Earth Day for Adults

Inspirational and motivational non-fiction reads for Earth Day.

Updated April 15, 2023
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The climate book
Thunberg, Greta
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER We still have time to change the world. From climate activist Greta Thunberg, comes the essential handbook for making it happen. You might think it's an impossible task: secure a safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed...
Fire and flood : a people's history of climate change, from 1979 to the present
Linden, Eugene
Paper Book
Winner of the American Meteorological Society's Louis J. Batton Book of the Year Award From a writer and expert who has been at the center of the fight for more than thirty years, a brilliant, big-picture reckoning with our shocking failure to address climate change. Fire and...
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...
A brief history of Earth : four billion years in eight chapters
Knoll, Andrew H.
Paper Book
Harvard's acclaimed geologist "charts Earth's history in accessible style" (AP) "A sublime chronicle of our planet." -Booklist, STARRED review How well do you know the ground beneath your feet  Odds are, where you're standing was once cooking...
Guardians of the valley : John Muir and the friendship that saved Yosemite
King, Dean
Paper Book
* "We see through this book the immense power of language...to change the minds of lawmakers and tourists alike." --The New York Times Book Review * "A poignant portrait of an era when mere words could change the world." --San Francisco Chronicle * The dramatic...
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...
Full of life : exploring Earth's biodiversity
Thomas, Isabel
Paper Book
Science meets design in this graphically stunning introductory tour of Earth's amazing biodiversity This artful and accessible guide to Earth's Tree of Life - the reference tool used by scientists to organize the incredible variety of living things on our planet - helps young readers...
Cool food : erasing your carbon footprint one bite at a time
Downey, Robert, Jr.
Paper Book
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, and to the planet. Cool food is a game-changing new food...
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 21 : the true story of the youth who sued the US government over climate change
Rusch, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Compelling and timely, award-winning author Elizabeth Rusch's The Twenty-One tells the gripping inside story of the ongoing landmark federal climate change lawsuit, Juliana vs. United States of America. The Twenty-One is for readers of Christina Soontornvat's All Thirteen, fans of...
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...
The parrot and the igloo : climate and the science of denial
Lipsky, David
Paper Book
In 1956, the New York Times prophesied that once global warming really kicked in, we could see parrots in the Antarctic. In 2010, when science deniers had control of the climate story, Senator James Inhofe and his family built an igloo on the Washington Mall and plunked a sign on top: AL GORE'S...
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...

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