Saving the planet and preventing climate change is pretty big responsibility for the next generation. These books give the facts without scaring young readers, and also offer practical tips to help individually and as a community.
If planting gardens and trees, use no-dig gardening and fruit protection bags (over netting, which can trap birds and wildlife).
Create gardens safe for pets and avoid facing indoor foliage to outdoor gardens, to stop birds flying into windows. Also know trees to avoid near horses (yew, oak, sycamore).
Good News, Planet Earth is a book by climate campaigner Sam Bentley as he shares hopeful developments with tons of ways to help reduce pollution, deforestation and climate change. Learn about a tower that harvests water from rain, fog and dew. And find 100 positive action steps we can all take, to make a difference.
Find 25 chapters covering ocean-clean-up innovations, composting actions, animal welfare tips and helping public space and transport.
- Oceans
- Land
- Food
- Wildlife
- City
- Energy
- Transportation
Since the ocean is so big, it can sometimes be difficult to regulate those who exploit it. Luckily there are good people out there who are ensuring the bad apples are held accountable for exploiting marine life and destroying their natural habitats.
I want to introduce you to some of the activists protecting our oceans, good news about governments that are finally beginning to take action and wins for some our beautiful marine species.
Hawaii has become the first state in the USA to ban shark fishing! We should be excited that more sharks are in the oceans. They place an incredibly important role and without them, ecosystems would fall apart as prey species overpopulate.
In 2021, sharks killed 9 people globally. By comparison, 11,000 to 30,000 sharks are killed every hour from industrial fishing.
The United Kingdom has banned all shark finning products. Shark finning is the act of removing fins from sharks, and throwing the rest of the shark back in the ocean, mostly due to demand for shark fin soup.
Sam Bentley is a popular social media climate activist, who loves to create positive content, to inspire others for positive change. He has millions of fans online, and is especially popular on Instagram and Tiktok. He lives in Birmingham.
An Upbeat (funny) Book to Save the Planet
Don’t Panic! We can Save the Planet is an upbeat book by a very funny man who believes that people are tired of freaking out about climate change. Instead, stop being an eco-worrier and become an eco-warrior! This hilarious guide is just what the world is waiting for – you to save the planet!
The book is by a writer who lives off-grid and owns a compost loo. He explains how animal agriculture (cow farts) is wrecking the world due to methane gas and explains what a fossil is, and why ‘earth-ships’ are the future.
He’ll help you understand what climate change is, and what we can do to stop it.
We’re really lucky that we have a magnetic field. This is an invisible barrier that protects us from all sorts of nasty cosmic energy (called radiation) that would otherwise laser-beam trees and make lemons explode.
I have a solar panel on the roof of my tiny home and it just sits there, making silent electricity. Lots of people have solar panels that provide their electricity. And if they produce any extra, it goes into the national grid and they get paid money!
Schools have big roofs so this could be a great way to make money, but they might need some persuasion (see page 186 – how to persuade your grown-ups to do something different).
An educating and comforting book for children (and adults) who are worried about a warming planet. Packed with information that will keep readers amused for hours, it’s aimed for children age 7 and up, but people of all ages will find plenty to chuckle about.
The end of the book has a super template to write to your MP. Rob explains that everyone has an elected ‘official-type person who hopefully makes good decisions’. If they don’t, you can fill in the template with things you are worried about to send off. This could include:
- How much tax people should pay
- How big the army should be
- What to do when there is a pandemic
- How much money to give to oil companies!
These people are able to make and change laws. They have the power to close roads and put solar panels on people’s roofs. They can do all sorts!
This book is adorable, the introduction featuring a bear holding up a placard to get involved. And a tiny dung beetle who boasts ‘No poo is too big for my tiny arms not to carry!’ The author promises that this not a book about ‘knitting your own yoghurt’. You get the idea!
James Campbell decided to be a writer when he was 7, and mostly travels around schools telling stories. He lives in an off-grid farm near Essex/Suffolk and is passionate on demystifying the importance of saving the planet for children.
How Climate Change Impacts Polar Bears
Where Can We Go? tells the story of how climate change has impacted one bear family, as together they search for a forever home. The charming whimsical illustrations make for a lovely story but at the same time educate on climate change and migration.
As Papa Bear announces the move as there are no more seals to catch and too few fish in their Arctic home, they set off next morning, in search of promising places. Art by Igor Oleynikov (one of the world’s greatest illustrators and winner of the Hans Christian Anderson award).
The 1.5 degree lifestyle is what all environmentalists say we should aim towards, by making simple changes to our lifestyle over time. If everyone did this, we could massively cut carbon emissions to stem climate change. In a nutshell, a 1.5 degree lifestyle would look something like this:
- Eat local organic plant-foods
- Avoid single-use plastic
- Walk, cycle or take public transport
- Get involved in sharing economies
- Live simply – buy less!
