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Under the Sky We Make: How to Be Human in a Warming World
It's warming. It's us. We're sure. It's bad. But we can fix it.
After speaking to the international public for close to fifteen years about sustainability, climate scientist Dr. Nicholas realized that concerned people were getting the wrong message about the climate crisis. Yes, companies and governments are hugely responsible for the mess we're in. But individuals CAN effect real, significant, and lasting change to solve this problem. Nicholas explores finding purpose in a warming world, combining her scientific expertise and her lived, personal experience in a way that seems fresh and deeply urgent: Agonizing over the climate costs of visiting loved ones overseas, how to find low-carbon love on Tinder, and even exploring her complicated family legacy involving supermarket turkeys.
In her astonishing book Under the Sky We Make, Nicholas does for climate science what Michael Pollan did more than a decade ago for the food on our plate: offering a hopeful, clear-eyed, and somehow also hilarious guide to effecting real change, starting in our own lives. Saving ourselves from climate apocalypse will require radical shifts within each of us, to effect real change in our society and culture. But it can be done. It requires, Dr. Nicholas argues, belief in our own agency and value, alongside a deep understanding that no one will ever hand us power--we're going to have to seize it for ourselves.
After speaking to the international public for close to fifteen years about sustainability, climate scientist Dr. Nicholas realized that concerned people were getting the wrong message about the climate crisis. Yes, companies and governments are hugely responsible for the mess we're in. But individuals CAN effect real, significant, and lasting change to solve this problem. Nicholas explores finding purpose in a warming world, combining her scientific expertise and her lived, personal experience in a way that seems fresh and deeply urgent: Agonizing over the climate costs of visiting loved ones overseas, how to find low-carbon love on Tinder, and even exploring her complicated family legacy involving supermarket turkeys.
In her astonishing book Under the Sky We Make, Nicholas does for climate science what Michael Pollan did more than a decade ago for the food on our plate: offering a hopeful, clear-eyed, and somehow also hilarious guide to effecting real change, starting in our own lives. Saving ourselves from climate apocalypse will require radical shifts within each of us, to effect real change in our society and culture. But it can be done. It requires, Dr. Nicholas argues, belief in our own agency and value, alongside a deep understanding that no one will ever hand us power--we're going to have to seize it for ourselves.
335 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 23, 2021
141 people are currently reading
2366 people want to read
About the author
Kimberly Nicholas
1 book54 followersProf. Kimberly Nicholas is a sustainability scientist at Lund, Sweden's highest-ranked university. She has published over 55 articles on climate and sustainability in leading peer-reviewed journals, writes for publications such as Elle, The Guardian, Scientific American, and New Scientist, and is the author of UNDER THE SKY WE MAKE: How to be Human in a Warming World, and the monthly climate newsletter We Can Fix It. She gives lectures and moderates at about 75 international meetings and organizations each year across public policy, civil society, arts and culture, the wine industry, foundations, and academia. Her work has been featured by outlets including the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, National Public Radio, Public Radio International, Vox, USA Today, Buzzfeed and more. Born and raised on her family’s vineyard in Sonoma, California, she studied the effect of climate change on the California wine industry for her PhD in Environment and Resources at Stanford University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews
October 28, 2021
The overall intent of this book is to motivate the reader to become an anti-climate-change advocate willing to make personal changes and take public action. This book not only carries the message that climate change is serious, but it also addresses the very human issues of how to become motivated to work for change.
The last half of the book provides motivating examples of action taken by others toward minimizing personal carbon footprints. It also provides examples of political action that can be taken to encourage change from an exploitative economy into a culture of regeneration.
The author has inserted snippets of personal memoir throughout the book's narrative which provide a change of pace for the reader. These personal stories also help to maintain the reader's attention as well as offer a confession from the author that she has her own carbon issues.
In case the reader becomes overwhelmed with the multiple ways to lower their carbon footprint, this book makes it simple by noting the three modifications of personal behavior that will result in the greatest decrease of carbon release from a typical economically well-off person (a.k.a high emitter).
This book has a unique chapter titled “TLDR (Too Long, Didn’t Read).” Therefore if you don’t have time to read the book you can turn to that chapter and get the essence of this book all contained within eight pages of text. If on the other hand you are a glutton for details, there are fifty-one pages of Notes and eleven pages of Index at the end of the book.
It's interesting to note that the author co-authored a 2017 article “The Climate Mitigation Gap: Education and Government Recommendations Miss the Most Effective Individual Actions.” This article showed that the most effective way to lower your greenhouse gas emissions is to have fewer children. It showed that one fewer American child might save more than five time the parent's lifetime missions. This book discussed this issue briefly in Chapter 5, but it doesn't repeat the details that attracted so much attention in the earlier study. The author probably decided those earlier findings were so inflammatory that if included it would take attention away from the rest of the book.
The last half of the book provides motivating examples of action taken by others toward minimizing personal carbon footprints. It also provides examples of political action that can be taken to encourage change from an exploitative economy into a culture of regeneration.
The author has inserted snippets of personal memoir throughout the book's narrative which provide a change of pace for the reader. These personal stories also help to maintain the reader's attention as well as offer a confession from the author that she has her own carbon issues.
In case the reader becomes overwhelmed with the multiple ways to lower their carbon footprint, this book makes it simple by noting the three modifications of personal behavior that will result in the greatest decrease of carbon release from a typical economically well-off person (a.k.a high emitter).
… the big actions that can cut today’s emissions fast are going flight-, car-, and meat-free. These are the personal actions that contribute most to the urgent planetwide need to get to the root of our problems and shut down the systems of fossil fuel and industrial animal agriculture like we mean it. Focusing on cutting your emissions in these three domains is where your personal carbon footprint efforts should go. (P. 145)
This book has a unique chapter titled “TLDR (Too Long, Didn’t Read).” Therefore if you don’t have time to read the book you can turn to that chapter and get the essence of this book all contained within eight pages of text. If on the other hand you are a glutton for details, there are fifty-one pages of Notes and eleven pages of Index at the end of the book.
