Which is more eco-efficient, do you think: using an e-reader such as a Kindle, or reading a printed book? Apparently it depends on how much you read.
In energy terms, making a Kindle is equivalent to producing 23 printed books. Read more than 23 books and the e-reader wins hands-down – then there’s the fact that its energy-efficient screen uses less energy than most electronic devices, and downloading a new book produces fewer emissions than driving to a book store or having a book shipped to you.
Of course if you’re an occasional reader, printed books are still the way to go. And the least energy-hungry way to read of all is to borrow books from a public library or buy from your local second-hand book shop.
Now that we’ve dealt with the “how” of reading, the next question is: “what” to read? Following are 10 environmental classics, in no particular order, filled with inspiration, information and ideas.
1. Silent Spring (1962) – Rachel Carson. A New York Times best-seller when it was first published, Silent Spring regularly tops lists of “best environmental books of all time”. Carson grew up in landlocked Pennsylvania but studied marine biology; her first three, best-selling books, in fact, were all about the sea. But it was Silent Spring, in which she tackled the “big” issue of pesticides and their effects not just on animal life (its title refers to a springtime in which no bird calls are heard) but on human life, that ignited the American environmental movement and led to the US-wide ban of DDT in 1972.
2. Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania’s Forests (2012) – Anna Krien. In this well-paced and enlightening book, Australian journalist Krien travels around Tasmania in search of the truth about the island state’s old-growth forests and its arch enemy, the forestry industry, putting herself in harm’s way, befriending ferals and sawmillers alike, trying to understand all sides and writing with searing clarity about an issue that is anything but.
3. The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth (2001) – Tim Flannery. This was one of the first books written by a world-renowned scientist (Professor Flannery is an Australian mammologist, paleontologist and environmentalist) that explains clearly and calmly the need for urgent action on climate change. Called the “definitive book on climate change”, it also offers practical suggestions for everyone from individuals to legislators, on what to do. Most of all, it helps us understand how human beings affect the world and its climate.
4. The Lorax (1971) – Dr Seuss. An environmental fable for all ages, this is classic Dr Seuss, the story of the short, brown, mossy Lorax confronting the Once-ler who learns the true value of Truffula Trees (whose tufts were “much softer than silk” and “had the sweet smell of fresh butterfly milk”) before (spoiler alert) passing on his wisdom to the next generation.
5. Deep Future (2011) – Curt Stager. Sub-titled “The next 100,000 years of life on Earth” this is a glimpse of the distant future of this planet and our descendants (for he believes human beings will continue to exist for a long time to come). Stager, a New York-based paleoclimatologist and ecologist, offers a new perspective on climate change, explaining how our actions now will have longer-lasting consequences than previously thought, particularly when global warming gives way to subsequent global cooling…
6. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of the Food Life (2008) – Barbara Kingsolver.Renowned novelist Kingsolver flexes her non-fiction muscles here to chronicle her family’s year of eating only what they can grow themselves or buy from neighbouring farms in the Appalachian mountains of the eastern United States. Part memoir, part journalistic sleuthing, this book dodges clichés common in this genre; the result is practical, enlightening, poetic and inspirational.
7. Walden (1854) – Henry David Thoreau. At first glance, this is a collection of observations made by a man with time on his hands, thanks to his self-imposed hermitude in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, Massachusetts. On closer inspection, it’s an ode to a simpler way of living, close to nature and mindful of one’s impact. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,” writes Thoreau, “to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” In staying close to his woodland home in his writing, Thoreau created a blueprint for an eco-friendly human life anywhere, anytime.
8. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005) – Jared Diamond. The premise of this book is that human beings can learn from our predecessors’ mistakes. Diamond combines his talents as scientist, geographer and Pulitzer Prize-winning author to examine civilisations through time, teasing out the common elements, the most common of which seem to be environmental degradation (such as habitat destruction, deforestation and overfishing) and overpopulation relative to the carrying capacity of the land. It might sound pessimistic but there’s an underlying optimism in Diamond’s writing, and a lesson: the most adaptable communities survive.
Written by Louise Southerden, an award-winning travel writer, author and eco-blogger based in Sydney, Australia. Follow her on Twitter, like her on Facebook and read more of her work at No Impact Girl.
