Spring 2025
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Island Press launched the Urban Resilience Project in 2013 to address urban resilience in climate change. In 2024, it has evolved into the Island Press Short-form Program, supporting all authors with short-form content. The program offers editorial and marketing assistance, helping authors reach new audiences and formats. Participation is optional but beneficial.
Nature/Environmental Conservation & Protection
April 2025
Hardcover | $32.00 | 978-1-64283-332-4
E-book | $31.99 | 978-1-64283-333-1
240 pages | 6 x 9
Island Press Trade
World Exclusive
Of related interest
Sharon Udasin Rachel Frazin
Poisoning the Well
How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America
Explore the dark history of "forever chemicals" and their deadly impact on our health and environment.
This is the shocking true-life story of how PFAS–a set of toxic chemicals most people have never heard of–poisoned the entire country. Based on original, shoe-leather reporting in four highly contaminated towns and damning documents from the polluters' own files, Poisoning the Well traces an ugly history of corporate greed and devastation of human lives.
We learn that PFAS, the "forever chemicals" found in everyday products, from cooking pans to mascara, are coursing through the veins of 97% of Americans. We witness the pain of families who have lost sisters and daughters, cousins and neighbors, after PFAS leached into their drinking water. And we discover evidence that the makers of forever chemicals may have known for decades about the deadly risks of their products.
Heart-wrenching and infuriating, this searing expos é is essential reading for anyone concerned about the unfettered power of industry and the invisible threat it poses to the health of the nation–and to each of us.
Barons Austin Frerick
Whitewash Carey Gillam
Sharon Udasin is a reporter for The Hill, covering U.S. West climate & policy from her home base in Boulder, Colorado. She was a Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder and has also reported for The Jerusalem Post and The New York Jewish Week. A graduate of both the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia Journalism School, Sharon also received a 2022 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award and was honored by the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership in 2013.
Rachel Frazin is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist who covers energy and environment politics and policy for The Hill. Her work has also appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Beast, the Tampa Bay Times, and The Palm Beach Post. She is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and was a recipient of a 2023 SEAL Environmental Journalism Award.
Authors' residences: Boulder, Colorado | Washington, DC
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
A Year of Compassion
52 Weeks of Living Zero-Waste, Plant-Based, and Cruelty-Free
Transform your life and the planet with practical tips from the Joyful Vegan in A Year of Compassion .
Affectionately known as the Joyful Vegan, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau has been a leading voice in compassionate living for over two decades, guiding countless people to achieve lasting health and purpose. Now, with A Year of Compassion, she shares simple, effective, and impactful actions we can all take to make humankind a little kinder–by protecting animals, supporting the planet, and optimizing our own health.
One week, you might explore eating by color to boost your nutrient intake, while the next, you could store some basic supplies in your car to help an injured animal or stop junk mail in its tracks. Feel free to skip around, choosing your own sustainable adventure. Whether you read A Year of Compassion cover to cover or take it week by week, Colleen is there to encourage, inspire, and motivate, helping you become the change you want to see in the world.
Self-Help/Green Lifestyle
March 2025
Paperback | $25.00 | 978-1-64283-346-1
E-book | $24.99 | 978-1-64283-347-8
256 pages | 6 x 9
Island Press Trade World Exclusive
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau is a recognized expert and thought leader on the culinary, social, ethical, and practical aspects of living compassionately, healthfully, and sustainably. An award-winning author of seven books–including the bestselling The Joy of Vegan Baking, The 30-Day Vegan Challenge, and The Joyful Vegan: How to Stay Vegan in a World that Wants You to Eat Meat, Dairy, and Eggs–Colleen is also an acclaimed speaker, a regular contributor to National Public Radio, and the host of sustainable, vegan, animal-friendly trips around the world. Host of Food for Thought Podcast (one of the longest running podcasts), Colleen also co-founded the political action committee East Bay Animal PAC to work with government officials on animal issues in the San Francisco Bay Area. She lives with her beloved husband and two cats in Oakland, CA and can be found at JoyfulVegan.com.