It's interesting to note that the author co-authored a 2017 article “The Climate Mitigation Gap: Education and Government Recommendations Miss the Most Effective Individual Actions.” This article showed that the most effective way to lower your greenhouse gas emissions is to have fewer children. It showed that one fewer American child might save more than five time the parent's lifetime missions. This book discussed this issue briefly in Chapter 5, but it doesn't repeat the details that attracted so much attention in the earlier study. The author probably decided those earlier findings were so inflammatory that if included it would take attention away from the rest of the book.
August 11, 2021
I've read many of these climate crisis primers, and here I'll outline what sets Kimberly Nicholas's Under the Sky We Make apart from the rest.
First, Nicholas shares what it is like to be a climate scientist right now. It mostly seems frustrating. But people also ask her existential questions about how to live a meaningful life within the context of the warming world. I don't think I've read accounts quite like this before, but it seems very sad. I particularly found her commentary on grieving ecological losses interesting and new (79).
Second, she describes five nonlinear stages of "radical climate acceptance" (102), which are ignorance, avoidance, doom, all the feels, and purpose. To me, "purpose" is well captured in Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything:
I finally enjoyed the ninth chapter, in which Nicholas outlines how she did a sort of greenhouse gas mitigation review of her life. She mostly cuts out flying, then mostly cuts out driving by car, then mostly cuts out eating meat, then she gets green energy for her home, etc. I'd like to see this "order of operations" model refined and turned into a flowchart, or a series of flowcharts. Note that the individual order of operations would most likely differ from the policy order of operations, in part because the world's governments all need to do a lot and as quickly as possible.
Almost all of these climate crisis primers diagnose a problem and propose a solution. For Nicholas, the problem is our exploitation mindset and the solution is a regenerative mindset. Nice. If you're completely new to the climate crisis, I'd recommend starting with:
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, by Gates.
Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brand.
Drawdown, by Hawken.
And Elizabeth Kolbert's three books are all incredibly well written, even if they're reporting on issues rather than diagnosing a program/ solution.
But you wouldn't go far wrong reading this one first, or in addition to those.
First, Nicholas shares what it is like to be a climate scientist right now. It mostly seems frustrating. But people also ask her existential questions about how to live a meaningful life within the context of the warming world. I don't think I've read accounts quite like this before, but it seems very sad. I particularly found her commentary on grieving ecological losses interesting and new (79).
Second, she describes five nonlinear stages of "radical climate acceptance" (102), which are ignorance, avoidance, doom, all the feels, and purpose. To me, "purpose" is well captured in Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything:
"I found that I no longer feared immersing myself in the scientific reality of the climate threat. I stopped avoiding the articles and the scientific studies and read everything I could find. I also stopped outsourcing the problem to the environmentalists, stopped telling myself this was somebody else’s issue, somebody else’s job."Ever since I read that passage, I've wondered what ladders can we create to get people to this purposeful realization? When I think about my students, I'm always surprised by their (not universal, sadly) conviction that climate change is a big deal and their almost total ignorance about it. They're in some mixture of steps 1 - 3, perhaps. It seems to me that we've drummed a lot of conventional wisdom into children (climate change is a big deal) and not enough knowledge and environmental empathy (for lack of a better term). But maybe the ladder Nicholas offers is the way. If so, I'd be curious to know how long it takes to get through avoidance, or what intervention might shift people through it (and the other stages). I worry it takes a lot because, for Klein, it took years and years to get to stage 5. Greta Thunberg's "black and white" realization seems to be unusual. In No One is Too Small to Make a Difference, she attributes her sudden change to having Asperger's syndrome.
I finally enjoyed the ninth chapter, in which Nicholas outlines how she did a sort of greenhouse gas mitigation review of her life. She mostly cuts out flying, then mostly cuts out driving by car, then mostly cuts out eating meat, then she gets green energy for her home, etc. I'd like to see this "order of operations" model refined and turned into a flowchart, or a series of flowcharts. Note that the individual order of operations would most likely differ from the policy order of operations, in part because the world's governments all need to do a lot and as quickly as possible.
Almost all of these climate crisis primers diagnose a problem and propose a solution. For Nicholas, the problem is our exploitation mindset and the solution is a regenerative mindset. Nice. If you're completely new to the climate crisis, I'd recommend starting with:
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, by Gates.
Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brand.
Drawdown, by Hawken.
And Elizabeth Kolbert's three books are all incredibly well written, even if they're reporting on issues rather than diagnosing a program/ solution.
But you wouldn't go far wrong reading this one first, or in addition to those.
April 21, 2021
First, the good: This book completely revamped my views on the urgency of climate change. I am better able to see that climate change is not something we're going to arrive at "someday," and is instead something we're already in the process of. As the author mentions, it's a matter now of preventing ourselves from reaching climate "tipping points" that could be irreversible (not counting the ones we may have already passed). I think the takeaways for me are three-fold: 1) this is urgent and demands our attentions now; 2) do the big three--eat less meat, drive less, and fly less; and 3) recycling and other "green" measures pale in comparison to the big three. The last point is important because I think I spent a lot of mental energy worried about recycling and using less plastic, which the author seems to indicate is probably not the best use of my energy. Not saying I want to invite more plastic into my life, just that if it's a choice between spending more time looking up vegan recipes or exploring ways to reduce plastic in my life, the former is probably more impactful.
Now here's the rub: I think the book could in fact be summarized by the authors own summary: "It's warming, it's us, we're sure, it's bad, we can fix it," along with her recommendation to go "flight-, car-, and meat-free." I skipped around in section 1 (the facts) and section 2 (the feels) because they were overloaded with evidence and the author's philosophy for how the world could better operate. Let me be clear: I am not a climate change denier or a ruthless capitalist. I see the incredible problems our exploitative and extractive economy has on both people and the environment. I want to see change there. But it really did feel like those chapter went on, and on, and on. Maybe it's just me, but I wanted to find concrete actions I could take in my own life today, and was not as interested in a mountain of evidence that I likely won't remember or a view on the economy that almost sounds pie-in-the-sky. I share the author's hope that we move towards a more equitable and sustainable economy, but I am also firmly rooted in the reality of the world we're currently living in--so I guess call me a hopeful skeptic.
