Essential Climate Change Reading for 2022
A list of 10 books that will get you up to speed on climate change, its impacts on business and society, and promising climate solutions.
The Energy Switch: How Companies and Customers Are Transforming the Electrical Grid and the Future of Power
by Peter Kelly-Detwiler
“The electric power grid touches all of us in many ways and is fundamental in enabling society’s very existence. Today, the grid is also undergoing a multi-trillion-dollar transformation in scope and scale that dwarfs the industrial revolution, driven by the urgency to address climate change and to meet the needs of an evolving world. The Energy Switch takes the reader on a broad tour to meet some of the individuals, companies, and technologies engaged in that effort. It tells their stories in an engaging way, while making highly complex topics accessible and understandable to the reader.”
–Jigar Shah, Director of the Loan Programs Office of the US Department of Energy
Hear Peter Kelly-Detwiler talk 2021 trends and 2022 energy predictions on the Bigger Than Us Podcast.
Miseducation: How Climate Change Is Taught in America
by Katie Worth
“Boy, do we need this book now. As the looming climate catastrophe introduces itself by fire and flood, as the world’s leaders need a sense of public urgency to make some hard choices, Katie Worth discovers widespread climate denialism in our nation’s schools. Ignorance of the scientific consensus, ideological pressure, fossil-fuel industry disinformation, and a well-meaning but misguided desire to tell ‘both sides’—it is a disheartening story, richly reported, clearly told and (we can only hope) just in time.”
—Bill Keller, former executive editor of The New York Times and founding editor of The Marshall Project
Listen to an interview with Katie Worth on the Bigger Than Us Podcast.
Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now
by John Doerr
“This book is a critical blueprint for anyone looking to take concrete steps to reach net-zero emissions. Unlike many who simply issue ambiguous long-dated pledges to help solve the climate crisis, John Doerr understands the urgent need to ACT quickly and decisively. With Speed & Scale, he combines his extensive experience as a legendary technology expert and investor with his tried-and-true management methods to put forward a clear, detailed, and comprehensive plan for climate action exactly when we need it most.”
– Al Gore, former U.S. Vice President
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
by Elizabeth Kolbert
“What makes Under A White Sky so valuable and such a compelling read is Kolbert tells by showing. Without beating the reader over the head, she makes it clear how far we already are from a world of undisturbed, perfectly balanced nature—and how far we must still go to find a new balance for the planet’s future that still has us humans in it.”
—NPR
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
by Bill Gates
“The most refreshing aspect of this book is its bracing mix of cold-eyed realism and number-crunched optimism . . . Ultimately his book is a primer on how to reorganise the global economy so that innovation focuses on the world’s gravest problems. It is a powerful reminder that if mankind is to get serious about tackling them, it must do more to harness the one natural resource available in infinite quantity—human ingenuity.”
—The Economist
Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take
by Andrew S. Winston
“The bottom line is that Net Positive clearly lays out the case that businesses should be able to do well by doing good. Drawing on the important example of Unilever during Polman’s tenure, it’s also a high-level guide for organizations to more aggressively contribute to combating climate change and inequality.”
— Charter
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis
Edited by Anya Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson
“Hopeful and illuminating, All We Can Save is an anthology of essays by women at the forefront of the climate crisis. So often climate writing can make us feel doomed and anxious, but this collection is a comfort because of its honesty and courage . . . a reminder that we can work with hope towards a better future.”
—BuzzFeed
The Future We Choose
by Christiana Figueres
“The book takes a hard look at the frightening realities of climate change but concludes that humanity can still deal with this threat. Moreover, the book presents the existential challenge of climate change as a unique opportunity to build a more just world and to make ourselves better people. Most importantly, the book adopts a very practical approach and suggests ten concrete actions that each of us can take in order to create a better future for all the residents of planet Earth. I hope we all take this message to heart.”
—Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations
by Daniel Yergin
“The book takes a hard look at the frightening realities of climate change but concludes that humanity can still deal with this threat. Moreover, the book p“At its heart, “The New Map,” by Daniel Yergin, is a book about power: both in the sense of power as fuel to move cars, tractor-trailers and oceangoing ships, to run factories and light up cities; but also power in the sense of political power, that nations wield to drive their economies toward opening up to world markets or to becoming more protectionist and insulated, to exert their influence over the trading patterns of their neighbors, and to wage war or work for a peaceful and mutually prosperous co-existence with the rest of the world.”
–Houston Chronicle
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming
by Paul Hawken
“At this point in time, the Drawdown book is exactly what is needed; a credible, conservative solution-by-solution narrative that we can do it. Reading it is an effective inoculation against the widespread perception of doom that humanity cannot and will not solve the climate crisis. Reported by-effects include increased determination and a sense of grounded hope.”
—Per Espen Stoknes, Author, What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming
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- #240 Michael Sheldrick, Co-Founder of Global Citizen - April 12, 2024
- #239 Vince Beiser, Author of The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization - April 12, 2024
- #238 Steve Oldham, CEO of Captura - April 12, 2024
