Recommended Books

By Shanna H. Swan and Stacey Colino In the tradition of Silent Spring and The Sixth Extinction, an urgent, “disturbing, empowering, and essential” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) book about the ways in which chemicals in the modern environment are changing—and endangering—human sexuality and fertility on the grandest scale, from renowned epidemiologist Shanna Swan.

Matt Simon reveals a whole new dimension to the plastic crisis. The thing that makes plastic so useful–its toughness–means it never really goes away. It just gets smaller and smaller: eventually small enough to enter your lungs or penetrate a fish’s muscle tissue before it becomes dinner.

Our Stolen Future examines the ways that certain synthetic chemicals interfere with hormonal messages involved in the control of growth and development, especially in the fetus. Scientific research over the last 50 years has revealed that this hormonal control of development is vulnerable to disruption by synthetic chemicals. (Available in most public library systems.)

An updated edition of a guide to the basic science of climate change, and a call to action. The vast majority of scientists agree that human activity has significantly increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere—most dramatically since the 1970s.

What if Atlantis wasn’t a myth, but an early precursor to a new age of great flooding? Acclaimed journalist Jeff Goodell travels across twelve countries and reports from the front lines to show vivid scenes from what already is becoming a water world.

An impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation—today’s.

Having detailed the coming man-made climate disaster in her Pulitzer-winning The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert explores the costs of trying to repair the mess by more manipulation of Mother Nature. “By turns inspiring, terrifying, and darkly comic,” says the jacket.

Read about the science behind the key inventions—from electric power to large-scale farming to automobiles—that, even as they help us, release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere like never before. This author explains the current and projected consequences of global warming—from superstorms to rising sea levels—and the actions that we all can take to fight back.

New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before. Interweaving research in half a dozen disciplines, descriptions of the fascinating species that have already been lost, and the history of extinction as a concept.

Rigorously cataloguing the very latest climate science, Mark Lynas explores the course we have set for Earth over the next century and beyond. Degree by terrifying degree, he charts the likely consequences of global heating and the ensuing climate catastrophe.

This book share the story of how a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco to climate change. Merchants of Doubt rolls back the rug on this dark corner of American science. 

Gertner chronicles the unfathomable hardships, amazing discoveries, and scientific achievements of the Arctic’s explorers and researchers with a transporting, deeply intelligent style—and a keen sense of what this work means for the rest of us.