11 Best Environmental Books
Environmental is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Environmental audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 11 Environmental audiobooks below.
-
Exposure
- By: Robert Bilott
- Narrator: Jeremy Bobb
- Length: 14 hours 51 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
-
4.51(932 ratings)
4.51(932 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.99 USD“For Erin Brockovich fans, a David vs. Goliath tale with a twist” (The New York Times Book Review)—the incredible true story of the lawyer who spent two decades building a case against DuPont for its use of the hazardous chemical“For Erin Brockovich fans, a David vs. Goliath tale with a twist” (The New York Times Book Review)—the incredible true story of the lawyer who spent two decades building a case against DuPont for its use of the hazardous chemical PFOA, uncovering the worst case of environmental contamination in history–affecting virtually every person on the planet–and the conspiracy that kept it a secret for sixty years.
... Read more
The story that inspired Dark Waters, the major motion picture from Focus Features starring Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway, directed by Todd Haynes.
1998: Rob Bilott is a young lawyer specializing in helping big corporations stay on the right side of environmental laws and regulations. Then he gets a phone call from a West Virginia farmer named Earl Tennant, who is convinced the creek on his property is being poisoned by runoff from a neighboring DuPont landfill, causing his cattle and the surrounding wildlife to die in hideous ways. Earl hasn’t even been able to get a water sample tested by any state or federal regulatory agency or find a local lawyer willing to take the case. As soon as they hear the name DuPont–the area’s largest employer–they shut him down.
Once Rob sees the thick, foamy water that bubbles into the creek, the gruesome effects it seems to have on livestock, and the disturbing frequency of cancer and other health problems in the area, he’s persuaded to fight against the type of corporation his firm routinely represents. After intense legal wrangling, Rob ultimately gains access to hundreds of thousands of pages of DuPont documents, some of them fifty years old, that reveal the company has been holding onto decades of studies proving the harmful effects of a chemical called PFOA, used in making Teflon. PFOA is often called a “forever chemical,” because once in the environment, it does not break down or degrade for millions of years, contaminating the planet forever. The case of one farmer soon spawns a class action suit on behalf of seventy thousand residents–and the shocking realization that virtually every person on the planet has been exposed to PFOA and carries the chemical in his or her blood.
What emerges is a riveting legal drama “in the grand tradition of Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action” (Booklist, starred review) about malice and manipulation, the failings of environmental regulation; and one lawyer’s twenty-year struggle to expose the truth about this previously unknown–and still unregulated–chemical that we all have inside us. -
Cadillac Desert, Revised and Updated Edition
- By: Marc Reisner
- Narrator: Lawrie Mott
- Length: 27 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
-
4.27(10 ratings)
4.27(10 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDThe story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruptions and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic andThe story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruptions and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city’s growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants, the Bureau of Reclamation and the US Army Corps of Engineers, in the competition to transform the West.
Based on more than a decade of research, Cadillac Desert is a stunning expose and a dramatic, intriguing history of the creation of Eden–an Eden that may be only a mirage.
... Read more -
Let There Be Water
- By: Seth M. Siegel
- Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 8 hours 36 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2016
- Language: English
-
4.21(650 ratings)
4.21(650 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDAs every day brings urgent reports of growing water shortages around the world, there is no time to lose in the search for solutions. The United States government predicts that forty of our fifty states–and 60 percent of the earth’s landAs every day brings urgent reports of growing water shortages around the world, there is no time to lose in the search for solutions.
The United States government predicts that forty of our fifty states–and 60 percent of the earth’s land surface–will soon face alarming gaps between available water and the growing demand for it. Without action, food prices will rise, economic growth will slow, and political instability is likely to follow.
Let There Be Water illustrates how Israel can serve as a model for the United States and countries everywhere by showing how to blunt the worst of the coming water calamities. Even with 60 percent of its country made of desert, Israel has not only solved its water problem; it also has an abundance of water. Israel even supplies water to its neighbors–the Palestinians and the Kingdom of Jordan–every day.
Based on meticulous research and hundreds of interviews, Let There Be Water reveals the methods and techniques of the often offbeat inventors who enabled Israel to lead the world in cutting-edge water technology. Let There Be Water also tells unknown stories of how cooperation on water systems can forge diplomatic ties and promote unity. Remarkably, not long ago, now-hostile Iran relied on Israel to manage its water systems, and access to Israel’s water know-how helped to warm China’s frosty relations with Israel.
