100 Best Environmentalism Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Elizabeth Kolbert

5.0

Over the last half-billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us.

In prose that is at once fran

Recommended by Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and 6 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

The president also released a list of his summer favorites back in 2015: All That Is, James Salter The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert. Climate change is a big problem—one of the biggest we’ll face this century—but it’s not the only environmental concern on the horizon. Humans are putting down massive amounts of pavement, moving species around the planet, over-fishing and acidifying the oceans, changing the chemical composition of rivers, and more. Natural scientists posit that there have been five extinction events in the Earth’s history (think of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs), and Kolbert makes a compelling case that human activity is leading to the sixth. Unlike a lot of people who write about the environment, Kolbert doesn’t resort to hype. She just lays out the facts and wraps them in memorable anecdotes. It’s a sobering but engaging and informative read. [source]

Jeff Bezos

Founder/Amazon

"In his autobiography, Walmart's founder expounds on the principles of discount retailing and discusses his core values of frugality and a bias for action — a willingness to try a lot of things and make many mistakes. Bezos included both in Amazon's corporate values," Brad Stone writes. [source]

2

Silent Spring

Rachel Carson

5.0

Preview Summary

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was first published in three serialized excerpts in the New Yorker in June of 1962. The book appeared in September of that year and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully througho

Recommended by John Kerry.

John Kerry

I’d start with Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, which looked at how pesticide use was harming, and in some cases killing, animals and humans, and really was the first book of its kind to illustrate this environmental destruction. I’ve been so involved in the environment for years and years and that has been a great guideline – it was really the awakening, if you will, to the environmental movement and to the progress we’ve made over the last quarter century or more. [source]

3

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Michael Pollan

5.0

Preview Summary

What should we have for dinner? For omnivore's like ourselves, this simple question has always posed a dilemma: When you can eat just about anything nature (or the supermarket) has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the foods on offer might shorten your life. Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, America is suffering from what can

Recommended by Barry Estabrook, Gabriel Coarna, Paul Rozin, and 1 others.

Barry Estabrook

Michael Pollan looks at food production through four meals. One is a fast-food meal, the other is an industrial-scale organic meal, then there is a small-scale organic meal and finally he actually goes out and either grows or kills, in the case of the meat, the entire meal himself. That is the narrative. [source]

Gabriel Coarna

Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" --more precisely, the first 3rd of it-- was what first made me realize how badly the Earth, as an ecosystem, is out of balance. [source]

Paul Rozin

Michael Pollan is an excellent journalist who specializes in the food domain.He proposes relying more on whole foods and less on processed foods, like Oreo Cookies. He argues that unprocessed foods are more nutritious, more wholistic and better for the environment. [source]

4

Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)

Frank Herbert

4.8

A deluxe hardcover edition of the best-selling science-fiction book of all time—part of Penguin Galaxy, a collectible series of six sci-fi/fantasy classics, featuring a series introduction by Neil Gaiman.

Science fiction’s supreme masterpiece, "Dune" will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, it is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who will become t

Recommended by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Adam Savage, and 15 others.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

Brilliant. The author advocates placing limits on machine intelligence. [source]

Jeff Bezos

Founder/Amazon

I’m a big science-fiction fan. I love this book. [source]

Adam Savage

If you haven't read it, just go read it. It is amazing! [source]

5

A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There

Aldo Leopold

4.8

First published in 1949, A Sand County Almanac combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land.

Written with an unparalleled understanding of the ways of nature, the book includes a section on the monthly changes of the Wisconsin countryside; another part that gathers informal pieces written by Leopold over

Recommended by Isabella Tree, Mark Boyle, and Mike Phillips.

Isabella Tree

Leopold wrote that one of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. To me, that rings painfully true. [source]

Mark Boyle

I love many books, but I am in love with A Sand County Almanac. [source]

Mike Phillips

It speaks to the need for us to recognize we’re just as much a part of this planet as the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us. [source]

6

The Lorax

Dr. Seuss

4.7

"UNLESS someone like you...cares a whole awful lot...nothing is going to get better...It's not." Long before saving the earth became a global concern, Dr. Seuss, speaking through his character the Lorax, warned against mindless progress and the danger it posed to the earth's natural beauty. His classic cautionary tale is now available in an irresistible mini-edition, perfect for backpack or briefc

Recommended by Gary Bury, Georgina Stevens, and Neal Layton.

Gary Bury

Truthfully, I have 3 young kids so don’t get much time to read other than to my kids at bedtime. So you’ll understand when I say my favourite books are Children's books by Dr Seuss, they’re a joy to read and cover a range of social and political issues with an elegance and simplicity that exceeds many adult books. The anti materialism/ consumerism ‘Grinch Who Stole Christmas’ and ‘The Lorax’ about environmentalism are favourites in our house. [source]

Georgina Stevens

The best verse in town, wonderful illustrations and an honest look at what we are doing to our world – with a message that each and every one of us can make the decision to change at any moment. [source]

Neal Layton

It is a very funny story, written in rhyme, with wonderful, crazy Seuss illustrations – and a big environmental message for young readers. [source]

7

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Jared Diamond

4.7

In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-Prize winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization

Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of societies around the world, but some

Recommended by Bill Gates, Daniel Headrick, David Pilling, and 3 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

I found this to be an interesting follow-up to the excellent Guns, Germs, and Steel. It examines the downfall of some of history's greatest civilizations. [source]

Daniel Headrick

I found Jared Diamond’s book Collapse more valuable in influencing my own thinking, because it shows the importance of culture in determining how humans deal with environmental threats. …….The author investigates the successes and failures of a number of civilisations which had reached a crisis point, and looks at why some succeeded and others hadn’t. [source]

David Pilling

This is a warning that societies can do this. We, as a human society, could do this if we’re not careful. If we stretch the earth beyond its planetary limits, we could ruin the soil, we could ruin the ocean, we could ruin the air, and we could drain the ocean of fish. He sees evidence all around that we’re doing precisely that. He sees a limit to technology to solve our problems. [source]

8

Desert Solitaire

Edward Abbey

4.7

First published in 1968, Desert Solitaire is one of Edward Abbey’s most critically acclaimed works and marks his first foray into the world of nonfiction writing. Written while Abbey was working as a ranger at Arches National Park outside of Moab, Utah, Desert Solitaire is a rare view of one man’s quest to experience nature in its purest form.

Through prose that is by turns passionate and poetic, A

Recommended by Hari Kunzru and Robert Macfarlane.

Hari Kunzru

He has a deep love for this place and he’s amusing to read because he’s such a strong personality. His writing is extraordinary. [source]

Robert Macfarlane

Abbey is full of passion, fury and contempt – a fiery fighter to shake up the sometimes over-tranquil atmosphere of nature writing. [source]

9

Eating Animals

Jonathan Safran Foer

4.7

Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his life oscillating between enthusiastic carnivore and occasional vegetarian. Once he started a family, the moral dimensions of food became increasingly important.
Faced with the prospect of being unable to explain why we eat some animals and not others, Foer set out to explore the origins of many eating traditions and the fictions involved with creating them. Tr

Recommended by Louise Gray.

Louise Gray

It’s a really powerful book and I know many people who it has made vegetarian. [source]

10

Where the Crawdads Sing

Delia Owens

4.6

Preview Summary

A novel about a young woman determined to make her way in the wilds of North Carolina, and the two men that will break her isolation open.

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark.

But

Recommended by Reese Witherspoon and Kris Crocker.

