The best books to deepen your understanding of climate change, what to do about it, and give you hope

This book makes the stakes of climate change real.

Lynas paints vivid, reasonably science-based pictures of what the world would look like at 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 degrees C hotter (we’re at 1.4 today). The biggest reason I like this book is how forcefully it exposes the lazy thinking of the “over the cliff, all is lost, curl up and die” variety. In fact, hotter is worse, hotter by more is worse by more, and it keeps going.

So even if our efforts are working to keep it below 2.5, below 3, below 3.5, or worse (versus the Paris targets of 1.5 or 2.0), these aims are of extreme importance and profoundly worth fighting for. The book’s moral message: Yes, it’s scary; much will be lost, but much of the value remains, so don’t give up.

This is a miraculous book, an astonishing tour de force of clarity, insight, optimism, and fun. Yes, I’m calling an energy book fun. Transforming world energy–moving from fossil fuels to renewables and other climate-safe sources – is the biggest part of limiting climate change, but the field is littered with vague, confusing, and grandiose claims.

MacKay cuts through the nonsense and makes the numbers and charts sing, so they stick in your brain like a catchy melody. I don’t care that it was written mostly for the UK and in 2009. Nothing since is half as good, and the concepts and tools haven’t changed. You just need to remind yourself that solar, wind, and EVs have made huge gains since then, so the picture is somewhat more optimistic than MacKay paints.

Read this book. I mean it. You will feel empowered, and you will feel smarter.

I find reading this book like sitting with a wise friend who gently tells you you’re making a big mistake, but you can still fix it, and it can be OK.

Recent climate policy has gone off the rails with the idea of “net zero,” a sleight-of-hand that makes it look much easier: We don’t actually have to stop emitting; we can just offset emissions by removing them from the atmosphere later to pay back the debt. Yeah, right. This is true in theory but deeply problematic in practice: risky, and prone to error and deception. Some emissions can continue to be offset by removals to get to global net zero or net negative. But the current net-zero bandwagon, with everyone pretending their emissions can continue, is dangerous madness.

Buck brings her clear insight and ruthless honesty to this deeply confused area. She gently holds the popular delusions up for scrutiny, clarifies what actually has to happen, and points out that this is possible and we need to get on with it.

You’re probably wondering, if we can’t do what Buck and MacKay point us to in time to avoid the world that Lynas paints, what then?

I have good news: we’re still not (quite) out of options. It looks possible to cool the Earth a degree or two within a few years by spraying a mist of reflective aerosols – sort of like your plant sprayer – in the upper atmosphere to scatter a percent or so of incoming sunlight. This approach, solar geoengineering, is a band-aid, not a cure for climate change. It doesn’t avoid the need to slash emissions, and it brings a bunch of new uncertainties and potential problems. But it can buy time and might be the only way to avoid Lynas’s world quickly.

Morton digs into these technologies, what we know and don’t know about them, and the controversies, with erudition and wit. I love his writing because he’s interested in everything and weaves it all together brilliantly, with historical detail, personal quirks, and clear, accessible explanations of scientific issues. As with MacKay and Buck, you come away with cautious optimism: people can manage big challenges, and things can turn out OK.

I’ve long been a fan of Robinson’s fiction. This recent book tells the story of how humanity navigates the climate crisis, starting a few years from now and going maybe 30 years into the future, centered on the people leading the new (fictitious) UN organization of the title.

Robinson pulls all the strands together plausibly – increasingly severe impacts, everyone thrashing around trying responses, and conflict. He doesn’t shy away from violence, errors, tragic choices, or the vast scale of disruption and suffering climate change holds in store. Yet I find it a strangely optimistic book. The worst doesn’t happen. People and nations eventually pull together, more or less. Sustained intense efforts stop further climate change (collapsing what will take 100+ years into 25 to keep the plot moving) and preserve a livable world with some movement toward justice and sustainability.

I find it a more or less credible illustration of a path toward the survival of decent societies that doesn’t rely on magic solutions and doesn’t ignore greed and folly. As with my other recommendations, I love that Robinson treats his readers like intelligent adults.