We are working on our digital lexicon, coming soon. Our mission is to promote climate literacy. Did you know increased climate literacy correlates directly with increased climate action?
Words are fundamental carriers of meaning in language. We are curating an extensive lexicon of key words, written by experts on the frontlines. Definitions are supported by factual context, books, bibliographies, photography, stories, interviews and further reading. We are creating an accessible database for effective climate communication.
Help us turn this project into a reality! Become a patron, sponsor, partner or donor.
Visit our archive and social media. Email hello@climatewords.org for more information. Stay tuned.
Climate Books
We gather climate books in all genres from a diverse and intersectional breadth of authors.
Our collection of over 750 books lives in Goodreads until we have redesigned our online database of climate words, books and stories. Check out our books at
︎ Goodreads.com/ClimateWords
Are you looking for a book about a particular topic? Our books are categorized by subject in bookshelves, like they would be in your local intependent bookstore.
︎ Bookshelves Guide
Is there a book you would like to read, which you are wondering how to access? Since we do not have the rights to the books, we cannot share their full content with you via our platform. However, we do know some places you can visit.
︎ Accessibility Guide
Author Interview Series
Authors on Climate Words is an conversation series focused on introductory climate literacy and word choice.
In our first year, we aim to focus on introductory books to a variety of topics, aiming to cut down on confusion and make new topics accessible to all. Words are foundational carriers of meaning in language and a base unit for communication. Thinking about words as keys, combined in the right way, they help people open new doors in the imagination. The series unravels key word choices in climate books.
It's Not Just You: Mental Health and the Climate Crisis with Tori Tsui
S1 Episode 1
16 June, 2023
Do you feel like your mental health is connected to the environmental health of your community and the planet? As Tori Tsui explains in her new book, It’s Not Just You - Navigating Eco-Anxiety and the Climate Crisis, the two are inseparable. We ARE nature and are impacted by the violence and destruction of colonial extractivism on our lands and communities.
The climate and mental health crises due in part to this separation from the planet and each other. How do we begin to come together again? Tori proposes reframing our perspective to focus on environ(mental) health, a word that embodies a more connected and embedded sense of mental, physical, and planetary health.
Through a variety of interviews with frontline activists and climate campaigners, Tori tackles the nuances of climate anxiety and mental health, with an emphasis on climate justice and indigenous worldviews. Along the way she explores a variety of different words to describe our climate emotions and their causes, including: solastalgia, environ(mental) health, climate grief, climate rage, grammar of animacy, community, and activism.
The climate and mental health crises due in part to this separation from the planet and each other. How do we begin to come together again? Tori proposes reframing our perspective to focus on environ(mental) health, a word that embodies a more connected and embedded sense of mental, physical, and planetary health.
Through a variety of interviews with frontline activists and climate campaigners, Tori tackles the nuances of climate anxiety and mental health, with an emphasis on climate justice and indigenous worldviews. Along the way she explores a variety of different words to describe our climate emotions and their causes, including: solastalgia, environ(mental) health, climate grief, climate rage, grammar of animacy, community, and activism.
Returning the Self to Nature with Jeanine M. Canty
S1 Episode 2
22 June, 2023
Jeanine M. Canty’s work takes the psychological understanding of a clinical narcissist and expands it to explain our civilization’s collective narcissism: a societal condition focused on individual labor, consumption, performance, and self-help.
Canty argues that our collective anxiety is rooted in a pervasive, societal narcissism, fostered by the Western capitalist notion of survival through individualist consumption. Instead, she presents a rather simple solution—reconnection, remembering that we are a part of the natural world.
In our interview, Canty explains the idea of collective narcissism and different conceptualizations of the self, particularly the ecological, multicultural, and transpersonal selves, which are key to healing our embedded narcissism.
Throughout the conversation, she provides advice, tools, and new ideas for releasing ourselves from our embedded narcissism. Here’s what she had to say about being open to new experiences and perspectives:
“One of the areas that I teach in is transformative learning and it really looks at how adults shift their worldviews. One of the keys to that is having a disorienting dilemma. I love that word, by the way. It's when you have some experience that just rocks your worldview. So you can either repackage the experience to make it fit your current worldview, or you can choose to lean into and see how maybe some of the ways we have been making meaning are really working and some of our assumptions may be faulty.”
Canty argues that our collective anxiety is rooted in a pervasive, societal narcissism, fostered by the Western capitalist notion of survival through individualist consumption. Instead, she presents a rather simple solution—reconnection, remembering that we are a part of the natural world.
In our interview, Canty explains the idea of collective narcissism and different conceptualizations of the self, particularly the ecological, multicultural, and transpersonal selves, which are key to healing our embedded narcissism.
Throughout the conversation, she provides advice, tools, and new ideas for releasing ourselves from our embedded narcissism. Here’s what she had to say about being open to new experiences and perspectives:
“One of the areas that I teach in is transformative learning and it really looks at how adults shift their worldviews. One of the keys to that is having a disorienting dilemma. I love that word, by the way. It's when you have some experience that just rocks your worldview. So you can either repackage the experience to make it fit your current worldview, or you can choose to lean into and see how maybe some of the ways we have been making meaning are really working and some of our assumptions may be faulty.”
Climate Words
287 Park Avenue South, Suite 700
New York, NY 10010
United States
hello@climatewords.org
+1 (332) 900-7880
Climate Words is fiscally sponsored by Ecologistics, Inc. (EIN 27-2116150), a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.
© 2023, Climate Words, Inc. All rights reserved.
287 Park Avenue South, Suite 700
New York, NY 10010
United States
hello@climatewords.org
+1 (332) 900-7880
Climate Words is fiscally sponsored by Ecologistics, Inc. (EIN 27-2116150), a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.
© 2023, Climate Words, Inc. All rights reserved.
