Possibilities for Environmental Reading

Inspiration and Wonder

 

Thoreau’s Legacy:  American Stories about Global Warming edited by Richard Hayes

(available in print, but easily read online at http://www.ucsusa.org/americanstories/ )

Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken

Reflections on Natural History

The Immense Journey by Loren Eiseley

The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

History and Classics

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

Encounters with the Archdruid by John McPhee

Creation Care

Befriending the Earth: A Theology of Reconciliation Between Humans and the Earth by Thomas Berry

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality by Matthew Fox

Creation Spirituality:  Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth by Matthew Fox

Climate Change and Energy

The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future by Richard B.Alley

The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies by Richard Heinberg

Analysis, Argument, and Action

Plan B 4.0:  Mobilizing to Save Civilization by Lester R. Brown

Available online for free at http://www.earth-policy.org/index.php?/books/pb4

Natural Capitalism:  Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by Amory Lovins, Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken

Collapse by Jared Diamond

Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken

Earth in Mind by David Orr

Ecological Literacy by David Orr

No Impact Man by Colin Beaven

The World Is Blue by Sylvia Earle

The Omnivore’s Dilemna by Michael Pollan

 

Poetry

Many of Emily Dickinson’s poems have powerful natural themes.  Many on nature themes can be found at http://www.bartleby.com/113/index2.html

Gary Snyder is a more recent environmental writer known for his poetry.  See some of his work at http://www.wenaus.com/poetry/snyder.html.

Children’s books

A Drop Around the World by Barbara Shaw McKinney

Go Wild! 101 Things To Do Outdoors Before You Grow Up by Jo Schofield

Heroes of the Environment: True Stories of People Who Are Helping to Protect Our

Planet by Harriet Rohmer

How to Turn Your Parents Green by James Russell

Our World of Water: Children and Water Around the World, by Beatrice Hollyer

Smart by Nature: Schooling for Sustainability by Michael K. Stone

10 Things I Can Do To Help My World by Melanie Walsh

Using Water by Sally Hewitt

Water, Water Everywhere by Mark J. Rauzon and Cynthia Overbeck Brix