100 books like How to Blow Up a Pipeline

By Andreas Malm,

Here are 100 books that How to Blow Up a Pipeline fans have personally recommended if you like How to Blow Up a Pipeline. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming

Genevieve Guenther Author Of The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It

From my list on understand climate change.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a former Shakespeare scholar who became increasingly concerned about the climate crisis after I had a son and started worrying about the world he would inherit after I died. I began to do research into climate communication, and I realized I could use my linguistic expertise to help craft messages for campaigners, policymakers, and enlightened corporations who want to drive climate action. As I learned more about the history of climate change communication, however, I realized that we couldn’t talk about the crisis effectively without knowing how to parry climate denial and fossil-fuel propaganda. So now I also research and write about climate disinformation, too. 

Genevieve's book list on understand climate change

Genevieve Guenther Why did Genevieve love this book?

This book shook me to my core. I felt so frightened by its vision of a world destroyed by global warming that I became even more determined to help get climate deniers out of power.

I know that other people who read this book were equally inspired to learn more about climate change or even join the climate movement. It’s really one of the most influential books of our time.

By David Wallace-Wells,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked The Uninhabitable Earth as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

**SUNDAY TIMES AND THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**

'An epoch-defining book' Matt Haig
'If you read just one work of non-fiction this year, it should probably be this' David Sexton, Evening Standard

Selected as a Book of the Year 2019 by the Sunday Times, Spectator and New Statesman
A Waterstones Paperback of the Year and shortlisted for the Foyles Book of the Year 2019
Longlisted for the PEN / E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

It is worse, much worse, than you think.

The slowness of climate change is a fairy tale, perhaps as pernicious as the one that says…


Book cover of The End of Nature

Debra Hendrickson, M.D. Author Of The Air They Breathe: A Pediatrician on the Frontlines of Climate Change

From my list on environmental health or climate change.

Why am I passionate about this?

I‘m a pediatrician in Reno, the fastest-warming city in the US. I also have a background in environmental science. I’ve seen the impacts of climate change on children first-hand, especially the impact of worsening wildfire smoke from “mega-fires” in California. It is impossible for me to look at babies and children suffering the impacts of worsening smoke, smog, allergies, heat, natural disasters, and infectious diseases and not see that the most powerful industry in history has unloaded the cost of their business onto the least powerful. I am passionate about this topic because I see climate change as a crime against children, who are especially vulnerable to its effects.

Debra's book list on environmental health or climate change

Debra Hendrickson, M.D. Why did Debra love this book?

I love this book, another classic, partly because it was the first shocking explanation for a general audience of the “greenhouse effect” (as global warming was called in 1989) and what it would mean for our future.

I also love McKibben’s ability to synthesize narrative and data from all over the world and multiple branches of science. He was warning us about an existential threat long before most of the public understood it.

By Bill McKibben,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The End of Nature as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of the earliest warnings about climate change and one of environmentalism's lodestars

'Nature, we believe, takes forever. It moves with infinite slowness,' begins the first book to bring climate change to public attention.

Interweaving lyrical observations from his life in the Adirondack Mountains with insights from the emerging science, Bill McKibben sets out the central developments not only of the environmental crisis now facing us but also the terms of our response, from policy to the fundamental, philosophical shift in our relationship with the natural world which, he argues, could save us. A moving elegy to nature in its…


Book cover of Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: Reflections on the End of a Civilization

Todd Dufresne Author Of The Democracy of Suffering: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe, Philosophy in the Anthropocene

From my list on how bad climate change is for life on Earth.

Why am I passionate about this?

Climate Studies is a massive, cross-disciplinary field that exceeds the grasp of everyone involved, myself included. I start from my home discipline, philosophy, and follow the leads wherever they take me—a practice I learned from decades as a Freud scholar. The climate books I admire most are those that take this vast literature and synthesize the issues. This means I admire and respect the work being done by smart journalists like McKibben, Klein, and Wallace-Wells, who are perfect jumping-off points to thinking carefully about the future of life today. They are the ‘journalist-philosophers’ who are attempting these essential first drafts of history. Start with them and see where it all leads. 

Todd's book list on how bad climate change is for life on Earth

Todd Dufresne Why did Todd love this book?