Reese Witherspoon

Actress, Author, Founder/Hello Sunshine

Great article about the success of Where the Crawdads Sing. Did you read the book? @ReesesBookClub 🤗 https://t.co/w1ZgQLRzsx [source]

Kris Crocker

@spokanelibrary I love this book!! [source]

11

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

Naomi Klein

4.6

Forget everything you think you know about global warming. It's not about carbon – it's about capitalism. The good news is that we can seize this crisis to transform our failed economic system and build something radically better.

In her most provocative book yet, Naomi Klein, author of the global bestsellers The Shock Doctrine and No Logo, exposes the myths that are clouding climate debate.

You ha

12

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Jared Diamond

4.6

Preview Summary

Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ide

Recommended by Bill Gates, Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger, and 12 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history. [source]

Daniel Ek

A brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning book about how the modern world was formed, analyzing how societies developed differently on different continents. [source]

Simon Sinek

Author

I’m a fan of books that challenge our assumptions, and Diamond offers us a new and remarkably simple way of looking at our world. Learning to challenge existing assumptions is core to effective leadership for it trains us to keep an open mind. [source]

13

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

Michael Pollan

4.6

Preview Summary

Michael Pollan's last book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, launched a national conversation about the American way of eating; now In Defense of Food shows us how to change it, one meal at a time. Pollan proposes a new answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us ho

Recommended by Richard Branson and Henry Dimbleby.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Henry Dimbleby

Pollan takes the science of food and shows where it’s been misapplied. [source]

14

The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming

David Wallace-Wells

4.5

It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible. In California, wildfires now rage year-round, destroying thousands of homes. Across the US, "500-year" storms pummel communities month after month, and floods displace tens of millions annually.

This is only a prev

Recommended by Elizabeth Kolbert, Gerald Butts, Jonathan Safran Foer, and 1 others.

Elizabeth Kolbert

Author

David Wallace-Wells argues that the impacts of climate change will be much graver than most people realize, and he's right. The Uninhabitable Earth is a timely and provocative work. [source]

Gerald Butts

This is a terrific book. Not as depressing as it may sound, even oddly hopeful in the end. Great read if you suddenly have time on your hands. https://t.co/2Bo5DeT3Aa [source]

Jonathan Safran Foer

Most of us know the gist, if not the details, of the climate change crisis. And yet it is almost impossible to sustain strong feelings about it. David Wallace-Wells has now provided the details, and with writing that is not only clear and forceful, but often imaginative and even funny, he has found a way to make the information deeply felt. [source]

15

The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World

Andrea Wulf

4.5

The acclaimed author of Founding Gardeners reveals the forgotten life of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world—and in the process created modern environmentalism.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769 – 1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. In North America, his name still graces four counties, thirtee

16

The Overstory

Richard Powers

4.5

The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of - and paean to - the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There

Recommended by Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Kearney, and Sarah Dry.

Kwame Anthony Appiah

Feels at the beginning like a series of short stories, each of which has some important thing about a tree or a kind of tree in it, but also holds some human character. You’d be a very strange person if you came away from this book not caring about what’s happening to the trees. [source]

Martha Kearney

@omrgriffiths @BBCPM @RobGMacfarlane Great idea. Loved that book. [source]

Sarah Dry

I had the experience of having the revelation that the author clearly hoped a reader would have, which is that what appears to be a book about distinct individuals—almost a book of short stories— turns out to be something more complex, in which all the characters are linked through time and space. [source]

17

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

William McDonough

4.5

"Reduce, reuse, recycle," urge environmentalists; in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. But as architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart point out in this provocative, visionary book, such an approach only perpetuates the one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model, dating to the Industrial Revolution, that creates such fantastic amounts of waste and pol

Recommended by Joe Gebbia, Jerry McNerney, and Kate Raworth.

Joe Gebbia

Co-founder/Airbnb

Was hugely influential. [source]

Kate Raworth

Helped me to reimagine how industry could be designed to work with, rather than against, the cycles of the living world. [source]

18

The Monkey Wrench Gang (Monkey Wrench Gang, #1)

Edward Abbey

4.5

Ed Abbey called The Monkey Wrench Gang, his 1975 novel, a "comic extravaganza." Some readers have remarked that the book is more a comic book than a real novel, and it's true that reading this incendiary call to protect the American wilderness requires more than a little of the old willing suspension of disbelief.

The story centers on Vietnam veteran George Washington Hayduke III, who returns to th

Recommended by Mark Boyle.

Mark Boyle

The book itself is hilarious, and brilliant in its own right. It’s importance, however, in part stems from the wider impact it had in the years following its publication. It’s widely understood that the book gave rise to radical environmental groups across the world from the 1980s onwards. [source]

19

Walden

Henry David Thoreau

4.5

Preview Summary

At Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau reflected on simpler living in the natural world. By removing himself from the distractions of materialism, Thoreau hoped to not only improve his spiritual life but also gain a better understanding of society through solitary introspection.

In Walden, Thoreau condenses his two-year, two-month, two-day stay into a single year, using the four seasons to symbolize h

Recommended by Emma Watson, Donna Dickenson, Emily Thomas, and 5 others.

Donna Dickenson

He discusses how the original ideals that America was founded on were being compromised, and how massive industrial interests were starting to dominate. [source]

Emily Thomas

The beginning is hard going. Once you get past that, then suddenly you’re into these beautiful and inspiring descriptions of nature. [source]

Joan Boixados

In case you were deceived and expected me to name Walden by Henry David Thoreau, you should read it too if you haven’t, it obviously is the inspiration to Walden Two. :) [source]

20

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

Bill Bryson

4.5

The Appalachian Trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America—majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaining guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhar

21

Thinking in Systems: A Primer

Donella H. Meadows

4.4

Preview Summary

Meadows’ Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute’s Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leader

Recommended by Tobi Lütke, Kate Raworth, and Mira Kirshenbaum.

Tobi Lütke

Founder & CEO/Shopify

Tobi Lütke recommended this book on the podcast "The Knowledge Project". [source]

Kate Raworth

It was a real revelation for me to discover such a different approach to thinking and analysing challenges. [source]

Mira Kirshenbaum

A nice overview of how initial conditions lead to patterns that determine what the relationship feels like to the people in it [source]

22

The World Without Us

Alan Weisman

4.4

Preview Summary

A penetrating, page-turning tour of a post-human Earth

In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us. In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; which everyday items may become immorta

Recommended by Richard Branson.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

23

Ishmael

Daniel Quinn, Anthony Heald, et al

4.4

An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

The narrator of this extraordinary tale is a man in search for truth. He answers an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking for serious pupils, only to find himself alone in an abandoned office with a full-grown gorilla who is nibbling delicately on a slender branch. "You are the teacher?" he asks incredulously. "I am the teacher," the gorilla replies. Ish

24

Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

Arlie Russell Hochschild

4.4

Preview Summary

In Strangers in Their Own Land, the renowned sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild embarks on a thought-provoking journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou country – a stronghold of the conservative right. As she gets to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she famously champions, Russell Hochschild nevertheless finds common ground and quickly

Recommended by Clara Jeffery, Kate Marvel, and Tony Schwartz.

