Books for a Better Planet: Reading for World Environment Day (June 5)

World Environment Day is the United Nations day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment.

Updated June 1, 2024
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The uninhabitable earth : life after warming
Wallace-Wells, David
Paper Book
The slowness of climate change is a fairy tale, perhaps as pernicious as the one that says it isn't happening at all, and if your anxiety about it is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible, even within the lifetime of a teenager today...
Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are?
Waal, F. B. M. de
Paper Book
From world-renowned biologist and primatologist Frans de Waal, a groundbreaking work which challenges everything we think we know about animal intelligence.
Salvage the bones : a novel
Ward, Jesmyn.
Ebook
_______________'A brilliantly pacy adventure story ... Ward writes like a dream' - The Times'Fresh and urgent' - New York Times'There's something of Faulkner to Ward's grand diction' - Guardian_______________WINNER OF THE NATIONAL...
Fen, bog & swamp : a short history of peatland destruction and its role in the climate crisis
Proulx, Annie
Paper Book
A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week 'A subject that could not be more important. A compact classic!' Bill McKibben 'I learned something new - and found something amazing - on every page' Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See
Finding the mother tree : discovering the wisdom of the forest
Simard, S.
Paper Book
Raised in the hardy forest communities of British Columbia, scientist Suzanne Simard overturned conventional beliefs in proving that trees and plants are connected underground by an immense web of fungal mycelia, at the centre of which lie the Mother Trees- the mysterious, powerful entities that...
Gathering moss : a natural and cultural history of mosses
Kimmerer, Robin Wall.
Paper Book
Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Mossis a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.
The Earth: A Biography of Life: The Story of Life On Our Planet through 47 Incredible Organisms
Panciroli, Elsa.
Paper Book
It is difficult to conceive of the vast scale of the history of life on Earth, from the very first living organisms that developed in hydrothermal deep-sea vents to the diversity of life today. The evolution of life is a sweeping epic of a tale, with twists and turns, surprising heroes and unlikely...
Planet earth iii
Brandon, Michael Gunton, Jonny Keeling A
Paper Book
The official tie-in to the third instalment in the legendary Planet Earth franchise Few places on Earth remain untouched by humans, creating challenges for the wildlife we share it with. We have entered a new age, and we must look at the splendour of the natural world through a...
Braiding sweetgrass
Kimmerer, Robin Wall.
Paper Book
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of...
The climate book
Thunberg, Greta
Paper Book
We still have time to change the world. From Greta Thunberg, one of the world's leading climate activist, 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 never seen, against...

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