Best of
Ecology

2011

Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor


Rob Nixon - 2011
    Using the innovative concept of slow violence to describe these threats, Rob Nixon focuses on the inattention we have paid to the attritional lethality of many environmental crises, in contrast with the sensational, spectacle-driven messaging that impels public activism today. Slow violence, because it is so readily ignored by a hard-charging capitalism, exacerbates the vulnerability of ecosystems and of people who are poor, disempowered, and often involuntarily displaced, while fueling social conflicts that arise from desperation as life-sustaining conditions erode.In a book of extraordinary scope, Nixon examines a cluster of writer-activists affiliated with the environmentalism of the poor in the global South. By approaching environmental justice literature from this transnational perspective, he exposes the limitations of the national and local frames that dominate environmental writing. And by skillfully illuminating the strategies these writer-activists deploy to give dramatic visibility to environmental emergencies, Nixon invites his readers to engage with some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

Frozen Planet


Alastair Fothergill - 2011
    Most of us will never travel to these great wildernesses and, even for those lucky enough to have gone, this portrait of our polar regions will surprise and astound.Take a journey to the last truly great wilderness regions. From the Great Melt in Spring to the 24-hour summer, the beginning of the Big Freeze and long dark winter, this epic series will follow the dramatic landscapes and the emotional life stories of the animals that live there.Following the stories of the polar bear and wolf in the North Pole and the adelie penguin and killer whale in the South Pole, we see how they survive these extremes, how they feed, mate and rear their young. Using the latest hi-tech cameras, the series will reveal animal behaviour as we've never seen before - the long, tender mating ritual of the polar bears, the vast penguin colonies, the Arctic's most impressive hunter, the wolf as well as eider ducks, gentle seals and socialable ravens.But the real star of this series is the ice and Frozen Planet will tell its story, from its formation to its movement and its beauty. And of course what the future holds for it.This is the last chance to explore our Frozen Planet before it changes forever.

Attracting Native Pollinators; Protecting North America's Bees and Butterflies


The Xerces Society - 2011
    About 75 percent of all flowering plants rely on pollinators in order to set seed or fruit, and from these plants comes one-third of the planet's food.Attracting Native Pollinators is a comprehensive guidebook for gardeners, small farmers, orchardists, beekeepers, naturalists, environmentalists, and public land managers on how to protect and encourage the activity of the native pollinators of North America. Written by staff of the Xerces Society, an international nonprofit organization that is leading the way in pollinator conservation, this book presents a thorough overview of the problem along with positive solutions for how to provide bountiful harvests on farms and gardens, maintain healthy plant communinities in wildlands, provide food for wildlife, and beautify the landscape with flowers.Full-color photographs introduce readers to more than 80 species of native pollinators -- including bees, flies, butterflies, wasps, and moths -- noting each one's range and habits. The heart of the book provides detailed garden plans and techniques showing how to create flowering habitat to attract a variety of these pollinators, help expand the pollinator population, and provide pollinators with inviting nesting sites. Readers will also find useful instructions for creating nesting structures, educational activities for involving children, and an extensive list of resources. Attracting Native Pollinators is an essential reference book and action guide for anyone who is involved in growing food or is concerned about the future of our food supply.

The View from Lazy Point: A Natural Year in an Unnatural World


Carl Safina - 2011
    We meet Eskimos whose way of life is melting away, explore a secret global seed vault hidden above the Arctic Circle, investigate dilemmas facing foraging bears and breeding penguins, and sail to formerly devastated reefs that are resurrecting as fish graze the corals algae-free."Each time science tightens a coil in the slack of our understanding," Safina writes, "it elaborates its fundamental discovery: connection."He shows how problems of the environment drive very real matters of human justice, well-being, and our prospects for peace.In Safina's hands, nature's continuous renewal points toward our future. His lively stories grant new insights into how our world is changing, and what our response ought to be.

Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees


Nancy Ross Hugo - 2011
    Seeing Trees celebrates seldom seen but easily observable tree traits and invites you to watch trees with the same care and sensitivity that birdwatchers watch birds. Many people, for example, are surprised to learn that oaks and maples have flowers, much less flowers that are astonishingly beautiful when viewed up close. Focusing on widely grown trees, this captivating book describes the rewards of careful and regular tree viewing, outlines strategies for improving your observations, and describes some of the most visually interesting tree structures, including leaves, flowers, buds, leaf scars, twigs, and bark. In-depth profiles of ten familiar species—including such beloved trees as white oak, southern magnolia, white pine, and tulip poplar—show you how to recognize and understand many of their most compelling (but usually overlooked) physical features.

A Branch from the Lightning Tree


Martin Shaw - 2011
    When he returned, he ended up living for four years under canvas to better comprehend what had happened. Over time Shaw created a trilogy of works to articulate his relationship between myth and landscape. A Branch from the Lightning Tree is the opener of the Mythteller trilogy.This award-winning text was the first to concentratedly thread Irish, Siberian, Welsh and other forms of folktale within the practice of wilderness rites of passage.

Behind the Green Mask


Rosa Koire - 2011
    She is a forensic commercial real estate appraiser specializing in eminent domain valuation. Her nearly 30 years of experience analyzing land use and property value enabled her to recognize the planning revolution sweeping the country. While fighting to stop a huge redevelopment project in her city she researched the corporate, political, and financial interests behind it and found UN Agenda 21. Impacting every aspect of our lives, UN Agenda 21/Sustainable Development is a corporate manipulation using the Green Mask of environmental concern to forward a globalist plan.

Mark of the Grizzly, 2nd: Revised and Updated with More Stories of Recent Bear Attacks and the Hard Lessons Learned


Scott McMillion - 2011
    A must-read about these magnificent but sometimes deadly creatures—thoroughly revised, expanded, and updated

A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest


William deBuys - 2011
    Yet staggering population growth, combined with the intensifying effects of climate change, is driving the oasis-based society close to the brink of a Dust-Bowl-scale catastrophe.In A Great Aridness, William deBuys paints a compelling picture of what the Southwest might look like when the heat turns up and the water runs out. This semi-arid land, vulnerable to water shortages, rising temperatures, wildfires, and a host of other environmental challenges, is poised to bear the heaviest consequences of global environmental change in the United States. Examining interrelated factors such as vanishing wildlife, forest die backs, and the over-allocation of the already stressed Colorado River--upon which nearly 30 million people depend--the author narrates the landscape's history--and future. He tells the inspiring stories of the climatologists and others who are helping untangle the complex, interlocking causes and effects of global warming. And while the fate of this region may seem at first blush to be of merely local interest, what happens in the Southwest, deBuys suggests, will provide a glimpse of what other mid-latitude arid lands worldwide--the Mediterranean Basin, southern Africa, and the Middle East--will experience in the coming years.Written with an elegance that recalls the prose of John McPhee and Wallace Stegner, A Great Aridness offers an unflinching look at the dramatic effects of climate change occurring right now in our own backyard.