Beautifully written, Let There Be Water is and inspiring account of the vision and sacrifice by a nation and people that have long made water security a top priority. Despite scant natural water resources, a rapidly growing population and economy, and often hostile neighbors, Israel has consistently jumped ahead of the water innovation curve to assure a dynamic, vital future for itself. Every town, every country, and every listener can benefit from learning what Israel did to overcome daunting challenges and transform itself from a parched land into a water superpower.
... Read more -
Pipe Dreams
- By: Chelsea Wald
- Narrator: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 8 hours 8 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
-
4.08(282 ratings)
4.08(282 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDFinalist for the 2022 NASW Science in Society Journalism Award Longlisted for the 2022 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books From an award-winning science journalist, a “deeply researched, entertaining, and impassionedFinalist for the 2022 NASW Science in Society Journalism Award
... Read more
Longlisted for the 2022 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books
From an award-winning science journalist, a “deeply researched, entertaining, and impassioned exploration of sanitation” (Nature) and the future of the toilet–for fans of popular science bestsellers by Mary Roach.
Most of us do not give much thought to the centerpiece of our bathrooms, but the toilet is an unexpected paradox. On the one hand, it is a modern miracle: a ubiquitous fixture in a vast sanitation system that has helped add decades to the human life span by reducing disease. On the other hand, the toilet is also a tragic failure: less than half of the world’s population can access a toilet that safely manages body waste, including many right here in the United States. And it is inefficient, squandering clean water as well as the nutrients, energy, and information contained in the stuff we flush away. While we see radical technological change in almost every other aspect of our lives, we remain stuck in a sanitation status quo–in part because the topic of toilets is taboo.
Fortunately, there’s hope–and Pipe Dreams daringly profiles the growing army of sewage-savvy scientists, engineers, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, and activists worldwide who are overcoming their aversions and focusing their formidable skills on making toilets accessible and healthier for all.
This potential revolution in sanitation has many benefits, including reducing inequalities, mitigating climate change and water scarcity, improving agriculture, and optimizing health. Author Chelsea Wald takes us on a wild world tour from a compost toilet project in Haiti, to a plant in the Netherlands that salvages used toilet paper from sewage, and shows us a toilet seat that can watch users’ poop for signs of illness, among many other fascinating developments.
“Toilet humor is one thing, but toilet fact, as digested by skilled science writer Wald, is quite another…[Pipe Dreams is] a highly informative, well-reasoned call to rethink the throne” (Kirkus Reviews). -
Holding Back the River
- By: Tyler J. Kelley
- Narrator: Samantha Desz
- Length: 9 hours 10 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
-
4.05(63 ratings)
4.05(63 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDA revelatory work of reporting on the men and women wrestling to harness and preserve America’s most vital natural resource: our rivers.The Mississippi. The Missouri. The Ohio. America’s rivers are the very lifeblood of our country. WeA revelatory work of reporting on the men and women wrestling to harness and preserve America’s most vital natural resource: our rivers.
... Read more
The Mississippi. The Missouri. The Ohio. America’s rivers are the very lifeblood of our country. We need them for nourishing crops, for cheap bulk transportation, for hydroelectric power, for fresh drinking water. Rivers are also part of our mythology, our collective soul; they are Mark Twain, Led Zeppelin, and the Delta Blues. But as infrastructure across the nation fails and climate change pushes rivers and seas to new heights, we’ve arrived at a critical moment in our battle to tame these often-destructive forces of nature.
Tyler J. Kelley spent two years traveling the heartland, getting to know the men and women whose lives and livelihoods rely on these tenuously tamed streams. On the Illinois-Kentucky border, we encounter Luther Helland, master of the most important–and most decrepit–lock and dam in America. This old dam at the end of the Ohio River was scheduled to be replaced in 1998, but twenty years and $3 billion later, its replacement still isn’t finished. As the old dam crumbles and commerce grinds to a halt, Helland and his team must risk their lives, using steam-powered equipment and sheer brawn, to raise and lower the dam as often as ten times a year.
