Resources for reading, watching, and playing to learn more about the environment

 There are countless documentaries, books, and games to help you raise your awareness of environmental issues and why they’re important to humanity. Below is a list of some great educational tools for all ages. 


Tomorrow Project Activities:

Books:

  • Hoot by Carl Hiaasan - A novel that talks about different environmental issues such as wildlife habitats and activism.

  • What is Climate Change? By Gail Herman and Who HQ - A guide and book that explains climate change by using different views. It helps explain difficult conversations and environmental theories.

  • The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth by Rachel Ignotofsky - This book covers many ecosystems and explains how our planet works through art and charm. Also talks about how we can help and protect the Earth.

  • Bee and Me by Alison Jay - A picture book great for every child and family. A girl becomes friends with a bee, who takes her on an adventure where she learns about nature.

  • Start Now! You Can Make A Difference by Chelsea Clinton - A book that goes through multiple important themes, like endangered animals, climate change, and even bullying.

  • A World of Plants by Martin Jenkins - An illustrated guide to biodiversity and the powerful impacts of plants

  • Palm Trees at the North Pole: The Hot Truth About Climate Change by Marc Ter Horst - An introduction to key facts about climate change

  • Wild World Handbook: Habitats by Andrea Debbink - An illustrated guide to the importance of habitat protection

Documentaries:

  • A Beautiful Planet - Provides shots of the beautiful planet Earth from space and how the human race is affecting it.

  • Wild Hawaii, Wild Russia, Secrets of Wild India, and other documentaries on Disney+ - These provide a closer look at the diversity of nature and show how incredible wildlife is.

  • Hidden Kingdoms - This documentary shows how tiny mammals, usually unnoticed, live within their own, miniature world. This can be found on Netflix.

  • Before the Flood - Leonardo DiCaprio meets with different environmental professionals to explain some things humans have done to the planet. The documentary also gives some solutions to help fight this crisis, like eating less meat and voting for the right leaders. This can be found on Netflix, Amazon, and Google Play.

  • Tomorrow - Unlike many other documentaries, this one is more lighthearted and focuses more on what people have done to try to save the planet. The director of the movie travels around the world to see what creative things were accomplished by those who care.

  • A Plastic Ocean - This talks about the awfully large amount of plastic in our oceans and how it has a very bad impact on ocean life. 

  • More Than Honey - Documentary on food production and conservation, and the impacts of declining bee populations

Movies/Cartoons:

  • WALL-E: This is a very famous animation that shows what the planet could become if the human race doesn’t become more sustainable, with a cute robot as a main character. It’s definitely worth a rewatch, especially if you want to look deeper into the message of the film.

  • The Lorax (1972): A cartoon based on a children’s book by Dr. Seuss. Even though the animation is for children, it has a very important message, which is that the environment is suffering because humans consume too much. This message is presented by Lorax, an orange creature, who is trying to save the ecosystem.

  • Avatar: Humans try to conquer a planet where the native Na’vi people live by sending in a soldier in his avatar form to talk to them. There are many important messages in the movie such as respecting nature, humans’ tendencies to destroy, and how we need the environment to survive. This movie is PG-13.

  • FernGully: The Last Rainforest - This is an animation that came out in the 90s, but its message is still relevant today. A fairy accidentally makes a human boy her size, who then helps her stop a logging company that is damaging the rainforest she lives in and an evil creature that needs pollution to live.

  • Ice Age 2: The Meltdown - Animated movie that highlights the harms of global warming

Games:

  • NOAA Games - This website has many different games with different topics like pollution, recycling, learning about different species, and more https://games.noaa.gov/

  • Windfall - By playing this game, you will learn about renewable wind energy and how it could be important in the future http://persuasivegames.com/files/windfall/

  • Recycle City - A game that lets you see how every decision can affect the amount of waste and energy is produced and how much money can be saved https://www3.epa.gov/recyclecity/

  • Mission Migration - A flock of birds needs to migrate safely and your job is to help them by making good decisions in your everyday life. This game teaches you how humans can affect the birds migrating either positively or negatively https://www.audubon.org/play-audubons-mission-migration-game

YouTube Videos/Channels: