Upbeat Books for Youth to Change the World!
C is for Carbon Footprint is a lovely book for young readers, presenting the facts on carbon footprints and climate change clearly, with easy solutions to help.
Each letter from A to Z contains a lesson, on how to help improve our planet, for ideas way beyond recycling. Beautiful artwork assists the reader, to imagine a better future.
Decrease your carbon footprint with these 26 tips to become a better environmentalists and improve your lifestyle.
The book begins with Sarah Lazarovic’s illustrated ‘Buyarchy of Needs‘:
- Use What You Have
- Borrow
- Swap
- Thrift
- Make
- Buy
Read more on no-dig gardening and humane slug/snail deterrents. If you live with animal friends, read up on pet-friendly gardens (some recommended flowers and fruit trees are not safe). Also avoid netting to protect food (just leave some for wildlife!)
Robert Donisch is an outdoor educator and teacher, who decided to use his knowledge and experience, to write an inspiring book for young readers, on how to help the planet.
Making a Difference in a Messed Up World
Be the Change is a guide for young readers, from activist Rob Greenfield. He’s walked around New York City (dressed in his own garbage), cycled (three times) across the USA on a bamboo bike, and survived for one year on foraged food.
The book features fun ideas to reduce environmental impact, with extensive teachings on reducing ‘stuff’, because ‘there is no away’ to throw it to! Plus readers will meet inspiring young environmentalists, including ‘minimalist teens’. For readers age 8 to 12.
You can also download a free teacher’s companion guide to the book.
I loved every page of this amazing book. Rob offers fun escapades that are also real-world ways to help a world that needs attention right now. Turns out, saving our planet is fun. I put this book down feeling fired up and full of hope. And you will too. Caroline Paul
The book version is out-of-print in the UK, but you can order the paper version from the North American publisher, if wished.
Rob Greenfield used to work in marketing, before deciding to simplify his life. Named the ‘Robin Hood of modern times’, he gives his media income to grassroots non-profits, so he does pay tax to pollute or buy weapons.
He gave up his affluent lifestyle, and cycled across the USA on a bamboo bike, drinking water from fire hoses and eating food from dumpsters. He gives away most of his income, so he pays no tax (to avoid funding weapons).
How he changed his life is quite inspiring, and maybe inspires others to do the same. He basically decided he was nowhere near living the life he wanted.
So he made a huge list of over 100 changes he wanted to make, then hung it in the kitchen, and made one positive change each week, so he changed his life completely in 2 years.
From eating more fruits and vegetables, cooking his own food, finding zero-waste alternatives to drinking filtered water. He shopped local, bought second-hand and shared with his community.
A Bigger Picture (an African voice on the climate crisis)
A Bigger Picture is a book by a young climate activist, from a girl who first-hand has witnessed devastating floods, deforestation, extinction and starvation in her home country. She also saw how ‘the world’s biggest polluters are asleep at the wheel’, ignoring the Global South, where the effects of climate injustice are most fiercely felt.
This rousing manifesto for change invites you to join her, a commanding political voice that demands attention, for the biggest issue of our time.
Having dominion over the Earth is about responsibility and service to the planet and its people, because God is not a God of waste and exploitation. Vanessa Nakate
It’s a harsh reality that the most vulnerable (particularly those in poorer countries) are likely to bear the brunt of climate change, even if they contribute the least to it.
We see ourselves as something separate from Nature. We see our financial system as something outside of Nature. We see our energy system as something outside of Nature.
Nothing is outside of Nature. We would be wise to remember this. Vanessa Nakate
Vanessa Nakate is a climate justice activist from Uganda, whose Tard Foundation which installs solar panels and clean cooking stoves in Ugandan schools.
A devout Christian, she is planning after completing her studies to influence climate policy at community, national and international level.
