There are lots of great ways to celebrate Earth Day. Bike to work, recycle, or show off your green thumb and plant a tree, like our commander-in-chief. But, in our minds, there’s no better way to celebrate Mother Earth than learning more about her through a good book.

When it comes to saving the planet, few people know more than James Gustave Speth, co-founder of the NRDC and dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. In his book The Bridge at the Edge of the World, Speth argues that modern capitalism’s obsession with consumption and GDP growth has gone too far, now causing more harm—to environment, social fabric, and world
security—than good. His bold plan is laid out in this inspired book, which is now available in paperback. And fear not, defenders of poor, defenseless trees! Speth’s book is printed on acid free recycled paper with vegetable based ink.

Though environmental appreciation through the written word is all well and good, a picture contains a thousand words, or in Robert Poole‘s case, an entire book. Poole’s book, Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth, takes the iconic “blue marble” photographs from NASA’s Apollo missions as a starting point and tells the elaborate and surprising story of how these images came to be. From an environmentalist perspective, the photographs of Earth represented a turning point, Poole contends. In a strange way, we had to leave the planet to turn our focus back toward Earth, our beautiful and fragile home.

Matthew Klingle’s book, Emerald City, tells the story of a community that has managed to weave together seamlessly its natural beauty and urban development. In this award-winning book, Klingle explores the role of nature in the development of the city of Seattle from the earliest days of its settlement to the present day, showing how this Pacific Northwest metropolis can be a model for our nation’s greening cities.

Finally, for all you literary green freaks, check out an Earth Day/Poetry Month double-whammy, Can Poetry Save the Earth? by John Felstiner and Janet Malcolm‘s arrestingly beautiful collection of botanical portraits in her photographic work, Burdock. And, once again, happy Earth Day!