Am I being too harsh? After all, I am glad I got what I got out of the book. But overall the book just fell flat for me, and I wonder if others will labor through the evidence and philosophy in search of the concrete things we can do in our lives. And even then, it boils down to the big three: less meat, less driving, and less flying. The other advice in the book, including getting politically involved, changing your bank to a credit union, updating your investments, donating money to environmental causes, engaging your workplace in environmental action--those are all specialized recommendations that may not apply or be practical for everyone.
One final lingering question I have is who this book was written for? Because that does put my analysis of the book in a different light. Somewhere in the book the author mentions needing a small percentage of people (I think around 25%) to bring an issue into the national consciousness. Thus, maybe the intended audience for this book are people on the cusp of becoming committed climate advocates. The evidence and arguments in the beginning of the book could very well persuade some people to get into the movement. I guess I'm just not there (not ruling it out), and maybe that's why the book fell flat.
Now here's the rub: I think the book could in fact be summarized by the authors own summary: "It's warming, it's us, we're sure, it's bad, we can fix it," along with her recommendation to go "flight-, car-, and meat-free." I skipped around in section 1 (the facts) and section 2 (the feels) because they were overloaded with evidence and the author's philosophy for how the world could better operate. Let me be clear: I am not a climate change denier or a ruthless capitalist. I see the incredible problems our exploitative and extractive economy has on both people and the environment. I want to see change there. But it really did feel like those chapter went on, and on, and on. Maybe it's just me, but I wanted to find concrete actions I could take in my own life today, and was not as interested in a mountain of evidence that I likely won't remember or a view on the economy that almost sounds pie-in-the-sky. I share the author's hope that we move towards a more equitable and sustainable economy, but I am also firmly rooted in the reality of the world we're currently living in--so I guess call me a hopeful skeptic.
Am I being too harsh? After all, I am glad I got what I got out of the book. But overall the book just fell flat for me, and I wonder if others will labor through the evidence and philosophy in search of the concrete things we can do in our lives. And even then, it boils down to the big three: less meat, less driving, and less flying. The other advice in the book, including getting politically involved, changing your bank to a credit union, updating your investments, donating money to environmental causes, engaging your workplace in environmental action--those are all specialized recommendations that may not apply or be practical for everyone.
One final lingering question I have is who this book was written for? Because that does put my analysis of the book in a different light. Somewhere in the book the author mentions needing a small percentage of people (I think around 25%) to bring an issue into the national consciousness. Thus, maybe the intended audience for this book are people on the cusp of becoming committed climate advocates. The evidence and arguments in the beginning of the book could very well persuade some people to get into the movement. I guess I'm just not there (not ruling it out), and maybe that's why the book fell flat.
February 6, 2025
“The world is holding its breath. It counts on all of us.”
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
It’s warming. It’s us. We’re sure. It’s bad. But we can fix it.
🌎 Big Facts:
● We need to cut global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030/limit our carbon to 2.5 tons per person per year
● The best way to fight climate change is to fight the root cause, not use alternative solutions ~ like instead of taking carbon out of the air as the only solution, we need to transition to zero emissions
● The carbon that we release stays in the atmosphere for millions of years through generations
● Population sizes of wild vertebrates has declined 68% because of deforestation
● Deforestation in the Amazon is mainly to feed animals, when that food could be used for us people
● Cars spend 96% of the time parked, which could be areas used for cleaner methods of travel or green spaces
● If large fossil fuel companies switched to renewable energy sources, they would save $23 billion per year
💚 Best Ways to Take Action:
1. Fly less!! ~ flying emits as much carbon as going meatless saves in 8 months, which means it spends 8 months of your carbon budget per year • Flying makes up 10% of US carbon emissions
2. Drive less ~ most drives are only around 1-3 miles, which can easily be biked or used with public transportation • Driving makes up 16% of US carbon emissions
3. Switch to a plant-based diet ~ this puts less demand on meat, which releases a huge amount of greenhouse gases and uses resources like land and water that release carbon into the air • Cattle accounts for 14.5% of global greenhouse gases
These are all ways that can lead you to be more aware of your impact and choices!
🌱 Use this user interface friendly tool to see how you can improve! • https://pslifestyle-app.net/test
“Climate action is like rock climbing: We just have to get started; we’ll learn as we go.”
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
It’s warming. It’s us. We’re sure. It’s bad. But we can fix it.
🌎 Big Facts:
● We need to cut global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030/limit our carbon to 2.5 tons per person per year
● The best way to fight climate change is to fight the root cause, not use alternative solutions ~ like instead of taking carbon out of the air as the only solution, we need to transition to zero emissions
● The carbon that we release stays in the atmosphere for millions of years through generations
● Population sizes of wild vertebrates has declined 68% because of deforestation
● Deforestation in the Amazon is mainly to feed animals, when that food could be used for us people
● Cars spend 96% of the time parked, which could be areas used for cleaner methods of travel or green spaces
● If large fossil fuel companies switched to renewable energy sources, they would save $23 billion per year
💚 Best Ways to Take Action:
1. Fly less!! ~ flying emits as much carbon as going meatless saves in 8 months, which means it spends 8 months of your carbon budget per year • Flying makes up 10% of US carbon emissions
2. Drive less ~ most drives are only around 1-3 miles, which can easily be biked or used with public transportation • Driving makes up 16% of US carbon emissions
3. Switch to a plant-based diet ~ this puts less demand on meat, which releases a huge amount of greenhouse gases and uses resources like land and water that release carbon into the air • Cattle accounts for 14.5% of global greenhouse gases
These are all ways that can lead you to be more aware of your impact and choices!
🌱 Use this user interface friendly tool to see how you can improve! • https://pslifestyle-app.net/test
“Climate action is like rock climbing: We just have to get started; we’ll learn as we go.”
