1.	State of the World
	by Lester Brown, et al. (Earthscan, annual).

This is a comprehensive and authoritative survey of many of the world's key trends, published each year. The press releases regularly put out by the Worldwatch Institute also provide a quick way of keeping on top of the mountain of data about the Earth's festering ills. Look them up on the Internet (www.worldwatch.org).

The Institute also publishes a series of A5 booklets on specific issues in a series called the Worldwatch Papers, which by mid-2000 numbered more than a 150 volumes, with topics ranging from the disastrous depletion of underground water aquifers to the pestilential dangers of new (and old) diseases.

2.	It's a Matter of Survival
	by Anita Gordon & David Suzuki (Harper Collins, 1991).

It is difficult to pick out one book that captures the breadth and depth of today's environmental, economic and social crises, not least the way they interact. This one does convey the urgency of the situation and the dangers we face, even if global overwarming were to turn out to be an illusion cooked up by a few overheated imaginations. The book draws upon a more conventional humanist perspective rather than a deeper ecological sensibility. It is also a bit dated by now. That said, it remains a firm rebuttal of the phoney 'good news' environmentalism being peddled by the likes of Gregg Easterbrook and organisations such as the British grouping Forum for the Future, let alone latter day Panglosses like Julian Simons and Wilfred Beckerman. It boldly underlines that most fundamental truth that, whatever the good cause, it will be a lost one unless we put the Earth first in both values, public policy and private lifestyles.

See also Beyond the Limits by Donella Meadows et al (Earthscan, 1992), an update of the classic Limits to Growth, the study originally commissioned by the Club of Rome. The Cassandra Conference edited by Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren (Texas A&M Univ. Pr., 1987), brings together great analysts such as George Woodwell and Earl Cook, all of whom are prepared to ask that great green question: 'how much is enough'? Statistics do date quickly, though it is possible to check for recent data from many good on-line sources not least the websites maintained by the Worldwatch Institute (see above) and that run by the David Suzuki Foundation, which also lists some follow-up studies to the above book. Of course, it is hard to be precise about broad trends, not least their speed of development. It is easy to dismiss such warnings as 'crying wolf' when predicted disasters do not happen in the immediate future. Yet, in broad historical terms, a few decades one way or the other is of minuscule significance. Even more important is the stark reality that the damage being done by human activities to the Earth's life-support systems is cumulative and can cross the point of no return without anything dramatic highlighting the fact.

Although arguments about 'resources running out' miss the big picture about our sickening planet, it is important to consult the writings of the Australian writer Ted Trainer, some of the best pieces being in the form of magazine articles. He rigorously exposes the widespread complacency about long-term fossil fuel and mineral availability as well as unwarranted optimism about the potential of solar and other 'alternative' resource supplies. A number of studies focus more on the political and economic aspects on the global crisis. In particular they debunk the widespread claims that a 'long boom' lies ahead and that the combination of parliamentary democracy and free market economics has successfully brought history to a happy ending. Despite, in some cases, a lack of deep ecological understanding, there is much good material in books such as The Age of Insecurity by Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson (Verso, 1998), The Case Against the Global Economy edited by Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (Sierra Club Books, 1996), Economic Horror by Viviane Forrester (Blackwell, 1999), False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism by John Gray (Granta Books, 1999), and, with focus on a particular example of the whole monster of so-called development, the Narada Valley project in India, The Cost of Living by Arundhati Roy (Flamingo, 1999). Light should be shed on those who benefit the most from the evils chronicled in such works and who actively block remedial action. Good sources include Green Backlash: Global Subversion of the Environmental Movement by Andrew Rowell (Routledge, 1996), Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism by Sharon Beder (Green books, 1997) and, with more humour though less environmental awareness, Downsize This! by Michael Moore, creator of the TV series TV Nation, (Boxtree, 1996). Good cases studies from the UK of the process of corporate take-over and the subservience of mainstream political parties can be found in The Captive State by George Monbiot ( Macmillan, 2000) and The Captive Party by Michael Barratt Brown (Spokesman Books, 2001 - a critique of Britain's 'New Labour' Party).

3.	A Green History of the World
	by Clive Ponting (Penguin, 1991).

This is a popular presentation of the ecological view of history, taking the people-environment interaction as the crucial characteristic of any society and the most decisive determinant of its future. In passing, it provides a healthy corrective to 'radical nostalgia' which paints a romantic picture of indigenous societies and 'vernacular cultures'. Sadly, environmental destruction and social oppression have long dogged human footsteps.

