Celebrate SustainaVille Week!

Thanks to Hannah Payne, Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Somerville, for this guest post!

In honor of this year's upcoming SustainaVille Week, I’m taking over the Somerville Public Library blog to share some of my favorite books and movies about the environment, climate change, and sustainability. SustainaVille Week is an annual celebration of sustainability and climate action in Somerville, hosted by the City of Somerville’s Office of Sustainability and Environment. There are events throughout Somerville and many events, like children’s storytimes and craft projects, at the Somerville Public Libraries. Check out the full schedule on the SustainaVille website.

Below are some reading and watching options to get you ready for the week:

• There are so many great books on climate change, but a couple to get you started are Field Notes from a Catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert and Eaarth by Bill McKibbon.

• Climate change can be a heavy topic to work on every day. The future projections are scary and it can sometimes feel like an overwhelming problem to fix. It takes skill to convey through writing the complex mix of emotions that are wrapped up with climate change, and Zadie Smith does so perfectly (as she does with all of her writing).  An Elegy for our Country’s Seasons, which was published in the NY Review of Books, is my absolute favorite piece of writing about climate change.

• And for a break from the dire writing about climate change, I recommend Mary Pipher’s optimistic The Green Boat. It’s a refreshing and inspirational read.

• Wall-E is one of Pixar’s best, with a great story and a serious critique of our consumption-focused culture. During SustainaVille Week we have a few events focused on reducing consumption—a clothing swap at the Starting Over Festival and a Clothing UpCycling Workshop at the Central Library on April 28th. By reducing what you consume and reusing as much as possible, you can make a big difference.

• For those looking to learn more about what happens when we do generate waste, I recommend reading Recycling Reconsidered by Samantha MacBride. This book closely examines the recycling movement and provides a compelling critique of our waste management policies.

• For the home chef, I recommend How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman. I stopped eating meat nine years ago because of the negative environmental impacts of industrial meat production. This book has been a staple for my vegetarian home cooking ever since. If you’re not ready to give up meat all together, try Meatless Mondays. Cutting down on meat consumption is one easy way you can reduce your carbon footprint. Check out the Somerville Sustainability Guide for more ways you can reduce your carbon footprint.

• A great children’s book for Earth Day is Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. This book is all about leaving the world a better place for future generations. It’s a good reminder that we can all make a difference to improve our community and to take care of the environment.

• For the more serious reader, I have two great environmental history books that detail the many ways that urban development has shaped our environments. It’s these stories that piqued my interest in environmental planning. Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert (also available as an ebook through Overdrive/Libby), an impressively captivating read about development and water resources in the western United States, and William Cronon’s Nature’s Metropolis, an environmental history of Chicago, are two of my favorites.

• And finally for the binge watcher, I recommend Planet Earth. There are so many unbelievable ecosystems, plants, animals, and geographies in our world and it’s so cool that we get to visit them from the comfort of our living rooms. It’s the perfect thing to watch on Earth Day.

Be sure to check out SustainaVille Week and happy Earth Day reading!