Scranton is polarizing because he wallows in doom and flirts with an unpleasant form of nihilism. But even so, he provides an honest, sometimes searing introduction to the big troubles we are facing today—and he does so at the right level of analysis, our entire civilization. It is also very short and punchy. If, however, readers prefer less doom and more hope, then read instead Naomi Klein’s smart, serviceable collection of short essays, On Fire.

By Roy Scranton,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Learning to Die in the Anthropocene as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"In Learning to Die in the Anthropocene, Roy Scranton draws on his experiences in Iraq to confront the grim realities of climate change. The result is a fierce and provocative book."--Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History "Roy Scranton's Learning to Die in the Anthropocene presents, without extraneous bullshit, what we must do to survive on Earth. It's a powerful, useful, and ultimately hopeful book that more than any other I've read has the ability to change people's minds and create change. For me, it crystallizes and expresses what I've been thinking about and trying…


Book cover of McSweeney's Issue 58: 2040 Ad

Todd Dufresne Author Of The Democracy of Suffering: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe, Philosophy in the Anthropocene

From my list on how bad climate change is for life on Earth.

Why am I passionate about this?

Climate Studies is a massive, cross-disciplinary field that exceeds the grasp of everyone involved, myself included. I start from my home discipline, philosophy, and follow the leads wherever they take me—a practice I learned from decades as a Freud scholar. The climate books I admire most are those that take this vast literature and synthesize the issues. This means I admire and respect the work being done by smart journalists like McKibben, Klein, and Wallace-Wells, who are perfect jumping-off points to thinking carefully about the future of life today. They are the ‘journalist-philosophers’ who are attempting these essential first drafts of history. Start with them and see where it all leads. 

Todd's book list on how bad climate change is for life on Earth

Todd Dufresne Why did Todd love this book?

McSweeney’s is a singular publisher of beautifully designed, smart, and unusual books. This one is a collection of writers devoted to imagining the effects of climate change in the near future. Sad, wistful, compelling stories, written from myriad global perspectives and based on climate science. One that has stuck with me is a story called “1740” by Asja Bakic, a Croatian writer. But if you prefer a big, classic novel in the “cli fi” literature, look to the works of Kim Stanley Robinson. 

By Claire Boyle (editor), Dave Eggers (editor), Wesley Allsbrook (illustrator)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked McSweeney's Issue 58 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Spanning six continents and nine countries―from metropolitan Mexico City to the crumbling ancient aqueducts of Turkey, the receding coastline of Singapore to the coral shores of northern Australia―McSweeney’s 58 is wholly focused on climate change, with speculative fiction from ten contributors, made in collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Global in scope, each story is set in the year 2040 and imagines what the world might look like if the dire warnings issued by the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C were to come true. Using fiction―informed here and there by realism and climate science―this issue…


Book cover of Recipes for Disaster: An Anarchist Cookbook

Zilla Novikov and Rachel A. Rosen Author Of The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food You Can Make So You Don't Die

From my list on how you can DIY through troubled times.

Why are we passionate about this?

We have backgrounds in writing, activism, and being messed up, so making The Sad Bastard Cookbook together made sense. Our inspiration was partly realizing that most of the recipes purporting to be “good for mental health” require a laundry list of unusual ingredients and a drawer full of spoons, and partly meeting someone who didn't know about cooking eggs in instant ramen. So we crowdsourced recipes from our community, added our naturally witty, radically progressive commentary, and roped in Marten Norr as illustrator. The ebook's free—we know that dealing with poverty, overwork, mental health issues, physical disability, and exhaustion is hard enough without scraping up money for your emotional-support cookbook.

Zilla's book list on how you can DIY through troubled times

Zilla Novikov and Rachel A. Rosen Why did Zilla love this book?

Not to be confused with the more famous Anarchist Cookbook, or the other Anarchist Cookbook, this one does contain a few things that might be considered “recipes” in the broadest sense of the word.

At somewhere between 400-600 pages (depending on the edition), it can also double as a brick to throw during a riot. It contains a wealth of “recipes,” from the very practical (setting up a Food Not Bombs, legal support, and media relations) to the oddly specific (making your own musical instruments and turning your bicycle into a record player).

Perhaps one of the most useful features is the “Accounts,” which describe real world successful—and unsuccessful—actions by the writers, along with analyses of what these activists did well and what they might improve upon for next time. 

