By Shalra Azeem, Spring 2025 Intern
10 Books to Read and Look Forward to this Earth Day
Earth Day is celebrated by more than a billion people globally. With each passing year, it becomes more important to understand the state of our planet, what new issues are contributing to the climate crisis, and how we can bring awareness to these arising situations and implement change at every level. It can be overwhelming to stay informed on all the threats to our environment, but focusing on learning about certain aspects of the climate crisis and finding ways to make sustainable changes at the individual level or in your community can have meaningful positive impacts. You may choose to focus on this year’s Earth Day theme “Our Power, Our Planet”—which speaks to the importance of renewable energy—or rather focus on climate migration, agricultural reform, the impact on minority groups, or community-focused solutions, all topics featured within this list. Whether you read one of these books or a few, you can learn more about how to promote and implement environmental action and sustainability, as well as staying up to date on more climate conscious titles to be released this fall.
Charging Forward: Lithium Valley, Electric Vehicles, and a Just Future
Charging Forward uncovers the story of California’s Salton Sea region—home to some of the country’s worst environmental health conditions but also ground zero for the race to extract lithium for electric vehicle and renewable energy storage markets. Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor explain that we cannot achieve lithium-powered clean energy solutions without first addressing environmental degradation, labor exploitation, and racial injustice in our country.
From the Ground Up: The Women Revolutionizing Regenerative Agriculture
Award-winning author Stephanie Anderson addresses the root causes of our unsustainable, profit-hungry industrialized food system before sharing inspiring, groundbreaking narratives of hope. From the Ground Up sheds light on the stories of diverse female farmers, entrepreneurs, community organizers, scientists, and political leaders who are fighting climate change and championing regenerative agriculture.
Frackopoly: The Battle for the Future of Energy and the Environment
In this powerful examination of the controversial energy extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, Wenonah Hauter takes us through the history of the industry and the technologies that make it possible. With a wealth of new data, Hauter exposes the dangers that fracking is causing to the environment and human health and debunks its supposed economic benefits.
Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer)
In the first book of its kind, Losing Our Cool examines how indoor climate control is helping to send our outdoor climate out of control, while also contributing to adverse health effects. However, Stan Cox proposes a solution—combining traditional cooling methods with new technologies can keep us, and the planet, more comfortable.
The World We Need: Stories and Lessons from America’s Unsung Environmental Movement
In The World We Need, journalist Audrea Lim reports on America’s overlooked, yet effective, grassroots environmental groups. By highlighting largely forgotten American communities where the effects of the climate crisis have been hitting for years, Lim shows us how we can learn from seasoned climate activists and offers an inspired new model for the larger environmental movement.
The Sustainability Class: How to Take Back Our Future from Lifestyle Environmentalists
In this original take on the sustainability movement, Vijay Kolinjivadi and Aaron Vansintjan argue that wealthy urbanites have capitalized on going green, making sustainability unsustainable and inaccessible to everyone but the elite minority. By contrast, ordinary people are making an impact by coming together and advocating for housing and food production, transport, and waste management, among other things.
We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth
An intimate, powerful collection, We Are the Middle of Forever calls upon Indigenous voices to be at the center of conversations about the environmental crisis. This book draws from interviews with people from different North American Indigenous cultures and communities who have adapted and persevered through radical changes to the planet for generations, sharing their knowledge, observations, and advice on maintaining and protecting all life on Earth.
Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors
Published in collaboration with Grist, a nonprofit media organization dedicated to reporting on climate change and solutions, Afterglow contains a collection of short stories that imagine a radically different climate future. With influences from literary movements such as Afrofuturism, hopepunk, and solarpunk, these stories imagine a future where no one is left behind in pursuit of a better, healthier world. In these hopeful stories, fiction shows us how to create a better reality.
The Atlas of Disappearing Places: Our Coasts and Oceans in the Climate Crisis
With its paperback edition set to release in September, The Atlas of Disappearing Places is a beautiful, striking display of global warming’s impact on our globe. Painted with water-soluble ink on sheets of dried seaweed, the message of environmental activism starts from the page itself, as well as the maps and information creatively displayed on them. This stunning book is a deeply researched portrait of where our planet is now and what its potential futures may be.
Shelter from the Storm: How Climate Change Is Creating a New Era of Migration
Set to release in January, Shelter from the Storm provides historical perspective on the massive human displacement caused by climate change, and details how millions more around the world will have to move in the coming decades. With hard-hitting journalism, Julian Hattem explores human geography all over the world, and how likely it is to change.
