1. Small is Beautiful - E F Schumacher
After 30 years, Schumacher's study of the "universal idolatry of giantism" is even more poignant. The answer to our big problems, for him, lies in small solutions, and genuine sustainability.
Vintage, £7.99
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2. Silent Spring – Rachel Carson
This devastating 1962 exposé of the tactics used by the chemical industry to “prove” that DDT was harmless is also a reminder of how beautiful the world is – or could be.
Penguin, £9.99
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3. Our Stolen Future – Theo Colborn et al
Reading this book could change your life – or even save it. It brings home, with passion and scientific rigour, the far-reaching health effects of living in aworld full of toxic chemicals.
Abacus, £8.99
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4. My Family and Other Animals – Gerald Durrell
Before the zoologist’s books were reprinted, I scoured second-hand shops for them so that I could read them tomy son. We revelled in his warm and human observations.
Puffin, £5.99
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5. Food for Free – Richard Mabey
We’re heading for a serious food security problem, so this book could come in very handy. Every school child should be given a copy – and a chance to learn how to forage.
Collins, £12.99
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6. The End of Nature – Bill McKibben
McKibben was one of the first to write clearly about global warming, and although his predictions, made in 1989, now seem tame, his plea for us to adopt a simple life is still profound.
Bloomsbury, £7.99
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7. Plan B 2.0 – Lester R Brown
For Brown, it’s Plan A: business as usual, leading to political unrest and resource wars; or Plan B: restructuring the global economy and stabilising the population. The choice is ours.
WW Norton & Co, £10.99
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8. The Upside of Down – Thomas Homer-Dixon
How, by applying the concept of “full catastrophe living” to the crises of population, energy, environment, climate and economy, we can create an opportunity for positive change.
Souvenir Press, £15
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9. Walden – Henry David Thorea
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation”. That was the nub of Thoreau’s 1849 farewell to the modern world, and living alone with nature seems increasingly appealing.
Oxford University Press, £6.99
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10. Song for the Blue Ocean – Carl Safina
We forget that life began in the sea, and that how we treat it rebounds on our own existence. Although emotional and devastating in parts, this meeting of science and poetry is inspirational.
Holt, £25.95
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31 October 2007, Chosen by Pat Thomas, Editor of The Ecologist
