This year, the holidays (Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanza, and New Year) fall between a sobering election, a disappointing climate conference, and an ominous inauguration. To get a recipient’s attention amid these worrying times, a gift book must offer information, perspective, hope, or distraction. A bit of dazzle might help, too.
The title leading off the list below, “Atlas of a Threatened Planet,” combines information and dazzle; its 150 infographics delight the eye even as they depict the dangers posed by a changing climate, water crises, and environmental degradation.
“Before They Vanish” and “Category Five” lead readers on hold-your-breath deep dives into biodiversity and extreme weather, surfacing some solutions in the process. The 130 color photographs of “Otherworldly Antarctica,” on the other hand, might take their breath away.
In their new books, climate scientist Anna Farro Henderson and marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson offer much-needed perspective — and hope. And it’s easy to imagine someone receiving any one of the next three titles, on climate change and food, and being immediately captivated by the cover they’ve just unwrapped.
The list ends with three promises of restorative distraction: a collection of short climate fiction, an anthology of “short plays imagining the future,” and the new novel, “Playground,” by Richard Powers, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of “Overstory.”
Giving one of these books to a friend or family member could help both of you weather your holidays better.
As always, the descriptions of the titles are adapted from copy provided by their publishers.
Atlas of a Threatened Planet: 150 Infographics to Help Anyone Save the World by Esther Gonstalla (Island Press 2024, 224 pages, $35.00 paperback)
Our planet is a fascinating and complex place, but the challenges we face can seem over-whelming. How does our climate actually work? Should we worry about the global supply of drinking water? How much land do we need to grow food? In Atlas of a Threatened Planet, award-winning book and graphic designer Esther Gonstalla digs into these questions and many more through her attractive and easy-to-understand infographics. Best known for “Our World in 50 Graphics,” Gonstalla turns her eye in this book to the most critical threats to our environment, from shrinking glaciers and declining biodiversity to shifting ocean currents. But all is not lost. Changes in technology, infrastructure, and outlook can still help us protect the places we love.
Before They Vanish: Saving Nature’s Populations — and Ourselves by Paul R. Ehrlich, Gerardo Ceballos, and Rodolfo Dirzo, with foreword by Jared Diamond (The Johns Hopkins University Press 2024, 392 pages, $29.95)
Can we save threatened animals and ecosystems in the midst of a mass extinction? The answer is a resounding yes! Before They Vanish shows us how. In this impassioned book, renowned conservation scientists Paul R. Ehrlich, Gerardo Ceballos, and Rodolfo Dirzo urge us to shift our thinking. They argue that conservationists have placed too much emphasis on the extinction of entire species. By shifting our focus to identifying extinction threats at the more localized population level, we can intervene more rapidly and effectively to prevent broader declines before it’s too late. This change in perspective represents a critical step in saving these vanishing species; early detection and intervention may be our last, best hope for stemming the tide of this global crisis.
Category Five: Superstorms and the Warming Oceans that Feed Them by Porter Fox (Little, Brown & Co. 2024, 288 pages, $30.00)
Here is the story of the largest storms on earth and how they are growing bigger and stronger. The tale of extreme weather doesn’t begin with floods, fires, or even the atmosphere. It begins with the ocean. Oceans create weather, floods, droughts, and most of the geophysical fallout of global warming. Exactly how, award-winning writer Porter Fox contends, depends on invisible ocean currents, planetary cycles just now being defined, and processes in the deep ocean that may well have already saved us from the worst effects of the climate crisis. In Category Five, Fox shadows explorers, scientists, oceanographers, and weather forecasters as they attempt to understand, forestall, and possibly harness the awesome power of our oceans.
Otherworldly Antarctica: Ice, Rock, and Wind at the Polar Extreme by Edmund Stump (University of Chicago 2024, 168 pages, $28.00)
With stunning photographs, Antarctic scientist Edmund Stump takes us to one of the most remote and pristine regions on the planet. Otherworldly Antarctica contains 130 original color photographs, complemented by artwork by Marlene Hill Donnelly. Over three chapters—on the ice, the rock, and the wind—we meet snowy paths first followed during Antarctica’s Heroic Age, climb the central spire of the Organ Pipe Peaks, and peer into the crater of the volcanic Mount Erebus. Along the way, we see the beauty of ice-cored moraines, meltwater ponds, lenticular clouds, icebergs, and glaciers. Having studied and photographed more of the continent-spanning Transantarctic Mountains than anyone else, Stump is uniquely suited to share these alien sights.
Core Samples: A Climate Scientist’s Experiments in Politics and Motherhood by Anna Farro Henderson (University of Minnesota Press 2024, 208 pages, $18.95 paperback)
How can we use stories to accelerate action on climate change? In Core Samples, climate scientist and policy expert Anna Farro Henderson narrates her own journey, exploring how science is done, discussed, legislated, and imagined. Through stories both raucous and poignant, she brings readers into the daily rhythms and intimacies of research and policymaking. Henderson’s eclectic, unconventional essays include field notes, packing lists, and lactation records. Readers are invited on trips as far afield as the Juneau Icefield and as close to home as a town hall meeting in America’s corn belt. A love letter to science and a bracing portrait of the many obstacles women face, Core Samples illuminates our messy, contradictory humanity.
What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (One World 2024, 496 pages, $34.00)
Sometimes the bravest thing we can do while facing an existential crisis is imagine life on the other side. This provocative and joyous book maps an inspiring landscape of possible climate futures.