For an analysis of the last hundred years in particular, see Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century by John McNeil (Allen Lane, 2000). Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation (Octagon, 1980, originally 1944) provides a lucid analysis of the rise of modern industrial society and the emergence of 'economic man'. Amongst the intellectual histories, Peter Marshall's Nature's Web: an Exploration of Ecological Thought (Simon and Shuster, 1992) stands out, though the writings of Carolyn Merchant, Clarence Glacken, Roderick Nash, Max Oelschlaeger are all very useful as well.

Follow up by reading works by the growing number of academics who are building an ecological theory of history and historical change. See, for examples, books by writers such as Alfred Crosby, Jared Diamond, Stanley Diamond, Donald Hughes, Marshall Sahlins, Donald Worster, and in a perhaps more popular mode, Farley Mowat. One book stands out, however. It is Rogue Primate: an Exploration of Human Domestication by John Livingston (Key Porter Books, 1994), partly a history of human evolution - how it has contributed to the present crisis - and partly the presentation of a non-human-centred philosophy. Amongst other things, it exposes the crude reductionism that blames contemporary woes solely upon capitalism or indeed any cause of a purely economic nature. The works of Paul Shepherd also shed a great deal of light on such matters.

Whilst on the subject of history, there is another area well worth further study. In the past, a small number of very prescient writers saw the destructive road society has long been travelling. They also proposed more ecologically sustainable and less exploitative ways forward. Their writings refute the frequently proffered excuse that past destruction was merely accidental, an excusable misunderstanding, since people didn't know then what they know now. These visionaries did recognise the follies of their times and courageously said so, often being pilloried for their efforts. Their ranks include Henry Thoreau, George Marsh, John Muir, Fairfield Osborn, William Vogt, Paul Sears, Baker Brownell, Aldo Leopold, Frank Fraser Darling and, last but not least, the great Rachel Carson, who was subject to a particularly vicious witch hunt. All their writings repay close study.

4.	Betrayal of Science and Reason
	by Paul & Anne Ehrlich (Island Press, 1998).

A first-class response to the 'brown backlash'. The latter argues that fears about global warming and other environmental problems are just empty hot air. However, the book also provides a solid guide to the scientific side to green thinking, not least on issues like overpopulation and biodiversity.

For a superb example of an academic textbook on environmental sciences, which also has a lot of good material about sustainable alternatives to despoliation-as-usual, look no further than Living in the Environment by G. Tyler Miller (Wadsworth, with new editions appearing on a regular basis). It contains an excellent bibliography as well. Ecology and Our Endangered Life-Support Systems by Eugene Odum (Sinauer, 1989) is also a good guide to the scientific side of green politics. Odum is a veteran ecologist who is not afraid to speak out and roundly condemn the havoc being wrought across the planet. Too many scientists seem content to interpret the world (or, rather, smaller and smaller fragments of it) rather than change it for the better. See also The Diversity of Life by Edward O. Wilson (Penguin, 1992) and A Primer for Environmental Literacy by Frank Golley (Yale, 1998). The need for 'connected thinking', see things as a whole, is underlined in The Web of Life: A New Synthesis of Mind and Matter by Fritjof Capra (Flamingo, 1997).

5.	Elephant in the Volkswagen: Facing the Tough Questions About Our Crowded Country
	by Lindsey Grant et al (Freeman, 1992).

Too many people ignorantly believe that human numbers do not count. This collection of essays, focusing not on countries with exploding populations such as India but on the USA, demonstrates that human population growth is the biggest single source of the Earth's woe's and one which multiplies the effects of other malign pressures, not least those from overconsumption and inappropriate technology. In passing, it outlines the ecological approach to specific issues such as immigration and the rising percentage of elderly people.

Follow-up reading should include Paul and Anne Ehrlich's magisterial analysis The Population Explosion (Hutchinson, 1990) as well as the many magazine articles the two, sometimes in partnership with John Holdren, have written on the issue. See also World War 111: Population and the Biosphere at the End of the Millennium by Michael Tobias (Continuum, 1998). Mention must be made of the writings of Jack Parsons who has struggled tirelessly to warn of the threat from overpopulation. Some are hard to find but it is worth searching out books such as Population Versus Liberty (Pemberton Books(1971), and Human Population Competition: A Study of the Pursuit of Power through Numbers (Edwin Mellen Press,1998).

