The Batavia Public Library

The Batavia Public Library is more than a library.  It is a community center, a place to meet and learn.  They offer enrichment classes for all ages and, of course, they've got books.  Below is a list of green reading and resources that has been compiled by Robert L. Brubaker,  Reference Librarian.  The extensivebibliography below includes
Non-Fiction Books
        Historical Background
        General
        Scientific Evidence
        Ethical and Religious Views
        The Debate
        Action
Videos 
Websites
Fiction Books. 
It is current as of February 2009.

Brochures with this bibliography are available.

[Call  numbers are for resources in the Batavia Public Library.  For call numbers in other libraries, consult their on-line catalogs]

Historical Background

Black, Brian.  Nature and the Environment in Nineteenth-Century American Life (2006)  973.5 BLA.  In a series on “Daily Life Through History,” a professor of environmental studies at Penn State University discusses changing ideas about nature and conservation efforts and how they were impacted by developments in agriculture, technology, industrialization, and trade. 

Black, Brian.  Nature and the Environment in Twentieth-Century American Life (2006).  973.9 BLA   Black continues his account of environmental movements, focusing on the continued creation of national and state parks, resource management and growing energy needs, green culture and grassroots activism. 

Diamond, Jared.  Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005).  304.28 DIA.   An analysis of ecological reasons for the collapse of previous civilizations with implications for what could happen in the future if action is not taken.

Fagan, Brian.  The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations  (2008).  904.5 FAG.  An emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of California in Santa Barbara, Fagan draws on evidence from ice borings, archaeology, and historical records to show that previous periods of climate change and  global warming from 800 to 1300 helped produce larger harvests in Europe but also brought about drought and suffering in Asia, North America, and South America, contributing to the collapse of the Mayan civilization and Mongol incursions into Europe. In this and his previous book on the period from 1300 to 1850, The Little Ice Age (2000), Fagan shows that subtle shifts in the environment can have profound effects on human life.

Fagan, Brian.  The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850 (2000).  551.694 FAG.  In the early 1300s the climate was mild enough for vineyards to flourish in England and for Vikings to settle in Greenland.  Fagan draws on evidence from paleoclimatology such as ice cores, tree rings, and archaeological digs as well as historical sources such as tithing records about dates of wine harvests to show how centuries of cooling and erratic rains produced widespread famine until a warming trend brought better harvests again but also resulted in rising sea levels that forced the Dutch to protect farmland by building sea walls.

Steinberg, Theodore.  Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History (2002).  333.713 STE.  A professor of history at Case Western Reserve University with a special interest in the environment provides an excellent history of how nature has played an important role in social, economic, and political developments in the United States from the colonial period to the present.

General

Kingsolver, Barbara.  Small Wonder (2002).  814.54 KINGSOLVER.  A collection of essays that has been described as “an extended love song to the world we still have.”

Leopold, Aldo.  A Sand County Almanac; and Sketches Here and There (1968, ©1949).  508 LEO.   The New York Times Book Review stated that this is “some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land.”

Porter, Eliot.  Eliot Porter: The Color of Wildness (2001).  Oversize 779.092 POR.  A beautifully illustrated retrospective of photographs by Porter, who became a major advocate for environmental conservation and championed the importance of color photography for nature at a time when followers of Ansel Adams preferred black and white. 

Tennesen, Michael.  The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Global Warming (2008).  363.73874 TEN. 

Scientific Evidence

Bowen, Mark.  Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming (2008).  363.73874 BOW.  Hansen was a prominent climate scientist in NASA.  Bowen provides evidence that senior appointees in the Bush administration guided by ideology rather than science sought to muzzle Hansen’s public statements about the reality of global warming and gutted NASA’s earth science budget.

Brown, Paul.  Global Warning: The Last Chance for Change (2007).  363.73874 BRO.  Illustrating the evidence with over 300 color photographs, Brown explains why scientists predict that there may be a point of no return within ten years unless we take action.  He finds hopeful signs in countries that are replacing fossil fuels with solar, wind, and geothermal energy and contends that the United States and the rest of the world needs to follow suit.

Global Warming: The Signs and the Science (2005).  DVD 363.73874 GLO.  A PBS documentary that “brings the reality of climate change to life and offers viewers a variety of ways to make a difference in their own communities.”

Gore, Albert.  An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning (2006).  DVD 363.73874 INC.  Al Gore’s movie based on his campaign to expose myths and misinformation about the seriousness of global warming and the need to take action before it is too late.

