Are you an SEJ member who's authored, co-authored or edited a non-fiction or fiction environmental book (published in 2024 or 2025) you'd like included on this page? Documentaries are also welcome. Please send the following to web content manager Cindy MacDonald:

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3. ISBN number
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Non-Fiction

 

"A Call to Farms"

By Jennifer Grayson

The rising movement of regenerative agriculture holds great promise for transforming our food system while reclaiming planetary and human health. Yet a little-known fact could amplify the call for change: Within a decade, nearly half of all farmland in America will change hands as the older generation of farmers steps aside. Meanwhile, the groundswell of new growers eager to steward that land are up against seemingly every obstacle: rising land costs, insufficient income, a Goliath industrial food system and the billionaires and corporations grabbing farmland at a staggering pace. So, how could we mobilize a new “greatest generation” of sustainable, small farmers at this crucial tipping point? How could resilient local agriculture transform our country, heal the earth and ensure healthy, fresh food is accessible to all? To answer those questions, award-winning journalist Jennifer Grayson embedded herself in a groundbreaking beginning farmer training program, then embarked on "A Call to Farms" — an investigative travelogue about the new, diverse farmers, graziers and activists working toward a stirring vision of the future. Countryman Press/W.W. Norton, 2024. ISBN: 978-1682688465. More information.

 

 

"Clamor: How Noise Took Over the World and How We Can Take It Back"

By Chris Berdik

Drawing on extensive research and original reporting, Berdik shows how a narrow understanding of noise pollution, focused on loud sounds and decibel counts, has undermined a century of noise-control efforts and obscured the true toll noise extracts on us and the environment. Chronic exposure to noise that falls below decibel-based thresholds — sometimes even below our conscious awareness — is linked to spikes in the risk of heart disease and other serious ailments that contribute to premature death. Noisy classrooms hinder developing minds and delay cognitive milestones. In forests and the depths of the ocean, a cacophony of man-made sound disrupts the natural soundscape, threatening animals' capacity to communicate, hunt and flee predators. Yet in the battle against noise pollution, sound doesn't have to be our enemy: "Clamor" introduces us to the researchers, rockstars, architects and many others who are finding surprising ways to make our world sound not only less bad, but better. Rising above the ever-increasing racket, "Clamor" is an urgent call to take noise seriously and harness sound's great potential. W.W. Norton, May 2025. ISBN: 978-1-324-00699-2. More information.

 

 

"Gaslight: The Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Fight for America's Energy Future"

By Jonathan Mingle

Journalist Jonathan Mingle tells the story of an epic, six-year battle between one of the country’s most powerful energy companies and the ordinary citizens who stood in the way of its massive fossil gas pipeline. On one side stood Dominion Energy, an archetypal Goliath: a corporation that commands billions of dollars and unparalleled influence over state politicians and federal government agencies alike. On the other, a diverse band of Davids: lawyers and farmers, conservationists and conservatives, innkeepers and lobbyists, scientists and nurses. Communities fought Dominion and compliant regulators in a struggle that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The company insisted the pipeline was in the public interest because it would carry natural gas, long framed by the industry as a “bridge fuel” to a clean energy future – despite mounting evidence of the climate risks posed by leaking methane and carbon emissions from new gas infrastructure. Mingle weaves that larger story of the industry’s decades-long public relations campaign to sell a fossil fuel as a “climate solution” together with the gripping, on-the-ground narrative of grassroots resistance in Virginia’s hills. Publisher’s Weekly called it “a riveting report” that “transforms ‘regulatory wrangling’ into a propulsive story.” Island Press, 2024. ISBN: 9781642832488. More information.

 

 

"The Heat and the Fury: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence"

By Peter Schwartzstein

British-American environmental journalist Peter Schwartzstein tells the story of the largely overlooked ways in which climate stress is fueling everything from urban crime to old school piracy and terror group recruitment. From the ravaged villages of Iraq, where ISIS has used drought as a recruiting tool and weapon of terror, to the pirate-ridden waters of Bangladesh — and drawing on more than a decade of reporting from dozens of countries — Schwartzstein writes about the unexpected ways in which climate change is feeding global unrest and conflict. Through the stories of the soldiers, farmers, spies and others affected around the world, he makes sense of a form of conflict that remains poorly understood, even as it devastates the lives of so many millions of people. In "The Heat and the Fury," we learn how much of a threat this chaos also presents closer to home: from exploding military arsenals to intensifying violence against women during periods of extreme heat, Western countries are not immune. Above all, this is a hands-on investigation of climate's increasingly violent frontlines, providing a further glimpse into the ways in which global warming is affecting our planet and its inhabitants. But, as Schwartzstein's unparalleled reporting shows, there's nothing inevitable about climate violence. In fact, as he sets out, the same stresses that are pitching people against one another can even help bring them back together. Island Press, 2024. ISBN: 978-1-64283-301-0. More information.