May 1, 2021
I am not the audience for this book—but that’s not the problem. I appreciate a good general-knowledge introduction to the climate crisis, and I can get behind a feelings-forward response. But despite the back-cover claim that this is a “gorgeously-written, elegiac book,” the line “Reader, I am a turkey heiress” is a dealbreaker, full stop.
June 8, 2023
This book should be required reading for all of modern society. Personally, it opened my eyes to the urgency of the ongoing climate crisis. You see, I had been in climate denial. I knew that humans cause global warming but I had somehow dismissed the fact that it’s getting worse and will get much worse.
Thanks to this book, I know how it will go if we don’t stop emitting CO2 as soon as possible and I am freaking out. But as Kimberly Nichols points out, we can fix it, by everyone doing their part. Which boils down to the three big things we all need to do: fly less, drive less, eat less meat. Of course you can do more. But if you’re not making an effort in these three specific ways, you’re kidding yourself.
Here are some, for lack of a better word, highlights:
- We are emitting a lot of CO2 these days (mostly due to burning fossil fuels), and much of it is staying in the atmosphere. Nature cleans up about half of our emissions, though not exactly for free. About a quarter is used by plants on land for photosynthesis (which is great), and about a quarter is absorbed by the ocean (which has pretty bad consequences of its own). And the remaining half? It stays in the atmosphere and contributes to what we all now know as global warming.
- Apparently, unless we take action, it’s going to get much much worse. Remember the oceans absorbing a quarter of the CO2? When they do, they also become more acidic, which will lead to the collapse of marine ecosystems. We’ll have food shortages because growing basic staple grains will become very difficult. Many areas will have to abandoned due to extreme heat (southern USA, Northern Australia, India, to name a few.) Rising sea levels will wipe island nations and coastal cities off the map. Basically, we will drive ourselves to extinction.
- Right now with the Paris Agreement we are targeting 2 degrees of warming. If we don’t change how we emit CO2 today, we are projected to have 3.5 degrees of warming. It’s also interesting to consider that the Ice Age was “only” 4 degrees colder than pre-industrial temperatures. So you can imagine how 3.5 degrees of warming can change what the world looks like.
- Some loss is inevitable. The Great Barrier Reef is dying (which actually protected the coastline from storms and erosion, and was a nursery for much of marine life), and at 2 degrees of warming, it will be completely dead.
- No, we can’t do stratospheric aerosol injection (i.e. shooting tiny mirrorlike particles into the atmosphere in hope that they will reflect sunbeams and prevent warming), because 1) we would have to do it continuously forever, 2) the carbon would still be building up in the atmosphere and acidifying the oceans, which means the oceans would certainly die, and 3) we would never see the stars again. The obvious solution is the only solution: stop emitting CO2.
- There is a 97.1 consensus among scientists that global warming exists and that humans are the primary cause of it. At this point, it is an established scientific fact. It’s our job to communicate it to the doubters to get them started on their climate journey.
- For decades, fossil fuel companies have been leading misinformation campaigns. They’ve been trying to sow false doubt about science, and it worked (still works! I have met so many doubters.) For example, Exxon was paying for ads in high profile media that “science is uncertain, it costs too much to transition off of fossil fuels, it would be rash, etc.” Oil companies spend 29% of their advertising budgets to promote themselves as “green”, while they only in fact invest 3% of their capital in clean energy.
- 72% of global climate pollution can be traced to household consumption. (It is also a fact that a small number of fossil fuel companies are responsible for 70% of emissions. Both are correct, the fossil fuel companies are responsible for the production, whereas households are responsible for the consumption. The households are burning the same fossil fuels the companies are digging up.) So we absolutely can make a difference by making lifestyle changes.
- If we want to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, we have the budget to emit 2.5 tons of CO2 per person per year by 2030. (By a quick Google search of my own, I found that a two-way flight from London to New York emits 1.7 tons of CO2. That’s already 68% of your carbon budget on a single round trip. Shucks.)
- The biggest actions you can do are going flight-free, car-free and meat-free (in that order). It’s okay if you can’t be perfect, but every effort counts. It’s important to keep in mind the 2.5 ton per person per year budget.
- It’s absolutely possible to convert car-centric cities into people-centric cities. Copenhagen’s transformation is one such example, as it was overrun by cars in the 1960s. They introduced policies that promoted biking (including building separated bike lanes) and they were wildly successful: in 2016, for the first time, more bikes than cars crossed the city. I’m looking at you, US.
- The biggest home energy use is to heat or cool things (heater, washer, dryer, AC). If possible, don’t use an AC or a clothes dryer, and try washing clothes with colder temperatures (trust in modern detergents!), etc.
- Livestock production is not sustainable at the scale we have it. Animal agriculture takes up 83% of farmland, produces 58% of agriculture’s CO2 emissions, 57% of its water pollution and uses a lot of water. Keeping animals is not inherently bad for the planet, in sustainable food systems, animals can turn waste (grass, leftovers) into resources (fertilizer, meat, leather, wool). The problem is that we have far too many of them. If we fed people with the food we grow for animals, we could feed an additional 4 billion people. Moreover, we are cutting down forests to replace it with farmland, including the Amazon, which is cut down to grow soy as animal feed.
- It’s also a good idea to be careful about whether you might be funding fossil fuel companies directly or indirectly with your money. What sort of bank does your money sit in, what ETFs are you investing in, etc.
- Voting for climate-enlightened politicians is very important, as they have the power to regulate problematic industries. Also apparently, it’s effective to write letters and e-mails to politicians (and demand for a plan for how they will stop warming below Paris temperature goals). Honestly, I don’t even know how to start with doing such a thing, so if anyone has a template to share, I would appreciate it.
- Participating in protests and strikes can make a difference. Spread the word! Only 25% of the population is needed to support a norm change, we can all be a part of this.
