The books chosen for 2021 revolve around the central theme of not just cataloging declines and degradation, but how we as a species work to live with, mitigate and reverse those changes.
The list below features a sample of the important literature on conservation and the environment released this year.
Inclusion in this list does not imply Mongabay’s endorsement of a book’s content; the views in the books are those of the authors and not necessarily Mongabay.
The signs of human impact seem to exist just about everywhere we look. We live in a world in which microscopic bits of plastic have found their way onto the highest mountain peaks and deepest ocean trenches. Our world-shaping power extends across the two-thirds of the planet covered by the global ocean, right up to and including the largest animals that have ever lived. We’ve altered the climate, pushed countless species to extinction and countless more to the brink. We’ve toppled forests, lopped off mountaintops and changed the course of rivers. And yet for all the power humans have to send the planet in decline, we also have the power to help it recover.
