Mongabay's longtime editor and senior correspondent Jeremy Hance published his memoir, Baggage, this year. Jeremy Hance / YouTube
By John C. Cannon
Books have provided a welcome refuge in 2020. The global pandemic has, in many cases, turned even routine travel into a risk not worth taking, and it has left many longing for the day when we will once again set off for a new destination. At the same time, this year has also been a time to reflect on the sense of place and what home means to each of us.
<p>This year's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> book list draws on those two themes. Satisfying the urge to light out into the unknown, several authors share tales and observations from the field. Others delve deeply into a single spot, examining its importance to a people and the way we as a species fit into it, however uncomfortably. In the end, each reinforces a lesson that the pandemic has laid bare: Pull a thread on the web of life and even distant strands will reverberate as a result.</p>
<h3>1. <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250173348" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty and Achieve Peace</a></h3><p>By Carl Safina</p><p>Biologist Carl Safina has made a career of working on the front lines of conservation and then imparting what he has learned in a way that makes us, his readers, take notice. Broken down into three parts, <em>Becoming Wild</em> explores the lives and cultures of three species: sperm whales, scarlet macaws, and chimpanzees.</p><p>By turns fascinating, heartwarming and tragic, traveling with Safina as a guide is engrossing. And, as you might suspect, there's an agenda here. <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity">Biodiversity</a>, all the weird and wondrous speciation that evolution has molded from the building blocks of life on this planet, is under threat, now more so than at any other time since humans emerged from that same swirling mix of forces. But beyond the staggering loss of species and individual lifeforms currently underway, Safina demonstrates that the sum total of what we lose will be far more than just a statistic if we don't work to protect the life that remains.</p>
<h3>2. <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/547092/oak-flat-by-lauren-redniss/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oak Flat</a></h3><p>By Lauren Redniss</p><p>Cutting across social justice, economic and environmental lines, <em>Oak Flat</em> chronicles the real-life struggle of a family to protect sacred land from destruction after the discovery of a copper deposit in the desert in the U.S. Southwest. The family lives on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona and must contend with the substantial resources of a massive mining corporation, not to mention a set of laws that seem designed to put profits before people.</p><p>Told in the style of a graphic novel, author and illustrator Lauren Redniss draws on her earnest reporting and skill as an artist to shine a light on the issue, made all the more urgent because today the Apache of San Carlos are still fighting to protect their land.</p>
<h3>3. <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374228484" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl</a></h3><p>By Jonathan Slaght</p><p>The Blakiston's fish owl doesn't make conservation efforts on its behalf easy. Inhabiting the unforgiving mountains and forests of Russia's Far East, its dwindling numbers are threatened by logging and fishing in Primorye province.</p><p>Enter WCS scientist Jonathan Slaght and an intimate look at meeting the owl on its own turf. Just as fascinating as the quirky bird he's pursuing are the characters who people Slaght's book, the hardy folk who at once represent both a threat to the Blakiston's fish owl and invaluable accomplices in his mission to save the species.</p>
<h3>4. <a href="https://www.enricsala.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Nature of Nature: Why We Need the Wild</a></h3><p>By Enric Sala</p><p>Ecologist and National Geographic explorer-in-residence Enric Sala says he didn't want his career as a scientist to be spent just writing obituaries, cataloging the final days of so many of the species he studies. <em>The Nature of Nature</em> is both an homage to the diversity of life on Earth and a warning of the steps we must take to ensure it persists. Vividly told stories from decades of observing and probing the natural world serve as a testimony to the interconnectivity that binds all life — including humans — together.</p><p>As Sala told Mongabay in an <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/tamper-with-nature-and-everyone-suffers-qa-with-ecologist-enric-sala/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interview</a> in August, "You tamper with nature in one part of the planet, and everyone suffers. That's why we need to protect the wild."</p>
<h3>5. <a href="https://msupress.org/9781611863581/the-medicine-wheel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Medicine Wheel: Environmental Decision-Making Process of Indigenous Peoples</a></h3><p>By Michael E. Marchand, Kristiina A. Vogt, Rodney Cawston, John D. Tovey, John McCoy, Nancy Maryboy, Calvin T. Mukumoto, Daniel J. Vogt and Melody Starya Mobley</p><p>In the most academic-leaning book to make this year's list, a group of predominantly <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous-peoples">Indigenous</a> authors draw on the history, art and culture of Native societies from around the world with an eye toward how we might better coexist with nature. Their aim is to provide a guide for the ways in which Indigenous thinking and science, too often viewed as working at cross purposes, can come together to solve environmental problems.</p>
<h3>6. <a href="https://saraband.net/sb-title/cottongrass-summer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cottongrass Summer</a></h3><p>By Roy Dennis</p><p>Like many of the other authors on this list, ornithologist and conservationist Roy Dennis thankfully doesn't disguise his fascination with the intricacies of nature in <em>Cottongrass Summer</em>. The stories he tells have been gleaned from countless years of fieldwork and, at times, battles with the prevailing conservation establishment of the day. Still, the iconoclastic 80-year-old carries on, offering a measure of hope in a book for a wilder and healthier planet.</p><p>Orangutan biologist Erik Meijaard, who <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/book-review-cottongrass-summer-the-book-every-eco-anxious-conservationist-should-read/" target="_blank">reviewed</a> Dennis's book for Mongabay in August, said, "[C]ynics among you turn away, this book is not for you. To me this book is about belief and love. Belief in a better world where wild animals and plants can once again thrive alongside people. And a deep love for the natural world around us."</p>
<h3>7. <a href="https://www.ericjaydolin.com/a-furious-sky" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes</a></h3><p>By Eric Jay Dolin</p><p>In <em>A Furious Sky</em>, author Eric Jay Dolin digs deep into the annals of humans' history with the awe-inspiring and destructive hurricane. Along the way, he unearths a trove of engaging characters and entrancing struggles to find a way to coexist with Earth's most powerful storms. In the end, we find that, as the planet's climate changes, hurricanes will likely only grow stronger.</p>
<h3>8. <a href="https://www.workman.com/products/natures-best-hope" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard</a></h3><p>By Douglas W. Tallamy</p><p>Many of the world's environmental crises can feel beyond the reach of human problem solving. University of Delaware professor Douglas Tallamy takes a different tack, instead suggesting that the ideal place to begin a necessary revolution is right where we live. Instead of depending on the seep of political compromise that's so often inadequate and short-sighted in addressing issues like biodiversity loss, deforestation and climate change, Tallamy's belief is that by starting small — creating hospitable habitats for native plants and insects in our backyards, for example — we can realize the dreams of the pantheon of conservation's great thinkers, Aldo Leopold, E.O. Wilson and Rachel Carson among them.</p>
<h3>9. <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Fathoms/Rebecca-Giggs/9781982120696" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fathoms: The World in the Whale</a></h3><p>By Rebecca Giggs</p><p>Over centuries, technological innovations, capitalist incentives and sheer grit led to many species of whales being hunted to near extinction. But the moratorium on hunting whales that coalesced in the 1980s around the awe these animals inspire and the outrage so many felt at witnessing their slaughter helped bring them back from the brink. All but a few of the world's most fervent whale-hunting nations signed on, and the rebound in whale numbers seems like a great success. But in what kind of world have we ensured their survival?</p><p>That's one of the questions that author Rebecca Giggs ponders in <em>Fathoms</em>, as she puts the survival of whales in the context of an increasing plastic-filled and polluted ocean, where warming waters and a paradoxically destructive ecotourism industry wait to confront them at every turn.</p>
<h3>10. <a href="https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/chris-hamby/soul-full-of-coal-dust/9780316299497/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Soul Full of Coal Dust: A Fight for Breath and Justice in Appalachia</a></h3><p>By Chris Hamby</p><p>2020 has proven, if there were any doubt, that human and environmental health are inextricably linked. Investigative journalist Chris Hamby probed a paragon of this connection in <em>Soul Full of Coal Dust</em>. As the worldwide debate over the continued use of coal for steady but dirty energy production has taken center stage, the people who haul it from the ground have been fighting for their lives just behind the curtain.</p><p>Hamby takes his readers to the mountains of Appalachia, the epicenter of U.S. coal production, where fortunes rise and fall with the industry itself. He details the David-and-Goliath struggle to take on "Big Coal" and bring much-needed help to the miners afflicted with black lung disease.</p>
<h3>11. <a href="https://jeremyhance.com/baggage-confessions-of-a-globe-trotting-hypochondriac/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Baggage: Confessions of a Globe-Trotting Hypochondriac</a></h3><p>By Jeremy Hance</p><p>A 2020 Mongabay book list wouldn't be complete without a nod to the site's longtime editor and senior correspondent, Jeremy Hance (as well as the site's first staff writer), who published his own <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/diary-of-a-great-environmental-journalist-and-bad-traveler-qa-with-jeremy-hance/" target="_blank">memoir</a> this year. Hance has traveled the world in pursuit of the engaging environmental stories he's written for Mongabay, the Guardian, and Ensia, among other publications. He's also lived with hypochondria and obsessive-compulsive disorder for decades, conditions that can make the dream of travel an anxiety-producing nightmare. Fortunately for his readers, they haven't deterred him, and in <em>Baggage</em>, Hance recounts his voyages in a book that's as witty and self-effacing as it is poignant and instructive.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/11-notable-books-on-conservation-and-the-environment-published-in-2020/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Photo illustration by YES! Magazine.
By YES! editors
It's been a hell of a year. YES! editors recommend relevant and illuminating books that help us find our way forward.
<p><br/></p>
<h2>1. All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis </h2><p>A splendid offering of wisdom, warmth, and inspiration to reshape our vision of climate futures, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645808/all-we-can-save-by-edited-by-ayana-elizabeth-johnson-and-katharine-k-wilkinson/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">All We Can Save </a>is a skillfully curated collection of essays, poems, and illustrations that is decidedly feminine in its character and feminist in its approach. In her essay, "Sacred Resistance," contributor Tara Houska writes, "Much of the space we call 'the climate movement' appears to be modeled after the same systems of inequity and separation we are attempting to change, undo, or outright dismantle." In a beautiful cross-section of society's most visionary voices on climate, the book instead invokes the powers of compassion, connection, and justice. Remaking the world is possible, they say, but whatever you do, don't call it hope. The pursuit of solutions cannot afford passive optimism. As Houska concludes, "We are never far from the answer to the problem we have created — it is within each of us." — Breanna Draxler</p>
<h2>2. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents</h2><p>Isabel Wilkerson's <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/321/321303/caste/9780241486511.html" target="_blank">Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents</a> invites a reappraisal of how we view race in this country. The book is eminently relevant in these fraught times, where the topic of race is everywhere. Yet Wilkerson never uses the words "race" or "racism" to describe the experience of African Americans, continuing an approach she took in her previous work, The Warmth of Other Suns. Rather she writes about "upper caste" and "lower caste" to describe Jim Crow hierarchy, where everything you could or couldn't do was based on what you looked like.</p><p>She compares India's treatment of its lower-caste citizens and Nazi Germany's treatment of Jews to America's treatment of African Americans. Racism, she says, is insufficient to capture the enormity of what Black people endure. The word is so overused, people stop hearing it. She calls race "the visible agent of the unseen force of caste. Caste is the bones, race the skin." It's an invitation for people to peer beneath the surface of the language they've gotten accustomed to. — Lornet Turnbull</p>
<h2>3. Hav</h2><p>Jan Morris is primarily known to contemporary readers as a British travel writer with dozens of books to her name. But she was also a journalist and historian who covered the first ascent of Mount Everest and the war crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann, and also one of the first high-profile transgender artists, beginning with her 1974 coming-out memoir, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/117486/conundrum-by-jan-morris/" target="_blank">Conundrum</a>. Morris died Nov. 20, 2020, at age 94.</p><p>One of Morris' most interesting works is <a href="https://www.nyrb.com/products/hav?variant=1094929821" target="_blank">Hav</a>, a novel in the guise of a travelogue to a fictitious Mediterranean city-state. The book includes 1985's Last Letters From Hav, and its 2006 sequel (when she "revisited" the country), Hav of the Myrmidons.</p><p>The book explores the conflict between tradition and modern life, Cold War tensions, indigenous populations facing extinction, how society changes after tumultuous upheaval, and the rise of religious fundamentalism and neoliberal economics. All of it is told with Morris' razor-sharp observations and poetic language, and as Ursula K. LeGuin notes in the introduction, "it is a very good guidebook, I think, to the early twenty-first century." — Chris Winters</p>
<h2>4. Just Us: An American Conversation</h2><p>Under discussion in Claudia Rankine's <a href="https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/just-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Just Us: An American Conversation</a> is our abiding but often unacknowledged American system of racial inequality. Rankine, a Black woman, attempts honest conversations with White friends and strangers who don't see what to her is the obvious reality of everyday White supremacy. In a series of telling moments — on an airplane, at a dinner party — Rankine allows herself to push against the glass wall of social convention by acknowledging racism. Her measured but discomforting comments are an experiment that invites other people to see themselves through her eyes and perhaps arrive at a moment of shared reality. But the smart, liberal White people Rankine engages usually respond with denial or the lack of awareness bred of ingrained privilege. Brilliant and generous, this book of essays, poems, and images is one for all Americans to give, share, and talk about. — Valerie Schloredt</p>
<h2>5. Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty From a Hospital Diary</h2><p>When hospital staff in a chaotic urban ER left Timothy Snyder awaiting treatment for 17 hours, he came close to death, fading in and out of consciousness. Turns out his bloodstream was infected from a liver abscess that had been noted, but not treated, when his burst appendix was removed two weeks earlier at the same hospital. Friends asked why this eminent Yale historian hadn't called in a favor to get the medical attention he needed sooner. But leveraging privilege hadn't occurred to Snyder, best known for On Tyranny, his book about threats to democracy.</p><p>In the weeks that followed, as COVID-19 spread across the United States, Snyder battled his malady and made notes on ours — a medical system of extreme inequality, designed to maximize profit, that makes everyone sicker. The result is <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/669175/our-malady-by-timothy-snyder/" target="_blank">Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary</a>. You've heard that health care is a human right. Snyder brings rage and empathy to his assertion that health is also necessary to liberty, and health care for all a path to real freedom. — Valerie Schloredt</p>
<h2>6. The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart</h2><p>Alicia Garza's new book is the perfect answer to the question: Where do I start when it comes to organizing and movement building? What can I do? </p><p>In <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565184/the-purpose-of-power-by-alicia-garza/" target="_blank">The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart</a>, Garza uses her own story to describe the ebbs and flows of movements: building a base, organizing around an issue, taking action, and creating positive change. Going from a sexual-health peer educator in high school to community work in the Bay Area to co-founding Black Lives Matter, possibly the largest social movement in U.S. history, Garza shares the victories and challenges she's experienced. Power, she writes, is the ability to affect the conditions of our own lives and the lives of others. Simply joining those who think like you is not how we gain power. "A movement is successful if it transforms the dynamics and relationships of power — from power being concentrated in the hands of a few to power being held by many." — Zenobia Jeffries Warfield</p>
<h2>7. We Will Not Cancel Us</h2><p>What happens when actions meant for good — to hold people who cause harm accountable — turn out harmful themselves? Leave it to adrienne maree brown to dive fearlessly and faithfully into perilous waters in her new short book <a href="https://www.akpress.org/catalogsearch/result/?q=emergent+strategy+series+" target="_blank">We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice</a>, the first in her Emergent Strategy Series. Instead of taking offense or simply shutting down, as many on the receiving end of call out and cancel culture have done, amb responded to critical comments to her blog post "Unthinkable Thoughts: Call Out Culture in the Age of COVID-19," in a loving, inquisitive, facilitating way and wrote a book about it.</p><p>"I have learned a lot more about some things I thought I knew," she writes "… I got clearer on the parts that were triggers for people… I homed in on what is within my expertise, and reaffirmed that celebrity activism is not my jam." We Will Not Cancel Us shares those lessons to help us all break the cycles of harm — be they intentional or unintentional. — Zenobia Jeffries Warfield</p>
<h2>8. What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat</h2><p>In a world where thinness reigns supreme and diet talk is as normal as talking about the weather, <a href="https://www.akpress.org/what-we-dont-talk-about.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat</a> is a much-needed addition to fat discourse. As a long-time fat activist, Aubrey Gordon seamlessly threads a personal narrative with data and history, examining the roots of anti-fat bias and the harm it causes. The book is accessible for folks who may not know much about anti-fatness. And for fat people, it's an incredibly validating and empowering read.</p><p>Particularly inspiring is Gordon's final chapter, in which she details her vision for a better, just, and equitable world. — Ayu Sutriasa</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/health-happiness/2020/12/15/books-light-a-dark-season/" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTM2NzgzOX0.axY0HjeqRctJsR_KmDLctzDpUBLBN-oNIdqaXDb4caQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="774be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8379f35b1ca8a86d0e61b7d4bfc8b46e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="spruce organic cbd oil" data-width="710" data-height="959" /><p>As one of the best brands in the business, Spruce CBD is well-known for its potent CBD oils that feature many additional beneficial phytocannabinoids. This brand works with two family-owned, sustainably focused farms in the USA (one located in Kentucky and one in North Carolina) to create its organic, small product batches. The max potency Spruce CBD oil contains 2400mg of full-spectrum CBD extract, but the brand also offers a lower strength tincture with 750mg of CBD in total.</p>
$89
CBDistillery
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjkzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTU4OTM4Nn0.ypRdeDSBcE87slYrFfVrRwtJ2qGIK6FD5jBB4pndTMo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b473b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9930b53c9d58cb49774640a61c3e3e75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="cbdistillery cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>All of the products from CBDistillery are <a href="https://ushempauthority.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Hemp Authority Certified</a>, and for good reason. The company only uses non-GMO and pesticide-free industrial hemp that's grown organically on Colorado farms. Its hemp oils are some of the most affordable CBD products on the market, yet they still maintain a high standard of quality. CBDistillery has a wide variety of CBD potencies across its product line (ranging from 500mg to 5000mg per bottle) and offers both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils to give customers a completely thc-free option.</p>
$35
FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" data-width="800" data-height="800" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" data-width="600" data-height="600" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
$38.50
Charlotte's Web
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQ0NjM4N30.SaQ85SK10-MWjN3PwHo2RqpiUBdjhD0IRnHKTqKaU7Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="84700" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2174067dcc0c4094be25b3472ce08c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="charlottes web cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>Perhaps one of the most well-known brands in the CBD landscape, Charlotte's Web has been growing sustainable hemp plants for several years. The company is currently in the process of achieving official USDA Organic Certification, but it already practices organic and sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance the overall health of the soil and the hemp plants themselves, which creates some of the highest quality CBD extracts. Charlotte's Web offers CBD oils in a range of different concentration options, and some even come in a few flavor options such as chocolate mint, orange blossom, and lemon twist.</p>
$60
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21 stars have changed human understanding about the universe. titoOnz / Getty Images
By Zulfikar Abbany
How do you whittle down the 200 billion in our Milky Way galaxy to a mere 21? Focus on the ones that have changed human understanding of the universe, as astronomer Giles Sparrow told DW.
