(Like peeling the layers of a large onion, most of these have numerous additional links)

Books dealing with the environment that I have read.
I did not include the copyright date for all of these. The year following most entries is the year in which I read the book.

Allman, T.D., Rogue State: America at War with the World © 2004—this is an extremely important, even vital, book about the petulance of George W.Bush and his presidency. He clearly shows the danger to the world of the Administration (“You’re either for us or against us” (the phrase should be engraved into his tombstone when the time comes)), the consistent lack of intelligence applied to world affairs by Bush and the neocons he has put in power, and how Bush became one of the United States’ few unelected presidents. The only criticism I have of the book is that it could have been shorter; Allman has a strong tendency to bash his readers over their collective heads with too many examples of single points; however, I feel he does that because of their importance (2006)

Bakan, Joel, The Corporation: The Pathological pursuit of Profit and Power—excellent book, excellent writer, beautifully researched. Bakan brilliantly details how corporations have been given powers by governments they were never meant to have, and how corporations have misused them to appropriate to themselves more and more influence over societies. He shows why it is essential for the people, as represented by their governments, to take back the “democracy, social justice, equality and compassion” that the corporations have stolen, and he shows what must be done to achieve this (2004)

Carroll, Sean B., The Making of the Fittest—along with Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers and Terry Glavin’s Waiting for the Macaws, this book makes my list of the most important books to read. Essentially a treatise on the science of evolution and why it and not creationism or “intelligent design” is the only process by which life-forms took root on Earth, it is also a powerful condemnation of those who do not “believe” in global warming and climate change. Carroll uses what he calls “basic math” (too hard for me!) to help explain evolution through genetics. It was fascinating to learn that many animals, including humans, have fossilized genes, genes that no longer work and are disappearing, like those in some fish such as the coelacanth and in most cetaceans. The penultimate chapter is devoted to how ideology ruined biology in the USSR of the Stalin-era, the foolhardiness of the early chiropractors for believing that all diseases can be cured by manipulating the spine, and the deniers of the truth of the science of evolution. The last chapter, “The Palm Trees of Wyoming,” explains how all Earth species will decline if humanity refuses to act on the scientists’ warnings about climate change brought about by global warming. Carroll also explains why removing the top predators in a food chain causes that chain to wither and die. The paragraph closing this vital book is worth quoting in its entirety: “The Huxley brothers remind us that ‘facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored’ and that we are now ‘determining the future direction of evolution on this earth.’ Will we heed these facts and accept our responsibility, if only out of self-interest? Or will cod, tuna, marlin, blue whales, dugongs, icefish, and more become as rare as palm trees in Wyoming?”
Diamond, Jared, Collapse: how societies choose to fail or to succeed—an extremely important, huge book that absolutely must be read by everyone, from presidents to the members of the lowest classes around the world. Diamond, a renowned scientist, tells the story of how old and new societies collapsed, from the Easter Islanders (who deforested their island) to Haiti and Rwanda (where societies suffered massive genocides). It’s not an easy book to read, both for that reason and the fact that it is filled with scientific evidence, but it is, nevertheless, extremely well-written (2006)

Flannery, Tim, The Weather Makers: How We are Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth © 2005—this is probably the most important book of the last two or three centuries. Flannery says (and I believe him), “We are now the weather makers,” because we humans are causing and have been causing pollution in many forms: ozone-destroying chemicals and greenhouse gases that are causing the Earth’s climate to shift and extreme weather conditions that are becoming ever more destructive, from the hottest summers in decades to the coldest winters in decades. In spite of all the objective science, China, a huge country with the largest population in the world, is planning to build more and more coal-fired plants to generate electricity. This is a vital book for all people to read, everywhere, from the poorest person to the most powerful president or dictator, wherever they are. More than that—they must take action not only to save themselves and their families, but the entire Earth. The book is backed by Dr. Flannery’s own science and that of many others. It has notes, a selected bibliography and an extensive index, as well as a Climate Change Checklist and a page of Green Power (2006)

Glavin, Terry, Waiting for the Macaws—as with Tim Flannery’s book, this one is essential, vital reading for everyone on Earth. Glavin writes about “a dark and gathering sameness” which ecologists call the Sixth Great Extinction (the dinosaurs was the fifth). We losing not only hordes of animal and plant species, but also “the vast legacy of languages, ways of living, ways of seeing, and ways of knowing.” That said, there is still hope—in Costa Rica, an Irish village, on the Lofoten Islands in the North Atlantic, at Kew Gardens in London, England and with the Longwa in the Patkai Range of the eastern Himalayas. There is “a long … struggle to conserve the living things of the world.” A beautifully written and researched treatise (2006)

Gore, Al, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It—hardly great literature, this book is nevertheless important because it reads “down” to the masses of people, particularly in the United States, in whose hands the solutions to global warming realistically exist. It is replete with full-colour photographs. The text is written mainly in large, easy-to-read non-serif style and is accompanied by many easy-to-follow graphs on heavy, good-quality paper (“30% postconsumer waste”), making it rather heavy to hold; in addition, its format is non-standard which results in some reading discomfort. Many of the photographs, especially those taken by Gore’s wife, Tipper, are spectacular. The book may be placed in the same category as those of Sean B. Carroll, Tim Flannery and Terry Glavin, but it cannot pretend to reach their level of expertise, science and plain old knowledge. Gore’s book is directed to a different audience, and it deserves to be read by all of them (2007)

