Here are 28 books that Clearing The Air fans have personally recommended if you like
Clearing The Air.
Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
When I was growing up, our neighbours used to have weekly garden bonfires that filled our house with choking smoke. Around this time, I did a school project on air pollution that opened my eyes to the horrors of breathing toxic air. All this must have made an impact because, 40-odd years later, after taking a science degree and working for a decade as an environmental campaigner, I decided to write an eye-opening, easy-to-read book about why air pollution still kills millions of people each year—and what we can do to put that right.
Few people have as much hands-on experience with air pollution as Dr. Gary Fuller. A scientist at Imperial College London, he set up and manages the London Air Quality Network—one of the world's biggest urban air pollution monitoring networks. In this surprisingly engaging book, I discovered the fascinating story of how the world woke to the problem of dirty air, including why it took us so long to fix the problem of acid rain, why the "Dieselgate" scandal really happened, and why supposedly "green" wood burning stoves have turned out to be such an environmental disaster. I think the great thing about Gary's work is his optimism: air pollution is a problem we really can solve, making a huge difference to the quality of life for literally billions of people.
More than 90% of the world's population is exposed to air pollutant concentrations exceeding World Health Organisation guideline levels. Having air that is healthy to breathe is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century. Some of this is unfinished business from the last 60 years, but as more and more of us live in cities, more of us are living close to pollution sources. Europe is wrestling with air pollution from diesel transport and in China and India they are facing air pollution problems that they have never met before. The air pollution that we breathe every day…
When I was growing up, our neighbours used to have weekly garden bonfires that filled our house with choking smoke. Around this time, I did a school project on air pollution that opened my eyes to the horrors of breathing toxic air. All this must have made an impact because, 40-odd years later, after taking a science degree and working for a decade as an environmental campaigner, I decided to write an eye-opening, easy-to-read book about why air pollution still kills millions of people each year—and what we can do to put that right.
Most of us think air pollution's a relatively recent problem that started back in the Industrial Revolution, but as Peter Brimblecombe demonstrates in this wonderfully readable book, it's a much older problem with deeper roots, linked to broader trends in how humans have used and abused the planet. I generally hate history, but I loved this book: it's superbly scholarly but also riveting and well-written, and tiny telling details make what could have been a very dull subject really fascinating. It was originally published in 1987, so it doesn't cover recent history, but it's still worth reading nevertheless.
First published in 1987, Peter Brimblecombe's book provides an engaging historical account of air pollution in London, offering a fascinating insight into the development of air pollution controls against a changing social and economic background. He examines domestic and industrial pollution and their effects on fashions, furnishings, buildings and human health. The book ends with an intriguing analysis of the dangers arising from contemporary pollutants and a glimpse of what the future may hold for London.
When I was growing up, our neighbours used to have weekly garden bonfires that filled our house with choking smoke. Around this time, I did a school project on air pollution that opened my eyes to the horrors of breathing toxic air. All this must have made an impact because, 40-odd years later, after taking a science degree and working for a decade as an environmental campaigner, I decided to write an eye-opening, easy-to-read book about why air pollution still kills millions of people each year—and what we can do to put that right.
Like Tim Smedley, Beth Gardiner brings a journalist's eye to the problem of air pollution and contrasts how it affects different people in different ways in the UK, India, Poland, and the USA. For some people, science is dull, mundane, and plonkingly prosaic, but Beth's eleven stories really brought the problem alive for me in a spellbinding writing style I really admire.
Nothing is as elemental, as essential to human life, as the air we breathe. Yet around the world, in rich countries and poor ones, it is quietly poisoning us.
Air pollution prematurely kills seven million people every year, including more than one hundred thousand Americans. It is strongly linked to strokes, heart attacks, many kinds of cancer, dementia, and premature birth, among other ailments. In Choked, Beth Gardiner travels the world to tell the story of this modern-day plague, taking readers from the halls of power in Washington and the diesel-fogged London streets she walks with her daughter to Poland’s…
When I was growing up, our neighbours used to have weekly garden bonfires that filled our house with choking smoke. Around this time, I did a school project on air pollution that opened my eyes to the horrors of breathing toxic air. All this must have made an impact because, 40-odd years later, after taking a science degree and working for a decade as an environmental campaigner, I decided to write an eye-opening, easy-to-read book about why air pollution still kills millions of people each year—and what we can do to put that right.
