Book/film/creative

Here are some interesting works (books, films, essays, visuals, etc) relating to climate science, the transition to a low carbon economy and long term futures.


1. Jared Diamond

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond. This is a classic work that sets a solid foundation for recognising the forces that underpin the success and failure of civilisations.

See his TED talk here.




2. Hans Rosling

While we're talking TED, this 10-minute presentation by Hans Rosling is unmissable! Rosling's main message is that the carbon emissions from rich countries are the problem. He defends the right of poor countries to lift themselves out of poverty and says emphatically that rich countries need to reduce their carbon emissions before they lecture poor countries about what to do.




3. Gwynne Dyer

Climate Wars, by Gwynne Dyer. Reviewed by Benno Hansen. This book intersperses chapters of factual accounts with chapters outlining possible future scenarios. Listen to Dyer talk in three radio programs, here.

4. Franke James

Franke James is a Canadian artist who has produced some wonderful visual essays that advocate action on climate change.  Her imagination throws up images of Alice searching for sense in an upsidedown world and politicians framed as Francis of Assisi.

5. Alan Weisman

In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman visits real world locations that have become no-go zones for humans to see how the natural world gets on without us. He doesn't go to deserts or mountain tops, instead he visits places that humans have occupied and abandoned: Cyprus, Chernobyl, the Korean Demilitarized Zone and others. Written largely as a thought experiment, the book outlines, for example, how cities and houses would deteriorate, how long man-made artifacts would last, and how remaining lifeforms would evolve. Weisman concludes that residential neighborhoods would become forests within 500 years, and that radioactive waste, bronze statues, plastics, and Mount Rushmore would be among the longest lasting evidence of human presence on Earth.