Thanks to this book, I know how it will go if we don’t stop emitting CO2 as soon as possible and I am freaking out. But as Kimberly Nichols points out, we can fix it, by everyone doing their part. Which boils down to the three big things we all need to do: fly less, drive less, eat less meat. Of course you can do more. But if you’re not making an effort in these three specific ways, you’re kidding yourself.
Here are some, for lack of a better word, highlights:
- We are emitting a lot of CO2 these days (mostly due to burning fossil fuels), and much of it is staying in the atmosphere. Nature cleans up about half of our emissions, though not exactly for free. About a quarter is used by plants on land for photosynthesis (which is great), and about a quarter is absorbed by the ocean (which has pretty bad consequences of its own). And the remaining half? It stays in the atmosphere and contributes to what we all now know as global warming.
- Apparently, unless we take action, it’s going to get much much worse. Remember the oceans absorbing a quarter of the CO2? When they do, they also become more acidic, which will lead to the collapse of marine ecosystems. We’ll have food shortages because growing basic staple grains will become very difficult. Many areas will have to abandoned due to extreme heat (southern USA, Northern Australia, India, to name a few.) Rising sea levels will wipe island nations and coastal cities off the map. Basically, we will drive ourselves to extinction.
- Right now with the Paris Agreement we are targeting 2 degrees of warming. If we don’t change how we emit CO2 today, we are projected to have 3.5 degrees of warming. It’s also interesting to consider that the Ice Age was “only” 4 degrees colder than pre-industrial temperatures. So you can imagine how 3.5 degrees of warming can change what the world looks like.
- Some loss is inevitable. The Great Barrier Reef is dying (which actually protected the coastline from storms and erosion, and was a nursery for much of marine life), and at 2 degrees of warming, it will be completely dead.
- No, we can’t do stratospheric aerosol injection (i.e. shooting tiny mirrorlike particles into the atmosphere in hope that they will reflect sunbeams and prevent warming), because 1) we would have to do it continuously forever, 2) the carbon would still be building up in the atmosphere and acidifying the oceans, which means the oceans would certainly die, and 3) we would never see the stars again. The obvious solution is the only solution: stop emitting CO2.
- There is a 97.1 consensus among scientists that global warming exists and that humans are the primary cause of it. At this point, it is an established scientific fact. It’s our job to communicate it to the doubters to get them started on their climate journey.
- For decades, fossil fuel companies have been leading misinformation campaigns. They’ve been trying to sow false doubt about science, and it worked (still works! I have met so many doubters.) For example, Exxon was paying for ads in high profile media that “science is uncertain, it costs too much to transition off of fossil fuels, it would be rash, etc.” Oil companies spend 29% of their advertising budgets to promote themselves as “green”, while they only in fact invest 3% of their capital in clean energy.
- 72% of global climate pollution can be traced to household consumption. (It is also a fact that a small number of fossil fuel companies are responsible for 70% of emissions. Both are correct, the fossil fuel companies are responsible for the production, whereas households are responsible for the consumption. The households are burning the same fossil fuels the companies are digging up.) So we absolutely can make a difference by making lifestyle changes.
- If we want to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, we have the budget to emit 2.5 tons of CO2 per person per year by 2030. (By a quick Google search of my own, I found that a two-way flight from London to New York emits 1.7 tons of CO2. That’s already 68% of your carbon budget on a single round trip. Shucks.)
- The biggest actions you can do are going flight-free, car-free and meat-free (in that order). It’s okay if you can’t be perfect, but every effort counts. It’s important to keep in mind the 2.5 ton per person per year budget.
- It’s absolutely possible to convert car-centric cities into people-centric cities. Copenhagen’s transformation is one such example, as it was overrun by cars in the 1960s. They introduced policies that promoted biking (including building separated bike lanes) and they were wildly successful: in 2016, for the first time, more bikes than cars crossed the city. I’m looking at you, US.
- The biggest home energy use is to heat or cool things (heater, washer, dryer, AC). If possible, don’t use an AC or a clothes dryer, and try washing clothes with colder temperatures (trust in modern detergents!), etc.
- Livestock production is not sustainable at the scale we have it. Animal agriculture takes up 83% of farmland, produces 58% of agriculture’s CO2 emissions, 57% of its water pollution and uses a lot of water. Keeping animals is not inherently bad for the planet, in sustainable food systems, animals can turn waste (grass, leftovers) into resources (fertilizer, meat, leather, wool). The problem is that we have far too many of them. If we fed people with the food we grow for animals, we could feed an additional 4 billion people. Moreover, we are cutting down forests to replace it with farmland, including the Amazon, which is cut down to grow soy as animal feed.
- It’s also a good idea to be careful about whether you might be funding fossil fuel companies directly or indirectly with your money. What sort of bank does your money sit in, what ETFs are you investing in, etc.
- Voting for climate-enlightened politicians is very important, as they have the power to regulate problematic industries. Also apparently, it’s effective to write letters and e-mails to politicians (and demand for a plan for how they will stop warming below Paris temperature goals). Honestly, I don’t even know how to start with doing such a thing, so if anyone has a template to share, I would appreciate it.
- Participating in protests and strikes can make a difference. Spread the word! Only 25% of the population is needed to support a norm change, we can all be a part of this.
May 1, 2021
Until I read this book, I was what Nicholas would call a “climate doomer.” I thought that the corporate and governmental worlds had the most responsibility when it came to climate change and that they would never take action because it would eat into their profits. In many ways, I still agree with that. But this book has given me some hope that individual and community action can have an impact and that it can be the first step toward saving the planet. I’m more hopeful than I’ve been about it in a long time. Is that a false hope? We’ll find out soon.
Also, if you read this book, just know that the downer of a first third gets much better. It really does!
Also, if you read this book, just know that the downer of a first third gets much better. It really does!
August 10, 2021
A book for non-scientists! This is great for people (LIKE ME) who have a very basic understanding of the carbon cycle and why it's bad to burn any more fossil fuels at this point, and who struggle to sort out feelings of grief and resignation and still want to find their own role in this pivotal decade. I wrote on Booxify about the ideas in Under the Sky We Make. (This special link gets you around Medium's paywall.)
