environment

  • Looking Towards a Fiery Future

    The devastating fire in Maui is the most recent reminder that uncontrolled fires are happening more often, in more places, at a more harmful scale than ever before, and will only continue to do so as climate change contributes to our warming planet. Writers are grappling with these realities, looking back for lessons even as… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2021 BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or Person of Color) Food Writing

    Need a suggestion for your BIPOC Food Writing Book Bingo square? Expand your reading (and eating) palette with these tasty, filling and thoroughly engrossing memoirs and cookbooks!* Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner Noted indie rock musician Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) has penned a heartfelt and captivating memoir about growing up Asian American in a predominantly… Continue reading

  • #BookBingoNW2021 Cli-fi or Environmental Non-fiction

    The Cli-fi/Environmental Non-Fiction square offers lots of good reading options! From visions of how the world might look after a climate apocalypse, to intensely personal stories of connection with the land; from accounts of how we got to this point in time, to examinations of the intersection of capitalism and climate; and much more. Check… Continue reading

  • Bird Week: Birds Ground Us — The Earth and Environmental Equity

    Bird Week: Birds Ground Us — The Earth and Environmental Equity

    The Seattle Public Library is partnering with the Seward Park Audubon Center for Bird Week, April 23-30, in celebration of the center’s tenth anniversary and the National Audubon Society’s 2018 Year of the Bird. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. Don’t you think our lush planet is worth far more than two… Continue reading

  • City Council Reads – Mike O’Brien, District 6

    This past November, Seattle swore in a new Mayor and City Councilmember, and we here at ShelfTalk thought this would be a great opportunity to continue our series of posts in which we invited your representatives to share books that have meant a lot to them. This time, we asked them “What book was most influential… Continue reading

  • Futurama Redux: Urban Mobility After Cars, a Traveling International Exhibition

    One of the highlights of the 1939 World’s Fair was a massive exhibit called “Futurama,” created by General Motors. It promised that within twenty years the working man would live in a glorious future filled with friendly suburbs, gleaming skyscrapers, and extensive highways—all of this made possible by the comfort and convenience of the personal… Continue reading

  • Endangered Species Day

    Mark your calendars for May 19 – Endangered Species Day. Since 2006, the third Friday in May has been a day to reflect on animal and plant species that are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) maintains The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, a comprehensive list… Continue reading

  • Nightstand Reads: Bob Wyss

    Bob Wyss is associate professor of journalism at the University of Connecticut and a journalist who has written for the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Smithsonian, Providence Journal and Yankee. His most recent work is the 2016 book, The Man Who Built the Sierra Club: A Life of David Brower. He will read excerpts from… Continue reading

  • New Year’s Resolution- To be More Eco-Friendly

    ~posted by Selby With a new year come new year’s resolutions. Whether you want to learn to carve wood, invest in the stock market or create a will, the library probably has something to help you. One of my resolutions is to be more environmentally friendly. After reading the first two books below, I was… Continue reading

  • Clean and Green

    Clean and Green

    Who knew how much you could do with white vinegar and baking soda? If you are like me, you have an accumulation of various cleaning supplies clustered under your kitchen sink. My place always needs cleaning, so I have tried many products over the years. I now want to use green cleaning materials so that… Continue reading

  • Of Parrots and People

    Of Parrots and People: The Sometimes Funny, Always Fascinating, and Often Catastrophic Collision of Two Intelligent Species by Mira Tweti This title is an informative and moving account of the negative impact we have on the parrot population and on the planet as a whole. Tweti argues that we have not only destroyed their natural habitats,… Continue reading

  • Science Insight – Science Databases

    Gale Science in Context (formerly The Science Resource Center) is a one-stop science database for all your science-related research needs. This in-depth, curriculum-oriented, resource focuses on key concepts taught in school classrooms, including… Biology Chemistry Earth and Environmental Science Health and Medicine Math and Technology Physics and Astronomy In addition to these six major subjects,… Continue reading

  • Cool Clear Water

    Water is 70% of the earth’s surface. You can drink it, wash with it, swim in it and find it underground by using a stick. It is the universal solvent, colorless, odorless and just right for tea and Tang. Here are a few more tributes to the glory of H2O. Water edited by John Knechtel.… Continue reading

  • Be a Part of World Water Day.

    How often do we really stop and think about the water we consume each day? Not just the eight glasses we’re supposed to drink on a daily basis, but the water from the dishwasher, the laundry, washing our cars, brushing our teeth and that daily shower or pot of coffee. It’s an understatement at this point… Continue reading