- Travel locally – fly less!
- Switch to clean green energy
Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle reveals the carbon cost of everything we do, hand shows how to reduce your carbon footprint by over 80% to 2.5 tons a person per year, by 2030. Find the big wins to what to drop – from takeout food to bikes, cars and Internet usage. Learn the invisible carbon baked into everything, and why electric cars are not the answer.
I used to have a monster carbon footprint. I was in my second career (my first was an architect) as a real estate developer in Toronto, building award-winning condos. I drove my classic Porsche a couple of blocks to work, I drove my daughters to school.
Then at weekends, we drove to the ski resort where all the rich developers hung out. Every weekend in summer, I drove up to our cottage. Throw in a few flights a year, and I was living a 30-tonne lifestyle. Then after a falling out with business partners, I had a massive financial loss and probably a nervous breakdown.
This book shows that creating carbon minimalism is the answer. Big-picture thinking is needed like investing and supporting local indie shops (that sell food with zero food miles so no lorries are needed to transport it from central distribution houses).
Creating walkable communities with parks (trees!) and initiatives to work from home or locally, so people don’t chop down whole swathes of countryside to build ‘high speed trains’ that nobody needs.
It’s about retaining countryside so people can walk to the shops to buy healthy food, then this means populations that don’t languish in hospitals and care homes, all of which also emit huge fossil fuels to keep them running.
Lloyd Alter is a writer, public speaker, architect and inventor. He is also Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Design at Toronto Metropolitan University. Also read his other book The Story of Upfront Carbon, about how the answer to solving climate change is for all us to ‘live with just enough’.
A Book of Climate Actions (for busy people)
Climate Action for Busy People is a book for anyone concerned over heat waves, storms and forest fires. The time to create climate-resilient communities is now. While policy innovations are also needed, good solutions are at local level.
This book is a hopeful and realistic roadmap for individuals and groups who want to move the needle towards environmental justice.
Drawing from professional and personal success in climate adaption and community organising, the author begins with a brief history of why our communities look the way they do, and how that affects how vulnerable we are, to climate risks.
Each chapter can help readers scale up their actions. From identifying climate solutions that a person or small group can pull off in a handful of weekends (like tree plantings or de-paving parties) to advocating for change at government level.
It’s not too late for people of all ages and skill levels, to create climate-safe neighbourhoods. This book is an invaluable guide for anyone who wants to make lasting improvements, to make their communities climate-resilient.
Cate Mingoya-LaFortune is Chief Officer of Climate Resilience and Land Use for Groundwork USA. She holds a Master in City Planning and a BA in Biology, and lives in New England.
Things You Can Do (to fight climate change)
Things You Can Do is a beautiful illustrated guide to make small habit changes, by lowering your carbon footprint. Written by an award-winning climate journalist, this deeply-researched yet user-friendly guide is based on a newspaper column.
No lectures here – just accessible and inspiring ideas to slash emissions and waste in our daily lives, with over 350 explanatory illustrations by talented painter Sara Boccaccini Meadows. In each chapter, the author digs into each issue, showing how everyday choices lead to carbon emissions. Then delivers a wealth of ‘things you can do’ to help including:
- Eating climate-friendly foods
- Reducing food waste
- Saving energy at home
- Living a zero waste lifestyle
One day, a huge wildfire breaks out in the forest, forcing all the animals to flee. They feel overwhelmed and helpless as they watch the forest destroy their home. Except the hummingbird.
She flies to the river, scoops a few drops of water with her beak, rushes towards the blaze and drops the water onto the fire. And off goes the hummingbird back and forth.
The rest of the animals ask ‘What are you doing? Your beak is tiny, you can hardly carry any water!’ And without missing a beat, the hummingbird tells them ‘I am doing the best I can’.
After decades of broken promises, expecting that governments and corporations will fix the climate crisis is at worse irresponsible and reckless. We need to demand that they implement transformative changes to slash emissions. But it’s also up to us , the humble hummingbirds, to do the best we can.
Eduardo Garcia has written dozens of stories for the New York Times on how people can reduce their carbon footprint.
A Spanish native, he cut his teeth working as a Reuters correspondent in Guatemala, Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador. He strives to lead a sustainable lifestyle, and believes in using words to empower people.
How to Respond to Climate Change Deniers
Cranky Uncle vs Climate Change is a book to let you have all the answers on hand, when you’re at the dinner table and a relative starts spouting that heavy rant that global warming is all made up. Written by a climate expert, climate deniers’ arguments will thaw faster than Arctic ice caps.
Combining humour and science to make clear calm and winnable arguments, this book can help prevent climate misinformation from spreading further.
Author Dr John Cook is one of our eco-heroes! A Senior Research Fellow in Melbourne, he’s a former astrophysicist who is breaking down the climate argument to make it easy to understand. He also writes college textbooks.
