books

By Michael Svoboda, Ph.D. Every summer there comes a lift when we finally escape the last cold snaps of spring, the final exams and papers of school, or the reports (and taxes) of the fiscal year. This year we are doubly buoyed by the easing of pandemic restrictions. For such a time we want books […]

By John R. Platt As I sat in a pharmacy chair for the required 15 minutes after my first vaccine dose, my mind turned to animals. There weren’t any animals nearby, of course — the buzzing fluorescent lighting of the run-down drugstore wasn’t anyone’s natural habitat, including mine. And that very absence of visible sky […]

By Michael Svoboda For April’s bookshelf we take a cue from Earth Day and step back to look at the bigger picture. It wasn’t climate change that motivated people to attend the teach-ins and protests that marked that first observance in 1970; it was pollution, the destruction of wild lands and habitats, and the consequent […]

By Suzanne Cords One day Lizzie, the first-person narrator of the novel, receives an old book as a gift, with a dedication wishing the reader to be among the survivors. Like the preppers who build bunkers and stockpile supplies in remote areas to be ready for the end of the world, Lizzie is convinced that […]

By John R. Platt Spring has arrived, and while the rapidly improving weather begs us to spend more time outdoors and with friends and families, the ongoing pandemic also offers some good reasons to stay safe and indoors until most people have been vaccinated. So let’s get out into the world virtually with the latest […]

By Michael Svoboda To honor Women’s History Month, Yale Climate Connections’s March bookshelf presents a selection of new and recent titles on how women are changing the politics and prospects for action on climate change. Three books focus on the efforts of young women. Another four books offer the seasoned perspectives of veteran activists, organizers, […]

By Kimberly Nicole Pope During this year’s Davos Agenda Week, leaders from the private and public sectors highlighted the urgent need to halt and reverse nature loss. Deliberate action on the interlinked climate and ecological crises to achieve a net-zero, nature-positive economy is paramount. At the same time, these leaders also presented a message of […]

By Michael Svoboda The COVID-19 pandemic has confirmed again a fundamental truth about the Anthropocene: When disaster strikes, the vulnerable take the hardest punches. Communities of color have suffered much higher rates of infection, hospitalization, and mortality, both because they are disproportionately represented in frontline service positions and because their access to routine healthcare is […]