Author’s residence: Oakland, California
Of related interest
A Northern Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants and Pollinators
Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla
Healing Grounds
Liz Carlisle
Science/Global Warming & Climate Change
May 2025
Hardcover | $30.00 | 978-1-64283-207-5
E-book | $29.99 | 978-1-64283-208-2
200 pages | 6 x 9
Island Press Trade
World Exclusive
Of related interest
Kieran Mulvaney
Arctic Passages
Ice, Exploration, and the Battle for Power at the Top of the World
Discover how nineteenth-century explorers set the stage for today's Arctic climate crisis.
Almost two centuries after British explorer Sir John Franklin a nd his men died amid paralyzing cold and ice in pursuit of the mythical Northwest Passage, the Arctic is melting at an alarming pace. Instead of working together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, countries are racing to control newly ice-free waters and the riches in the seabed below. But by choosing self-interest over cooperative action, they may be condemning the world to an uninhabitable future.
Arctic Passages reminds us that while we go about our lives, climate change is unspooling slowly but insidiously, spawning extreme weather events that will be increasingly difficult to ignore. Ultimately, the fate of the Arctic will be decided by the developed world and how it decides to take action–if it's not too late.
Future Arctic
Edward Struzik
Kieran Mulvaney is a journalist who has written for National Geographic, The Guardian, The Washington Post Magazine, BBC Wildlife, New Scientist, E Magazine, and other publications, and has authored three books. Born in England, he spent several years living in a cabin in Alaska and visits the Arctic and subarctic regularly. He now lives in rural Vermont.
Author’s residence: Bristol, Vermont
Threat Multiplier
Sherri Goodman
Dana Zartner Fabian Cardenas Mohammad Golam Sarwar
Standing for Nature
Legal Strategies for Environmental Justice
Equip yourself with the tools to advocate for environmental justice and indigenous rights through Nature laws.
Standing for Nature is an essential resource for environmental lawyers, policy makers, and advocates. It offers a blueprint for creating , implementing, and safeguarding rights of Nature laws. Granting rights to nature has the potential to expand environmental protections, strengthen indigenous rights, promote environmental justice, and alter how humans relate to nature. Despite these promises, rights of Nature laws have met with greater resistance in some countries than in others. This book looks closely at four examples–New Zealand, Colombia, Bangladesh, and the United States–to bring together valuable lessons for proponents of the rights of Nature movement around the world.
Law/Environmental March 2025
Paperback | $40.00 | 978-1-64283-380-5
E-book | $39.99 | 978-1-64283-381-2
288 pages | 6 x 9
Island Press Short World Exclusive
Dana Zartner is a professor in the International Studies Department and adjunct professor at the School of Law at the University of San Francisco. She has served as an accredited representative at UN meetings, including the Committee on Women's Rights in New York and the Expert Mechanisms on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva. She is the author of Courts, Codes, and Custom: Legal Tradition and State Policy Toward International Human Rights and Environmental Law.
Fabian Cardenas is a professor of International Law at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá and director of the Centre of Studies on Law and Sustainability. He has worked with the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Criminal Court in the The Hague.
Mohammad Golam Sarwar is an assistant professor of Law at the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh and a doctoral researcher at SOAS, University of London. He has served as a legal consultant to the Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN Development Programme, and the International Labour Organization.
Authors' residences: San Francisco, United States | Bogota, Colombia | Dhaka, Bangladesh
Of related interest
Wildlife Law, Second Edition
Eric T. Freyfogle, Dale D. Goble, and Todd A. Wildermuth
Waters of the United States
Royal C. Gardner
Science/Energy
April 2025
Paperback | $35.00 | 978-1-64283-402-4
E-book | $34.99 | 978-1-64283-403-1
224 pages | 6 x 9
Island Press Short
World Exclusive
Of related interest
Joseph J. Romm
The Hype About Hydrogen, Revised Edition
False Promises and Real Solutions in the Race to Save
the Climate
Get a reality check on hydrogen's potential and explore alternative climate solutions with energy expert Joseph J. Romm.
For decades, we've been promised a high-tech hydrogen economy that never arrives. Yet we continue to pour billions of dollars into hydrogen as part of our low-carbon future. As the window to mitigate climate change narrows, is it time to stop investing in "the fuel of the future?"
