Books that made me more environmentally aware.

I read Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver a few weeks ago, which brought up the issues of pesticides, organic farming, hunting and poaching, etc. Definitely an absorbing read.

Although the environment is not as central a focus in A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, it was still fascinating to read about struggling farmers in Iowa, which I finished about a week ago. Of course the deeper issues involved were enough to turn me on my head for a few days, but that's beside the point.

If you read non-fiction, Barbara Kingsolver has a book about how her family lived on locally produced food for a year. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
Wendell Berry has several books on how to live organically & why it is necessary.

On the subject of nonfiction The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan is fairly mindboggling

Agreed on The Omnivore's Dilemma. Please try also The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg. It is written in a textbook style, so can be a little dry. But the concepts are revealing.

Not necessarily environmental, but certainly relevant to conventional agriculture and sustainable (or not) farming practices. Fast Food Nation. Read it and I dare you to ever eat conventional meat again...

Both of the Barbara Kingsolver books mentioned are also wonderful, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle definitely got me more excited about gardening and buying more local food.

David Brin's Earth. It is set a couple of decades in the future, and it describes a world that just barely squeaked by an ecological catastrophe. It's full of little notes about the changes that were made and how some problems were dealt with. I thought it was unreasonably optimistic, and that worries me.

I would recommend Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe. This book was given to me by my college roommate (a nutrition major) many years ago and introduced me to the idea of sustainable farming. I know it has been mentioned as an inspiration by many environmentalists/food writers.

Definitely Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. That is one scary read. Scary, but interesting. Haven't read all of it yet..have to pluck up the courage!

The Way We Eat by Peter Singer made me much more aware of the way I eat. The End of Nature by Bill McKibben is a convincing read as well. And of course there is the classic Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.

The first I read on the topic was Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. (How sweet is that, read a book and talk to the teacher about it for extra credit in High School Biology.) And yeah, it definitely had an effect.

Anything by Derrick Jensen.

Specifically Strangely Like War. But any of his books provide great insight into the destructive nature of our culture on our ecosystems.

A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson. Entertaining, enlightening and excellent.

The book that made me (and, I suspect, many other adolescent males back in the mid-sixties) aware of the concept of "ecology" was Frank Herbert's Dune.

I share several eye-opening read experiences mentioned above. Here are six more:

1491 by Charles c. Mann ought to be taught in all schools. Wow did it ever make me think, and changed the way I look at several things.

Women's Work, the First 20 000 Years: Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times by Elizabeth Wayland Barber changed how I look at a lot of history and anthropological theories on prehistoric life.

Wild Law: A manifesto For Earth Justice by Cormac Cullinen had me do an about-face on the label of Environmental Rights. I will never recover.

Animal Rights: The Inhumane Crusade by Daniel T. Oliver scared me, opened my eyes to what I had caught glimpses of in the movement when I was in it - and what drove me away from it. I consider this a must-read, too.

Rural Rites: Hunting and the Politics of Prejudice by respected investigative reporter Charlie Pye-Smith continues on the same theme, and ties in with Wild law. My stomach churned and I got angry at how corrupt the political systems are, and how they will so desperately, blatently, abuse science like how Pye-Smith reveals was done on this issue.

And Water: A natural History by Alice Outwater. Even if you read only the first two chapters, you will NEVER look at landscape the same way, again. WOW!

Shastan

The Fire Eternal by Chris D'Lacey

its the fourth book in the Fire Eternal series, and though it is fiction, enviromental things happen in the book. then i realized they kinda are happenin with the weather in my area lately. it can be 34 degrees one day and 96 the next! unpredictable!

Hot, Flat and Crowded is a must-read.

I really appreciated The Tainted Desert: Environmental Ruin in the American West by Valerie Kuletz...

#2 MarianV I agree with you about anything written by Wendell Berry. I was fortunate enough to take a creative writing course from him...and he lived the way he wrote.

I'm currently reading The World Without Us by Alan Weisman which is about what would happen to the world if humans simply vanished. It's a captivating read and really makes you think about your place on Earth.

The Culture of Make Believe by Derrick Jensen was an eye-opener for me, not only environmentally by culturally.

Not too long ago I read Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. Very interesting.

Another interesting one, a bit older, is The Natural Alien: Humankind and Environment by Neil Evernden.

I would add all books by Dr. David Suzuki, starting with The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature.

Totally agree has made me really conscious of eating food in season and as local as possible

I love this book and the interwoven tales. The environmental message about the health of the highest level carnivores was interesting too

For me it was The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game by Paul Shepard, The Abstract Wild by Jack Turner, and Can Life Prevail by Pentti Linkola. All of these I'd highly recommend.

The World Without us is a book which made me aware that the world doesn't really need us and would re-create itself and flourish without humans. Humans have been the cause of thousands of species animal species to become extinct, and we don't bat an eyelash. Yet it just never occurs to us that we could disappear, as well, and the rest of living creatures would either not give a damn or else, they'd breath a sigh of relief.

#25 - I have to agree, The World Without Us was a captivating read, it made me realise that the planet will carry on without us and positively flourish.

Right you are, MissTrudy. Couldn't agree more.