 

 

"Hot Takes: Every Journalist's Guide to Covering Climate Change"

By Sadie Babits

Whether you cover the environment, healthcare, economics, politics, sports, or any other beat, the fact is, you need to understand climate change to do your job. Because climate affects every human (and animal, and plant) on Earth, that means it affects all our reporting. You may know the basics when it comes to the science of human-driven climate change. But how about the major policies that determine global climate action or the growing number of legal climate-related cases? Have you considered what it means to practice journalism focused on solutions—rather than offering up a puff piece? What about how to cover the vast inequities generated from human-caused climate change, or how race and socioeconomics interact with climate? Are you prepared to detect and debunk misinformation and to remove bias from your stories? Climate change is dramatically shifting so many aspects of our world, journalism included. So, whether you’re still a student or a fifty-year veteran, chances are, you could use some up-to-date guidance on how to report on this critical and endlessly complex issue. You have come to the right place. No resource has all the answers, but "Hot Takes" engages the big questions that will determine how climate change is covered, and the stories we tell our audiences and ourselves. Island Press, 2025. ISBN: 9781642832754. More information.

 

 

"Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future"

By Vince Beiser

The powerful ways the metals we need to fuel technology and energy are spawning environmental havoc, political upheaval, and rising violence — and how we can do better. An Australian millionaire’s plan to mine the ocean floor. Nigerian garbage pickers risking their lives to salvage e-waste. A Bill Gates-backed entrepreneur harnessing AI to find metals in the Arctic. These people and millions more are part of the intensifying competition to find and extract the minerals essential for two crucial technologies: the internet and renewable energy. In "Power Metal," Vince Beiser explores the Achilles’ heel of “green power” and digital technology — that manufacturing computers, cell phones, electric cars and other technologies demand skyrocketing amounts of lithium, copper, cobalt and other materials. Around the world, businesses and governments are scrambling for new places and new ways to get those metals, at enormous cost to people and the planet. Beiser crisscrossed the world to talk to the people involved and report on the damage this race is inflicting, the ways it could get worse and how we can minimize the damage. "Power Metal" is a compelling glimpse into this disturbing yet potentially promising new world. Riverhead Books, 2024. ISBN: 9780593541708. More information.

 

 

"Rising Waters: Reports From Across a Rapidly Warming World"

By Tony Bartelme

From the historic streets of Charleston, where flooding tides now rise with alarming frequency, Pulitzer Prize finalist Tony Bartelme takes readers deep into the heart of the climate crisis. With the eye of an investigative reporter and the soul of a storyteller, Bartelme makes the invisible visible-whether it's carbon dioxide drifting from a tailpipe, disappearing plankton beneath the waves, or the subtle collapse of ecosystems we barely understand. Rising Waters is a story of science, wonder, and urgency. Traveling from the Lowcountry to Greenland, the Sahara, and beyond, Bartelme introduces readers to NASA scientists, Inuit shamans, coral whisperers, and chemical detectives, all working to decode the planet's fever. And he always brings it back home-to the marshes, reefs, and communities of the American Southeast, where the battle between water and land is no longer possible to ignore. This book is a call to see clearly, think deeply, and act meaningfully-before more of our world slips beneath the surface. Consumer Publications, LLC, 2025. ASIN: B0FG51NSKR. More information.

 

 

"Treekeepers: The Race for a Forested Future"

By Lauren E. Oakes

In recent years, planting a tree has become a catchall to represent “doing something good for the planet.” Many companies commit to planting a tree with every purchase. But who plants those trees and where? Will they flourish and offer the benefits that people expect? Can all the individual efforts around the world help remedy the ever-looming climate crisis? In "Treekeepers," Lauren E. Oakes takes us on a poetic and practical journey from the Scottish Highlands to the Panamanian jungle to meet the scientists, innovators, and local citizens who each offer part of the answer. Their work isn’t just about planting lots of trees, but also about understanding what it takes to grow or regrow a forest and to protect what remains. Throughout, Oakes shows the complex roles of forests in the fight against climate change, and of the people who are giving trees a chance with hope for our mutual survival. Timely, meticulously reported, and ultimately optimistic, "Treekeepers" teaches us how to live with a sense of urgency in our warming world, to find beauty in the present for ourselves and our children, and to take action big or small. Hachette Book Group, 2024. ISBN: 9781541603349. More information.

