I am pleased to announce that three of my recent books are now available through IngramSpark’s global distribution network, making them accessible to bookstores, libraries, universities, educators, and readers worldwide.
While each book addresses a different audience and aspect of environmental change, together they form a larger conversation about one of the defining questions of our time:
How do we create a future that is not only sustainable, but fair?
This question has guided much of my life’s work as an environmental justice advocate, attorney, urban planner, social worker, educator, researcher, and author. Over several decades, I have had the privilege of teaching and conducting research in the United States and internationally, including appointments at Hunter College, the University of Oregon, the University of Virginia, Cambridge University, universities in New Zealand, and the historically Black institution Jackson State University.
The lessons that shaped these books, however, did not come primarily from universities. They came from communities.
They came from workers exposed to environmental hazards before anyone else recognized the danger. They came from parents concerned about the health of their children. They came from students trying to understand a rapidly changing world. They came from neighborhood leaders, environmental justice advocates, Indigenous communities, and ordinary people confronting extraordinary challenges.
These books are an attempt to honor those experiences and bring them into the broader public conversation.
Climate Change in the Classroom
Climate change is no longer a future problem. Today’s students are already living through it.
Climate Change in the Classroom was written for teachers, parents, students, and community leaders seeking practical ways to prepare young people for a changing world. The book emphasizes climate literacy, critical thinking, community engagement, and hope.
Rather than focusing solely on environmental problems, it explores how education can help young people become informed citizens, problem-solvers, and leaders capable of shaping a more resilient future.
The next generation will inherit challenges unlike any previous generation. They deserve the knowledge and tools necessary to meet them.
The Climate Adaptation Generation: A Blueprint for the Future
For many years, climate discussions focused primarily on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While mitigation remains essential, communities around the world are increasingly confronting a second challenge: adaptation.
How do we prepare for rising seas, extreme heat, flooding, drought, wildfire, infrastructure disruption, and other climate impacts that are already occurring?
The Climate Adaptation Generation argues that adaptation is more than an engineering challenge. It is a social challenge, an economic challenge, a public health challenge, and ultimately a human challenge.
The book explores how individuals, families, communities, institutions, and governments can prepare for climate change while creating opportunities for resilience, inclusion, and flourishing.
I was deeply honored when the book received a Nautilus Book Award, recognition given to works that contribute to social and environmental understanding, human development, and positive change. The award reinforced my belief that adaptation can become more than a strategy for survival. It can become a pathway toward stronger and more connected communities.
The Green Elite and the New Climate Divide: Who Gets to Adapt?
Climate change affects everyone. Adaptation does not.
As I continued researching climate adaptation, I became increasingly concerned by a troubling pattern. The people facing the greatest climate risks often possess the fewest resources to protect themselves, while those with wealth, political influence, and institutional access are frequently positioned to receive the greatest protections.
The Green Elite and the New Climate Divide: Who Gets to Adapt? examines this emerging climate divide.
Drawing upon law, sociology, planning, environmental justice, history, and public policy, the book explores how adaptation investments can unintentionally reinforce existing inequalities when they prioritize property values, political influence, and economic power over vulnerability and need.
The book received a favorable review from Kirkus Reviews, which described it as:
“A well-argued analysis of climate adaptation in contemporary America.”
That recognition was particularly meaningful because it affirmed the importance of asking difficult questions about fairness, democracy, and justice as communities prepare for a changing climate.
Who receives protection? Who receives investment? Who is heard? Who is left behind?
These questions will increasingly define the future of climate policy.
A Continuing Journey
Looking back, I am struck by how much of my professional life has revolved around listening.
Listening to residents living beside industrial facilities.
Listening to students encountering environmental issues for the first time.
Listening to workers whose experiences revealed risks long before official reports acknowledged them.
Listening to communities that possessed knowledge and wisdom often overlooked by experts and institutions.
Those experiences taught me that environmental challenges are rarely only environmental. They are also questions of justice, opportunity, health, democracy, community, and human dignity.
That understanding connects all three books.
One examines how we educate future generations.
One explores how communities adapt and flourish.
One asks whether adaptation itself is becoming a privilege.
Together, they reflect a simple belief: the future should belong to everyone.
Thank you to the many students, colleagues, readers, community leaders, advocates, friends, and family members who have supported this work over the years. I am grateful for your encouragement and partnership.
As these books begin their wider journey through bookstores and libraries around the world, I hope they contribute to a broader conversation about resilience, justice, and the kind of future we wish to create together.
Robert W. Collin, JD, LL.M., MSSW, MSUP
Author, Educator, Environmental Justice Advocate