To really get to grips with why air pollution is still a problem in the 21st century, you need to understand the broader context of how people use materials and energy and why they make waste. Marquita Hill's classic book, in print for over 25 years and now in its fourth edition, is one of the best places to start. Although it's billed as a student textbook, it's packed with photos and illustrations, and the concise, highly readable text means you can happily read it from cover to cover. A great place for students to start.
This undergraduate textbook examines environmental pollution ranging from our homes to the global environment. Completely updated and with over 50% new and rewritten material, this new edition assesses the international scope of pollution, including water, climate change, acidification, energy, solid and hazardous waste, persistent chemicals, and pesticides. The pollutants of current major concern are examined, including plastics and electronic waste. Both the impacts and the sources of pollution are addressed, as well as governmental, corporate, and personal responsibility for pollution. Pollution prevention is emphasized throughout, but students will come to see that prevention is not enough. The text moves on…
I am a historian of early modern Europe, especially 16th- and 17th-century England, and my work pulls together threads from different historical disciplines, including political history, the history of science and technology, and environmental history. I am fascinated by the ways that human history is intimately linked with the environment, and I am most interested in how early modern European states and empires worked to understand, manage, and profit from the natural world, especially with respect to using and conserving natural resources such as water, wood, and wildlife. I have chosen books that explore these issues in innovative and exciting ways.
A fascinating look at the use of coal as a main fuel source in early modern London, the fearsome pollution that resulted from it, and efforts to understand and mitigate the effects of that pollution.
I think the most impressive aspect of this book is how many different approaches Cavert takes in examining his topic—political and legal history, history of science, social and economic history, even literary criticism. He argues that London was the first “modern” city in that it was the first to rely heavily on burning fossil fuels to provide the energy that powered its early industrial economy.
The Smoke of London uncovers the origins of urban air pollution, two centuries before the industrial revolution. By 1600, London was a fossil-fuelled city, its high-sulfur coal a basic necessity for the poor and a source of cheap energy for its growing manufacturing sector. The resulting smoke was found ugly and dangerous throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, leading to challenges in court, suppression by the crown, doctors' attempts to understand the nature of good air, increasing suburbanization, and changing representations of urban life in poetry and on the London stage. Neither a celebratory account of proto-environmentalism nor a declensionist…
I am an economist who has written broadly on microeconomics, energy and natural resource markets, and environmental economics. My recent work in environmental economics has focused on climate change, and I’ve published a book and many articles on the topic. I think it’s important to understand that while there is a lot we understand about climate change, there is also much we don’t understand, and what the uncertainty implies about what we should do. My concern is the possibility of a climate catastrophe. What are the chances, and what should we do? Those questions have driven much of my research and writing.
Almost all economists would agree that the best way to reduce GHG emissions is to impose a carbon tax. Don’t subsidize electric cars, and don’t subsidize wind farms. Just tax carbon emissions. But why is that the best way to reduce emissions? This book provides an excellent explanation of why a carbon tax is the most efficient way to reduce emissions. And I also recommend this book as an introduction to the economics of climate change.
I was a goofy-looking kid growing up. My ears were so big that someone once said I didn’t need an alarm clock because I could hear the sun coming up. On top of that, I was also very average at everything I tried. However, I found that being funny made people like me. I also realized that, as long as God loved me and had a plan for me, I could be a superhero despite being average at everything. So when Focus on the Family asked me to start writing, I knew exactly what I’d write about…me! Average Boy!
Who doesn’t like a kid trying to be a superhero? Alvin is assigned a pollution project for school. Instead of writing a paper or doing an art project, Alvin becomes a superhero who fights pollution in his small town.
