Library

In this library you can find books about sustainable development, environmental policy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, circular economy and solid waste.

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All the books, in the language shown on the cover, can be borrowed for 4 weeks each for a small fee of 5 CHF plus postal charge!

 

Climate Injustice – Why we need to fight global inequality to combat climate change (2025)

What are we doing to prevent the crisis from becoming a catastrophe? Are we doing the right thing to adequately protect all people from the consequences of climate change? Referring to catastrophes such as heatwaves in Canada and Africa floods in Pakistan and Germany, droughts in Madagascar and fires in Australia, renowned Climate and Attribution researcher Friederike Otto – who also closely collaborates with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre – shows how different the effects of extreme events can be and what needs to be done to make our world a fair one under these new circumstances.


Waste – A Dirty History of Humankind (2023)

Humans and waste - a long and intimate relationship. Even the Neanderthals found things useless, sorted them out and threw them away. Ancient Rome struggled with waste problems, as did the industrial centres of the 19th century. But everything fades behind the mountains of waste of the present day. Based on the production and handling of waste, Roman Köster writes an insightful story of our species and shows how life with waste has changed from when we first settled to today.


Fuel from Air: A Journey to the Climate Future (2019)

The climate strikes have achieved what no political summit has ever achieved: The climate crisis has reached people's minds. At least many people's minds. A change in thinking seems more likely than ever. There are countless ways to move into the future sustainably, socially and intelligently. Scientists, entrepreneurs and activists around the world have already developed some good ideas. This book takes us to places where this future is already becoming visible today. A journey to places where air is turned into fuel, green roofs cover big cities, villages produce more than their energy needs, and cement factories turn old concrete into new material. A visit to people who have committed themselves to a different way of thinking – thinking in cycles, in complex but also sustainable systems.


Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming (2017)

Global warming means we are heading for a civilisation crisis of unimaginable proportions. And we have no plan for how to prevent it. Or do we? This book describes 100 existing approaches to reducing climate-damaging gases that can solve the climate problem if they are connected. Amazing things become clear and a well-founded hope emerges: achieving climate change by 2050 and turning back global warming is possible – a book about imaginative people, clever technologies and the opportunity to finally get things done. 


Environmental Policy of Switzerland (2016)

This textbook has two main objectives: Firstly, it provides an introduction to policy analysis, and secondly, it presents the essential features of the processes, content and institutional framework of Swiss environmental policy. To this end, it focuses strongly on the substantive aspects of policy and what is understood by the term policy. Examples from various environmentally relevant policy fields, such as water protection or climate policy, are used to illustrate environmental policy. These observations are supplemented by an overview of more recent approaches to policy-making, such as governance or environmental policy integration.


Environmental Ethics (2014)

Animal ethics and the newly established plant ethics are treated in this book as part of environmental ethics, as are water, the climate and the biosphere. To adequately appreciate such complex phenomena, Andreas Brenner takes his readers on so-called promenades through the history of philosophy. He demonstrates that the idea of sustainability is not a modern invention. Accordingly, modern and contemporary theories only become truly comprehensive when looking back in history. In addition to the philosophical ideas discussed during these walks, the book also focuses on fictional stories, showing how novels and poems have already explored, in a creative and artistic way, ideas that philosophy later puts into words.


Sustainable Development: Compact Knowledge (2014)

Since the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the volume and complexity of information on sustainable development has made it increasingly difficult for non-specialised readers to find their way around. This book summarises the most important information on sustainable development in a handy but sufficiently annotated form to provide a quick overview. In addition, the general explanations of sustainable development are systematically linked to the discussion and implementation in Switzerland.