Reading list for climate optimism

Arcadia created a reading list for climate optimism. The company’s “mission is to stop climate change by breaking the fossil fuel monopoly. Our technology is lighting a cleaner path forward for everyone, from everyday consumers and small businesses to the innovators building the next generation of energy products.”

My problem is that I’m no longer a climate optimist. The climate clock indicates we have a little more than four years to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. I would be extremely dubious if the world were working together to achieve this goal.

But when FOTUS says we’re going to “drill, baby, drill..” 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body that assesses the science of climate change. A recent report: 

Human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching 1.1°C above 1850-1900 in 2011-2020. Global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase, with unequal historical and ongoing contributions arising from unsustainable energy use, land use and land-use change, lifestyles, and patterns of consumption and production across regions, between and within countries, and among individuals.

It’s difficult for me to see how we can mitigate or ameliorate the situation.

Still…

But since you may be less pessimistic than I am, I will share the articles anyway. Here are a few books that can help energize an action-filled 2025:

Electrify: An Optimist’s Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future, by Saul Griffith Revolutionary Power: An Activist’s Guide to the Energy Transition, by Shalanda Baker Climate Optimism: Celebrating Systemic Change Around the World, by Zahra Biabani Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul, by Auden Schendler The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimist’s Guide to the Climate Crisis, by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet, by Hannah Ritchie Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua How to Be a Climate Optimist: Blueprints for a Better World, by Chris Turner Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action, by Dana R. Fisher H Is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z, by Elizabeth Kolbert

I’m crossing my fingers and toes and rolling my tongue…