Clara Jeffery

@jwpetersNYT Anywho, Arlie spent 5 years embedded in Tea Party culture. Her book was an NYT best-seller and a National Book Award finalist. And she was hardly the only one that did deep reporting on the Tea Party before and after the 2016 election. [source]

Kate Marvel

Hochschild argues that all social groups have a ‘deep story’: a narrative that makes the complicated world make sense. [source]

Tony Schwartz

Arlie Hochschild is a brilliant writer and a sociologist of great empathy and insight. Although the book was written before Trump was elected president, it goes a long way toward explaining him, and more specifically toward explaining why people embraced him. [source]

25

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

Barbara Kingsolver

4.4

Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family abandoned the industrial-food pipeline to live a rural life—vowing that, for one year, they'd only buy food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is an enthralling narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You

26

Last Chance to See

Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine

4.4

"Very funny and moving...The glimpses of rare fauna seem to have enlarged [Adams'] thinking, enlivened his world; and so might the animals do for us all, if we were to help them live."
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
Join bestselling author Douglas Adams and zooligist Mark Carwardine as they take off around the world in search of exotic, endangered creatures. Hilarious and poignant--as only Douglas A

Recommended by Beth Shapiro, Gaia Vince, and Mark Lynas.

Beth Shapiro

He describes in this book not only the beauty of these animals, but the human landscape they live in and what a disastrous time he has getting to these locations. [source]

Gaia Vince

This is a book obviously for readers but it’s also a book for writers of science to understand how to capture the imagination of readers. [source]

Mark Lynas

For me, Last Chance to See is a real eye-opener, with the idea that you can take a depressing subject – species on the verge of extinction – and present it in a way which is so engaging, so funny and so humane. [source]

27

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

Eric Schlosser

4.4

Preview Summary

Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but here Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning.

Schlosser's myth-shattering survey stretches from California's subdivisio

Recommended by Richard Branson, Antonio Eram, Barry Estabrook, and 1 others.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Antonio Eram

This book was recommended by Antonio when asked for titles he would recommend to young people interested in his career path. [source]

Barry Estabrook

Eric Schlosser takes apart a single fast-food meal and shows not only how it affects our health but also how the people who serve it to you are treated. He also looks at how the people in the slaughterhouses working with the cattle are treated, and so it shows you the true picture of the all-American meal – burgers and fries. [source]

Cover unavailable

28

Hoot

Carl Hiaasen

4.3

Unfortunately, Roy's first acquaintance in Florida is Dana Matherson, a well-known bully. Then again, if Dana hadn't been sinking his thumbs into Roy's temples and mashing his face against the school-bus window, Roy might never have spotted the running boy. And the running boy is intriguing: he was running away from the school bus, carried no books, and-here's the odd part-wore no shoes. Sensing a

29

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World

Peter Wohlleben

4.3

Preview Summary

In The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the amazing scientific processes behind the wonders of which we are blissfully unaware. Much like human families, tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, and support them as they

Recommended by Emma Watson.

30

Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life

George Monbiot

4.3

To be an environmentalist early in the twenty-first century is always to be defending, arguing, acknowledging the hurdles we face in our efforts to protect wild places and fight climate change. But let’s be honest: hedging has never inspired anyone.

So what if we stopped hedging? What if we grounded our efforts to solve environmental problems in hope instead, and let nature make our case for us? T

Recommended by Amy Liptrot and Isabella Tree.

Amy Liptrot

This is a bold and radical book, which changed the way I look at the countryside. [source]

Isabella Tree

Monbiot pushed the boundaries of what rewilding should mean. [source]

31

Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming

Erik M Conway

4.3

Preview Summary

The U.S. scientific community has long led the world in research on such areas as public health, environmental science, and issues affecting quality of life. Our scientists have produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming. But at the same time, a small yet potent subset of this community leads the world in vehement denial of these dangers.

Merchants

Recommended by Elon Musk.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

I recommend people read a book called Merchants of Doubt. All they need to do is create doubt. [source]

32

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Robin Wall Kimmerer

4.3

Preview Summary

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celeb

Recommended by Oliver Sacks Fdn. and Sarah Taber.

Oliver Sacks Fdn.

As a writer, Oliver Sacks found gardens essential to the creative process. Check out our year-end newsletter, devoted to some beautiful books by botanist-writers that would make great gifts for all your plant-loving friends. https://t.co/2U8iEv4L1x https://t.co/IK1cgIMJhE [source]

Sarah Taber

Yeah that's because most of those books are actually just sanctimonious classists pretending they're trying to fix problems. That's why they're depressing If you want a book that's actually about moving forward, "Braiding Sweetgrass" is FANTASTIC. https://t.co/Drr1tmwhSs [source]

33

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Bill Bryson

4.3

Preview Summary

In Bryson's biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the

Recommended by Amanda Palmer, David Goldberg, and Fabrice Grinda.

Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer recommended this book in the book "Tools of Titans". [source]

David Goldberg

What I really liked about A Short History of Nearly Everything is that it gives an excellent account of a lot of the personalities and the interconnectedness of important discoveries in cosmology and elsewhere. He does such a great job of bringing together our understanding of cosmology, evolution, paleontology, and geology in a very, very fluid way. [source]

Fabrice Grinda

I have lots of books to recommend, but they are not related to my career path. The only one that is remotely related is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That said here are books I would recommend. [source]

34

Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman--Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual

Yvon Chouinard

4.3

Preview Summary

In his long-awaited memoir, Yvon Chouinard-legendary climber, businessman, environmentalist, and founder of Patagonia, Inc.-shares the persistence and courage that have gone into being head of one of the most respected and environmentally responsible companies on earth. From his youth as the son of a French Canadian blacksmith to the thrilling, ambitious climbing expeditions that inspired his inno

Recommended by Alastair Humphreys, Amir Salihefendic, Andrew Youderian, and 5 others.

Alastair Humphreys

@SecondS37175185 A fantastic book. [source]

Andrew Youderian

Question: What five books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path & why? Answer: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Getting the right things done) Entreleadership (Great primer on management) Let My People Go Surfing (How to build a business on your terms, that embraces your values) Essentialism (The Importance of focus) Work the System (A primer on building systems in your business) [source]

Holger Seim

When it comes to biographies I particularly like Let My People Go Surfing. [source]

35

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America

Thomas L. Friedman

4.3

In this brilliant, essential book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas L. Friedman speaks to America's urgent need for national renewal and explains how a green revolution can bring about both a sustainable environment and a sustainable America.

Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the expansion of the world’s middle class through globalization have produced a da

Recommended by Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Jonathon Porritt.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

He may have the country’s finest experts at his fingertips, but it still doesn’t hurt to read up on environmental and economic issues. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011. [source]

Jonathon Porritt

Thomas Friedman is an American commentator and a bit of a business guru. This book is lively, beautifully written, full of personal anecdotes. I should say that Friedman used to piss me off more than most other writers because he never talked about resources, climate change, population growth – these were invisible issues for him. Then, a few years ago, something changed and he started to address all this. [source]

36

The Giving Tree

Shel Silverstein

4.3

"Once there was a tree...and she loved a little boy."

So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.

Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk...and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and

Recommended by Kaci Lambe Kai, Neal Layton, and Todd Gordon.

Kaci Lambe Kai

I cry every time I read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. That story breaks my heart. I recently read it to my nephew (then five at the time) and I cried the whole time. [source]

Neal Layton

It’s a book full of questions, about a boy and a tree, but whether there are any answers there or not is another thing. [source]

Todd Gordon

I got to spend lunch with this wonderful group of 5 yr olds reading The Giving Tree by Shell Silverstein. Great book and good lesson about the value of friendship! (note, I have permission to post this). https://t.co/HahANdNYpq [source]

37

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

Jenny Odell

4.3

Preview Summary

This thrilling critique of the forces vying for our attention re-defines what we think of as productivity, shows us a new way to connect with our environment and reveals all that we’ve been too distracted to see about our selves and our world.