By CrimethInc,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Recipes for Disaster as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Beautifully designed A-Z of the totality of revolutionary politics. This brand new CrimethInc book is the action guide - the direct action guide. From affinity groups to wheatpasting, coalition building, hijacking events, mental health, pie-throwing, shoplifting, stenciling, supporting survivors of domestic violence, surviving a felony trial, torches, and whole bunch more. Incredible design, and lots of graphics give it that hip situ feel. Loads to read, to think about, and to do. At 650 pages, you could always throw the damn book at a suitable target. What are you waiting for?


Book cover of A Steampunk's Guide to the Apocalypse

Zilla Novikov and Rachel A. Rosen Author Of The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food You Can Make So You Don't Die

From my list on how you can DIY through troubled times.

Why are we passionate about this?

We have backgrounds in writing, activism, and being messed up, so making The Sad Bastard Cookbook together made sense. Our inspiration was partly realizing that most of the recipes purporting to be “good for mental health” require a laundry list of unusual ingredients and a drawer full of spoons, and partly meeting someone who didn't know about cooking eggs in instant ramen. So we crowdsourced recipes from our community, added our naturally witty, radically progressive commentary, and roped in Marten Norr as illustrator. The ebook's free—we know that dealing with poverty, overwork, mental health issues, physical disability, and exhaustion is hard enough without scraping up money for your emotional-support cookbook.

Zilla's book list on how you can DIY through troubled times

Zilla Novikov and Rachel A. Rosen Why did Zilla love this book?

An entertaining and edifying guide to survival in what some wise souls amongst us refer to as the Crumbles, during which post-industrial civilization becomes less and less sustainable.

Should you need to construct a solar still or defend your abode from ruffians, this short missive will provide the necessary knowledge and instructions. As longtime fans of Killjoy’s fiction and podcasting, we entirely enjoyed this creative and humourous exploration of many things DIY.

By Margaret Killjoy,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Steampunk's Guide to the Apocalypse as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A courageous future lies ahead of us. We wave goodbye, on no uncertain terms, to the invisible workings of the cyberian world. Our future lies in an honest technology, a technology that is within our reach, a technology that will not abandon us, a technology that requires not the dark oils of subterranean caverns.Consider this book to be your boon companion during the trying times that lie ahead. No single tome—no matter how voluminous—could be complete, of course, but this little handbook should aid in keeping you fed, watered, clothed, and protected from the myriad hazards of weather, human, and…


Book cover of Riot Medicine

Zilla Novikov and Rachel A. Rosen Author Of The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food You Can Make So You Don't Die

From my list on how you can DIY through troubled times.

Why are we passionate about this?

We have backgrounds in writing, activism, and being messed up, so making The Sad Bastard Cookbook together made sense. Our inspiration was partly realizing that most of the recipes purporting to be “good for mental health” require a laundry list of unusual ingredients and a drawer full of spoons, and partly meeting someone who didn't know about cooking eggs in instant ramen. So we crowdsourced recipes from our community, added our naturally witty, radically progressive commentary, and roped in Marten Norr as illustrator. The ebook's free—we know that dealing with poverty, overwork, mental health issues, physical disability, and exhaustion is hard enough without scraping up money for your emotional-support cookbook.

Zilla's book list on how you can DIY through troubled times

Zilla Novikov and Rachel A. Rosen Why did Zilla love this book?

A practical, easy-to-read, free guide to solidarity, collective action, and keeping people alive during protests, Riot Medicine is a valuable addition to any library and a necessary book for activists.

Available in multiple formats, from a zine refresher on first aid to a textbook reference for medic collectives, this wealth of comprehensive knowledge can save lives as we confront the worst of what the state throws at us.

By Hakan Geijer,

Why should I read it?

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


Book cover of Stolen Sharpie Revolution: A DIY Zine Resource

Zilla Novikov and Rachel A. Rosen Author Of The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food You Can Make So You Don't Die

From my list on how you can DIY through troubled times.

Why are we passionate about this?

We have backgrounds in writing, activism, and being messed up, so making The Sad Bastard Cookbook together made sense. Our inspiration was partly realizing that most of the recipes purporting to be “good for mental health” require a laundry list of unusual ingredients and a drawer full of spoons, and partly meeting someone who didn't know about cooking eggs in instant ramen. So we crowdsourced recipes from our community, added our naturally witty, radically progressive commentary, and roped in Marten Norr as illustrator. The ebook's free—we know that dealing with poverty, overwork, mental health issues, physical disability, and exhaustion is hard enough without scraping up money for your emotional-support cookbook.

