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April 22nd is Earth Day!

Wed, 04/22/2009

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The first Earth Day, in 1970, attracted participants in the millions across the United States. Environmental activists, who were inspired by the anti-Vietnam War protests, wanted to create awareness about the environment. Today, Earth Day is celebrated around the world and participants are believed to be in the billions. National Geographic has a feature on the history of Earth Day here.

The things you can do to help the environment can be small or large-whether you turn off a light when you aren't in the room, or start composting in your backyard-every "little" action can help contribute to being less wasteful. The Earth Day Network has some ideas on what you can do this Earth Day here.

Now let Penguin help you get your green on this Earth Day and check out these titles:


	Perfect for Earth Day: The bestselling author of Gorgeously Green returns with a simple-and budget-conscious-plan for waist management. Green guru and ecolicious consultant Sophie Uliano has appeared on Oprah, Good Morning America, The View, and other national television shows; her first book, Gorgeously Green, is a New York Times bestseller. And now, with The Gorgeously Green Diet, Sophie shows how to love food, live healthily, lose weight, and save money and the planet.
	From the authors of the leading environmental handbook Green Living- the best of E's nationally syndicated Q&A column, EarthTalk E / The Environmental Magazine has established itself as the leading independent environmental periodical since its debut in 1990. E reaches 180,000 readers per issue, and its website attracts up to 600,000 visitors a month. One of their most popular features is the column EarthTalk, now nationally syndicated in up to 1,700 newspapers, magazines, and websites. In EarthTalk, the editors of E answer readers' questions on the environment and the best ways to live green. EarthTalk gathers together the best of these questions and answers in a quick and easy guide for the average Joe (or Jane). Searching by subject or looking up questions in the index, readers can learn everything from the difference between wild and farmed salmon to the pros and cons of nuclear power. EarthTalk provides the essential tools and tips to living in harmony with the planet.
	*The official guide to organic parenting for the toddler stage and beyond-from the author of Green Babies, Sage Moms.* Green living starts at home-where small changes can vastly improve family life. When little ones start exploring, parents want to give them a healthy, green world-at home, at school, and beyond. Jam-packed with helpful, money-saving advice.
	The companion volume to The New York Times bestseller The Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan's last book , The Omnivore's Dilemma, launched a national conversation about the American way of eating; now In Defense of Food shows us how to change it, one meal at a time. Pollan proposes a new answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.
	Protecting our environment is one of the biggest issues facing our planet today. But how do we solve a problem that can seem overwhelming-even hopeless? As Diane MacEachern argues in Big Green Purse, the best way to fight the industries that pollute the planet, thereby changing the marketplace forever, is to mobilize the most powerful consumer force in the world-women. MacEachern's message is simple but revolutionary. If women harness the "power of their purse" and intentionally shift their spending money to commodities that have the greatest environmental benefit, they can create a cleaner, greener world. Read Diane McEachern's posts on the Penguin Blog. Throw a Green Book Party!
	A fascinating guided tour through the history, folklore, and function of the endangered honeybee. Featured recently in major national news stories because they are disappearing at an alarming rate, bees are the unsung-and absolutely essential- heroes of the food chain. Now they get their due in this delightfully illustrated, fact-filled book, courtesy of a professional beekeeper and nature writer.
	A wide-ranging and delightful narrative history of the celebrated plant breeder Luther Burbank and the business of farm and garden in early twentieth-century America The Garden of Invention is neither an encyclopedia nor a biography. Rather, Jane S. Smith, a noted cultural historian, highlights significant moments in Burbank's life (itself a fascinating story) and uses them to explore larger trends that he embodied and, in some cases, shaped. The Garden of Invention revisits the early years of bioengineering, when plant inventors were popular heroes and the public clamored for new varieties that would extend seasons, increase yields, look beautiful, or simply be wonderfully different from anything seen before.