In honor of Earth Day, FURL has compiled a list of a dozen of our favorite environmental books, and each one is available through FCPL. The following book title links will take you directly to the FCPL catalog. Check these out the next time you use the library!
We welcome you to come out and join us in celebrating at Green Team Urbana’s Earth Day event on Friday, April 22. FURL will have a table at 5:30pm at the Harris Street Community Center where we will be giving out reusable bags, jar openers, candy, and bookmarks.
All We Can Save - Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson. A thoughtful and expansive compendium of 60 works on climate, all by women, and a must read. Five stars.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. The grandmother of them all. Carson’s seminal work on DDT and its impact on insects and birds helped spark the environmental movement and arguably the formation of the EPA.
Drawdown - The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by Paul Hawkins. This is a list of 80 of the most effective solutions (and 20 up and coming ideas) at achieving net zero, and then even drawing emissions back down. Read this book!
Nature’s Best Hope by Douglas Tallamy. Tallamy makes a case for the preservation of habitat biodiversity in your own space, and invites you to join the Homegrown National Park. This approach is so obvious, it’s brilliant, and something we all should be doing.
Sustainability Made Simple - Small Changes for Big Impact by Rosaly Byrd and Lauren DeMates. A quick yet comprehensive primer on actions you can take, right now.
Braiding Sweetgrass - Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Published in 2013, this book about indigenous practices and sustainability has enjoyed a recent second wind.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. The acclaimed fiction writer decided to live off of only the products of her own land for a year, and learned many lessons along the way. A lovely book.
This Changes Everything - Capitalism Vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein. An detailed explanation of how we got to this point in the climate crisis, and the overhaul to financial systems that needs to occur to get out.
Secondhand - Travels in the New Global Garage Sale by Adam Minter. A fascinating deep dive and follow up to Junkyard Planet - Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade. In a nutshell, stop with all the stuff already! If you’ve ever wondered what actually happens to most of the treasures you donate to Goodwill, Secondhand is for you.
Bicycling with Butterflies - My 10,201 Mile Journey Following the Butterfly Migration by Sara Dykman. This is a fabulous recounting of a journey with the monarchs. Like the butterflies, the author struggled to find respite and she lamented habitat loss, but she basked in the oases she found. If you’ve ever driven an electric car on a road trip, this book will resonate on multiple levels.
Waste - One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret by Catherine Coleman Flowers. Part autobiography about her fascinating life, and part lesson in environmental justice, through systemic sanitation failures in Alabama.
We are the Weather - Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer. This one packs a punch about the ethics of our behavior, and you just may wind up renouncing the consumption of red meat for good.
We could go on!
Have you read any great books on the environment and climate? Let us know in the comments.
-submitted by FURL Member Katie Esposito
