Mother Nature Network just released a list of the top 5 environmental books of all time. I have always wanted to read for leisure, but with my limited free time, I want to enjoy and be enlightened by the works I read. I have read excerpts from most of these novels and although I do agree that they are classics and should be read by all environmentalists, I would like to know what modern books could match up to these master pieces! Any suggestions?

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/the-5
-best-environmental-books-of-all-time

I'm glad that Silent Spring is the top one. I briefly learned about it in my 1960s class and I heard that it is one of the best. Although I cannot say if these will be able to match up, here is a short list of modern environmental books:
- Jack M. Hollander, The Real Environmental Crisis: Why Poverty, Not Affluence, Is the Environment’s Number One Enemy (2003)
- Matthew Connelly, Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population (2008)
- Fred Pearce, The Coming Population Crash and Our Planet’s Surprising Future (2010)
- Indur M. Goklany, The Improving State of the World: Why We’re Living Longer, Healthier, More Comfortable Lives on a Cleaner Planet (2007)
- Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility (2007)
- Seymour Garte, Where We Stand: A Surprising Look at the Real State of Our Planet (2007)

Hope this helps!

Great link! thanks. I was especially happy to see Cadillac Desert on the list.

For great modern environmental books I like one of their honorable mentions, Merchants of Doubt. I'd also highly recommend The Whale and the Reactor (although that isn't very modern), The Best American Science and Nature Writing series, anything by Rebecca Solnit, and...for a non-traditional pic...I just finished 2312. I think science fiction has a lot to contribute to the "environmental" genre.

I thought I'd share some more relatively obscure picks that I recently came across in this article: http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2012/11/repon
se-enviro-lit-101

They are:
Isaac Asimov and Fred Pohl's "Our Angry Earth,"
Mark Bowen's "Thin Ice,"
Amory Lovin's "Soft Energy Paths,"
Gary Coates' "Resettling America,"
Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax,"

also these movies:
"Soylent Green," "Blade Runner" and "China Syndrome."