In 2003, energy expert Joseph J. Romm wrote The Hype About Hydrogen to explain why hydrogen wasn't the panacea we were promised–and may never be. In this newly revised and updated edition, Romm builds an even stronger case, explaining the barriers hydrogen faces, from its inefficiency as an energy carrier to the risk of increas ed global warming from hydrogen leaks. In a series of significant updates, Romm breaks down the latest methods of production, including "green" hydrogen and hydrogen made with nuclear power, and reveals the limitations of suggested applications of hydrogen, including e-fuels and hydrogen cars. The Hype About Hydrogen is essential reading–and a reality check–for anyone who hopes that hydrogen will be a major solution to the climate crisis.
Rural Renaissance
L. Michelle Moore
Energy Democracy
Edited by Denise Fairchild and Al Weinrub
Dr. Joseph Romm was principal deputy and then acting assistant secretary of energy efficiency and renewable energy in the mid-1990s, overseeing a $1 billion budget on climate solutions for transportation, buildings, and industry, including hydrogen, fuel cells, energy storage, bioenergy, and renewables. He is a senior research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media, where he researches climate solutions. In 2009, Rolling Stone named him one of 100 "People Who Are Reinventing America," and Time named him "Hero of the Environment." He received the 2024 Ban Ki-Moon Award for Environmental Leadership from the former U.N. Secretary General. He has authored eleven books, including the original The Hype About Hydrogen, which was named one of the best science and technology books of 2004 by Library Journal. His TEDx talk is "The Surprising Truth About Solving Climate Change." He holds a PhD in physics from MIT.
Author’s residence: Washington, DC
Going for Zero
Decarbonizing the Built Environment on the Path to Our Urban Future
Going for Zero offers a hopeful yet urgent blueprint for transforming our cities and buildings to combat the climate crisis.
In Going for Zero: Carbon-free Buildings and the Path to Our Urban Future , seasoned architect and former AIA president Carl Elefante addresses how buildings and cities can and must help resolve the looming climate emergency.
For architects and the countless others who work together creating human habitation, the twenty-first century imperatives demand a profound mode shift, from an expansion mindset to one of reintegration and healing.
Elefante explains that revitalizing communities by optimizing existing resources makes social, economic, and environmental sense and directs resources where they are most needed. He offers a decide dly alternative viewpoint, one informed by his career rescuing buildings from demolition and learning from the practices and wisdom embedded in built heritage.
In Going for Zero Elefante offers a message of hope, with the urgency to act now.
Architecture/Sustainability & Green Design
April 2025
Paperback | $32.00 | 978-1-64283-355-3
E-book | $31.99 | 978-1-64283-356-0
256 pages | 6 x 9
Island Press Short World Exclusive
Known worldwide for coining the phrase: "the greenest building is...one that is already built," Carl Elefante practiced architecture at the intersection of sustainable design and historic preservation. A Principal Emeritus with Quinn Evans, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2024 Firm Award recipient, Carl designed noteworthy projects during a decades-long architectural career. In 2018, Carl served as the President of AIA, the highlight of many leadership roles in professional associations. Carl is a Fellow of both the AIA and the Association for Preservation Technology (APT). Among several teaching positions, in 2023-24 Carl served as the inaugural Visiting Scholar at the Michael Christopher Duda Center for Preservation, Resilience, and Sustainability at the University of Notre Dame. Carl is a Senior Fellow with Architecture 2030 and a charter member of the Climate Heritage Network.
Author’s residence: Washington, DC
Of related interest People, Planet, Design Corey Squire
Build Beyond Zero Bruce King and Chris Magwood
Transportation/General May 2025.
Paperback | $34.00 | 978-1-64283-351-5
E-book | $33.99 | 978-1-64283-352-2
224 pages | 6 x 9
Island Press Short World Exclusive
Charles T Brown
Arrested Mobility
Overcoming the Threat to Black Movement
Dive into the fight for mobility justice and the steps needed to ensure freedom of movement for all.
In Arrested Mobility: Overcoming the Threat to Black Movement , Charles T. Brown, founder and CEO of Equitable Cities, examines why mobility is not afforded in the same way to everyone. He argues that the legacy of structural racism and White supremacy has led to disinvestment and over-policing in Black communities and communities of color, thwarting opportunity, as physical mobility and social mobility are intrinsically linked. This experience for Black people around the world is what Brown refers to as arrested mobility.
