Books

I get through a lot of books, and my reading material inspires most of my blog posts. You can read the latest reviews here, or here are some recommendations.

Climate change:

• Carbon Detox by George Marshall is the best book I’ve read on cutting your personal carbon footprint.
• Heat, by George Monbiot is a great investigation into how to make the necessary cuts to emissions.
• Blueprint for a safer planet, by Nicholas Stern outlines the nature of an international deal.

Oil:

• Half Gone, by Jeremy Leggett explains why oil supplies are tightening.
• Why Your World is About to get a Whole Lot Smaller. Jeff Rubin investigates the economics of oil depletion.
• $20 per gallon by Christopher Steiner explores the real life implications of rising oil prices.
• The Transition Handbook by Rob Hopkins takes on climate change and peak oil together and sees the potential for community renewal.

Poverty

• Bad Samaritans by Ha-Joon Chang challenges conventional wisdom on development.
• The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier looks at why the poorest countries are trapped in poverty.
• From Poverty to Power by Duncan Green calls for a redistribution of power as well as rising incomes.

Economics:

• Money Matters, by David Boyle. If you don’t get economics, read this first.
• The New Economics, David Boyle and Andrew Simms introduce the field of sustainable economics.
• Prosperity Without Growth. Tim Jackson dismantles growth economics.
• Freefall, by Joseph Stiglitz. The best explanation of the recent financial crisis that I’ve read so far.

Society

• The Spirit Level. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s hugely important book on why inequality matters.
• A Good Childhood (also see Happiness), by Richard Layard, on what our economic priorities should be.
• Good Work by E F Schumacher is full of great ideas and sparkles with compassion and humanity.

Biodiversity

• The Diversity of Life is E O Wilson’s celebration of life on earth.
• Seasick, by Alanna Mitchell explores the crisis in the world’s oceans.

Food

• Local Food: How to Make it Happen in Your Community by Tamzin Pinkerton is a practical guide to local food projects.
• Coming home to eat is Gary Paul Nabhan’s story about trying to eat as locally as possible in the Arizona desert.
• Enough: Why the world’s poorest starve in an age of plenty by Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman shows how to end hunger.
• Waste: Uncovering the global food scandal, by Tristram Stuart argues that food waste is a key issue in feeding the world.

Faith

• Planetwise, by Dave Bookless put a Christian faith perspective on the climate debate.
• Soil and Soul by Alistair McIntosh is a unique combination of politics, theology and poetry.