<p><em>DW: Let's start with the basics: We often talk about stars in the night sky as though we could reach up and touch them. But even the nearest star to Earth is beyond our solar system — within our galaxy, the Milky Way, but almost too far to comprehend. When in writing your book </em>A History of the Universe in 21 Stars (and 3 imposters)<em>, have you found a tangible way for non-astronomers to understand what we're talking about?</em></p><p><em>Giles Sparrow: The most intuitive way of approaching it is first to understand that light is the fastest thing in the universe, and it travels at 300,000 kilometers a second. And so light from the moon takes about a second-and-a-half to reach Earth. <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/after-apollo-a-new-era-for-american-human-spaceflight/a-53586377" target="_blank">When we sent astronauts to the moon</a>, radio signals took about that time to reach the Earth as well.</em></p><p><em></em>If you compare that to objects at the edge of the solar system, you know, light may take a few hours to reach the Earth. Then the very nearest star, Proxima Centauri: Light from that star takes four years and three months to reach us.</p><p>So, I think, that gives you some idea of the scale. As for the rest of the universe, within the Milky Way, you're talking about many thousands of years for light to reach us on Earth, and from distant galaxies it takes millions of years.</p><p><em>It certainly does put things into perspective, if we think that sending humans to the next planet from the sun, Mars, is hard enough. Yet these stars have contributed to our life on Earth. Is that what fascinates you about them, that distance?</em></p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NjgwMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NzMxODg4OH0.5VILJXBgaRDZTpkjp-MJwek23zQqSabrM7-ZEYuwoPU/img.jpg?width=980" id="9388f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="58193871e5f64217e976bc462216c2ac" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="700" data-height="394" />
Illustration: Betelgeuse in "A History of the Universe in 21 Stars" by Giles Sparrow — a star big enough to turn supernova and explode.
<p>It is fascinating. Unlike other forms of science, where you can chop things up or do experiments in a lab, with astronomy the only thing that we really have, apart from the occasional asteroid or meteorite that falls to Earth, is light and other radiations that have crossed all of this space. </p><p>Then, we pick them up with our telescopes on Earth and reconstruct the information. It often ends up being this amazing exercise in lateral thinking, because these things are physically so far beyond our reach.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NjgwOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDg3NTM2Nn0.A0hY7QuzpiwFgRf4OhTpmPE5D1rU-5oYHfSQZQqunGE/img.jpg?width=980" id="413d4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="64323e2a8456fc8733e4e452d0336d18" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="700" data-height="394" />
Illustration: Polaris and its constellation from "A History of the Universe in 21 Stars" by Giles Sparrow.
<p><em>But that does raise the question: how reliable is our science on stars? We're talking about 21 stars in your book out of how many billions…</em></p><p>About 200 billion stars in the Milky Way, and about as many galaxies in the observable universe as there are stars in the Milky Way. And that's only the observable universe, which is the area that light has had time to reach us since the Big Bang. The entire universe probably stretches far, far beyond that. And it's expanding. </p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NjgxMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY3NDM5MjMwMX0.Pt2yI1gO5_mxLJz28rjV54ftUrz5UOPSvEjvyqAAejA/img.jpg?width=980" id="bca4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a73506003f0f53d83af3dfd2a0c9cc4c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="700" data-height="394" />
Illustration: Our sun is just one of 200 billion (and counting) stars.
<p>The scientific method is a matter of making increasingly good approximations to whatever reality is. And sometimes you get big things that come along and upset all the previous thinking, like Einstein's theories of relativity a century ago. So, yes, there are unanswered questions. But it feels like we understand the general principles pretty well and we've demonstrated them in nuclear fusion and experiments on Earth.</p><p><em>Now, you've narrowed down these billions upon billions of stars to just 21. What's the thinking there?</em></p><p>Well, the 21 stars form an overview of all the different aspects of the science, the stars that have been critical to our understanding of astronomy and its history. So, for instance, there's 61 Cygni, which is this obscure star in the constellation of a swan. It was the first star for which we worked out its distance. That was one of those lateral thinking tricks.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NjgxNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTc5NzUyMn0.cBBclzKKrXeAPOKzJuEgBIhDs0-1JizUkCMZGvSILsA/img.jpg?width=980" id="ccc98" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ff5447584bc757e8ee421b661061e0a8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="700" data-height="394" />
Illustration: 61 Cygni and its constellation from "A History of the Universe in 21 Stars" by Giles Sparrow.
<p><br>You know how things appear to be in a slightly different position or direction when you look at them with one eye and then the other — the idea of parallax. Well, people had pointed out that if the Earth was going around the sun, why weren't we seeing the stars shifting their positions?</p><p>And the reason for that was that the stars were vastly farther away than anyone had thought. It took a couple of hundred years before telescopes and measuring technology had advanced to the point where they could finally measure that distance. But that was the first step towards our working out the distances for other objects.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NjgyMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDE2MTcyNH0.3hN8cgli4Wt1LVVKZW1EjI1CPpn9VP53nN_n7DbxXTw/img.jpg?width=980" id="b08ce" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="25b35a9a638b7c4ba6f60fed10c8fe5d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="700" data-height="394" />
Illustration: Helvetios from "A History of the Universe in 21 Stars" by Giles Sparrow.
<p>Then, a much more recent thing, we've got a star called Helvetios. That was the first star, where we found planets, eight of them, orbiting around it.</p><p><em>And the 3 imposters, what's up with them?</em></p><p>To tell the entire story, you need to go beyond the stars. And the imposters were first mistaken for the stars.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NjgyMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzA0OTM3OX0.Eb35edOhzOgUUKWhVI2deQv6o9_cv5JvqGUjT3o0HPY/img.jpg?width=980" id="644d2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e58e54ebfa76a7e1b48bcc6a55c93117" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="700" data-height="394" />
Illustration: Omega Centauri from "A History of the Universe in 21 Stars" by Giles Sparrow.
<p>For instance, Omega Centauri, which is this enormous globular cluster, a huge spherical ball of stars, orbiting around the Milky Way. That was classed as a star when they first catalogued it and the Andromeda Galaxy was seen as a star.</p><p>Then there's the first quasar, which means quasi-stellar object. They found this obscure star, giving off strange radio signals, relatively nearby. They realized it was this distant galaxy, billions of light years away, shining with such intense light that we could see it.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NjgyNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNzk4NzAxMX0.vvjKoACMJHVwIOwyECgEOrZuIRy8hoij1Z7ifSd-P3I/img.jpg?width=980" id="72fd4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="43649ea2ed7f847d1fe8d5e4fbe5c51e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="700" data-height="394" />
<p>
<em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/what-21-stars-tell-us-about-the-universe/a-55977304" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2649618559#/" target="_self"></a>
</p><script type="text/Javascript"></script>Long story, short: Supernova 1994D has helped scientists realize that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, not slowing.
<p><em>And how do you feel about the idea of travelling to these distant locations? Is it worth it?</em></p><p>From a purely scientific point of view, you'd say: "Yes". If it was just about looking at the stars, then you're always going to come up against this problem that we have within our own solar system — when we send probes to investigate our own sun — they're staying quite a safe distance from it. You can't get within a few million kilometers without <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/solar-orbiter-blasts-off-in-mission-to-the-sun/a-52319412" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">burning up your spacecraft</a>.</p><p>On the other hand, we know, for instance, that Proxima Centauri, that first star close to Earth, has at least one planet orbiting it. And opinions differ, but it's in the right area for it to be potentially habitable. But we think that Proxima might be too unstable for that because it's giving off these very harsh stellar flares.</p><p>The prospect of investigating other solar systems is very enticing, though. Whether we do that using robot space probes and an awful lot of patience, or whether we find some way, whether it be suspended animation or warp drives, or any of these science fiction-ish ideas, which do have some scientific merit, that would be quite an adventure.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
d3sign / Moment / Getty Images
By Amanda Fong
Food Tank is highlighting 26 books that help show young people that food can be a universal language. These stories illuminate the ways that food is used to show love, bring together communities, pass on traditions, and teach lessons. And their authors show that no matter a person's background and culture, nutritious food shared with loved ones can help bring anyone together.
