Just in time for Earth Day, these eight new releases make great reading for eager environmentalists
With topics ranging from consuming less to engaging with nature, we've got books for adults and teens looking to learn more about climate change and lower their carbon footprint.
FOR ADULTS
1. Don’t Be Trashy
The creator of The Zero Waste Collective wants to help you consume less. In Don’t Be Trashy: A Practical Guide to Living with Less Waste and More Joy (Penguin Canada), Tara McKenna outlines simple steps for decluttering, building a capsule wardrobe, reducing the amount of single-use plastic in your home and finding eco-minded allies—all of which will also improve your well-being.
2. The Book of Nature Connection
Nature activities aren’t just for children. In The Book of Nature Connection: 70 Sensory Activities for All Ages (New Society Publishers), “nature sommelier” Jacob Rodenburg outlines dozens of fun ways for environmentalists young and old to engage with the natural world using all five senses. Make an acorn whistle, learn a bird call, play a camouflage game, search for scents on a scavenger hunt and more.
3. The Treeline
For 50 years, the world’s northernmost tree line has been moving farther north. In The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth (St. Martin’s Press), Ben Rawlence looks at boreal forests in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Sweden and Siberia, blending reporting with the latest climate science to weave a moving tale about what these geological changes mean for life on this warming planet.
4. Otherlands
Otherlands: Journeys in Earth’s Extinct Ecosystems (Allen Lane) covers everything from how ecosystems are formed to how species adapt. By examining fossil records and changes throughout Earth’s history, from millions of years ago all the way up to present day, paleobiologist Thomas Halliday offers stunning insights into our current climate crisis.
5. Things You Can Do
Based on Eduardo Garcia’s popular “One Thing You Can Do” column in The New York Times, Things You Can Do: How to Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste (Ten Speed Press) is a user-friendly, non-preachy guide to lowering your carbon footprint. Topics include saving energy at home, buying low-carbon pet food, increasing your car’s fuel efficiency and eating an eco-friendly diet. The book also contains more than 350 gorgeous illustrations.
6. Under a White Sky
The latest book by Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction, asks if it’s still possible for us to save the world from climate change. Now in paperback, and with a new afterword by the author, Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future (Crown) examines some of the most fascinating ways that scientists, engineers and researchers are tackling the most dire crisis humanity has ever faced.
FOR TEENS
7. Girls Who Green the World
Journalist Diana Kapp introduces readers to change-makers toiling on the frontlines of the environmental movement. Girls Who Green the World: Thirty-Four Rebel Women Out to Save Our Planet (Delacorte Press) is part biography, part guidebook to the eco movement—and a wholly fascinating read for teens and adults alike, of any gender.
8. The War on Waste
The War on Waste (The Creative Company) by Valerie Bodden looks at how garbage is affecting the world and our health, offering tips on how to reduce, reuse and recycle. The book is part of the Odysseys in the Environment series, which includes titles covering water, wildlife, energy, overpopulation and more.