Even utility and oil companies now promote conservation in the face of demands for dwindling energy reserves. And for years some biologists have warned us of the direct correlation between scarcity and population growth. These scientists see an appalling future riding the tidal wave of a worldwide growth of population and technology.A calm but unflinching realist, Catton suggests that we cannot stop this wave - for we have already overshot the Earth's capacity to support so huge a load. He contradicts those scientists, engineers, and technocrats who continue to write optimistically about energy alternatives. Catton asserts that the technological panaceas proposed by those who would harvest from the seas, harness the winds, and farm the deserts are ignoring the fundamental premise that "the principals of ecology apply to all living things." These principles tell us that, within a finite system, economic expansion is not irreversible and population growth cannot continue indefinitely. If we disregard these facts, our sagging American Dream will soon shatter completely.

    Part of Muir's attractiveness to modern readers is the fact that he was an activist. He not only explored the West and wrote about its beauties-- he fought for their preservation. His successes dot the landscape in all the natural features that bear his name: forests, lakes, trails, glaciers. Here collected are some of his finest wilderness essays, ranging from Alaska to Yellowstone, from Oregon to the Range of Light-- the High Sierra. This series celebrates the tradition of literary naturalists-- writers who embrace the natural world as the setting for some of our most euphoric and serious experiences. Their literary terrain maps the intimate connections between the human and natural worlds, a subject defined by Mary Austin in 1920 as "a third thing... the sum of what passed between me and the Land." Literary naturalists transcend political boundaries, social concerns, and historical milieus; they speak for what Henry Beston called the "other nations" of the planet. Their message acquires more weight and urgency as wild places become increasingly scarce. This series, then, celebrates both a wonderful body of work and a fundamental truth: that nature counts as a model, a guide to how we can live in the world.

    Where his earlier Earth House Hold(1969) heralded the tribalism of the "coming revolution," the interviews in The Real Work focus on the living out of that process in a particular place and time––the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California in the 1970s. The talks and interviews collected here range over fifteen years (1964-79) and encompass styles as different as those of the Berkeley Barb and The New York Quarterly. A "poetics of process" characterizes these exchanges, but in the words of editor Mclean, their chief attraction is "good, plain talk with a man who has a lively and very subtle mind and a wide range of experience and knowledge."

    has made a bestselling name for himself as the guru of nature, meditation, and mysticism with his extraordinary messages of hope for our earth and our inner selves. Founder of the Wilderness Survival School, Brown now shares his vision of harmony in a wilderness guide that has become a bible for both spiritualists and nature lovers.Author Biography: Tom Brown, Jr. began to learn tracking and hunting at the age of eight. He has founded a renowned survival school and is the author of bestselling wilderness guides bearing his name.

    Environmental issues based on the founder of Greenpeace

    Perrin, a transplanted New Yorker and now a "real" Vermonter, candidly admits his early mistakes while giving concrete advice on matters such as what to do with maple syrup (other than put it on your pancakes), how to use a peavey, and how to replace your rototiller with a garden animal.

    Beginning with the passive solar designs of fifth-century Greece, through the solar-powered steam engines of 19th century America, and on to the new revolution in solar-inspired architecture, [the authors]provide the reader with an amazing story. A Golden Thread is must reading for anyone serious about the real potential for the sun's energy & its place in our history & future." (Wilson Clark, from the back cover)

    agriculture to the edge of disaster. Tillage has hastened the erosion of irreplaceable topsoil everywhere and a technology based on fossil fuels has increased yields for short-term profits, leaving crops ever more vulnerable to diseases, pests, and droughts. Such, says Jackson, is "the failure of success." As high-technology agriculture becomes more wasteful and expensive, more farmers are being forced off the land or into bankruptcy. Jackson's major solution calls for the development of plant combinations that yield food while holding the soil and re-newing its nutrients without plowing or applying fossil-fuel-based fertilizers or pesticides. His new way of raising crops, by working with the soil's natural systems, would keep the world's bread-basket producing perpetually.

    

    A broad ecological overview written in engaging narrative for lay readers as well as naturalists, conservationists, and biologists, the book is enhanced with more than 140 photographs, drawings, maps, and diagrams. Also a practical guidebook, it directs people to where they can see what is being discussed, gives current references, and offers a complete directory of conservation organizations in the state.In the new edition, State Naturalist Charles W. Johnson describes many environmental, technological, and cultural changes: more moose and turkey vultures, fewer wood turtles and butternuts; refinement in our thinking about natural communities and endangered species; effects of development, pollution, acid rain, global warming, and invasive non-native species such as zebra mussels and Eurasian water milfoil; urban/rural clashes mirrored in such issues as the Northern Forests and clear-cutting; a sharpening focus on biodiversity, sustainability, and ecosystem management; the rise of conservation biology as a field of study. At the same time, Johnson includes Abenaki stories - Vermont's Native American legacy of respect for and identity with nature - that serve as reminders of how our fortunes are inextricably tied to those of nature.

    It offers you: 32 accurately described hiking trips in four areas: Desolation Wilderness, Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay, South Fork American River (trails south of Highway 50), and Upper Truckee River (trails north of Highway 88 and west of Highway 89).