<p>These 26 children's books celebrate food, diversity, the love of cooking, and community from seed to fork:</p>
<p><strong>1. <a href="http://tradewindbooks.com/books/a-day-with-yahah/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>A Day with Yayah</em></a> by Nicola Campbell, illustrated by Julie Flett</strong></p><p>Set in the Nicola Valley in British Columbia, this book follows Yayah, a First Nations grandmother, passing down her knowledge of plant life to her grandchildren. As Nikki, Jamesie, and Lenny forage for wild potatoes, rhubarb, celery, and lightning mushrooms, Yayah teaches them words in Nlaka'pamux, the endangered language of the Indigenous people of the Nicola Valley. Readers can learn alongside the characters with a pronunciation guide and glossary.</p><p><strong>2. <a href="https://whyfarmit.org/agriman/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>AGRIman AGventures</em></a> by WHYFARM and Alpha Sennon</strong></p><p>AGRIman is the world's first food security and nutrition superhero. In this educational comic, AGRIman is joined by PhotosyntheSista to inspire future feeders and build capacity and knowledge in agriculture. The superhero was developed by Alpha Sennon, the founder of We Help You-th FARM (WHYFARM), a non-profit from Trinidad and Tobago fighting food insecurity. Readers can access the comic the United States as an <a href="https://www.amazon.com/AGRIMAN-AGVENTURES-Beginning-Grampas-Magic-ebook/dp/B08378MMDF/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=agriman&qid=1606812696&s=books&sr=1-1&tag=techblast0f-20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ebook</a> or watch it as a <a href="https://whyfarmit.org/agriman/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">motion comic</a>.</p><p><strong>3. <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Amy-Wu-and-the-Perfect-Bao/Kat-Zhang/Amy-Wu/9781534411333" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao</em></a> by Kat Zhang illustrated by Charlene Chua</strong></p><p>Little, fearless Amy Wu is learning to make traditional Chinese bao with her family. Making bao takes skill to fill the dough and pinch it together, but Amy's bao keep coming out all wrong! Follow Amy as she learns to use creativity to problem solve while cooking. Kat Zhang even includes Amy's perfect bao recipe at the end!</p><p><strong>4. <a href="https://www.terisloat.com/berry-magic.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Berry Magic</em></a> by Betty Huffmon, illustrated by Teri Sloat</strong></p><p>Yup'ik Eskimo elder, Betty Huffmon, brings this folktale about the origin of berries – traditionally told aloud to Yup'ik children – to life with author and illustrator, Teri Sloat. <em>Berry Magic</em> follows Anana as she uses magic songs to grow juicy blueberries, cranberries, salmonberries, and raspberries for the Fall Festival and to make agutak (Eskimo cream). The book features illustrations depicting Indigenous culture, like dance fans made of reindeer hair and snowy owl feathers, and an agutak recipe at the end.</p><p><strong>5. <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Bilal-Cooks-Daal/Aisha-Saeed/9781534418103" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Bilal Cooks Daal</em></a> by Aisha Saeed, illustrated by Anoosha Syed</strong></p><p>In this award-winning book, six-year-old Bilal wants to share his favorite dish, daal, with his friends. They have never tried daal before, and Bilal helps his dad cook while worrying if they will like it. Author Aisha Saeed showcases the value of patience, teamwork, community, and sharing in this picture book featuring the South Asian, slow-cooked lentil dish.</p><p><strong>6. <em></em><a href="https://www.leeandlow.com/books/cora-cooks-pancit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Cora Cooks Pancit</em></a> by By Dorina Lazo Gilmore, illustrated by Kristi Valiant</strong></p><p>In <em>Cora Cooks Pancit</em>, Dorina Lazo Gilmore celebrates the classic, Filipino noodle dish, pancit. Cora's favorite dish is pancit and gets her chance to be Mama's sous chef for the first time. Readers can follow along as Cora helps shred the chicken, soak the noodles, and stir the pot while sneaking some nibbles to taste test. This book highlights the love for a traditional family dish and the warmth between a mother and daughter cooking it.</p><p><strong>7. <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/9781502705884/Dear-Tomato-International-Crop-Food-1502705885/plp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Dear Tomato: An International Crop of Food and Agriculture Poems</em></a> by Carol-Ann Hoyte</strong></p><p>Carol-Ann Hoyte brings together an anthology of poems by thirty-four different authors from seven different countries, telling the stories of food through haikus, free verse, and more. The fifty-one poem collection introduces children to a fresh view of where their food comes from on all parts of the "field to fork" journey.</p><p><strong>8. <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/101808/dim-sum-for-everyone-by-grace-lin/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Dim Sum for Everyone!</em></a> by Grace Lin</strong></p><p>In this book,<em> Dim Sum for Everyone!</em> celebrates the cultural custom of eating dim sum, which translates to "little hearts" in English. The story follows a young girl and her family as they visit a bustling dim sum restaurant. As they pick their favorite little dishes from the steaming trolleys filled with dumplings, cakes, buns, and tarts, the family makes sure to share each dish so everyone gets a little bite of everything in classic dim sum tradition.</p><p><strong>9. <a href="http://www.jamakimrattigan.com/dumpling_soup_8849.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Dumpling Soup</em></a> by Jama Kim Rattigan, illustrated by Lillian Hsu-Flanders</strong></p><p>Seven-year-old Marisa, an Asian American girl, learns to make dumplings for her family's New Year's celebration with her grandmother. Jama Kim Rattigan based this book on her experiences growing up celebrating New Year's Day in Hawai'i, which she realized was much different from celebrations on the mainland. In Hawai'i, Rattigan shows that New Year's is a family-oriented holiday, a time for enjoying large quantities of food and basking in cultural tradition.</p><p><strong>10. <a href="https://www.csacoalition.org/store/From-Asparagus-to-Zucchini-Cookbook-p135983351" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>From Asparagus to Zucchini Cookbook</em></a> by Madison Area and the Community Supported Agriculture Coalition</strong></p><p>This guide is a nationally renowned resource for families who want to cook farm-fresh, seasonal produce. Filled with 420 recipes and information on more than 50 vegetables and herbs, this Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) designed resource promotes the consumption of fresh, local and sustainable foods.</p><p><strong>11. <a href="https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/books/food-fight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Food Fight! A Mouthwatering History of Who Ate What and Why Through the Ages</a> by Tanya Steel</strong></p><p>In <em>Food Fight</em>, Tanya Steel uses food to explore history in a fun and engaging way. Readers can learn the origin story of M&Ms, the delicacies found at feasts in the Middle Ages, and much more. The book also includes 30 recipes tested and approved by young eaters.</p><p><strong>12. <a href="https://artepublicopress.com/product/harvesting-friends-cosechando-amigos/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Harvesting Friends / Cosechando Amigos</em></a> by Kathleen Contreras</strong></p><p>This bilingual book shows how a community garden can bring a community together and grow more than just fruits and vegetables. After making a deal, Lupe and Antonio tend a garden together, and bond over tomatoes, watermelon, squash, beans and corn. Over time, more and more neighbors become interested in gardening too. The book also includes easy recipes for young readers to try.</p><p><strong>13. <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/209357/how-did-that-get-in-my-lunchbox-by-chris-butterworth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>How Did That Get in My Lunchbox?</em></a> by Chris Butterworth, illustrated by Lucia Gaggiotti</strong></p><p>In Chris Butterworth's book, children can learn about the journey of different lunchbox items as they go from farm to fork. From planting wheat to mixing dough, climbing trees to machine-squeezing fruit, picking cocoa pods to stirring a vat of melted bliss, this book provides an accessible look into food production. It also includes health tips and a peek at basic food groups.</p>
<p><strong>14. <a href="https://www.sterlingpublishing.com/9781454925620/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>How to Feed Your Parents</em></a> by Ryan Miller, illustrated by Hatem Aly</strong></p><p>In this funny twist, the tables are turned and the parents are the picky eaters in this bi-racial family. Adventurous Matilda Macaroni loves trying new foods, like her grandma's jambalaya and friend's sushi. But her parents will only eat pepperoni pizza, hamburgers, and takeout noodles. Matilda sets out to secretly learn to cook with new flavors and open her parents' minds to trying new foods.</p><p><strong>15. <a href="https://www.albertwhitman.com/book/in-the-garden-with-dr-carver/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>In the Garden with Dr. Carver</em></a> by Susan Grigsby, illustrated by Nicole Tadsgell</strong></p><p>Susan Grigsby shares Dr. George Washington Carver's story by following a young school girl who meets and learns from him. Set in rural Alabama in the early 1900s, Sally and her community are struggling to grow food in soil depleted by cotton production. Dr. Carver, an African American agricultural scientist, arrives to teach them how to restore the soil and respect the balance of nature. He also prepares a delicious lunch made of plants to celebrate the food they can grow..</p><p><strong>16. <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Its-Disgusting-and-We-Ate-It!/James-Solheim/9780689843938" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>It's Disgusting and We Ate It</em></a> by James Solheim, illustrated by Eric Brace</strong></p><p>This book is a funny collection of true facts of food dishes from around the world and throughout history. Solheim shares historical culinary creations, like roasted spiders and Garbage Stew, that were once eaten around the world or continue to be eaten today in a light-hearted and fascinating way. What is gross to one person may be a delicious treat to another, and this book teaches children to keep an open mind about different communities' dishes in this world food tour.</p><p><strong>17. <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/9781935579007/Cook-Fruits-Vegetables-Cocinar-Frutas-1935579002/plp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Let's Cook with Fruits & Vegetables / Vamos a Cocinar con Frutas y Verduras</em></a> by Gayle Schachne and Northeast Valley Health Corporation WIC Program</strong></p><p>This cookbook was created with families using the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) ingredients in mind. Many recipes are designed to encompass WIC ingredients, and all of the recipes are meant to be affordable, simple, and delicious. The first half of the book is in English, and the second half is in Spanish. Recipes were also written and tested by WIC participants and WIC dietitians.</p><p><strong>18. <a href="http://flashlightpress.com/maddis-fridge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Maddi's Fridge</em></a> by Lois Brandt, illustrated by Vin Vogel</strong></p><p>In this award-winning story, Lois Brandt shines a light on childhood hunger and food insecurity in an inspiring, child-friendly approach. Maddi and Sofia live in the same neighborhood and are best friends. But Sofia discovers that while her fridge is full of milk and vegetables, Maddi's only has one, small container of milk. Maddi explains that her fridge is always like this, and even though Sofia promises not to tell, she sets out to figure out a way to help her friend. This is a great resource to introduce younger readers to a serious issue, and also show children that they can do something about it.</p><p><strong>19. <a href="https://www.jeanetteweiland.com/red-beans-and-rice" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Red Beans & Rice</em></a> by Jeanette Weiland, illustrated by Roberta Van Zandt Loflin</strong></p><p><em>Red Beans & Rice</em> follows Magnolia Rose and her friends as they visit Grandma Bee and Grandpa Pepper's farm in rural Louisiana. Here, the children discover their outdoor playgrounds are the source of the flavorful ingredients used to make their favorite Louisiana dishes: Red Beans & Rice, Strawberry Shortcake, Seafood Po-Boys, Pecan Pralines, and more. Weiland weaves in New Orleans's food culture in this farm to table story.</p><p><strong>20. <a href="https://www.paulfleischman.net/newsletter.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Seedfolks</em></a> by Paul Fleischman</strong></p><p>In this critically acclaimed novella, Paul Fleischman uses thirteen narrators to tell the story of the founding and first year of a community garden in an immigrant neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. The characters come from a variety of ethnic groups and ages. From their point of view, each narrator shows how the empty lot becomes a vibrant community garden and shares the transformations they are each going through in life. Seedfolks has inspired countless school and community gardens and can also be performed as a play using Fleischman's school-friendly adaption.</p><p><strong>21. <a href="http://www.ogemora.com/books" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Thank You, Omu!</em></a> by Oge Mora</strong></p><p>Oge Mora was inspired by the strong women role models in her life for her story about a grandmother's love and community. Omu, the Igbo word for queen, has made a stew that smells so good the entire neighborhood comes knocking on her door to try some. She gives all of it away by dinnertime, but the community shows their gratitude in this story of using food as a means of sharing, diversity, and inclusion.</p><p><strong>22. <a href="https://www.kidscanpress.com/products/bagel-king" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Bagel King</em></a> by Andrew Larsen, illustrated by Sandy Nichols</strong></p><p>In this book, Andrew Larsen features a special bond between a grandfather and his grandson, and their weekly tradition of eating bagels on Sunday. When his grandfather cannot bring bagels one weekend, Eli sets out to find a way to still share their favorite treat. <em>The Bagel King</em> highlights how a young child can take responsibility and, with a little initiative, help someone in need.</p><p><strong>23. <a href="https://www.cbcbooks.org/cbc_book/the-lunch-thief/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Lunch Thief</em></a> by Anne C. Bromley, illustrated by Robert Casilla</strong></p><p>When a new classmate steals Rafael's lunch, he initially feels angry. But inspired by his mother's advice, he decides to try to understand why it happened. Later, Rafael sees his classmate carrying a bundle of laundry into a motel room, and his mom explains that his family might be one of the families who lost their homes in the recent wildfires. The next day, Rafael invites his classmate to share his lunch in this lesson of empathy and understanding.</p><p><strong>24. <a href="https://katemessner.com/up-in-the-garden-and-down-in-the-dirt/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt</em></a><em> </em>by Kate Messner</strong></p><p>In this book, Kate Messner vividly paints two different worlds in the garden. Up in the garden, there is an abundance of green in leaves, sprouts, vegetables, and fruit. But down in the dirt exists a busy world filled with all the animals that make a garden their home. This story will teach children about the different parts of an ecosystem, even the ones they might not be able to see.</p><p><strong>25. <a href="http://www.carolelindstrom.com/learn-more-about-we-are-water-protectors.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>We Are Water Protectors</em></a> by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade</strong></p><p>Inspired by Standing Rock and all Indigenous Peoples fighting for clean water, Carole Lindstrom, who is Ojibwe, issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth's water from harm and corruption. In this book, a young girl stands to defend Earth's most precious resource from a black snake. Water connects everyone, and her courage teaches children that anyone can be a water protector.</p><p><strong>26. <a href="https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/yoko-by-rosemary-wells/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Yoko</em></a> by Rosemary Wells</strong></p><p>Rosemary Wells shares a heartwarming story of open-mindedness when trying new foods from different cultures. Yoko the kitten is teased by her classmates when her mom packs her sushi for lunch. They think the fish and seaweed are "yucky." But Yoko's teacher has an idea. On "International Food Day" at school, Yoko brings sushi again and makes a friend who is willing to try it.In this funny twist, the tables are turned and the parents are the picky eaters in this bi-racial family. Adventurous Matilda Macaroni loves trying new foods, like her grandma's jambalaya and friend's sushi. But her parents will only eat pepperoni pizza, hamburgers, and takeout noodles. Matilda sets out to secretly learn to cook with new flavors and open her parents' minds to trying new foods.</p><p><em>Amanda is passionate about helping organizations drive social impact and health equity on local and international levels. After earning a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Willamette University, she taught English in Thailand at a primary school and saw up close how food moved from farms to local markets to plates. With a background working in multicultural settings in the U.S. and abroad, Amanda hopes to bring a global lens to her writing. She plans to pursue a Master's in Public Health with an emphasis in global health and sustainability to bring change directly to communities.</em></p><p><span></span><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/12/childrens-books-to-nourish-growing-minds/" target="_blank">Food Tank</a>. </em></p>
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By Michael Svoboda, Ph.D.
Looking for climate-oriented gifts that can be purchased, delivered, and enjoyed under COVID-safe, socially-distanced conditions? Look no further.
