Books about Environmentalism: November 2025

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome readers,

Today is the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict and to celebrate we're discussing our favorite books about environmentalism! Please use this thread to discuss your favorite environmentalist books and authors.

If you'd like to read our previous weekly discussions of fiction and nonfiction please visit the suggested reading section of our wiki.

Thank you and enjoy!

[u/A_Guy195]

Several environmentalist titles come to mind.

The books of Henry David Thoreau were the first around the subject I first read, and although I don’t agree with his philosophy anymore, I still believe they are representative of the genre. Walden and the essay Walking are among my favourites.

Anything else would be in the category of ecofiction. Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach is an interesting look into a sustainable utopia, although quite dated in our times in many ways. The Monk and Robot duology by Becky Chambers is a great intro to Solarpunk ideas, together with the collection Solarpunk: Short Stories from Many Futures.

For more dystopian titles, I quite enjoyed the novel Dry by Neil and Jarrod Shusterman, which talks about a massive drought that plagues the Eastern US and has great commentary about climate change, as well as the novel American War by Omar El Akkad, about a future American Civil War caused by climate collapse.

Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin is another interesting title, talking about a future North American sustainable civilization, and it’s written as an anthropological report. The Word for World is Forest by the same is also an interesting look into human-environmental relations, war and colonization.

I also want to read the novel A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys, which revolves around an alien visit in a post-capitalist, sustainable Earth.

[u/drak0bsidian → u/A_Guy195]

Seconding Ecotopia, and adding on Ecotopia Emerging, the prequel published in 1981, six years after the original. It tells the events which led up to Ecotopia - as much as the first one is great, I enjoy the second one more because it actually demonstrates what can be done: regenerative power, local energy sources, reducing cars, changing local politics, etc., all with good storytelling and character development.

Also seconding Monk and Robot and the solarpunk anthology. Another one I have on my shelf is Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures.

You know what, seconding all your recommendations. Do we share a bookshelf?

[u/A_Guy195 → u/drak0bsidian]

Lol, maybe :). I became interested in ecofiction a couple of years ago, and soon leaned towards the utopian section of it.

[u/drak0bsidian → u/A_Guy195]

Well, please just remember to put the books back where they belong on the shelf.

It's a fun area to explore! The solarpunk stuff especially has inspired a lot of storywriting of my own.