In Southeast Missouri, we meet Twan Robinson, who lives in the historically Black village of Pinhook. As a super-flood rises on the Mississippi, she learns from her sister that the US Army Corps of Engineers is going to blow up the levee that stands between her home and the river. With barely enough notice to evacuate her elderly mother and pack up a few of her own belongings, Robinson escapes to safety only to begin a nightmarish years-long battle to rebuild her lost community.
Atop a floodgate in central Louisiana, we’re beside Major General Richard Kaiser, the man responsible for keeping North America’s greatest river under control. Kaiser stands above the spot where the Mississippi River wants to change course, abandoning Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and following the Atchafalaya River to the sea. The daily flow of water from one river to the other is carefully regulated, but something else is happening that may be out of Kaiser and the Corps’ control.
America’s infrastructure is old and underfunded. While our economy, society, and climate have changed, our levees, locks, and dams have not. Yet to fix what’s wrong will require more than money. It will require an act of imagination. “With meticulous research and insightful analysis” (Publishers Weekly), Holding Back the River brings us into the lives of the Americans who grapple with our mighty rivers and, through their stories, suggests solutions to some of the century’s greatest challenges. -
As the World Burns
- By: Lee van der Voo
- Length: 10 hours 41 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: September 29, 2020
- Language: English
-
4.04(27 ratings)
4.04(27 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.95 USD“The story of Juliana v. United States and the committed young people behind it will give you hope in the next generation.” –Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction Do our children have a right to inherit a livable“The story of Juliana v. United States and the committed young people behind it will give you hope in the next generation.” –Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction
... Read more
Do our children have a right to inherit a livable planet? Is the government obliged to protect it? Twenty-one young people from across America have sued the federal government over climate change, charging that actions promoting a fossil fuel economy violate their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property. Their trial could be the civil rights trial of the century, but the government has used arcane legal tactics to stymie its progress at every turn.
As the World Burns by investigative reporter Lee van der Voo follows the plight of the young plaintiffs, chronicling their legal battle as their childhoods are consumed by another year of drought and wildfire, floods and hurricanes, and the most tumultuous political season in modern history. As the World Burns is climate breakdown like you’ve never seen it–through the eyes of the young.
-
Back to Earth
- By: Nicole Stott
- Narrator: Nicole Stott
- Length: 8 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: October 12, 2021
- Language: English
-
3.95(110 ratings)
3.95(110 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDInspired by insights gained in spaceflight, a NASA astronaut offers key lessons to empower Earthbound readers to fight climate changeWhen Nicole Stott first saw Earth from space, she realized how interconnected we are and knew she had to helpInspired by insights gained in spaceflight, a NASA astronaut offers key lessons to empower Earthbound readers to fight climate change
... Read more
When Nicole Stott first saw Earth from space, she realized how interconnected we are and knew she had to help protect our planetary home.
In Back to Earth, Stott imparts essential lessons in problem-solving, survival, and crisis response that each of us can practice to make change. She knows we can overcome differences to address global issues, because she saw this every day on the International Space Station. Stott shares stories from her spaceflight and insights from scientists, activists, and changemakers working to solve our greatest environmental challenges. She learns about the complexities of Earth’s biodiversity from NASA engineers working to enable life in space and from scientists protecting life on Earth for future generations. Ultimately, Stott reveals how we each have the power to respect our planetary home and one another by living our lives like crewmates, not passengers, on an inspiring shared mission -
Secondhand
- By: Adam Minter
- Narrator: Daniel Henning
- Length: 10 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: February 18, 2020
- Language: English
-
3.94(2531 ratings)
3.94(2531 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDWhen you drop a box of unwanted items off at the local thrift store, where do they go? Probably across the country–or even halfway across the world–to people and places eager to reuse what you don’t want. In Secondhand, AdamWhen you drop a box of unwanted items off at the local thrift store, where do they go? Probably across the country–or even halfway across the world–to people and places eager to reuse what you don’t want.
In Secondhand, Adam Minter delves into the vast, multibillion-dollar industry that resells used stuff around the world. He follows the trail of unwanted objects from the closets, garages, and storage units of Middle America to epic used-goods markets in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Ghana, India, Malaysia, and beyond.