<p>For this year's holiday gift guide, <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a> has gathered celebrated anthologies, deep-dives into climate-related science and solutions, inspiring books from or about spiritual leaders, and visionary works of climate fiction. All are just recently published, some within the past four weeks. There's little chance they will already be sitting on friends' or family member's bookshelves.</p><p>Good books can keep us company while we work, together, to bring the coronavirus under control. And they can inspire us to renewed action on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/">climate change</a> when we can meet again in public.</p><p>As always with this feature, the descriptions are adapted from copy provided by the publishers.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/12/gift-guide-12-books-on-climate-and-environment-for-the-holidays/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2649326666#/" target="_self"></a></p>
1. The Fragile Earth: Writing from The New Yorker on Climate Change, edited by David Remnick and Henry Finder (Harper Collins 2020, 560 pages, $29.99)
<p>The <em>Fragile Earth</em> tells the story of climate change – its past, present, and future – taking readers from Greenland to the Great Plains, and into both laboratories and rain forests. It features some of the best writing on global warming from the last three decades, including Bill McKibben's seminal essay "The End of Nature," the first piece to popularize both the science and politics of climate change for a general audience, and the Pulitzer Prize – winning work of Elizabeth Kolbert, as well as Kathryn Schulz, Dexter Filkins, Jonathan Franzen, Ian Frazier, Eric Klinenberg, and others. The result, in its range, depth, and passion, promises to bring light, and sometimes heat, to the great emergency of our age.</p>2. Tales of Two Planets: Stories of Climate Change and Inequality in a Divided World, edited by John Freeman (Penguin Random House 2020, 320 pages, $18.00 paperback)
<p>In the past five years, John Freeman, previously editor of Granta, has launched a celebrated international literary magazine, Freeman's, and compiled two acclaimed anthologies that deal with income inequality. In the course of this work, one major theme came up repeatedly: Climate change is making already dire inequalities much worse. In this new book, Freeman engages some of today's most eloquent storytellers – including Margaret Atwood, Lauren Groff, Edwidge Danticat, Tahmima Anam, Yasmine El Rashidi, Eka Kurniawan, Chinelo Okparanta, and Anuradha Roy – many of whom hail from places under acute stress. His is a literary all-points bulletin of fiction, essays, poems, and reportage about the most important crisis of our times.</p>3. All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson (Penguin Random House 2020, 448 pages, $29.00)
<p>There is a renaissance blooming in the climate movement: leadership that is more characteristically feminine and more faithfully feminist, rooted in compassion, connection, creativity, and collaboration. <em>All We Can Save</em> illuminates the expertise and insights of dozens of diverse women leading on climate in the United States – scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, teachers, activists, and designers, across generations, geographies, and race – and aims to advance a more representative and solution-oriented public conversation on the climate crisis. Curated by two climate leaders and intermixing essays with poetry and art, this book is both a balm and a guide, bolstering our resolve never to give up on one another or our collective future.</p>4. Future Sea: How to Rescue and Protect the World’s Oceans, by Deborah Rowan Wright (University of Chicago Press 2020, 200 pages, $22.50)
<p>The world's oceans face multiple threats: the effects of climate change, pollution, overfishing, plastic waste, and more. Such widespread environmental threats call for a simple but significant shift in reasoning to bring about long-overdue, elemental change in the way we use ocean resources. In <em>Future Sea</em>, ocean advocate and marine-policy researcher Deborah Rowan Wright provides the tools for that shift. A passionate, sweeping, and personal account, <em>Future Sea</em> not only argues for systemic change in how we manage what we do in the sea, but also describes steps that anyone, from children to political leaders (or indeed, any reader of the book), can take toward safeguarding the oceans and their extraordinary wildlife.</p>5. The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations, by Daniel Yergin (Penguin Random House 2020, 512 pages, $38.00)
<p>The world is being shaken by the collision of energy, climate change, and the clashing power of nations in a time of global crisis. The "shale revolution" in oil and gas – made possible by fracking technology, but not without controversy – has transformed the American economy, ending the "era of shortage." Yet concern about energy's role in climate change is challenging our economy and way of life, accelerating a second energy revolution in the search for a low carbon future. All of this has been made starker and more urgent by the coronavirus pandemic and the economic dark age that it has wrought. A master storyteller and global energy expert, Daniel Yergin takes the reader on a riveting journey across the world's new map. He poses the great questions of this era of political turbulence and points to the challenges that lie ahead.</p>6. Solved: How the World’s Great Cities Are Fixing the Climate Crisis, by David Miller (University of Toronto Press 2020, 208 pages, $29.95)
<p>Taking cues from progressive cities around the world, including Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Oslo, Shenzhen, and Sydney, David Miller, director of International Diplomacy for the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, summons every city to make small but significant changes that can drastically reduce humanity's carbon footprint. Solved demonstrates that the initiatives cities have already taken to control the climate crisis can make a real difference in reducing global emissions if implemented worldwide. As much a "how to" guide for policymakers as a call to action for concerned citizens, Solved aims to inspire hope through its analysis of what can be done – now, today – to pave the way to a 1.5-degree world.</p>7. Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future, by Pope Francis (Simon & Schuster 2020, 160 pages, $26.00)
<p>In the COVID crisis, Pope Francis saw the cruelty and inequity of our society exposed more vividly than ever before. He also saw, in the resilience, generosity, and creativity of so many people, the means to rescue our society, our economy, and our planet. In direct, powerful prose, Pope Francis urges us not to let the pain be in vain. In <em>Let Us Dream</em>, the Pope offers an inspiring and actionable blueprint for building by putting the poor and the planet at the heart of new thinking. For this plan, he draws not only on sacred sources, but on the latest findings from scientists, economists, and activists. Let Us Dream is an epiphany, a call to arms, and a pleasure to read. With this book, and with open hearts, we can change the world.</p>8. Stand Up! Speak Up! A Story Inspired by the Climate Change Revolution, by Andrew Joyner (Penguin Random House 2020, 40 pages (for 4-to-8-year olds), $17.99)
<p>Celebrate young climate change activists in this charming story about an empowered girl who shows up, listens up, and ultimately, speaks up to inspire her community to take action against climate change. After attending a climate march, a young activist is motivated to make an effort and do her part to help the planet … by organizing volunteers to work to make green changes in their community, from cleaning a lake, to planting trees, to hosting a clothing swap and more! Here is an uplifting picture book that is an important reminder that no change is too small – and no person is too young – to make a difference. With simple text and lively illustrations, Andrew Joyner has given young children a timely story about activism, community, and hope.</p>9. Our Only Home: A Climate Appeal to the World, by The Dalai Lama and Franz Alt (Hanover Square 2020, 176 pages, $19.99)
<p>Saving the climate is our common duty. With each passing day, climate change is causing Pacific islands to disappear into the sea, accelerating the extinction of species at alarming proportions and aggravating a water shortage that has affected the entire world. In this new book, the Dalai Lama, one of the most influential figures of our time, calls on political decision makers to finally fight against deadlock and ignorance on this issue and to stand up for a different, more climate-friendly world and for the younger generation to assert their right to regain their future. From this beloved world religious leader comes an eye-opening manifesto that empowers the generation of today to step up, take action and save our environment.</p>10. The 2084 Report: An Oral History of the Great Warming: A Novel, by James Lawrence Powell (Simon & Schuster 2020, 240 pages, $27.00)
<p>2084: Global warming has proven worse than even the direst predictions scientists had made at the turn of the century. No country – and no one – has remained unscathed. Through interviews with scientists, political leaders, and citizens around the globe, this riveting fictional oral history describes in graphic detail the irreversible effects the Great Warming has had on humankind. In short chapters, The <em>2084 Report</em> brings global warming to life, revealing a new reality in which Rotterdam doesn't exist, Phoenix has no electricity, and Canada is part of the United States. Characters describe the issues they confront in a world they share with the next two generations. Simultaneously fascinating and frightening, The 2084 Report will inspire you to take action.</p>11. A Diary in the Age of Water: A Novel, by Nina Munteanu (Inanna 2020, 328 pages, $22.95 paperback)
<p>Centuries from now, in a dying boreal forest of what used to be northern Canada, Kyo, a young acolyte called to service in the Exodus, discovers a diary that may answer her yearning for Earth's past – to the Age of Water, when the "Water Twins" destroyed humanity in hatred. The diary spans a twenty-year period in the mid-twenty-first century life of 33-year-old Lynna, a single mother who works in CanadaCorp, an international water utility. A Diary in the Age of Water follows the climate-induced journey of Earth and humanity through four generations of women, each with a unique relationship to water. The novel explores our concepts of what is "normal" – as a nation and an individual – in a world that is rapidly changing.</p>12. The Ministry for the Future: A Novel, by Kim Stanley Robinson (Hachette Book Group – Orbit 2020, 576 pages, $28.00)
<p>From legendary science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson comes a remarkable vision of climate change over the coming decades. The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us – and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face. It is a novel both immediate and impactful, desperate and hopeful in equal measure, and it is one of the most powerful and original books on climate change ever written. (Editor's note: Readers can find YCC's review of this book <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/10/the-ministry-for-the-future-a-novel-by-kim-stanley-robinson/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a> and an interview with the author <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/11/a-crucial-collapse-in-the-ministry-for-the-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.)</p>From Your Site Articles
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This month's bookshelf highlights 12 titles that uncover the roots and explain the dynamics of this critical moment in American politics.
By Michael Svoboda, Ph.D
Like the amplifying effects of climate change, which is already delivering once-in-a-century storms every four or five years, America's increasingly divided politics have created three once-in-a-lifetime elections in just the past 20 years. But the stakes in 2020 seem another order larger than in 2000, 2008, or 2016. And who Americans choose in November will dramatically affect what the world does – or doesn't do – on climate in the critical decade that follows.
This month's bookshelf highlights 12 titles that uncover the roots and explain the dynamics of this critical moment in American politics.
<p>The first three titles focus on President Trump – appropriately, given that the election is widely seen as a referendum on his administration. How did he gain power? Why does he appeal so strongly to so many Americans? And what norms can be restored in the wake of his disruptions?</p><p>The next three titles profile three distinct subsets of the American electorate: Trump's most dedicated supporters, the Black and allied protestors who created the Black Lives Matter movement now aligned against Trump, and the diverse groups of women who together organized the first and still the largest protest against the Trump presidency – the day after he was sworn into office.</p><p>The last six titles step back to place these groups and their concerns in broader social and historical contexts.</p>
<p>A new Gallup/Knight Foundation report details the deepening divide in Americans' assessments of the news media. Then an economist explains why national debts and deficits don't mean what we think they do, a reassuring message for a country that has just spent $3 trillion on the coronavirus pandemic and has yet to get serious about climate change.</p><p>The last four titles reach back into history to explore previous times when Americans faced, and surmounted, crises. Two of these historic "moments" – the New Deal and World War II – have figured prominently in calls for action on climate change; they reappeared again this year when cities and states pressed for more aggressive federal action on the coronavirus crisis. Americans did rise to the occasion in the Great Depression and World War II, but, as the last two titles detail, the nation is still struggling to fulfill the promise it showed then.</p><p>The next chance to make good on those promissory notes comes over the next month. These 12 titles can prepare readers to make their choices on November 3rd – and then help them understand the consequences of the nation's choice afterwards.</p><p><span></span>As always, the descriptions of the titles in this list are drawn from copy provided by the publishers. If two dates of publication are offered, the second is for the paperback edition of the title.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/What-Were-We-Thinking/Carlos-Lozada/9781982145620" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">What Were We Thinking? A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era</a>, by Carlos Lozada (Simon & Schuster 2020, 272 pages, $28.00)</p><p><em>Washington Post book critic Carlos Lozada has read some 150 volumes that explain why Trump was elected and what his presidency reveals about our nation. Many of these, he's found, are more righteous than right. In What Were We Thinking, Lozada uses these books to tell the story of how we understand ourselves in the Trump era. Lozada's argument is provocative: many of these books – whether written by Trump's true believers or his harshest critics – are vulnerable to the same blind spots, resentments, and failures that gave us his presidency. But Lozada also highlights books that illuminate how America is changing. What Were We Thinking helps us transcend the battles of the moment and see ourselves for who we really are.</em></p><p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/trump-and-us/512B965B35BF73FEFF7DCD936C0E3C12" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Trump and Us: What He Says and Why We Listen</a>, by Roderick P. Hart (Cambridge University Press 2020, 280 pages, $24.95 paperback)</p><p><em></em><em>Why did 62 million Americans vote for Donald Trump? An expert in political language, Roderick P. Hart turns to Trump's words, voters' remarks, and media commentary for insight. The book offers the first systematic rhetorical analysis of Trump's 2016 campaign and early presidency, using text analysis and archives of earlier presidential campaigns to uncover deep emotional undercurrents in the country and to provide historical comparison. Hart pays close attention to the emotional dimensions of politics, above and beyond cognition and ideology. He argues it was not partisanship, policy, or economic factors that landed Trump in the Oval Office but rather how Trump made people feel.</em></p><p><em></em>See also <a href="https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781623499068/demagogue-for-president/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump</a> by Jennifer Mercieca (Texas A&M University Press 2020, 320 pages, $28.00)</p><p><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-strange-case-of-donald-j-trump-9780197507445" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump: A Psychological Reckoning</a>, by Dan P. McAdams (Oxford University Press 2020, 305 pages, $35.00)</p><p><em>The Strange Case of Donald J. Trump provides a coherent and nuanced psychological portrait of Donald Trump, drawing upon biographical events in the subject's life and contemporary scientific research and theory in personality, developmental, and social psychology. The book's central thesis is that Donald Trump is the episodic man. The chapters, written as stand-alone essays, build on each other to present a portrait of a person who compulsively lives in the moment. McAdams shows that Trump's utter lack of an inner life story is truly exceptional. This book is a remarkable case study, which should aid readers trying to reckon with the often confounding behavior and temperament of the 45th President of the United States.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-securitarian-personality-9780190096489" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Securitarian Personality: What Really Motivates Trump's Base and Why It Matters for the Post-Trump Era</a>, by John R. Hibbing (Oxford University Press 2020, 304 pages, $29.95)</p><p><em>In The Securitarian Personality, John R. Hibbing argues that an intense desire for authority is not central to those constituting Trump's base. Drawing from participant observation, focus groups, and a nationwide survey, Hibbing demonstrates that what Trump's base really craves is actually a specific form of security: threats they perceive to be emanating from human outsiders, defined broadly to include welfare cheats, unpatriotic athletes, norm violators, non-English speakers, religious and racial minorities, and certainly people from other countries. The central objective of these "securitarians" is to strive for protection for themselves, their families, and their dominant cultural group from these embodied outsider threats. In The Securitarian Personality, Hibbing radically reinterprets a political movement that will continue to influence American politics.</em></p><p><em></em><a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520292710/making-all-black-lives-matter" target="_blank">Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the 21st Century</a>, by Barbara Ransby (University of California Press 2018, 240 pages, $18.95 paperback)</p><p><em>The breadth and impact of Black Lives Matter in the United States has been extraordinary. What began as outrage over the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin and the exoneration of his killer, and accelerated during the Ferguson uprising of 2014, has evolved into a resurgent Black Freedom Movement, which includes a network of more than fifty organizations. In Making All Black Lives Matter, award-winning historian and longtime activist Barbara Ransby outlines the scope and genealogy of this movement, documenting its roots in Black feminist politics and situating it squarely in a Black radical tradition. Ransby maps the movement, profiles many of its lesser-known leaders, measures its impact, outlines its challenges, and looks toward its future.</em></p><p><em></em><a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520301528/how-to-read-a-protest" target="_blank">How to Read a Protest: The Art of Organizing and Resistance</a>, by L.A. Kauffman (University of California Press 2018, 152 pages, $22.95)</p><p><em>When millions of people took to the streets for the 2017 Women's Marches, there was an unmistakable air of uprising. But what exactly do protests do, and how do they help movements win? In this original and richly illustrated account, organizer and journalist L.A. Kauffman delves into the history of America's major demonstrations, beginning with the legendary 1963 March on Washington, to reveal the ways protests work and how their character has shifted over time. Using the signs that demonstrators carry as clues to how protests are organized, Kauffman sheds new light on the catalytic power of collective action and the decentralized, bottom-up, women-led model that has transformed what movements look like and what they can accomplish.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://knightfoundation.org/reports/american-views-2020-trust-media-and-democracy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">American Views 2020: Trust, Media, and Democracy: A Deepening Divide</a>, a Gallup/Knight Foundation Survey (Gallup/Knight Foundation 2020, 63 pages, free download available <a href="https://knightfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/American-Views-2020-Trust-Media-and-Democracy.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>)</p><p><em>There is a widening gulf between American aspirations for and assessments of the news media. With each study, the American people render increasingly polarized judgments. For the 2020 American Views survey, Gallup and Knight polled more than 20,000 U.S. adults and found further partisan entrenchment about how the news media delivers on its democratic mandate for factual, trustworthy information. Republicans express more negative sentiments on every aspect of media performance compared to Democrats and independents. This report is based on data collected just before the coronavirus became a global pandemic and the movement for racial justice swept the nation. This update offers new insights into how the public is responding to these challenges in their own media consumption and their thoughts about how to address them.</em></p><p><em></em><a href="https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/stephanie-kelton/the-deficit-myth/9781541736184/" target="_blank">The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy</a>, by Stephanie Kelton (Public Affairs Books 2020, 336 pages, $30.00)</p><p><em>Any ambitious proposal to deal with crucial issues – poverty, inequality, health care, infrastructure, climate change – inevitably runs into the buzz saw of how to find the money to pay for it, rooted in myths about how deficits are hobbling us as a country. Economist Stephanie Kelton busts those myths: that the federal government should budget like a household, that deficits will harm the next generation, crowd out private investment, and undermine long-term growth, and that entitlements are propelling us toward a grave fiscal crisis. With its important new ways of understanding money, taxes, and the critical role of deficit spending, Modern Monetary Theory redefines how to responsibly use our resources so that we can maximize our potential as a society. MMT gives us the power to imagine a new politics and to move from a narrative of scarcity to one of opportunity.</em></p><p><em></em><a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250244420" target="_blank">Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy</a>, by Suzanne Mettler and Robert C. Lieberman (St. Martin's Press 2020, 304 pages, $28.99)</p><p><em>In Four Threats, Suzanne Mettler and Robert C. Lieberman explore five moments in history when democracy in the U.S. was under siege: the 1790s, the Civil War, the Gilded Age, the Depression, and Watergate. These episodes risked profound – even fatal – damage to the American democratic experiment. From this history, four distinct characteristics of disruption emerge. Political polarization, racism and nativism, economic inequality, and excessive executive power – alone or in combination – have threatened the survival of the republic. What is alarming about the present moment is that all four conditions exists at once. But by revisiting how earlier generations of Americans faced threats to the principles enshrined in the Constitution, we can chart a path toward repairing our civic fabric and renewing democracy.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Upswing/Robert-D-Putnam/9781982129149" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again</a>, by Robert Putnam (Simon & Schuster 2020, 480 pages, $32.50)</p><p><em>Deep and accelerating inequality; unprecedented political polarization; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private narcissism – Americans today seem to agree on only one thing: This is the worst of times. But we've been here before. During the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, America was highly individualistic, starkly unequal, fiercely polarized, and deeply fragmented. In a sweeping overview, drawing on his inimitable combination of statistical analysis and storytelling, Robert Putnam (author of the groundbreaking Bowling Alone) analyzes the confluence of trends that brought us from an "I" society to a "We" society and then back again. Drawing inspiring lessons from an earlier era, when a dedicated group of reformers righted the ship, Putnam charts a path to becoming a society once again based on community.</em></p><p><a href="https://groveatlantic.com/book/the-black-cabinet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Black Cabinet: The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt</a>, by Jill Watts (Grove Press 2020, 560 pages, $30)</p><p><em></em><em>In 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidency with the help of key African American defectors from the Republican Party. At the time, most African Americans lived in poverty, were denied citizenship rights, and were terrorized by white violence. As the New Deal began, a "black Brain Trust" joined the administration and began documenting and addressing the economic hardship and systemic inequalities African Americans faced, even in FDR's own administration. They became known as the Black Cabinet. Masterfully researched and dramatically told, The Black Cabinet brings to life a forgotten generation of leaders who fought post-Reconstruction racial apartheid and whose work served as a bridge that Civil Rights activists crossed to achieve the victories of the 1950s and '60s.</em></p><p><a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300233780/year-peril" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Year of Peril: America in 1942</a>, by Tracy Campbell (Yale University Press 2020, 408 pages, $30)</p><p><em>The Second World War exists in the American historical imagination as a time of unity and optimism. In 1942, however, America seemed to be on the brink of defeat and was beginning to splinter from within. Historian Tracy Campbell portrays the social, economic, and political fault lines that pitted factions of citizens against each other after Pearl Harbor was attacked, even as the nation mobilized, government-aided industrial infrastructure blossomed, and parents sent their sons off to war. This captivating look at how American society responded to the greatest stress experienced since the Civil War reveals the various ways, both good and bad, that the trauma of 1942 forced Americans to redefine their relationship with democracy.</em></p><p><em></em>See also <a href="https://www.hbgacademic.com/titles/martha-s-jones/vanguard/9781549190155/" target="_blank">Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All</a>, by Martha S. Jones (Basic Books 2020, 352 pages, $30).</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/10/12-books-to-help-voters-think-climate-change-through-elections-prisms/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A marmot stands in front of Hidden Lake and Reynolds Mountain in Glacier National Park. Tobias Klenze / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 4.0
By Breanna Draxler
Climate change is the undercurrent that drives and shapes our lives in countless ways. Journalist Judith D. Schwartz sees the term as shorthand. "It's almost as if people think climate is this phenomenon, determined solely by CO2, as if we could turn a dial up or down," she tells me over the phone. "We are missing so much."
