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Greenpeace's summer reading list

To understand environmental issues, we need to look at science and history, at geography and economics, at sociology and politics. Especially politics. Greenpeace's summer reading list takes you from the big picture (global economics) to daily life (the seafood aisle of your grocery store) and reflects the global scope of our campaigns. We've grouped our choices into a few topical categories, followed our own imaginations and interests and thrown in a few movies and websites for good measure.

Let us know what you think and make your own reading recommendations at living-guide@greenpeace.ca.

1. Food

Shortages and food riots are grabbing headlines around the world, but both scarcity and excess have long characterized the global food system. To understand the dynamics behind international food issues like agribusiness expansion and trade policy, pick up Raj Patel's Stuffed and Starved and Vandana Shiva's Stolen Harvest: the Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. Continue to trace the origins of the food on your plate with Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, a careful examination of basic food stuffs from corn to beef. For a glimpse into food harvesting in Canada, check out El Contrato, Min Sook Lee's excellent documentary on farm workers in Ontario's tomato industry at www.nfb.ca.

2. Climate change

Tim Flannery's The Weathermakers is one of the best places to start learning about climate change. It paints a careful picture of the role of human history in changing the climate and leaves you with a strange feeling of affection for our atmosphere. For a more anecdotal take on the effects of climate change around the world, try Elizabeth Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catastrophe. To learn about the effects of climate change for communities in the Canadian north, read Unikkaaqatigiit Putting the Human Face on Climate Change: Perspectives from Inuit in Canada.

3. Water

Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke's Blue Gold: The Battle Against Corporate Theft of the World's Water is a comprehensive and compelling survey of the very scary future (and present) of the planet's water. For a fictional take on our possible water future, try Varda Burstyn's thriller, Water Inc., and for a film chock full of information about water issues from Michigan to La Paz, watch Flow: For the Love of Water.

4. The big picture

To understand environmental issues, we have to examine the world economic system, and Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz's Globalization and its Discontents is a perfect place to start. For more on economic globalization and its effects on people and the environment, read Wayne Ellwood's No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization. Follow that up with Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine for a lucid examination of how economic interests and political clout can work together to trump the well being of citizens around the world. For a view of what a better world could look like, try Vandana Shiva's Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace.

For more inspiration, read Unbowed: A Memoir by Nobel prize-winner Wangari Maathai.

5. Greenpeace

Yes, Greenpeace is a topic in its own right. We've inspired institutional biographies like Rex Weyler's Greenpeace: How a Group of Ecologists, Journalists, and Visionaries Changed the World, generated epic accounts of our origins like Bob Hunter's The Greenpeace to Amchitka: An Environmental Odyssey, and produced indispensable resources like the Greenpeace Living Guide.

Order the Greenpeace Living Guide today!