Following the Last Wild Wolves


Ian McAllister - 2011
    This updated textual edition follows what has happened to the wolves since 2007, as they hunt, kill, fish for salmon in fall, haul seals out on rocks in winter, and give birth to their young in the base of thousand-year-old cedar trees in spring. This edition presents discusses the latest scientific research indicating that these wolves are a distinct species, and explains how human and government encroachment in the form of hunting and industry development continues to impact BC wolves.Author Ian McAllister of Pacific Wild was named by Time Magazine as “Leader of the 21st Century” for his conservation efforts, and has been instrumental in speaking out against the government’s proposed wolf cull through the recent Save BC Wolves Campaign. Following the Last Wild Wolves also contains a sixteen-page photographic insert that includes spectacular new photos of the wolves in their natural habitat. This textual edition of the bestselling photo book is updated with the author's recent observations of the wolves of British Columbia’s raincoast.

The Sacred Headwaters: The Fight to Save the Stikine, Skeena, and Nass


Wade Davis - 2011
    There, three of Canada's most important salmon rivers—the Stikine, the Skeena, and the Nass—are born in close proximity. Now, against the wishes of all First Nations, the British Columbia government has opened the Sacred Headwaters to industrial development. Imperial Metals proposes an open-pit copper and gold mine, called the Red Chris mine, and Royal Dutch Shell wants to extract coal bed methane gas across a tenure of close to a million acres.In The Sacred Headwaters, a collection of photographs by Carr Clifton and members of the International League of Conservation Photographers—including Claudio Contreras, Paul Colangelo, and Wade Davis—portray the splendour of the region. These photographs are supplemented by images from other professionals who have worked here, including Sarah Leen of the National Geographic.The compelling text by Wade Davis, which describes the region's beauty, the threats to it, and the response of native groups and other inhabitants, is complemented by the voices of the Tahltan elders. The inescapable message is that no amount of methane gas can compensate for the sacrifice of a place that could be the Sacred Headwaters of all Canadians and indeed of all peoples of the world.The Sacred Headwaters, is a visual feast and a plea to save an extraordinary region in North America for future generations.Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation.

Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis


Sandra Steingraber - 2011
    Once called "a poet with a knife," she blends precise science with lyrical memoir. In Living Downstream she spoke as a biologist and cancer survivor; in Having Faith she spoke as an ecologist and expectant mother, viewing her own body as a habitat. Now she speaks as the scientist mother of two young children, enjoying and celebrating their lives while searching for ways to protect them--and all children--from the toxic, climate-threatened world they inhabit. Each chapter of this engaging and unique book focuses on one inevitable ingredient of childhood--everything from pizza to laundry to homework to the "Big Talk"--and explores the underlying social, political, and ecological forces behind it. Through these everyday moments, Steingraber demonstrates how closely the private, intimate world of parenting connects to the public world of policy-making and how the ongoing environmental crisis is, fundamentally, a crisis of family life.

Wildflowers and Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont: A Naturalist's Guide to the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia


Timothy Spira - 2011
    Rather than organizing plants, including trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, by flower color or family characteristics, as is done in most guidebooks, botanist Tim Spira takes a holistic, ecological approach that enables the reader to identify and learn about plants in their natural communities. This approach, says Spira, better reflects the natural world, as plants, like other organisms, don't live in isolation; they coexist and interact in myriad ways. Full-color photo keys allow the reader to rapidly preview plants found within each of the 21 major plant communities described, and the illustrated species description for each of the 340 featured plants includes fascinating information about the ecology and natural history of each plant in its larger environment. With this new format, readers can see how the mountain and piedmont landscapes form a mosaic of plant communities that harbor particular groups of plants. The volume also includes a glossary, illustrations of plant structures, and descriptions of sites to visit. Whether you're a beginning naturalist or an expert botanist, this guidebook is a useful companion on field excursions and wildflower walks, as well as a valuable reference. Southern Gateways Guide is a registered trademark of the University of North Carolina Press

The Fungal Pharmacy: The Complete Guide to Medicinal Mushrooms and Lichens of North America


Robert Rogers - 2011
    These fungi, Rogers explains, have the capacity to heal both the body and, through the process of myco-remediation, the planet itself. Throughout the book, he documents their success in optimizing the immune system and treating a wide range of acute and chronic diseases, including cardiovascular, respiratory, and liver problems, blood sugar disorders, cancer, and obesity.Entries discuss the mushroom or lichen’s medicinal traits and properties, including active chemical components, preparation methods (including extracts, essences, and essential oils), and historical as well as modern-day usage. Two hundred full-color photos and thorough descriptions make identification easy for the reader. Rogers also delves into the cultural, religious, and literary significance of each mushroom, featuring fascinating tidbits about each one’s etymology and history.

Beneath Cold Seas: The Underwater Wilderness of the Pacific Northwest


David Hall - 2011
    . . . Hall has everything right in this book. There is nothing extraneous, and nothing missing. This is a complete and moving immersion in the breathtaking underwater world of the Pacific Northwest.For more information: http: //www.beneathcoldseas.com

Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Portfolio 20


Lark Books - 2011
    Together, they reveal the splendor, drama, and variety of life on our planet.

Among Giants: A Life with Whales


Charles "Flip" Nicklin - 2011
    The guy was Flip Nicklin’s father, Chuck, and the whale was an unlucky Bryde’s Whale that had gotten caught up in some anchor line. Hoping to free the whale, Chuck and some friends took their boat as near as they could, and, just before they cut it loose, Chuck posed astride it for a photo. That image, carried on wire services nationwide, became a sensation and ultimately changed the life of Chuck’s young son, Flip. In the decades since that day, Flip Nicklin has made himself into the world’s premier cetacean photographer. It’s no exaggeration to say that his photos, published in such venues as National Geographic and distributed worldwide, have virtually defined these graceful, powerful creatures in the mind of the general public—even as they helped open new ground in the field of marine mammalogy. Among Giants tells the story of Nicklin’s life and career on the high seas, from his first ill-equipped shoots in the mid-1970s through his long association with the National Geographic Society to the present, when he is one of the founders of Whale Trust, a nonprofit conservation and research group. Nicklin is equal parts photographer, adventurer, self-trained scientist, and raconteur, and Among Giants reflects all those sides, matching breathtaking images to firsthand accounts of their making, and highlighting throughout the importance of conservation and new advances in our understanding of whale behavior. With Nicklin as our guide, we see not just whales but also our slowly growing understanding of their hidden lives, as well as the evolution of underwater photography—and the stunning clarity and drama that can be captured when a determined, daring diver is behind the lens. Humpbacks, narwhals, sperm whales, orcas—these and countless other giants of the ocean parade through these pages, spouting, breaching, singing, and raising their young. Nicklin’s photographs bring us so completely into the underwater world of whales that we can’t help but feel awe, while winning, personal accounts of his adventures remind us of what it’s like to be a lone diver sharing their sea. For anyone who has marveled at the majesty of whales in the wild, Among Giants is guaranteed to be inspiring, even moving—its unmatched images of these glorious beings an inescapable reminder of our responsibility as stewards of the ocean.

Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life


Kari Marie Norgaard - 2011
    Why have so few taken any action? In Living in Denial, sociologist Kari Norgaard searches for answers to this question, drawing on interviews and ethnographic data from her study of "Bygdaby," the fictional name of an actual rural community in western Norway, during the unusually warm winter of 2000-2001.In 2000-2001 the first snowfall came to Bygdaby two months later than usual; ice fishing was impossible; and the ski industry had to invest substantially in artificial snow-making. Stories in local and national newspapers linked the warm winter explicitly to global warming. Yet residents did not write letters to the editor, pressure politicians, or cut down on use of fossil fuels. Norgaard attributes this lack of response to the phenomenon of socially organized denial, by which information about climate science is known in the abstract but disconnected from political, social, and private life, and sees this as emblematic of how citizens of industrialized countries are responding to global warming.Norgaard finds that for the highly educated and politically savvy residents of Bygdaby, global warming was both common knowledge and unimaginable. Norgaard traces this denial through multiple levels, from emotions to cultural norms to political economy. Her report from Bygdaby, supplemented by comparisons throughout the book to the United States, tells a larger story behind our paralysis in the face of today's alarming predictions from climate scientists.

Among the Ancients: Adventures in the Eastern Old-Growth Forests


Joan Maloof - 2011
    With intelligence and lyricism, the book highlights the adventure in getting to each forest and what visitors will find when they arrive. From giant hemlock groves in Pennsylvania to a lonely stand of pines in Wisconsin, each journey provides face-to-face experiences with forests containing majestic trees and a rich diversity of life. As an impassioned plea to preserve and support the few untouched stretches of forest that remain, the discussion touches upon the perseverance of these locations despite modern development, as well as the vital link between old-growth forests and humanity’s own survival.

Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil


Timothy Mitchell - 2011
    Carbon Democracy tells a more complex story, arguing that no nation escapes the political consequences of our collective dependence on oil. It shapes the body politic both in regions such as the Middle East, which rely upon revenues from oil production, and in the places that have the greatest demand for energy.Timothy Mitchell begins with the history of coal power to tell a radical new story about the rise of democracy. Coal was a source of energy so open to disruption that oligarchies in the West became vulnerable for the first time to mass demands for democracy. In the mid-twentieth century, however, the development of cheap and abundant energy from oil, most notably from the Middle East, offered a means to reduce this vulnerability to democratic pressures. The abundance of oil made it possible for the first time in history to reorganize political life around the management of something now called “the economy” and the promise of its infinite growth. The politics of the West became dependent on an undemocratic Middle East.In the twenty-first century, the oil-based forms of modern democratic politics have become unsustainable. Foreign intervention and military rule are faltering in the Middle East, while governments everywhere appear incapable of addressing the crises that threaten to end the age of carbon democracy—the disappearance of cheap energy and the carbon-fuelled collapse of the ecological order.In making the production of energy the central force shaping the democratic age, Carbon Democracy rethinks the history of energy, the politics of nature, the theory of democracy, and the place of the Middle East in our common world.

Too Many People?: Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis


Ian Angus - 2011
    Too Many People? provides a clear, well-documented, and popularly written refutation of the idea that "overpopulation" is a major cause of environmental destruction, arguing that a focus on human numbers not only misunderstands the causes of the crisis, it dangerously weakens the movement for real solutions.No other book challenges modern overpopulation theory so clearly and comprehensively, providing invaluable insights for the layperson and environmental scholars alike.Ian Angus is editor of the ecosocialist journal Climate and Capitalism, and Simon Butler is co-editor of Green Left Weekly.

The Wealth of Nature: Economics as if Survival Mattered


John Michael Greer - 2011
    Building on the foundations of E. F. Schumacher's revolutionary "economics as if people mattered," this book examines the true cost of confusing money with wealth. By analyzing the mistakes of contemporary economics, it shows how an economy centered on natural capital—the raw materials that support human life—can move our society toward a more productive relationship with the planet that sustains us all.The Wealth of Nature suggests public policy initiatives and personal choices that can help alleviate the economic impact of Peak Oil. These strategies must address not only financial concerns, but the issues of resource depletion and pollution as well. Examples include:Adjusting tax policy to penalize the use of natural nonrenewable resources over recycled materialsPlacing public welfare above corporate interestsEmpowering individuals, families, and communities by prioritizing local, sustainable solutionsBuilding economies at an appropriate scaleProfoundly insightful and impeccably argued, this book is required reading for anyone interested in the intersection of the environment and the economy as we enter the twilight of the Age of Abundance.John Michael Greer is a scholar of ecological history, an award-winning author, and an internationally renowned peak oil theorist whose blog The Archdruid Report has become one of the most widely cited online resources dealing with the future of industrial society.

Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Ocean


Fabien Cousteu - 2011
    It features illustrations and satellite-derived maps to explain each natural process and phenomena.

Reveal: Studio Gang Architects


Jeanne Gang - 2011
    Now Jeanne Gang, founder of Studio Gang Architects, is giving the epithet "Chicago School" a new meaning. Her recently completed 82-story Aqua residential tower is already an icon of the Chicago skyline and has been universally hailed as a masterwork for the young firm. Reveal presents an in-depth look at the firm's unique work and working process through drawings, diagrams, sketches, and photographs that illuminate the evolution of each of the book's eight featured projects, both public and private, and ranging in size from exhibition to high-rise.

Recovering a Lost River: Removing Dams, Rewilding Salmon, Revitalizing Communities


Steven Hawley - 2011
    As recently as a half century ago, they retained some of their historic bounty, with millions of fish returning to spawn. Now, due to four federal dams, the salmon population has dropped close to extinction. Efforts at salmon recovery through fish ladders, hatcheries, and even trucking them over the dams have failed.   Steven Hawley, journalist and self-proclaimed “river rat,” argues that the best hope for the Snake River lies in dam removal, a solution that pits the power authorities and Army Corps of Engineers against a collection of Indian tribes, farmers, fishermen, and river recreationists. The river’s health, as he demonstrates, is closely connected to local economies, fresh water rights, energy independence—and even the health of orca whales in Puget Sound.   The story of the Snake River, its salmon, and its people raises the fundamental questions of who should exercise control over natural resources and which interests should receive highest priority. It also offers surprising counterpoints to the notion of hydropower as a cheap, green, and reliable source of energy, and challenges the wisdom of heavily subsidized water and electricity.   This regional battle is part of an ambitious river restoration movement that stretches across the country from Maine’s Kennebec to California’s Klamath, and engages citizens from a broad social spectrum. In one successful project, the salmon of Butte Creek rebounded from a paltry fourteen fish to twenty thousand within just a few years of rewilding their river, showing the incredible resiliency of nature when given the slightest chance.  Recovering a Lost River depicts the compelling arguments and actions being made on behalf of salmon by a growing army of river warriors. Their message, persistent but disarmingly simple, is that all salmon need is water in their rivers, and a clear way home.

Plato's Revenge: Politics in the Age of Ecology


William Ophuls - 2011
    Ophuls warns us that we are headed for a postindustrial future that, however technologically sophisticated, will resemble the preindustrial past in many important respects.