Secondhand takes us through the often painful and heartbreaking process of cleaning out a lifetime’s worth of possessions and shows that used stuff still has a place in a world that values the new and shiny–it entertains us, makes fortunes, fulfills needs, and transforms the way we live and work.
... Read more -
Inconspicuous Consumption
- By: Tatiana Schlossberg
- Narrator: Tatiana Schlossberg
- Length: 7 hours 49 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: August 27, 2019
- Language: English
-
3.78(1427 ratings)
3.78(1427 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USD*First Place Winner of the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Rachel Carson Environment Book Award*“If you’re looking for something to cling to in what often feels like a hopeless conversation, Schlossberg’s darkly*First Place Winner of the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Rachel Carson Environment Book Award*
“If you’re looking for something to cling to in what often feels like a hopeless conversation, Schlossberg’s darkly humorous, knowledge-is-power, eyes-wide-open approach may be just the thing.”–VogueFrom a former New York Times science writer, this urgent call to action will empower you to stand up to climate change and environmental pollution by making simple but impactful everyday choices.
With urgency and wit, Tatiana Schlossberg explains that far from being only a distant problem of the natural world created by the fossil fuel industry, climate change is all around us, all the time, lurking everywhere in our convenience-driven society, all without our realizing it.
By examining the unseen and unconscious environmental impacts in four areas-the Internet and technology, food, fashion, and fuel – Schlossberg helps readers better understand why climate change is such a complicated issue, and how it connects all of us: How streaming a movie on Netflix in New York burns coal in Virginia; how eating a hamburger in California might contribute to pollution in the Gulf of Mexico; how buying an inexpensive cashmere sweater in Chicago expands the Mongolian desert; how destroying forests from North Carolina is necessary to generate electricity in England.
Cataloging the complexities and frustrations of our carbon-intensive society with a dry sense of humor, Schlossberg makes the climate crisis and its solutions interesting and relevant to everyone who cares, even a little, about the planet. She empowers readers to think about their stuff and the environment in a new way, helping them make more informed choices when it comes to the future of our world.
Most importantly, this is a book about the power we have as voters and consumers to make sure that the fight against climate change includes all of us and all of our stuff, not just industry groups and politicians. If we have any hope of solving the problem, we all have to do it together.
“A compelling-and illuminating-look at how our daily habits impact the environment.”–Vanity Fair
“Shows how even the smallest decisions can have profound environmental consequences.”–The New York Times
... Read more -
Second Nature
- By: Nathaniel Rich
- Narrator: John Pirhalla
- Length: 9 hours 1 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: March 30, 2021
- Language: English
-
3.72(133 ratings)
3.72(133 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.99 USDFrom the author of Losing Earth, a beautifully told exploration of our post-natural world that points the way to a new mode of ecological writing. We live at a time in which scientists race to reanimate extinct beasts, our most essential ecosystemsFrom the author of Losing Earth, a beautifully told exploration of our post-natural world that points the way to a new mode of ecological writing.
We live at a time in which scientists race to reanimate extinct beasts, our most essential ecosystems require monumental engineering projects to survive, chicken breasts grow in test tubes, and multinational corporations conspire to poison the blood of every living creature. No rock, leaf, or cubic foot of air on Earth has escaped humanity’s clumsy signature. The old distinctions–between natural and artificial, dystopia and utopia, science fiction and science fact–have blurred, losing all meaning. We inhabit an uncanny landscape of our own creation.
In Second Nature, ordinary people make desperate efforts to preserve their humanity in a world that seems increasingly alien. Their stories–obsessive, intimate, and deeply reported–point the way to a new kind of environmental literature, in which dramatic narrative helps us to understand our place in a reality that resembles nothing human beings have known.
From Odds Against Tomorrow to Losing Earth to the film Dark Waters (adapted from the first chapter of this book), Nathaniel Rich’s stories have come to define the way we think of contemporary ecological narrative. In Second Nature, he asks what it means to live in an era of terrible responsibility. The question is no longer, How do we return to the world that we’ve lost? It is, What world do we want to create in its place?
