Knox County Public Library and the City of Knoxville are excited to present a new season of the Brown Bag Green Book lunch and learn series starting in January 26, 2011. The public is invited to join the conversation as the popular series continues its examination of issues of environmental sustainability presented by Knoxville's community and business leaders.

"It has been profoundly satisfying to see the high level of interest in our program series about environmental sustainability. It's clear that these topics are of great concern in our community," says series creator Emily Ellis from the Knox County Public Library. "The series for the coming year covers both the whys and the whats of environmental sustainability: books that look carefully at the philosophy or politics of our relationship with planet Earth and books that help us understand the reality of the environment of now, the 21st century."

The series will resume January 26, as Charles Maynard, author and founding Executive Director of Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, presents Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben. On February 16, Matt Hinkin, WATE Channel 6 meteorologist, will discuss The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet by Heidi Cullen.

On March 23, Stephen Smith, Executive Director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, will talk about The Climate War Politics: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth by Eric Pooley.

On April 20, Rabbi Beth Schwartz, from Temple Beth El, will discuss Thomas Berry's The Sacred Universe: Earth, Spirituality, and Religion in the Twenty-First Century.

On May 18, Edye Ellis, host of The Good Life show on Home & Garden Television, former anchor with WBIR-TV Channel 10 and breast cancer survivor, will talk about Living Downstream: A Scientist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment by Sandra Steingraber.

On June 15, Frank Cagle, Metro Pulse columnist, will discuss The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability by James Gustave Speth.

Reading the book is optional, but encouraged; copies of the books are available at the Library. For more information, please call Emily Ellis at 865-215-8723.