Making Noise: From Babel to the Big Bang & Beyond


Hillel Schwartz - 2011
    From the uproarious junior gods of Babylonian epics to crying infants heard over baby monitors, from doubly mythic Echo to amplifier feedback, from shouts frozen in Rabelaisian air to the squawk of loudspeakers and the static of shortwave radio, Making Noise follows "unwanted sound" on its surprisingly revealing path through terrains domestic and industrial, urban and rural, legal and religious, musical and medical, poetic and scientific. At every stage, readers can hear the cultural reverberations of the historical soundwork of actresses, admen, anthropologists, astronomers, builders, composers, dentists, economists, engineers, filmmakers, firemen, grammar school teachers, jailers, nurses, oceanographers, pastors, philosophers, poets, psychologists, and the writers of children's books.Drawing upon such diverse sources as the archives of antinoise activists and radio advertisers, catalogs of fireworks and dental drills, letters and daybooks of physicists and physicians, military manuals and training films, travel diaries and civil defense pamphlets, as well as museum collections of bells, ear trumpets, megaphones, sirens, stethoscopes, and street organs, Schwartz traces the process by which noise today has become as powerfully metaphorical as the original Babel.Endnotes and bibliography are not included in the physical book but are available online at the MIT Press Web site.

Bats: From Evolution to Conservation


John D. Altringham - 2011
    This book covers the key aspects of bat biology, including evolution, flight, echolocation, hibernation, reproduction, feeding and roosting ecology, social behaviour, migration, population and community ecology, biogeography, and conservation.This new edition is fully updated and greatly expanded throughout, maintaining the depth and scientific rigour of the first edition. It is written with infectious enthusiasm, and beautifully illustrated with drawings and colour photographs.

Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization


Hasana Sharp - 2011
    The common thread connecting all of these clashing perspectives is Spinoza’s naturalism, the idea that humanity is part of nature, not above it. In this sophisticated new interpretation of Spinoza’s iconoclastic philosophy, Hasana Sharp draws on his uncompromising naturalism to rethink human agency, ethics, and political practice. Sharp uses Spinoza to outline a practical wisdom of “renaturalization,” showing how ideas, actions, and institutions are never merely products of human intention or design, but outcomes of the complex relationships among natural forces beyond our control. This lack of a metaphysical or moral division between humanity and the rest of nature, Sharp contends, can provide the basis for an ethical and political practice free from the tendency to view ourselves as either gods or beasts. Sharp’s groundbreaking argument critically engages with important contemporary thinkers—including deep ecologists, feminists, and race and critical theorists—making Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization vital for a wide range of scholars.

Agent-Based and Individual-Based Modeling: A Practical Introduction


Steven F. Railsback - 2011
    This innovative textbook gives students and scientists the skills to design, implement, and analyze agent-based models. It starts with the fundamentals of modeling and provides an introduction to NetLogo, an easy-to-use, free, and powerful software platform. Nine chapters then each introduce an important modeling concept and show how to implement it using NetLogo. The book goes on to present strategies for finding the right level of model complexity and developing theory for agent behavior, and for analyzing and learning from models.Agent-Based and Individual-Based Modeling features concise and accessible text, numerous examples, and exercises using small but scientific models. The emphasis throughout is on analysis--such as software testing, theory development, robustness analysis, and understanding full models--and on design issues like optimizing model structure and finding good parameter values.The first hands-on introduction to agent-based modeling, from conceptual design to computer implementation to parameterization and analysisProvides an introduction to NetLogo with nine chapters introducing an important modeling concept and showing how to implement it using NetLogoFilled with examples and exercises, with updates and supplementary materials at http: //www.railsback-grimm-abm-book.com/Designed for students and researchers across the biological and social sciencesWritten by leading practitionersLeading universities that have adopted this book include:Amherst CollegeBrigham Young UniversityCarnegie Mellon UniversityCornell UniversityMiami UniversityNorthwestern UniversityOld Dominion UniversityPortland State UniversityRhodes CollegeSusquehanna UniversityUniversity College, DublinUniversity of ArizonaUniversity of British Columbia, CanadaUniversity of MichiganUniversity of South FloridaUniversity of Texas at AustinUniversity of Virginia-- "Basic and Applied Ecology"

Truths Among Us: Conversations on Building a New Culture


Derrick JensenJudith Lewis Herman - 2011
    Among those who share their wisdom here are acclaimed sociologist Stanley Aronowitz, who shows that science is but one lens for discovering knowledge; Luis Rodriguez, poet and peacemaker, who suggests embracing gang members as people instead of stereotypes; Judith Herman, who offers a deeper understanding of the psychology of abusers; Paul Stamets, who reveals the power of fungi that is often ignored; and writer Richard Drinnon, who reminds us that our spiritual paths need not be narrowed by the limiting mythologies of Western civilization. Reaching toward a common goal of harmony with the world surrounding us all, these diverse voices articulate different yet shared visions of activism.

Wild Dog Dreaming: Love and Extinction


Deborah Bird Rose - 2011
    In Wild Dog Dreaming, Deborah Bird Rose explores what constitutes an ethical relationship with nonhuman others in this era of loss. She asks, Who are we, as a species? How do we fit into the Earth's systems? Amidst so much change, how do we find our way into new stories to guide us? Rose explores these questions in the form of a dialogue between science and the humanities. Drawing on her conversations with Aboriginal people, for whom questions of extinction are up-close and very personal, Rose develops a mode of exposition that is dialogical, philosophical, and open-ended.An inspiration for Rose--and a touchstone throughout her book--is the endangered dingo of Australia. The dingo is not the first animal to face extinction, but its story is particularly disturbing because the threat to its future is being actively engineered by humans. The brazenness with which the dingo is being wiped out sheds valuable, and chilling, light on the likely fate of countless other animal and plant species."People save what they love," observed Michael Soule, the great conservation biologist. We must ask whether we, as humans, are capable of loving--and therefore capable of caring for--the animals and plants that are disappearing in a cascade of extinctions. Wild Dog Dreaming engages this question, and the result is a bold account of the entangled ethics of love, contingency, and desire.

