Here are some recommendations to kick off with:
There’s no Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years Mike Berners-Lee | A great introduction to the science and consequences of climate change and ecological breakdown.
Facing up to Climate Reality : Honesty, Disaster and Hope Green House Think Tank | Confronting the climate chaos while not giving up on hope.
The Uninhabitable Earth David Wallace-Wells | This is the book version of his 2017 New York Times article which caused a great stir. Not for the faint-hearted, but provides an uncompromising and honest look at what faces us if we carry on as we are.
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History Elizabeth Kolbert | Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize, this is a heartbreaking but fascinating look at the history of life on Earth, and the likelihood that we are carrying out a major extinction: only the sixth of similar magnitude in life’s 4-billion-year history.
The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene Mark Maslin and Simon L. Lewis | UCL scientists Mark Maslin and Simon Lewis walk us through the science behind the planetary changes we are inducing, and the fascinating debate over whether these changes are enough to qualify as the start of a new geological era (spoiler: they are). Very accessible introduction to the science of climate and ecological change.
The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions Peter Brannen | Enjoyable read: A paleontologist’s look at our past and the quest to understand it.
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway | How established forces including (sadly) scientists conspired to muddy the waters of public discussion on profitable but harmful industries. The parallels between tobacco and fossil fuels are striking…
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate Naomi Klein | How discovery of the greenhouse effect has mobilised a massive counter-attack from those who have vested interests in the fossil fuel economy and the status quo.
The banner image represents Global Bio Stripes: https://findingnature.org.uk/ - Data: LPI 2022. Living Planet Index https://stats.livingplanetindex.org/