Alvin is a kid in a small town with a giant imagination and we get to go along for the ride as he tries to expose the biggest polluter in town-the chemical plant. And he does it with a funny mask and cape. Growing up, I didn’t need Superman because I had Superweasel as my inspiration.
I often turned to my imagination when I was a child. Nobody Can Take My Happy Awaywas inspired by the times I was bullied. My peers teased me about my clothes, my teeth, my home, and how I talked. I wanted to hide from everyone, so I had fewer opportunities to make friends. Because I lived in my own head, I found acceptance in the world of make-believe. I read books about strange worlds with characters that thrived in their surroundings. Eventually, it didn’t matter if someone teased me at school. Reading these books helped me be myself. I found strength in being the odd one out.
I love the colorful illustrations and the silliness of Dr. Seuss books. This book delivers a positive message about our natural resources in a way all can understand. The message is taking responsibility for the problems we create. The seed represents hope for the future.
When I was a child, I went to see an outdoor screening of The Lorax at a local festival. I won a copy of the book and it’s been special to me ever since. I think it reinforced the idea that no matter how old you are, you can change things for the better. I also wanted to share something positive through my books.
I use color in the illustrations in my books because when I was a kid, I loved picture books and they were helpful when I was having difficulty with my learning disabilities and how others perceived me. I was ten years…
The Lorax is the original eco warrior and his message still rings loud today in this fable about the dangers of destroying our forests, told in the trademark rhyme of the irrepressible Dr. Seuss.
"Mister! He said with a sawdusty sneeze, I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees."
The Lorax is a hilarious and timeless story with the trademark humour and silly rhymes of Dr. Seuss, that packs a punch with its ecological message without feeling heavy-handed or worthy. The Lorax is the original eco warrior as he tries to save the Truffula trees from the greedy once-ler's…
I write nonfiction books for children and teens that focus on current environmental stories. But environmental headlines are usually gloomy and filled with foreboding, so, I prefer to focus on stories that involve individuals identifying an environmental problem and working to develop a solution – hence this list of happy conservation stories. The stories in this list – and many others – are the antidote to the headlines. They are the hope. They show human ingenuity at its most creative, most flexible, and most caring. Happy conservation stories empower kids, teens, and adults to care about the role they play in nature and unite them in action.
I love stories of positive change. They give me hope that humans can see themselves as part of nature rather than apart from it.
One Plastic Bag is special because it focuses on how one person addressed the problem of plastic pollution and instituted change with small steps that created a big impact. If we are to coexist with nature, we must realize each of us have something to contribute.
The inspiring true story of how one African woman began a movement to recycle the plastic bags that were polluting her community.
Plastic bags are cheap and easy to use. But what happens when a bag breaks or is no longer needed? In Njau, Gambia, people simply dropped the bags and went on their way. One plastic bag became two. Then ten. Then a hundred.
The bags accumulated in ugly heaps alongside roads. Water pooled in them, bringing mosquitoes and disease. Some bags were burned, leaving behind a terrible smell. Some were buried, but they strangled gardens. They killed livestock…
My father was a lawyer, so people sometimes assume that I wanted to follow in his footsteps. In fact, it was the opposite; I saw how hard he worked and how much of a grind the job could be. What really sparked my interest was the great books and movies about the legal profession. Eventually, I was lucky enough to spend fourteen years as a prosecutor, and let me tell you: the job is even better than you’d see on the page or on the screen. I loved the work while I had the job, and now I love telling stories. I hope you’ll be as entertained and inspired as I was by these books.
Civil lawsuits often get second-billing to criminal cases, but this book about a case of mass environmental contamination in a small town in Massachusetts one has all the traits of a legal thriller: an astonishing injustice, stunning twists and turns, and enormous consequences for all involved.
More than once, I gasped while reading this, and it’s one of the few books I ever re-read. This has since become a major-release movie (starring John Travolta), but the book is even better.
The story of a lawyer's battle to win compensation from two of America's largest industrial giants. He fought on behalf of 21 families whose lives were wrecked by illness and death due to the alleged poisoning of their town well. This case became renowned in American legal history.
