Environment or Sustainability

Explore the intersection of humans and nature. Reduce, reuse, repair, recycle. Live lightly. Save the planet. Get back to nature. There are many ways to show you care about the earth! Try one of these titles about sustainability and the environment. Plant a seed, read!

Updated May 11, 2026
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Barkskins : a novel
Proulx, Annie.
Paper Book
Now a mini-series on National Geographic! A Washington Post Best Book of the Year & a New York Times Notable Book From the Pulitzer Prize-­­winning author of The Shipping News and "Brokeback Mountain" comes the New York Times bestselling epic about...
Before it's gone : stories from the front lines of climate change in small-town America
Vigliotti, Jonathan
Paper Book
This "stunning call to action to save ourselves and all life on the planet" (Booklist), in the vein of This Changes Everything and Saving Us, effortlessly demonstrates how climate change is affecting America right now. Discussion of the climate crisis...
Close to home : the wonders of nature just outside your door
Hanson, Thor
Paper Book
An award-winning natural-history writer presents "the perfect mix of science and story" (Sy Montgomery), opening the door to the nature that thrives in our yards, gardens, and parks: "I couldn't put it down" (Doug Tallamy).    We all live on nature's...
The deluge
Markley, Stephen
Paper Book
A New York Times Notable Book "This book is, simply put, a modern classic. If you read it, you'll never forget it. Prophetic, terrifying, uplifting." --Stephen King From the bestselling author of Ohio, a masterful American epic charting a near future...
Embrace fearlessly the burning world : essays
Lopez, Barry Holstun
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE * A "lyrical" (Chicago Tribune) final work of nonfiction from the National Book Award-winning author of Arctic Dreams and Horizon, a literary icon whose writing, fieldwork, and mentorship inspired generations of writers and activists...
Erosion : essays of undoing
Williams, Terry Tempest
Paper Book
Timely and unsettling essays from an important and beloved writer and conservationist In Erosion, Terry Tempest Williams's fierce, spirited, and magnificent essays are a howl in the desert. She sizes up the continuing assaults on America's public lands and the erosion...
Fashionopolis : the price of fast fashion--and the future of clothes
Thomas, Dana
Paper Book
*NYTBR Paperback Row Selection* An investigation into the damage wrought by the colossal clothing industry and the grassroots, high-tech, international movement fighting to reform it  What should I wear? It's one of the fundamental questions we ask ourselves...
A generous nature : lives transformed by Oregon
Houle, Marcy Cottrell
Paper Book
A Generous Nature: Lives Transformed by Oregon offers profiles of twenty-one conservationists and activists who have made enduring contributions to the preservation of Oregon's wild and natural places and its high quality of life. These stories speak to their courage, foresight, and...
The great displacement : climate change and the next American migration
Bittle, Jake
Paper Book
Shortlisted for the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Excellence "The Great Displacement is closely observed, compassionate, and far-sighted." --Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Under a White Sky The untold story of climate migration in the United...
The heat will kill you first : life and death on a scorched planet
Goodell, Jeff
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller!   New York Times best-selling journalist Jeff Goodell presents an important examination of the impact that temperature rise will have on our lives and on our planet,...
Hurricane lizards and plastic squid : the fraught and fascinating biology of climate change
Hanson, Thor
Paper Book
*A New York Times Editor's Choice pick *Shortlisted for the 2022 Pacific Northwest Book Awards A beloved natural historian explores how climate change is driving evolution   ...
Land of milk and honey
Zhang, C Pam
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK  Finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Award Longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary...
Life between the tides
Nicolson, Adam
Paper Book
Adam Nicolson explores the marine life inhabiting seashore rockpools with a scientist''s curiosity and a poet''s wonder in this beautifully illustrated book. The sea is not made of water. Creatures are its genes. Look down as you crouch over the shallows and...
The ministry for the future
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Paper Book
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR "The best science-fiction nonfiction novel I've ever read." --Jonathan Lethem   "If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year...
The music of bees : a novel
Garvin, Eileen
Paper Book
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER! A Good Morning America BUZZ PICK | A Good Housekeeping Book Club Pick | IndieNext Pick | LibraryReads Pick | Recommended by People ∙ The Washington Post ∙ Woman's World ∙ NY Post ∙...
Not the end of the world : how we can be the first generation to build a sustainable planet
Ritchie, Hannah
Paper Book
This "eye-opening and essential" book (Bill Gates) will transform how you see our biggest environmental problems--and explains how we can solve them. It's become common to tell kids that they're going to die from climate change. We are constantly bombarded by doomsday headlines...
On a farther shore : the life and legacy of Rachel Carson
Souder, William
Paper Book
Published on the fiftieth anniversary of her seminal book, Silent Spring, here is an indelible new portrait of Rachel Carson, founder of the environmental movement She loved the ocean and wrote three books about its mysteries, including the international bestseller The Sea Around...
Plastic : an autobiography
Cobb, Allison
Paper Book
WINNER of the 2022 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction! WINNER of the 2022 CLMP Firecracker Award in Creative Nonfiction! "Plastic is powerful and moving, a deep, personal exploration of the modern world."--Richard Rhodes...
Return to nature : the new science of how natural landscapes restore us
Loewe, Emma
Paper Book
Discover the new science and ancient wisdom on why nature makes us healthier and happier in body and soul from the co-author of The Spirit Almanac and mindbodygreen's Senior Sustainability Editor. For centuries, we have known that getting outside is good for us. Yet we have...
Seaweed chronicles : a world at the water's edge
Shetterly, Susan Hand
Paper Book
"You might not expect unfettered passion on the topic of seaweed, but Shetterly is such a great storyteller that you find yourself following along eagerly." --Mark Kurlansky "Seaweed is ancient and basic, a testament to the tenacious beginnings of life on earth...
Termination shock : a novel
Stephenson, Neal
Paper Book
New York Times Bestseller From Neal Stephenson--who coined the term "metaverse" in his 1992 novel Snow Crash--comes a sweeping, prescient new near-future thriller that transports readers to a near-future world in which the greenhouse effect has inexorably resulted...
Under a white sky : the nature of the future
Kolbert, Elizabeth
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction returns to humanity's transformative impact on the environment, now asking: After doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it? RECOMMENDED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA AND BILL...
Visible Mending : Repair, Renew, Reuse the Clothes You Love
Khounnoraj, Arounna.
Ebook
Wild girls : how the outdoors shaped the women who challenged a nation
Miles, Tiya
Paper Book
Harriet Tubman, forced to labor outdoors on a Maryland plantation, learned from the land a terrain for escape. Louisa May Alcott ran wild, eluding gendered expectations in New England. The Indigenous women's basketball team from Fort Shaw, Montana, recaptured a sense of pride in physical prowess...

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