December 21, 2022
As someone who cares deeply about a lot of things but is also conflict avoidant and prone to getting lost in the sad feelings, I found this book to be the perfect balance of facts and clear messaging that we are in fact in a crisis, but also we have the power to fix it and we have to start doing it now. I appreciated the action items scattered throughout the book, especially the latter half, and I feel like this is approachable for so many people.
November 15, 2022
Though probably not the deepest and definitely not the most technical, this is an excellent book on climate change, by a climate scientist. She shares a lot of personal information along with lots of research results on: What's happening, what it will mean, how it may feel to face it all, what you can do personally, how to influence the bigger picture. Near the beginning, she presents a thesis: that the biggest change we need to make is from an exploitation mind-set to a regenerative mind-set: from What (materially) can I get out of this world while I'm here to How can I live in a way that restores resources rather than depletes them?--while filling my life with meaning.
Her last couple of chapters are inspiring, discussing how important--crucial, actually-- the current generation is to saving a reasonable way of life for humans and other species, thus how meaningful it is to join in that endeavor. I have found that to be playing out in my own life, even when frustrating forces keep our progress dangerously slow.
I request of all my friends and relatives to read the last two or three chapters. In case you don't want to read it all, she helpfully includes her own Cliff Notes, in a section at the end entitled TLDR (Too Long, Didn't Read), but you will miss her personal story and choices and her disarming voice (in my case, literally her voice , since I the audio version I borrowed from the library is read by Dr. Nicholas herself).
I recommend reading some of the community reviews on this site to learn more.
Her last couple of chapters are inspiring, discussing how important--crucial, actually-- the current generation is to saving a reasonable way of life for humans and other species, thus how meaningful it is to join in that endeavor. I have found that to be playing out in my own life, even when frustrating forces keep our progress dangerously slow.
I request of all my friends and relatives to read the last two or three chapters. In case you don't want to read it all, she helpfully includes her own Cliff Notes, in a section at the end entitled TLDR (Too Long, Didn't Read), but you will miss her personal story and choices and her disarming voice (in my case, literally her voice , since I the audio version I borrowed from the library is read by Dr. Nicholas herself).
I recommend reading some of the community reviews on this site to learn more.
January 7, 2022
(I skimmed the last third of this book, since it was overdue...) The first half dragged on, focusing on the emotional and psychological considerations around climate change. Ok, I get it.
I did strongly relate with the unsustainable concept of ever-growing GDP. I had this thought in third grade civics class! How are we going to continue growing when the world only has so many resources?
I wish that I had skimmed that beginning section, because the end was most interesting, in particular the thought processes around an individual's impact: what I can actually do, especially as an individual in a statistically high-consuming role (rich people, globally speaking). For example, flight emissions look small, but that's because only 11% of the world flies in a normal year. We eat up 8-months worth of our sustainable carbon emissions budget in a single trans-Atlantic flight. I've been reckoning with my individual cost of not flying (missed experiences), with the fact that it means stealing carbon from the future. This book didn't help me come to any conclusions about that piece, unfortunately.
I did strongly relate with the unsustainable concept of ever-growing GDP. I had this thought in third grade civics class! How are we going to continue growing when the world only has so many resources?
I wish that I had skimmed that beginning section, because the end was most interesting, in particular the thought processes around an individual's impact: what I can actually do, especially as an individual in a statistically high-consuming role (rich people, globally speaking). For example, flight emissions look small, but that's because only 11% of the world flies in a normal year. We eat up 8-months worth of our sustainable carbon emissions budget in a single trans-Atlantic flight. I've been reckoning with my individual cost of not flying (missed experiences), with the fact that it means stealing carbon from the future. This book didn't help me come to any conclusions about that piece, unfortunately.
November 30, 2021
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about climate change. The writing is very personal, and that helps a lot, as the author describes climate grief, and how she has come to her life decisions. I'm definitely more optimistic about agriculture than she is, because I'm always learning about improvements.
I think this would make a great audio book, for people who learn best that way.
I think this would make a great audio book, for people who learn best that way.
March 10, 2023
climate change is very emotional
March 28, 2023
I guess a great book is one that changes the way you think… if that’s true that’s a great book.
January 10, 2026
Sad ahh book
October 6, 2025
This is THE book to read about climate change and individual action. She covers the science behind the climate crisis, choices, hope/hopelessness, and so much more. Everyone needs to read this book (at least the TLDR section)
January 23, 2023
got a little lost in some of the tangents but overall I learned a lot, felt terrified, but then ended feeling hopeful
May 21, 2021
I found this book super-interesting, very clear and original! It starts with an overview of the climate crisis and its consequences, but from a fairly personal point of view. The book never gives in to fatalism and shows how we can fix the problem.
In particular, it makes the case for specific and meaningful actions individuals can take, in particular: go flight-, car- and meat-free.
The author is a sustainability scientist and has expert knowledge on the topic. However, she goes beyond that and discusses the feelings associated to the climate crisis, and how we can leverage them to act and prevent more global warming.
In particular, it makes the case for specific and meaningful actions individuals can take, in particular: go flight-, car- and meat-free.
The author is a sustainability scientist and has expert knowledge on the topic. However, she goes beyond that and discusses the feelings associated to the climate crisis, and how we can leverage them to act and prevent more global warming.
October 12, 2021
Add Under the Sky We Make to your collection of books to read, and to reference, about the science of climate change. You'll be delighted to know this book is not just another book concerning topics that seem out of reach, or written for scientists, environmentalists, or conservationists. Kimberly Nichloas writes for all humans as she explains what we can do to mitigate climate changes.
