Tommy’s Book Recommendations

Aimed at non-science students, this book demystifies the basic science of environmental global changes, from climate change to biodiversity loss, while tackling the natural constraints that shape our future. The book dives into the unique power of science as a tool for uncovering truths about the natural world and equips readers with strategies to spot and counter scientific misinformation.

🎧 Listen: 231: How to Think Like an Ecologist with Amy McEuen

Described as ‘the perfect antidote to feeling helpless in the face of seemingly unstoppable global events’ (Dr Jen Bowden, Curtin University), How to Survive the Next 100 Years: Lessons from Nature will teach you how to consume a more balanced variety of knowledge to become healthier and happier by reconnecting with nature.

📚 Buy directly from the publisher.

🎧 Listen: 230: Lessons from Nature with Simon Mustoe

Biogeotherapy – nature-based climate solutions, life as a geological healing force, presents a movement of farmers, scientists, politicians, and diplomatic actors. It is based on four natural restorative practices: holistic grazing management, no-till agriculture with cover crops, biochar, and massive reforestation. Agro-forestry, blue carbon, living machines, the restoration of peatlands, and other nature-based solutions (NbS) or negative emission technologies (NET) are also briefly described.

🎧 Listen: 229: Biogeotherapy with Benoit Lambert

In this deeply personal account, Tom tells of his attempts to save these incredible animals, of the support and opposition received and of the unimaginable gains that beavers ultimately brought to his home. He also explores the wider themes of rewilding and nature conservation in Scotland, meeting some of the leading lights of this exciting movement, highlighting the work they do, the challenges they face and showing why ecological restoration is so important for the future of our planet.

🎧 Listen: 223: Waters of Life with Tom Bowser

In Canopy of Titans, Paul Koberstein and Jessica Applegate examine the global importance of the Pacific Coastal Temperate Rainforest that stretches from Northern California to Alaska. Their urgent and authoritative account sets out the threats facing a vital environmental resource, and celebrates the beauty and complexity of one of the world’s great forests.

🎧 Listen: 217: Canopy of Titans – Greenwashing and the Great North American Temperate Rainforest with Paul Koberstein

From soil loss to wildfires, degraded rivers, mass migration and conflict, the environmental crisis is already here – and it’s set to get much worse. While billionaires build remote bunkers and make plans for colonies on Mars, climate collapse impacts the most vulnerable among us first and hardest. But what this radical and ground-breaking book proves is that inequality isn’t just about who suffers the consequences, it is the main obstacle blocking action – and it has been for decades.

🎧 Listen: 215: Just Earth with Tony Juniper

All around the world protection for threatened wilderness areas continues its expansion through the support of an unexpected activity: Sport Hunting. In this book, outdoor writer and scientist Mike Arnold takes readers on a global odyssey stalking vast tracts of wilderness in the U.S. and Canada, Coutadas and preserves in Africa, rain forests in Central America, and game lands in Europe.

🎧 Listen: 214: Bringing Back the Wild with Mike Arnold – A Hunter’s View of Global Conservation

‘Captivating biographies of a much-maligned group that weave together science, folklore and the author’s own insights.’
– Dr Alexander Lees

📚 Buy directly from the publisher.

🎧 Listen: 208: Encounters with Corvids – Fionn Ó Marcaigh

‘Galbraith is a remarkable writer. In Uncommon Ground he seeks out voices which usually go unheard, offering perspectives on the countryside in all its glorious, gory, often uncomfortable contradictions. Intelligent and fearless, he challenges widely-held assumptions about what would most benefit wildlife and people.’
– Katrina Porteous

🎧 Listen: 202: Uncommon Ground with Patrick Galbraith