READING RESOURCES "Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul. " -Joyce Carol Oates
ENVIRONMENTAL MAGAZINES AND JOURNALS:
Climate Change is Here., Online website accompanying October 2015 Issue of National Geographic. Designed around three questions:
How do we know whats happening?
How do we fix it?
How do we live with it?
Dark Matter: Women Witnessing is a response to the unprecedented changes humans are facing in an age of massive species loss and ecological disaster. As most of the world goes on with business as usual, others are asking: “How shall we live in these times?” Dark Matter is a home for the voices of these others; we welcome writing in all forms and genres, and artwork in all mediums, responding to the urgencies of this time.
BOOKS WITH ENVIRONMENTAL THEMES:
Ocean Outbreak: Confronting the Rising Tide of Marine Diseases by Drew Harvell. Essential reading that offers us a terrifying, heartbreaking view into what disease is doing to ocean life. Dr. Harvell offers hope that these disasters aren't inevitable and humans can still make policy changes to protect and restore health to our beloved Oceans.
The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy by Michael McCarthy. The author asks us to consider Nature as an emotional and spirtual resource, capable of joy, wonder, love. Loving nature as an act of resistance in the face of climate destruction is his passionate call to action.
Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush. A book on how climate change is affecting sea levels, and a haunting meditation on how to let go of the things we love.
The Vanishing Present: Wisconsin's Changing Lands, Waters and Wildlife Edited by Donald Waller and Thomas P. Rooney. Brings together scientists, naturalists and policy experts to examine how human pressures on Wisconsin's changing land, water and wildlife have redefined the ecology of the home state of Aldo Leopold and John Muir.
The Great Tide Rising: Towards Clarity and Moral Courage in a Time of Planetary Change by Kathleen Dean Moore. "Even as seas rise against the shores, another great tide is beginning to rise - a tide of outrage against the pillage of the planet, a tide of commitment to justice and human rights, a swelling affirmation of moral responsibility to the future and to Earth's fullness of life. Philosopy and nature essayist Moore, takes on the essential questions: Why is it wrong to wreck the world? What is our obligation to the future? What is the transformative power of moral resolve? How can clear thinking stand against the lies and illogic that batter the chances for positive change? What are useful answers to the recurring questions of a storm-threatened time - what can anyone do? Is there any hope? And always this: What stories and ideas will lift people who deeply care, inspiring them to move forward with clarity and moral courage?"
Finding Beauty in a Broken World by Terry Tempest Williams is an impassioned and luminous chronicle of finding beauty in a broken world. Williams is an advocate for the correct relationship between humans and the natural world. Also available in audio form thru Sounds True.
Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We Are In Without Going Crazy by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone. The authors' describe the book Active Hope as being about finding, and offering, our best response to the crisis of sustainability unfolding in our world. It offers tools that help us face the mess we’re in, as well as find and play our role in the collective transition, or Great Turning, to a life-sustaining society.
Flight Behavior: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver. An exploration of climate change, economics, media exploitation and political opportunism. In the novel she uses her background in biological science to create a fiction that teaches about the complex science of the situation of the Monarch butterfly through the lens of a Tennessee woman grappling with her life decisions and the future for her children.
Ocean Country: One Woman's Voyage from Peril to Hope in Her Quest to Save the Seas by Liz Cunningham. A story, a call to action and a poetic meditation on the state of the seas. Most important, it is a story of finding true hope in the midsst of one of the greatest crises to face humankind, the rapidly degrading state of our environment.
To Life! Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet by Linda Weintraub documents the burgeoning eco-art movement from A to Z, presenting a panorama of artistic responses to environmental concerns, from Ant Farm's anti-consumer antics in the 1970's to Marina Zurokow's 2007 animation that anticipates the havoc wreaked upon the planet by global warming. This text is the first international survey of twentieth and twenty-first century artists who are transforming the global challenges facing humanity and the Earth's diverse living systems. The text guides students of art, design, environmental studies, and interdisciplinary studies to integrate environmental awareness, responsibility, and activism into their professional and personal lives. This open access digital book contains a teaching guide, consideration of DIY media and a list of artists whose work integrates environmental awareness.
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History is Restoring Grace Justice and Beauty in the World by Paul Hawken. He describes his search to discover people around the world are involved with conservation, sustainability and social justice causes. He estimates there are over a million such organizations. What a discovery! This means that we have a multitude of choices for what we wish to focus our energies on. We are listing only a few and invite you to do a web search for the causes that most excite you. Please do not be overwhelmed; think of it as a banquet of opportunity!
Planet Experts is an environmentally focused, news and social media site that provides its Experts a platform to address problems and solutions for problems of climate, habitats, flora and fauna. This site is free of special interest groups so Experts can impart their unfiltered environmental research, informed opinions and interface with each other, allowing readers to bolster their environmental literacy. "It is the steady stream of sound science and related discourse that makes Planet Experts a crucial resource for environmental education and a potent force for influencing public policy".
Leap Manifesto: A Call for a Canada based on caring for the Earth and One Another. The writers have a 15 point manifesto that is a call for a Canada based on caring for each other and the planet, moving swiftly to a post-carbon future, upholding Indigenous rights, and pursuing economic justice for all.
Rainforest Alliance offers valuable insight into sustainable businesses and why people should choose wisely, and thinking about the environmental impact of our purchases.