<p>In her quest for climate solutions, Schwartz leans into the complexity of natural systems. As she and I talk, I come to imagine our climate as a beautiful series of overlapping Rube Goldberg-style cycles of carbon, water, nutrients, and energy. Those systems have been knocked out of alignment, sure, but as Schwartz sees it, repair is not impossible.</p><p>While mainstream environmentalism has historically pursued either preservation or conservation, Schwartz's new book, <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/09/02/norway-reindeer-herding-sami-culture/" target="_blank">The Reindeer Chronicles</a> (Chelsea Green 2020) explores a third option: regeneration. She looks at community efforts to restore ecosystems the world over. "We've been trained to believe that finding solutions is a job for the experts," she writes, but "Earth repair is a participatory sport: a grassroots response to evolving global crises."</p><p>Schwartz is worried that climate change conversations center around terrifying projections. "What do you do with that? Cower under the bed?" She says collapse is unlikely to be a one-shot meteorite, and that gives us some leeway. If we assume we're not always going to get things right, that leaves room for mistakes and the collective learning they bring. "We have so much more agency than we've been able to see," she says.</p><p>We may not know what the future climate is going to look like, and she acknowledges that not knowing is really hard. "But we've got to try," she says matter of factly. "We're here now … Just start."</p>
Overcoming Cultural Myths
<p>Schwartz comes to the topic of climate solutions with curiosity and a deep appreciation for science. You can hear it in the way she writes about processes like transpiration and decomposition: "The logic of nature is no secret; it is laid bare in every streambed, every handful of living soil, every spiderweb, if we bother to take a look. Its tale is told through accrual or retrenchment of biomass, biodiversity, and soil organic matter: the stuff of life."</p><p>She has a particular soft spot for soil health, sustainable grazing, and water retention—subjects on which she has written entire books. These pop up throughout The Reindeer Chronicles as she attends Ecosystem Restoration Camp in Spain and Cowgirl Camp in Eastern Washington. (Yes, it's a thing).</p><p>While I find the name off-putting, Schwartz uses her Cowgirl Camp experience as a springboard to discuss the critical role of women in agriculture. The word "farmer" often conjures an image of a man on a tractor, but she writes that a third of American farmers are women, and in the Midwest, it's closer to half. </p><p>"It's our cultural myths. It's our myth of the cowboy. It's our myth of what a farm is," Schwartz says. "There might be women involved, but you think about them as the supporting cast. We tend to look for heroes before we look for heroines."</p><p>By perpetuating the myth of the male farmer, Schwartz says, "We miss half of the imagination, insight, problem solving, intuition that's out there." And when it comes to climate change, we're going to need all we can get.</p>Naturalizing the Economy
<p>Schwartz's writing is lyrical in its descriptions of systems normally not given such linguistic fanfare. When talking about the economy, she writes, "Its theme music—the vicissitudes of the market, job numbers, profits and losses—sets both melody and tone for newscasts and public debate, the inadvertent soundscape of contemporary life." She calls the disconnect between limitless growth and a finite planet "a society-wide exercise in fooling ourselves."</p><p>But rather than try to force the complexity of nature into existing financial structures—by giving value to resources and ecosystem services, for example—she writes of naturalizing the economy instead. This requires rethinking basic concepts we take for granted, like productivity, jobs, and meaningful work.</p><p>"There is no natural law that says profit must supersede other types of reward," she writes. "The truth is, we are what we measure—or at least our actions are largely determined by how we gauge success. What if environmental healing, social engagement, and a commitment to the future governed our companies and institutions, and therefore our work lives?"</p><p>A lot of the solutions in the book talk about connecting with the land. In some communities that access is collective, but I press her on the fact that access to land is incredibly inequitable. In the U.S., a lot of that has to do with historic and systemic racism. What role does justice have to play here, and how can that be factored into the conversation about ecological restoration?</p><p>"It plays a huge role," Schwartz says. "The people who are most at risk of losing work in this time are people of color and young people." Rather than try to shoehorn everybody back into a service economy that refuses to provide a living wage and requires working two or three jobs, she tells me, we can start investing in restoration.</p><p>She describes the magnitude of the potential benefits with enthusiasm: not just a wage, but tools that are going to be needed throughout the world—the capacity to grow food, manage landscapes, design dwellings. Not to mention the impacts on mental and physical health of being in natural spaces and eating healthy food.</p><p>Schwartz describes these as short-term signposts that give positive feedback on the long road to restoring ecosystems. Biodiversity inevitably bounces back, she says, and soil health, too. While she doesn't tackle the issue of racism head-on, she makes clear that healthy communities include people and the land.</p><p>"What can be more healing than to heal land?" she asks me.</p>A Local Land Ethic
<p>The book is somewhat meandering in its quest for resilience. Schwartz's willingness to entertain a wide range of ideas and approaches is central to her message: "Once ideas on how to achieve what's assumed to be impossible are articulated, that goal is no longer impossible."</p><p>She describes different communal land management traditions—the Himma that long sustained shared grazing lands for Bedouin shepherds in Saudi Arabia, and ahupua'a, whereby each self-sustaining unit of shared land in Hawai'i included functional ecosystems that stretched from the mountains to the sea.</p><p>"I was very humbled by Indigenous knowledge, understanding myself as a newcomer on that land," she says. She admits she has a lot to learn but is excited about the prospect. I ask her how she views the relationship between Western science and traditional ecological knowledge.</p><p>"They can serve as reality checks for each other," she says. She goes on to explain how in Western culture, scientific inquiry is about breaking things apart to look at them in greater detail. But this reductive approach misses the way things fit into systems. In this way, she says science can disconnect people from the very nature they are trying to understand.</p><p>"Originally science was based on keen observation," she says. "That is part of getting us to knowledge." Ancient knowledge systems emphasize the connections between humans and nature—and see humans as part of larger whole. She says science today seems to be bearing that out more and more.</p><p>Still, that doesn't preclude the need for ancient knowledge as the climate rapidly changes. "Who better to be able to keenly observe those changes than people who have known what it has been?" she asks me. "To have a baseline and to know the various factors that will be changing?"</p>Centering Community
<p>Alongside the understanding of place, Schwartz emphasizes the equally important respect for community. Her writing recognizes that climate change is not so much an environmental problem as a human problem.</p><p>"Running in the back of my mind, like the hum of those hovering bees, was the dawning realization that all the knowledge and technology needed to shift to a regenerative future—one marked by agriculture that builds soil carbon, retains water, produces nutrient-dense food, and revives land and communities—is already available," she writes. "It's only people that get in the way."</p><p>To come at it from another angle, as one of her sources puts it, "There is nothing wrong with the Earth."</p><p>In reporting the book, Schwartz reckons with the notion of imperialism and comes to realize the limits of information. Knowing more doesn't necessarily change minds, but feeling heard can. Building trust can. Overcoming fear can. She witnesses the power of consensus when decades-old feuds among ranchers in New Mexico dissipate with the formation of a collective vision for their future.</p><p>"Worst-case-scenario perseverating keeps everyone pumping stress hormones. This leaves us at once frozen and overwhelmed, unable to act or seek alternatives," she writes. "In short, we stuff our heads with worst possible outcomes and wonder why we get them."</p><p>In my favorite example from the book, from which the title is derived, Schwartz explores what some local Indigenous leaders have called "green colonialism" in northern Norway. She follows the efforts of an Indigenous reindeer herder to prevent the government from culling his animals. While Norway's government is considered among the most progressive in the world, it doesn't recognize the value of the grazing animals in climate change mitigation, instead investing in wind turbines on those very same lands. The herder's family considers reindeer herding a cultural bank for traditional language, handicraft, knowledge of the environment, and ecology. So the loss is far greater than the animals themselves. (<a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/09/02/norway-reindeer-herding-sami-culture/" target="_blank">Read an excerpt here.</a>)</p>Homebound
<p>"This was not an easy book to write," Schwartz admits, and the world looks very different today than when she was writing it. Schwartz says the pandemic has given her permission to fall in love with the place where she is. She describes her home in southern Vermont as beautiful, though somewhat dismissively, saying that she always viewed the action as taking place somewhere else. Home was just the place she returned to after each of her reporting trips to write without distractions.</p><p>Now, though, she says she's experiencing a newfound presence and grounding right where she is, and realizing there's far more to discover than she previously acknowledged. "What was in the background has become foreground." I would venture a guess that her shifted perspective is not unique in these uncertain times, and that's just what she thinks we need.</p><p>Even in the small town of Bennington, Vermont, where she lives, she's seeing the effects. A "grow your own food" webinar was offered in June. While a successful local event might usually attract five people, 100 people signed up. She says this is evidence that people are aware of the need for local resilience.</p><p>"We've all got places," she says. "Places have their own ecological logic. Let's do what we can where we are and learn from each other." That idea of connecting with place and community is central to her worldview. "The 'we' who can address climate change is everybody," she says.</p><p>"There is no one size fits all for climate action." Schwartz says we need to protest oil companies and make art and grow healthy food and feed one another and, in her case, write—all using our respective skills to imagine a more resilient world.</p><p>Her argument, reinforced by 2020's stay-at-home orders, is to focus on restoring the functions of whatever ecosystem you call home. Rhetorically, she writes, "How many microclimates does it take to make a new climate?"</p>Tipping Points
<p>In her concluding chapter, Schwartz asks what people would do if restoring ecosystems was achievable. She then lists possible answers, among them: keeping water in the ground, jettisoning the cynicism, and dancing.</p><p>I can't help but push back on this. After all, if our planet is at a tipping point, don't we need to do more and at larger scales to actually achieve meaningful ecological restoration?</p><p>Her answer is perfect in its simplicity: "Tipping points go both ways." We may be on the brink of disaster, if we choose to dwell on the worst-case scenarios. But maybe, just maybe, if we focus on the best possible outcomes, we can tip the scales to bring best-case scenarios into being.</p>From Your Site Articles
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By John R. Platt
This has already been one of the hottest summers on record, and things are only going to get worse. Unless we do something about it.
