Best of
Ecology

1993

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms


Paul Stamets - 1993
    With updated production techniques for home and commercial cultivation, detailed growth parameters for 31 mushroom species, a trouble-shooting guide, and handy gardening tips, this revised and updated handbook will make your mycological landscapes the envy of the neighborhood.

The Biophilia Hypothesis


Stephen R. KellertSara St. Antoine - 1993
    Wilson to describe what he believes is humanity's innate affinity for the natural world. In his landmark book Biophilia, he examined how our tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes might be a biologically based need, integral to our development as individuals and as a species. That idea has caught the imagination of diverse thinkers.The Biophilia Hypothesis brings together the views of some of the most creative scientists of our time, each attempting to amplify and refine the concept of biophilia. The variety of perspectives -- psychological, biological, cultural, symbolic, and aesthetic -- frame the theoretical issues by presenting empirical evidence that supports or refutes the hypothesis. Numerous examples illustrate the idea that biophilia and its converse, biophobia, have a genetic component:fear, and even full-blown phobias of snakes and spiders are quick to develop with very little negative reinforcement, while more threatening modern artifacts -- knives, guns, automobiles -- rarely elicit such a responsepeople find trees that are climbable and have a broad, umbrella-like canopy more attractive than trees without these characteristicspeople would rather look at water, green vegetation, or flowers than built structures of glass and concreteThe biophilia hypothesis, if substantiated, provides a powerful argument for the conservation of biological diversity. More important, it implies serious consequences for our well-being as society becomes further estranged from the natural world. Relentless environmental destruction could have a significant impact on our quality of life, not just materially but psychologically and even spiritually.

The Ecology of Commerce


Paul Hawken - 1993
    A visionary new program that businesses can follow to help restore the planet.

Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyards


Sara Bonnett Stein - 1993
    When Stein realized what her intensive efforts at making a garden had done, she set out to "ungarden". Her book interweaves an account of her efforts with an explanation of the ecology of gardens. Illustrations.

Feminism and the Mastery of Nature


Val Plumwood - 1993
    In this book, Val Plumwood argues that feminist theory has an important opportunity to make a major contribution to the debates in political ecology and environmental philosophy. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature explains the relation between ecofeminism, or ecological feminism, and other feminist theories including radical green theories such as deep ecology. Val Plumwood provides a philosophically informed account of the relation of women and nature, and shows how relating male domination to the domination of nature is important and yet remains a dilemma for women.

Ecofeminism


Maria Mies - 1993
    Using interview material, they bring together women's perspectives from North and South on environmental deterioration and develop and new way of approaching this body of knowledge which is at once practical and philosophical. Do women involved in environmental movements see a link between patriarchy and ecological degradation? What are the links between global militarism and the destruction of nature? In exploring such questions, the authors criticize prevailing theories and develop an intellectually rigorous ecofeminist perspective rooted in the needs of everyday life. They argue for the acceptance of limits, the rejection of the commoditization of needs, and a commitment to a new ethics.

Wild Fox: A True Story


Cherie Mason - 1993
    This is an exquisitely illustrated, touching story of the remarkable bond between an injured red fox and the author.

The Lost Ark: New & Rediscovered Animals of the Twentieth Century


Karl Shuker - 1993
    

Mathematical Biology II: Spatial Models and Biomedical Applications


James Dickson Murray - 1993
    It has been extensively updated and extended to cover much of the growth of mathematical biology.From the reviews: ""This book, a classical text in mathematical biology, cleverly combines mathematical tools with subject area sciences."--SHORT BOOK REVIEWS

Deep Powder Snow: 40 Years of Ecstatic Skiing, Avalanches, and Earth Wisdom


Dolores LaChapelle - 1993
    

Seeing New Worlds: Henry David Thoreau and Nineteenth-Century Natural Science


Laura Dassow Walls - 1993
    Was he also a scientist? He was, Laura Dassow Walls suggests. Her book, the first to consider Thoreau as a serious and committed scientist, will change the way we understand his accomplishment and the place of science in American culture.    Walls reveals that the scientific texts of Thoreau’s day deeply influenced his best work, from Walden to the Journal to the late natural history essays. Here we see how, just when literature and science were splitting into the “two cultures” we know now, Thoreau attempted to heal the growing rift. Walls shows how his commitment to Alexander von Humboldt’s scientific approach resulted in not only his “marriage” of poetry and science but also his distinctively patterned nature studies. In the first critical study of his “The Dispersion of Seeds” since its publication in 1993, she exposes evidence that Thoreau was using Darwinian modes of reasoning years before the appearance of Origin of Species.    This book offers a powerful argument against the critical tradition that opposes a dry, mechanistic science to a warm, “organic” Romanticism. Instead, Thoreau’s experience reveals the complex interaction between Romanticism and the dynamic, law-seeking science of its day. Drawing on recent work in the theory and philosophy of science as well as literary history and theory, Seeing New Worlds bridges today’s “two cultures” in hopes of stimulating a fuller consideration of representations of nature.

Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs


Sue Hubbell - 1993
    Covers everything from blackflies and gypsy moths to silverfish and ladybugs (the one insect for which "bug-hating" humans have an inordinate fondness). Line drawings.

Ecocide in the USSR: Health And Nature Under Siege


Murray Feshbach - 1993
    A dissection of the Soviet Union's legacy of health and environmental disaster, this book examines a former country of 103 cities - home to 70 million people - where the air is unfit to breathe and pollution fouls 75 percent of the water.

Ecology (DK Eyewitness)


Steve Pollock - 1993
    As the seasons pass, Dorling Kindersley is proud to offer an ever-increasing number of these well-respected and popular books. Add to your collection of the series that changed non-fiction forever.

Essentials of Conservation Biology


Richard B. Primack - 1993
    It is beautifully illustrated and is written in clear, non-technical language. The book's broad, up-to-date coverage and its extensive bibliography with over 1,000 references also make it invaluable to graduate students and researchers. This new edition now comes with a Glossary.

The New Resource Wars: Native and Environmental Struggles Against Multinational Corporations


Al Gedicks - 1993
    Gedicks paints a disturbing picture of the current environmental crisis, but points to hopeful signs of resistance and coalition that could successfully block multinational corporations' resources colonization of native lands.

Tracks in the Wild


Betsy Bowen - 1993
    Each track tells a story. As you follow the marks an animal left behind, you get to know it: where it goes, what it likes to eat, when it runs, and why. Every set of tracks is unique, as each animal's life is different from every other's. This richly illustrated book introduces young readers to the tracks and the ways of life of thirteen different animals. Betsy Bowen shares the wonder of the northwoods wilderness in this newly designed edition featuring striking multiple-block woodcut prints and new vibrant colors. Life size animal tracks grace each page along with poetic quotes and passages that reveal mysteries of the natural world and inspire respect for its wildlife. Here is a book for young naturalists and beginning trackers, a book that is perfect for a family to share before and after a trek through their own woods.

Ininatig's Gift of Sugar: Traditional Native Sugarmaking


Laura Waterman Wittstock - 1993
    Each book describes these customs as they are seen through the eyes of the participants and discusses how Native American people maintain their cultural identities in contemporary society.