# List of American non-fiction environmental writers

This is a list of American non-fiction environmental writers.
| Author | Sex | Lifespan | Theme(s) | Selected book | Category |
| Edward Abbey | M | 1927–1989 | Various themes | The Monkey Wrench Gang | |
| Virginia Abernethy | F | 1934– | Carrying capacity | Population Politics: The Choices that Shape our Future | |
| Terry L. Anderson | M | fl. 2000s | Free-market environmentalism | Free Market Environmentalism (co-authored) | |
| Ron Arnold | M | 1937– | Natural resources | | |
| Ed Ayres | M | b.1941 | Various themes | God's Last Offer: Negotiating for a Sustainable Future | |
| Ronald Bailey | M | 1953– | Global warming | | |
| Bruce Barcott | M | fl. 1990s-2000s | Wildlife | The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier | |
| Peter Barnes | M | b.1940 | Carbon emissions | Climate Solutions: A Citizen's Guide | |
| Albert Bates | M | 1947– | Various themes | Climate in Crisis | |
| Art Bell | M | 1945–2018 | Climate change | The Coming Global Superstorm | |
| Tom Bender | M | fl. 1970s-2000s | Green architecture | Environmental Design Primer | |
| Wendell Berry | M | 1934– | Sustainable agriculture, Agrarianism, Conservation | The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture | |
| Henry Beston | M | 1888–1968 | Natural history | The Outermost House | |
| Robert O. Binnewies | M | 1937– | Environmental protection | Palisades: 100,000 acres in 100 years | |
| Brian Black | M | | Various themes | Petrolia: The Landscape of America's First Oil Boom | |
| H. Emerson Blake | M | | Ecology | | |
| Murray Bookchin | M | 1921–2006 | Social ecology | Our Synthetic Environment (pseudonymously) | |
| Stewart Brand | M | 1938– | Various themes | Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto | |
| Lester R. Brown | M | 1934– | Various themes | World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse | |
| Marilyn A. Brown | F | | Various themes | Climate Change and Global Energy Security | |
| Michael Brune | M | | Various themes | Coming Clean: Breaking America's Addiction to Oil and Coal | |
| Robert Bryce | M | | Various themes | Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future | |
| Ernest Callenbach | M | 1929– | Simple living | | |
| David George Campbell | M | 1949– | Tropical wildlife | A Land of Ghosts | |
| Archie Carr | M | 1909–1987 | Sea turtle conservation | A Naturalist in Florida | |
| Donald Eaton Carr | M | 1903–1986 | Air and water pollution | Death of the Sweet Waters | |
| Rachel Carson | F | 1907–1964 | Environmental impact of pesticides | Silent Spring | |
| Steve Chase | M | | Environmental justice | | |
| Ward Churchill | M | 1947– | Indigenous land rights | Struggle for the Land: Native North American Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide and Colonization | |
| Theo Colborn | M | | Endocrine disruptors | Our Stolen Future : How We Are Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence and Survival (co-authored) | |
| Melissa Coleman | F | 1969– | Back-to-the-land movement | This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone | |
| Barry Commoner | M | 1917–2012 | Ecology | Making Peace with the Planet | |
| Philip Connors | M | | Wilderness | Fire Season: Field Notes From a Wilderness Lookout | |
| Erik M. Conway | M | | | | |
| Joseph Bharat Cornell | M | | Outdoor education | Sharing Nature with Children | |
| Greg Craven | M | | Climate change | What's the Worst That Could Happen?: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate | |
| Heidi Cullen | F | | Climate change | The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet | |
| E. Kyle Datta | M | | Renewable energy | Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security (co-authored) | |
| Laurie David | M | 1958– | Climate change | Stop Global Warming: The Solution Is You! | |
| Osha Gray Davidson | M | 1954– | Natural history | The Enchanted Braid: Coming to Terms with Nature on the Coral Reef | |
| Kenneth S. Deffeyes | M | | Peak oil | Hubbert's Peak | |
| Mark Derr | M | | Environment of Florida | Some kind of paradise : a chronicle of man and the land in Florida | |
