Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet

By Hannah Ritchie

Scottish data scientist Hannah Ritchie harnesses numbers in this roadmap to a better future that supports a bold thesis: We could be on track to achieving true sustainability for the first time in human history. “There is no better time to be alive than today,” Ritchie writes. “And I hope that looking at the data and progress of seven key measures of well-being will help change your mind.” Among them: declining child and maternal mortality rates and better access to basic resources. She also offers prescriptions for that which still ails us, like “how to get air pollution close to zero everywhere” and “how to feed everyone without destroying the planet.” For a quick hit of relief, check out her lists of “things to stress less about,” in sections on subjects like food (eating organic “is not always better for the environment”) and ocean plastics (“plastic straws really don’t matter”).

What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures

By Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

“Do you recall being a little kid, mouth agape at the magic of forests or dinosaurs or goldfish or the moon or ants? Do you remember the encompassing amazement? The desire to understand how it all worked?” marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson writes in this uplifting book intent on helping the world work better. With interviews, poems, and even a handwritten note from her father, straight from his college notebook, Johnson plants a seed of possibility—that humanity may not only survive this crisis but also thrive—and then nurtures it. On one page she lists “10 Problems”; on the next, “10 Possibilities.” And don’t miss the “anti-apocalypse mixtape” playlist with artists such as Prince, Dolly Parton, and Beyoncé singing “anthems for victory, love songs to Earth, tunes for tenacity, and sexy implementation vibes.”

H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z

By Elizabeth Kolbert with illustrations by Wesley Allsbrook

New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert has written magazine and book titles that inspire fear, from an article on why the recent Hurricane Milton is “the new abnormal” to “Field Notes from a Catastrophe,” a primer on global warming. But in “H is for Hope,” 26 illustrated essays covering the history and future of climate change, Kolbert concludes that “despair is unproductive.” Skipping across centuries, the collection touches on capitalism, electrification, and uncertainty. “Climate change resists narrative,” Kolbert writes, “and yet some account of what’s happening is needed.” Thoughtful, interrogative, and sometimes funny, the book is also beautiful, with drawings that render topics as complex as the Inflation Reduction Act into art. Kolbert reminds us: “Go looking for hopeful climate stories and they turn up everywhere.” 

The Crayons Love Our Planet

By Drew Daywalt with illustrations by Oliver Jeffers

A friendly cast of colors illustrates our world in this short, cheerful children’s book that pays tribute to the Earth and everything it has to offer—lions, trees, and a lot of wheat, thanks to one plucky beige crayon. Though it’s written for kids ages 4-8, there’s plenty for adults to love, too, like a stubby blue crayon that’s shorter than the rest after drawing rivers, oceans, and “a big beautiful sky.”