5 Environmental Books You NEED to Read

Looking to learn more about the environment? Not sure if you completely understand climate change or environmental activism? Just tired of watching Netflix all the time? Pick up any of these books next time you have some free time and prepare to get educated, entertained, and inspired. It’s the first step to making a difference!

1. The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming

Get an up-close-and-personal understanding of the effects that climate change is already having on our word, and the dire circumstances we could soon face if  change is not made. It’s not a cheerful story, but it is a necessary wake up call.

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

Written by Robin Wall Kimmerer, an indigenous woman and botanist, this book is a series of essays on ecological awareness, and the magic and importance of human connections to nature. This book will absolutely change the way you look at the world around you.

3. The Future We Choose

This impeccably researched book, written by the architects of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, lays out two potential futures: one in which society has gotten climate change under control and constructed sustainable infrastructure, and one in which they have not, and climate disaster ensues.

4. Silent Spring

No environmental reading list would be complete without Rachel Carson’s classic. Written in 1962, it alerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers of indiscriminate use of pesticides, leading to major  changes in the laws protecting our air, land, and water.

5. The Overstory

Take a break from nonfiction with this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which tells the parallel stories of trees and humans throughout history, focusing on nine people who have a range of unique experiences with trees in their lives.

Together, we can create a greener tomorrow. Happy reading!