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CNN columnist John D. Sutter is spending the rest of the year reporting on a tiny number -- 2 degrees -- that may have a huge effect on the future of the planet. He'd like your help. Subscribe to the "2 degrees" newsletter or follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can shape his coverage.
(CNN)"Climate change is the canvas on which the history of the 21st century will be painted."
That's Mark Lynas, writing in "Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet."
It's a true if disturbing prediction.
By some accounts, we've already entered the Anthropocene, an epoch defined by human degradation of the natural world. We're causing extinctions, changing the climate. Mother Nature is still powerful, sure. But, as Lynas explains, we humans are so fundamental a force that we are changing the way she works.
I recently asked readers of my "2 degrees" newsletter (sign up here) to suggest "must-read" books on climate change -- and Lynas' important work of nonfiction was among your top recommendations. I've been reading it, and I recently interviewed the author. The book takes a degree-by-degree look at the future of our planet as it continues to warm. Two degrees of warming, which the international community is trying to avoid, and which is the focus of my climate change initiative at CNN, sounds bad. But, as Lynas told me, a world that's 6 degrees warmer than before the industrial revolution, which is possible if we keep burning alarming amounts of fossil fuels and chopping down forests, sounds downright hellish.
You'll find Lynas' "Six Degrees" on a list of 12 climate change must-reads below. It includes a Pulitzer Prize winner, Elizabeth Kolbert's "The Sixth Extinction," as well as an illustrated account of an artist's dive into climate science, titled "Climate Changed."
You readers suggested all these, and I've included some of your comments about them.
Sign up for the "2 degrees" newsletter if you want to join our freewheeling book club.
We'll tackle "Six Degrees" first, since it's a great primer. I'll post an interview with Lynas on Thursday, and then we'll read his book together over the course of the month.
He's graciously agreed to take your questions in a few weeks.
Think we missed something? Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments section below.
1. "Six Degrees," by Mark Lynas
Chapter by chapter, Lynas explores what the world would look like if it warms 1 degree, 2 degrees, 3, degrees Celsius, etc. He's great at distilling the science and maintaining a sense of optimism amid some very gloomy predictions about the future. Suggested by Lance Olsen.
2. "This Changes Everything," by Naomi Klein
"Well researched, compelling arguments, hits home for multiple audiences, and is a realistic call to action." -- Laura S. Lynes, from Canmore, Alberta
3. "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," by Thom Hartmann
"It's all-encompassing -- it delves into the various feedback systems in a climate change context, and also the underlying cultural philosophy or stories we tell ourselves that continue to create the situation we're in. Fascinating stuff!" -- Trevor, from Los Angeles
4. "The Age of Sustainable Development," by Jeffrey D. Sachs
"Comprehensive and positive summary of the steps required for sustainable development with good overviews of the problems causing climate change." -- Dan Fowler, from Austin, Texas
5. "Comfortably Unaware," by Richard A. Oppenlander
"People don't realize the devastating impact that our food choices have on the planet. This book explains how animal agriculture is the single biggest cause of global warming." -- Wendy Horowitz, from New Haven, Connecticut
6. "The Sixth Extinction," by Elizabeth Kolbert
"An amazingly well written narrative on the effect our species has had on the planet. As our population continues to grow and our demand on our very limited resources escalates, the negative impact we have had and continue to have is well explained." -- Sharon Lynch, from Benicia, California
7. "The End of the Long Summer," by Dianne Dumanoski
"A really thoughtful, wise and balanced appraisal of fact that, going on past changes to the climate, we are likely to reach a sudden tipping point and experience huge climate changes over just a few years, BUT that humans are incredibly resilient and adaptable and rather than go extinct, will likely rise to the challenge.
"This book gave me hope while presenting the facts." -- Persephone Maywald, from Australia
8. "Climate Wars," by Gwynne Dyer
"Waves of climate refugees. Dozens of failed states. All-out war. From one of the world's great geopolitical analysts comes a terrifying glimpse of the strategic realities of the near future, when climate change drives the world's powers towards the cut-throat politics of survival," the publisher's description says.
9. "Merchants of Doubt," by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway
Here's an endorsement from John Horgan, of Scientific American: "The book, which packages rigorous research in fiery rhetoric, inspired a documentary, 'Merchants of Doubt' ... I highly recommend the book and documentary, which reveal how disturbingly easy it can be for unscrupulous spin-meisters to dupe journalists and the public." The book was suggested by Aaron Thierry, a reader from Edinburgh, Scotland
10. "Don't Even Think About It," by George Marshall
A Twitter user -- @timreckmeyer -- suggested this one as part of a discussion on whether we at CNN should be leading climate change stories with images of sad polar bears on ice sheets. (He thinks we shouldn't. You can see from the gallery below that we still are, from time to time.) George Marshall, the book's author, explores how our brains shape (and warp) perceptions about climate change. I'm hoping this book will help me understand how to better explain this subject -- and will settle the polar bear debate.
