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A guide to the most important work being done today on climate change.
11th Hour Project 11th Hour Project

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The Bridge at the Edge of the World - Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability, by James Gustave Speth

Co-founder of the NRDC, Yale University dean, and former White House advisor James Gustave Speth has been a leader in the environmental movement for more than 30 years. Called "the ultimate insider" by TIME magazine, he has long worked through traditional channels to raise awareness of environmental issues.

But now, faced with overwhelming evidence of galloping degradation of the planet, Speth has concluded that the environmental project-his project-has failed. No matter how hard environmentalists work, the current of destruction against which they are swimming is simply too swift. In order to preserve a livable planet for future generations, Speth argues in The Bridge at the Edge of the World (Yale, March 28), the current itself must be altered. And the current is that untouchable edifice, American-style consumer capitalism.  

Read more here >  



Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine M. Benyus

In the world envisioned by science author Janine Benyus, a locust's ability to avoid collision within a roiling cloud of its brethren informs the design of a crash-resistant car; a self-cleaning leaf inspires a new kind of paint, one that dries in a pattern that enables simple rainwater to wash away dirt; and organisms capable of living without water open the way for vaccines that maintain potency even without refrigeration -- a hurdle that can prevent life-saving drugs from reaching disease-torn communities.

Most important, these cool tools from nature pull off their tricks while still managing to preserve the environment that sustains them, a life-or-death lesson that humankind is in need of learning.

Much more than a reporter, Benyus is a champion of biomimicry; she's become one of the most important voices in a new wave of designers and engineers inspired by nature. Read more here >



Earth: The Sequel, by Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn

The forecasts are grim and time is running out, but that's not the end of the story. In this book, Fred Krupp, longtime president of Environmental Defense Fund, brings a stirring and hopeful call to arms: We can solve global warming. And in doing so we will build the new industries, jobs, and fortunes of the twenty-first century.

In these pages the reader will encounter the bold innovators and investors who are reinventing energy and the ways we use it. Among them: a frontier impresario who keeps his ice hotel frozen all summer long with the energy of hot springs; a utility engineer who feeds smokestack gases from coal-fired plants to voracious algae, then turns them into fuel; and a tribe of Native Americans, for two thousand years fishermen in the roughest Pacific waters, who are now harvesting the fierce power of the waves themselves.

These entrepreneurs are poised to remake the world's biggest business and save the planet-if America's political leaders give them a fair chance to compete. 





When the Rivers Run Dry, by Fred Pearce

It was with the Colorado River that engineers first learned to control great rivers. But now the Colorados reservoirs are two-thirds empty. Great rivers like the Indus and the Nile, the Rio Grande and the Yellow River are running on empty. And economists say that by 2025, water scarcity will cut global food production by more than the current U.S. grain harvest.

Veteran science correspondent Fred Pearce traveled to more than thirty countries while researching When the Rivers Run Dry. Deftly weaving together the complicated scientific, economic, and historical dimensions of the crisis, he shows us its complex origins, from waste to wrong-headed engineering projects to high-yield crop varieties that have kept developing countries from starvation but are now emptying their water reserves. And Pearces vivid reportage reveals the personal stories behind failing rivers, barren fields, desertification, water wars, floods, and even the death of cultures.

Finally, Pearce argues that the solution to the growing worldwide water shortage is not more and bigger dams but greater efficiency and a new water ethic based on managing the water cycle for maximum social benefit rather than narrow self-interest. See more »

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, by Michael Pollan

Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. By urging us to once again eat food, he challenges the prevailing nutrient-by-nutrient approach -- what he calls nutritionism -- and proposes an alternative way of eating that is informed by the traditions and ecology of real, well-grown, unprocessed food. Our personal health, he argues, cannot be divorced from the health of the food chains of which we are part.

In Defense of Food shows us how, despite the daunting dietary landscape Americans confront in the modern supermarket, we can escape the Western diet and, by doing so, most of the chronic diseases that diet causes. We can relearn which foods are healthy, develop simple ways to moderate our appetites, and return eating to its proper context -- out of the car and back to the table. Michael Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating. See more »

 

 

FLOW: For Love Of Water

FLOW: For Love Of Water, a new film by Irena Salina, highlights the local intimacies of an emerging global catastrophe: African plumbers reconnect shantytown water pipes under cover of darkness to ensure a community's survival; a Californian scientist forces awareness of shockingly toxic public water sources; a 'Big Water' CEO argues privatization is the wave of the future; a "Water Guru" in India sparks new community water initiatives in hundreds of villages; a Canadian author uncovers the corporate profiteering that drives global water business.

With an unflinching focus on politics, pollution and human rights, FLOW: For Love of Water ensures that the precarious relationship between humanity and water can no longer be ignored. While specifics of locality and issue may differ, the message is the same; water, and our future as a species, is quickly drying up. Armed with a thirst for survival, people around the world are fighting for their birthright; unless we instigate change, we face a world in which only those that can pay for their water will survive. FLOW: For Love of Water, is a catalyst for people everywhere: the time has come to turn the tide and we can't wait any longer.

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The Story of Stuff

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns, with a special focus on the United States. All the stuff in our lives, beginning from the extraction of the resources to make it, through its production, sale, use and disposal, affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues and calls for all of us to create a more sustainable and just world. Created by sustainability expert, Annie Leonard, it'll make you laugh, teach you something, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

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Everything's Cool

EVERYTHING'S COOL is a film about America finally "getting" global warming in the wake of the most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding and political action. While industry funded nay-sayers sing what just might be their swan song of pseudo- scientific deception, a group of global warming messengers are on a high stakes quest to find the iconic image, the magic language, the points of leverage that will finally create the political will to move the United States from its reliance on fossil fuels to the new clean energy economy - AND FAST.

The film features writer/activist Bill McKibben, author of "The End of Nature;" investigative journalist Ross Gelbspan, author of "The Heat is On" and "Boiling Point;" Heidi Cullen, the climate scientist who has introduced coverage of global warming to The Weather Channel; Climate Science Watch director Rick Piltz; Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, and Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, authors of "The Death of Environmentalism." 

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True Cost of Food

An animated video produced by the Sierra Club Sustainable Consumption Committee as part of a campaign to encourage people to think about the environmental impacts of their consumption choices. This disarmingly funny short film (15 minutes) is an easy way to introduce concepts of sustainability to young kids.

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Frontline "Hot Politics"

FRONTLINE and the Center for Investigative Reporting explore how bi-partisan political and economic forces prevented the U.S. government from confronting what may be one of the most serious problems facing humanity today. The film examines some of the key moments that have shaped the politics of global warming, and how local and state governments and the private sector are now taking bold steps in the absence of federal leadership. Watch the full program online here.