The personal dimensions to this issue and their links to the 'big picture' are well explored in Bill McKibben's Maybe One: A Personal and Environmental Argument for Single-Child Families (Simon & Shuster, 1998) Excellent material is published regularly in the journal Population and Environment, until recently edited by Virginia Abernethy, herself the author of numerous good books on population growth. Other good sources of evidence and argument about the realities of overpopulation include the Bulletin of the Carrying Capacity Network (Washington, USA) and The Pherologist (from a coalition of European campaign groups, published in Emmeloord, Netherlands).

6.	Questioning Technology
	edited by John Zerzan & Alice Carnes (Freedom Press, 1988).

There are two particularly bad ideas about technology. One is the almost religious faith that technology is the answer, believers thinking that social and environmental problems can be made to disappear simply by waving the magic wand of applied science. The second is the belief that technology is simply a neutral tool, its impacts dependent upon the identity and purposes of its controllers. This anthology is a great introduction to a more critical view, one which pulls no punches when it comes to such false dawns as biotechnology and computerisation Sadly, that great technological pie-in-the-sky, the so-called 'green car', is overlooked.

Follow up by reading authors such as Jacques Ellul (The Technological Bluff, Erdman, 1990), Neil Postman (try his Technopoly, Vintage Books, 1993) and Jerry Mander (especially the first two parts on 'megatechnology' in his In the Absence of the Sacred, Sierra Club Books, 1992). It is well worth searching out Eugene Schwartz's Overskill: The Decline of Technology in Modern Civilisation (Ballantine, 1971) a much needed antidote to today's high-tech euphoria. It also includes a careful dissection of the limits of logical empiricism. From an older generation, the writings of Lewis Mumford stand out. All these works demonstrate that 'alternative' isn't necessarily appropriate and that, if a technology is 'lean' and 'clean', it still might be far from green.

7.	Amusing Ourselves to Death
	by Neil Postman (Methuen, 1986).

Human culture is suffering from a process of degradation, 'dumbing down', that parallels the ruination of environmental systems. Indeed the former is a growing hindrance to any sensitivity towards and understanding of the latter. Postman is a sure-footed guide, focusing in this work on the impact of modern mass media.

For a more general overview see Dumbing Down: Essays on the Strip-Mining of American Culture, edited by K. Washburn & J. Thornton. (Norton, 1997), a collection which concentrates on America but, since 'Americanisation' is a major facet of the process globally, it remains relevant to readers everywhere. Other notable contributors on the issue include Robert Hughes (The Culture of Complaint, Harvill, 1994), Richard Sennett (The Corrosion of Character, Norton, 1995), Serge Latouche (Westernization of the World, Polity Press, 1996), George Ritzer (The McDonaldization of Society, Pine Forge press, 1996) Carl Hiaissan (Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World, Ballantine, 1998), John Miller (Egotopia: Narcissism and the New American Landscape, Univ. Alabama Pr., 1997). For more focus on the commercialisation of culture, a good starting point is Naomi Klein (No Logo: Taking Aim of the Brand Bullies, Flamingo, 2000). See also writers around the magazines Adbuster (Vancouver) and, from Chicago, The Baffler (there is a good collection of articles from the latter in Commodify Your Dissent: The Business of Culture in the New Gilded Age, edited by T. Frank and M. Weiland, Norton, 1997).

8.	Deep Ecology for the 21st Century: Readings on the Philosophy & Practice of the New Environmentalism
	edited by George Sessions ( Shambhala, 1995).

This is a weighty collection of essays from a variety of writers, with especially valuable introductions to each section by the American philosopher George Sessions. These writings demonstrate that there is a deep crisis in human character and culture, which a crude politics of anti-capitalism or indeed any programme based on economics fails to address and therefore can provide no lasting answers. However, the volume is correspondingly weaker on practical problems, not least the role of market economics and vested interests, and too focused on personal transformation.

It is still worthwhile dipping into Deep Ecology: Living As If Mattered by Bill Devall and George Sessions (Gibbs M Smith, 1985). Particularly important is its critique of 'resource managerialism', now often masquerading as environmentalism but, in actuality, but a front for a more sophisticated domination and manipulation of the Earth (as typified by the Brundtland Report, for example). The same applies to that new scam, 'sustainable development'. Other chapters outline other sources of ecological thought, not least from the worldviews of 'primal peoples' and non-western philosophies, something this brief guide has had to ignore.