When the technologies we use every day collapse our experiences into 24/7 availability, platforms for personal branding, and products to be monetized, nothin

Recommended by Ezra Klein, Bo Ren, Bryan Formhals, and 5 others.

Ezra Klein

That's from @the_jennitaur's book "How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy," which hit me particularly hard, and made this conversation such a delight. https://t.co/y7SgRMhRsZ [source]

Bo Ren

@ClaytonHartford @the_jennitaur Best book I read in 2019! A must-read. [source]

Bryan Formhals

Such a great book. Gave me a lot of confidence to pursue some new ideas. https://t.co/SA9PP7mIAc [source]

38

Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming

Paul Hawken

4.3

- New York Times bestseller -

The 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming, based on meticulous research by leading scientists and policymakers around the world

"At this point in time, the Drawdown book is exactly what is needed; a credible, conservative solution-by-solution narrative that we can do it. Reading it is an effective inoculation against the widespread perception of doom

Recommended by Andreas Kuhlmann, Jessica Rolph, John Elkington, and 1 others.

Andreas Kuhlmann

Drawdown is an exceptional example of cooperation between some of the sharpest thinkers on climate and energy matters, an atlas that has the potential to save the planet. [source]

Jessica Rolph

This book is a beautiful, inspiring, and deeply satisfying read. Most importantly it is no more doom and gloom. It is OPTIMISTIC and empowering. Paul Hawken is a true visionary and a brilliant voice for real solutions. [source]

John Elkington

I am blown away by Drawdown. Like hearing an advance copy of Sergeant Pepper, back in the day. [source]

39

Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air

David MacKay

4.3

Addressing the sustainable energy crisis in an objective manner, this enlightening book analyzes the relevant numbers and organizes a plan for change on both a personal level and an international scale—for Europe, the Untied States, and the world. In case study format, this informative reference answers questions surrounding nuclear energy, the potential of sustainable fossil fuels, and the possib

Recommended by Bill Gates, Chris Goodall, John Shepherd, and 2 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

If someone wants an overall view of how energy gets used, where it comes from, and the challenges in switching to new sources, this is the book to read. [source]

Chris Goodall

What the late David MacKay did was give us a rigorous understanding of the way that we use and generate energy. [source]

John Shepherd

MacKay does very simple, back-of-the-envelope sums, as to how much energy could we get from bio-fuels, how much energy could we get from wind power, how much land would it take? [source]

40

The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions

David Quammen

4.2

David Quammen's book, The Song of the Dodo, is a brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope, far-reaching in its message -- a crucial book in precarious times, which radically alters the way in which we understand the natural world and our place in that world. It's also a book full of entertainment and wonders.
In The Song of the Dodo, we follow Quammen's keen intellect through the ideas

Recommended by Isabella Tree, Sean B Carroll, and TC Boyle.

Isabella Tree

Quammen’s wondrous peregrination of islands takes us on a journey of evolutions and extinctions in order to illustrate how like islands our continents have become. [source]

Sean B Carroll

The book covers the role that islands have played in our thinking about how nature works. [source]

TC Boyle

A brilliant journalist who can tell scientific stories with the kind of panache you’d expect from a novelist. [source]

Cover unavailable

41

Natural Capitalism

Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins

4.2

This groundbreaking book reveals how today's global businesses can be both environmentally responsible and highly profitable.

Recommended by Joe Gebbia, Ashton Kutcher, Clare Lockhart, and 2 others.

Joe Gebbia

Co-founder/Airbnb

This other way of thinking about how we consume things in the planet. [source]

Ashton Kutcher

Latest winner I've read. [source]

Clare Lockhart

This talks about social economics and bureaucratic systems and how we need to re-engineer them completely for the 21st century. [source]

42

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes

Dan Egan

4.2

A master reporter’s landmark work of contemporary ecology.

The Great Lakes hold 20 percent of the world’s freshwater, and they provide food, work, and weekend fun for tens of millions of Americans. Yet they are under threat as never before.

In a work of narrative reporting in the vein of Rachel Carson and Elizabeth Kolbert, prize-winning reporter Dan Egan delivers an eye-opening portrait of our nati

43

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Annie Dillard

4.2

An exhilarating meditation on nature and its seasons—a personal narrative highlighting one year's exploration on foot in the author's own neighborhood in Tinker Creek, Virginia. In the summer, Dillard stalks muskrats in the creek and contemplates wave mechanics; in the fall she watches a monarch butterfly migration and dreams of Arctic caribou. She tries to con a coot; she collects pond water and

Recommended by Laura Dassow Walls and Sara Maitland.

Laura Dassow Walls

She’s enacting Thoreau, but in a 20th-century context: she takes on quantum physics, the latest research on DNA and the nature of life. [source]

Sara Maitland

This book, which won the Pulitzer literature prize when it was released, is the most beautiful book about the wild. [source]

44

Arctic Dreams

Barry Lopez

4.2

Barry Lopez's National Book Award-winning classic study of the Far North is widely considered his masterpiece.

Lopez offers a thorough examination of this obscure world-its terrain, its wildlife, its history of Eskimo natives and intrepid explorers who have arrived on their icy shores. But what turns this marvelous work of natural history into a breathtaking study of profound originality is his uni

Recommended by Kate Marvel, Robert Macfarlane, and Sara Wheeler.

Kate Marvel

this book doesn’t directly address climate change. That’s one of the things I love about it. We so often hear about the Arctic in the context of threats: it’s disappearing, it’s changing, we’ll never see it again. I think it’s useful, though, to stop thinking of the Arctic only as a symbol of climate change and to remember it’s a real place. If we appreciate the Arctic for itself, maybe that makes it harder to write it off as an inevitable casualty of climate change………..I included Arctic Dreams on my list because it’s the only ‘science’ book I’ve read that’s really got close to my experience of doing science. It’s meandering and there’s no real structure; there are seriously pages and pages describing how ice melts in great detail. And then a meditation on musk oxen, and then some more ice melting. It’s all a bit of a mess, but there’s a real sense of wonder and gratitude and beauty that permeate the book. [source]

Robert Macfarlane

This book changed my life and really made me become a writer, if any one book did. I remember finding a very battered secondhand copy of it in a bookshop in Vancouver while I was out climbing in the Rockies, in my early twenties. [source]

Sara Wheeler

Barry Lopez is an American man and in Arctic Dreams he describes the clarity of the landscape that has such a profound effect on the human spirit. Everyone says it has a profound effect.He’s a proper nature writer and it’s a brilliant book. He wrote it 25 years ago, I think, and it’s very lyrical and uplifting………..It takes you outside your normal existence and sets you loose from your spiritual moorings. Everywhere in the Antarctic is like that and in the Arctic you feel it when you get away from the settlements. [source]

45

Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity

James Hansen

4.2

In Storms of My Grandchildren, Dr. James Hansen—the nation’s leading scientist on climate issues—speaks out for the first time with the full truth about global warming: The planet is hurtling even more rapidly than previously acknowledged to a climatic point of no return.

Although the threat of human-caused climate change is now widely recognized, politicians have failed to connect policy with the

Recommended by Al Gore, Caspar Henderson, Mary Robinson, and 1 others.

