Books, Films, and Resources for Young Climate Activists

Steer teens toward these powerful works and organizations focused on environmental movements and climate justice.


 

 

 

Books

All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis Edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson. One World. 2020.

Braiding Sweetgrass for Yong Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Zest. 2022.

Don’t Call Me a Hurricane by Ellen Hagan, Bloomsbury. 2022

 

From the Ground Up by John N. Cole, Little, Brown. 1976.

Paradise on Fire by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Little, Brown. 2021.

Running by Natalia Sylvester. HMH. 2020.

Saving Earth: Climate Change and the Fight for Our Future by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2022.

Taking on the Plastics Crisis by Hannah Testa. Penguin Workshop (Pocket Change Collective). 2020.

A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind by Harriet A. Washington. ‎ Little, Brown Spark. 2019.

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate by Naomi Klein. S. & S. 2015.

Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility by Dorceta E. Taylor. NYU Press. 2014.

We Rise: The Earth Guardians Guide to Building a Movement that Restores the Planet by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez. Rodale. 2017.

Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It by Jamie Margolin. Hachette Go. 2020.

 

Films

AWAKE: A Dream from Standing Rock

The Condor and the Eagle

Final Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness

Gasland and Gasland Part II

Helena of Sarayaku

The Human Element

The Last Forest

Plastic China

A Plastic Ocean

The Story of Plastic

There’s Something in the Water

Youth v. Gov

 

Environmental Organizations

Climate Museum

Earth Uprising

Environmental Justice Foundation

Indigenous Environmental Network

Fridays for Future

 


Kelly Jensen is a writer for Book Riot and the editor of nonfiction anthologies, including (Don’t) Call Me Crazy.

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