Gore, Albert.  An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It  (2006).  363.73874 GOR.   A book version of the documentary film. 

Hensen, Robert.  The Rough Guide to Climate Change (2008).  363.73874 HEN.  Basics, symptoms, science, debates, solutions, what you can do.

Kolbert, Elizabeth.  Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change (2006).  363.73874 KOL.  Expanded from a series in the New Yorker, journalist Kolbert bases her warnings about the consequences of climate change on interviews with researchers  and on a field trip to the Arctic.  A chapter praises Burlington, Vermont, as a model for its impressive campaign to save energy.

Ethical and Religious Views

Berry, Thomas.  The Dream of the Earth (1988).  215.7 BER.  Published by the Sierra Club, this is an eloquent statement by a Catholic priest, cultural historian, and environmental activist about ethical and religious reasons for conserving the environment.

Gottlieb, Roger S.  A Greener Faith: Religious Environmentalism and Our Planet’s Future (2006).  201.77 GOT.  Discusses the increasing concern for protection of the environment among mainstream religious groups such as the National Council of Churches; teachings by Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist theologians who emphasize the importance of “stewardship of God’s creation;” and efforts by religious activists to get the Bush administration and legislators to address global warming.

Richardson, B. J.  Christianity, Evolution and the Environment: Fitting it Together (2001).  231.7652 RIC.  A scientist who is a Christian argues that evolution and theology are compatible and discusses the moral dimensions of the ecological crisis. 

Wilson, Edward O. The Creation, An Appeal To Save Life On Earth  (2006). 333.9516 WILSON.  Distinguished biologist E. O. Wilson, a professor at Harvard University for over five decades, was a Southern Baptist as a boy in Alabama, so he understands the evangelical Christian point of view.  In The Creation, his appeal in the form of a Letter to a Southern Baptist Pastor, Wilson tries to find common ground between secular humanists and evangelical Christians for taking care of the earth and avoiding continued devastation of the environment.  Wilson points out that the impact of humans on habitat destruction and extinction of species has been almost as devastating as the last cataclysm 65 million years ago when a giant meteorite crashed into the Yucatan peninsula, destroying dinosaurs and most other life forms; and that continued loss of species, habitat destruction, and environmental degradation today will have significant impacts on human life as well. 

The Debate

Caldicott, Helen.  Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer (2006).  333.7924 CAL.  The president of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute contends that using nuclear power instead of coal and petroleum based sources of energy cannot solve the problem of global warming because the true cost is prohibitive, there is not enough uranium in the world, and nuclear power actually contributes to global warming.

Devine, Bob.  Bush Versus the Environment (2004).  YA333.72 DEV.  A veteran journalist for National Geographic provides an overview of the Bush administration’s environmental policies.

Friedman, Thomas L.  Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution, And How It Can Renew America (2008).  Though still convinced that the free market rather than government action is the  best system for transformation, Friedman agrees that there is a need for conservation and alternate energies and suggests ways in which the government can create conditions favorable for investment in green technologies.

Gingrich, Newt.  A Contract with the Earth (2007).  333.72 GIN.  A conservative’s call for  bipartisan environmentalism based on the premises that the issue should transcend partisan politics and that environmental entrepreneurs should be the cornerstone of environmental solutions.  One review states that their concern is sincere but “their prescription for action breaks shallow ground.”

Horner, Christopher.  The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism (2007).  363.73834 HOR.  A review in LINC states that Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, claims to explode the “top ten global warming myths” and “reveals the full anti-American, anti-capitalist, and anti-human agenda of today’s environmentalists.”

Kennedy, Robert Francis.  Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy (2004).  333.7 KEN.  In a harsh indictment, an environmental attorney and activist cites facts to support his accusations and makes a passionate case for environmental controls.

Mooney, Chris.  Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming   (2007).  363.73874.  A leading science journalist discusses the scientific evidence and the impact of special interests, politics, and the media on both sides of the debate over whether global warming is increasing the strength of hurricanes and the damage they have caused in New Orleans and elsewhere.

Pope, Carl.  Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress (2004).  333.72 POP.    Both Republican and Democratic presidents since Theodore Roosevelt have helped develop natural resource policies that increased protection of the environment.  Pope, the executive director of the Sierra Club, discusses why citizens should be outraged by the abysmal record of the Bush administration, which by appointing pro-industry and environment-unfriendly heads of agencies, suppressing findings of their own scientists, and disinformation campaigns has altered the Clean Air Act so that it adds to pollution, devised a so-called Healthy Forest Initiative that permits more clear-cut logging, stripped millions of acres of public lands from protections against mining and logging interests, and decreased the safety of both the air we breathe and the water we drink..

