The Earth is in danger, and the only way it can heal is if we change the harmful aspects of our way of life. No matter your age, you can always learn how you can help. Earth will thank you. Curated by Tabor Millien.
There are actions everyone can take to align their lifestyle with sustainability and green goals in mind. Find more information with Hoopla’s Leading a More Sustainable Life collection.
Your Plastic Footprint by Rachel Salt
book
About 8 million tons of plastic waste escapes into the oceans every year and plastic has been found on virtually every coastline. Plastic production is a big contributor to carbon emissions, and plastic pollution has proven to be devastating for ocean life. But this story does not have to end here. Science writer Rachel Salt shows you many achievable ways to reduce your own footprint, help fix our systems and change plastic’s narrative for good. Plastic is a problem that simply isn’t going away, and we need massive shifts on both individual and global scales to undo the damage we’ve done. Your Plastic Footprint is required reading for every eco-conscious person looking to make a difference.
The Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres
book
A cautionary but optimistic book about the world’s changing climate and the fate of humanity, from Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac–who led negotiations for the United Nations during the historic Paris Agreement of 2015.
The authors outline two possible scenarios for our planet. In one, they describe what life on Earth will be like by 2050 if we fail to meet the Paris Agreement’s climate targets. In the other, they lay out what it will be like to live in a regenerative world that has net-zero emissions. They argue for confronting the climate crisis head-on, with determination and optimism. The Future We Choose presents our options and tells us what governments, corporations, and each of us can, and must, do to fend off disaster.
Saving Us by Katharine Hayhoe
book
book on CD
United Nations Champion of the Earth, climate scientist, and evangelical Christian Katharine Hayhoe changes the debate on how we can save our future. In Saving Us, Hayhoe argues that when it comes to changing hearts and minds, facts are only one part of the equation. We need to find shared values in order to connect our unique identities to collective action. This is not another doomsday narrative about a planet on fire. It is a multilayered look at science, faith, and human psychology, from an icon in her field–recently named chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy. Drawing on interdisciplinary research and personal stories, Hayhoe shows that small conversations can have astonishing results.
No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg
book
In August 2018 a fifteen-year-old Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, decided not to go to school one day in order to protest the climate crisis. Her actions sparked a global movement, inspiring millions of students to go on strike for our planet, forcing governments to listen, and earning her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.
No One Is Too Small to Make A Difference brings you Greta in her own words, for the first time. Collecting her speeches that have made history across the globe, from the United Nations to Capitol Hill and mass street protests, her book is a rallying cry for why we must all wake up and fight to protect the living planet, no matter how powerless we feel. Our future depends upon it.
Who Owns the Wind? by David McDermott Hughes
book
Why the wind, and energy it produces, should not be private property.
The energy transition has begun. To succeed–to replace fossil fuels with wind and solar power–that process must be fair. Otherwise, mounting popular protest against wind farms will prolong carbon pollution and deepen the climate crisis. David McDermott Hughes examines that anti-industrial, anti-corporate resistance, drawing on his time spent conducting field research in a Spanish village surrounded by wind turbines.
In the lives of a community freighted with centuries of exploitation–people whom the author comes to know intimately–clean power and social justice fit together only awkwardly. A green economy will require greater efforts to get ordinary people such as these on board. Aesthetics, livelihood, property, and, most essentially, the private nature of wind resources–all these topics must be examined with fresh eyes.
Burn by Albert K. Bates
book
Hoopla eAudiobook
In order to rescue ourselves from climate catastrophe, we need to radically alter how humans live on Earth. We have to reverse the flow of greenhouse gases and send them in exactly the opposite direction: down, not up.
A secret unlocked by the ancients of the Amazon for its ability to transform impoverished tropical soils into terra preta–fertile black earths–points the way. The indigenous custom of converting organic materials into long lasting carbon has enjoyed a reawakening in recent decades as the quest for more sustainable farming methods has grown. Yet the benefits of this carbonized material, now called biochar, extend far beyond the soil. Pyrolyzing carbon has the power to restore a natural balance by unmining the coal and undrilling the oil and gas. Employed to its full potential, it can run the carbon cycle in reverse and remake Earth as a garden planet.
Burn looks beyond renewable biomass or carbon capture energy systems to offer a bigger and bolder vision for the next phase of human progress.
Kids
Save the Planet by Gregory Rutty
book
This is the first green guide for kindergartners and first-graders who are ready to get busy and make a difference. Save the Planet is an uncomplicated guide and filled with actions you can take immediately and implement easily. The style is light, informative, and above all: kid-friendly. With a focus on the Three R’s (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) this is the perfect introduction to a lifetime of care and nurturing of planet Earth.
All that Trash by Meghan McCarthy
book
Overdrive eBook
The true story of a garbage barge that didn’t have a place to dock– and was one of the events that led to the recycling movement.
Clean-Up Time! by Patty Michaels
book
Oh no! There is trash all over the neighborhood! Daniel and his friends learn to recycle and work together to keep their neighborhood looking grr-ific!
The Curious Garden by Peter Brown
book
book on CD
Hoopla eAudiobook
Hoopla movie
Liam discovers a hidden garden and with careful tending spreads color throughout the gray city.
*All summaries courtesy of the publisher unless otherwise noted.
Shelf Analysis 