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...
Blackfish City
Miller, Sam J.
Paper Book
"One of the most intriguing future cities in years." --Charlie Jane Anders "Simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder." --Ann Leckie After the climate wars, a floating city is constructed in the Arctic Circle, a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering,...
Building with secondhand stuff : how to re-claim, re-vamp, re-purpose & re-use salvaged & leftover building materials
Peterson, Chris
Paper Book
Completing home remodeling projects on a budget is tough. Building with Secondhand Stuff is loaded with all the green construction and money saving techniques you'll need! From deconstruction methods and salvaging tips, to plotting efficient...
The city where we once lived : a novel
Barnes, Eric
Paper Book
"Barnes has constructed an intricate apocalyptic world that frighteningly mirrors present-day reality."--Shelf Awareness, starred review In a near future where climate change has severely affected weather and agriculture, the North End of an unnamed city has long been...
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...
Consumed : the need for collective change : colonialism, climate change, and consumerism
Barber, Aja
Paper Book
A call to action for consumers everywhere, Consumed asks us to look at how and why we buy what we buy, how it's created, who it benefits, and how we can solve the problems created by a wasteful system.  We live in a world of stuff. We dispose of most of...
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...
Desert solitaire : a season in the wilderness
Abbey, Edward
Paper Book
"A passionately felt, deeply poetic book. It has philosophy. It has humor. It has its share of nerve-tingling adventures...set down in a lean, racing prose, in a close-knit style of power and beauty."@THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOKREVIEW@Edward Abbey lived for three seasons in the desert at Moab, Utah, and...
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...
F**k plastic : 101 ways to free yourself from plastic and save the world
Paper Book
The Zero-Waste Guide to Life! Is the thought of the 51 trillion pieces of plastic in our oceans keeping you up at night? Don't panic! The war on plastic has begun and you can help. In this book you'll find 101 little things you as an individual can do to avoid...
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...
For cod & country
Seaver, Barton.
Paper Book
“You want to save more fish? Eat more broccoli.” --Barton Seaver nbsp; Even though there are hundreds of types of fish for sale, most chefs know only a few varieties. That's where Barton Seaver comes in with his unique approach: By...
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 lost cause
Doctorow, Cory
Paper Book
It's thirty years from now. We're making progress, mitigating climate change, slowly but surely. But what about all the angry old people who can't let go? For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn't controversial. It's just an overwhelming fact of life. And so are...
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 ∙...
The nature principle : reconnecting with life in a virtual age
Louv, Richard.
Paper Book
For many of us, thinking about the future conjures up images of Cormac McCarthy's The Road: a post-apocalyptic dystopia stripped of nature. Richard Louv, author of the landmark bestseller Last Child in the Woods, urges us to change our vision of the future, suggesting that if we...
The new climate war : the fight to take back our planet
Mann, Michael E.
Paper Book
Shortlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year award A renowned climate scientist shows how fossil fuel companies have waged a thirty-year campaign to deflect blame and responsibility and delay action on climate change, and offers a battle plan for how we can...
The new wilderness : a novel
Cook, Diane
Paper Book
A Washington Post, NPR, and Buzzfeed Best Book of the Year * Shortlisted for the Booker Prize "More than timely, the novel feels timeless, solid, like a forgotten classic recently resurfaced -- a brutal, beguiling fairy tale about humanity. But at its core, The New Wilderness is really...
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...
Purified : how recycled sewage is transforming our water
Annin, Peter
Paper Book
In 2000, a transformative climate-driven "megadrought" swept over the Colorado River watershed. By the early 2020s, levels on the river's two largest reservoirs were hitting record lows and threatening the water supply for forty million people. Outside the West, water stocks are stressed even in...
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...
Sheepish : two women, fifty sheep, and enough wool to save the planet
Friend, Catherine.
Paper Book
What do you do when you love your farm . . . but it doesn't love you? After fifteen years of farming, Catherine Friend is tired. After all, while shepherding is one of the oldest professions, it's not getting any easier. The number of sheep in America has fallen by 90 percent in the last ninety...
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
Paper Book
In the movement against throw-away culture and fast fashion, learn how to pick up a needle and rediscover the forgotten techniques and joy of mending. Covering 12 core techniques, 10 key stitches and 12 projects, explore why we should mend and how to mend a...
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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