Recommended Books

This true story is a gripping exploration of the devastating Fort McMurray wildfire and its broader implications for our changing climate. Vaillant illustrates how fire has shaped human civilization while warning of its increasing unpredictability in a warming world. This read underscores the growing risks of wildfires and the need for immediate climate action.

This is the first major book to expose the catastrophic reality of the multi-billion-dollar global garbage trade. Disputes about what to do with the millions of tons of garbage generated every day have given rise to waste wars waged almost everywhere you look.

This primer explores the history of religious traditions and the environment, illustrating how religious teachings and practices both promoted and at times subverted sustainability. Subsequent chapters examine the emergence of religious ecology, as views of nature changed in religious traditions and the ecological sciences.

In this book, Eve O. Schaub tackles her most difficult challenge to date: garbage. Schaub and her family attempt the seemingly impossible: living in the modern world without creating any trash at all. For an entire year. And- as it turns out- during a pandemic. Recommended by Beyond Plastics.

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.

By Leonardo Trasande A leading voice in public health policy and top environmental medicine scientist reveals the alarming truth about how hormone-disrupting chemicals are affecting our daily lives—and what we can do to protect ourselves and fight back.

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.)

Freinkel treks through history, science and the global economy to assess the real impact of plastic in our lives through eight familiar plastic objects. Each one illuminates a different facet of our synthetic world to give us a new way of thinking about a substance that has become the defining medium—and metaphor—of our age. 

Data scientist Hannah Ritchie presents an optimistic perspective on environmental challenges, showing that significant progress is already being made toward sustainability. Ritchie uses data and practical advice to help readers understand what actions truly impact the planet, dispelling myths and misconceptions. This hopeful, research-backed guide empowers readers to see a sustainable future as achievable.

A masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us. This novel will change the way you think about the climate crisis.

(Ages 4-7) A young girl takes action against ocean pollution in a timely story with unique plastic-waste diorama art from award-winning author-illustrator Alma Fullerton. No More Plastic is a moving, eye-catching, and ultimately hopeful reminder that the health of our oceans—and our planet—is in our hands.