These stories from Sierra Magazine invite us to see a world in crisis—and our role in it—differently. In a time when division and polarization define our culture and politics, and climate shocks continue to upend lives, how can we chart a path towards a more compassionate, more sustainable future? These four books, collectively, offer an invitation to start walking that path.

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Harris has written many spellbinding books including Conclave that hit the silver screen in 2024, before the passing of Pope Frances. However, his fictional 3 volume biography of Cicero, a prominent orator, politician, and family man, makes for scary reading about the tumultuous last years of the Roman republic. Harris has plumbed the writings of his slave and companion Marcus Tullius Tiro, freed late in Cicero’s life, to paint a vivid tapestry of life and mores in Rome. The story concludes with Julius Caesar’s emasculation of the senate as he becomes Rome’s dictator.

by Ed Maurer

Here comes the Sun is Bill McKibben’s well-timed effort to get us off our duffs and get real about climate change. Global warming is accelerating just when the switch to renewable energy is accelerating, too! For a quick look at his arguments, read his short article in the spring edition of Sierra Magazine and a longer conversation (26 min) on YouTube. McKibben’s starting point is that “in the early 2020s we crossed a visible line when the cost of producing energy from the sun dropped below the cost of fossil fuel.” He almost lyrically writes that “we’re at the moment where we could and should break the habit of burning things. We need to stop the fires in our power plants and factories, beneath the hoods of our cars, in our garages and kitchens, replacing those blazes with the fire of the sun.” 

The book is a primer on the technology that exists to switch to renewable energy that is far less costly than fossil fuels, and it cites examples of successful applications, especially in the global south, where people enthusiastically use solar panels. McKibben also shows how the fossil fuel industry and its shills have been fighting clean energy to protect the profits they derive from their dirty mines and oil fields.

This is a must-read paperback (amazon.com), and what McKibben wants, and what the Sierra Club wants is for members to switch to green now. I’ve put together a simple quiz to help you see whether you need to get off your duff.

These questions may make some members uncomfortable, and that is exactly the point: if humanity wants to switch from costly fossil fuel to free renewable and unlimited solar fuel, it’ll take each one of us to make the switch, even by small step by small step. Leaving this shift to our governments large and small is not enough! Everybody needs to pitch in as time is short. Read Bill McKibben’s book and “see the light” of the sun.