Earth Day: books to help you act for our planet

The Red Planet

We humans have an extraordinary capacity for compassion. Much of it in response to the atrocities we inflict on the planet, its animals, and each other. The popular explanation for this paradox is that we evolved as carnivorous “killer apes,” who gradually curbed our lust for violence, with frequent exceptions, by implementing humane social norms. This explanation is so well worn, especially in the American psyche, that it epitomizes cliché. So, we could be forgiven for believing it, when nearly every word is fiction.

Penetrating our hearts and minds, climate grief is not an ailment we have to heal from but a call to change the trajectory of our shared future. The universality, urgency, and inescapable scope of climate change leads to a depth of grief we are not prepared to cope with, and a grief that is still largely unknown and ignored. Climate change and climate grief are inseparable, and coping with the emotional fallout of the climate crisis is our first step toward dealing with the crisis itself and to building resilience.

In this eye-opening and compelling work, psychologist Melanie Joy reveals the common denominator driving all forms of injustice. The mentality that drives us to oppress and abuse humans is the same mentality that drives us to oppress and abuse nonhumans and the environment, as well as those in our own groups working for justice. How to End Injustice Everywhere offers a fascinating examination of the psychology and structure of unjust systems and behaviors.

In fourteen chapters from a diverse group of scholars and living practitioners, Vegan Geographies looks across space and scale, exploring the appropriateness of vegan ethics among diverse social and cultural groups, and within the midst of broader neoliberal economic and political frameworks that seek to commodify and marketize the movement.

An Unnatural Order offers an expansive overview of what has changed (both for good and for ill) and what has unfortunately remained the same. The book’s message is clear: until we grapple with the question of the animal, and our relationship with animality and the natural world, we will not be able to confront the consequences of our perpetuation of environmental destruction, biodiversity collapse, and our alienation from the Earth and one another.