Upbeat books to Help Prevent Climate Change
Nature is the Answer is a book about facing eco-anxiety, but turning your concerns about the climate and wildlife into something positive.
Climate breakdown (for those of us who believe the scientists over media and politics) can feel overwhelming. Literally the world will end, unless those in power listen too.
But that doesn’t mean you have to get down. The wild world is an amazing and resilient place. And if eco-anxiety is caused by the state of nature, perhaps the state of nature has answers to our eco-anxiety!
This book (by a popular wildlife presenter who also has Asperger’s Syndrome (which means like Greta Thunberg, he struggles in social situations) knows what it’s like to suffer from eco anxiety. And has developed ways to turn this into a strength, so you can too!
Walks through forest will do far more for your worries, than reading about what Reform UK will do, if elected to power. Apparently the party has just hired an environmentalist, after finding out that 80% of their voters are just as concerned about their (non-existent) policies for wildlife, as with immigrants.
The book also includes information on how to navigate social media (be nice!) and discerning ‘fake news’ (that’s climate science denial, not any channel that’s not Fox News!)
Chris Packham is one of England’s most popular TV wildlife presenters, who hosts BBC Springwatch and Autumnwatch alongside Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams, and he is step-father to fellow conservationist Megan McCubbin, with whom he often works.
A real champion of native wildlife, he even took the government to court (he lost) to try to stop HS2 (due to it decimating our forests and wildlife). And has written an open letter to Ant and Dec, to ask them to stop presenting a program that kills wildlife (and disrupts ecosystems) for ‘entertainment’.
Circuses and dancing bears have gone, cock-and-dog fighting are the preserve of psychopathic criminals. We have no performing dolphins, no chimpanzees dressed up for tea time. Exploitation of wildlife for entertainment, damages the reputation of a ‘nation of animal lovers’.
A qualified zoologist, Chris used science to oppose the badger cull, which has now been cancelled, but not with immediate effect. Read more on how to prevent bovine TB (without harming badgers).
Climate Wayfinding (healing ourself & the planet)
Climate Wayfinding is a book about finding your way in a world that is so uncertain, both in the natural and political worlds. When maps come up short and the path ahead is uncertain, how do we find our way?
This book by a visionary climate leader offers a compassionate and empowering guide to turn ache to action, and doubt to possibility. Find a process to look inward with care, outward with curiosity, and forward with courage.
Ultimately, readers can chart a course, towards playing a unique part in our collective planetary healing. Using personal essays, poetry, art and song. Includes practical exercises and guides for conversation.
Katharine K Wilkinson is a writer and creator, who holds a DPhil in geography and environment from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and a BA in religion from Sewanee University in Tennessee.
Time magazine has named her one of 15 ‘women who will save the world’. She lives in Georgia, USA amid mountains and horses.
An Upbeat Guide to Tackling the Climate Crisis
Climate is Just the Start is a guide to tackling the planetary crisis by Mikaela Loach, a big-hearted and optimistic book to inspire young people to change the world.
Using personal stories, she explains the climate crisis, and writes about friends around the world who are being affected, and how they are fighting back.
Her stories (including confronting fossil fuel executives and even taking the UK government to court, for handing taxpayer money to oil and gas companies) are sure to inspire.
Mikaela also wrote It’s Not That Radical, an anti-dote to the whitewashed and greenwashed mainstream media’s response to climate change, which always focuses on capitalism due to bias and money from TV ads.
Capitalism requires there to be someone at the bottom to exploit from. It require inequality. How is that we already have so many solutions to the climate crisis that don’t compromise human rights or justice? But the only solutions being seriously considered are the ones that do?
Let young voices shape the future of green communities, making sure climate science wins out over out-dated, political data. Join your tribe!
A YouGov study found 25% of under-30s said they would never vote Labour. In the year since the general election, Labour has gone from dominating youth vote, to being a three-way race with Greens and Lib Dems. Reform (despite the headlines) isn’t even close. University of Exeter
Mikaela Loach is a climate justice activist, writer and medical student, who holds a degree in global health policy. She conducts workshops at international climate justice camps and local schools (one of which has even named a classroom after her!)
She is co-director of AWETHU School of Organising and has boldly challenged powerful entities, including taking the UK government to court in the ‘Paid to Pollute’ case in 2021.