See also Ecology, Community and Lifestyle: Outline Of An Ecosophy by Norwegian Arne Naess, translated and edited by David Rothenberg, (Cambridge University Press, 1991). Naess drew the vital distinction between what he called 'shallow environmentalism' and 'deep ecology', a much more consistent and meaningful sense of solidarity with the Earth. The Arrogance of Humanism by David Ehrenfeld (OUP, 1981) remains an essential read, not least for its dissection of the ideology of progress and its offspring 'development'. He is also good at showing how conservation programmes based on a utilitarian ethic are doomed to failure.

The best demolition job on the limits of reductionist and mechanistic thinking can be found in the first part of Where the Wasteland Ends by Theodore Roszak (Doubleday, 1973). For a more specific critique of the individualistic and materialistic values that underpin mainstream economic thinking as well as a critique of economic growth policies, try The Death of Industrial Civilisation by Joel Jay Kassiola (SUNY Press, 1990). Modern thinking has also been polluted by much postmodernist rubbish. Its pretensions and foolishness are well and truly buried by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont in their best seller Intellectual Impostures (Profile Books, 1997). Sadly, some of their strictures can be applied to much material being produced by the green movement. Another powerful critique of the dominant worldview is The Way: An Ecological World-View by Edward Goldsmith (Green Books, 1996). Drawing upon anthropological evidence from past cultures, he also shows that there is another way of looking at the world, one which will cherish not destroy it. Don't be put off by the rather schematic form of presentation. A very valuable collection of past essays by Goldsmith can be found in The Great U-Turn: Deindustrialising Society (Green Books, 1988). Much wisdom can be found in the pages of Home Place by Stan Rowe (NeWest, 1990), who casts a particularly sharp eye over a wide range of scientific, aesthetic and policy issues. A very valuable attempt to bridge 'philosophy' and the formulation of a coherent political platform is Regarding Nature: Industrialism and Deep Ecology by Andrew McLaughlin (State University of New York Press, 1993).

9.	A Sand County Almanac: With Essays on Conservation from Round River
	by Aldo Leopold (Oxford University Press, 1987 edition).

Few writers match Leopold's sensitivity to the meaning and importance of wilderness as well as his awareness of the need to go beyond a human-centred perspective of "resource management" (which has cloaked, indeed legitimised much environmental destruction). He was no armchair sentimentalist, having had extensive experience in forestry and game management. His basic ideas and metaphors, e.g. "thinking like a mountain", and "the Land Ethic", provide solid building blocks for a new worldview at one with the rest of Nature. He also had a way with words that captures the beauty and wonders of our world, though such sensibility can leave one even more in pain at its destruction. Another collection of his writings can be found in For the Health of the Land (Island Press, 1999). See also The Essential Aldo Leopold, edited by C. Meine and R. Knight (Univ. Wisconsin Press, 2000)

10.	Naked Emperors: Essays of a Taboo-Stalker
	by Garrett Hardin (Kaufmann, 1982).

Greens need both kind hearts and hard heads. The controversial American biologist Garrett Hardin cuts through a lot of the soft sentiment and piety about relationships between individuals and groups and between people and planet. His paper on the so-called 'tragedy of the commons' remains one of the most cited articles of all time. Few theses contain the potential to upset so many different brands of politics. The disastrous dynamic spotlighted by Hardin undermines the case for, on the one hand, laissez-faire 'market' economics, based on the individual consumer, and, on the other, anarchist and libertarian politics, based on individuals 'doing their own thing'. The 'tragedy' model can be used to show how the former, economic libertarianism, and the latter, social libertarianism, are but different sides of the same bad coin. No wonder the theory has so many enemies. Hardin's critique of the 'cornucopian' vision of ever-expanding entitlements is particularly forceful. Some of his historical comparisons can be questioned (some traditional commons were actually quite well managed) while his concept of 'lifeboat ethics' in relation to the problems of countries suffering from poverty and environmental decline is also flawed. Nevertheless, Hardin has been a crucial thinker on both environmental and social problems. See also his other collections, notably Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics and Population Taboos (Oxford, 1993)