It seems Nicholas focuses on those who are making the biggest human impacts on our environment: those who jet-set around the world regularly, large agricultural farms, fossil fuel companies, high-income individuals. If you are on an island in the south Pacific, a lower-middle-class citizen in the Western World, or poverty stricken in a coal-burning society, you may feel powerless against Nicholas' suggestions to make better choices for the health of the planet. Nicholas brings to life the biggest factors that face the rising of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
As you read in between the chapters, you will find the solutions that work for everyone. It is the common idea that we all want a healthy planet to live on. She discusses the choices we make everyday that have lasting effects on the planet, and how we can choose better. There is still a great emphasis on those with more "power" in our society that with privilege there comes responsibility. While there were times when I felt I couldn't connect with the examples, I also saw the deep underlying mission: that we all have the power to make change, and we have the fight in us to change dirty habits to lessen the impacts of the climate crisis.
Nicholas writes with humor, using many familial examples, and if you are from the Bay Area you will feel right at home with her memories (she even throws in a few swear words).
It seems Nicholas focuses on those who are making the biggest human impacts on our environment: those who jet-set around the world regularly, large agricultural farms, fossil fuel companies, high-income individuals. If you are on an island in the south Pacific, a lower-middle-class citizen in the Western World, or poverty stricken in a coal-burning society, you may feel powerless against Nicholas' suggestions to make better choices for the health of the planet. Nicholas brings to life the biggest factors that face the rising of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
As you read in between the chapters, you will find the solutions that work for everyone. It is the common idea that we all want a healthy planet to live on. She discusses the choices we make everyday that have lasting effects on the planet, and how we can choose better. There is still a great emphasis on those with more "power" in our society that with privilege there comes responsibility. While there were times when I felt I couldn't connect with the examples, I also saw the deep underlying mission: that we all have the power to make change, and we have the fight in us to change dirty habits to lessen the impacts of the climate crisis.
Nicholas writes with humor, using many familial examples, and if you are from the Bay Area you will feel right at home with her memories (she even throws in a few swear words).
March 30, 2021
Just finished 'Under the Sky We Make' and thoroughly enjoyed this book. You could really hear the conversational tone of the author, unlike many climate books. This felt like two people having a conversation, Dr Nicholas and the reader listening.
Fantastic, powerful ideas about 'building a cathedral' legacy- making a difference that will live beyond you and impact on your ancestors- making them proud of you and your contributions, rather than criticising us. The next 10 years will be crucial and worth thinking about what the world will be like in 2050, 2060 and beyond.
Apart from the science, this book questions how we value a life 'I think one measure of a life well lived is one that maximises meaning and minimizes carbon.'
Dr Nicholas also focuses on the consumer inequality exists and challenges us to think 'Do I need this?' when shopping.
This book reminds me of the question: 'If your house was burning down, what would you take with you, that you could carry?' We surround ourselves with stuff because we can. In the end, the things we value come down to our connections to people, photos, memories.
We have connections to people on this planet who will be born after we die.
We are all under the same sky.
Thank you Dr NicholasUnder the Sky We Make: How to Be Human in a Warming World
Fantastic, powerful ideas about 'building a cathedral' legacy- making a difference that will live beyond you and impact on your ancestors- making them proud of you and your contributions, rather than criticising us. The next 10 years will be crucial and worth thinking about what the world will be like in 2050, 2060 and beyond.
Apart from the science, this book questions how we value a life 'I think one measure of a life well lived is one that maximises meaning and minimizes carbon.'
Dr Nicholas also focuses on the consumer inequality exists and challenges us to think 'Do I need this?' when shopping.
This book reminds me of the question: 'If your house was burning down, what would you take with you, that you could carry?' We surround ourselves with stuff because we can. In the end, the things we value come down to our connections to people, photos, memories.
We have connections to people on this planet who will be born after we die.
We are all under the same sky.
Thank you Dr NicholasUnder the Sky We Make: How to Be Human in a Warming World
March 24, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed this very readable book about a complex topic. Even though it is written by a climate scientist, the whole book proceeds through personal stories and experiences, which kept me scrolling through the pages. Even in some of the parts where I already knew the science, I enjoyed seeing it told through Nicholas's lens, anecdotes, and experiences.
The first half is intense, as it lays out the problems of carbon and climate change in depressing detail and tied to real places and people who are suffering or will suffer. But the second half is equally encouraging and motivating. One of the most striking facts for me was that if the richest top 10 percent of the global population reduced emissions to the level of the average European, we would reduce global emissions by one-third!
I found this book especially timely to read at the end of a year of altered living during a pandemic. I have just begun to think about how I want to live differently post-pandemic and this book affirms what will be my number one priority: much less air travel, both for quality of life and for quality of planet. I'm going to suggest it for my book club. I anticipate animated conversations.
The first half is intense, as it lays out the problems of carbon and climate change in depressing detail and tied to real places and people who are suffering or will suffer. But the second half is equally encouraging and motivating. One of the most striking facts for me was that if the richest top 10 percent of the global population reduced emissions to the level of the average European, we would reduce global emissions by one-third!
I found this book especially timely to read at the end of a year of altered living during a pandemic. I have just begun to think about how I want to live differently post-pandemic and this book affirms what will be my number one priority: much less air travel, both for quality of life and for quality of planet. I'm going to suggest it for my book club. I anticipate animated conversations.
February 7, 2024
I'm not basing this review on how accurate Dr. Nicholas's references are (although as a fellow scientist I'm pretty sure they're very good!). I loved the journey this book took me on. For some time, I had been searching for a book that would give me more than just facts on climate change and would let me feel human and vulnerable and that's exactly what her book did. I laughed at some of her stories and even cried applying some of it to my livelihood. Most important of all, it gave me (a VERY pessimistic person) hope and courage to do more and guidance on how to even start. Small steps do matter!! I recommend this book to anyone concerned with our climate and our planet that wants to feel like they're talking to a fellow human rather than a scientific journal!!
June 26, 2021
As a sustainability science student, this book was not able to teach me much, but it is exactly the sort of book I would recommend to my older relatives - In just above 200 pages, this book gets you to up to speed with current climate science, and most importantly, tells you what steps you can take to fight climate change, from individual lifestyle changes to pressuring those in power through various means.
July 23, 2022
It’s written for white middle-class westerners. It’s not promoting a climate justice approach. It’s promoting Nicholas’ Pollyanna solutions.
