Best Green Books: The Top 10 Environmental Reads For Earth Day 2012

When people think about “going green,” reusing, reducing, and recycling are some of the more popular associated words. But what about another important environmental ‘R’: reading?

Reading about the environment has raised some controversy in recent years. Some studies suggest that children’s books are shying away from nature themes, and as Marc Levinson quotes a disgruntled editor in a recent Wall Street Journal article, “the only way to sell a book on the environment is to get readers alarmed.”

This unfortunate mindset ignores gems of environmental literature that do not aim to shock or alarm, but simply to educate. Green books can overlap with a number of other genres and incorporate sustainable living into many different facets of life -- check out this list of our favorite green Christmas reads.

Here is the list of top 10 Green Reads from Better World Books in honor of Earth Day on April 22nd. Better World Books, an online service founded in 2002, uses proceeds from the books they sell to fund literacy initiatives and foundations across the globe.

Do you have a favorite green book not on this list? Tweet us @huffpostgreen and we may add your suggestion to our slideshow.

• Natural Capitalism: Creating The Next Industrial Revolution By Paul Hawken

• The Lorax By Dr. Seuss

• An Inconvenient Truth By Al Gore

• Silent Spring By Rachel Carson

• Moral Ground: Ethical Action For A Planet In Peril By Kathleen Dean Moore

• The Better World Shopping Guide: Every Dollar Makes A Difference By Ellis Jones

• Hot, Flat And Crowded 2.0 By Thomas L. Friedman

• Farm City: The Education Of An Urban Farmer By Novella Carpenter

• The Responsibility Revolution: How The Next Generation Of Businesses Will Win By Jeffrey Hollender

• The Great Paper Caper By Oliver Jeffers

• Also On The Huffington Post...

From our partners

• Widespread Greenland Melting A Sign Of Things To Come - Climate Central
• How Two Determined Sisters Set Up A Pet Rescue Pipeline To Colorado - Mother Nature Network
• 11 Images And Facts About A Misunderstood Creature - Mother Nature Network

Comments

[greenbunnyfoo]

07:57 PM on 04/03/2013

Wanted to share this inspiring video in celebration of Earth Day for: Yoga Energy Activism > how we can regenerate our energy linking our heart, body, home and ecology

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOMLkcWSDYI

[peterpal]

12:30 AM on 06/26/2012

The writings of John Muir, Wallace Stegner's Beyong the 100th Meridian, and John McPhee's Encounters with the Archdruid (and of course, The Lorax) should top any list of environmental books, but for a book published in 2011 to be read in 2012, Open Spaces: Voices from the Northwest (Univ. of Washington Press) tops the list. Voices include former Sec. of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, NOAA's Jane Lubchenco, EPA's first director William Ruckelshaus, Water law expert Charles Wilkinson, writers William kittredge, David James Duncan, etc. The intro. is by Denis Hayes, founder of Earth Day. Wonderful writing with lots of context--

[Stacey Barton McCarthy]

09:36 AM on 04/25/2012

I completely agree with the Lorax, it was ahead of its time. I even wrote a blog about it recently when the movie came out: http://blog.wwf.ca/blog/2012/03/28/lessons-from-the-lorax/

[macgyver51]

04:01 PM on 04/23/2012

So Friedman, Gore and urban farming make the list without any mention of John Muir? You should have added the word "Trendy" in the title.

[sabelmouse]

06:30 AM on 04/23/2012

small is beautiful, still relevant.

[Linus521]

09:29 PM on 04/22/2012

I can't believe the book that was the bible of the environmental movement and considered by many to be the greatest book ever written was not listed or Aldo Leopold's, the "father of ecology" "A Sand County Almanac". His one short essay, "Thinking Like a Mountain" could save the Earth, alone.

Published in 1946, this book, alone, seeded the first battle cry of environmentalism, "Ecology Now". Right today, professors, ecologists and writers still quote him. Rarely is a book published on the environment and the ecology of the Earth that does not quote his ecological genius. Many of his quotes are featured on the internet.

This is the must have read to raise our national and ecological consciousness.

[Dnlmsstch]

07:53 PM on 04/22/2012

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by Michael Braungart - Better than anything that could ever come from Thomas Friedman

[EirikurH]

06:35 PM on 04/22/2012

You could also read about GreenPeace's report on clean clouds where Amazon, Apple and Microsoft get slammed because of their dirty energy use and how GreenQloud is very different http://greenqloud.com/how-clean-is-your-cloud-the-cleanest-period/

cheers
Eiki