How much of climate change is caused by us? The short answer is all of it. Scientists’ best estimate is that roughly 100% of warming since the mid-20th Century is caused by human activity. The main producers of greenhouse gases are electricity generation and transport.
Current research finds that if humans weren’t around, the climate would actually be cooling slightly. To avoid the worst impacts, we need to stop burning fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy. Dr John Cook
People are always asking me ‘what’s the best resource for debunking the claims of climate change deniers? Now I have an easy answer: buy a copy of this book. Prof. Michael E Mann
This rare book answers what to tell your uncle, when he insists that climate change is a liberal hoax. Prof. Naomi Oreskes
Collective Action to Help Fight Climate Change
In This Together is the opposite of ‘one makes the difference’ handbooks. Instead, it suggests communities banding together is key (like a school that pays for solar panel for the village, so everyone can go off-grid with free or low energy bills).
Learn how to harness social networks for ‘network climate action’ that can affect widespread change. From inviting others over for veggie meals to becoming activists at climate non-profits, we can forge the social norms.
An Environmental Leader’s Toolkit is the book for anyone who wishes to tackle an environmental problem in their neighbourhood (from beach litter to balloon releases and from raw sewage pollution to walking communities). In this book, the author shares proven ways to step up, and get meaningful action done.
From designing a pilot study to managing public meetings, this book walks you the essentials of effective place-based eco efforts. You’ll also find worksheets to kickstart brainstorming, appendixes that demystify jargon you might encounter, and find real-life examples to inspire.
Sorry to be a party pooper. But climate change IS the most pressing issue of today. Climate scientists (who know far more than politicians or media pundits) say that we are (almost) at the point of no return.
If something is not done, then seriously the ice sheets will melt, and basically we’re all dead. And yes – most if not all of climate change is human-created.
Atlas of a Threatened Planet looks at all the issues from climate change and global water supplies to shrinking glaciers and declining biodiversity to shifting ocean currents, via visual infographics, to make all the information easy to understand.
The Science Behind Climate Change
So in a nutshell; climate change refers to long-term shifts in weather patterns and temperatures. And although a few shifts in the past have been caused naturally, today’s mayhem shifts are due to around 9 reasons which include:
Burning fossil fuels (this is from our own energy company choices, and fossil fuel emissions from livestock factory farms) and of course aeroplanes (one of the main ones).
Clearing forests (deforestation gets rid of trees which take in carbon dioxide and give out oxygen, as well as helping to prevent floods).
There are more reasons, but these are by far the main two causes. Which is why London’s Imperial College says the ‘science’ of reducing climate change (which has to be done by us, business and governments worldwide) can be boiled down to a few factors. Aside from voting for MPs who put planet before profit, the main things to do are:
- Eat less meat and dairy.
- Fly and drive less.
- Use (less) green energy.
- Protect green spaces.
- Consume less.
If everyone in the world did this, we would have a chance. But of course big business and even governments want us to buy more, drive more, fly more and cut down green spaces to build cycle parks.
The main ‘greenhouse gases’ are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide. These act like blankets, to trap the sun’s heat around the earth (otherwise we would all freeze to death).
But human activities (fossil fuels and cutting down trees) is disrupting everything, which is why the earth is warming up and causing freak weather.
Trees being cut down mean less carbon dioxide is absorbed, fossil fuels give out more carbon dioxide, and methane is the main gas from producing livestock (factory farms), to produce meat eaten by most of the world’s population.
‘Freak weather’ is not just heatwaves but stronger hurricanes and harder droughts. Warm air holds more moisture, so we even get more rainfall and flooding.
All these weather patterns affect wildlife’s migration and breeding patterns, ice melting affects polar bears and coral reefs bleach in warmer seas.
Long-term, rising seas threaten coastal communities (the Maldives could disappear), droughts could reduce crop yields and lead to food shortages, and of course people die in heatwaves. We also are liable to find ‘climate refugees’ as they have to flee their homes.
Solutions to Combat Climate Change
If we all do our bit, we still have time. MPs are not going to do anything, so it’s up to use. Reducing our carbon footprint is the best way. Simply reduce energy use and switch to a green supplier (like Ecotricity) and use energy-efficient lightbulbs.
Eat less meat and dairy and try plant-based alternatives. Don’t chop down your garden to build a concrete ‘designer patch’ and vote for MPs and councillors that protect green spaces.
Try to walk and cycle where you can, join car-sharing clubs (or drive less). Or get rid of your car altogether. And try to holiday at home, rather than fly everywhere.
It’s really that simple. We can stop climate change. It’s the ‘powers that be’ that are stopping everything from happening.
They want people to buy more crap to throw away, drive more to fuel economic growth and support big companies that waste oil (like supermarkets and chain stores) rather than create walkable communities and grow organic produce (no oil unlike ones covered in pesticides).
