Suggested Reading on Climate Change

Content:

Books with a Christian perspective:

• This I believe, and Other Essays, by E. F. Schumacher, published by Green Books (January 1998).
• For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future by Herman E. Daly and John B. Cobb, Jr., Beacon Press, 1994.
• A Moral Climate: the ethics of global warming, by Prof. Michael S. Northcott, Professor of ethics, University of Edinburgh. Published by Darton, Longman and Todd, 2007.
  (read an extract on the ON website)

• Christianity, Climate Change and Sustainable Living, by Nick Spencer and Robert White, published in August 2007 by SPCK.
  This book is the product of a 2-year collaboration between The John Ray Initiative, the Jubilee Centre and the Faraday Institute and is supported by Tearfund and WorldVision. Foreword by Sir John Houghton, FRS.

• Climate Change: The Challenge to All of Us, by Fr Sean McDonagh. Published by Columba Press, 2006.
  Fr Sean McDonagh is a Columban priest who has long been an activist in the field of ecological and environmental matters. He is a lecturer and a prolific author whose books include The Death of Life: The Horror of Extinction.

• Planetwise: Dare to Care for God's world, by Dave Bookless, UK Director of A Rocha, published by IVP, 15 February 2008.
  "This is not another book on green issues to make you feel guilty. The message is that there is hope. God can take your small and insignificant efforts and multiply them in his great plan. Dave takes us right into the heart of his family and shows how living simply, besides honouring God, can be an exciting adventure." (read an extract on the Operation Noah website)

General Books on Climate Change:

• Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning, by George Monbiot. Published by Allen Lane, 2006.
  The first chapter focuses on the problem and on the "denial industry", while the rest of the book focuses on solutions. A very important and inspiring book. Bring on the Apocalypse, the next book by George Monbiot, will be published on 1 March 2008.

• Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, by Mark Lynas. Published by Fourth Estate, 2007.
  Mark Lynas describes degree by degree what is likely to happen to the planet if the average global temperatures rise as predicted up to Six Degrees.

• Carbon Detox: Your step by step guide to getting real about Climate Change, G. Marshall, published in Autumn 2007 by Gaia
  (read an extract on the Operation Noah website)

• The Weather Makers, by Tim Flannery. Published by Penguin Books, 2005.

• How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, by Chris Goodall. Publised by Earthscan, 2007.

• The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review, by Nicholas Stern. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2007.

• The Rough Guide to Climate Change, by Robert Henson, Published by Rough Guides / Penguin, September 2006. Second edition published in January 2008.
  Useful summary of the science.

• Collapse. How societies choose to fail or survive, by Jared Diamond, Penguin, 2005.
  Useful historical perspective, showing that societies who have not taken care of their environment have often collapsed in the past.

• Plan B 3.0. Mobilizing to save civilization, by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute, 2008. (available in full text online)
  Lester R. Brown is president of the Earth Policy Institute and has been described by the Washington Post as "one of the world's most influential thinkers.

• How we Can Save the Planet, by Mayer Hillman, Published by Penguin in 2004.

• The Revenge of Gaia: Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity, by James Lovelock, Perseus Books Group; New Ed edition (June 30, 2007).

• The End of Nature, by Bill Mckibben, First Edition in 1990, New Edition Random House Trade Paperbacks (June 13, 2006)

• Animate Earth: Science, Intuition, And Gaia by Stephan Harding and Lynn Margulis, Green, Totnes, UK, 2006.

• The Art of the Commonplace: the Agrarian essays of Wendell Berry, published by Counterpoint Press (April 16, 2002).

Web Links and Downloads

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 4th Assessment Report (2007):
  • Working Group I Report: The Physical Science Basis
    http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/wg1-report.html

• • Working Group II Report: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
    http://www.ipcc-wg2.org/

• • Working Group III Report: Mitigation of Climate Change
    http://www.mnp.nl/ipcc/pages_media/AR4-chapters.html

• Zero Carbon Britain, Centre for Alternative Technology, http://www.zerocarbonbritain.com/ from here you can download the full report

• A response to the Draft Climate Change Bill's carbon reduction targets, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, 2007 http://tyndall.webapp1.uea.ac.uk/publications/briefing_notes/bn17.pdf

• The Met Office, Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/hadleycentre/

• The Royal Society, climate change resources, http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/landing.asp?id=1278

• Royal Society full-colour 12 page booklet, downloadable as PDF (784k).

• John Ray Initiative - The John Ray Initiative (JRI) is an educational charity with a vision to bring together scientific and Christian understandings of the environment in a way that can be widely communicated and lead to effective action
  http://www.jri.org.uk

• Climate Change: A Guide for the Perplexed (New Scientist briefing): http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11462

• The 7 Biggest Myths about Climate Change: http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/mg19426041.100