision may be bold and optimistic, but everything in the book…


Book cover of Climate Worrier: A Hypocrite's Guide to Saving the Planet

Tara Shine Why did I love this book?

Colm describes his book as a ‘hypocrite’s guide to saving the planet’ and he is very honest about the contradictions in his own life as he tries to live sustainably.

He uses humour and storytelling to engage the reader and to help all of us feel overcome by the scale of the climate challenge to give ourselves a break and keep on going. 

By Colm O'Regan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Climate Worrier as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Bestselling author Colm O'Regan is a worrier. A professional one. Caution is his watchword. Risk aversion is his love language. Now Colm is grappling with the biggest worry of all: the whole 'planet being on fire' thing and how exactly we can help.

Don't worry, this isn't a book telling you how to live off the grid and make your own planet-friendly soap from woodlice (that's the sequel). Instead, Climate Worrier is about the journey, about trying (and often failing) to be part of the solution to the big issues, while not despairing at the endless hypocrisies that come from…


Explore my book 😀

How to Save Your Planet One Object at a Time

By Tara Shine,

Book cover of How to Save Your Planet One Object at a Time

What is my book about?

Sometimes it can feel overwhelming thinking about all that needs to be done to save our planet.

This book is the antidote to that feeling. Easy to read and easy to do – here’s all the information and inspiration you need to make a difference, simply by making smart choices about everyday objects, tasks, and habits. Environmental scientist Dr. Tara Shine guides you from room to room and occasion to occasion with environmentally friendly solutions, backed by science. From swapping bottled soap to bars, to replacing cling film with a simple plate, you will reduce your environmental footprint in an instant, while saving money. This book busts persistent myths and will once and for all show that living sustainably can be both fun and convenient.

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Marvelous Jackson

By Laura Anne Bird,

Book cover of Marvelous Jackson

Laura Anne Bird Author Of Marvelous Jackson

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

True confession: I’m not a baker, but I love it when other people bake. It’s riveting to watch how they transform the humblest of ingredients into desserts that are beautiful and delicious. I get super excited to see this creative process unfold, which is why I adore The Great British Baking Show and other competitive reality baking programs. They inspired me to write Marvelous Jackson because my main character desperately wants to snag a coveted audition spot on The Marvelous Midwest Kids Baking Championship. He relishes the frenetic energy and noise of a kitchen packed with ambitious and talented people—just like I do!

Laura's book list on contemporary middle grade novels for boys who love to bake

What is my book about?

Since losing his mom, thirteen-year-old Jack Wilson has spent most of his time seeing just how much trouble he can get away with so that he feels like a winner at something. But he takes his mischief too far and is faced with the possibility of unbearable consequences. He knows it’s time to make a big change.

After rediscovering the love of baking he once shared with his mother, Jack is sure that his new sense of purpose will help him stay on the right path, so he throws himself into learning the finer points of sprinkles and scones—and…

Marvelous Jackson

By Laura Anne Bird,

What is this book about?

After losing his mom, a struggling thirteen-year-old boy in northern Wisconsin rediscovers the love of baking he once shared with her and decides to audition for the world-famous, big-hearted Marvelous Midwest Kids Baking Championship television show in Chicago. Jack is sure that his new sense of purpose will help him stay out of trouble, so he throws himself into learning the finer points of sprinkles and scones -- and hopefully even mending his broken relationship with his dad.


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