Port Anna by Libby Buck

PORT ANNA by Libby Buck is a gentle story about starting over and second chances. Set in small-town coastal Maine (Port Anna is named for Anna Vale, a long-ago lighthouse keeper), this debut features Gwen Gilmore whose younger sister Molly drowned several years ago. Having lost a teaching position, Gwen decides to move back to Maine and encounters friends from her childhood and youth; later musing that “the defining moments of our lives happen before we turn 18.” She struggles to make peace with past events and to overcome hardship, including housing challenges, while gradually amassing the start of a new life with elements of romance, friendship, protectiveness towards a runaway teen, and developing a shared community at the local high school, her new employer. Throughout the story, Gwen reflects on love and grief and how “You cannot have one without the other. … In the middle of grief, there were also gifts: a smushed loaf of banana bread from a friend who knew she forgot to eat, the caress of a man covered in blue paint, and the skinny girl’s indomitable spirit.” When reviewing this novel, Publishers Weekly said, “Readers looking for a sweet, summery outing … will want to check this out." Overall, PORT ANNA is an engaging, feel-good read enlivened by Buck’s strong affection for Maine, as she says, “I am deeply grateful for its many gifts -- the bounty and diversity of the land and seascape as well as the fascinating, complicated people who call it home.” 

On the Move by Abrahm Lustgarten

ON THE MOVE by Abrahm Lustgarten is subtitled “The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America.” Lustgarten, an investigative journalist for ProPublica, points to several main factors that have already begun to impact movement in the USA: wildfires; flooding (especially in coastal regions); extreme heat or humidity; and droughts. He vividly cites research such as: “Scientists estimate that as many as one in three people on the planet will find the places they live unmanageably hot or dry by 2070.” In the USA alone, he notes that five million climate migrants “could translate to a shift of fifty million additional people by the end of the century.” His perspective – that our lack of preparation for climate change will intensify differences between rich and poor – is supported by his extensive and disturbing research. For example, he notes that “a study published in 2021 in the journal Cities examining the resilience policies of the 101 largest U.S. cities found that 31 of them had no policies whatsoever, and that only 33 had conducted any sort of evaluation of their climate vulnerability.” Lustgarten argues that even when change is attempted (as described in Atlanta or New Orleans), it often results in waves of gentrification, further separating communities. He goes so far as to say that “Climate change, however, is about to make the differences between winners and losers so extreme that they will threaten the underpinnings of the American economy and security.” Is it any wonder that we see declines in the happiness scale, especially for younger Americans? Lustgarten attempts to balance this by including a more uplifting section involving a discussion with an urban planner in Detroit who “recognizes that people are often prejudiced against refugees…. [and asks] what's a narrative that might galvanize people to see opportunity in welcoming outsiders?” Much to consider and to investigate further; ON THE MOVE contains multiple pages of notes and bibliographic references, plus an index. Other recent texts on this high interest topic of climate migration include Jack Bittle’s The Great Displacement and Nomad Century by Gaia Vince.

Young Readers: The Sixth Extinction and The Uninhabitable Earth

THE SIXTH EXTINCTION (young readers adaptation) by Elizabeth Kolbert is scheduled to be available on February 6, 2024. No one would deny that this is an important topic of grave concern to young people and I am grateful for having seen a preview. I wish, however, that greater effort had been made to provide a version of this award-winning text that more clearly outlined key issues. Kolbert shares many relevant stories (e.g., the rhino ultrasound), but important messages may be lost in the still rather dense text.  In addition to line art images (no graphs or diagrams that I saw), there is a three page glossary and index, but, sadly, sources and further reading are not included. Booklist recommended THE SIXTH EXTINCTION for grades 5 thru 8 (seems young, given the language level) and gave it a starred review.

THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH by David Wallace-Wells is now available in an adaptation for Young Adults. It tells the story of “Life After Warming” and shares dire predictions regarding a range of topics including dying oceans, greenhouse gas, extreme weather events, and results like hunger and migration. However, the language is quite stilted (e.g., “like our sea-level myopia, it threatens to occlude our picture of what global warming means for us”) and there is even an entire section improbably named The Anthropic Principle (how many high school students can readily explain that idea?). Plus, graphics or images are totally missing. And, despite an array of statistics included in the text, there are no sources listed and no bibliography for further reading. Those additions and a much more conversational tone would have made this text more appealing and more inspirational for its intended young adult audience. Kirkus sums it up well: “Heavy going, both in content and prose style, but filled with critical content.” 

Fortunately, there are a variety of accessible texts on climate change and the environment geared to high school students.

The Great Displacement by Jack Bittle

THE GREAT DISPLACEMENT by Jake Bittle joins a relatively small number of texts about climate migration, but journalist Bittle focuses on Climate Change and the Next American Migration, likely making his text more relatable for our national audience. That should be particularly true since he argues that “by the middle of the century, housing displacement will be the most visible and ubiquitous consequence of climate change” and estimates “in the United States alone, at least twenty million people may move as a result of climate change.” His examples are covered in separate chapters which deal, for example, with flooding in Houston, wildfires near Santa Rosa, drought in Arizona or rising seas near Norfolk. He discusses the role of government and business (e.g., insurance and agriculture) as well as offering individual relocation stories. The facts are well-documented with notes (followed by a helpful index) comprising roughly twenty-five percent of the text. THE GREAT DISPLACEMENT received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly. It would be interesting to compare some of his observations with data used in The New York Times interactive pieces on “The Climate Impact of Your Neighborhood, Mapped” or “Every Place Has Its Own Climate Risk. What Is It Where You Live?”

