The Conversation had a recent feature on books to inspire climate action. The books highlighted were:
Fairhaven
Fairhaven is a novel of climate optimism by Steve Willis and Jan Lee set in Malaysia. Through the eyes of an engineer turned celebrity, it sets out a blueprint for how low-lying countries can protect themselves against rising sea levels and store carbon. …
The Ministry for the Future
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson also takes a thrutopian approach in that it imagines a United Nations ministry that must lead the human race to a sustainable future. …
Green Rising
Fiction can warn of the dangers of wrong turns. Green Rising by Lauren James is young adult fiction about teenagers with superpowers. It’s a romantic thriller and a call to arms for climate action. …
Finding Bear
You can get two-for-one with children’s fiction, which is often read aloud to young children and so engages parents too. Finding Bear is a sequel to Hannah Gold’s heartwarming adventure story, The Lost Bear. …
No More Fairy Tales
This Green Stories project teamed up climate experts with experienced writers to create an anthology of 24 short stories, No More Fairy Tales: Stories to Save the Planet. Each story and climate solution links to a webpage where readers can find out about the solutions that inspired them. Most stories adopt the thrutopian approach. …
The books were selected by Denise Baden who is Professor of Sustainable Practice at the University of Southampton and is someone whose work we feature regularly. For example, here’s a review of her book of short stories: Resurrection Trust. In her Conversation article, Denise writes:
“Numerous books warn us about the climate crisis, and many offer solutions. If everyone read all of these books and behaved accordingly, perhaps the planet would be home and dry. However, most people don’t read them. Most people read romances, whodunnits or superhero stories. To address this, I set up the Green Stories project in 2018 with free writing competitions that encourage storytellers to embed climate solutions into stories aimed at mainstream readers across a variety of formats, from radio plays to novels. The focus on solutions derives from my research into the effects of catastrophe v solution-focused climate fiction on readers and found that solution-focused stories were more likely to inspire pro-environmental behaviour. I have also written a novel called Habitat Man – a rom-com with a hint of cosy mystery which weaves in entertaining and educational green solutions such as wildlife gardening, seasonal food, and natural burials. A survey of 50 readers showed that 98% of of them adopted at least one green solution as a result of reading it. …”
Do read on …