Any number of books delineate the scientific aspects of the climate crisis, and that information is an important component of the ongoing discussion. Some of these authors offer solutions; but most allude to inevitable catastrophe, which turns off the general readership. We may choose to scare ourselves with a nail-biting horror story in the wee hours, but we prefer not to be told that in our real lives, we are all doomed.
In order to effect the changes that the climate crisis will require, we need a change of heart. Rather than hammering away with our growth and consumption driven mindsets, we need to view our lives through a different lens, in order to learn that we are part of the ecosystem instead of lords who rule above it. We need to adopt a more Indigenous, or Native American, way of regarding our fellow inhabitants on this Earth, that they are kin rather than instruments of our exploitation. Perhaps we need to ditch the entire patriarchal system of domination and submission altogether in favor of living together in mutual support and compassion.
The following titles, by challenging the culturally-ingrained attitudes and behaviors which have led us to the climate crisis, may direct us to more sustainable paths.
Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Minneapolis: Milkweed, 2013.
Through a series of personal reflections, the author, a botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers.
The Overstory, Richard Powers.
New York: Norton, 2018.
In this novel, nine characters find their lives interlaced and transformed by their passionate involvement with trees. Although primarily a work of fiction, Powers alludes to the Pacific Northwest Timber Wars of the late twentieth century, and one of the characters may be based on the forest ecologist who first researched the way trees communicate.
If Women Rose Rooted, Sharon Blackie.
Tewkesbury, Eng.: September Publishing, 2019.
As a psychologist who is steeped in Celtic myth, fairy tale and folklore, Blackie invites readers to embrace their heritage as guardians of the Earth who are rooted in the land.
Searching for Spenser: A Mother’s Journey through Grief, Margaret Kramar
Lawrence: Anamcara Press, 2018.
This memoir is about losing a child, journeying through grief, and finding him again.
Running Out, Lucas Bessire.
Princeton: Princeton UP, 2021.
The author, an anthropology professor, returns to his home and family in southwestern Kansas to investigate the primary causes of the ongoing depletion of the Ogallala aquifer. He finds a tangled web of mismanagement, greed, bureaucracy, kindness, courage and hope.