Reece, Erik.  Lost Mountain: A Year in the Vanishing Wilderness: Radical Strip Mining and the Devastation of Appalachia (2006).  622.292 REE.  The review in LINC states that this is “an impassioned account of a business rife with industrial greed, devious corporate ownership and unenforced environmental laws” and “an inspiring call to arms to defend one of America's most threatened natural treasures.”

Schnayerson, Michael. Coal River (2008).  Based on court transcripts, corporate reports, and his own investigations, journalist Schnayerson discusses the devastation caused in the Appalachians by a form of mining in which tops of mountains are sheared off and rubble is dumped in valleys and streams, a method permitted by the state’s industry-friendly EPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and easing of environmental controls by the Bush administration.

Speth, James Gustave.  Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment (2004).  363.7 SPE.   The dean of Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies contends that the global environmental crisis is serious and that we are running out of time.

Sweet, William.  Kicking The Carbon Habit: Global Warming And The Case For Renewable And Nuclear Energy (2006).  333.794 SWE  A science journalist acknowledges the crisis posed by global warming, doubts that oil consumption can be cut much in our car-driven culture, concurs that wind energy is the best alternative source, but believes that nuclear energy, despite dangers posed by the Chernobyl disaster, is another preferred energy source for reducing global warming.

ACTION

Bach, David.  Go Green, Live Rich: 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and get Rich Trying (2008)  363.70525 BAC.  Suggestions for conserving the planet and saving money through means such as fuel-efficient cars, unplugging appliances when not in use, spending family vacations in nature, and growing your own vegetables.

Bongiorno, Lori.  Green, Greener, Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-Smart Choices A Part of Your Life (2008).  363.70525 BON.  How to make small steps to decrease your carbon footprint.

Clapp, Jennifer.  Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment (2005).  333.7 CLA.   Examines the links between the global political economy and ecological change by focusing on views of market liberals, institutionalists, bioenvironmentalists, and social greens.

Crampton, Norman.  Green House: Eco-Friendly Disposal and Recycling at Home (2008).  363.7282 CRA.  Dealing with household waste from appliances to paint.

Croston, Glenn.  75 Green Businesses You Can Start to Make Money and Make a Difference (2008).  363.70023 CRO. 

David, Laurie.  The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming (2007).  J363.73874 DAV.  The producer for Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, explains to young readers with “kid-friendly analogies” and colorful illustrations how they can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and global warming through actions they can take at home and school.

Davis, Sid.  Your Eco-Friendly Home: Buying, Building, or Remodeling Green (2009).  643.1 DAV. 

Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World (Sierra Club Books, 2005).  333.22 ECO.  Reports and essays gathered by the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, ranging “from stream restoration and watershed exploration to confronting environmental justice issues at the neighborhood level.”

Harley, Bruce.  Cut Your Energy Bills Now: 150 Smart Ways to Save Money & Make Your Home More Comfortable and Green (2008).

Hill, Julia Butterfly.  One Makes The Difference: Inspiring Actions That Change Our World (2002).  332.72 HIL.  Tips for environmentally safe living from an activist who tried to save Redwoods forests by living for two years in a Redwood tree to prevent cutting and publicize her cause.   Suggestions about non-toxic cleaning products, recycling, locally grown produce, and nonviolent protesting.

Hoffman, Jane S.  Green: Your Place in the New Energy Revolution (2008).  333.794 HOF.  A discussion of emerging technologies, rejecting corn-based ethanol and hydrogen as feasible future energy sources, but contending that other renewable sources such as solar, wind, biomass crops, and geothermal drilling will be improved sufficiently to replace fossil fuels.

Jeffery, Yvonne.  Green Living for Dummies (2008).  363.70525 JEF.  Simple strategies for making a difference.

Johansen, Bruce.  The Global Warming Combat Manual: Solutions for a Sustainable World (2008).  332.72 JOH.  A professor at the University of Nebraska surveys policy and behavioral changes that could help, from our car culture and over-reliance on aviation to renewal sources of power and land use.

