April 22nd is Earth Day

Spring is in bloom in Brooklyn and there is no better way to celebrate it than with Earth Day! A holiday started in 1970 to raise awareness around environmental protection, Earth Day is now celebrated annually world-wide on April 22nd. 

There are many ways to celebrate and honor the Earth we call home. Below are five book recommendations to help get in touch with nature and brush up on your knowledge of climate change this spring. 

1. Braiding sweetgrass for young adults : indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. 
   
   Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things-from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen-provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth's oldest teachers: the plants around us. With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons of plant life to a new generation.

2. Girls who green the world : thirty-four rebel women out to save our planet by Diana Kapp. 

   Part biography, part guidebook to the contemporary environmental movement, Girls Who Green the World features the inspiring stories of 34 revolutionaries fighting for our future! An inspired collection of profiles, featuring environmental changemakers, social entrepreneurs, visionaries and activists. Journalist Diana Kapp has crisscrossed this country writing for and about empowered girls, girls who expect to be leaders, founders and inventors. This book takes it a step further. It says to girls: while you're striving to be CEOs and world leaders, consider solving the biggest challenge of our lifetime, too--because you can do both at the same time, and here are 34 women doing just that.

3. The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg. 

   Gathering together the wisdom of experts, the world's leading climate activist arms readers with the knowledge needed to combat climate disaster, showing there is hope.

4. No planet B : a Teen Vogue guide to climate justice.

   Teen Vogue, the fresh voice of a generation of activists, currates a dynamic collection of timely pieces on the climate justice movement. With accessible, concise explanations of the features and causes of climate change as well as pieces urging an intersectional approach to environmental justice, this book is the handbook for the emerging youth climate movement. Using a feminist, indigenous, antiracist, internationalist lens, the book paints a picture of a world in climate crisis and presents bold, courageous ideas for how to save it. Featuring introductions from leading climate activists, No Planet B is essential listening for everyone fighting for a Green New Deal and more.

5. The uninhabitable earth : life after warming by David Wallace-Wells.
   
   If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible. In California, wildfires now rage year-round, destroying thousands of homes. Across the US, "500-year" storms pummel communities month after month, and floods displace tens of millions annually. This is only a preview of the changes to come. And they are coming fast. Without a revolution in how billions of humans conduct their lives, parts of the Earth could become close to uninhabitable, and other parts horrifically inhospitable, as soon as the end of this century. In his travelogue of our near future, David Wallace-Wells brings into stark relief the climate troubles that await--food shortages, refugee emergencies, and other crises that will reshape the globe. But the world will be remade by warming in more profound ways as well, transforming our politics, our culture, our relationship to technology, and our sense of history. 

Reading is, by far, not the only way to get in touch with the Earth! This spring, Brooklyn Public Library will be offering a variety of programming related to nature, gardening, and ecology through the Branches in Bloom event series. Learn how to make seed bombs and be a guerilla gardener, plant a garden at your local library branch, or decorate a planter to take home! 

You can also explore indigenous art and culture at Greenpoint Library through Lenapehoking, the first Lenape-curated exhibition of Lenape cultural arts, both historic and contemporary, in New York City. This exhibition at Greenpoint Library ends April 30th so visit while you still can!