Educational Resources
Education is the most powerful weapon for changing the world.
– Nelson Mandela, South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and political leader
Climate and environmental literacy will allow us all to better understand our shared challenges and how to make meaningful changes in our lives, our town and our future. There are many resources available today. Below are local conservation/sustainability organizations and resourand some of our committee's film and book suggestions.
Local Organizations
Bronx River Parkway Conservancy A volunteer organization dedicated to conserving the history and landscape of the Bronx River.
Westchester Parks Foundation Non-profit organization that engages the public to advocate for and invest in the preservation, conservation, use, and enjoyment of the 18,000 acres of parks, trails, and open spaces within the Westchester County Parks system. Offers volunteer opportunities throughout the year.
Bronx River Alliance Works with NYC Parks Department and other organizations to protect, improve, and restore the Bronx River corridor, to make it a healthy ecological, recreational, educational and economic resource for the communities along it.
Greenburgh Nature Center A nature center offering educational programing, summer camps, and hiking trails. Includes a butterfly house and restored native plant meadow.
Westchester Land Trust Non-profit organization that preserves land and promotes sustainability throughout Westchester; many Land Trust properties are open to the public for hiking and bird watching.
Save the Sound Dedicated to environmental stewardship and activism in communities that border Long Island Sound in New York and Connecticut.
Hudson to Housatonic A regional conservation partnership with dozens of organizations working between the Hudson and Housatonic Rivers in New York and Connecticut.
Groundwork Hudson Valley Creates sustainable environmental change in urban neighborhoods through community-based partnerships that promote equity, youth leadership, and economic opportunity.
Vine Cutter An off-shoot of the Bronx River Parkway Conservancy dedicated to removing invasive species along the Bronx River and the Bronx River pathway.
Bedford 2030 A terrific website from a community that leads the way in clean energy and sustainability; find programs, events, ideas for transformation.
Farms & Farm Stands
Hilltop Hanover Farm & Environmental Center Yorktown Heights, offers a CSA program
Fable: Farm to Table Ossining, offers a CSA program
Nature's Cradle Eastchester, offers a CSA program
Muscoot Farm Katonah
Gardens
For Kids/Young Adults
TEDEd Climate Change: Earth's Giant Game of Tetris
Annie Leonard's Loop Kids PBS series about sustainability that relates to kids' lives
Books for Kids with Ecological Themes
By Greta Thunberg
No one is too small to make a difference *Also an inspiring quick read for adults.
Documentaries
Climate Change 101 with Bill Nye, National Geographic
Unbreathable
Kiss the Ground
The Story of Food Waste
Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story
The Story of Plastic
Our Ecosystem & Biodiversity
The Insect Apocalypse Is Here - The New York Times
Books
Fiction
Richard Powers, Winner Pulitzer Prize
The Overstory: A Novel
By Barbara Kingsolver
Flight Behavior
By Wendell Berry
Jaybar Crow
Nonfiction
By Doug Tallamy
Bringing home nature
Defining the Landscapes of Bronxville: The Natural and Built Environment, by The Bronxville Historical
Conservancy in Partnership with Peter Gisolfi Assos.
By Hope Jahren
Lab Girl
The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where We Go From Here
By Elizabeth Kolbert
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change
By Bill McKibben
The End of Nature
Eaarth (sic)
By Wendell Berry
The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry
The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture
By Robin Wall Kimmerer
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, founded The Land Ethic
Walden Pond by Henry David Thoreau
Gods of the Morning: A Bird’s Eye View of a Highland Year by John Lister-Kaye
The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy by Michael McCarthy
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder
Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees by William Bryant Logan
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells, journalist