<p>So … let's <em>do</em>.</p><p>We can't really go to the beach in these final few weeks of summer — too many potential disease vectors walking around in Speedos — so let's all stay home and read up on climate change.<br/></p><p>We've collected this summer's 10 best new books about global warming and related topics — all published over the past three months — covering how we got here and how we're going to get out of this hot mess. You'll find books about science, activism, history and people, and even some art along the way.</p><p>And maybe you'll also find some inspiration.</p>
The Future Earth: A Radical Vision for What’s Possible in the Age of Warming by Eric Holthaus
<p>Billed as "the first hopeful book about climate change." Holthaus, a meteorologist turned climate journalist, explores several major scenarios under which we could get to carbon-zero over the next three decades and save the planet. Along the way he also encourages another radical idea: that we relearn how to embrace the Earth and our relationship with it — and maybe our relationship with ourselves along the way.</p>Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It by Jamie Margolin
<p>An essential book by one of the country's most engaging young climate activists. Margolin cofounded the action group Zero Hour and helped energize 2018's record-breaking Youth Climate March. Now she shares her experience and expertise — along with that of other activists — and offers advice on everything from organizing peaceful protests to protecting your mental health in a time of crisis. Greta Thunberg provides the foreword.</p>When the World Feels Like a Scary Place: Essential Conversations for Anxious Parents and Worried Kids by Abigail Gewirtz
<p>A wide-ranging book by a child psychologist that teaches parents to help stressed kids of all ages deal with the world's ever-growing multitude of crises, ranging from climate change to active-shooter drills — and yes, COVID-19. Oh yeah, and along the way the book aims to help parents deal with their own anxieties about these issues.</p>Disposable City: Miami’s Future on the Shores of Climate Catastrophe by Mario Alejandro Ariza
<p>Environmental and economic collapse go hand in hand for Miami, Florida — and this book provides a poignant first-person investigation into a metropolis that could one day soon be underwater. (Read our full review <a href="https://therevelator.org/miami-climate-ariza/" target="_blank">here</a>.)</p>Health of People, Health of Planet and Our Responsibility: Climate Change, Air Pollution and Health
<p>A wide-ranging, open-access (as in free) academic book addressing how climate change damages peoples' health, covering everything from the cardiovascular effects of air pollution to the ethics of climate justice. There are even chapters about how the climate crisis will affect our mental health and religious faiths. Edited by Wael K. Al-Delaimy, Veerabhadran Ramanathan and Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, with dozens of contributors from around the world, the book is <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-31125-4" target="_blank">available for download</a> in its entirety or on a chapter-by-chapter basis.</p>Who Killed Berta Cáceres? by Nina Lakhani
<p>This isn't <em>exactly</em> a climate book, but it's a must-read and close enough in topic to belong on this month's list. Subtitled "Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender's Battle for the Planet," this powerful investigation digs into the brutal murder of an activist who led the fight against a hydroelectric dam being built on her peoples' sacred river in Honduras. In an age when hydropower is being embraced in some corners as a low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels, we need to remember that dams are often built on blood and stolen land.</p>Paying the Land by Joe Sacco
<p>The author, an acclaimed journalist/cartoonist best known for his graphic novels about war zones, travels to a different kind of conflict: the fossil-fuel and mining industries' destructive influence on a First Nations community in the Canadian Northwest Territories. Heartbreaking and powerful, this book drives home that the climate crisis was affecting people long <em>before</em> temperatures started to rise.</p>The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move by Sonia Shah
<p>Climate change is already forcing people, animals and plants to shift where they live — an often-dangerous prospect fraught with potential consequences and conflict. But is migration also a <em>solution</em> to the climate crisis? Shah looks deeply into human and natural history — not to mention our history of xenophobia — to show how we can effectively embrace compassionate laws, wildlife corridors and permeable international borders to benefit a changing world.</p>Tales of Two Planets: Stories of Climate Change and Inequality in a Divided World edited by John Freeman
<p>In this hybrid book of nonfiction, fiction, essays and poems, an all-star lineup of international writers addresses how climate change will exacerbate the gap between rich and poor around the world and put millions of people at greater risk. Margaret Atwood, Anuradha Roy, Lauren Groff and Chinelo Okparanta are among the notable contributors.</p>The Hidden Life of Ice: Dispatches from a Disappearing World by Marco Tedesco
<p>A noted climate scientist takes us on a journey to Greenland to discuss its melting beauty and the secrets that researchers are uncovering beneath the ice. Part science book, part history lesson, part travelogue, this book puts the reader on the front line to illuminate the climate crisis and what we're losing in the process. Co-written by journalist Alberto Flores d'Arcais; Elizabeth Kolbert (<em>The Sixth Extinction</em>) provides the foreword.</p>Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
<p>A near-future novel about a world almost destroyed by climate change and overconsumption, narrated by a woman whose dark secrets and haunted past echo the melting ice and extinctions that surround her and a ship's crew as they follow the final migration of the world's last surviving birds. Mysterious and melancholy, but as much about the quest for the future as what the characters have lost.</p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/john/" target="_blank">John R. Platt</a> is the editor of <em>The Revelator</em>. An award-winning environmental journalist, his work has appeared in <em>Scientific American</em>, <em>Audubon</em>, <em>Motherboard</em>, and numerous other magazines and publications. His "Extinction Countdown" column has run continuously since 2004 and has covered news and science related to more than 1,000 endangered species. He is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and the National Association of Science Writers. John lives on the outskirts of Portland, Ore., where he finds himself surrounded by animals and cartoonists.</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/climate-books-august-2020/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>. </em><em></em></p>
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Yale Climate Connections highlights 13 reports covering climate change.
By Michael Svoboda
If measured by the number of reports put out in just the first half of this year, the coronavirus has not slowed the work of the international, national, and non-governmental organizations keeping an eye on climate change.
<p>And that's a good thing. Because although it has temporarily reduced the amount of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere, the coronavirus crisis has done nothing to slow the climatic effects of the carbon dioxide already there after decades of fossil fuel combustion. The planet is still warming, the oceans are still acidifying, and more and more humans are experiencing the consequences.</p><p>In this edition of our bookshelf feature, Yale Climate Connections highlights a baker's dozen of these reports, selected to reflect the broad range of concerns that intersect with climate change, including water, national security, media, health, food, finance, energy, and climate and environmental justice.</p><p>Readers can also find a link to <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/dl/YCC_2020_Reports.doc" target="_blank">a much longer list of reports</a>, which provides a measure of depth rather than breadth. Food security, for example, is the subject of six separate reports released since the start of the year, but only one is included in this month's baker's dozen.</p><p><span></span>The descriptions of the 13 reports are adapted from copy provided by the organizations that published them. All of the reports, those profiled below and those included in the larger downloadable list, are available free, in pdf form online. In some cases, however, interested readers may need to register with the organizations that released them.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.ametsoc.org/ams/index.cfm/publications/bulletin-of-the-american-meteorological-society-bams/state-of-the-climate/">State of the Climate 2019: Special Supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society</a>, edited by J. Blunden and D.S. Arndt (BAMS 2020, 435 pages, free download available <a target="_blank" href="https://watermark.silverchair.com/2020bamsstateoftheclimate.pdf">here</a>; a 10-page executive summary is also available)</p><p><em>Compiled by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information and published as a supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, State of the Climate provides a detailed update on global climate indicators, notable weather events, and other data collected by monitoring stations and instruments located on land, water, ice, and in space. State of the Climate in 2019 is the 30th issuance of the annual assessment, which has been published by the Bulletin since 1996. The main function of each volume is to document the status and trajectory of many components of the climate system. As a series, however, the report also documents the status and trajectory of our capacity and commitment to observe the climate system.</em></p><p><em><a target="_blank" href="https://firststreet.org/press/2020-first-street-foundation-flood-model-launch/">The First National Flood Risk Assessment: Defining America's Growing Risk</a>, by Flood Modelers (First Street Foundation 2020, 163 pages, free download available <a target="_blank" href="https://assets.firststreet.org/uploads/2020/06/first_street_foundation__first_national_flood_risk_assessment.pdf">here</a>)</em></p><p><em><em>The nonprofit research and technology group First Street Foundation has publicly released flood risk data for more than 142 million homes and properties across the country. The data assigns every property in the contiguous United States a "Flood Factor™" based on its cumulative risk of flooding over a thirty-year mortgage. When adjusting changing sea levels, warming sea surface and atmospheric temperatures, and changing precipitation patterns, the Foundation's model finds the number of properties with substantial risk grows to 16.2 million by the year 2050. "The First Annual National Flood Risk Assessment: Defining America's Growing risk" highlights these significant national, state, and city findings of the First Street Foundation Model.</em></em></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.unwater.org/publications/world-water-development-report-2020/">World Water Development Report 2020: Water and Climate Change</a>, by UN Water (UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization 2020, 235 pages, free download available <a target="_blank" href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000372985.locale=en">here</a>)</p><p><em>Climate change will affect the availability, quality and quantity of water for basic human needs, threatening the effective enjoyment of the human rights to water and sanitation for potentially billions of people. The alteration of the water cycle will also pose risks for energy production, food security, human health, economic development, and poverty reduction. The 2020 UN World Water Development Report focuses on the challenges that can be addressed through improving water management. Combining climate change adaptation and mitigation, through water, is a win-win proposal, improving the provision of water supply and sanitation services and combating both the causes and impacts of climate change, including disaster risk reduction.</em></p><p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.fao.org/3/ca9692en/online/ca9692en.html">The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020: Transforming Food Systems for Affordable Healthy Diets</a>, by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO (United Nations 2020, 320 pages, free download available <a target="_blank" href="http://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/ca9692en">here</a>)</p><p><em>This year, the UN's annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World includes a special focus on transforming food systems for affordable healthy diets. It analyses the cost and affordability of healthy diets around the world, by region and in different development contexts. New analysis is presented on the "hidden" health and climate-change costs associated with our current food consumption patterns, as well as the cost savings if we shift towards healthy diets that include sustainability considerations. The report also offers policy recommendations to transform current food systems and make them able to deliver affordable healthy diets for all – crucial to all efforts to achieve Zero Hunger – Sustainable Development Goal No. 2.</em></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240000377">WHO Global Strategy on Health, Environment, and Climate Change: The Transformation Need to Improve Lives and Wellbeing through Healthy Environments</a>, by WHO (UN-WHO 2020, 36 pages, free download available <a target="_blank" href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240000377">here</a>)</p><p><em>The burden of disease attributable to the environment is high and persistent (~ one quarter of all deaths), and further health concerns are posed by global climate change and rapid urbanization. To respond to this situation, a new global strategy on health, environment and climate change has been developed to transform the way we tackle environmental risks by accounting for health in all policies and scaling up disease prevention and health promotion. It needs to be supported by a strengthened health sector, adequate governance mechanisms, and enhanced communication, thereby creating a demand for healthy environments. The new strategy is timely – it responds to and is in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the GPW13.</em></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/report/cooling-emissions-and-policy-synthesis-report">Cooling Emissions and Policy Synthesis Report: Benefits of Cooling Efficiency and the Kigali Amendment</a>, by UNEP-IEA (UNEP and IEA 2020, 50 pages, free download available <a target="_blank" href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/33094/CoolRep.pdf">here</a>)</p><p><em>In a warming world, prosperity and civilization depend more and more on access to cooling. But the growing demand for cooling will contribute significantly to climate change, both through the leaking of HFCs and other refrigerants, and through emissions of CO2 and black carbon from the mostly fossil fuel-based energy powering air conditioners and other cooling equipment. By combining energy efficiency improvements with the transition away from super-polluting refrigerants, the world could avoid cumulative greenhouse gas emissions of up to 210-460 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) over the next four decades. This is roughly equal to 4-8 years of total annual global greenhouse gas emissions, based on 2018 levels.</em></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.2035report.com/">The 2035 Report: Plummeting Solar, Wind, and Battery Costs Can Accelerate Our Clean Electricity Future</a>, by Sonia Aggarwal and Mike O'Boyle (Goldman School of Public Policy 2020, 37 pages, free download available <a target="_blank" href="http://www.2035report.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2035-Report.pdf">here</a>)</p><p><em>Most studies aim for deep decarbonization of electric power systems by 2050, but this report shows, with the latest renewable energy and battery cost data, that we can get there in half that time. The U.S. can achieve 90% clean, carbon-free electricity nationwide by 2035, dependably, at no extra cost to consumers, and without new fossil fuel plants. On the path to 90% over the next 15 years, we can inject $1.7 trillion into the economy, support a net increase of more than 500K energy sector jobs each year, and reduce economy-wide emissions by 27%. This future also retires all existing coal plants by 2035, reduces natural gas generation by 70%, and prevents up to 85,000 premature deaths by 2050. But without robust policy reforms, this future will be lost.</em></p><p><em><a target="_blank" href="https://www.ceres.org/resources/reports/addressing-climate-systemic-risk">Addressing Climate as a Systemic Risk: A Call to Action for U.S. Financial Regulators</a>, by Veena Ramani (Ceres 2020, 68 pages, free download available <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ceres.org/sites/default/files/reports/2020-06/Financial%20Regulators%20FULL%20FINAL.pdf">here</a>, registration required)</em></p><p><em><em>This Ceres report outlines how and why U.S. financial regulators, who are responsible for protecting the stability and competitiveness of the U.S. economy, need to recognize and act on climate change as a systemic risk. It provides more than 50 recommendations for key financial regulators to adopt, including the Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC), state and federal insurance regulators, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC).</em></em></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/report/gender-climate-security-sustaining-inclusive-peace-frontlines-climate-change">Gender, Climate & Security: Sustaining Inclusive Peace on the Frontlines of Climate Change</a>, by UN Women (UN Environment & Development Programs 2020, 52 pages, free download available <a target="_blank" href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/32638/GCS.pdf">here</a>)</p><p><em>Climate change is a defining threat to peace and security in the 21st century – its impacts felt by everyone, but not equally. Gender norms and power dynamics shape how women and men of different backgrounds experience or contribute to insecurity in a changing climate. Grounded in a series of case studies from research and programming experience, this report offers a comprehensive framework for understanding how gender, climate and security are inextricably linked. The report assesses entry points for action across existing global agendas and suggests concrete recommendations for how policymakers, development practitioners and donors can advance three inter-related goals: peace and security, climate action and gender equality.</em></p><p><em><a target="_blank" href="https://careclimatechange.org/evicted-by-climate-change/">Evicted by Climate Change: Confronting the Gendered Impacts of Climate-Induced Displacement</a>, by Care International (Care International 2020, 33 pages, free download available <a target="_blank" href="https://careclimatechange.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/CARE-Climate-Migration-Report-v0.4.pdf">here</a>)</em></p><p><em><em>This report outlines the causes and consequences of climate-induced displacement, and how the triple injustice of climate change, poverty and gender inequality must be met by transformative action. In this report, CARE draws on key scientific findings as well as its own experience and, most importantly, the experiences of the people CARE seeks to support in managing compound risks: women and girls in vulnerable situations. To tackle climate-induced displacement in a gender-transformative and human-rights based way, CARE calls on all relevant actors to do their part to build a safer, more equitable, inclusive and resilient future that harnesses the power of women and girls within their communities.</em></em></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/defending-tomorrow/">Defending Tomorrow: The Climate Crisis and Threats Against Land and Environmental Defenders</a>, by Global Witness (Global Witness 2020, 52 pages, free download available <a target="_blank" href="https://www.globalwitness.org/documents/19939/Defending_Tomorrow_EN_low_res_-_July_2020.pdf">here</a>)</p><p><em>For years, land and environmental defenders have been the first line of defense against climate breakdown. Time after time, they have challenged those companies rampaging through forests, skies, wetlands, oceans and biodiversity hotspots. Yet the crucial role they play, businesses, financiers and governments fail to safeguard the vital and peaceful work of these defenders. The climate crisis is arguably the greatest global and existential threat we face. As it escalates, it will exacerbate many other problems. The question is whether we want to build a better, greener future for our planet and its people. The answer lies in following the leadership, the campaigns and solutions that land and environmental defenders have been honing for generations.</em></p><p><em><a target="_blank" href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/07/23/breaking-the-plastic-wave-top-findings">Breaking the Plastic Wave: A Comprehensive Assessment of Pathways Towards Stopping Ocean Plastic Pollution</a>, by Pew Charitable Trust and System IQ (Pew Charitable Trust 2020, 153 pages, free download available <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2020/07/breakingtheplasticwave_report.pdf">here</a>)</em></p><p><em><em>Plastic has become ubiquitous. From wrapped food and disposable bottles to microbeads in body washes, it's used widely as packaging or in products because it's versatile, cheap, and convenient. But this convenience comes with a price. Plastic waste is entering the ocean at a rate of about 11 million metric tons a year. How did we get here? We have produced vast quantities of plastic products but have had few ways to regulate their use or properly manage their disposal. "Breaking the Plastic Wave" shows that we can cut annual flows of plastic into the ocean by about 80% in the next 20 years. But no single solution can achieve this goal; rather, we can break the plastic wave only by taking several immediate, ambitious, and concerted actions.</em></em></p><p><em><em><a target="_blank" href="https://medium.com/centerforcooperativemedia/climate-specific-reasons-help-propel-growth-in-journalism-collaborations-4696dc2f672c">Adapting to a Change Climate: How Collaboration Addresses Unique Challenges in Climate-Change and Environmental Reporting</a>, by Caroline Porter (Center for Cooperative Media 2020, 24 pages, free download available <a target="_blank" href="https://collaborativejournalism.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2020/07/climate-change-caroline-porter-july-16-2020.pdf">here</a>)</em></em></p><p><em><em><em>As part of its collaborative journalism program, the Center for Cooperative Media (CCM) at Montclair State University tracks journalism collaborations. In early 2019 the number of climate change-related collaborations seemed to be ticking upward, spurred by the launch of Covering Climate Now, the biggest such collaboration on record. CCM decided to take a look at how journalists are working together to tackle the topic and all of its related issues. The result is the new report researched and written by Caroline Porter. Based on her assessments of 40 climate-related collaborations, she found that there are some climate change-specific reasons that journalism collaborations make sense, beyond the usual economic reasons for such efforts.</em></em></em></p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/08/13-major-climate-change-reports-released-so-far-in-2020/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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By Michael Svoboda
The enduring pandemic will make conventional forms of travel difficult if not impossible this summer. As a result, many will consider virtual alternatives for their vacations, including one of the oldest forms of virtual reality – books.
