The reading list was designed for the 14th edition.
| Chapter Title | 14th | 13th | 15th |
| Environment Problems, Their causes and sustainability |
1 |
1 | 1 |
| Envionmental History: Learning from the past | 2 | 2 | ? |
| Science, systems, matter, and energy | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| Ecosystems: What are they and how do they work | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| Evolution and Biodiversity | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| Climate and Terrestrial Biodiversity | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| Aquatic biodiversity | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| Community Ecology | 8 | 8 | 7 |
| Population Ecology | 9 | 9 |
8 |
| Applying Population Ecology: The human population | 10 | 12 | 9 |
| Sustaining Terrestrial Biodiversity: Managing and protecting ecosystems | 11 | 23 | 10 |
| Sustaining Biodiversity: The species approach | 12 | 22? | 11 |
| Sustaining Aquatic Biodiversity | 13 | 24 | 12 |
| Food and Soil Resources | 14 | 13 | 13 |
| Water Resources | 15 | 14 | 14 |
| Geology and Nonrenewable mineral resources | 16 | 15 | 15 |
| Nonrenewable energy resources | 17 | 15 | 16 |
| Energy efficiency and renewable energy | 18 | 16 | 17 |
| Risk, toxicology, and human health | 19 | 11 | 18 |
| Air pollution | 20 | 17 | 19 |
| Climate change and ozone loss | 21 | 18 | 20 |
| Water pollution | 22 | 19 | 21 |
| Pest management | 23 | 20 | 13 |
| Solid and hazardous waste | 24 | 21 | 22 |
| Sustainable cities | 25 | 25 | 23 |
| Economics, environment, and sustainability | 26 | 26 | 24 |
| Politics, environment, and sustainability | 27 | 27 | 25 |
| Environmental worldviews, ethics and sustainability | 28 | 28 | 26 |