Britain's Reptiles And Amphibians: A Field Guide, Covering Britain, Ireland And Channel Islands


Howard Inns - 2011
    It is designed to help anyone who finds a lizard, snake, turtle, tortoise, terrapin, frog, toad, or newt to identify it with confidence.Stunning photography An easy-to-use approach to identification Superbly illustrated introductory sections on the biology and conservation, taxonomy, lifecycle, and behavior of each species group Profiles of the 16 native reptiles and amphibians that breed in Britain, Ireland, and the Channel Islands and the 5 marine turtles that visit Britain's seas Profiles of 7 established nonnative species and a summary of 8 more with a history of release/escape Distribution maps based on the latest available information Hints and tips on where, when, and how to watch reptiles and amphibians

Stopping by Woods: A Guide to the Forests and Woodlands of Ireland


Donal Magner - 2011
    Donal Magner writes with a rare insight about forests he has worked in and visited over the years as a forester and journalist. The book is the first of its kind ever produced in Ireland and Europe, it is packed with information not only about forests and tree species, but their associated flora and fauna, history and heritage.The book features all the forests featured in the State's open forest policy now enshrined by Coillte, the Forest Service Northern Ireland and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. In his six-year journey the author has explored all our native and naturalised woodlands, and the State forests established since the beginning of the last century.Stopping by Woods is a celebration and record of this remarkable civic amenity.His epic journey in discovering and writing about these forest and woodlands has been nothing short of heroic. This book will provide readers including students, specialist groups, historians and the general public with a deep understanding of Irish forests and their heritage. It is a book for our times, for people who care about our tree culture and about sustainable development.A quiet revolution is taking place in Irish forestry. Forest cover has doubled to 10 per cent of the land mass within two generations, benefiting both woodland owners and the forest industry. Forests, however, are valued not only for their economic benefits, but for their enhancement of landscape, ecology, heritage and the soul.Stopping by Woods addresses these issues but above all is concerned with how trees and woodlands meet the needs of society at a time when over 20 million visits are made annually to Ireland's forests. This is mainly because in the early twentieth century the State took an enlightened decision to become directly involved in restoring the country's woodland resource when Irish forests had been radically diminished by centuries of exploitation and neglect.The State open forest policy, now enshrined by Coillte, the Forest Service Northern Ireland and the National Parks and Wildlife Service is a generous invitation to all our citizens. A small but increasing number of forests are now managed by local authorities, private growers and agencies dedicated to woodland conservation.While the Forest Service in the Republic is no longer directly involved in forest establishment, it plays a significant role in shaping the forests of the future, through its support for afforestation, restoration of native woodlands and other schemes.The book provides a comprehensive guide to 340 forests and woodlands open to the public throughout Ireland. Donal Magner writes with a rare insight about forests he has worked in and visited over the years as a forester and journalist. It is packed with information not only about forests and tree species, but their associated flora and fauna, history and heritage. Stopping by Woods is a celebration and record of this remarkable civic amenity.Thanks to those who helped create a woodland culture in Ireland, forestry is no longer the land use of last restort but a vibrant, wealth-creating rural resource, which the public are invited to share and enjoy.

Prophet and Loss: Time and the Rothschild List


The Wildlife Trusts - 2011
    The list was the brainchild of the Society’s founder Charles Rothschild. It included shingle beaches, highland mountains, ancient woods, stretches of coastline, unspoilt heaths and marshes where Rothschild and his colleagues would search for rare insects and plants. It was the first list of its kind and it had a formative influence on nature conservation as we know it in the United Kingdom. Although some of the places selected by Rothschild have been lost and destroyed, many are still protected for wildlife.In Prophet and Loss Simon Barnes explores the Rothschild List today. He travels to wild places in Scotland, England and Wales – from seabird islands to the fens. He also examines Charles Rothschild the man and reflects on the story of nature conservation and the fight to protect our last wild places. Profits from sales go to The Wildlife Trusts.

Energy and the Wealth of Nations: Understanding the Biophysical Economy


Charles A.S. Hall - 2011
    In this perpetual motion of interactions between firms that produce and households that consume, little or no accounting is given of the flow of energy and materials from the environment and back again. In the standard economic model, energy and matter are completely recycled in these transactions, and economic activity is seemingly exempt from the Second Law of Thermodynamics. As we enter the second half of the age of oil, and as energy supplies and the environmental impacts of energy production and consumption become major issues on the world stage, this exemption appears illusory at best.In "Energy and the Wealth of Nations," concepts such as energy return on investment (EROI) provide powerful insights into the real balance sheets that drive our petroleum economy. Hall and Klitgaard explore the relation between energy and the wealth explosion of the 20th century, the failure of markets to recognize or efficiently allocate diminishing resources, the economic consequences of peak oil, the EROI for finding and exploiting new oil fields, and whether alternative energy technologies such as wind and solar power meet the minimum EROI requirements needed to run our society as we know it. This book is an essential read for all scientists and economists who have recognized the urgent need for a more scientific, unified approach to economics in an energy-constrained world, and serves as an ideal teaching text for the growing number of courses, such as the authors own, on the role of energy in society.

Tropical Ecology


John C. Kricher - 2011
    It explains why the world's tropical rain forests are so universally rich in species, what factors may contribute to high species richness, how nutrient cycles affect rain forest ecology, and how ecologists investigate the complex interrelationships among flora and fauna. It covers tropical montane ecology, riverine ecosystems, savanna, dry forest--and more."Tropical Ecology" begins with a historical overview followed by a sweeping discussion of biogeography and evolution, and then introduces students to the unique and complex structure of tropical rain forests. Other topics include the processes that influence everything from species richness to rates of photosynthesis: how global climate change may affect rain forest characteristics and function; how fragmentation of ecosystems affects species richness and ecological processes; human ecology in the tropics; biodiversity; and conservation of tropical ecosystems and species.Drawing on real-world examples taken from actual research, "Tropical Ecology" is the best textbook on the subject for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Offers the first comprehensive introduction to tropical ecology Describes all the major kinds of tropical terrestrial ecosystems Explains species diversity, evolutionary processes, and coevolutionary interactions Features numerous color illustrations and examples from actual research Covers global warming, deforestation, reforestation, fragmentation, and conservation The essential textbook for advanced undergraduates and graduate students Suitable for courses with a field componentLeading universities that have adopted this book include: Biola University Bucknell University California State University, Fullerton Colorado State University - Fort Collins Francis Marion University Michigan State University Middlebury College Northern Kentucky University Ohio Wesleyan University St. Mary's College of Maryland Syracuse University Tulane University University of California, Santa Cruz University of Central Florida University of Cincinnati University of Florida University of Missouri University of New Mexico University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of the West Indies

Postcolonial Ecologies: Literatures of the Environment


Elizabeth DeLoughrey - 2011
    Turning to contemporary works by both well- and little-known postcolonial writers, the diverse contributions highlight the literary imagination as crucial to representing what Eduoard Glissant calls the aesthetics of the earth. The essays are organized around agroup of thematic concerns that engage culture and cultivation, arboriculture and deforestation, the lives of animals, and the relationship between the military and the tourist industry. With chapters that address works by J. M. Coetzee, Kiran Desai, Derek Walcott, Alejo Carpentier, Zakes Mda, andmany others, Postcolonial Ecologies makes a remarkable contribution to rethinking the role of the humanities in addressing global environmental issues.

Mark of the Grizzly


Scott McMillion - 2011
    Sometimes grizzlies kill people, and in exceptionally rare cases they even eat them. Those incidents are the focus of this book because that's what makes bears so interesting, such a huge part of our culture and our collective imagination.

