Earth Day | Sustainability Reading List

I, like many other house-bound folks during quarantine, have promised myself that I want to spend time doing something OTHER than Netflix: work out, maybe even start baking bread? One thing that’s definitely on the list is reading.

For transparency sake, reading also made an appearance on my ‘new year resolution’ list, but trust me – this time, it’s different.

This month is NYU Earth Month. NYU Libraries has compiled a guide to relevant ebooks, online videos, virtual tours, conferences and festivals, and citizen science projects.

We picked a list of environmental must-reads. Some are fiction, some are fact, but all of them are fantastic.

01. Braiding Sweetgrass

Robin Wall Kimmerer shares her knowledge as an indigenous scientist through topics like ecological knowledge and teachings that can be found through plants.

In Braiding Sweetgrass, she emphasizes how plants and animals are our oldest teachers, and the traditional wisdom we can learn from them.

Read

02. On Fire: The (Burning) Case for the Green New Deal

Naomi Klein makes the case for a Green New Deal—explaining how bold climate action can be a blueprint for a just and thriving society.

On Fire captures the burning urgency of the climate crisis, as well as the fiery energy of a rising political movement demanding a catalytic Green New Deal.

Read

03. New York 2140

This climate fiction book is mostly set in a fictional future New York City, which has been flooded by two major rises in seawater levels caused by climate change.

Most of New York City is permanently underwater, however, people still live in the upper floors of the buildings, much like in the Venice of today.

Read

04. Drawdown 20 Review

Project Drawdown conducts an ongoing review and analysis of climate solutions—the practices and technologies that can stem and begin to reduce the excess of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere—to provide the world with a current and robust resource.

The publication of the best-selling book Drawdown was the organisation’s inaugural body of work on climate solutions.

Read