| Nate Dickinson | M | 1932–2011 | Wildlife management | Common Sense Wildlife Management: Discourses on Personal Experiences | |
| Marjory Stoneman Douglas | F | 1890–1998 | Everglades | The Everglades: River of Grass | |
| Morgan Downey | M | | Oil | Oil 101 | |
| K. Eric Drexler | M | 1955– | Molecular nanotechnology | Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology (not the foreword) | |
| Curtis Ebbesmeyer | M | 1943– | Flotsam | Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science | |
| Anne H. Ehrlich | F | 1933– | Human overpopulation | The Stork and The Plow: The Equity Answer to the Human Dilemma (co-authored) | |
| Paul R. Ehrlich | M | 1932– | Human overpopulation | Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment (co-authored) | |
| Daniel C. Esty | M | | Environment of Connecticut | Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage | |
| Dan Fagin | M | 1963– | Environmental health | Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation | |
| Arthur Firstenberg | M | 1950– | Microwave engineering | Microwaving Our Planet: The Environmental Impact of the Wireless Revolution | |
| Christopher Flavin | M | | Natural resources | Power Surge: Guide to the Coming Energy Revolution | |
| Paul Fleischmann | M | 1952– | | Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines | |
| David Foreman | M | 1947– | Wilderness | Ecodefense: A Field Guide To Monkeywrenching (not the foreword) | |
| Hilary French | F | | Environmental analysis | | |
| Thomas Friedman | M | 1953– | Various themes | Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—And How It Can Renew America | |
| Howard Friel | M | | Various themes | Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming | |
| Buckminster Fuller | M | 1895–1983 | | Approaching the Benign Environment (co-authored) | Category:Books by Buckminster Fuller |
| Medard Gabel | | | Various themes | Environmental Design Science Primer | |
| Ross Gelbspan | M | 1939–2024 | Global warming | The Heat Is On | |
| Harold Gilliam | M | | San Francisco Bay Area | Between the Devil & the Deep Blue Bay: The Struggle to Save San Francisco Bay | |
| Juan Gonzalez | M | 1947– | Various themes | Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse | |
| Jeff Goodell | M | | Energy | Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future | |
| David Goodstein | M | 1939–2024 | Fossil fuels | Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil | |
| Al Gore | M | 1948– | Climate change | An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It | Category:Books by Al Gore |
| Dan Haifley | M | | Oceanography | | |
| John D. Hamaker | M | 1914–1994 | Various themes | | |
| Terri Crawford Hansen | F | 1953– | Indigenous rights | | |
| Garrett Hardin | M | 1915–2003 | Human overpopulation | Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos | |
| Jonathan Harr | M | | Water pollution | A Civil Action | |
| Jonathan Baxter Harrison | M | 1835–1907 | Forests | | |
| Paul Hawken | M | 1946– | Environmental justice | Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming | |
| Richard Heinberg | M | | Oil depletion | The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies | |
| Lawrence Joseph Henderson | M | 1878– | Environmental science | The Fitness of the Environment | |
| Julia Butterfly Hill | F | 1974– | Clearcutting | The Legacy of Luna | |
| Erich Hoyt | M | 1950– | Conservation: cetaceans | Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises | |
| Wes Jackson | M | 1936– | Polyculture | | |
| Derrick Jensen | M | 1960– | Civilization | A Language Older Than Words | |
| Van Jones | M | 1968– | Environmental economics | The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems | |
| Lierre Keith | F | 1964– | Various themes | The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability | |
| Kevin Kelly | M | 1952– | Conservation movement | Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World | |
| Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. | M | 1954– | Environmental law | Crimes Against Nature : How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy | |
| Bruce Kershner | M | 1950–2007 | Old-growth forests | Sierra Club Guide to Ancient Forests of the Northeast | |
| Gilbert Klingel | M | 1908–1983 | Chesapeake Bay | The Bay | |
| Elizabeth Kolbert | F | 1961– | Various themes | Field Notes from a Catastrophe | |
| David Korten | M | 1937– | Globalization | When Corporations Rule the World | |
| Joel Kovel | M | 1936– | Eco-socialism | The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World? | |
| Bernie Krause | M | 1938– | Acoustic ecology | The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World's Wild Places | |
| James Howard Kunstler | M | 1948– | Various themes | The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape | |
| Joseph LaDou | M | 1938– | Occupational and environmental medicine | Current Occupational and Environmental Medicine | |
| Winona LaDuke | F | 1959– | Indigenous land rights | All our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life | |
| Richard Lamm | M | 1935– | | The Angry West: A Vulnerable Land and Its Future | |
| Aldo Leopold | M | 1887–1948 | Land ethic | A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There | |
| Amory Lovins | M | 1947– | Energy policy | Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era (co-authored) | Category:Books by Amory Lovins |
| Benton MacKaye | M | 1879–1975 | Conservation movement | The New Exploration: A Philosophy of Regional Planning | |
| Charles C. Mann | M | 1955– | Science | 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created | |
| Michael E. Mann | M | 1965– | Climate change | The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines | |
| Richard Manning | M | 1951– | American prairie | Rewilding the West: Restoration in a Prairie Landscape | |
| Emma Marris | F | 1979– | Environmentalism | Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World | |
| George Perkins Marsh | M | 1801–1882 | Conservationism | The Earth as Modified by Human Action | |
| Anne Matthews | F | | Various themes | Where the Buffalo Roam: Restoring America's Great Plains | |
| Timothy R. McClanahan | M | | Ecology: coral reefs | Coral Reefs of the Indian Ocean: Their Ecology and Conservation | |
| Michael J. McGuire | M | 1947– | Drinking water quality standards | | |
| Stephen McIntyre | M | 1947– | Temperature record of the past 1000 years | | |
| Bill McKibben | M | 1960– | Global warming | The End of Nature | |
| Barbara McMartin | F | 1931–2005 | Adirondack Park | The Great Forest of the Adirondacks | |
| Tom McNamee | M | 1947– | Conservation biology | Nature First: Keeping Our Wild Places and Wild Creatures Wild | |
| John McPhee | M | 1931– | Various themes | The Control of Nature | |
| Dennis Meadows | M | 1942– | Environmental economics | The Limits to Growth (co-authored) | |
| Donella Meadows | F | 1941–2001 | | The Limits to Growth (co-authored) | |
| George J. Mitchell | M | 1933– | | World on Fire: Saving an Endangered Earth | |
| Chris Mooney | M | 1977– | Various themes | Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming | |
| Ted Nace | M | 1956– | Coal industry | Climate Hope: On the Front Lines of the Fight Against Coal | |
| Ralph Nader | M | 1934– | Environmental economics | Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile | Category:Works by Ralph Nader |
| Richard B. Norgaard | M | 1943– | Ecological economics | An Introduction to Ecological Economics | |
| Naomi Oreskes | F | | Global warming | Merchants of Doubt (co-authored) | |
| Henry Fairfield Osborn, Jr. | M | 1887–1969 | Conservation movement | Our Plundered Planet | |
| Riki Ott | F | | Aquatic toxicology | Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill | |
| David Naguib Pellow | M | 1969– | Various themes | Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago | |
| Ron Pernick | M | | Clean technology | The Clean Tech Revolution (co-authored) | |
| Frederik Pohl | M | 1919– | | Our Angry Earth: A Ticking Ecological Bomb (co-authored) | Category:Books by Frederik Pohl |
| Michael Pollan | M | 1955– | Food | The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals | Category:Books by Michael Pollan |
| Carl Pope | M | | Various themes | Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress (co-authored) | |
