• The Best Conservation Books of 2021 - A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by David Attenborough & Jonnie Hughes
  • The Best Conservation Books of 2021 - Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
  • The Best Conservation Books of 2021 - Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs
  • The Best Conservation Books of 2021 - Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn
  • The Best Conservation Books of 2021 - Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change by Dieter Helm
  • The Best Conservation Books of 2021 - Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert

The Best Conservation Books of 2021, recommended by Charlotte Smith

Many of us are increasingly alarmed at the damage human beings have done—and continue to do—to the natural world and would love to be better informed about what we need to do to protect our precious environment. Fortunately, every year, the Wainwright Prize picks out the best writing on global conservation—books that are not only informative but highly readable. Here, British journalist Charlotte Smith, chair of the judging panel, talks us through the books that made the 2021 shortlist and why it’s worth reading all of them.

  • Best Books on the Periodic Table - The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean
  • Best Books on the Periodic Table - The Story of N: A Social History of the Nitrogen Cycle and the Challenge of Sustainability by Hugh Gorman
  • Best Books on the Periodic Table - The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore
  • Best Books on the Periodic Table - Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes by Julie Klinger
  • Best Books on the Periodic Table - The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another by Ainissa Ramirez

Best Books on the Periodic Table, recommended by Henrik Selin & Noelle Eckley Selin

The periodic table of the elements has been described as “one of the great intellectual achievements of humankind”. Here, Noelle Eckley Selin of MIT and Henrik Selin of Boston University talk us through some of their favourite books about various chemical elements and explain why they’re vital to understanding the world around us.

  • Nuclear Books - Critical Assembly: Poems of the Manhattan Project by John Canaday
  • Nuclear Books - Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss
  • Nuclear Books - The Four Faces of Nuclear Terrorism by Center for Nonproliferation Studies
  • Nuclear Books - An Indispensable Truth: How Fusion Power Can Save the Planet by Francis Chen
  • Nuclear Books - Energy: A Human History by Richard Rhodes

Nuclear Books, recommended by Richard Wolfson

In science, the word ‘nuclear’ refers to anything to do with the atomic nucleus, whether you’re using it to generate power or create weapons of mass destruction. Here, physicist and science educator Richard Wolfson recommends five books relating to things nuclear, from a book of graphic nonfiction about the Curie family to how fusion can save the planet.

  • The best books on Climate Change and Uncertainty - Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, nature and climate change by Elizabeth Kolbert
  • The best books on Climate Change and Uncertainty - Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
  • The best books on Climate Change and Uncertainty - Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
  • The best books on Climate Change and Uncertainty - Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
  • The best books on Climate Change and Uncertainty - Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild

The best books on Climate Change and Uncertainty, recommended by Kate Marvel

‘When we talk about climate change, we sometimes assume people will be swayed by one more graph, one more coherent argument. But that’s not how people work. More facts don’t change minds, and deeply held views don’t always dictate behaviour.’ How, then, to grapple with a future that ‘might be weirder than we realise’? Kate Marvel, Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University and NASA, recommends an essential reading list for those ready to confront climate change and the uncertainties it brings

  • The best books on The Politics of Climate Change - The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh
  • The best books on The Politics of Climate Change - Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: Reflections on the End of a Civilization by Roy Scranton
  • The best books on The Politics of Climate Change - Love in the Anthropocene by Bonnie Nadzam & Dale Jamieson
  • The best books on The Politics of Climate Change - The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets since the Depression by Angus Burgin
  • The best books on The Politics of Climate Change - The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy by Michael E Mann & Tom Toles

The best books on The Politics of Climate Change, recommended by Naomi Oreskes

‘We’re on a path that is going to lead to tremendous destruction and yet most of us are going about our lives as if nothing particularly special is happening.’ The science of climate change is incontrovertible but deniers persist and political and economic solutions continue to be – systematically – frustrated. Time is running out, says Naomi Oreskes