If you’re looking to curl up with a book or two as winter approaches, make sure to check out some of these environment and sustainability-related reads. The list below is a wide selection of books ranging from fighting climate change to Indigenous environmental justice to meat production, so there is definitely something for everyone.
- The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet by Leah Thomas
The Intersectional Environmentalist discusses the intersection between the environment, race, and privilege, advocating for the inclusion of all people in the environmentalist movement. We are shown how environmental injustices impact BIPOC communities and the intersection between environmentalism and civil rights - The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christina Figueres & Tom Rivett-Carnac
Leaders of negotiations in the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 compare two different scenarios in this book about climate change: what will happen if the world does not meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, and what will happen if we achieve a carbon neutral planet. Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac show us what all the major stakeholders need to be doing to face climate change. - Sustainability: A History by Jeremy L. Caradonna
Sustainability feels like a relatively new concept, but Jeremy L. Caradonna takes us through a historical perspective of sustainability and how it has evolved, beginning in the 17th century and spanning across many different continents. Caradonna aims to show how dynamic and varied sustainability can be through the different ways it has been utilized and executed throughout history. - As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock by Dina Gilio-Whitaker
This book approaches environmentalism and environmental justice through the lens of Indigenous people, an often forgotten and neglected perspective in the modern environmental movement. Gilio-Whitaker covers everything from food and water sovereignty, colonialism’s effects on the well-being of Indigenous peoples and their environments, and the ways in which Indigenous knowledge and culture can be utilized to advance a more equitable environmental movement. - Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors by Carolyn Finney
Carolyn Finney expands the discussion of participation in nature and outdoor activities by examining the underrepresentation of African Americans in these spaces. Her analysis uses critical race and cultural theory to understand the legacies of collective traumas such as slavery and the Jim Crow era to decipher why the relationship between African Americans and nature is what it is today. - Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight by Timothy Pachirat
Anthropologist Timothy Pachirat enters an industrial slaughterhouse undercover to create a firsthand account of what occurs within the highly concealed metal walls of the meat production industry. By working multiple positions within the slaughterhouse, Pachirat recounts in extreme detail the procedures, rules, and standards of the industry. The story-like account includes discussion on how surveillance, concealment, and visibility work together to distance and hide an uncomfortable and morally ambiguous process from the view of the public, and how that leads to control. This account is a complex and riveting discussion of the modern meat industry.
Written by Carmen Marshall ’25
Photo by Pauline Loroy on Unsplash