 

 

"The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives"

By Ernest Scheyder

"The War Below" reveals the explosive brawl among industry titans, conservationists, community groups, policymakers and many others over whether the habitats of rare plants, sensitive ecosystems, Indigenous holy sites and other places should be dug up for their riches. To build electric vehicles, solar panels, cell phones and millions of other devices means the world must dig more mines to extract lithium, copper and other vital building blocks. But mines are deeply unpopular, even as they have a role to play in fighting climate change and powering crucial technologies. Those tensions have now sparked a worldwide reckoning over the sourcing of these necessary critical minerals. With accessible and illuminating writing, Scheyder shows the human toll of this war and explains why recycling and other newer technologies have struggled to gain widespread use. He also expertly chronicles Washington’s attempts to wean itself off supplies from China, the global leader in mineral production and processing. "The War Below" paints a powerfully honest and nuanced picture of what is at stake in this new fight for energy independence and environmental protection. One Signal Publishers/Atria, 2024. ISBN: 978-1668011805. More information.

 

 

"We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate"

By Michael Grunwald

Humanity has reshaped a land mass the size of Asia and Europe to grow food, while our food system produces a third of global carbon emissions. With nearly 10 billion people to feed by 2050, we face a dire challenge: how to meet this demand without tearing down rainforests and driving climate chaos. Journalist and New York Times bestselling author Michael Grunwald calls it “eating the earth," and without solving our food and land crisis, even ending fossil fuel use won’t save us. "We Are Eating the Earth" highlights how misguided "sustainable" solutions often worsen the problem, making it harder to grow more food with less land. Yet amidst the missteps of lobbyists, politicians and even scientists, he also finds hope in bold innovators. From jungle-tough crops like pongamia to genetically-edited cattle, Impossible Whoppers and cutting-edge, non-polluting pesticides, these advances show how food production could work in harmony with nature. At the heart of Grunwald’s gripping narrative is Tim Searchinger, a brilliant, determined expert fighting against flawed science and entrenched agricultural interests. Through better policy, smarter technology and a mindset valuing every acre, Searchinger offers a path to preserve our planet. It’s a tale of colossal challenges but also achievable solutions that could protect the Earth for future generations. Simon & Schuster, July 2025. ISBN: 9781982160074. More information.

 

Fiction

 

"Attack of the Food Zombies"

By Dennis Meredith

Rogue scientist Edwin Kane invents the chemical gustatene that renders any food addictively delicious! Kane is pursued for his formula by corrupt food industrialists, cutthroat drug lords and Veganite terrorists battling Big Meat. And, horror of horrors, if released into the environment, gustatene is a forever chemical that would spawn a global horde of food zombies! Also after Kane are a by-the-book FBI agent, an eccentric FDA investigator and a world-renowned chef. Can the heroes stop Kane and thwart the villains? Can they cure food zombies and prevent gustatene's spread? "Attack of the Food Zombies" is not only a "sci-fry thriller," but a revelatory novel about the ubiquity and dangers of the massive industry of food additives and addictive manufactured foods. Glyphus, LLC, 2024. ISBN: 978-1-939118-26-4. More information.

 

 

"Black River"

By Meg Turville Heitz

Sent to Earth in the midst of war as an infant, the traveling stone gripped in his tiny hand, Kyle Nelson grew up feeling like a fish out of water, despite his family's deep Wisconsin roots. His strange Uncle Rupert filled his head with fanciful tales of world-hopping wizards, but it wasn't until he turned 21 that a deeper truth emerged. When Rupert uses magic to send him to another world, Metatha, a world which has bypassed technological evolution by scavenging from other worlds, he learns he is the last of a ruling caste with the power to use a magical stone and travel between them, and a catalyst that re-ignites an ancient civil war. The Metathans have dreamed of the return of a Traveler, so they could access the hidden magic and power of other worlds. What Kyle doesn’t know is that it’s his drunken “Uncle” Rupert that Metathans most fear will swim home. And Rupert hopes Kyle will be his key to do just that. Mystique Press, 2024. ISBN: 978-1637891346. More information.