Brown examines this condition that society has created through what he calls "The Four Ps": Polity, Policy, Planning, and Policing and suggests solutions, some of which are already being implemented in the US. Drawing from research, his own experience, and the experience of other Black Americans, Brown shows that change is possible and inspires and guides readers to un-arrest mobility together.
Of related interest Right of Way
Angie Schmitt
Charles T. Brown is the founder and CEO of Equitable Cities, a minority- and veteranowned urban planning, public policy, and research firm focused on the intersection of transportation, health, and equity. He is a military veteran, creator and host of the Arrested Mobility podcast and an adjunct professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.
Author’s residence: Somerset, New Jersey
Inclusive Transportation
Veronica O. Davis
Hot Takes
Every Journalist's Guide to Covering Climate Change
Hot Takes bridges the gap between climate science and impactful journalism for every reporter.
Climate change affects every aspect of our lives–which means it plays a role in every news story. As a journalist, helping your audience understand these climate connections is part of the job, whether you cover healthcare, economics, politics, sports, or any other beat. We are all climate journalists now.
Yet most of us weren't taught about human-driven climate change in journalism school or while reporting stories in our newsrooms. You may know the basic science. But how about the major policies that determine global climate action or the growing number of legal climate-related cases? Have you considered what it means to practice journalism that focuses on solutions or how race and climate intersect?
Chances are, you could use some guidance on how to report on this endlessly complex issue. Hot Takes engages the big questions that will determine how climate change is covered, and the stories we tell our audiences and ourselves.
Language Arts & Disciplines/Journalism
June 2025
Paperback | $35.00 | 978-1-64283-275-4
E-book | $34.99 | 978-1-64283-276-1
256 pages | 6 x 9
Island Press Short World Exclusive
Sadie Babits is Supervising Climate Editor at NPR and previously was Professor of Practice and Sustainability Director at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Babits has also served as board president of the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Author’s residence: Phoenix, Arizona
Of related interest
Getting to the Heart of Science Communication Faith Kearns
Science with Impact Anne Helen Toomey
Transportation/General July 2025.
Paperback | $35.00 | 978-1-64283-336-2
E-book | $34.99 | 978-1-64283-337-9 264 pages. | 6 x 9
Island Press Short World Exclusive
Of related interest
Erick Guerra
Overbuilt
The High Costs and Low Rewards of US Highway Construction
Overbuilt reveals the consequences of America's road obsession and offers a new path forward.
In Overbuilt: The High Costs and Low Rewards of US Highway Construction , transportation planning expert Erick Guerra describes how the US roadway system became overbuilt, how public policy continues to encourage overbuilding, the scale and consequences of overbuilding, and how we can rethink our approach to highway building in the US.
Guerra explains that highway overbuilding stems from the institutions, finance mechanisms, and evaluation metrics developed in the first half of the twentieth century. While more funds are set aside for transit, walking, biking, and beautification, the investment paradigm has not changed. Planners and engineers have not adjusted the tools they use to determine which roads should be built, rebuilt, or widened and why.
Despite having too much roadway, the country is still operating in construction mode, using the same basic approach used to finance and build the interstate system quickly, Guerra states. The interst ate was completed more than three decades ago. Overbuilt argues convincingly that it is time to move on.
Justice and the Interstates
Edited by Ryan Reft, Amanda K. Phillips de Lucas, and Rebecca C. Retzlaff
Killed by a Traffic Engineer
Wes Marshall
Erick Guerra, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Regional Planning and Associate Dean for Research at the Weitzman School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches courses in transportation planning and quantitative planning methods. His research focuses on relationships between land use, transportation systems, and travel behavior with an emphasis on rapidly motorizing cities, public health outcomes, and transportation technologies. He has published dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles on topics, including land use and transportation in Mexico and Indonesia, highway policy, public transport policy, automated traffic enforcement, land use and traffic safety, and contemporary planning for self-driving vehicles. His 2017 book Beyond Mobility with Robert Cervero and Stefan Al explores global challenges and opportunities to creating safer, healthier, and more productive cities. Erick holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of California Berkeley, a master's in urban planning from Harvard University, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Gabon from 2002 to 2004.
Author’s residence: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