Joanna Macy’s work goes far deeper and is far more inclusive of climate justice.
Joanna Macy’s work goes far deeper and is far more inclusive of climate justice.
September 21, 2024
Läste till kursen: Climate Change - An Interdisciplinary Perspective
March 24, 2021
“I don’t want to have to look today’s young people in the eyes and tell them to their face that, even knowing the stakes and the urgency, we chose, both explicitly and through willful ignorance, to fail them.“
Jag har klimatångest. (Vem har inte det?)
Stänger jag av radion när världshaven kommer på tal? Ja!
Har jag slutat titta på naturdokumentärer? Jajamän!
Är jag rädd, frustrerad och uppgiven? Absolut!
Den här boken är till mig (och oss).
Redan i inledningen slår Nicholas fast att vi är den tysta majoriteten, och om bara vi lyckas mobilisera oss och agera är det vad som behövs för att stoppa den fullständigt förödande utveckling vi driver på jorden.
Det är ingen lätt läsning. Efter de två första kapitlen mår jag illa, gråter och måste ta en lång paus. Sen på det igen!
Med en varm, engagerad och auktoritär ton tar klimatforskaren Kimberly med oss på en känslomässig resa i tre delar:
1) It’s Warming. It’s Us.
2) We’re Sure. It’s Bad.
3) But. We Can Fix It.
Bokens syfte är inte att berätta om klimatförändringarna i framtiden – vi lever redan i dem. Boken är snarare en guidebok där klimatforskarnas roll beskrivs som "vägledare i sorg”; de håller oss i handen på resan. När jag lägger ifrån mig boken är jag sorgsen, förbannad men framförallt inspirerad.
“Gather your peeps; set goals with your purpose in mind; the challenge is 90 percent mental; bring your favorite snacks; wear comfortable shoes; don’t give up.“
Om du bara ska läsa en bok i år – läs denna!
December 19, 2023
I often show this quotation in my lectures and ask students to guess who said it, and when: "There is still time to save the world's peoples from the catastrophic consequences of pollution, but time is running out... Carbon dioxide is being added to the Earth's atmosphere by the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas at such a rate... to cause marked changes in climate."
The most common guess is Al Gore, in 2006. Barack Obama, in 2014, is also a popular contender.
The correct answer is the president of the American Petroleum Institute, at the organization's annual meeting. Heartbreakingly, agonizingly, terrifyingly: It was the annual meeting of 1965.
Sometimes climate books take me a really long time to get through if I own them, and thus don’t have a time limit imposed by the library. It’s not because I’m not interested, but because I start to get a little stressed out while reading which leads me to avoid picking it back up next time I want to read. This book was like that in how blunt it was about a lot of the facts. It does do a decent job of addressing how to handle those feelings, but I find that books like Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet do a better job. Under the Sky we Make is the semi memoir of a climate scientist who has been in the game likely much longer than you, with actionable steps included for you to take as an every day person. The TL;DR in the back is a nice addition if you want to pull some of the lessons without all the memoir bits, but I do think the memoir adds a lot of feeling and humanity to the difficult to face facts presented.
The most common guess is Al Gore, in 2006. Barack Obama, in 2014, is also a popular contender.
The correct answer is the president of the American Petroleum Institute, at the organization's annual meeting. Heartbreakingly, agonizingly, terrifyingly: It was the annual meeting of 1965.
Sometimes climate books take me a really long time to get through if I own them, and thus don’t have a time limit imposed by the library. It’s not because I’m not interested, but because I start to get a little stressed out while reading which leads me to avoid picking it back up next time I want to read. This book was like that in how blunt it was about a lot of the facts. It does do a decent job of addressing how to handle those feelings, but I find that books like Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet do a better job. Under the Sky we Make is the semi memoir of a climate scientist who has been in the game likely much longer than you, with actionable steps included for you to take as an every day person. The TL;DR in the back is a nice addition if you want to pull some of the lessons without all the memoir bits, but I do think the memoir adds a lot of feeling and humanity to the difficult to face facts presented.
October 27, 2025
I think this was an interesting book about climate change, how humans have caused climate change and how humans can move forward to limit to carbon put into the atmosphere. I think there is a time and place for climate action in everything that we do. My biggest gripe with the book however is much of the climate action is put solely on the hands of the individual, when as far as I am aware, it it large businesses and corporations. I agree that we should limit flying and driving and meat consumption, however all the examples of how to do those action items require someone to potentially spend more money. The author is American, but currently living in Europe. I feel it is almost unfair to for someone from Europe to say use public transportation when the public transportation in the US is such trash. If I wanted to take public transportation from my house to work, it would likely take me 4x the time it takes me to drive. The infrastructure is just not there in America. Do I wish it was, 1000%, but it isn’t. Same with flying, Europe has a pretty decent public transportation system between countries, therefore, you would be able to see large swathes of the world using a train. In the US, if I want to go to a different state, I would pretty much have to drive or fly. I just think a lot of the options provided are a lot more feasible for someone living in Europe than in the US and I wish more effort had been put into explaining ways US citizens could make an impact when some of the action items are crucial to American lives.
February 12, 2022
I really appreciated this book. There were times when it was a little too informal, when I felt like the author was trying a little too hard to be hip and not come across as a nerdy scientist. I'm here for the nerdy scientist, and I don't think she needed to simplify the information *quite* so much. That being said, however, this was a really good synthesis of A LOT of information, and for the most part, her more personal, less clinical approach was really helpful. This is such a difficult topic, climate change, and it can feel so overwhelming and complicated and hopeless. Nicholas does a good job of walking the reader through how she processed the information and how she faces the implications of her work every day. Ultimately, it required a shift in how she lived, a deep reflection on the choices and values she was going to hold on to and those she needed to release. While she sticks tight to the basic recommendations on how an individual can make an impact (less flying, driving, and meat), she makes space for the unique and extremely personal decisions we all have to make for ourselves as we process climate change. This is a great introductory read for those looking to jump start more exploration into this topic, and for those looking for some practical information to share with others.
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