Earth Day for Adults

Inspirational and motivational non-fiction reads for Earth Day.

Updated April 15, 2026
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Our fragile moment : how lessons from Earth's past can help us survive the climate crisis
Mann, Michael E.
Paper Book
In this sweeping work of science and history, the renowned climate scientist and author of The New Climate War shows us the conditions on Earth that allowed humans not only to exist but thrive, and how they are imperiled if we veer off course.   For the...
Cool food : erasing your carbon footprint one bite at a time
Downey, Robert, Jr.
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER In Cool Food, celebrated actor and philanthropist Robert Downey Jr. and New York Times bestselling author Thomas Kostigen team up to discover how we can erase our carbon footprints--one bite at a time. What we eat matters--to us,...
Wasteland : the secret world of waste and the urgent search for a cleaner future
Franklin-Wallis, Oliver
Paper Book
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 BY THE NEW YORKER, THE GUARDIAN, and KIRKUS REVIEWS An award-winning investigative journalist takes a deep dive into the global waste crisis, exposing the hidden world that enables our modern economy--and finds out...
Crossings : how road ecology is shaping the future of our planet
Goldfarb, Ben (Environmental journalist)
Paper Book
Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they're practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. In Crossings,...
The devil's element : phosphorus and a world out of balance
Egan, Dan
Paper Book
A New Yorker Best Book of 2023 * A Smithsonian Staff Favorite of 2023 The New York Times best-selling author on the source of great bounty--and now great peril--all over the world. Phosphorus has played a critical role in some of the most lethal...
Polar War: Submarines, Spies, and the Struggle for Power in a Melting Arctic
Rosen, Kenneth R
Paper Book
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A gripping blend of travelogue and frontline reporting that reveals how climate change, military ambition, and economic opportunity are transforming the Arctic into the epicenter of a new cold war, where a struggle for dominance between the...
The Contemporary Cottage Garden: Climate-Friendly, Mindful Methods for Growing Flowers and Food
Hubbard, Pamela
Paper Book
A guide to combining the classic cottage garden style with new techniques and plants that meet the needs of modern times. In The Contemporary Cottage Garden, longtime gardener Pamela Hubbard expertly walks the gardener through what it takes...
Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America's New Age of Disaster
Soboroff, Jacob
Paper Book
From the MSNBC Senior Political and National Correspondent and New York Times bestselling author of Separated, a gripping and revelatory account of the devastating 2025 Los Angeles fires, which he covered on the ground as an LA native.  On the morning of...
The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary
Tempest Williams, Terry
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER "I go to Terry Tempest Williams for the reasons I go to Whitman and Thoreau: to recover a capacious spirit and to rejoin the urgent living world. She gives me something bigger than hope."―Richard Powers, author of The Overstory From...
We are eating the Earth : the race to fix our food system and save our climate
Grunwald, Michael
Paper Book
From the author of New York Times bestseller The New New Deal, a groundbreaking piece of reportage from the trenches of the next climate war: the fight to fix our food system. Humanity has cleared a land mass the size of Asia plus Europe to grow food, and our food...
Ocean : Earth's last wilderness
Attenborough, David
Paper Book
Award-winning broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough and longtime collaborator Colin Butfield present a powerful call to action focused on our planet's oceans, exploring how critical this habitat is for the survival of humanity and the earth's future. ...
What We Can Know [Large Print]
McEwan, Ian
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the Booker prize-winning, bestselling author of Atonement and Saturday, a genre-bending new novel full of secrets and surprises; an immersive exploration, across time and history, of what can ever be...
When it all burns : fighting fire in a transformed world
Thomas, Jordan (Anthropologist)
Paper Book
2025 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST FINALIST FOR THE LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE ONE OF PUBLISHERS WEEKLY'S TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2025 NAMED A BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS "Exceptional. . . . When It All Burns is one of...
Holler : a graphic memoir of rural resistance
Nalamalapu, Denali Sai
Paper Book
An "important piece of activist art", this beautiful graphic memoir tells the story of six hopeful activists in Appalachia who had the courage to resist against a threat to their community (Margaret Killjoy). Drawing from original interviews with the author,...
The unworthy : a novel
Bazterrica, Agustina Mara̕
Paper Book
THE JAW-DROPPING NATIONAL BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in...
Jane and Dan at the end of the world
Oakley, Colleen
Paper Book
AS SEEN ON THE TODAY SHOW * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * A ZIBBY OWENS MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2025! * A GOOD HOUSEKEEPING BOOK CLUB PICK! Date night goes off the rails when one couple gets wrapped up in a crime in progress, in this "hilarious" (People) new...
Here comes the sun : a last chance for the climate and a fresh chance for civilization
McKibben, Bill
Paper Book
Our climate, and our democracy, are melting down. But Bill McKibben, one of the first to sound the alarm about the climate crisis, insists the moment is also full of possibility. Energy from the sun and wind is suddenly the cheapest power on the planet and growing faster than any energy source in...
Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde
Gumbs, Alexis Pauline
Paper Book
A Time Must-Read Book of the YearWinner of the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian NonfictionWinner of the 2025 Zora Award A Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year Shortlisted for the 2025 Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize ...
A guardian and a thief
Majumdar, Megha
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE * Megha Majumdar's electrifying new novel, following her acclaimed New York Times bestseller A Burning, is set in a near-future Kolkata, India in which two families seeking to protect their children...

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