5 Books for Being Human on Earth

Climate change is not just a matter of science, technology, and politics. It is fundamentally human on so many levels.

We know this. But we may need help navigating the emotional landscape of a changing planet and our place in it. The wonderful Bookshop.org invited me to curate a collection of reads to support that very thing. I love a good curation and thought I’d share it with all of you.

I read this singular book in a single sitting and return to it, again and again, to soak up Sherri Mitchell’s wisdom. If you have reason to be in Maine, seek out an opportunity to learn from Sherri in person at Wicuhkemtultine Kinship Community, where she regularly hosts events. And subscribe to her brand new Substack!

In a way only she could, Dr. Kate Marvel weaves climate science, human emotions, and stunning prose. Kate recently wrote about her departure from NASA, where she worked as a research physicist, in the New York Times—well worth a read too. (Happy news: Kate has landed at Project Drawdown, my old stomping grounds and a great place for doing work that matters as much as hers does.)

(written with Sister True Dedication)

I’ve found the insights and practices of engaged Buddhism profoundly helpful for the inner-outer work of our time. I also love the Plum Village app, especially this guided deep relaxation on “Embodying Mother Earth,” which I turn to frequently for rest and renewal.

Dr. Britt Wray meets us right where fear and grief live, with the grounding of both research and her own experience. You may already know (and love) Britt’s Unthinkable newsletter—about staying sane in the climate crisis. There’s also an eponymous resource hub, rich with additional supports.

My new book is a guide to navigating from ache to action, doubt to possibility, even when maps come up short. The growing “maplessness” of our time is true both literally and figuratively, both without and within. What are we to do but strengthen the compasses we hold—the compasses we are?

Find the books on Bookshop.org

As I wrote in the “Pre-Ambling” (journey pun, zing!) of Climate Wayfinding:

If you have found your way to this book, I suspect it is because you, like me, feel a deep ache about what is happening within our web of life. Perhaps you glimpse news of the latest unnatural disaster and look away to remain afloat. Or you survived one and wonder how to rebuild. Perhaps you boil with outrage at those who gamble our lives. Or you boiled so long that you’ve run completely dry. Maybe you want to grab a friend’s hand and say, Do you see how bad this is?

On some level, most of us wish that nagging ache would go away. Its rumble complicates our already complicated lives. This is too much, we whisper. And that is true: It is entirely too much.

But if we feel into those feelings, we can also touch a desire to make things better. It reveals that we carry within us the impulse of life. We want to care for the people and places we love. We want to arc toward healing—healing ourselves, our communities, and our breathtaking, singular Earth.

I firmly believe we are deeply capable of finding our way, together. In a month since publication, more than 300 reading groups are already in motion, gathering coworkers, civic collaborators, neighbors, students, friends, and family. At The All We Can Save Project, our team is preparing to train 100 new facilitators, who will then carry the program to hundreds of others. I hope it’s just the beginning of an upwelling of wayfinding.

Yours humanly,

P.S. Some interviews just jive. That was the case in a recent conversation I had with Greg Dalton for the Climate One podcast. Listen to “Healing Ourselves and the Planet” here or anywhere you tune in.