Al Gore

Founder/Alliance for Climate Protection

When the history of the climate crisis is written, Hansen will be seen as the scientist with the most powerful and consistent voice calling for intelligent action to preserve our planet's environment. [source]

Caspar Henderson

James Hanson and I share a very real and personal concern: what future awaits our grandchildren if the world does not take appropriate action – now? [source]

Mary Robinson

I’ve chosen Storms of my Grandchildren by the leading climate scientist James Hanson. Some 20 years ago, testifying in front of the US Congress, Hanson brought global warming to the world’s attention. What is of particular interest to me now is that he and I share a very real and personal concern; what future awaits our grandchildren if the world does not take appropriate action – NOW. [source]

46

No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference

Greta Thunberg

4.2

The history-making, ground-breaking speeches of Greta Thunberg, the young activist who has become the voice of a generation

'Everything needs to change. And it has to start today'

In August 2018 a fifteen-year-old Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, decided not to go to school one day. Her actions ended up sparking a global movement for action against the climate crisis, inspiring millions of pupils to

47

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World

Michael Pollan

4.2

Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—s

Recommended by David George Haskell and Kenneth Cox.

David George Haskell

Through the stories of four familiar plant species–apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes–he demolishes the erroneous impression that we’re in charge. [source]

Kenneth Cox

You can’t fail to be fascinated by this exposition of the motivations of plants to cuddle up to humans. One of several excellent Michael Pollan books, it’s a fun read. [source]

48

An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It

Al Gore

4.2

Book by Al Gore

Recommended by Richard Branson.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

49

Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change

Elizabeth Kolbert

4.2

Elizabeth Kolbert's environmental classic Field Notes from a Catastrophe first developed out of a groundbreaking, National Magazine Award-winning three-part series in The New Yorker. She expanded it into a still-concise yet richly researched and damning book about climate change: a primer on the greatest challenge facing the world today.

But in the years since, the story has continued to develop; t

Recommended by Gaia Vince and Kate Marvel.

Gaia Vince

Field Notes was refreshing, a trailblazer. Kolbert actually went to communities affected, on the frontline of climate change. [source]

Kate Marvel

Kolbert gives glimpses into what climate change actually means. She shows the interconnectedness of climate and ecosystems and society. [source]

50

Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered

E. F. Schumacher

4.2

"Nothing less than a full-scale assault on conventional economic wisdom."
—Newsweek

One the 100 most influential books published since World War II
—The Times Literary Supplement

Hailed as an "eco-bible" by Time magazine, E.F. Schumacher's riveting, richly researched statement on sustainability has become more relevant and vital with each year since its initial groundbreaking publication during the 19

Recommended by Emma Watson.

51

Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves

Farley Mowat

4.2

More than a half-century ago the naturalist Farley Mowat was sent to investigate why wolves were killing arctic caribou. Mowat's account of the summer he lived in the frozen tundra alone—studying the wolf population and developing a deep affection for the wolves (who were of no threat to caribou or man)—is today celebrated as a classic of nature writing, at once a tale of remarkable adventures and

52

Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam, #1)

Margaret Atwood

4.2

Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help

Recommended by Matthew Taylor and Tim @Realscientists.

Matthew Taylor

Oryx and Crake is here because it’s about the logical conclusion of a whole set of processes that we could have called progress. In my lecture I talked about the logic of progress: the logic of science and technology, the logic of markets, the logic of bureaucracy. And if you want a wonderful dystopian vision of what happens if you take these forward without any recourse to ethical considerations – without asking what progress represents – then Oryx and Crake does that. This novel was recommended by Karen Buck MP and it has influenced me as a wonderful account of a world run by large biotech corporations, where society is deeply dysfunctional and on the verge of self-destruction because nobody has stopped to say, ‘Is this the right thing to do? Is this the human thing to do? What does it mean to be human and are we still human beings?’ The book is a scream of, ‘When do we ask the big questions about any of this?’ [source]

Tim @Realscientists

The theme of hopelessness was the most profound I thought, as the narrative rattles through the devastatingly self-conscious decay of the main character's mind, the echoes of his life writhing and senescing inside his withering brain. Please read this great book :) https://t.co/1XVpw92bbb [source]

53

A Language Older Than Words

Derrick Jensen

4.2

At once a beautifully poetic memoir and an exploration of the various ways we live in the world, A Language Older Than Words explains violence as a pathology that touches every aspect of our lives and indeed affects all aspects of life on Earth. This chronicle of a young man's drive to transcend domestic abuse offers a challenging look at our worldwide sense of community and how we can make things

54

The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and our Health—and a Vision for Change

Annie Leonard

4.2

A classic exposé in company with An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring, The Story of Stuff expands on the celebrated documentary exploring the threat of overconsumption on the environment, economy, and our health. Leonard examines the “stuff” we use everyday, offering a galvanizing critique and steps for a changed planet.

The Story of Stuff was received with widespread enthusiasm in hardcover, by

55

Flight Behaviour

Barbara Kingsolver

4.2

Flight Behavior is a brilliant and suspenseful novel set in present day Appalachia; a breathtaking parable of catastrophe and denial that explores how the complexities we inevitably encounter in life lead us to believe in our particular chosen truths.

Kingsolver's riveting story concerns a young wife and mother on a failing farm in rural Tennessee who experiences something she cannot explain, and h

Recommended by Dan Bloom and James Bradley.

Dan Bloom

The novel isn’t about global warming per se. It’s a fable, a poetic fable, with a strong cast of memorable characters. [source]

James Bradley

Flight Behaviour offers a counter-example to the argument social realism is not fit for purpose when it comes to climate change [source]

56

Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food

Paul Greenberg

4.2

In Four Fish, award-winning writer and lifelong fisherman Paul Greenberg takes us on a culinary journey, exploring the history of the fish that dominate our menus — salmon, sea bass, cod, and tuna — and investigating where each stands at this critical moment in time.

He visits Norwegian megafarms that use genetic techniques once pioneered on sheep to grow millions of pounds of salmon a year. He tr

Recommended by Barry Estabrook and Helen Scales.

Barry Estabrook

This book is totally unbiased and very serious at looking for solutions to the global fisheries problem. He picks four iconic fish to use as examples to serve for the whole spectrum. So there is tuna, salmon, cod and sea bass. He doesn’t condemn fish farming outright but he explores ways to do it so that we continue to fish in what is the last wild place where we get our food. [source]

Helen Scales

Greenberg brings Roberts’s story bang up to date. He answers questions about what we eat today and how that is affecting the ocean. He picks four fish, which in the western world at least are the main species we eat. Those are tuna, salmon, cod and sea bass. It is a fascinating story about how we got hooked on those four species, which he tells from his perspective as an avid angler. [source]

57

The End Of Nature

Bill McKibben

4.2

Looks at what we are doing to damage nature and what this will mean for our collective futures. This book argues that our view of nature, its role in our lives and consciousness, has irretrievably altered. It states that if the world is to survive, we have to rethink this relationship. It shows how much has changed - both for better and for worse.

Recommended by Gaia Vince.