Becoming Undone: Darwinian Reflections on Life, Politics, and Art


Elizabeth Grosz - 2011
    Challenging characterizations of Darwin’s work as a form of genetic determinism, Grosz shows that his writing reveals an insistence on the difference between natural selection and sexual selection, the principles that regulate survival and attractiveness, respectively. Sexual selection complicates natural selection by introducing aesthetic factors and the expression of individual will, desire, or pleasure. Grosz explores how Darwin’s theory of sexual selection transforms philosophy, our understanding of humanity in its male and female forms, our ideas of political relations, and our concepts of art. Connecting the naturalist’s work to the writings of Bergson, Deleuze, and Irigaray, she outlines a postmodern Darwinism that understands all of life as forms of competing and coordinating modes of openness. Although feminists have been suspicious of the concepts of nature and biology central to Darwin’s work, Grosz proposes that his writings are a rich resource for developing a more politicized, radical, and far-reaching feminist understanding of matter, nature, biology, time, and becoming.

No Fear: A Whistleblower's Triumph Over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA


Marsha Coleman-Adebayo - 2011
    The account illustrates how the author attempted to convince the government to investigate allegations surrounding a multinational corporation, suspecting that they were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of South Africans who were mining vanadium--a vital strategic mineral. Documenting Coleman-Adebayo's shocking discovery that the EPA itself was the first line of defense for the corporation in question, this record depicts how the agency stonewalled, prompting the author to expose them. The agency's brutal retaliation is captured in detail, revealing their use of every racist and sexist trick in their playbook, costing the protagonist her career, endangering her family, and sacrificing more lives in the vanadium mines of South Africa.Finishing on a hopeful note, the recollection concludes with the upwelling of support the author received from others in the federal bureaucracy, detailing how her subsequent grassroots struggle to protect future whistleblowers ended in victory.

Darwin's Unfinished Business: The Self-Organizing Intelligence of Nature


Simon G. Powell - 2011
    Yet how do we interpret evolution? How do we evaluate the ability of Nature to engineer something as exquisite as the genetic code or the human brain? Could it be that evolution is an intelligent process? Is Nature smart? According to most scientists, the answer is no. While humanity may be intelligent and purposeful, the natural processes that crafted us are deemed to be devoid of such attributes. In a radical move away from orthodoxy, Simon G. Powell extends Darwin’s vision by showing that evolution is not just about the survival of the fittest but rather the survival of clever and sensible behavior. Revealing the importance of the context in which things evolve, he explores the intelligent learning process behind natural selection. Rich with examples of the incredibly complex plants, animals, insects, and marine life designed by Nature--from the carnivorous Venus flytrap and the fungus-farming leafcutter ant to the symbiotic microbes found inside the common cow--he shows Nature as a whole to be a system of self-organizing intelligence in which life and consciousness were always destined to emerge. Examining the origins of life and the failure of artificial intelligence to compete with natural intelligence, he explains how our scientifically narrow-minded views on intelligence are now acting as a barrier to our own evolution. As Darwin’s unfinished business comes to light and Nature’s intelligence is embraced, we learn that Nature’s agenda is not simply the replication of genetic matter but of expanding consciousness. By working with Nature’s creative and innovative powers instead of against them, we can address today’s social and environmental challenges with a new green science of evolution.

Edward Wilson’s Antarctic Notebooks


David M. Wilson - 2011
    Edward A. Wilson (1872-1912) is widely regarded as one of the finest artists ever to have worked in the Antarctic. Sailing with Captain Scott aboard 'Discovery' (1901-1904), he became the last in a long tradition of 'exploration artists' from an age when pencil and water-colour were the main methods of producing accurate scientific records of new lands and animal species. He combined scientific, topographical and landscape techniques to produce accurate and beautiful images of the last unknown continent. Such was the strength of his work that it also helped to found the tradition of modern wildlife painting. In particular Wilson captured the essence of the flight and motion of Southern Ocean sea-birds on paper. Returning with Captain Scott aboard 'Terra Nova' (1910-1913) as Chief of Scientific Staff, he continued to record the continent and its wildlife with extraordinary deftness. Chosen to accompany Captain Scott to the South Pole, his last drawings are from one of the most famous epic journeys in exploration history. Along with his scientific work, Wilson's pencil recorded the finding of Roald Amundsen's tent at the South Pole by Captain Scott. Wilson died, along with the other members of the British Pole Party, during the return journey, in March 1912. Many of the images in this book are rarely seen or are previously unpublished. The drawings and paintings were created at considerable personal cost in the freezing conditions in which Wilson worked. He often suffered severely from the cold whilst sketching and also from snow-blindness, or sunburn of the eye. They provide a remarkable testament to one of the great figures of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. The book has been produced as a companion volume to 'Edward Wilson's Nature Notebooks' by two of Wilson's great nephews, to mark the centenary of his death.

Zapatista Spring: Anatomy of a Rebel Water Project & the Lessons of International Solidarity


Ramor Ryan - 2011
    Outsiders question the movement they've come so far to support—and each other—when forced into a world so unlike the poetic communiqués of Subcomandante Marcos—a world of endemic rural poverty, parochialism, and shifting loyalties to the movement. The quiet dignity of the local compañeros and echoes of B. Traven, Joseph Conrad, and Albert Camus round out this epic yarn.Ramor Ryan is an Irish writer and translator based in Chiapas, Mexico, and is the author of Clandestines.

Nowhere Else on Earth: Standing Tall for the Great Bear Rainforest


Caitlyn Vernon - 2011
    Environmental activist Caitlyn Vernon guides young readers through a forest of information, sharing her personal stories, her knowledge and her concern for this beautiful place. Full of breathtaking photographs and suggestions for ways to preserve this unique ecosystem, Nowhere Else on Earth is a timely and inspiring reminder that we need to stand up for our wild places before they are gone.Visit http: //www.greatbearrainforest.ca to find teacher and student resources, view the online photo gallery, or read a sample chapter from the book. To access the free teacher's guide for Nowhere Else on Earth, click here: http: //orcabook.com/nowhereelseonearth/guide....

The Way of Natural History


Thomas Lowe Fleischner - 2011
    Throughout this provocative and uplifting book, writers describe their various experiences in nature and portray how careful, and mindful, attention to the larger world around us brings rewarding and surprising discoveries. They give us the literary, personal, and spiritual stories that point a way toward calm and quiet for which many people today hunger. Contributors to The Way of Natural History highlight their individual ways of paying attention to nature and discuss how their experiences have enlivened and enhanced their worlds. The anthology is a rich array of writings that provide models for interacting with the natural world, and together, create a call for the importance of natural history as a discipline.

Against Ecological Sovereignty: Ethics, Biopolitics, and Saving the Natural World


Mick Smith - 2011
    Engaging the work of Bataille, Arendt, Levinas, Nancy, and Agamben, among others, Mick Smith reconnects the political critique of sovereign power with ecological considerations, arguing that ethical and political responsibilities for the consequences of our actions do not end with those defined as human.Against Ecological Sovereignty is the first book to turn Agamben’s analysis of sovereignty and biopolitics toward an investigation of ecological concerns. In doing so it exposes limits to that thought, maintaining that the increasingly widespread biopolitical management of human populations has an unrecognized ecological analogue—reducing nature to a “resource” for human projects. Smith contends that a radical ecological politics must resist both the depoliticizing exercise of sovereign power and the pervasive spread of biopolitics in order to reveal new possibilities for creating healthy human and nonhuman communities.Presenting a stinging critique of human claims to sovereignty over the natural world, Smith proposes an alternative way to conceive of posthumanist ecological communities—one that recognizes the utter singularity of the beings in them.

