Before the Lights Go Out
Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us

By now, we should all have realized that we have an energy problem, even if we can't all agree on specifically what the problem is. Rising costs, changing climate, peaking oil, foreign oil, public safety—if the fears are this complicated, then the solutions are bound to be even more confusing. Maggie Koerth-Baker—science editor at the award-winning blog BoingBoing.net—finally makes some sense out of the madness.

Biodiesel

Growing a New Energy Economy by Greg Pahl (2nd Edition). When Rudolph Diesel invented his engine in the late nineteenth century, he envisioned a device that could run anywhere on a wide range of local fuels. A century later, Greg Pahl recalls that vision and shows us it is possible.

Eaarth - A Novel

Hold onto your hats! It's windy on the Danish island of Samso. Meet the environmentally friendly people who now proudly call their home Energy Island. At a time when most countries are producing ever-increasing amounts of CO2, the rather ordinary citizens of Samso have accomplished something extraordinary--in just ten years they have reduced their carbon emissions by 140% and become almost completely energy independent. A narrative tale and a science book in one, this inspiring true story proves that with a little hard work and a big idea, anyone can make a huge step towards energy conservation.

Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. But on the brink of fatherhood-facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child's behalf-his casual questioning took on an urgency His quest for answers ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong. Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, memoir and his own detective work, Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits-from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth-and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting. Marked by Foer's profound moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the vibrant style and creativity that made his previous books, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, widely loved, Eating Animals is a celebration and a reckoning, a story about the stories we've told-and the stories we now need to tell.

Environmental Literary Council

Recommended for anyone interested in energy, from 6th graders on up. Click the book cover for more information.

Hold onto your hats! It's windy on the Danish island of Samso. Meet the environmentally friendly people who now proudly call their home Energy Island. At a time when most countries are producing ever-increasing amounts of CO2, the rather ordinary citizens of Samso have accomplished something extraordinary--in just ten years they have reduced their carbon emissions by 140% and become almost completely energy independent. A narrative tale and a science book in one, this inspiring true story proves that with a little hard work and a big idea, anyone can make a huge step towards energy conservation.

Energy Primer for Kids

Heartland’s Science Director, Jay Lehr, spent his Thanksgiving vacation reading and reviewing books dealing with the phenomena of climate change … because that’s what he does. Here follows Jay’s review of “The Energy Primer For Kids: With a Primer for Grown-ups” by Vladislav Bevc. It’s must reading to deprogram your children.

Everything Kids Environment Book

Everything we do has an impact on the world around us--from the clothes we wear and food we eat to the gardens we grow and the trash we throw away. And to take the best care of the earth--and ourselves--it's important to make smart choices. With The Everything® Kids' Environment Book, you'll find out what you can do every day to help protect our planet. You'll also learn why the rainforest is so important to us, how animals go extinct, and what environmentalists can tell us about taking good care of our world. Learn how to "go green" and to:

• Find new uses for recycled grocery bags
• Create your own greenhouse
• Make acid rain--safely!--to see how it affect plants
• Test organic food against foods grown with chemicals
• Make your own compost pile
• Re-create deforestation with the soil from timbered trees

Force of Nature

What happens when a renowned river guide teams up with the CEO of one of the largest and least Earth-friendly corporations in the world? When it's former Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott and white-water expert turned sustainability consultant Jib Ellison, the result is nothing less than a green business revolution.

(and/or Print): Available by paid subscription. Their mission is to disseminate objective and practical information on residential energy efficiency, performance, comfort, and affordability. Click the logo for more information.

Why We Need a Green Revolution, by NY Times columnist and best selling author, Thomas Friedman. The author let's you see the world in the real way it must be viewed for our nation to develop the political will to solve many crises at once.

Omnivore's Dilemma

A natural history of four meals, by Michael Pollan, narrated by Scott Brick. Click the icon on the left for a link. Also available in print.

Recycle This Book

100 Top Children's Book Authors Tell You How to Go Green

With essays from renowned children’s book authors such as Ann Brashares, Jeanne DuPrau, Caroline B. Cooney, Laurie Halse Anderson, Bruce Coville, Gennifer Choldenko, and over 100 others, each piece is an informative and inspiring call to kids of all ages to understand what’s happening to the environment, and to take action in saving our world.Helpful tips and facts are interspersed throughout. This book will be a great classroom tool to teach young readers how they can help to make the Earth a greener place.

Renewable Energy Coloring Book

A coloring book on the Environment. This is a free PDF download. Click here to get it for your child.

Silent Spring

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was first published in three serialized excerpts in the New Yorker in June of 1962. The book appeared in September of that year and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet reverberated powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement. It is without question one of the landmark books of the twentieth century.

How to Make Money, and Save the World: CE-Yo(gurt) of Stonyfield Farms tells how he turns green ideas into greenbacks, and so can you. Watch the video.

Sustainable Energy
Without the Hot Air

David MacKay’s critically acclaimed Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air may not have the prettiest front cover in the world, but it admirably crunches the numbers on renewable energy devices, electric cars, nuclear power and a host of other innovations, showing which are worth pursuing and which are merely snake oil. (From a review from the Ecologist)

Tomorrow's Energy

Hydrogen Fuel Cells and the prospects for a cleaner planet. Written by Peter Hoffman.

The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization, by Steven Solomon. In Water, esteemed journalist Steven Solomon describes a terrifying—and all too real—world in which access to fresh water has replaced oil as the primary cause of global conflicts that increasingly emanate from drought-ridden, overpopulated areas of the world. Meticulously researched and undeniably prescient, Water is a stunningly clear-eyed action statement on what Robert F Kennedy, Jr. calls “the biggest environmental and political challenge of our time.”

What's Gotten Into Us?

A deep, remarkable, and empowering investigation into the threats—biological and environmental—that chemicals now present in our daily lives.

Do you know what chemicals are in your shampoo? How about your cosmetics? Do you know what’s in the plastic water bottles you drink from, or the weed killer in your garage, or your children’s pajamas? If you’re like most of us, the answer is probably no. But you also probably figured that most of these products were safe, and that someone—the manufacturers, the government—was looking out for you. The truth might surprise you.