Earth Environment

Our current environmental crises - most notably, climate change - call on us to upgrade to a new way of life that will sustain us and our world far into the future. With determination and action, we can implement solutions rather than sit on the sidelines suffering harmful impacts. We deserve, and can have, better health and a cleaner environment, a stable climate, healthy ecosystems, sustainable use of resources, and less need for damage control.

A journey around the United States in search of the truth about the threat of earthquakes leads to spine-tingling discoveries, unnerving experts, and ultimately the kind of preparations that will actually help guide us through disasters. It's a road trip full of surprises.

Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science and one of the leading young environmental journalists and bloggers working today, immerses listeners in the world of those who study hurricanes. What was once an arcane branch of meteorology (itself an arcane science) has become embroiled in one of the most politicized and hotly contested debates in American science: whether or not the recent hurricane disasters, culminating in Katrina, are connected to global warming.

From a light breeze cooling a hot brow to a gale that blows apart buildings, no other natural phenomenon affects people as directly as wind. DeBlieu explores how wind has aided the rise and fall of empires, the discovery of continents, and the establishment of religions. Wind provides surprising, delightful insights into a force that constantly reshapes who we are and how we live. Suzanne Toren’s narration lends a voice of quiet, thoughtful authority to a subject you’ll never view the same again.

Patagonia. The name connotes the exotic and a distance that seems nearly mythical. Tucked toward the toe of South America, this largely unsettled landscape is among the most varied and breathtaking in the world - aching in its beauty as it sweeps from the Andes through broad, arid steppes to pristine beaches and down to a famously violent sea. It is also home to a vast array of rare wildlife as diverse and fascinating as the region itself.

Mention the word earthquake and most people think of California. But while the Golden State shakes on a regular basis, Washington State, Oregon, and British Columbia are located in a zone that can produce the world’s biggest earthquakes and tsunamis. In the eastern part of the continent, small cities and large, from Ottawa to Montréal to New York City, sit in active earthquake zones. In fact, more than 100-million North Americans live in active seismic zones, many of whom do not realize the risk to their community.

In April 1970, twenty million people grabbed their rakes, gloves, and recycling bins to celebrate the first Earth Day. Since that environmental kickoff, nature has never been in better shape. RIGHT? WRONG! The real deal is a bit muddier than that. It’s true that the first Earth Day encouraged people around the globe to clean up their act when it came to the environment. But activists have been working for centuries to save the planet! Join the History Smashers team to bust history's biggest misconceptions and figure out what really went down before (and after!) the first Earth Day.

A prominent seafaring environmentalist and researcher shares his shocking discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean, which inspired a fundamental rethinking of the Plastic Age and a growing global health crisis.

Meet our fearless adventurers Cassandra, Otto and Missy AKA the smartest raven in the universe as they set out on their next action-packed Ladybird Audio Adventure! On this adventure, we're travelling to the arid desert where we'll learn about the different species that live in these hot climes, such as coyotes, lions and rattlesnakes! Remember to bring plenty of water on this journey as we'll be exploring the driest deserts on earth!

Focusing the environmental debate on the principle of common commitment, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and eminent conservationist Terry L. Maple present A Contract with the Earth. They declare a need for bipartisan environmentalism: a new era of environmental stewardship with principles that they believe most Americans will share.

Across the planet, the futures of young people hang in the balance as they face the harsh realities of the environmental crisis. This urgent book chronicles the lives of the diverse young people on the frontlines of the environmental crisis around the world, amplifying the stories of those living at the heart of the crisis. Advocating for the protection of both people and the planet, Bella restores the beating heart to global environmental issues, from air pollution, to deforestation and overconsumption by telling the stories of those most directly affected.

Climate change is with us, and we need to think about the next big disturbing idea - the potentially disastrous consequences of massive numbers of environmental refugees at large on the planet. In 2020, the United Nations projects that we will have 50 million environmental refugees mostly from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. How will people be relocated and settled? Is it possible to offer environmental refugees temporary or permanent asylum? Will these refugees have any collective rights in the new areas they inhabit?

It is elemental, mysterious, precious, destructive. It is the subject of countless poems and paintings; the top of the weather report; the source of all the world's water. Yet this is the first audiobook to tell the story of rain.

Every year, droughts, floods, and fires impact hundreds of millions of people and cause massive economic losses. Climate change is making these catastrophes more dangerous. Now. Not in the future: now. This book describes how and why climate change is already fomenting dire consequences and will certainly make climate disasters worse in the near future.

Finally, a practical, realistic plan to rescue, preserve and enhance nature. This is an economist's approach to environmentalism, including a summary of Britain's green assets, a look towards possible futures and an achievable 25-year plan to a green and prosperous world. News about Britain’s wildlife and ecosystems tends to be grim. In Green and Prosperous Land, Dieter Helm, a member of the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and advisor to the government, shares a radical but tangible plan for positive change.

Meteorologist and Peabody Award-winning journalist Bonnie Schneider looks at how climate change is already threatening our mental and physical health and offers helpful tips to tackle these challenges.

Rewilding is restoring natural processes and species, then stepping back so that nature can express its own will. In essence, rewilding means giving the land back to wildlife and wildlife back to the land. Recalling the late, great Wild Earth journal, this provocative anthology showcases the most notable original articles published by Rewilding Earth (rewilding.org) in 2018. Rewilding Earth Unplugged is an inspiring, informative, and user-friendly guide for how to protect and restore wild places and their residents.

The weather is the foundation of our daily lives. It’s a staple of small talk, the app on our smartphones, and often the first thing we check each morning. Yet behind all these humble interactions is the largest and most elaborate piece of infrastructure human beings have ever constructed - a triumph of both science and global cooperation. But what is the weather machine, and who created it?

In an easy conversational style, The Restless Northwest provides a brief overview of the remarkable geological processes that have shaped the Pacific Northwest. The narrative is also sprinkled with firsthand accounts of the people involved in recent exciting, scientific discoveries. Williams enlivens this story of long-ago geologic events, with a variety of fascinating asides, on everything from enormous undersea tubeworms, to the Willamette meteorite.

What can we, as ordinary citizens, do about climate change? While countless environmental books focus on the causes of our current crisis, Advocating for the Environment is one of the first to focus on advocacy and policy-based solutions, arming listeners with the tools they need to take action and enact change.