Recommended Reading

a dynamic reading list

*feel free to suggest additions to this compilation

Global Warming

Houghton, John. 2004.
Global Warming: The Complete Briefing,
third edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Clear, concise, and accurate introduction to the scientific side of global warming by an eminent British climate scientist.

Leggett, J. 2001.
The Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of The Oil Era.
New York: Routledge.

Autobiographical and inspiring work by a Greenpeace founder

Weart, Spencer R. 2003.
The Discovery of Global Warming.
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

A history of scientific consideration of global warming, from the nineteenth century to today. Discusses how an originally scientific question became a matter of politics and policy.

Gore, Albert. 1992.
Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

An important book: Gore's personal effort to conceptualize the environmental crisis and develop practical policy responses

History of the Environmental Movement

Norton, B. G. 1991.
Toward Unity Among Environmentalists.
New York: Oxford University Press.

Excellent environmental history that focuses on need for cooperation and moral pluralism in the environmental movement.

Dowie, Martin, 1996.
Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at the Close of the Twentieth Century.
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

A concise historical treatment of the successes and failures of the environmental movement in the United States

Switzer, Jacqueline Vaughn. 1997.
Green Backlash: The History and Politics of Environmental Opposition in the U.S.
Boulder, Col.: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Good history of US anti-environmentalism

Sustainability

Berry, Wendell. 1977.
The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture.
San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.

Philosophical consideration of the relationship of human beings to agriculture and the natural world

Water and Waterways

Reisner, Marc. 1993.
Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water.
New York: Penguin Books.

Exciting true adventure story of the development of our West at the environment's expense

White, Richard. 1995.
The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River.
New York: Hill and Wang.

A kind of manifesto for environmental history focused on human labor rather than wilderness and leisure. The book covers exploration, fishery conflicts, Hanford, Woody Guthrie and the dams. Beautifully written

General

McKibben, Bill. 1989.
The End of Nature.
New York: Random House.

Scathing critique of human impact on the Earth.

McKibben, Bill. 1995.
Hope, Human and Wild.
Boston: Little Brown.

Hopeful accounts of environmental recoveries; nice antidote to The End of Nature.

John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry.
This Moment On Earth
(Public Affairs, $25.)

Environmental challenges and possible solutions. Stories of people who found innovative ways to help the environment.

Edited by Alex Steffen
Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century

Worldchanging is poised to be the Whole Earth Catalog for this millennium. Written by leading new thinkers who believe that the means for building a better future lie all around us, Worldchanging is packed with the information, resources, reviews, and ideas that give readers the tools they need to make a difference.

Wilderness

Callicott, J. Baird and Michael P. Nelson, eds. 1998.
The Great New Wilderness Debate: An Expansive Collection of Writings Defining Wilderness from John Muir to Gary Snyder.
Athens: University of Georgia Press

Includes some of the "classic" pieces on environmental preservation

Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness.
New York: Simon & Schuster.

Desert Solitaire describes Abbey's life during three seasons as a park ranger in southeast Utah. Written in an eloquent and provoking style, the book urges us to reconsider our relationship with the natural world

Classics

Carson, Rachel. 1994 [1962].
Silent Spring.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.

The book on pesticide pollutants that triggered American environmentalism.

Historical Accounts

Cronin, John and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 1997.
The Riverkeepers.
New York: Scribners.

An inspirational account of Kennedy's efforts to protect river resources and halt industrial pollution in New York

Environment and Human Health

Steingraber, Sandra.
Living Downstream

With this eloquent and impassioned book, biologist and poet Sandra Steingraber shoulders the legacy of Rachel Carson, producing a work about people and land, cancer and the environment, that is as accessible and invaluable as Silent Spring--and potentially as historic.

"By skillfully weaving a strong personal drama with thorough scientific research, Steingraber tells a compelling story....Well worth reading."--Washington Post

Go Green Guidebooks

Yarrow, Joanna chronicle books 1,001 Ways to Save the Earth

From pesticide free gardening to how to stop junk mail from piling up..

*list is a composite of several suggested reading lists including many from the Univ of Chicago, dept of Environmental Studies, sf chronicle, and friends.

Organic lawn and garden

Holmes, Hannah
Suburban safari : a year on the lawn

Called “Rachel Carson for 21rst century suburbia’ she earned a special place on my bookshelf for mentioning the Milford Freedom Lawn contest in her book

Carr, James.
Gardening and Landscaping the Natural Way
iUniverse 2004

Connecticut naturalist and advocate of the less is more approach to cultivating plants, letting nature guide the work.

Wargo, John, Wargo , Linda Alderman, Nancy
Risks from Lawn-care Pesticides

A useful compilation of info about the common pesticides and their detrimental health and environmental effects. Distilled to the essential points

F. Herbert Bormann, Diana Balmori, Gordon T. Geballe, and Lisa Vernegaard
Redesigning the American Lawn: A Search for Environmental Harmony,
Second Edition

Link List

Clean Water Action in CT

New England Climate Coalition

CT Urban Forest Council