 

 

"The Czar Bomb"

By Dennis Meredith

In 1961, the Soviets detonated a 50-megaton thermonuclear bomb, the largest explosion in history. In 1963, Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev boasted that a 100-megaton bomb had been built and hidden in East Germany. Taking off from those real-life events, the new thriller "The Czar Bomb" by Dennis Meredith spins a tale in which that bomb is unearthed by Iraqi oligarch Saadallah bin Shadid, bent on revenge for the death of his family in an illegal American drone strike. The chase is on, as historian Ben Webber and a CIA nuclear weapons team led by Carrie deLong try to stop the oligarch before he detonates the superbomb. Its blast would spread for hundreds of miles, killing millions. What’s more, the bomb—7,000 times bigger than the Hiroshima bomb—would trigger a global environmental catastrophe. Its detonation would launch a cloud of billions of tons of soot into the atmosphere. The injection would devastate the protective ozone layer, bombarding the surface with UV radiation that would damage human health, crops, and ecosystems. The cloud would bring a thermonuclear winter, driving global surface temperatures to the lowest levels in a thousand years, causing a decades-long worldwide famine. Glyphus, LLC, 2025. ASIN: B0FL1HDFRK. More information.

 

 

The Enchanter's Web Series

By Meg Turville Heitz

Book I: "Specters from a Dream"
They thought their dreams guided them. What if they were wrong? The gods left unfinished business after their ancient war among themselves. They banished, but didn't kill their foe, who now seeks his vengeance by laying waste to the gods' beloved creations: the land and peoples of Shande. The gods empower unlikely heroes Khoti, Arshal, Nali, and Resala – altering their fates with abilities that could destroy them &mdash to unite Shande to somehow save the world. Book I of The Enchanter's Web, an epic fantasy of intrigue and sorcery, finds our heroes trying to manage powers beyond their control in a desperate war against stronger forces with a mission to destroy the world. Oakland Hills, April 2025. ASIN: B0F4WH1FS1. More information.

Book II: "Dread Warrior"
What could go wrong when a peaceful land plans a war. An avenging god with an ancient grudge, Ghyldus, goaded the Minarians into invading the peaceful land of Shande, forcing its leaders into exile. Arshal, King in Exile, wants his country back. His people are bountied, his land occupied and in ruins. The gods granted him powers that might defeat Ghyldus, if he can learn to control them without killing himself. With the help of his counselor Nali, a healing warrior Khoti, and his surviving siblings Resala and Peshal, Arshal must recruit ally nations, support a rebellion in Minaria, build an army while suffering a brutal occupation, and draw Ghyldus to face him when and where he’s strongest. Book II of The Enchanter’s Web is an epic fantasy of intrigue and sorcery. Our heroes must face tribal rivalries and class divisions to somehow unite Shande and her allies to save themselves. Oakland Hills, May 2025. ASIN: B0FFN8PTT5. More information.

Book III: "The Rising of Kedtair"
When all the pieces come together, what if it was always to another’s plan? Arshal counts on many things. He must master god-granted powers to defeat the Enchanter Ghyldus to end Minaria’s brutal occupation of Shande. He must evade elite Minarian warriors pursuing him. He must unite allies and rival tribes and sustain a Minarian rebellion. He needs his sister Resala, a spy now captive in Ghyldus’s thrall, to goad the god into facing Arshal at the rising of the star Kedtair when Arshal will be at his strongest. He needs his healing warrior Khoti and his counselor Nali to build armies in far regions and meet him on that final battlefield under Kedtair. If Arshal fails the world will never know peace again. Yet, in succeeding, he could destroy it. Book III of The Enchanter’s Web, an epic fantasy of intrigue and sorcery, finds our heroes desperately gathering armies in an occupied land controlled by a better-armed and better-trained enemy. They must meet an impossible timeline. They count on many pieces falling into place. They didn’t count on the Enchanter’s web. Oakland Hills, June 2025. ASIN: B0FF44X3FN. More information.

 

 

"The Prodigal's War: A Tale of the Gyre"

By Valerie Brown

It takes a teenage princess, a dissolute prince and a dragon to show the world how to live in harmony with nature. And there’s never been a dragon like this one in all of fantasy literature. No one knows where the Dragon Uln came from. In fact, many people in The Gyre think she’s a myth. But when Emperor TerGhahn enslaves her, everybody is in for a rude awakening. Using the dragon’s power, TerGhahn wants to conquer all the Gyre countries, including Pengellar, the breadbasket of the Gyre. Unfortunately Pengellar’s most likely champion, Prince Antar, disappeared twenty years ago with the Blade of Pengellar and is presumed dead. The unwilling heir to the throne is Antar’s niece, fifteen-year-old Princess Arenee, an animal lover who resolves to help the Dragon Uln by any means necessary. In the process she invents a new kind of magic. Will it be enough to withstand the imperial assault and return the Gyre to balance? Schwa Books, 2024. ASIN: B0D8YJ8Y9X. More information.