Gaia Vince

The End of Nature is the fundamental book about the global planetary change that we’re undergoing. [source]

Cover unavailable

58

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America

Timothy Egan

4.2

On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno that jumped from treetop to ridge as it raged, destroying towns and timber in the blink of an eye. Forest rangers had assembled nearly ten thousand men — colle

59

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water

Marc Reisner

4.2

The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruption and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by L

60

Wilding

Isabella Tree, Eric Schlosser

4.1

For many years Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell struggled to make a go as farmers, doing everything they could to make the heavy clay soils of their farm at Knepp in West Sussex as productive as possible, while rarely succeeding in making a profit. By 2000, facing bankruptcy, the couple decided they would try something new. They would hand their 3,500 acres, farmed for centuries, even millennia,

Recommended by Ben Goldsmith and Mark Boyle.

Ben Goldsmith

@ErikSolheim Allowing nature to recover by itself is even cheaper, a la Wilding, by @isabella_tree (a book you must order and read). [source]

Mark Boyle

Wilding is about an extraordinary experiment at the 3,500-acre Knepp Wildland Project, and an example of what can happen when we learn to do the hardest thing of all: nothing. [source]

61

The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels

Alex Epstein

4.1

A sure-to-be-controversial defense of the fossil fuel industry

Conventional wisdom says fossil fuels are an unsustainable form of energy that is destroying our planet. But Alex Epstein shows that if we look at the big picture, the much-hated fossil fuel industry is dramatically improving our planet by making it a far safer and richer place.
The key difference between a healthy and unhealthy envi

62

Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators

William Stolzenburg

4.1

A provocative look at how the disappearance of the world's great predators has upset the delicate balance of the environment, and what their disappearance portends for the future, by an acclaimed science journalist.

It wasn't so long ago that wolves and great cats, monstrous fish and flying raptors ruled the peak of nature's food pyramid. Not so anymore. All but exterminated, these predators of the

63

The Word for World Is Forest

Ursula Le Guin

4.1

When the inhabitants of a peaceful world are conquered by the bloodthirsty yumens, their existence is irrevocably altered. Forced into servitude, the Athsheans find themselves at the mercy of their brutal masters.

Desperation causes the Athsheans, led by Selver, to retaliate against their captors, abandoning their strictures against violence. But in defending their lives, they have endangered the v

Recommended by Paul Kingsnorth.

Paul Kingsnorth

I’m not really a big science fiction fan, but this book was recommended to me a few years back and I thought I would give it a try. I don’t know if you’ve seen the film Avatar, but as far as I can see it seems to be pretty much the same story, except that the film has a happy ending and the book doesn’t. [source]

64

Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place

Terry Tempest Williams

4.1

In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by. One event was nature at its most random, the other a by-product of rogue technology: Terry's mother, and Terry herself, had

Cover unavailable

65

Encounters with the Archdruid

John McPhee, Betty Crumley

4.1

The narratives in this book are of journeys made in three wildernesses - on a coastal island, in a Western mountain range, and on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. The four men portrayed here have different relationships to their environment, and they encounter each other on mountain trails, in forests and rapids, sometimes with reserve, sometimes with friendliness, sometimes fighting hard a

66

Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization

Derrick Jensen

4.1

The long-awaited companion piece to Derrick Jensen's immensely popular and highly acclaimed works A Language Older Than Words and The Culture of Make Believe. Accepting the increasingly widespread belief that industrialized culture inevitably erodes the natural world, Endgame sets out to explore how this relationship impels us towards a revolutionary and as-yet undiscovered shift in strategy. Buil

67

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

Bill McKibben

4.1

Our old familiar globe is suddenly melting, drying, acidifying, flooding, and burning in ways that no human has ever seen. We've created, in very short order, a new planet, still recognizable but fundamentally different. We may as well call it Eaarth.

That new planet is filled with new binds and traps. A changing world costs large sums to defend--think of the money that went to repair New Orleans,

68

The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food

Dan Barber

4.1

Barber explores the evolution of American food from the 'first plate,' or industrially-produced, meat-heavy dishes, to the 'second plate' of grass-fed meat and organic greens, and says that both of these approaches are ultimately neither sustainable nor healthy. Instead, Barber proposes Americans should move to the 'third plate,' a cuisine rooted in seasonal productivity, natural livestock rhythms

Recommended by Chef Tzac.

Chef Tzac

What an incredibly insightful and important book by @DanBarber —a must for aspiring chefs and food entrepreneurs—talking about a much needed food system that’s both sustainable AND delicious! Major inspiration for my #IndianFoodMovement. #thirdplate https://t.co/Orruzmcruh [source]

69

The Year of the Flood

Margaret Atwood

4.1

The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners--a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, as well as the preservation of all plant and animal life--has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliter

70

Green Is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege

Will Potter

4.1

At a time when everyone is going green, most people are unaware that the FBI is using anti-terrorism resources to target environmentalists and animal rights activists. The courts are being used to push conventional boundaries of what constitutes "terrorism" and to hit nonviolent activists with disproportionate sentences. Some have faced terrorism charges for simply chalking slogans on the sidewalk

71

On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal

Naomi Klein

4.1

#1 international and New York Times bestselling author Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything, makes the case for a Green New Deal—explaining how bold climate action can be a blueprint for a just and thriving society.

For more than twenty years, Naomi Klein has been the foremost chronicler of the economic war waged on both people and planet—and an unapologetic champio

Recommended by Daniel Bryan.

Daniel Bryan

Love @NaomiAKlein’s new book, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal. It makes powerful, compelling arguments for how we can not only combat climate change, but create a more just society in the process. Quotes and ideas in the thread #GreenNewDeal [source]

72

The Skeptical Environmentalist

Bjørn Lomborg

4.1

The Skeptical Environmentalist challenges widely held beliefs that the environmental situation is getting worse and worse. The author, himself a former member of Greenpeace, is critical of the way in which many environmental organisations make selective and misleading use of the scientific evidence. Using the best available statistical information from internationally recognised research institute

Recommended by Matt Ridley and David Lipsey.

Matt Ridley

Most of the environmental trends in the world are getting better not worse. There is more forest now than there was 50 years ago. [source]

David Lipsey

This is for those more interested in politics than politicians. Environmentalists hate Lomborg, who dares to questions their all-or-nothing ideology. Economists on the other hand love him, since he (unlike most environmentalists) understands that environmental decisions can involve costs as well as benefits. For example, take Lomborg’s position on global warming. It probably is happening, he concludes, but we would do far better to spend the money that it would take to stop it on a more manageable and more damaging problem – for example, the shortage of accessible water in developing countries. I am afraid that the extreme environmentalists are now near unstoppable – the fact that the obscene phrase ‘climate change denier’ is now regularly used of anyone who questions the reality of climate change suggests that. But when they reduce the world, and particularly the poor within it to a state of stasis and misery, Lomborg will again come into his own. [source]

73

Into the Wild

Jon Krakauer

4.1

Librarian's Note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

In April, 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himse

Recommended by Holger Seim.

Holger Seim

When it comes to adventure stories, Into the Wild. [source]

74

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival

John Vaillant

4.1

It’s December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims, they discover that these attacks aren’t random: the tiger is apparently en

Recommended by Ryan Holiday and TC Boyle.

