Climate change books to add to your reading list this World Book Day

There are few issues we're tackling in the city and beyond that are more important than climate change. With record heatwaves to flooding and loss of nature, we need everyone to come together to help us create a sustainable future for Nottingham.

But how can you get started learning more about the impacts that our actions are having on the world? This World Book Day, we're taking a look some books about climate change that we've enjoyed recently. From fiction to non-fiction, there are lots of books to deepen your knowledge of the climate crisis, are are some of our favourites.

Non-fiction

The Uninhabitable Earth - David Wallace-Wells

This unflinching book sets out the different impacts that we may face as the climate changes. It is packed with facts (nearly 100 pages of references and notes make up some of its 320-page length). The Uninhabitable Earth is not for the faint-hearted, but will help you comprehend the scale of the issue and the urgency with which we should act.

From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want - Rob Hopkins

Rob Hopkins' From What Is to What If is buzzing with imaginative ideas for how we can create a brighter future. Rather than dwelling on what isn't possible, the book explores real world examples of projects that are successfully achieving changes. You get a sense that anything is possible by reading this book, so pick it up to get inspired.

Soundings: Journeys in the Company of Whales - Doreen Cunningham

Part memoir, part exploration of the impact of the climate crisis on whales and indigenous whaling communities, Doreen Cunningham takes readers on a beautiful journey in Soundings. In this intimate book, Doreen visits the people of Utqiaġvik, one of the largest Iñupiaq settlements in Alaska, as a young environmental journalist reporting on climate change. Years later, she returns to follow the grey whale migration to the Arctic with her young son, Max. Soundings is an unforgettable adventure exploring our relationship with the natural world.

Fiction

The History of Bees - Maja Lunde

Part one in Maja Lunde's Climate Quartet is split across three time periods - past, present and future. Each narrative investigates the characters' relationships with their children and the bees that we rely on to survive. The fictional future in The History of Bees is particularly haunting - a dystopian world where bees have disappeared and people must pollinate fruit trees by hand.

The Ministry for the Future - Kim Stanley Robinson

In the near future, a devastating 'wet-bulb' heatwave which kills nearly all of an Indian village. A new international body, the Ministry for the Future, is set up shortly after to defend all living creatures present and future. The Ministry for the Future explores how we can limit the impacts of the climate crisis through economic strategies, geo-engineering, and more. At nearly 600 pages, it is an epic book but will leave you with a sense of hope for the future.

How Beautiful We Were - Imbolo Mbue

How Beautiful We Were is set in a fictional African village where an American oil company is wreaking destruction on the villagers. Oil spills are making the farmlands infertile and children are dying from drinking toxic waters. Empty promises of reparations and to clean up the village are made and then broken, so the village decide to take matters into their own hands to fight for the justice they deserve. In a time where climate justice is central to the conversation about the climate crisis, How Beautiful We Were is essential reading.

All of these books are available to borrow from Nottingham's libraries, so check them out and let us know what you think on Twitter and Facebook.