This reading list brings together the books that recognise this failure and argue that the climate ecological crisis needs to be understood and faced as political and economic challenges.

The authors of these ideas are no utopians. Kate Aronoff for example highlights the chokehold fossil fuel interests will continue to have over climate policies in the next 30 years. Kim Stanley Robinson points out the formidable challenge that a world of competing nation-states presents to the logic of climate change, while admitting the unlikelihood of sweeping system change. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Kolbert argues that faced with extinction, some of the most unlikely techno-fixes might need to be on the table.

Still, in their frank and realist assessments of the present, these authors see an opportunity for radical transformation. A recurring proposal is that the new climate politics demands that the deep connections between social and environmental struggles become the basis for collective action.

These books also show that in the midst of cascading crises, confronting the established ways of thinking is the first step to adopting a new approach to inhabiting the earth. Dive into these reads to challenge your perspective and explore new ways of seeing the world.