Louv, Richard.  Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder (2005).  155.418 LOU.  A child advocacy expert argues that more children should have opportunities to learn about and appreciate the natural world. Many children today spend summers in camps focused on computers or weight loss instead of on swimming, hiking, and learning about nature, which he believes could be therapy for attention-deficit disorder and other problems.

Loux, Renee.  Easy Green Living: The Ultimate Guide to Simple, Eco-Friendly Choices for You and Your Home (2008).  640 LOU.  Environmentally sustainable kitchens, bathrooms, laundry, bedrooms, and cleaning products.

MacEachern, Diane.  Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World (2008).  363.70525 MAC.  A motivational speaker suggests that the best way to protect the planet is to mobilize women.  Her recommendations range from cosmetics and clothing to lawns, children’s toys, appliances, furniture, and paint.

Marshall, Natalia.  Live an Eco-Friendly Life: Smart Ways to Get Green and Stay That Way (2008).  363.70525 MAR.

McKibben, Bill.  Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community (2007).  363.73874 MCK.  McKibben helped organize a web site called Step It Up and a group of more than 1,400 volunteers who organized rallies in all fifty states to persuade Congress to reduce carbon emissions.  Drawing on their experiences, McKibben provides advice for other environmental activists in communities, colleges, and churches.

Mills, Stephanie.  In Service of the Wild: Restoring and Reinhabiting Damaged Land (1995).  639.9 MIL.  Discusses her own efforts to restore logged-over land at her 35-acre home in Northern Michigan and five restoration projects elsewhere, including Aldo Leopold’s Sand County farm in Wisconsin, prairie preserves in and near Chicago, and an ecologically operated village in India.

Pollan, Michael.  The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006).  394.12 POL.  The social, ethical, and environmental impact of the food we eat. 

Rocca, Alessa.  Natural Architecture (2007).  Buildings by a group of architects who promote the use of natural materials such as twigs, pebbles, and straw found at the site and who seek to create better relationships with nature and the environment.

Rome, Adam Ward.  The Bulldozer In The Countryside : Suburban Sprawl And The Rise Of American Environmentalism (2001).   333.73 ROM.   Discusses metropolitan waste disposal, campaigns to save wetlands and floodplains, soil and wildlife in a history of attempts to reduce environmental damage from suburban development.

Sorensen, Eric.  Seven Wonders for a Cool Planet: Everyday Things to Help Solve Global Warming (2008).  363.73874 SOR.  A Sierra Club book with chapters on seven “wonders” used as springboards for discussing global warming issues, from the bicycle, ceiling fan, and clothesline to a tomato, library book, and microchip.

Stein, Kathy.   Beyond Recycling : A Re-Users's Guide : 336 Practical Tips : Save Money And Protect The Environment (1997).  640.7 STE.  

Tell, Johan.  100 ways to save the World (2008).  363.70525 TEL

Woolsey, R. James, and Green Patriot Working Group.  50 Simple Steps to Save the Earth from Global Warming (2008).  363.73874 WOO.  Personal steps to help shift from a fossil-fuels-based society.

VIDEOS:

A Global Warming?  (2008).  DVD 363.73874 GLO.  An in-depth study of the science by the History Channel.

An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning (2006).  DVD 363.73874 INC.  Al Gore’s movie based on his campaign to expose myths and misinformation about the seriousness of global warming and the need to take action before it is too late.

Global Warming: Science and Solutions (2006).  DVD 363.73874 GLO.  Produced in association with the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Global Warming: The Signs and the Science (2005).  DVD 363.73874 GLO.  A PBS documentary that “brings the reality of climate change to life and offers viewers a variety of ways to make a difference in their own communities.”

Thomas Berry: The Great Story (2002).  DVD 201.77 THO.  The career of a Catholic priest and environmental activist and his beliefs about religious reasons for conserving the environment.

Subject Headings to Use
When Searching for Other Books and Videos
In Online Library Catalogs

• Climate Changes
• Climatology
• Green Marketing
• Green Movement
• Green Products
• Global Warming
• Environmental Responsibility
• Environmental Protection
• Environmentalism
• Sustainable Architecture
• Sustainable Living

WEB SITES:

Sign up for news and updates and receive action alerts so you can express your views to legislators and administrators:

