Hope in a Time of Climate Change
This booklist begins with books written by many, bringing together strong climate voices from different places, fields, and communities to explore what hope means in a time of climate change. You’ll find books that explore the words we use, the solutions we focus on, the stories we tell, and the power of action and community. Here we see that hope is knowledge, good information, reality, possibility, history, resilience, action, community, and imagination, and that hope is very much a part of the story of climate change.
Get started with these carefully selected books from the UBC Library. If you would like to find more resources on this topic look for more tips at the bottom of this page. For more help, go to Ask Us or visit a UBC Library branch.
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis
Author: Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson (eds)
Publication Year: 2021
An awesome anthology of works including essays, poems, and art by 60 women from across the climate movement. All We Can Save pulls together the knowledge and insights of many to focus on solutions, collaboration, and fighting for what we love.
Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility
Author: Rebecca Solnit, Thelma Young Lutunatabua, and David Solnit (eds)
Publication Year: 2023
Strong voices from around the world come together through essays and interviews to focus on real facts, stories of hope and action, imagining what our futures can be, inspiring creativity, and acting together.
We are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth
Author: Dahr Jamail and Stan Rushworth (eds)
Publication Year: 2022
We Are the Middle of Forever brings together interviews with Indigenous scholars, teachers, leaders, and more. Together they show how the climate crisis continues the colonial destruction of communities and land, and how we can build better relationships and address the challenges we face.
Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World
Author: Katharine Hayhoe
Publication Year: 2021
A Canadian climate scientist who lives in Texas, Katharine Hayhoe is a world renowned science communicator who argues that the most important thing we can do to address climate change is to talk about it. Saving Us shows us how to talk about it, how much most people already care, and that hope is something we practice.
Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities
Author: Rebecca Solnit
Publication Year: 2004 / 2016
In Hope in the Dark, Rebecca Solnit pushes back against despair and the weight of injustice, loss, and uncertainty by focusing on what progressive activism has achieved and the potential of even small acts. For Solnit, hope means a commitment to act even if the future is uncertain.
Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think Is Critical to Solving the Environmental Crisis
Author: Elin Kelsey
Publication Year: 2020
Elin Kelsey argues that evidence-based hope is the most powerful tool for change. She looks at real examples of change and solutions in combination with large scale data collection and information sharing. This book shows how to amplify solutions, link actions together into trends, be a part of something, and as a result, create hope and real change.
Global Warming and the Sweetness of Life: A Tar Sands Tale
Author: Matt Hern, Am Johal, and Joe Sacco
Publication Year: 2018
Combining interviews, illustrations, photos, and analyses, this book discusses the impact of who makes decisions about the land, and the link between human extraction and domination of the land, and each other. The solution: decolonization, a different way of being in the world, and a new understanding of the sweetness of life.
The Archipelago of Hope: Wisdom and Resilience from the Edge of Climate Change
Author: Gleb Raygorodetsky
Publication Year: 2018
As an ecological and cultural researcher, Raygorodetsky draws together stories and accounts from Indigenous communities around the world, focusing on the importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, creative solutions, and resilience.
The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis
Author: Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac
Publication Year: 2020
Coming out of the authors’ work on the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, The Future We Choose focuses on the power of choice and “stubborn optimism.” They show us the world we are creating and what it will look like by 2050, and what it could look like if we meet the Paris Agreement targets. This book is about looking at our options and recognizing the power of our own agency to shape our future, together.
Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis
Author: Britt Wray
Publication Year: 2022
Acknowledging and valuing climate anxiety is key to healing and resilience in Generation Dread. Britt Wray explores the emotional impact of climate change through her own experiences, as well as perspectives from mental health experts, to find healing, compassion, and ways to thrive.
Earth Emotions: New Words for a New World
Author: Glenn Albrecht
Publication Year: 2019
Best known for the term “solastalgia,” the homesickness for a home that is changing in disturbing ways, Glenn Albrecht describes a new vocabulary for a wide range of feelings and the need to move towards a hopeful vocabulary of positive emotions.
Learning to Live with Climate Change: From Anxiety to Transformation
Author: Blanche Verlie
Publication Year: 2022
Verlie explores the cultural, interpersonal, and sociological dimensions of ecological distress and argues that people in high-carbon societies need to learn to live with and understand the impacts of climate change. Learning to Live with Climate Change outlines how we can engage with climate anxiety in positive ways that lead to the transformation that is needed.
Hope and Courage in the Climate Crisis: Wisdom and Action in the Long Emergency
Author: John Wiseman
Publication Year: 2021
John Wiseman’s current research focuses on strategies to restore a safe climate and transition to a just and resilient zero-carbon society and in this book he follows similar themes by looking at the climate crisis, the necessity of action, and also how people navigate and understand them.
The Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long-Term Thinking
Author: Roman Krznaric
Publication Year: 2020
The Good Ancestor focuses on the need for intergenerational justice and long-term thinking. Taking inspiration from Jonas Salk’s refusal to patent the polio vaccine, Krznaric details six ways to retrain our brains to consider the wider world and future generations.
I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope and Gallows Humor
Author: Andrew Boyd
Publication Year: 2023
“An existential manual for tragic optimists, can-do pessimists, and compassionate doomers.” Boyd seeks out eight of today’s leading climate thinkers and examines their perspectives while navigating his own climate angst with hope and humour.