<p>Two kinds of books meet this challenge while telling stories about climate change. The first burrows deep into a particular place, noting changes over time as human impacts, including climate change, have intensified. The second tracks a particular effect of climate change – longer droughts, melting ice sheets, rising sea levels, or raging wildfires – across different communities and landscapes.</p>
<p>Both kinds of books can be found in this month's bookshelf. And for those who hope to do some of their "reading" while on the road, socially distanced in their vehicles, each of this month's entries includes a link to a streamable audio interview with the author.</p><p>As always, the descriptions of the titles are drawn from copy provided by the publishers. When two dates of publication are provided, the second is for the release of the paperback edition.</p><p>Safe travels!</p><p><em>Editor's Note: Yale Climate Connections thanks Scott Smallwood, senior communications manager for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.southernenvironment.org/">Southern Environmental Law Center</a>, for suggesting this theme. Three of the online interviews linked to below were recorded for <a target="_blank" href="https://brokengroundpodcast.org/">Broken Ground</a>, the podcast produced by Southern Environmental Law Center. A fourth Broken Ground interview, with Dr. Robert Bullard, considered the founder of the environmental justice movement, can be streamed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/270210/3620881-dr-robert-bullard-environmental-justice-is-equal-justice">here</a>.</em></p>
<p><strong>1. <a target="_blank" href="https://milkweed.org/book/the-home-place">The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature</a>, by Drew Lanham (Milkweed 2016/2017, 240 pages, $16.00 paperback) / An interview with author can be streamed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/270210/3433171-drew-lanham-call-of-the-rural-south">here</a>.</strong></p><p>From fertile soils of love, land, identity, family, and race emerges a big-hearted, unforgettable memoir by ornithologist J. Drew Lanham. Dating back to slavery, Edgefield County, South Carolina has been home to generations of Lanhams. In The Home Place, readers meet these extraordinary people, including Drew himself, who over the course of the 1970s falls in love with the natural world around him. As his passion takes flight, however, he begins to ask what it means to be "the rare bird, the oddity." By turns angry, funny, elegiac, and heartbreaking, The Home Place is a meditation on nature and belonging, at once a deeply moving memoir and riveting exploration of the contradictions of black identity in the South – and in America today.</p>
<p><strong>2. <a target="_blank" href="https://milkweed.org/book/late-migrations">Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss</a>, by Margaret Renkl (Milkweed Editions 2019, 248 pages, $24.00) / An interview with the author can be streamed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/270210/3829103-margaret-renkl-backyard-environmentalism">here</a>.</strong></p><p>Growing up in Alabama, New York Times opinion writer Margaret Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child's transition to caregiver. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees. Renkl suggests that there is astonishment to be found in common things: in what seems ordinary, in what we all share. Gorgeously illustrated by the author's brother, Billy Renkl, Late Migrations vividly portrays the cycles of joy and grief that inscribe human lives within the natural world.</p>
<p><strong>3. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062661401/chesapeake-requiem/">Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island</a>, by Earl Swift (Dey Street Books/Harper Collins 2018/2020, 448 pages, $17.99) / An interview with the author can be streamed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/270210/4004636-earl-swift-watching-waters-rise">here</a>.</strong></p><p>Tangier Island, Virginia, is a community unique on the American landscape. Mapped by John Smith in 1608, settled during the American Revolution, the tiny sliver of mud is home to 470 hardy people who live an isolated and challenging existence, with one foot in the 21st century and another in times long passed. But Tangier is disappearing. The very water that has long sustained it is erasing the island day by day, wave by wave; its shoreline retreats by fifteen feet a year. As the graves of their forebears are being sprung open by encroaching tides, the conservative and deeply religious Tangiermen ponder the end times. Chesapeake Requiem is an intimate look at Tangier by an acclaimed journalist who spent much of the past two years living among its people, crabbing and oystering with its watermen, and observing its odd ways.</p>
<p><strong>4. <a target="_blank" href="https://milkweed.org/book/rising">Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore</a>, by Elizabeth Rush (Milkweed Editions 2018/2019, 328 pages, $16.00 paperback) / An interview with the author can be streamed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2018/11/27/rising-new-american-shore">here</a>.</strong></p><p>Rising seas are transforming the coastline of the United States in irrevocable ways. In Rising, Elizabeth Rush guides readers through some of the places where this change has been most dramatic. For many of the plants, animals, and humans in these places, the options are stark: retreat or perish in place. Weaving firsthand testimonials from those facing this choice – a Staten Islander who lost her father during Sandy, the remaining holdouts of a Native American community on a drowning Isle de Jean Charles, a neighborhood in Pensacola settled by escaped slaves hundreds of years ago – with profiles of wildlife biologists, activists, and other members of these vulnerable communities, Rising privileges the voices of those often kept at the margins.</p>
<p><strong>5. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-product/trees-in-trouble/">Trees in Trouble: Wildfires, Infestations, and Climate Change</a>, by Daniel Mathews (Counterpoint Press 2020, 304 pages, $26.00) / An interview with the author can be streamed <a target="_blank" href="https://oldfirehousebooksblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/15/author-interview-dan-mathews/">here</a>.</strong></p><p>Climate change manifests in many ways across North America, but few as dramatic as the attacks on our western pine forests. In Trees in Trouble, Daniel Mathews tells the urgent story of this loss, accompanying burn crews and forest ecologists as they study the myriad risk factors and refine techniques for saving this important, limited resource. Scrupulously researched, Trees in Trouble not only explores the devastating ripple effects of climate change, but also introduces us to the people devoting their lives to saving our forests. Mathews also offers hope: a new approach to managing western pine forests is underway. Trees in Trouble explores how we might succeed in sustaining our forests through the challenging transition to a new environment.</p>
<p><strong>6. <a target="_blank" href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374280062">Erosion: Essays of Undoing</a>, by Terry Tempest Williams (Farrar, Strauss, Giroux 2019, 336 pages, $27.00) / An interview with the author can be streamed <a target="_blank" href="https://radiowest.kuer.org/post/terry-tempest-williams-erosion">here</a>.</strong></p><p>Terry Tempest Williams's fierce and spirited essays are a howl in the desert. She asks: "How do we find the strength to not look away from all that is breaking our hearts?" Here, Williams bravely and brilliantly explores the many forms of erosion we face: of democracy, science, compassion, and trust. She examines the cultural and environmental implications of the gutting of Bear Ears National Monument; of the undermining of the Endangered Species Act; of the relentless press by the fossil fuel industry that has led to "oil rigs light[ing] up the horizon." And she testifies that the climate crisis is not an abstraction, offering as evidence the drought outside her door. Erosion is a book for this moment, political and spiritual at once. Williams reminds us that beauty is its own form of resistance, and that water can crack stone.</p>
<p><strong>7. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nyrb.com/products/wilding?variant=13867544150068">Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm</a>, by Isabella Tree (New York Review Books 2019, 392 pages, $19.95 paperback) / An interview with the author can be streamed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.writersvoice.net/2020/02/writers-voice-isabella-tree-wilding-jeet-heer/">here</a>.</strong></p><p>For years Isabella Tree and her husband, Charlie Burrell, farmed Knepp Castle Estate and struggled to turn a profit. By 2000, with the farm facing bankruptcy, they decided to try something radical. They would restore estate's 3,500 acres to the wild. Using herds of free-roaming animals to mimic the actions of the megafauna of the past, they hoped to bring nature back to their depleted land. In the face of considerable opposition the couple persisted with their experiment and soon witnessed an extraordinary change. New life flooded into Knepp, now a breeding hotspot for rare and threatened species. At a time of looming environmental disaster, Wilding is an inspiring story of a farm, a couple, and a community transformed. Isabella Tree's book brings together science, natural history, a fair bit of drama, and – ultimately – hope.</p>
<p><strong>8. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nyrb.com/products/wilding?variant=13867544150068">Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm</a>, by Isabella Tree (New York Review Books 2019, 392 pages, $19.95 paperback) / An interview with the author can be streamed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.writersvoice.net/2020/02/writers-voice-isabella-tree-wilding-jeet-heer/">here</a>.</strong></p><p>For years Isabella Tree and her husband, Charlie Burrell, farmed Knepp Castle Estate and struggled to turn a profit. By 2000, with the farm facing bankruptcy, they decided to try something radical. They would restore estate's 3,500 acres to the wild. Using herds of free-roaming animals to mimic the actions of the megafauna of the past, they hoped to bring nature back to their depleted land. In the face of considerable opposition the couple persisted with their experiment and soon witnessed an extraordinary change. New life flooded into Knepp, now a breeding hotspot for rare and threatened species. At a time of looming environmental disaster, Wilding is an inspiring story of a farm, a couple, and a community transformed. Isabella Tree's book brings together science, natural history, a fair bit of drama, and – ultimately – hope.</p>
<p><strong>9. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/103569/horizon-by-barry-lopez/">Horizon</a>, by Barry Lopez (Penguin Random House 2019/2020, 592 pages, $16.99 paperback) / An interview with the author can be streamed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.opb.org/radio/programs/thinkoutloud/segment/rebroadcast-barry-lopez-on-horizon/">here</a>.</strong></p><p>From pole to pole and across decades of lived experience, National Book Award-winning author Barry Lopez delivers his most far-ranging, yet personal, work to date. Horizon moves indelibly, immersively, from Western Oregon to the High Arctic; from the Galápagos to the Kenyan desert; from Botany Bay in Australia to the ice shelves of Antarctica. Along the way, Lopez probes the long history of humanity's thirst for exploration, including prehistoric peoples, 16th & 17th century explorers, 17th and 18th century colonialist, and today's ecotourists in the tropics. And always, throughout his journeys to some of the hottest, coldest, and most desolate places on the globe, Lopez searches for meaning and purpose in a broken world.</p>
<p><strong>10. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/543135/disappointment-river-by-brian-castner/">Disappointment River: Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage</a>, by Brian Castner (Penguin Random House 2018/2019, 368 pages, $16.95 paperback) / An interview with the author can be streamed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhHejIQfx8s">here</a>.</strong></p><p>Fourteen years before Lewis and Clark, Alexander Mackenzie set off to cross the continent to find a trade route to the riches of the East. What he found was a river that he named "Disappointment." In this book, Brian Castner retraces Mackenzie's travels, taking readers to a world rarely glimpsed in the media, a world of tar sands, thawing permafrost, remote indigenous villages and, at the end, a wide open Arctic Ocean that could become a far-northern Mississippi of barges, pipelines and oil money. Disappointment River transports readers back to the heroic age of North American exploration and places them in a still rugged but increasingly fragile Arctic wilderness in the process of profound alteration by the dual forces of globalization and climate change.</p>
<p><strong>11. <a target="_blank" href="https://thenewpress.com/books/end-of-ice">The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption</a>, by Dahr Jamail (The New Press 2019/2020, 288 pages, $17.99 paperback) / An interview with the author can be streamed <a target="_blank" href="https://ralphnaderradiohour.com/the-end-of-ice/">here</a>.</strong></p><p>In The End of Ice, we follow acclaimed journalist Dahr Jamail as he scales Denali, the highest peak in North America, dives in the warm crystal waters of the Pacific only to find ghostly coral reefs, and explores the tundra of St. Paul Island where he meets the last subsistence seal hunters of the Bering Sea and witnesses its melting glaciers. Accompanied by climate scientists and people whose families have fished, farmed, and lived in the areas he visits for centuries, Jamail begins to accept the fact that Earth, most likely, is in a hospice situation. Like no other book, The End of Ice offers a firsthand chronicle of the catastrophic reality of our situation and the incalculable necessity of relishing this vulnerable, fragile planet while we still can.</p>
<p><strong>12. <a target="_blank" href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374718992">Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils</a>, by David Farrier (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 2020, 307 pages, $28.00) / An interview with the author can be streamed <a target="_blank" href="https://lithub.com/rekindled-david-farrier-in-conversation-with-stephen-sparks/">here</a>.</strong></p><p>Modern civilization has created objects and landscapes with the potential to endure through deep time, whether it is plastic polluting the oceans or nuclear waste sealed within the earth or the 30 million miles of roads spanning the planet. Our carbon could linger in the atmosphere for 100K years, and the remains of our cities will still exist millions of years from now as a layer in the rock. Traveling from the Baltic Sea to the Great Barrier Reef, and from an ice-core laboratory in Tasmania to Shanghai, Farrier describes a world that is changing rapidly, with consequences beyond the scope of human understanding. As much a message of hope as warning, Footprints will not only alter how you think about the future; it will change how you see the world today.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from Yale Climate Connections.</em><em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Food Tank
By Danielle Nierenberg and Alonso Diaz
With record high unemployment, a reeling global economy, and concerns of food shortages, the world as we know it is changing. But even as these shifts expose inequities in the health and food systems, many experts hope that the current moment offers an opportunity to build a new and more sustainable food system.
