We are constantly bombarded with dire warnings about the environmental and climate emergency. act now, we are told, or face an unprecedented global catastrophe. but while the proposed solutions (solar panels, heat pumps, eating less meat) are certainly necessary, they are for the most part unimaginative and uninspiring, and isolated from a larger system of beliefs by which they might acquire a genuine meaning.
The following five books offer an alternative perspective. In contrast to the simplistic idea that all we need to do is implement a set of technological and lifestyle changes, they offer a new way of understanding and relating to nature.
You are reading: Anti climate change books
james lovelock gaia (1979)
in his 1979 book, james lovelock offers a completely new understanding of the earth not only as a planet on which life has evolved, but as a self-regulating system capable of correcting any significant fluctuations that tend to make it uninhabitable, such as increases or decreases in global temperatures or ocean salinity.
lovelock shows, for example, how the environment has contributed to reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to compensate for the constant heating of the sun. this has kept global temperatures in a habitable range.
Ultimately, however, Gaia’s importance lies not only in its bold scientific claims, but in the way it opens up the possibility of bridging science and spirituality, the true and the meaningful. what does it mean for us to be part of gaia?
should trees have feet? by Christopher D. stone (1972)
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no law can be created, says christopher stone, until we begin to question its non-existence. and just as before it was “unthinkable” that corporations have the same rights as people, the same thing happens today with living beings and ecosystems. nature itself has no rights, only the people who own or use it. against this, stone argues that certain natural entities (trees, forests, rivers) should be treated as people and given “rights”.
This radical idea is being implemented more and more. In 2008 and 2009, Ecuador and Bolivia became the first countries in the world to recognize nature as a legal entity in their constitutions. and in 2017, new zealand recognized the legal personality of the whanganui river.
Developing these ideas in the 2010 edition of the book, Stone asks if climate should also be given legal status. he sees this as problematic but not impossible, although it would require a legal system that goes beyond the current nation-state structure.
biomimetics by janine benyus (1997)
Few would deny that technology will play an important role in achieving sustainability. but for the most part, we focus on individual technologies, like electric vehicles or biodegradable packaging, without stopping to rethink the technology as a whole. One significant exception to this is Janine Benyus, who argues that sustainability demands an entirely different approach: nature-inspired innovation, or “biomimicry.”
The book explores the practice of mimicking nature to solve the challenges of human design, and offers many case studies showing how biomimicry can be applied to almost every field of innovation, from solar-power generation based on natural photosynthesis to cereal farming inspired by the native kansas prairie. .
but perhaps the deeper meaning of the book is the way it calls us to see nature not only as something we learn about, but also as something we learn from. and in that case, we must stop thinking of ourselves as the sole possessors of intelligence and knowledge, and instead also come to recognize the genius of nature.
braiding sweet grass by robin wall kimmerer (2013)
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like benyus, robin wall kimmerer believes that nature has much to teach us. But while Benyus focuses on technological innovation, Kimmerer is interested in broader lessons.
The general theme of the book is how to “braid” indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge, a project to which the author, as a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation and a professional biologist, has dedicated much of her life.
The most brilliant example of kimmerer is the sweet grass, an aromatic plant used in indigenous medicine and basketry. While Kimmerer’s fellow biologists assumed that harvesting sweetgrass always hurt her, a biology student of hers designed a careful experiment that demonstrated something the Potawatomi had long known: harvesting sweetgrass actually stimulates vigorous growth. /p>
What these plants teach us, then, is that humans are not outside of nature, they are part of nature, and with the right approaches we can allow other species to thrive alongside our own.
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the climate of history in a planetary age by dipesh chakrabarty (2021)
By approaching the meaning of climate change through the lens of history, dipesh chakrabarty proposes a fundamental shift in thinking about “global” to “planetary” climate change.
chakrabarty argues that while the world is busy solving a “global” problem, we forget to ask what “global” means to us today. “global”, he explains, is essentially a human-centered idea, intrinsically linked to globalization and post-war modernization. the “planet”, by contrast, decenters this human-centric idea, allowing non-human perspectives and interests to be taken into account. most importantly, it raises the possibility of discovering new universal values.
chakrabarty also emphasizes that the acceleration of global warming is closely related to the modernizing anti-colonial movements of the mid-20th century, such as Chairman Mao’s Great Leap Forward. This was an economic and social program designed to bring China up to date with the Western world through intensive industrialization and technological advancement. chakrabarty argues that only by overcoming our obsession with constant growth and development can we rise to the challenge of ensuring planetary sustainability.
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