The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg

THE CLIMATE BOOK by Greta Thunberg is sure to draw attention just as its young compiler often does. Subtitled “The Facts and the Solutions,” Thunberg has gathered essays from an remarkable array of experts including Elizabeth Kolbert (The Sixth Extinction), Naomi Oreskes (The Big Myth), Bill McKibben (Falter), and a range of international climate scientists, activists, and professors. The topics covered are varied, too, with chapters on How Climate Works, How Our Planet is Changing, and How it Affects Us. Some of the questions which are addressed include: What happens at 1.5, 2 and 4 degrees C of warming? Or Is the Future Electric? There are also sections on Wildfires, Dangerous Weather, The Amazon, Antibiotic Resistance, and The Challenge of Transport, to name just a very few. Chapter 4 includes over two dozen selections which highlight What We’ve Done About It while Chapter 5 details roughly twenty ideas on What We Must Do Now (like Changing Our Diets, Rewilding, and Decarbonization). Thunberg writes (and is quoted in a review from NPR): "No entity other than the media has the opportunity to create the necessary transformation of our global society." She is an effective, relatable spokesperson, especially when combining her voice with a 100 others in THE CLIMATE BOOK. The endnotes were so extensive that they are available online and the text is filled with graphs and diagrams. THE CLIMATE BOOK received starred reviews from Booklist (“a definitive book on climate change now”) and Kirkus (“Vital reading”).

Published by Columbia Global Reports, MISEDUCATION by Katie Worth is subtitled: How Climate Change Is Taught in America. Worth is an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning investigative journalist and while her work is sometimes rather academic in tone, she includes numerous engaging anecdotes and raises key questions about curriculum and textbook selection. Highly relevant in this time of increasing debate over instructional content and bans on books in school libraries, Worth includes chapters on topics like Science and Doubt, the Teachers, the Standards, and Selling Kids on Fossil Fuel. MISEDUCATION is extremely well-researched and received a starred review from Publishers Weekly (“Policymakers and educators alike will find much to consider.”). Villanova University included Worth in their year long program on climate change; this video shares some statistics and charts from her work.

Nomad Century by Gaia Vince

NOMAD CENTURY by Gaia Vince (Transcendence; Adventures in the Anthropocene) is all about “How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World,” a topic which has been of high interest to our student researchers in the past few years. Her book has pre-pub blurbs from an impressive array of accessible non-fiction authors: Mary Roach, Bill McKibben, and Bill Bryson. Vince herself is an award-winning science journalist, author, broadcaster and speaker. Eloquently creating relevance, she states “Human movement on a scale never before seen will dominate this century and remake our world,” further noting "you will be among them, or you will be receiving them." She begins with a look at the nature of migration – both for people and “stuff.” A key point is the possibility of a “climate apartheid” where social inequality and poverty interact with climate change for even more devastating consequences. Vince devotes several chapters to outlining the problems, complete with shocking, but relatable, statistics (e.g., “the Welsh capital, Cardiff, is projected to be two-thirds under water by 2050”). The final chapters advocate for possible solutions (e.g., using technology like cloud brightening for solar reflectivity), including long-term efforts to restore areas for habitation by humans although many comments are rather general (e.g., “we must stop seeing the people who move as the problem, even if some of their reasons are”). Vince also includes an eight point manifesto, a few “further reading suggestions,” notes, and a helpful index, together comprising roughly twenty percent of the text. NOMAD CENTURY received a starred review from Kirkus. It is a call to action - sobering, but hopeful reading. 

Unsettled by Steven E. Koonin

UNSETTLED by Steven E. Koonin is meant to be an apolitical look at climate change, focusing on “What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters.” However, this new book has met with several challenges, perhaps most notably in a Scientific American article.  The business media, including Forbes and The Wall Street Journal, have instead tended to support his position. Koonin, a physicist, has an impressive list of credentials, including academic ties to CalTech and New York University, amongst others. He splits this book into two parts: The Science and The Response. Initially, he discusses aspects like heat waves, hurricanes, Greenland’s ice sheet, and economic impact of climate change, and then devotes a couple of chapters to “why the science has been communicated so poorly” and what improvements might be made.  At a time when two-thirds of Americans think government should do more, Koonin offers a confusing (or overly nuanced?) summary since he agrees that the planet is warming and appears to acknowledge that human-caused emissions are a major factor. Why such reluctance to embrace more proactive policy action then?

Advocating that we make only “low-risk changes,” Koonin merely suggests that “climate science would also be improved by deliberate efforts to involve scientists from other fields in studying climate … [and] we need to … help non-experts become more critical consumers of media coverage of climate.” While those are laudable goals, it seems that with all of his knowledge and experience, Koonin could press for more. He acknowledges this weakness, saying, “I have deliberately written this book in a descriptive manner rather than a prescriptive one.” His detractors might better ponder how to highlight those areas of scientific agreement, further informing the public so they, having come to a reasoned conclusion, are motivated to push for appropriate speed and scale of government response.

Added 8/21- New United Nations Sixth Assessment Report on Climate Change