<p>To understand what it will take to move forward, Food Tank has compiled its summer reading list to delve into the issues that affect our food system today. These 20 books provide insight into food access and justice in Black communities, food relief and school nutrition programs, the effects of technology on global food supply chains, the relationship between climate change and food production, and much more.</p>
1. Be My Guest: Reflections on Food, Community, and the Meaning of Generosity by Priya Basil (forthcoming November 2020)
<p>Priya Basil explores the meaning of hospitality within a variety of cultural, linguistic, and sociopolitical contexts in this short read. Basil uses her cross-cultural experience to illustrate how food amplifies discourse within families and touches on the hospitality and the lack thereof that migrants and refugees experience. <em>Be My Guest </em>is at once an enjoyable read and a hopeful meditation on how food and hospitality can make a positive difference in our world.</p>2. Biodiversity, Food and Nutrition: A New Agenda for Sustainable Food Systems by Danny Hunter, Teresa Borelli, and Eliot Gee
<p>In <em>Biodiversity, Food and Nutrition</em>, leading professionals from Bioversity International examine the positive impacts of biodiversity on nutrition and sustainability. The book highlights agrobiodiversity initiatives in Brazil, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Turkey, featuring research from the <a href="https://www.bioversityinternational.org/research-portfolio/diet-diversity/biodiversity-for-food-and-nutrition/" target="_blank">Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Project </a>(BFN) of the <a href="https://www.bioversityinternational.org/alliance/" target="_blank">Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT</a>. Through this analysis, the authors propose that the localized activities in these countries are not only benefiting communities, but are transferable to other regions.</p>3. Black Food Geographies: Race, Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C. by Ashanté M. Reese
<p>In <em>Black Food Geographies, </em>Ashanté Reese draws on her fieldwork to highlight community agency in response to unequal food access. Focusing on a majority-Black neighborhood in Washington, DC, Reese explores issues of racism, gentrification, and urban food access. Through her analysis, she argues that racism impacts and exacerbates issues of unequal food distribution systems.</p>4. Black Food Matters: Racial Justice in the Wake of Food Justice edited by Hanna Garth and Ashanté M. Reese (forthcoming October 2020)
<p>Access, equity, justice, and privilege are the central themes in this forthcoming collection of essays. The food justice movement often ignores the voices of Black communities and white food norms shape the notions of healthy food. Named for Black Lives Matter, <em>Black Food Matters </em>highlights the history and impact of Black communities and their food cultures in the food justice movement.</p>5. Diners Dudes & Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture by Emily J.H. Contois (forthcoming November 2020)
<p>In <em>Diners, Dudes & Diets</em>, Emily Contois looks at media's influence on eating habits and gendered perceptions of food. Focusing on the concept of dude foods, the book follows the evolution of food marketing for men. In doing so, Contois shows how industries used masculine stereotypes to sell diet and weight loss products to a new demographic. She argues that this has influenced both the way consumers think about food and their own identities.</p>6. Feeding the Crisis: Care and Abandonment in America’s Food Safety Net by Maggie Dickinson
<p>The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is essential for individuals who face food insecurity on a daily basis. Still, the program fails to reach many, including those who are unemployed, underemployed, or undocumented. <em>Feeding the Crisis</em> provides a historical overview of SNAP's expansion and traces the lives of eight families who must navigate the changing landscape of welfare policy in the United States.</p>7. Feeding the Other: Whiteness, Privilege, and Neoliberal Stigma in Food Pantries by Rebecca T. de Souza
<p>In <em>Feeding the Other</em>, Rebecca de Souza explores the relationship between food pantries and people dependent on their services. Throughout the work, de Souza underscores the structural failures that contribute to hunger and poverty, the racial dynamics within pantries, and the charged idea of a handout. She argues that while food pantries currently stigmatize clients, there is an opportunity to make them agents of food justice.</p>8. Feeding the People: The Politics of the Potato by Rebecca Earle
<p>In <em>Feeding the People,</em> Rebecca Earle tells the story of the potato and its journey from a relatively unknown crop to a staple in modern diets around the world. Earle's work highlights the importance of the potato during famines, war, and explains the politics behind consumers' embrace of this food. Interspersed throughout are also potato recipes that any reader can try.</p>9. Food in Cuba: The Pursuit of a Decent Meal by Hanna Garth
<p>In <em>Food in Cuba</em>, Dr. Hannah Garth looks at food security and food sovereignty in the context of Cuba's second largest city, Santiago de Cuba. Throughout the work, Garth defines a decent meal as one that is culturally appropriate and of high quality. And through stories about families' sociopolitical barriers to food access, Garth shows how ideas of food and moral character become intimately linked.</p>10. Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America by Marcia Chatelain
<p>Scholar, speaker, and strategist Marcia Chatelain provides readers insight into the ways fast food restaurants expanded throughout Black communities. Dr. Chatelain traces their growth during the 20th century and their intersection with Black capitalists and the civil rights movement. This book highlights the dichotomy between fast food's negative impacts on Black communities and the potential economic and political opportunities that the businesses offered them.</p>11. Honey And Venom: Confessions of an Urban Beekeeper by Andrew Coté
<p>In <em>Honey and Venom,</em> Andrew Coté provides a history of beekeeping while taking the reader through his own trajectory in the industry. A manager of over one hundred beehives, Coté raises colonies across New York City, on the rooftops of churches, schools, and more. Coté's<em> </em>passion for beekeeping comes through clearly as he narrates the challenges and rewards of his career.</p>12. Life on the Other Border: Farmworkers and Food Justice in Vermont by Teresa M. Mares
<p>Agriculture, immigration, and Central American and Mexican farm workers may conjure ideas of the Mexico-U.S. border, but in <em>Life on the Other Border</em>, Teresa Mares gives a voice to those laboring much farther north. Mares introduces the readers to the Latinx immigrants who work in Vermont's dairy industry while they advocate for themselves and navigate life as undocumented workers. This is an inspiring read that touches on the intersection of food justice, immigration, and labor policy.</p>13. Meals Matter: A Radical Economics Through Gastronomy by Michael Symons
<p>In <em>Meals Matter</em>, Michael Symons argues that economics used to be, in its essence, about feeding the world but has since become fixated with the pursuit of money. Symons introduces readers to gastronomic liberalism and applies the ideas of philosophers like Epicurus and John Locke to the food system. Through this approach, he seeks to understand how large corporations gained control of the market and challenges readers to rethink their understanding of food economics.</p>14. No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg
<p>Greta Thunberg addressed the United Nations at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit and has since been a global symbol of environmental activism. Her community organizing and impassioned speeches are uncompromising as she argues that climate change is an existential crisis that needs to be confronted immediately. <em>No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference </em>includes Thunberg's speeches and includes her 2019 address to the United Nations.</p>15. Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It by Tom Philpott (forthcoming August 2020)
<p>In <em>Perilous Bounty</em>, journalist Tom Philpott critically analyzes the centralized food system in the U.S. and argues that it is headed for disaster unless it sees some much-needed changes. Philpot argues that actors within the U.S. food system are prioritizing themselves over the nation's wellbeing and provides well-researched data to back up his claims. Providing readers insight into the experiences of activists, farmers, and scientists, this is a great read for those starting to learn about the state of the country's food system and for those who are already deeply involved.</p>16. Plucked: Chicken, Antibiotics, And How Big Business Changed The Way The World Eats by Maryn McKenna
<p>In this exposé on the chicken industry, acclaimed author Maryn McKenna explains the role antibiotics played in making chicken a global commodity. <em>Plucked </em>makes it clear that food choices matter and show how consumers' desire for meat, especially chicken, has impacted human health. McKenna also offers a way forward and outlines ways that stakeholders can make food safer again.</p>17. Stirrings: How Activist New Yorkers Ignited a Movement for Food Justice by Lana Dee Povitz
<p>Between 1970 and 2000, food activists in New York City pushed to improve public school lunches, provide meals to those impacted by the AIDS epidemic, and established food co-ops. In <em>Stirrings</em>,<em> </em>Lana Dee Povitz draws on oral histories and archives to recount the stories of individuals who led these efforts. She highlights the successes of grassroots movements and reminds readers of the many women leaders in the New York food justice movement.</p>18. The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability by Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern
<p>In <em>The New American Farmer</em>, Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern offers a look at farm labor in the U.S. Although most farm owners are white Americans, farm workers are overwhelmingly immigrants and people of color. In this book, Minkoff-Zern details the experiences of farm laborers who are becoming farm owners themselves and outlines the many barriers that workers must overcome during this transition. Through interviews with farmers and organizers, Minkoff-Zern shows that these farmers bring sustainable agricultural practices that can benefit our food system.</p>19. The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here by Hope Jahren
<p>Hope Jahren breaks down climate change for readers in an accessible and data-driven book. <em>The Story of More </em>explains<em> </em>how greenhouse gas emissions and consumption of natural resources in developed nations exacerbate climate change and outlines the consequences of these actions. Although she argues that the planet is in danger, she also provides a variety of everyday actions, like decreasing meat consumption, that consumers can take to make a difference.</p>20. Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes by Bryant Terry
<p>Author, chef, and food justice activist Bryant Terry provides readers with over a hundred recipes to create approachable and flavorful vegan dishes, without relying on meat alternatives. This book is a wonderfully practical recipe book that begins with a list of recommended tools, is organized by ingredients, and even includes a music playlist. Vegans and non-vegans alike will appreciate Chef Terry's <em>Vegetable Kingdom</em>.</p><a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Make+this+summer+a+season+of+reflection+and+self-education+with+Food+Tank%27s+reading+list+%E2%80%94+new+and+important+books+from+%40AMReese07%2C+%40GretaThunberg%2C+%40EmilyContois%2C+%40BryantTerry%2C+%40DrMChatelain%2C+and+more&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffoodtank.com%2Fnews%2F2020%2F07%2Ffood-tanks-summer-2020-reading-list%2F&via=foodtank"><span></span></a>
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A pair of trees grow out of a book that rests on scorched earth to depict climate change. vencavolrab / Getty Images
A record number of Americans are concerned about climate change, a recent study by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication found. If you're among them, you may be interested in learning more about the climate crisis and what you can do about it. Luckily, you don't have to comb through scientific papers in order to educate yourself (unless you'd like to): More and more books on climate change and climate action are published every year, ranging from grimly realistic takes on the severity of the crisis to optimistic visions of social and technological solutions. To find out which ones are worth a read, Teen Vogue reached out to 11 climate activists for their recommendations. Here are the books they said were most informative and inspiring.
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<p><strong>1. <em>Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History</em> by Ted Steinberg</strong></p><p>"<em>Down to Earth</em> is a history of North America from an environmental perspective. It's an easy read, and very interesting. One chapter explains how we used to know where our food came from, but eventually we pushed agriculture out to the sidelines of our cities, causing many other problems. <em>Down to Earth</em> made me realize that this country was founded on exploitation and that everything we do has an impact." —Natalie Blackwelder, commissioner of sustainability, Santa Barbara City College</p><p><strong>2. <em>Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming</em> by Paul Hawken</strong></p><p><strong></strong>"<em>Drawdown</em> is a handbook for how to stop and then reverse climate change. It lists dozens of actions to not just avoid putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but to draw carbon dioxide down out of the atmosphere. When you combine 'family planning' and 'educating girls' from the top 10 actions list, they draw down more CO2 from the atmosphere than anything else on the list. <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/climate-activists-explain-why-climate-justice-movement-needs-feminism" target="_blank">Feminism literally saves humanity from climate catastrophe.</a>" —Cassian Lodge, LGBTQ+ and environmental activist, U.K.</p><p>"When I felt overwhelmed at the big challenge of stopping climate change, this book broke things down to something manageable. It's like a playbook of climate solutions. I was fascinated to learn about marine permaculture, which is one of the proposed solutions. It's a method of growing seaweed on floating platforms that not only removes carbon from the atmosphere, but can also restore life to the oceans and provide an economic boon to coastal communities. I've since learned a lot about it, and I even helped lead a fundraiser that will help build some platforms off the coast of Tasmania." —Mark Abersold, software developer and Citizens' Climate Lobby member; moderator for <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/ClimateOffensive/" target="_blank">Reddit's Climate Offensive forum</a></p>
<h2><span></span></h2><h2><br></h2><p><strong>3. <em>Frontlines: Stories of Global Environmental Justice</em> by Nick Meynen</strong></p><p>"Nick Meynen's storytelling is personal, powerful, and inspiring. Every unpacked frontline is one cutting edge of an economic system and political ideology that is destroying life on earth. Revealing our ecosystems to be under a sustained attack, Meynen finds causes for hope in unconventional places. He reminds us that it is up to each and every one of us to play our role in the fight to achieve the radical changes necessary to save the planet." —Paola Hernández Olivan, food project and policy officer, Health Care Without Harm, Brussels</p><h2></h2><strong>4. No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg<br></strong><p><br>"<em><a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/greta-thunberg-book-review-no-one-is-too-small-to-make-a-difference-climate-rebellion" target="_blank">No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference</a></em> contains the speeches made by the Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg — in climate rallies across Europe, to audiences at the U.N., the World Economic Forum, and the British Parliament. Greta inspires me because she says it like it is. She doesn't wrap the truth up in pretty paper to make it easier to take. Among millions of activists, <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/greta-thunberg-climate-strike-teen-vogue-special-issue-cover" target="_blank">Greta has one of the most powerful voices</a> because she occupies the moral and ethical high ground of someone from the next generation whose life is being destroyed." —Christine Essex, coordinator, Extinction Rebellion Newbury<br></p><p>Favorite quote: <em>And we will never stop fighting, we will never stop fighting for this planet, and for ourselves, our futures, and for the futures of our children and our grandchildren.</em></p>
<p><strong>5. <em>The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change</em></strong><strong> by Danny Chivers</strong><br></p><p>"This is the clearest and most succinct book I have ever read about the nature of climate change, the forces that are blocking action on it, and the forces that have arisen to confront it. I teach classes on this subject, and this book works year after year to bring everyone up to speed on the problem and potential actions we can take. It's funny, readable, engaging, and powerful." —John Foran, professor of sociology and environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara</p><p>Favorite passage: <em>This is going to be the most amazing, inspiring, and unifying social movement that the world has ever seen. It's going to be difficult, and frustrating at times, but it's also going to massively enrich the lives of everyone who's a part of it. This includes you.… [You can] be part of the most exciting and important social uprising of our lifetimes.</em></p><p><strong>6. <em>The Water Knife</em> by Paolo Bacigalupi</strong></p><p><em></em>"By the author of <em>The Windup Girl, The Water Knife</em> is a fictional portrayal of the effects of climate change on the western United States. It includes scenes of trying to get by in Phoenix when it's basically a desert. It's a powerful, well-written story that emphasizes the impacts of climate-induced social collapse on women." —D. Kempton, Climate Reality Canada, Drawdown Newmarket-Aurora</p>
<h2><br></h2><p><strong>7. <em>As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, From Colonization to Standing Rock</em> by Dina Gilio-Whitaker</strong></p><p>"This book covers the 500-year history of Native American resistance to colonialism and ecocide. It contextualized my environmental work as part of a struggle that has been taking place in the Americas since European contact, and it made me feel more connected to the larger Native American environmental movement as a cohesive whole both over time and across cultures and places. For Native people, this book is a reminder of how connected and similar our environmental justice struggles have been. This is especially important because the climate crisis requires cooperation across cultures and locations in an unprecedented way." —Shaylon Stolk, Indigenous (Scottish/Wayúu) renewable energy scientist and organizer with Extinction Rebellion justice; based in occupied Duwamish land (Seattl</p><p><strong>8. <em>The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming</em> by David Wallace-Wells</strong></p><p>"This book offers specific, science-based predictions about the effects of unchecked global warming. It scared me silly, and it inspired me to reflect and act." —Gregg Long, high school English teacher, Illinois</p><p>Favorite quote: <em>It is worse, much worse, than you think.</em></p>
<br><p><strong>9. <em>This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate</em> by Naomi Klein</strong></p><p>"<em>This Changes Everything</em> makes the case that the climate crisis is a consequence of capitalism, but it is a crisis that offers an opportunity to organize a new political system. It convinced me that we won't invent or grow our way out of this problem, but that it can be solved by political organizing. It's sobering and empowering, which is a difficult tightrope to walk." —Evan, Climate Justice committee coordinator, Democratic Socialists of America, Los Angeles chapter</p><p>Favorite passage: <em>And that is what is behind the abrupt rise in climate change denial among hard-core conservatives: They have come to understand that as soon as they admit that climate change is real, they will lose the central ideological battle of our time — whether we need to plan and manage our societies to reflect our goals and values, or whether that task can be left to the magic of the market.</em></p><p><strong>10. <em>This Is Not a Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook</em> by Extinction Rebellion</strong></p><p>"<em>This Is Not a Drill</em> is a handbook on nonviolent civil disobedience for the challenges of the 21st century. Only a mass social movement will save us. This book provides the tools for that." —George, youth climate activist, U.K.</p><p>Favorite passage: <em>We may or may not escape a breakdown. But we can escape the toxicity of the mindset that has brought us here. And in doing so we can recover a humanity that is capable of real resilience.</em></p>
<p><em>This story originally appeared in </em><a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/best-books-about-climate-change" target="_blank"><em>Teen Vogue</em></a><em> </em><em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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