The Yale Climate Connections bookshelf for March, also known as Women’s History Month, began to take shape when I saw the announcement for “Mother Creature Kin: What We Learn from Nature’s Mothers in a Time of Unraveling” by Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder. The early April release, I realized, would be the sixth title published on motherhood and climate change in the last two years. (Four of the other five have appeared, individually, in previous bookshelves.)
To be the best of my knowledge, these six titles have never been presented together. I do so now solely for the purpose of a calling attention to this remarkable convergence. By comparison, I cannot think of a single title on fatherhood and climate change, let alone six. (In 2021, however, Yale Climate Connections did produce an audio story on the “Climate Dads” support group in Philadelphia.)
But this set of facts comports perfectly with what I have observed in the sustainability courses I have co-taught and the sustainability minors I have advised at my university: Women make up 75-90% of the students.
By my imprecise recollection of the book announcements I have received over the past several years, women have also written the majority of cli-novels and story collections. All nine of the titles longlisted for the first-ever Climate Fiction Prize, for example, were written by women.
One of those nine, “The Mars House” by Natasha Below, is listed below. It is accompanied by a just-released reimagining of the Dust Bowl by Karen Russell and by Octavia Butler’s pathbreaking 1993 novel, “Parable of the Sower,” which I have included because much of its story takes place in 2025 in a California ravaged by fires, both wild and weaponized. (In Butler’s 1998 sequel, “Parable of the Talents,” the fragile “Earthseed” community confronts a Christian-nationalist president who vows to “make America great again.”)
I’ll further hazard that women have written the majority of climate/environmental memoirs and children’s books, represented here by “My Oceans” by Christine Rivera, which also includes some reflections on mothering, and “Magic in a Drop of Water: How Ruth Patrick Taught the World about Water Pollution” by Julie Winterbottom.
The pollution problem discovered by Ruth Patrick is being solved, at least in part, by the women profiled in the final book in this month’s list, “From the Ground Up: Women Revolutionizing Regenerative Agriculture.” Author Stephanie Anderson makes it easy to imagine women soon setting the pace in this field as well – if they don’t already.
This list suggests, once again, that women – young women, in particular – are doing the heavy lifting on climate action. (See also The Politics of Gen Z by Melissa Deckman.) The six titles on motherhood and climate change also suggest that women are doing the deeper thinking about what it will mean to live in an increasingly dangerous climate, perhaps because many stages of life have always been more dangerous for women.
It’s past time we recognized the critical leadership of women on climate – and followed.
As always, the descriptions of the titles are adapted from copy provided by their publishers. When two dates of publication are listed, the second is for the paperback edition.
The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth by Elizabeth Rush (Milkweed Editions 2023/2024, 424 pages, $20.00 paperback)
In 2019, fifty-seven scientists and crew… An incredible story of women’s leadership in climate change.
Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question: Deciding Whether to Have Children in an Uncertain Future by Jade Sasser (Princeton University Press 2024, 192 pages, $19.95 paperback)
Eco-anxiety. Climate guilt. Pre-traumatic stress disorder. Solastalgia. The study of environmental emotions and related mental health impacts is a rapidly growing field, but most researchers overlook a closely related concern: reproductive anxiety. Climate Anxiety and the Kid Question is the first comprehensive study of how environmental emotions influence whether, when, and why people today decide to become parents – or not. Sasser concludes that climate emotions and climate justice are inseparable, and that culturally appropriate mental and emotional health services are a necessary component to ensure climate justice for vulnerable communities.
Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against “The Apocalypse” by Emily Raboteau (Henry Holt 2024, 304 pages, $29.99)
Lessons for Survival is a probing series of pilgrimages from the perspective… An enlightening narrative about women showing resilience in the face of environmental challenges.
Hot Mess: Mothering Through a Code Red Climate Emergency by Sarah Marie Wiebe (Fernwood 2024, 196 pages, $25.00 paperback)
The summer after giving birth, Sarah Marie Wiebe and her baby endured the 2021 heat dome in British Columbia, with temperatures over 20 degrees above normal, creating all-time heat records across the province. It was the deadliest weather event in Canadian history. The extreme heat landed Wiebe in the hospital, dehydrated and separated from her nursing baby from dawn until dusk. So began a year of mothering through heat, fires and floods. Drawing on hospital codes to explore the connections… An insightful look into a mother’s experience dealing with climate emergencies.
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?… An engaging narrative that highlights the role of women in climate science and policy.
Mother, Creature, Kin: What We Learn from Nature’s Mothers in a Time of Unraveling by Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder (Broadleaf Books 2025, 304 pages, $27.99)
What does it mean to be a mother in an era of climate catastrophe?… A powerful exploration of motherhood in the face of environmental challenges.