11. "Climate Changed," by Philippe Squarzoni
"It's an amazing book. It's an illustrated nonfiction book (graphic novel format) that is built on Squarzoni's interviews with IPCC scientists. The science is well explained, but the power comes from watching Squarzoni absorb the information and struggle to fit it into his life, just like a reader, over the six years it took him to put the book together. So the intangible social aspect of climate, which is probably more important to solutions than climate science itself, is explored with candor." -- Richard Reiss, from New York
12. "The Great Transition," by Lester Brown
"Right away, book club or no, this book must be read: 'The Great Transition,' by Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute," a reader, Elizabeth McCommon, wrote in an e-mail. A friend "put it in my hands this last weekend, saying it would help me regain optimism about the future," she said.
Sounds like it worked.
Email questions to: climate [at] cnn.com.
Subscribe to the "2 degrees" newsletter.
Photos: 11 ways climate change affects the world
Melting polar ice caps – The consequences of climate change go far beyond warming temperatures, which scientists say are melting the polar ice caps and raising sea levels. Click through the gallery for a look at 10 other key effects of climate change, some of which may surprise you.
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Photos: 11 ways climate change affects the world
Drought – In the coming decades climate change will unleash megadroughts lasting 10 years or more, according to a new report by scholars at Cornell University, the University of Arizona and the U.S. Geological Survey. We're seeing hints of this already in many arid parts of the world and even in California, which has been rationing water amid record drought. In this 2012 photo, a man places his hand on parched soil in the Greater Upper Nile region of northeastern South Sudan.
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Photos: 11 ways climate change affects the world
Wildfires – There's not a direct link between climate change and wildfires, exactly. But many scientists believe the increase in wildfires in the Western United States is partly the result of tinder-dry forests parched by warming temperatures. This photo shows a wildfire as it approaches the shore of Bass Lake, California, in mid-September.
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Photos: 11 ways climate change affects the world
Coral reefs – Scientists say the oceans' temperatures have risen by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last century. It doesn't sound like much, but it's been enough to affect the fragile ecosystems of coral reefs, which have been bleaching and dying off in recent decades. This photo shows dead coral off the coast of St. Martin's Island in Bangladesh.
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Photos: 11 ways climate change affects the world
Food prices – A U.N. panel found in March that climate change -- mostly drought -- is already affecting the global agricultural supply and will likely drive up food prices. Here, in 2010, workers on combines harvest soybeans in northern Brazil. Global food experts have warned that climate change could double grain prices by 2050.
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Photos: 11 ways climate change affects the world
Pollen allergies – Are you sneezing more often these days? Climate change may be to blame for that, too. Recent studies show that rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels promote the growth of weedy plant species that produce allergenic pollen. The worst place in the United States for spring allergies in 2014, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America? Louisville, Kentucky.
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Photos: 11 ways climate change affects the world
Deforestation – Climate change has not been kind to the world's forests. Invasive species such as the bark beetle, which thrive in warmer temperatures, have attacked trees across the North American west, from Mexico to the Yukon. University of Colorado researchers have found that some populations of mountain pine beetles now produce two generations per year, dramatically boosting the bugs' threat to lodgepole and ponderosa pines. In this 2009 photo, dead spruces of the Yukon's Alsek River valley attest to the devastation wrought by the beetles.
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Photos: 11 ways climate change affects the world
Mountain glaciers – The snows capping majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, once inspired Ernest Hemingway. Now they're in danger of melting away altogether. Studies suggest that if the mountain's snowcap continues to evaporate at its current rate, it could be gone in 15 years. Here, a Kilimanjaro glacier is viewed from Uhuru Peak in December 2010.
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Photos: 11 ways climate change affects the world
Endangered species – Polar bears may be the poster child for climate change's effect on animals. But scientists say climate change is wreaking havoc on many other species -- including birds and reptiles -- that are sensitive to fluctuations in temperatures. One, this golden toad of Costa Rica and other Central American countries, has already gone extinct.
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Photos: 11 ways climate change affects the world
Animal migration – It's not your imagination: Some animals -- mostly birds -- are migrating earlier and earlier every year because of warming global temperatures. Scholars from the University of East Anglia found that Icelandic black-tailed godwits have advanced their migration by two weeks over the past two decades. Researchers also have found that many species are migrating to higher elevations as temperatures climb.
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Photos: 11 ways climate change affects the world
Extreme weather – The planet could see as many as 20 more hurricanes and tropical storms each year by the end of the century because of climate change, according to a 2013 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This image shows Superstorm Sandy bearing down on the New Jersey coast in 2012.
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