Whether it is about fires in California and Australia or heavy rains in Asia, it is stressful to read news related to climate change. Climate change is real.

Fears and concerns about climate change are creating “Solastalgia”, climate anxiety in so many that the American Psychological Association has created a 69-page climate change guide to help mental health care providers. You can read the guide HERE. Emma Marris, author of Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in the Post-Wild World, wrote a piece in The New York Times opinion about her five-point plan to manage the psychological toll of living with climate change and to become part of the solution. Step 3 of Marri’s five-point plan includes “Defining Our Role”. Since we are the only ones who actually know how much we can reasonably do personally, it is meaningful to offer our skills and resources we already have. We must trust that others with complementary skills are doing what they can do, too instead of us becoming an expert in international regulatory law, global supply chains, atmospheric science and the art of protest. You can read Marri’s piece titled “How to Stop Freaking Out and Tackle Climate Change” HERE.

It is more important than ever to understand climate change, the events that are occurring around the world due to climate change, how we got to where we are and what we can do. Below are a few books on environmental and climate change to inform yourself:

• Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush

Rush “… shares rare glimpses into the lives of those who live in these ecologically devastated areas, it skillfully interweaves the complexities of nature and humanity -- and even some science -- so we, the readers, can experience the ecological devastation alongside them. The author, who also includes her own story, interviews both experts and residents of flood-prone and storm-ravaged areas, and shows how the poor are disproportionately affected by these changes.” ~ Forbes

• The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells

“Remarkably, Wallace-Wells’s prose manages to convey not only the urgency (and anxiety) of our environmental crisis, but the opportunity we still have to seize the solutions right in front of us and turn things around. First you’ll get scared straight; then you’ll get straight to work.” ~ Earthday.org

• This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate by Naomi Klien

“A book that is as much about politics, capitalism, and the global economy as it is about climate change, This Changes Everything invites readers to analyze the role politics play in our understanding of global warming.” ~ The Good Trade

• The Fate of Food: What We’ll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World by Amanda Little

“This book explores how agriculture is changing in response, and how our diets may change. Little spent three years traveling to places such as a Kenyan farm growing GMO corn, an organic farm in Shanghai that is covered in sensors so that it can be remotely controlled, a factory in Salt Lake City that makes freeze-dried food for survivalists, and the Silicon Valley headquarters of a company making “cell-based” meat without animals.” ~ Fast Company

• Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by Paul Hawken

“In this book, an international coalition of researchers, professionals, and scientists have come together to offer realistic and bold solutions to climate change. One hundred techniques and practices are described here. These solutions exist, are economically viable, and communities are currently enacting them with skill and determination.” ~ Yale Climate Connections

While doing our research on the above book guide we also found a few books that could help kids to care about the environment. These books include The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life with the Chimps by Jeanette Winter for 4-8 years, Don't Let Them Disappear by Chelsea Clinton for 4-8 years, A Planet Full of Plastic: and how you can help by Neal Layton for 6-8 years. You can read the full guide by the Guardian HERE, by Yale Climate Connections HERE and by Huffington Post HERE.

You can read our blog on How to Teach Kids about Sustainable Development Goals HERE.

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