Zilla's book list on how you can DIY through troubled times

Zilla Novikov and Rachel A. Rosen Why did Zilla love this book?

I (Rachel) first encountered this tiny book at a 2002 anarchist ‘zine fair as a twentysomething punk and has been recommending it to everyone I meet ever since.

While the age of social media has given us new tools for communicating our ideas about politics, culture, and identity with friends and strangers alike, what if the power goes down, or your platform is taken over by an unhinged billionaire and collapses?

There’s nothing more DIY, cheap, or practical than a ‘zine for getting your voice heard, and Wrekk’s book tells you how to make one. It’s also updated regularly, so even as technology and distribution channels change, over two decades after its initial publication, it remains as relevant as ever.

By Alex Wrekk,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Stolen Sharpie Revolution as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Since 2002, Stolen Sharpie Revolution: a DIY Resource for Zines and Zine Culture has been the go-to guide for all things zine related. This little red book is stuffed with information about zines. Things you may know, stuff you don't know and even stuff you didn't know you didn't know! Stolen Sharpie Revolution contains a cornucopia of information about zines and zine culture for everyone from the zine newbie to the experienced zinester to the academic researcher.


Book cover of Mute Compulsion: A Marxist Theory of the Economic Power of Capital

Drew Pendergrass Author Of Half-Earth Socialism: A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change and Pandemics

From my list on environmental crisis and how to solve it.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a climate scientist at Harvard and an environmental activist. In my day job, I use satellite, aircraft, and surface observations of the environment to correct supercomputer models of the atmosphere. What I’ve learned has made me feel that I can’t just stay in the lab—I need to get out in the world and fight for a future that’s just and ecologically stable for everyone. My writing and activism imagines how humanity can democratically govern itself in an age of environmental crisis.

Drew's book list on environmental crisis and how to solve it

Drew Pendergrass Why did Drew love this book?

This is the book I wish I could have given my younger self when I first noticed that the ecological world around me was deteriorating. Species were going extinct as the world heated up. In my education as a scientist, I learned that the physical causes of the environmental crisis are simple (burning fossil fuels, converting land to pasture, and so on), but no one seemed to have the power to do anything to fix it.

In this book, Mau brilliantly shows why we feel so unable to change the world. Everyone, including CEOs, are constrained by capitalism. People might personally care about the environment, but if the money doesn’t work out, they are forced to act otherwise. This isn’t an exclusively environmental book, but it offers a powerful perspective on the forces behind the crisis.

By Soren Mau,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Despite insoluble contradictions, intense volatility and fierce resistance, the crisis-ridden capitalism of the 21st century lingers on. To understand capital's paradoxical expansion and entrenchment amidst crisis and unrest, Mute Compulsionoffers a novel theory of the historically unique forms of abstract and impersonal power set in motion by the subjection of social life to the profit imperative. Building on a critical reconstruction of Karl Marx's unfinished critique of political economy and a wide range of contemporary Marxist theory, philosopher Soren Mau sets out to explain how the logic of capital tightens its stranglehold on the life of society by constantly remoulding…


Book cover of The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution

Drew Pendergrass Author Of Half-Earth Socialism: A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change and Pandemics

From my list on environmental crisis and how to solve it.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a climate scientist at Harvard and an environmental activist. In my day job, I use satellite, aircraft, and surface observations of the environment to correct supercomputer models of the atmosphere. What I’ve learned has made me feel that I can’t just stay in the lab—I need to get out in the world and fight for a future that’s just and ecologically stable for everyone. My writing and activism imagines how humanity can democratically govern itself in an age of environmental crisis.

Drew's book list on environmental crisis and how to solve it

Drew Pendergrass Why did Drew love this book?

I have always loved books where the author tries to squeeze the entire world into a few short pages. Carolyn Merchant starts her extraordinary book with the observation that women and nature are often associated with one another—the nurturing mother—then launches into an argument about how the exploitation of the Earth and the domination of women have the same root causes: capitalism, but also patriarchy.

Along the way, I learned about witches, old ideas of magic, and how mining in Europe was once considered sacrilege, a violation of the Earth. After reading this book, I’ll never see science or history in quite the same way.

By Carolyn Merchant,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Death of Nature as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in environmentalism, climate change mitigation, and climate change?

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