The Green "Top 40"


From: Robert Merideth's Book, The Environmentalist's Bookshelf: A Guide to the Best Books (1993). Merideth did an informal survey of more than 200 "environmental experts" to find out which books have been most influential on their lives. Here are the top forty listings.

RankAuthorTitle# Votes
1Aldo LeopoldSand County Almanac100
2Rachel CarsonSilent Spring81
3Lester Brown et al.State of the World31
4Paul EhrlichThe Population Bomb28
5Henry David ThoreauWalden28
6Roderick NashWilderness and the American Mind21
7E. F. ShumacherSmall Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered21
8Edward AbbeyDesert Solitaire20
9Barry CommonerThe Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology18
10Donella Meadows et al.The Limits to Growth17
11Wendell BerryThe Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture
12George P. MarshMan and Nature
13John McPheeEncounters with the Archruid
14William Thomas et al.Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth
15Edward AbbeyThe Monkey Wrench Gang
16World Resources InstituteWorld Resources
17Norman Myers, ed.Gaia: An Atlas of Planet Mangement
18Amory LovinsSoft Energy Paths
19World Commission on Env. and DevelopmentOur Common Future
20Paul Ehrlich, Anne Ehrlich, and John HoldrenEcoscience: Population, Resources, Environment
21Loren EisleyThe Immense Journey
22James LovelockGaia: A New Look at Life on Earth
23G. Tyler MillerLiving in the Environment
24Eugene OdumFundamentals of Ecology
25Barbara Ward and Rene DubosOnly One Earth: The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet
26Herman Daly and John CobbFor the Common Good
27Bill Devall and George SessionsDeep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered
28Barry LopezArctic Dreams
29Roger T. PetersonA Field Guide to the Birds
30Marc ReisnerCadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
31William VogtRoad to Survival
32Ansel Adams and Nancy NewellThis is the American Earth
33Ernest CallenbachEcotopia
34Annie DillardPilgrim at Tinker Creek
35Stephen FoxJohn Muir and His Legacy: The American Conservation Movement
36Clarence GlackenTraces on the Rhodian Shore: Nature and Culture in Western Thought from Ancient Times to the End of the 18th Century
37Ian McHargDesign with Nature
38Bill McKibbenThe End of Nature
39Garrett HardinExploring New Ethics of Survival
40Donald WorsterNature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas


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