Ryan Holiday

Author

Holy shit, this book is good. Just holy shit. Even if it was just the main narrative–the chase to kill a man-eating Tiger in Siberia in post-communist Russia–it would be worth reading, but it is so much more than that. The author explains the Russian psyche, the psyche of man vs predator, the psyches of primitive peoples and animals, in such a masterful way that you’re shocked to find 1) that he knows this, and 2) that he fit it all into this readable and relatively short book. You may have heard about the story on the internet a while back: a tiger starts killing people in Russia and a team is sent to kill it (Russia is so fucked up, they already have a team for this). At one point, the tiger is cornered and leaps to attack the team leader…and in mid-air the soldier’s rifle goes into the tigers open jaws and down his throat all the way to the stock, killing the tiger at the last possible second. The autopsy later revealed that the tiger had been shot something like a dozen times during its life and lived. The story is very similar to that of the Tsavo maneaters, which was turned into the underrated Val Kilmer movie The Ghost and the Darkness. There are all sorts of well-selected threads from evolutionary psychology and biology in this book and it makes the book a self-educator’s dream. You can pick and choose which ones you want to follow next–trusting safely that the author has pointed you in an interesting and valuable direction. But that’s just the meta-stuff that is a bonus with this book, and it’s worth pointing out only because the rest of the book is just so fucking interesting and exciting. [source]

TC Boyle

Sometimes nature strikes back, and in this book you really do root for the animal. [source]

75

The Lost Words

Macfarlane

4.1

From Acorn to Weasel: a gorgeous, hand-illustrated, large-format spellbook celebrating the magic and wonder of the natural world

All over the country, there are words disappearing from children's lives. Words like Dandelion, Otter, Bramble, Acorn and Lark represent the natural world of childhood, a rich landscape of discovery and imagination that is fading from children's minds.

The Lost Words stand

Recommended by Zoe Greaves.

Zoe Greaves

The illustrations are utterly breathtaking. Jackie Morris is an illustrator that I just find astonishing—she’s got to be one of the most brilliant artists working in children’s books at the moment. [source]

76

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet

Mark Lynas

4.1

Recommended by Aleks Krotoski and Rosamund McDougall.

Aleks Krotoski

Watts has been looking at the small world phenomenon to identify whether the web itself has shrunk our world, and in fact it hasn’t. [source]

Rosamund McDougall

It’s a very fast-moving explicit scenario about what might happen on earth to all of us, with each degree of global warming temperature rise. [source]

77

No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need

Naomi Klein

4.1

New York Times Bestseller
National Book Award Longlist
Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2017

“This is one attempt to uncover how we got to this surreal political moment. It is also an attempt to predict how, under cover of shocks and crises, it could get a lot worse. And it’s a plan for how, if we keep our heads, we might just be able to flip the script and arrive at a radically better future.”
–From t

78

Underland

Robert Macfarlane

4.0

From the best-selling, award-winning author of Landmarks and The Old Ways, a haunting voyage into the planet’s past and future.

Hailed as "the great nature writer of this generation" (Wall Street Journal), Robert Macfarlane is the celebrated author of books about the intersections of the human and the natural realms. In Underland, he delivers his masterpiece: an epic exploration of the Earth’s unde

Recommended by Alastair Humphreys, Cal Flyn, and Jonathan Green.

Alastair Humphreys

The cleverest and nicest man in the world of travel writing has just published a brilliant new book which you should definitely buy. And so has @robgmacfarlane... 😂 https://t.co/7tWMRoB08W https://t.co/2UmUfDUqpt [source]

Cal Flyn

Having climbed the highest heights in his debut Mountains of the Mind, Macfarlane now dives down to the lowest of the lows. He goes caving in limestone caverns deep underground, rattles through salt mines under the sea in carts and stumbles across (literal) underground subcultures in the Paris catacombs, all interwoven with learned digressions into geological epochs and classical conceptions of the underworld. What can I say? Macfarlane is the most remarkable writer. [source]

Jonathan Green

@mmbrenn yes the best book i read last year without question. beautiful. harrowing. [source]

79

The Water Knife

Paolo Bacigalupi

4.0

In the American Southwest, Nevada, Arizona, and California skirmish for dwindling shares of the Colorado River. Into the fray steps Angel Velasquez, leg-breaker, assassin, and spy. A Las Vegas water knife, Angel "cuts" water for his boss, Catherine Case, ensuring that her luxurious developments can bloom in the desert, so the rich can stay wet while the poor get dust. When rumors of a game-changin

80

Parable of the Sower

Octavia E. Butler, Gloria Steinem

4.0

Parable of the Sower is the Butlerian odyssey of one woman who is twice as feeling in a world that has become doubly dehumanized. The time is 2025. The place is California, where small walled communities must protect themselves from hordes of desperate scavengers and roaming bands of people addicted to a drug that activates an orgasmic desire to burn, rape, and murder. When one small community is

Recommended by Brian Boyer.

Brian Boyer

One book that’ll be in my bag: Parable if the Sower. It’s a brilliant, prescient read and, like all of Butler’s work, has much to teach us about justice. But it’s also informed my thinking about teamwork, and (surprise!) project management. https://t.co/NrPd9uiV2c [source]

81

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World

Mark Kurlansky

4.0

The Cod. Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been triggered by it, national diets have been based on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it. To the millions it has sustained, it has been a treasure more precious that gold. This book spans 1,000 years and four continents. From the Vikings to Clarence Birdseye, Mark Kurlansky introduces the explorers, merchants, writers, chefs

Recommended by Denise Russell.

Denise Russell

Fascinating small book, immensely interesting and traces human acquaintance with this fish back for a thousand years. [source]

82

Whole Earth Discipline: Why Dense Cities, Nuclear Power, Transgenic Crops, Restored Wildlands, and Geoengineering Are Necessary

Stewart Brand

4.0

"This is a very scary book by a very bright man, offering a picture of humanity's future that is both ominous and exhilarating."
-Edward O. Wilson

This eye-opening book by the legendary author of the National Book Award-winning Whole Earth Catalog persuasively details a new approach to our stewardship of the planet. Lifelong ecologist and futurist Stewart Brand relies on scientific rigor to shatt

Recommended by Matt Ridley.

Matt Ridley

It’s a paean for three things he thinks the environmental movement should adopt and has got wrong. One is nuclear power, the other is GM food and the third is cities. [source]

83

Endgame, Vol. 2: Resistance

Derrick Jensen

4.0

Whereas Volume 1 of Endgame presents the problem of civilization, Volume 2 of this pivotal work illustrates our means of resistance. Incensed and hopeful, impassioned and lucid, Endgame leapfrogs the environmental movement's deadlock over our willingness to change our conduct, focusing instead on our ability to adapt to the impending ecological revolution.

84

That Wild Country: An Epic Journey through the Past, Present, and Future of America's Public Lands

Mark Kenyon

4.0

From prominent outdoorsman and nature writer Mark Kenyon comes an engrossing reflection on the past and future battles over our most revered landscapes—America’s public lands.

Every American is a public-land owner, inheritor to the largest public-land trust in the world. These vast expanses provide a home to wildlife populations, a vital source of clean air and water, and a haven for recreation.

Sin

85

The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods

Julia Hill

4.0

On December 18, 1999, Julia Butterfly Hill's feet touched the ground for the first time in over two years, as she descended from "Luna," a thousandyear-old redwood in Humboldt County, California.

Hill had climbed 180 feet up into the tree high on a mountain on December 10, 1997, for what she thought would be a two- to three-week-long "tree-sit." The action was intended to stop Pacific Lumber, a div

86

Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis

Chris Williams

4.0

Around the world, consciousness of the threat to our environment is growing. The majority of solutions on offer, from using efficient light bulbs to biking to work, focus on individual lifestyle changes, yet the scale of the crisis requires far deeper adjustments. Ecology and Socialism argues that time still remains to save humanity and the planet, but only by building social movements for environ

87

Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change

George Marshall

4.0

A witty, insightful, and groundbreaking take on one of the most urgent questions of our time: Why, despite overwhelming scientific evidence, do we still ignore climate change?

