Book Recommendations

See also Writing Note: these are not part of Core course, just books that will be of interest to anyone concerned with the environment.

New Books

Two new novels feature climate change, Mark Nykanen’s Primitive and Far North by Marcel Theroux (as does an older one, Friend of the Earth by TC Boyle Link

The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis By Jeremy Rifkin. Intro/ Excerpt

Steward Brand, the center hub of the human network, has a new book, Whole Earth Discipline. He's putting the whole book online for free, with annotations and a reading list link. He makes some stands that are heretical to mainstream greens (pro-nuke and GMO). Those who heard Fred Turner's plenary talk last year will have some sense of how important Brand has been and continues to be.

Reviews of The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning by James Lovelock, video of talk In Search of Gaia by John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin The Medea Hypothesis: Is Life on Earth Ultimately Self-Destructive? by Peter Ward

Starved for Science: how biotechnology is being kept out of Africa By Robert L. Paarlberg Review

Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture by Taylor Clark

Coal River by Michael Shnayerson

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan

Atomic Americaby Todd Tucker. On January 3, 1961, nuclear reactor SL-1 exploded in rural Idaho, spreading radioactive contamination over thousands of acres and killing three men: John Byrnes, Richard McKinley, and Richard Legg. The Army blamed "human error" and a sordid love triangle. Though it has been overshadowed by the accident at Three Mile Island, SL-1 is the only fatal nuclear reactor incident in American history, and it holds serious lessons for a nation poised to embrace nuclear energy once again.

Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It by Robert Glennon

Summer Books

Grist Magazine's 15 picks

Lonely Planet Code Green Experiences

The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey

An Unreasonable Woman Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation fisherwoman, leads a one-woman crusade against Dow and other petrochemical plants, which create 17% of America’s pollution from her Texas town of 1,352. These factories have turned Seadrift from a traditional fishing port into a massive chemical cocktail that poisons the surrounding air, earth and waters, sardonically dubbed Texas Gold, video excerpt. From Texas to Wall Street to the front lawn of former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson's multi-million dollar mansion on Long Island -- all the while chased by Texas Rangers charged with bringing her to justice -- Diane pursues a reckless industry with a soft drawl, dogged determination and her own special brand of Southern bad-ass fisherwoman humor. In the 16 years since she began her fight, Diane has received death threats and suffered intimidation tactics; shots were fired at her house from a helicopter and her dog was poisoned.Democracy Now interview

Zodiac by Neal Stephenson (Author of Snow Crash etc). Set in Boston, hero Sangamon Taylor (S. T.) ironically describes his hilarious exploits in the first person, sometimes resorting to profanity. S. T. is a modern superhero, a self-proclaimed Toxic Spiderman. With stealth, spunk, and the backing of GEE (a non-profit environmental group) as his weapons, S. T. chases down the bad guys with James Bond-like Zen.

Other Books

Al Gore's new book Our Choices

In Soul and Soil, Alastair McIntosh tells how he helped the beleaguered residents of the Isle of Eigg to become the first Scottish community ever to clear their laird (the landed proprietor) from his own estate. He recounts how plans to turn a majestic Hebridean mountain into a super-quarry were overturned after he persuaded a Native American warrior chief to testify at a government inquiry. Weaving together theology, mythology, economics, ecology, history, poetics, and politics, this is an extraordinary case study of a radical new philosophy of community, spirit, and place. Alastair McIntosh is a Scottish academic and activist. A fellow of the Centre for Human Ecology, he lectures worldwide on new economics, community, and nonviolent strategies.

Greasy Rider: Two Dudes, One Fast Food Fueled Car, and a Cross-Country Search for a Greener Future "Is it possible to drive coast-to-coast without stopping at a single gas pump? Journalist Greg Melville is determined to try. With his college buddy Iggy riding shotgun, he sets out on an enlightening road trip. The quest: to be the first people to drive cross-country in a french-fry car."CNN video interview

Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Thomas L. Freidman, author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree, and The World Is Flat, explains how America can lead the green revolution in the 21st century (audio and video too). Interview based on his new book Hot, Flat and Crowded excerpt/intro 09/08

Elizabeth Royte's new book Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It (includes audio interview). Another interview, text. (See also our own former Provost Szasz's book Excerpt. Her previous book Garbage Land is a good read.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan (Penguin Press, 2006). Our meal choices matter—a trip through America's food chain. First chapter free online.

Ten Ways to Change the World in Your Twenties We need someone to write a review of this book.

Great Jobs for Environmental Studies Majors - by Julie DeGalan link

Outside Magazine's picks

Bill McKibben's recent review in the NY Times recommends The End of Oil link and others

Mark Hertsgaard's Picks:

1. Earth Under Fire, by Gary Braasch (University of California Press), is the best book on global warming I’ve read this year. Braasch is an intrepid and accomplished photographer who has spent years traveling to all parts of the world to document, in stunning images and well-researched accompanying text, how global warming is changing our planet NOW. Even global warming experts can learn from this book, but it’s perfect for newcomers to the topic too. Plus, it looks great on a coffee table.

2. Fight Global Warming Now, by Bill McKibben and the Step It Up Team, (Holt), is the essential handbook for the essential task now facing us: taking organized political action to achieve major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. As Bill points out in the book, many people know global warming must be fought, but they don’t know what to do or how to go about it. This book tells you, in very accessible, non-intimidating and even, dare I say, fun ways. Go get ‘em!

3. Exposed, by Mark Schapiro (Chelsea Green) is an environmental scoop that sends a message not only to American consumers but businesses: U.S. law allows all kinds of nasty toxic chemicals in the most common daily products (toys, cosmetics, etc.) that are banned in Europe; and because Europe is taking the environmental high road, it is gaining, not losing, global market share. (Disclosure: I offered a blurb to this book but, dammit, receive no royalties.)

4. The Informant, by Kurt Eichenwald (Broadway Books) is the true but almost unbelievable inside story of the rampant price-fixing and other ... conduct undertaken by Archer Daniels Midland, the agri-business giant .... Told by a New York Times reporter who clearly had amazing access to all parties involved.... A great read, too.

5. A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornsby (Penguin) is well-timed for the holiday season. The opening chapter, set on New Year’s Eve, portrays four very different individuals who find themselves, to their collective surprise, atop the same London rooftop with the same purpose in mind: jumping off and ending it all. Somehow, Hornsby manages to turn this into a brilliant, insightful, hilarious but never easy or sentimental meditation on what makes all of us tick, and how to keep going despite the despair that occasionally tempts each of us.

Send your suggestions to mailto:pmmckerc@ucsc.edu