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The Future of The Past: when cultural heritage meets climate change | Thijs Weststeijn

 

As the wooden piles under Amsterdam begin to rot, water levels rise in Venice. The 4,500-year-old ruins of Mohenjo-daro flood in Pakistan. Compaction of peat soil in northern England is causing Hadrian’s Wall to collapse. The bricks of excavated Babylon are exploding as a result of increasing salt levels. Melting permafrost in Siberia is endangering the ancient burial mounds of the Scythian civilization. In the US, hurricanes have partially destroyed the heritage of New Orleans and Puerto Rico, while the 2019 wildfires forced the Getty Museum in Los Angeles to close.

The climate crisis is threatening historical heritage all over the world, with higher temperatures, more storms and fires and, of course, rising sea levels. Monuments, buildings, inner cities and cultural landscapes are at risk, and museums such as the Louvre have already started relocating parts of their collections to climate-proof storage facilities. The Future of the Past addresses this urgent issue and asks us to include the fate of beauty in our conversations on climate change.

 

The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change | Geoff Dembicki

 

Burning fossil fuels will cause catastrophic global warming: this is what American oil executives were told by scientists in 1959. They chose to ignore that warning. Instead they went ahead in developing one of the largest, most polluting oil sources in the world – the oil sands of Alberta, Canada.

In The Petroleum Papers, Geoff Dembicki documents how specific oil companies such as Exxon, Koch Industries and Shell had an early awareness of the relationship between climate change and fossil fuels but then deliberately made efforts to discredit the climate science and prevent government regulation.

The Petroleum Papers covers the history of the oil and gas industry in Canada; the warning given to political leaders and oil company executives in 1959 by Edward Teller; and the climate science undertaken by Exxon in the 1970s, when the company measured ocean carbon dioxide levels.

In addition to studying the impact, oil companies also researched potential solutions. In 1991, Exxon subsidiary Imperial Oil concluded that starting an emissions trading scheme and a carbon tax could help curb climate change. The book documents that the companies did everything that they could to ensure solutions were not implemented. Funding of front organisations and think tanks by the Koch brothers and others, was done via intermediaries. Strategies to prevent solutions being implemented shifted from discrediting science to greenwashing and lobbying against government policy to limit emissions.

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The World Beneath Our Feet | Frank Ashwood

 

In The World Beneath Our Feet, scientist and macro-photographer Frank Ashwood takes us on an unforgettable journey into the ecosystems of the underground. Travelling from the ancient forests of New Zealand to the vast black soils of the US and China, he reveals a world teeming with life: miniature engineers, microscopic predators, vast fungal networks and billions upon billions of microbes. A single teaspoon of soil can contain up to six billion organisms.

Meet earthworms that transform the ground as they move through it, pinhead-sized pseudoscorpions, almost indestructible tardigrades and nematode worms that may be the most abundant animals on Earth. Together, these extraordinary creatures help sustain life above ground, recycling nutrients and supporting the soils that feed our crops, store water and sustain our forests. Soil microbes have even given us life-saving medicines, including antibiotics.

Soil stores more carbon than all the world’s plants and atmosphere combined, yet degradation, erosion and climate change are putting this vital ecosystem under increasing pressure.

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We Are Eating The Earth: The race to fix our food system and save our climate | Michael Grunwald

 

Humanity has cleared a land mass the size of Asia plus Europe to grow food, and our food system generates about a third of our carbon emissions. We need to slow our relentless expansion of farmland into nature. In We Are Eating The Earth, Grunwald points out that we are making it worse by embracing solutions that sound sustainable but make it even harder to grow more food with less land. He also tells the stories of scientists and entrepreneurs pursuing better solutions; from a tough jungle crop called pongamia to genetically-edited cattle embryos, from Impossible Whoppers to a non-polluting pesticide that uses the technology behind the COVID vaccines to constipate beetles to death.

Grunwald builds his narrative around a food and land expert named Tim Searchinger, chronicling Searchinger’s uphill battles against bad science and bad politics, both driven by the overwhelming influence of agricultural interests. He proposes a different path that could save our planet for future generations—through better policy, technology, and behaviour, and with a new land ethic that recognises that every acre matters.

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The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet | Leah Thomas

 

The Intersectional Environmentalist bridges the gap between environmentalism and social justice and outlines how climate activism cannot succeed without addressing systemic oppression, racism and inequality. From Indigenous peoples to low-income neighbourhoods, Thomas demonstrates how environmental issues disproportionately affect marginalised communities and challenges readers to adopt an inclusive approach to sustainability.

Thomas blends activism, science, and storytelling to highlight the interconnectedness of environmental and social struggles. The book is both a manifesto and a practical guide, offering actionable steps for individuals and organisations to centre equity in their environmental efforts. Whether you’re new to intersectional environmentalism or already engaged in climate justice work, this book offers an indispensable primer for anyone wanting to make a difference, featuring empowering insight from activists around the globe.

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The Savage Landscape | Cal Flyn

 

A modern  journey into the heart of what we call wilderness, The Savage Landscape weaves together adventure, philosophy and personal reflection, asking urgent questions about humanity’s relationship with the natural world and the meaning of wild places in an era when no corner of the planet remains untouched. Flyn’s lyrical prose carries readers from the ocean floor to volcanic peaks, blending awe-inspiring landscapes with deep historical and cultural insights.

What makes this book exceptional is its refusal to romanticise wilderness. Instead, Flyn confronts the complexities of how humans have shaped—and been shaped by—the wild, challenging readers to reconsider their own relationship with the untamed. The result is a work that is as intellectually stimulating as it is beautifully written, leaving you with a sharper understanding of the wild’s enduring, if complicated, hold on the human spirit.

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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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The Future: A User’s Guide | Florence Gaub

 

 

If you are paralysed by fear whenever you think of what lies ahead, futurologist Florence Gaub’s book is the perfect antidote, briskly challenging that notion that we have no say in the future, either as individuals or citizens. Her advice to everyone, whether or not they are policymakers, is to combine creativity with and knowledge to imagine the best, prepare for the worst and – perhaps hardest of all – to accommodate surprise. A refreshing, empowering take on the near and far horizon.

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The Wild Edge of Sorrow | Frances Weller

 

 

Solastalgia – the word used to describe the grief we feel at the loss of beloved landscapes, creature and ecosystems – is woven through Frances Weller’s much-loved work about the importance of embracing, rather than denying our personal and existential grief. “Grief,” he writes, “offers a wild alchemy that transmutes suffering into fertile ground.” Profound, poetic and comforting, this is a book to stir the soul of anyone who has loved and lost.

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No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies | Julian Aguon

 

‘A powerful, beautiful book. Its fierce love – of the land, the ocean, the elders and the ancestors – warms the heart and moves the spirit.’ – Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

Part memoir, part manifesto, Chamorro climate activist Julian Aguon’s No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies is a coming-of-age story and a call for justice-for everyone, but in particular, for Indigenous peoples.

Aguon beautifully weaves together stories from his childhood in the villages of Guam with searing political commentary about matters ranging from nuclear weapons to global warming. Bearing witness and reckoning with the challenges of truth-telling in an era of rampant obfuscation, he culls from his own life experiences to illuminate a collective path out of the darkness.

A powerful and bold voice writing at the intersection of Indigenous rights and environmental justice, Aguon is entrenched in the struggles of the people of the Pacific who are fighting to liberate themselves from colonial rule, defend their sacred sites and obtain justice for generations of harm.

In No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies, Aguon shares his wisdom and reflections on love, grief, joy and triumph, and extends an offer to join him in a hard-earned hope for a better world.