Most of us recognize that climate change is real yet we do nothing to stop it. What is the psychological mechanism that allows us to know something is true but act as if it is not? George Marshall’s search for the answers bri

88

Freedom

Jonathan Franzen

4.0

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul—the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter's dreams. Together with Walter—environmental la

Recommended by Oprah Winfrey, Ellen de Bruin, and Ken Powell.

Oprah Winfrey

CEO/O Network

You don’t hear me say this word often, but this book is a masterpiece ... It’s an epic family saga—it’s got everything—sex and love, even rock n’ roll, and everything you want in a book. [source]

Ellen de Bruin

I had a theory about that, but I looked it up and it turned out to be wrong. Jonathan Franzen said in an interview why he called it Freedom, that he gave the title to the publisher because he really, really wanted to be free. My theory was rather different. In the book, some people explore their own freedom in relationships with others – there is the boy Joey, Patty’s son, who behaves very badly. He’s really seeking the edge of freedom – trying to be really free in that family, and harming other people by doing so. Later on in the novel, Patty explores her own freedom in a way that harms her husband. When I finished the book I thought it was about people seeking freedom at the cost of others. And although I can imagine people seeing the world in that way, that is something I really didn’t like about the book. People can be free and act free, and still have responsibility for other people’s feelings. [source]

Ken Powell

CEO of General Mills, , is into a different genre of books, the novel kind with great life lessons. “Freedom” is one of those books. [source]

89

Countdown: Our Last Best Hope for a Future on Earth?

Alan Weisman

4.0

90

The Ecological Rift

John Bellamy Foster, Richard York, Brett Clark

4.0

Humanity in the twenty-first century is facing what might be described as its ultimate environmental catastrophe: the destruction of the climate that has nurtured human civilization and with it the basis of life on earth as we know it. All ecosystems on the planet are now in decline. Enormous rifts have been driven through the delicate fabric of the biosphere. The economy and the earth are headed

91

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

Richard Louv

4.0

"I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are," reports a fourth-grader. Never before in history have children been so plugged in—and so out of touch with the natural world. In this groundbreaking new work, child advocacy expert Richard Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today's wired generation—he calls it nature deficit—to some of the most

Recommended by Genevieve Von Lob.

Genevieve Von Lob

Louv coined the term ‘Nature Deficit Disorder’ because he was so concerned about the alienation of young people from nature. [source]

92

The One-Straw Revolution

Masanobu Fukuoka

4.0

Fukuoka demonstrates how the way we look at farming influences the way we look at health, the school, nature, nutrition, spiritual health and life itself. He joins the healing of the land to the process of purifying the human spirit and proposes a way of life and a way of farming in which such healing can take place.

93

New and Selected Poems, Volume One

Mary Oliver

4.0

Features previously published and new poems that explore the natural world and how it is connected to human beings and spirituality.

Recommended by Cheryl Strayed.

Cheryl Strayed

I love so many poets; this author is one of my favorites. [source]

94

Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too

Beth Terry

4.0

Like many people, Beth Terry didn't think an individual could have much impact on the environment. But while laid up after surgery, she read an article about the staggering amount of plastic polluting the oceans and decided then and there to kick her plastic habit. Now she wants to teach you how you can too. In her quirky and humorous style well known to the readers of her popular blog, My Plastic

95

The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines

Michael Mann

4.0

The ongoing assault on climate science in the United States has never been more aggressive, more blatant, or more widely publicized than in the case of the Hockey Stick graph--a clear and compelling visual presentation of scientific data, put together by MichaelE. Mann and his colleagues, demonstrating that global temperatures have risen in conjunction with the increase in industrialization and th

Recommended by Bill McKibben, Bill Nye, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Bill McKibben

Very few people have sounded more important alarms about our climate future, and very few people have paid a higher price for doing so. Michael Mann is a hero, and this book is a remarkable account of the science and politics of the defining issue of our time. [source]

Bill Nye

Changed the way most of us understood the natural history of Earth. Ours is only the second species known to be capable of changing the climate of an entire planet. [source]

Leonardo DiCaprio

Check out Michael Mann's book "The Hockey Stick & the Climate Wars" about his battle against climate denialism. [source]

96

Diet for a Small Planet

Frances Moore Lappe

4.0

Here again is the extraordinary bestselling book that taught America the social and personal significance of a new way of eating-- one that remains a complete guide for eating well in the 90s. Featuring: simple rules for a healthy diet; a streamlined, easy-to-use format; delicious food combinations of protein-rich meals without meat; hundreds of wonderful recipes, and much more.

Recommended by Steve Jobs, Ruth Reichl, and Yale Program On Climate Change Communication.

Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

In that first year at Reed, Jobs also read "Diet for a Small Planet," a book about protein-rich vegetarianism that went on to sell three million copies. It was a breakthrough. "That's when I pretty much swore off meat for good," Jobs told Isaacson. [source]

Ruth Reichl

When this book came out in the early 1970s, it was revolutionary. I feel this is a book that hasn’t gotten its due. [source]

Yale Program On Climate Change Communication

Frances Moore Lappé's best-selling book “Diet for a Small Planet” changed the way many people in the 1970s viewed the food system and its inefficiencies: https://t.co/xla4y5Nuzd via @nytimes https://t.co/wNIgZLCI9Z [source]

97

Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard

Douglas W. Tallamy

4.0

Douglas W. Tallamy’s first book, Bringing Nature Home, sparked a national conversation about the link between healthy local ecosystems and human well-being. In Nature's Best Hope, he takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots, home-grown approach to conservation.

Nature's Best Hope advocates for homeowners everywhere to turn their yards into conservation corridors that provide wi

98

We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast

Jonathan Safran Foer

4.0

Some people reject the fact, overwhelmingly supported by scientists, that our planet is warming because of human activity. But do those of us who accept the reality of human-caused climate change truly believe it? If we did, surely we would be roused to act on what we know. Will future generations distinguish between those who didn’t believe in the science of global warming and those who said they

Recommended by Matt Haig and Matt Haig.

Matt Haig

A brilliant book. Advocates a world war scale emergency response to climate change. And reminds us how much human behaviour can change for the better when the chips are down and we understand and FEEL like the stakes are high. https://t.co/GekPX3xwN0 [source]

Matt Haig

A brilliant book. Advocates a world war scale emergency response to climate change. And reminds us how much human behaviour can change for the better when the chips are down and we understand and FEEL like the stakes are high. https://t.co/GekPX3xwN0 [source]

99

Swerve: Poems on Environmentalism, Feminism, and Resistance

Ellery Akers

4.0

The late W. S. Merwin said Akers's nature poems are a "joy to discover" because they embody a "lost sense of the living world." In Swerve, Akers celebrates the wild while facing climate change, extinction, and loss. These poems confront us with the many threats to our world, eventually guiding us through stages of grief towards hope and action.

The poems in Swerve give voice to the shock, fear, an

Cover unavailable

100

Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1)

Kim Stanley Robinson

4.0

In his most ambitious project to date, award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson utilizes years of research & cutting-edge science in the 1st of a trilogy chronicling the colonization of Mars:

For eons, sandstorms have swept the desolate landscape. For centuries, Mars has beckoned humans to conquer its hostile climate. Now, in 2026, a group of 100 colonists is about to fulfill that destiny.

John Boo