The Hidden Geometry of Flowers: Living Rhythms, Form and Number


Keith Critchlow - 2011
    Flowers also speak to us in the language of the plant form itself, as cultural symbols in different societies, and at the highest levels of inspiration.In this beautiful and original book, renowned thinker and geometrist Keith Critchlow has chosen to focus on an aspect of flowers that has received perhaps the least attention. This is the flower as teacher of symmetry and geometry (the 'eternal verities', as Plato called them). In this sense, he says, flowers can be treated as sources of remembering -- a way of recalling our own wholeness, as well as awakening our inner power of recognition and consciousness. What is evident in the geometry of the face of a flower can remind us of the geometry that underlies all existence.Working from his own flower photographs and with every geometric pattern hand-drawn, the author reviews the role of flowers within the perspective of our relationship with the natural world. His illuminating study is an attempt to re-engage the human spirit in its intimate relation with all nature.

Towards a New Culture


Dieter Duhm - 2011
    The world stands on the brink of an abyss.The youth from Cairo to London, from Greece to Chile, from Rothschild Avenue, Tel Aviv to Wall Street, New York are looking for new ways out of the crisis. If the mass protest and revolt movements rising up all over the world today intend to gain revolutionary power and take off together, if life is to win over violence and war, we need a direction, an image, an idea of what might be our common goal.This book offers an idea of how a future worth living could be. It was written and published more than thirty years ago in Germany and we believe that its time has now come. We left it in the political context in which it was written. Through this we want to show that names change, yet the underlying problems remain the same... until we discover how to solve them. How this can be achieved is what this book is all about. It is more relevant today than ever.

Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing (Revised)


Doug McKenzie-Mohr - 2011
    The highly acclaimed manual for changing everyday habits now in an all-newthird edition!"

The Limits To Growth Revisited (Springer Briefs In Energy / Energy Analysis)


Ugo Bardi - 2011
    First hailed as a great advance in science, The Limits to Growth was subsequently rejected and demonized. However, with many national economies now at risk and global peak oil apparently a reality, the methods, scenarios, and predictions of The Limits to Growth are in great need of reappraisal. In "The" "Limits to Growth Revisited," Ugo Bardi examines both the science and the polemics surrounding this work, and in particular the reactions of economists that marginalized its methods and conclusions for more than 30 years. The Limits to Growth was a milestone in attempts to model the future of our society, and it is vital today for both scientists and policy makers to understand its scientific basis, current relevance, and the social and political mechanisms that led to its rejection. Bardi also addresses the all-important question of whether the methods and approaches of The Limits to Growth can contribute to an understanding of what happened to the global economy in the Great Recession and where we are headed from there."

Biodesign Out for a Walk


Lowell Harrison Young - 2011
    So should studying biology, after all, without it we wouldn't be alive to experience the rapture, sorrow and mystery of the universe. Biodesign Out For A Walk, is a story of how spirit-sensitive students reprogrammed a left-brained biology teacher and took him on a 24-year odyssey. Following the footsteps of John Muir, they slept on the top of Yosemite's famous Half Dome. They followed Loren Eiseley and John Wesley Powell to the bottom of Grand Canyon. Ed Ricketts and John Steinbeck led them into forests and tide pools of California's beautiful Mendocino coast. Abraham Maslow challenged them to redefine science and religion. Ralph Emerson challenged them to write their own Bibles. They traced the origins of human spirituality back 100,000 years. The class was dedicated to studying biology by exercising the illimitable freedom of the human mind. Plato urged them to actively search for truth, beauty and goodness. They studied the works of scientists, sages, poets and saints to add to their growing concept of Mother Nature. Many synchronicities were discovered that were either playful, mysterious or scary. Socrates', "The unexamined life is not worth living," and Thoreau's, "I went to the woods to live deliberately," became mottos. Although each class lasted one academic year, the teacher was guided by students for 24 years and his adventure ended when a modern-day Moses mysteriously met him on top of Half Dome.

Ethnobiology


E.N. Anderson - 2011
    Ethnobiological research has produced a wide range of medicines, natural products, and new crops, as well as striking insights into human cognition, language, and environmental management behavior from prehistory to the present.This is the single authoritative source on ethnobiology, covering all aspects of the field as it is currently defined. Featuring contributions from experienced scholars and sanctioned by the Society of Ethnobiology, this concise, readable volume provides extensive coverage of ethical issues and practices as well as archaeological, ethnological, and linguistic approaches.Emphasizing basic principles and methodology, this unique textbook offers a balanced treatment of all the major subfields within ethnobiology, allowing students to begin guided research in any related area--from archaeoethnozoology to ethnomycology to agroecology. Each chapter includes a basic introduction to each topic, is written by a leading specialist in the specific area addressed, and comes with a full bibliography citing major works in the area. All chapters cover recent research, and many are new in approach; most chapters present unpublished or very recently published new research. Featured are clear, distinctive treatments of areas such as ethnozoology, linguistic ethnobiology, traditional education, ethnoecology, and indigenous perspectives. Methodology and ethical action are also covered up to current practice."Ethnobiology" is a specialized textbook for advanced undergraduates and graduate students; it is suitable for advanced-level ethnobotany, ethnobiology, cultural and political ecology, and archaeologically related courses. Research institutes will also find this work valuable, as will any reader with an interest in ethnobiological fields.

Statistics for Ecologists Using R and Excel: Data Collection, Exploration, Analysis and Presentation


Mark Gardener - 2011
    We will learn how to plan for data collection, how to assemble data, how to analyse data and finally how to present the results. The book uses Microsoft Excel and the powerful Open Source R program to carry out data handling as well as producing graphs. W ho this book is for Students of ecology and environmental science will find this book aimed at them although many other scientists will find the text useful as the principles and data analysis are the same in many disciplines. No prior knowledge is assumed and the reader can develop their skills to degree level and beyond. W hat you will learn from this book How to plan ecological projects How to record and assemble your data How to use Excel for data analysis and graphs How to use R for data analysis and graphs How to carry out a wide range of statistical analyses How to create professional looking graphs How to present your results

Estuaries


Jason Kirkey - 2011
    Too often poetry is thought of as the domain of human creativity with its source in the depths of the imagination. We use it to speak of the world, but not to the non-??human world—let alone with it. The poems in Estuaries suggest that speech and poetry are fundamentally rooted in the ecosystem—the detritus of fallen leaves, the curvature of a river bend, and the sound of rain on a heron’s wings. All of this might be regarded as the speech of the Earth. When we speak or write poetry that engages these voices we become participant in the patterns of the watershed.