Grady, Wayne, Bringing Back the Dodo: Lessons in Natural and Unnatural History—a good writer, one who is concerned with the path along which humanity is striving so blindly at the present time. He carefully distinguishes between religion and dogma on one hand and science and technology on the other. He also points out that humans are a domesticated species, likes dogs and cats and that the genetic manipulation of humans is close at hand. The essays are very well-written and researched. This is a very important book. Grady’s work would have greatly benefited from an index, a glossary, a list of recommended readings and a bibliography (2006)

Homer-Dixon, Thomas, The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization—Homer-Dixon writes with verve, intelligence, authority and conviction. He is a Canadian political scientist with other publications to his credit, notably The Ingenuity Gap, and has won the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction. The Upside of Down is arguably one of the most important books on the future of civilization as we know it, and should be read by every thinking person on Earth. It is on a par with Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers and Terry Glavin’s Waiting for the Macaws. (These books are also annotated in this list.) It is accompanied by very extensive notes at the back and an index, but it suffers from the lack of a bibliography and a glossary. The index could also be larger and more comprehensive, and the URLs given should have been listed separately, perhaps as a sub-bibliography. That said, the book deals at length with what the author calls the five “tectonic stresses”: “population stress arising from differences in the population growth rates between rich and poor societies, and from the spiraling growth of magacities in poor countries; energy stress—above all from the increasing scarcity of conventional oil; environmental stress from worsening damage to our land, water, forests, and fisheries; climate stress from changes in the makeup of our atmosphere; and … economic stress resulting from instabilities in the global economic system and ever-widening income gaps between rich and poor people.” With the aid of black-and-white photographs, Homer-Dixon backs up every major point. Ignoring the information in this book will be tantamount to ignoring the future of humanity. For the sake of this planet and its variegated life-forms, I hope this book will become “required reading” in every institution of learning around the world (2007)

Kingsolver, Barbara, Small Wonder—series of essays, mainly about the current condition of the planet with George W. Bush as U.S. president. She is definitely a left-winger, as well as an excellent writer

Monbiot, George, Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning © 2006—In the Foreward to the Canadian Edition,” Monbiot points out that Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions are just as bad as those of the United States and Australia, and they are rising. Though most of his examples are from Britain, he shows that global emissions are rising and are having a deleterious impact on the environment and, therefore, on us. But he also shows that we can do things to stop it; among them is not flying. He demonstrates “that the necessary reduction in carbon emissions is…technically and economically possible, [but he does not demonstrate] that it is politically possible…[because] it is not up to me to do so. It is up to you.” (2007)

Pollan, Michael, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: a natural history of four meals: the botany of desire © 2006—a very big book about where our food originates and how. For me, the most important part is about the week that the author spent on a farm called Polyface Farm, how it came to be a farm, how the food for both animals and humans is grown there and how it is harvested or slaughtered. Considering the vast scope of the subject, Pollan has done a masterful job of organizing his book. The first part is about “industrial corn”: the so-called corn that is in virtually everything, from plastics to food and how it is grown and processed. The third part considers hunting and foraging. Pollan actually hunts and shoots a pig, gathers his own vegetables and makes his own yeast: all of this to create a meal for ten guests, including his family. The book should be read by anyone interested in the food industry (2007)

Pollan, Michael, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto © 2008—not as big a book as his The Omnivore’s Dilemma, but every bit as important. Here Pollan pulls no punches about the food we eat, especially that which he calls “The Western Diet” (processed, packaged, and canned). He points out that these “foods” have very little in nutritive value, mainly lacking in vitamins, minerals and the essential fatty acids such as omega-3s. Eating them, along with the fast “foods” at places like Mcdonalds, Burger King and Tim Horton’s have resulted in a population decidedly less healthy than the preceding one, prone to diseases and marked obesity. His advice is to eat whole foods, but not too much and mostly plants. The book is well-researched and well-written, something I would have expected from a journalist, which Pollan is (2008)

Weisman, Alan, The World Without Us—each person around the world ought to read this book because it is that important. What would Earth look like if the human race were to vanish right now? What other species would benefit and which would lose because of our demise? Basically, the book is about our impact on the only home we shall ever know: the planet Earth. Weisman explains how, if we disappeared, cities would succumb to forests and jungles and gives examples of how it has already happened: Varosha, off-limits in Cyprus because of the civil war between Turkish and Greek Cypriots and situated between the two sides, has been slowly over-run by new growth. It had been developed as a resort, with many hotels, shops, restaurants, cinemas, bungalows and, of course, “golden beaches.” Trees grow “straight out of houses.” In fact, the only life missing from the town is the human kind. Another of the several examples is the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. This is not a book of lost hope; the author provides examples of what we need to do to avoid catastrophe. Key among them, and he minces no words: we absolutely must limit our population growth and reverse it. He points out that, at the present time, “[w]orldwide, every four days human population rises by 1 million.] That’s 91.25 million people added each year (see the final chapter, “Coda: Our Earth, Our Souls.”) Weisman’s writing is pithy and most engaging, making his non-fiction book a true page-turner (2008)