A Macmillan Audio production from MCD
... Read more -
Saving the Starry Night
- By: Patrizia Caraveo
- Narrator: Christine Williams
- Length: 4 hours 23 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
-
2.5(2 ratings)
2.5(2 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.95 USDThis book takes a close look at our relationship with the sky, the stars, light, and darkness. In particular, it examines how light pollution has interfered with the culture of astronomy and our ability to appreciate this essential facet of ourThis book takes a close look at our relationship with the sky, the stars, light, and darkness. In particular, it examines how light pollution has interfered with the culture of astronomy and our ability to appreciate this essential facet of our natural world.
The sky has always held significance for humanity, in both cultural and scientific terms. And yet we persistently pollute it with sometimes unnecessary light in our obsessive desire to chase away the darkness. This effectively switches off the stars, hampering our ability to enjoy one of the most inspiring sights nature has to offer to humankind. In addition, too much light is hazardous to both our health and that of the fauna and flora of this planet.
Saving the Starry Night also features a comprehensive look at the current controversy regarding efforts to expand internet access through the launch into low Earth orbits of thousands of new satellites, which will pollute the night with moving lights while filling to saturation the capability of the circumterrestrial space. This conflict does not mean that the interests of astronomy and those of space technology have to be at odds, and potential compromises are explored between the satellite initiative and the desire to maintain a dark, radio silent sky.
... Read more
- Previous 29 Best Environment, Juvenile Fiction Books
- Next 29 Best Environmental Conservation & Protection Books
Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
Recent Blogs
-
July 06, 2023
Which books are available on Spotify?
-
July 06, 2023
Are audiobooks free on Spotify with membership?
-
June 25, 2023
Top Destinations for Free eBooks and Audiobooks Online
-
June 25, 2023
Best Alternative to Barnes & Noble Online
-
June 25, 2023
The Best Places to Buy eBooks: Beyond the Kindle Ecosystem
-
June 25, 2023
What are the best places to find free ebooks?
-
June 25, 2023
Best Independent Companies to Buy eBooks from
-
April 19, 2023
How many Game of Thrones books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
Where to buy cheap books: A comprehensive guide
-
April 19, 2023
How many Jack Reacher books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
How many FNAF books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
How many Warrior Cats books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
How many Wheel of Time books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
The best Vampire Survivors powerups in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read the Robert Galbraith books in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read the Artemis Fowl books in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read Craig Johnson’s books in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read Cassandra Clare’s books in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read Lee Child’s books in order
-
April 18, 2023
How to read the In Death book series in order
-
April 18, 2023
Best book quotes
-
April 18, 2023
A tale of two cities reviewed
-
April 18, 2023
All the President’s Men reviewed
-
April 18, 2023
Tintin reviewed
-
April 18, 2023
What are adult coloring books?
-
April 18, 2023
How to read the Percy Jackson books in order
-
April 11, 2023
How to find charities for the blind
-
April 11, 2023
What is the best Bible app
-
April 11, 2023
Where to find free audio Bible downloads
-
April 11, 2023
What is the best free Bible app
More in this series
- 29 Best Civil War Period (1850-1877) Books
- 28 Best Space Exploration Books
- 17 Best Free Enterprise, Business & Economics Books
- 11 Best Russian & Former Soviet Union, Political Science Books
- 29 Best Ethics & Moral Philosophy Books
- 18 Best Research Books
- 29 Best Humorous Stories Books
- 29 Best Cultural Heritage, Fiction Books
- 29 Best Religion, Politics & State Books
- 16 Best Alternative Family, Juvenile Fiction Books
- 27 Best African American, Juvenile Nonfiction Books
- 29 Best Genres & Styles Books
- 17 Best Biology, Science Books
- 29 Best Law Books
- Best books by Stevie J. Cole
- 23 Best Entertainment & Performing Arts, HUMOR Books
- 29 Best Science Fiction, Juvenile Fiction Books
- 29 Best General, History Books
- 22 Best Communication Studies Books
- 17 Best Women, Self-Help Books
- 22 Best Organizational Development Books
- 12 Best Marriage & Family, Family & Relationships Books
- What are the best books about the Scientific Revolution?
- 29 Best Death & Dying Books
- 17 Best New Thought, Body, Mind & Spirit Books
- 29 Best Spiritual, Body, Mind & Spirit Books
- 23 Best Comic Strips & Cartoons Books
- 29 Best Science & Nature Books
- 17 Best Law & Crime Books
- 25 Best Horror & Ghost Stories Books