Salvation Means Creation Healed: The Ecology of Sin and Grace: Overcoming the Divorce Between Earth and Heaven


Howard A. Snyder - 2011
    For centuries this promise has been sidelined or misunderstood because of the church's failure to grasp the full meaning of biblical teachings on creation and new creation. The Bible tells the story of the broken and restored relationship between God, people, and land, not just God and people. This is the full gospel, and it has the power to heal the church's long theological divorce between earth and heaven. Jesus' resurrection in the power of the Holy Spirit is the key, and the church as Christ's body is the primary means by which God is reconciling all things through Jesus Christ. Jesus' ultimate healing of all creation is the great hope and promise of the gospel, and he calls the church to be his healing community now through evangelism, discipleship, and prophetic mission. Endorsement: "This book clearly reveals that Snyder's conjunctive theology is congruent with East Asian ways of thinking. The scope of soteriology in his numerous books has been from creation to new creation. This book, however, is exceptionally thorough. It really does reconceive the whole meaning of salvation in a more soundly biblical way." --Ohoon Kwon Mokwon University "In Salvation Means Creation Healed, Howard and Joel speak prophetic truth for Christ's Church, which continues to be deceived by the sirens of Platonic idealism that separate matter and spirit into two different worlds. God is redeeming Creation. A must read!" --Mike Slaughter Ginghamsburg Church "Salvation Means Creation Healed crafts a stunning vision of the breadth of God's Reign in Jesus Christ over all things in both heaven and earth and then invites the church to participate fully. It is compelling. It is challenging. It demands a response." --David Fitch author of The End of Evangelicalism? "In an era of dramatic and irreversible destruction of the earth's resources, Salvation Means Creation Healed is a timely call for Christians to recover a biblical vision of the missio dei as the restoration of all creation. We all need to heed this call toward a fullness of the gospel, pledging ourselves to reconcile the unfortunate divorce between heaven and earth. Our grandchildren's future is at stake." --Cheryl Bridges Johns Church of God Seminary Snyder continues to burst old wineskins with Salvation Means Creation Healed. This is an important biblical, theological and historical examination of how modern evangelicalism has lost its way with regard to creation care and the gospel. Among all the recent publications on creation care, Snyder is the first to show how far back the roots of the "divorce between heaven and earth" really go. Every pastor and serious church leader who needs to get up to speed on what the issues in creation care are all about needs this book. Edward R. Brown, Director Care of Creation Inc. Author, Our Father's World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation Author Biography: Howard A. Snyder holds the Chair of Wesley Studies at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto. His numerous books include The Problem of Wineskins (1975), The Community of the King (1977, 2004), and EarthCurrents: The Struggle for the World's Soul (1995). Joel Scandrett is a visiting professor of theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and former academic editor at InterVarsity Press. He holds a Ph.D. from Drew University, where he worked closely with Thomas Oden in the development of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (IVP)."

Cultivating a Movement: An Oral History of Organic Farming and Sustainable Agriculture on California's Central Coast


Irene Reti - 2011
    This sampling of narratives is drawn from the first extensive oral history of organic and sustainable farming. It documents a multifaceted and interdependent community of change-makers who speak for themselves, offering a window into the dynamic history of a movement.

Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher


Fred Kirschenmann - 2011
    An accomplished theologian, philosopher, and third-generation farmer, Kirschenmann is a dynamic leading voice in the dialogue about the challenges of modern agriculture.Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher follows Kirschenmann’s personal and professional evolution as a lifelong proponent of new agrarianism. Together with agricultural economist Constance L. Falk, Kirschenmann has compiled a collection of his essential writings on farming, philosophy, and sustainability. In this fascinating blend of personal history, philosophical discourse, spiritual ruminations, and practical advice, Kirschenmann shares candid, valuable insights about the agricultural challenges facing the modern world and the necessity of achieving ecologically sound and responsible stewardship of the land.This rich book follows the development of Kirschenmann’s long and distinguished career, from childhood lessons learned on the family farm to his inventive approaches for addressing contemporary agrarian issues. More than a mere retrospective, these these essays serve as an introduction to the life and wok of an extraordinary agricultural thinker.

The Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World


Emma Marris - 2011
    For decades people have unquestioningly accepted the idea that our goal is to preserve nature in its pristine, pre-human state. But many scientists have come to see this as an outdated dream that thwarts bold new plans to save the environment and prevents us from having a fuller relationship with nature. Humans have changed the landscapes they inhabit since prehistory, and climate change means even the remotest places now bear the fingerprints of humanity. Emma Marris argues convincingly that it is time to look forward and create the "rambunctious garden," a hybrid of wild nature and human management.In this optimistic book, readers meet leading scientists and environmentalists and visit imaginary Edens, designer ecosystems, and Pleistocene parks. Marris describes innovative conservation approaches, including rewilding, assisted migration, and the embrace of so-called novel ecosystems.Rambunctious Garden is short on gloom and long on interesting theories and fascinating narratives, all of which bring home the idea that we must give up our romantic notions of pristine wilderness and replace them with the concept of a global, half-wild rambunctious garden planet, tended by us.

What Is Sustainable: Remembering Our Way Home


Richard Adrian Reese - 2011
    Looking through doom-colored glasses, the future appears turbulent and chaotic, for obvious reasons. But when we switch to rose-colored glasses, it's thrilling to see that dawn is breaking out all over. A dysfunctional way of life is dying, and this opens up a wide variety of new possibilities, some of which could lead to a genuinely sustainable future. No matter what we do, the Earth will heal. It will heal if we self-destruct, and it will heal if we remember healthy values and lifestyles. Are we capable of intelligent change? Yes. But problems that took centuries to create will not be resolved in a single generation. The purpose of this book is to encourage the healing process, to propose important questions, and to examine our reality from a different perspective. One thing is certain: the future demands a radically more intelligent worldview and skill set - and a genuinely healthy future will have little in common with the way we live today. The four directions of this book are sustainable population, sustainable worldview, sustainable food, and reconnection with our past, our ancestors, and our non-human relatives - the living world. Subjects discussed include ecological history, domestication, voluntary simplicity, collapse, materialism, peak energy, peak food, peak population, antibiotics, aquaculture, and agroforestry.

The Slums of Aspen: Immigrants vs. the Environment in America's Eden


Lisa Sun-Hee Park - 2011
    But one town in Colorado, under the guise of environmental protection, passed a resolution limiting immigration, bolstering the privilege of the wealthy and scapegoating Latin American newcomers for the area's current and future ecological problems. This might have escaped attention save for the fact that this wasn't some rinky-dink backwater. It was Aspen, Colorado, playground of the rich and famous and the West's most elite ski town.Tracking the lives of immigrant laborers through several years of exhaustive fieldwork and archival digging, The Slums of Aspen tells a story that brings together some of the most pressing social problems of the day: environmental crises, immigration, and social inequality. Park and Pellow demonstrate how these issues are intertwined in the everyday experiences of people who work and live in this wealthy tourist community.Offering a new understanding of a little known class of the super-elite, of low-wage immigrants (mostly from Latin America) who have become the foundation for service and leisure in this famous resort, and of the recent history of the ski industry, Park and Pellow expose the ways in which Colorado boosters have reshaped the landscape and altered ecosystems in pursuit of profit and pleasure. Of even greater urgency, they frame how environmental degradation and immigration reform have become inextricably linked in many regions of the American West, a dynamic that interferes with the efforts of valorous environmental causes, often turning away from conservation and toward insidious racial privilege.