• Chicago Wilderness: www.chicagowildernessmag.org
• Environmental Law and Policy Center: www.elpc.org/
• Friends of the Earth: www.foe.org/
• League of Conservation Voters: www.lcv.org/
• National Audubon Society: www.audubon.org
• National Park Foundation: www.nationalparks.org/Home.asp
• National Wildlife Federation: www.nwf.org/
• Sierra Club, Illinois chapter: www.sierraclub.org/il/
• Sierra Club: www.sierraclub.org 
• The Nature Conservancy: www.nature.org/
• Union of Concerned Scientists: http://www.ucsusa.org/
• Wilderness Society: www.wilderness.org/

Other sites for information:

• Batavians for Clean Energy and Conservation:  www.greenbatavia.org
• Earth Trends Environmental Information: www.earthtrends.wri.org/
• Environmental Working Group: www.ewg.org/
• Green Festival: www.greenfestivals.org/content/view/729/388/
• Illinois Environmental Protection Agency: www.epa.state.il.us/
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: www.ipcc.ch/
• Kane County Environmental Management: www.co.kane.il.us/Environment/
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: www.epa.gov/

FICTION

Barr, Nevada.  High Country (1904). FIC BARR, NEVADA. The twelfth in a series of Anna Pigeon mysteries set in national parks has park ranger Anna risking her life in the historic Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park.  Others include the first in the series, Track of the Cat (1993) set in Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas;  Ill Wind set in Mesa Verde National Park; Blind Descent set in Carlsbad Caverns National Park; and Hard Truth set in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Berry, Wendell.  A World Lost (1996).  FIC BER.   One of a series of novels and story collections by Berry about the intersecting lives of residents of a fictional rural community in Kentucky called Port William.  Berry’s concern for the environment, interpersonal relations, the importance of family farming, and dislike of changes produced by corporate agriculture are themes in his poetry, other novels such as Nathan Coulter, Jayber Crow, and The Memory of Old Jack, and essays such as What Are People For?

Bertagna, Julie.  Exodus (2008).  YA FIC BERTAGNA.  A futuristic fantasy, set in an earth submerged almost completely in water from a century of global warming, in which a fifteen-year old girl discovers through web-searching that there is a distant sky city safe from storms where her island people can find refuge.

Bingle, Donald J.  Greensword: A Tale of Extreme Global Warming (2008).  FIC BINGLE, DONALD.  A dark comedy about a group of ecoterrorists who plan to set off a nuclear explosion in a national park so that a volcanic chain reaction will create a nuclear winter that eliminates global warming.

Crichton, Michael.  State of Fear (2004).  FIC CRICHTON, MICHAEL.  In a thriller about global warming that contends environmentalists are wrong and scientific evidence for warming is thin, a research team goes to the Antarctic to foil environmental extremists who are planning “attacks of environmental terror to convince the world of impending ecological disaster.”

Hegland, Jean.  Into the Forest  (1996).  FIC HEG.  Two teen-aged sisters in Northern California struggle to survive after a collapse of technology and civil order.

Hiassen, Carl.  Skinny Dip (2004).  FIC HIASSEN.  A hilarious but indignant novel focusing on environmental degradation in Florida with a marine biologist falsifying water pollution levels for a ruthless businessman whose enterprises are poisoning the Everglades.

Hurwitz, Greg Andrew.  Minutes to Burn (2001).  FIC HURWITZ, GREGG.  A satiric novel set in a year when the ozone layer is gone, earthquakes are everywhere, evolution does strange things, and a team is sent to the Galapagos Islands to combat a rogue virus and man-eating monsters.

Kingsolver, Barbara.  Prodigal Summer (2000). FIC KINGSOLVER, BARBARA.  During a summer in Southern Appalachia, forest ranger and wildlife biologist Deanna has an affair with Eddie, who turns out to be a bounty hunter trying to kill young coyotes she tries to protect after their return to her national forest.  Focuses on environmental issues such as  ecological damage caused by excessive use of pesticides,  organic farming, protection of wildlife. 

Lee, David. So Quietly the Earth (2004). 811.54 LEE.  A  collection of poetry by Utah’s poet laureate, celebrating the beauty of the desert Southwest, including poems such as Canyonlands Requiem and Bright Angel Point at Sunset with environmental conservation as an underlying theme. 

Robinson, Kim Stanley.  Forty Signs of Rain (2004).  FIC ROBINSON, KIM.  The first title in another trilogy by a winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Lotus awards for science fiction focuses on  the earth’s future and  potential catastrophes produced by global warming and the conflict between policies advocated by scientists and environmentalists and policies championed by industrialists and their political supporters.  The story is continued in Fifty Degrees Below (2005) and Sixty Days and Counting (2007).