1. The Master and his Emissary by Ian McGilchrist
McGilchrist is an English Philosopher and Psychiatrist. His thesis is that there are two ways of perceiving the world, resulting from the bi-hemispheric nature of our brains. We have two hemispheres, not as some sort of hard drive backup, but to enable this dual perception (other mammals and birds are also bi-hemispheric). In humans the left brain enables an abstract, focused, rational mode, and the right, a holistic, engaged, emotionally rich mode of perception. Both hemispheres are needed, but the left is most prized in Western Culture leading to a flattening of and disconnect from reality, and in particular from the natural world and religious sensibility. He explains all this in The Master and His Emissary and his latest two-volume book, The Matter with Things. He says, for example, “The kind of attention we pay actually alters the world: we are, literally, partners in creation. This means we have a grave responsibility, a word that captures the reciprocal nature of the dialogue we have with whatever it is that exists apart from ourselves.” A part of eco-action, therefore, is paying attention, participating and engaging with the natural world for its own sake.

2. The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
This book (but also an earlier book, Green Earth). We find it hard as humans to hear things repeatedly. Even a world crisis like climate change can get old. Stories, however, can have a more vivid impact; they can explain ways in which we might collectively respond. Kim Stanley Robinson is the master storyteller, and he invokes a world of the near future that is dire in its climate challenges—a heat dome in India and the loss of the national grid, for instance. A UN agency for the future is set up, and helps to guide the world through economic, ecological, political routes to a new and greener future. Robinson grabs your attention but is ultimately hopeful. His vast knowledge of economics, banking, geopolitics, housing cooperatives, and ecology makes for interesting reading.

3. Aeon Magazine
Aeon magazine comes out each week. It is free but you can also contribute. It sources an amazing array of brilliantly written, accessible articles on just about everything science/nature and social science-related. Many are summaries of books. Some really brilliant recent articles / videos have been on Evolution without Accidents by James A Shapiro, Could Grandmotherly Love Explain How we Became Human by John Poole , Life with Purpose by Philip Ball, The Elegance of Mathematics Meets the Breathtaking Complexity of Nature by Cristóbal Vila, Our Earth, Shaped by Life by Olivia Judson, The Enchanted Vision by Mark Vernon.

4. Orbital by Samantha Harvey
This is the Booker Prize Winner for 2024. It is a prolonged, meditative (but short) day in the life of the astronauts and cosmonauts on the Space Station. It brings alive the earth in its vulnerability and beauty . You want to save it. You want it to continue. You want to see it as it really is. From the distance of space, the reader achieves a perspective that has more balance and is less politically charged than is possible in most situations here on earth.

5. English Pastoral by James Rebank
This is the story of an English family farm. Rebank starts off as the reluctant inheritor of the farm near the heyday of commercial farming. Then he noticed that the birds no longer gathered and the insects were plummeting as the land became poisoned. He learned his way back to regenerative farming with the help of his community. It is an inspiring story that applies in New Zealand as well, and it also contains beautiful descriptions of life on this Lake District farm near Carlisle. A more recent book from Rebank, The Place of Tides, tells the story of the last of the Duck Women on remote Norwegian islands. They build nests for the ducks and guard them as they lay and hatch their eggs. When they leave, they gather the eider for the traditional quilted eiderdown.