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Ecocivilization | Jeremy Lent

 

As climate chaos, inequality, and social fragmentation intensify, humanity faces an imminent choice, argues the renowned ecological thinker Jeremy Lent. We can either continue with a system built on extraction and endless growth – or we can reimagine civilization itself.
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The result is Ecocivilization, a radical yet feasible alternative to a world built on exploitation, accumulation and elite power. In arguing that most people instinctively yearn for justice, mutuality, and dignity, Lent maps a path towards a more equal and humane world in which the ecosystems that sustain us are protected and cherished, while our own species flourishes sustainably. A must-read.

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Jeff VanderMeer | Area X

 

Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach series, beginning with the iconic trilogy—Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptanceand extending to the fourth volume, Absolution, is an immersive, often disturbing exploration of the unknowable forces of nature, and humanity’s inability to understand and govern them. In evoking the uncanniness of plant and animal life in the mysterious nature reserve-cum-force-field known as Area X, VanderMeer offers a nuanced encounter with a universe that is simultaneously beautiful, horrifying, and transformative. This collection that cements his status as one of the most innovative writers of contemporary speculative literature.

 

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The Long Heat | Andreas Malm and Will Carton

 

 

In a blistering follow-up to their best-selling Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown, Andreas Malm and Wim Carton pull no punches. Business as usual, they show, has pushed the planet so deep into the danger zone that all the risks to life on Earth are now exponentially multiplying. And yet it is still easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. The Long Heat: Politics for When it’s Too Late is a wake-up call to anyone seduced by the hope that the Wild West frontier of “climate management” in the form of carbon removal technologies that promise (but have not yet delivered) viable, scalable solutions to the emergency. Indeed, the final, last-ditch spectre of largely speculative, high-risk geoengineering serves only to distract from the primary unaddressed task of bringing fossil fuel industry to a halt and keeping oil, coal and gas in the ground. Short of a global revolution that forces a new paradigm, Malm and Carton suggest, nothing can stop the death spiral of late-stage capitalism. Which leaves the reader to either throw up their hands on defeat – or say “Bring it on.”

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Far North | Marcel Theroux

 

Marcel Theroux’s prophetic 2010 novel offers a chilling vision of a world ravaged by environmental collapse brought on by human greed and folly. Theroux presents climate chaos as an immediate, visceral reality, but what sets the story apart from many other post-apocalyptic narratives is its emphasis on resilience and the moral choices that arise in a dying world. Its central character, Makepeace, is not just a survivor but a witness to the failures of human ambition, from failed utopian colonies to the violence of those who exploit the chaos. An essential read for anyone concerned with the future of our planet.

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Juice | Tim Winton

 

The acclaimed Australian novelist Tim Winton returns to his abiding theme of the outback with a hard-hitting novel set in a far future of grimly plausible climate devastation and precarity. In a world where the descendants of fossil fuel barons hoard their resources and shoot to kill, the novel’s protagonist has spent years in the shadowy “Service”, whose mission is their annihilation. But when he and the child he has pledged to protect encounter a guard with a crossbow, he must tell the story of his life to stay alive. A gripping, heart-stopping story of sacrifice, betrayal and redemption by a master of the cli-fi genre.

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Silent Spring | Rachel Carson

 

In this seminal text published in 1962 Carson exposed the hazards of pesticides including the notorious DDT, questioned humanity’s faith in technological progress and kickstarted the environmental movement. Carson, a renowned nature author and a former marine biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was uniquely equipped to create what was considered at the time a startling and inflammatory book.

Carson argued that chemical treatment of soils led to the destruction of beneficial biological species and resulted in an imbalance to the ecosystem. Furthermore, she emphasised chlorinated hydrocarbons and organophosphates as the main cause of bird and fish fatalities, and human nervous system disorders. Her work is characterised by meticulous research and a poetic evocation of the subject. Carson concluded that the human desire of total control of nature is conceived in arrogance.

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WALDEN | HENRY THOREAU

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” In 1845, freethinker and bankrupt schoolteacher Henry David Thoreau moved from Concord out into the middle of the woods, settling on the banks of Walden Pond on land owned by philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreau built himself a small hut—a kind of precursor to the Tiny House movement—and cultivated the land for a living while writing and pondering life in the woods. The result became a classic of American literature: an extended reflection on nature, solitude, water, wildlife, economy, hiking and vegetarianism. Thoreau’s interpretation of life in an ant colony and his observations of pine needles are unforgettable – and alone earn him his place as one of the father figures of nature writing genre. At the same time, his book is a critique of the society he came from.- Maja Lucas.

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THE GREAT DERANGEMENT | AMITAV GHOSH

 

In this searing indictment — that’s also an empowering call to action — award-winning novelist and essayist Amitav Ghosh analyzes modern culture, history and politics to show how popular narratives have failed to wrestle with the reality of our collective climate crisis. The breadth of research is astounding but so too is Ghosh’s ability to diagnose the grave inadequacies of modern culture and offer some pathways forward. A book I return to again and again, The Great Derangement is haunting and harrowing, as Ghosh tells us some hard truths. But it’s also an inspiring challenge to writers, urging us to find new ways to tell the most important story on earth. — Melissa Jean Gismondi

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Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility | Edited by Rebecca Solnit & Thelma Young Lutunatabua

 

Not Too Late brings together climate voices from around the world to address the political, scientific, social, and emotional dimensions of the most urgent issue human beings have ever faced. Accessible, encouraging, and engaging, it’s an invitation to everyone to understand the issue more deeply, participate more boldly, and imagine the future more creatively.

“Hope, like love, means taking risks and being vulnerable to the effects of loss. It means recognizing the uncertainty of the future and making a commitment to try to participate in shaping it.”

In this concise collection of essays and interviews, Not Too Late features the voices of Indigenous activists, such as Guam-based attorney and writer Julian Aguon; climate scientists, among them Jacquelyn Gill and Edward Carr; artists, such as Marshall Islands poet and activist Kathy Jeñtil-Kijiner; and longtime organisers, including The Tyranny of Oil author Antonia Juhasz and Emergent Strategy author adrienne maree brown. An energising case for hope about the climate along with a chorus of voices calling on us to rise to the present moment.

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Our Final Warning | Mark Lynas

Mark Lynas’ 2008 book Six Degrees soon became a must-read for anyone concerned about the speed and severity of global heating. In its 2020 incarnation, updated to reflect the most recent scientific research and projections, Lynas’ analysis of how the world will change with each degree of warming pulls no punches about what’s at stake. But in leaving space for optimism and hope, the evidence he sets out becomes a powerful call to action as well as a timely and terrifying warning.