| Richard Posner | M | 1939– | Various themes | Catastrophe: Risk and Response | |
| Sandra Postel | F | | Fresh water | | |
| Robert Michael Pyle | M | 1947– | Forests | Wintergreen | |
| Stephen J. Pyne | M | | Forests: wildfires | Awful Splendour: A Fire History of Canada | |
| Ray Raphael | M | 1943– | Environment of California | Edges: Human Ecology of the Backcountry | |
| Paul Rauber | M | | | Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress | |
| Andrew Revkin | M | | Global warming | The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World | |
| Jeremy Rifkin | M | 1945– | Various themes | The Green Lifestyle Handbook: 1001 Ways to Heal the Earth (edited by Rifkin) | |
| Paul Roberts | M | | Various themes | The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World | |
| Joseph J. Romm | M | 1960– | Energy | The Hype about Hydrogen: Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate | |
| Jonathan F.P. Rose | M | 1952– | Various themes | The Well-Tempered City: What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations, and Human Nature Teach Us About the Future of Urban Life | |
| Donald K. Ross | M | | | | |
| William Ruddiman | M | | Paleoclimatology | Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate | |
| Kirkpatrick Sale | M | 1937– | Various themes | The Green Revolution: The American Environmental Movement | |
| Jonathan Schell | M | 1943– | Nuclear weapons | The Gift of Time: The Case for Abolishing Nuclear Weapons Now | |
| Auden Schendler | M | | Sustainability | Getting Green Done | |
| J. Michael Scott | M | 1941– | Wildlife | | |
| Julian Simon | M | 1932–1998 | Carrying capacity | The Ultimate Resource | |
| Fred Singer | M | 1924– | Air pollution | The Greenhouse Debate Continued | |
| Alexander Skutch | M | 1904–2004 | Natural history | Helpers at Birds’ Nests: A Worldwide Survey of Cooperative Breeding and Related Behavior | |
| Ted Smith | M | 1945– | Electronic waste | Challenging the Chip (co-authored) | |
| Gary Snyder | M | 1930– | Deep ecology | | |
| David A Sonnenfeld | M | | Environmental social science | Challenging the Chip (co-authored) | |
| James Gustave Speth | M | 1942– | Various themes | Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment | |
| Sandra Steingraber | F | 1959– | Pollution | Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment | |
| Thomas H. Stoner, Jr. | M | 1960– | Sustainable development | Small Change Big Gains: Reflections of an Energy Entrepreneur | |
| John Tallmadge | M | | Nature | Reading Under the Sign of Nature: New Essays in Ecocriticism (co-edited) | |
| Sarah McFarland Taylor | F | | Various themes | Green Sisters: A Spiritual Ecology | |
| Henry David Thoreau | M | 1817–1862 | Various themes | | Category:Books by Henry David Thoreau |
| Karen J. Warren | F | 1947– | Various themes | | |
| Arthur Waskow | M | 1933– | Various themes | Torah of the Earth: Exploring 4,000 Years of Ecology in Jewish Thought | |
| Harvey Wasserman | M | 1945– | Anti-nuclear movement in the United States | Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America’s Experience with Atomic Radiation (co-authored) | |
| Spencer R. Weart | M | 1942– | Global warming | The Discovery of Global Warming | |
| Linda Weintraub | F | | Various themes | Eco Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet | |
| Alan Weisman | M | 1947– | Human extinction | The World Without Us | |
| Adam Werbach | M | 1973– | | | |
| Tom Wessels | M | | Conservation biology | The Myth of Progress: Toward a Sustainable Future | |
| Rex Weyler | M | 1947– | Various themes | Greenpeace: The Inside Story | |
| Clint Wilder | M | | Clean technology | The Clean Tech Revolution (co-authored) | |
| E. O. Wilson | M | 1929– | Biodiversity | The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth | |
| Bruce Yandle | M | | Free-market environmentalism | Taking the Environment Seriously | |
| Daniel Yergin | M | 1947– | Energy | The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power | |
| Ozzie Zehner | M | | Renewable energy and consumption | Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism | |