Today is Earth Day, an annual day for highlighting a commitment to conservation and environmental protection. Today Earth Day is 55 years young, having first been observed on April 22, 1970. Here are some titles you can check out to read a little more about the topic.
A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by David Attenborough 2020
In this scientifically informed account of the changes occurring in the world over the last century, an award-winning broadcaster and natural historian shares a lifetime of wisdom and a hopeful vision for the future.
Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism by Aja Barber 2021
Barber invites you to participate in unlearning, to understand the truth behind why we consume in the way that we do, to confront the uncomfortable feeling that we are never quite enough and why we fill that void with consumption rather than compassion. Barber challenges us to challenge the system and our role in it.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson 1962 [Hoopla eBook]
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was first published in three serialized excerpts in the New Yorker in June of 1962. The book appeared in September of that year and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement. It is without question one of the landmark books of the twentieth century.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver originally published 2017 (10th Anniversary Edition) [Hoopla eBook]
A beautiful deluxe trade paperback edition celebrating the 10th anniversary of Barbara Kingsolver’s New York Times bestseller, which describes her family’s adventure as they move to a farm in southern Appalachia and realign their lives with the local food chain. Since its publication in 2007, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle has captivated readers with its blend of memoir and journalistic investigation. Newly updated with original pieces from the entire Kingsolver clan, this commemorative volume explores how the family’s original project has been carried forward through the years.
Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have by Tatiana Schlossberg 2019
[T]his urgent call to action will empower you to stand up to climate change and environmental pollution by making simple but impactful everyday choices.
Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard by Douglas W. Tallamy [Hoopla eBook] 2020
If you’re concerned about doing something good for the environment, Nature’s Best Hope is the blueprint you need. By acting now, you can help preserve our precious wildlife-and the planet-for future generations. An urgent and heartfelt call for a new approach to conservation-one that starts in every backyard-from the New York Times bestselling author of Bringing Nature Home.
This Ordinary Stardust: A Scientist’s Path from Grief to Wonder by Alan R. Townsend 2024
A decade ago, Dr. Alan Townsend’s family received two unthinkable, catastrophic diagnoses: his 4-year-old daughter and his brilliant scientist wife developed unrelated, life-threatening forms of brain cancer. As he witnessed his young daughter fight during the courageous final months of her mother’s life, Townsend – a lifelong scientist – was indelibly altered. He began to see scientific inquiry as more than a source of answers to a given problem, but also as a lifeboat: a lens on the world that could help him find peace with the painful realities he could not change. Through scientific wonder, he found ways to bring meaning to his darkest period.
At a time when society’s relationship with science is increasingly polarized while threats to human life on earth continue to rise, Townsend offers a balanced, moving perspective on the common ground between science and religion through the spiritual fulfillment he found in his work. Awash in Townsend’s electrifying and breathtaking prose, This Ordinary Stardust offers hope that life can carry on even in the face of near-certain annihilation.
A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future by Benjamin Vogt 2017 [Hoopla eBook]
Plenty of books tell home gardeners and professional landscape designers how to garden sustainably, what plants to use, and what resources to explore. Yet few examine why our urban wildlife gardens matter so much-not just for ourselves, but for the larger human and animal communities.