We would do well to hear him."—The Washington Post Book WorldArt of the Commonplace gathers twenty essays by Wendell Berry that offer an agrarian alternative to our dominant urban culture. Grouped around five themes—an agrarian critique of culture, agrarian fundamentals, agrarian economics, agrarian religion, and geo-biography—these essays promote a clearly defined and compelling vision important to all people dissatisfied with the stress, anxiety, disease, and destructiveness of contemporary American culture.Why is agriculture becoming culturally irrelevant, and at what cost? What are the forces of social disintegration and how might they be reversed? How might men and women live together in ways that benefit both? And, how does the corporate takeover of social institutions and economic practices contribute to the destruction of human and natural environments?Through his staunch support of local economies, his defense of farming communities, and his call for family integrity, Berry emerges as the champion of responsibilities and priorities that serve the health, vitality and happiness of the whole community of creation.

    Yet it is so ravaged by human activity that half its species could be gone by the end of the present century. These two contrasting truths—unexpected magnificence and underestimated peril—have become compellingly clear during the past two decades of research on biological diversity.In this dazzlingly intelligent and ultimately hopeful book, Wilson describes what treasures of the natural world we are about to lose forever—in many cases animals, insects, and plants we have only just discovered, and whose potential to nourish us, protect us, and cure our illnesses is immeasurable—and what we can do to save them. In the process, he explores the ethical and religious bases of the conservation movement and deflates the myth that environmental policy is antithetical to economic growth by illustrating how new methods of conservation can ensure long-term economic well-being.The Future of Life is a magisterial accomplishment: both a moving description of our biosphere and a guidebook for the protection of all its species, including humankind.

    Respect all life2. Live as part of the Animal Kingdom3. Educate our children to respect animals4. Treat animals as you would like to be treated5. Be a steward6. Value the sounds of nature and help preserve them7. Do not harm life in order to learn about it8. Have the courage of your convictions9. Act knowing that your actions make a difference10. Act knowing that you are not alone.Filled with inspirational stories, The Ten Trusts provides lessons Jane Goodall has learned from a lifetime of experience, with the warmth and emotion her readers have come to expect from her. Marc Bekoff, cofounder of the Roots and Shoots program with Jane, also contributes his profound insights and research, which Jane has come to rely on. Together, they share their hope and vision for humanity and all the earth's creatures, distilled into ten eloquent spiritual lessons. Within these ten trusts, Goodall reveals how we can gain true enlightenment by living in harmony with the animal kingdom and honoring the interconnection between all species.

    But as architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart point out in this provocative, visionary book, such an approach only perpetuates the one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model, dating to the Industrial Revolution, that creates such fantastic amounts of waste and pollution in the first place. Why not challenge the belief that human industry must damage the natural world? In fact, why not take nature itself as our model for making things? A tree produces thousands of blossoms in order to create another tree, yet we consider its abundance not wasteful but safe, beautiful, and highly effective.Waste equals food. Guided by this principle, McDonough and Braungart explain how products can be designed from the outset so that, after their useful lives, they will provide nourishment for something new. They can be conceived as "biological nutrients" that will easily reenter the water or soil without depositing synthetic materials and toxins. Or they can be "technical nutrients" that will continually circulate as pure and valuable materials within closed-loop industrial cycles, rather than being "recycled" -- really, downcycled -- into low-grade materials and uses. Drawing on their experience in (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, McDonough and Braungart make an exciting and viable case for putting eco-effectiveness into practice, and show how anyone involved with making anything can begin to do as well.

    Carl Safina's guide and inspiration is an albatross he calls Amelia, whose life and far-flung flights he describes in fascinating detail. Interwoven with recollections of whalers and famous explorers, Eye of the Albatross probes the unmistakable environmental impact of the encounters between man and marine life. Safina's perceptive and authoritative portrait results in a transforming ride to the ends of the Earth for the reader, as well as an eye-opening look at the health of our oceans.

    David Holmgren brings into sharper focus the powerful and still evolving Permaculture concept he pioneered with Bill Mollison in the 1970s. It draws together and integrates 25 years of thinking and teaching to reveal a whole new way of understanding and action behind a simple set of design principles. The 12 design principles are each represented by a positive action statement, an icon and a traditional proverb or two that captures the essence of each principle.Holmgren draws a correlation between every aspect of how we organize our lives, communities and landscapes and our ability to creatively adapt to the ecological realities that shape human destiny. For students and teachers of Permaculture this book provides something more fundamental and distilled than Mollison's encyclopedic "Designers Manual." For the general reader it provides refreshing perspectives on a range of environmental issues and shows how permaculture is much more than just a system of gardening. For anyone seriously interested in understanding the foundations of sustainable design and culture, this book is essential reading. Although a book of ideas, the big picture is repeatedly grounded by reference to Holmgren's own place, Melliodora, and other practical examples.

    And yet, they sometimes bring peace and grace.If you have never seen a flash flood, you will in this book. Meet the survivors whose stories explain such a paradox.The Desert Cries tells gripping stories of five flash floods that raged in the Grand Canyon and elsewhere in Arizona within a two-month span and killed 22 people.

    This text contains a strong focus on advanced wastewater treatment technologies, including biological treatment processes, and stresses the reuse aspect of wastewater and biosolids.

    This impressive collection highlights birds from all regions of the United States including localized areas such as the Mid-Atlantic, the Pacific Northwest and New England. Whether birding in the foothills of New England, the prairies of the Midwest, or the beaches of Florida, Smithsonian Handbooks are the most comprehensive field guides to North American birds on the market. Looking for the Great Blue Heron or the Piping Plover while visiting the Great Lakes? Desperate to find the rare Long Billed Curlew or the Marbled Godwit during a hike in the Cascade Mountains? There's no need to look any further! Created in association with the Smithsonian Institution, these amazing guides are an absolute staple for any birder or amateur ornithologist. Each local species receives its own profile, along with descriptions of habitats and annotated photographs that highlight specific characteristics and other points of interest. Take bird watching to new heights!

    For Childs, these are the types of terrain that sharpen the senses, and demand a physicality the modern civilized world no longer requires. Includes black-and-white photos and pen-and-ink drawings by the author.

    

    This volume seeks to meet the needs of the growing audience of teachers, amateur naturalists, environmentalists, anglers, and others interested in aquatic biology by providing substantive information in non-technical language for nearly 100 of the most common groups of invertebrates found in the inland waters of North America.

    The lively, simple text follows George’s day as he discovers the wonder of plants. Eye-catching illustrations are coupled with photographs of grasses, fruits and plants to make a highly original book, building awareness in children of the natural world.

    It includes more than 250 profound and startling photographs and gathers together more than 40 essays by leading ecological thinkers including Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, David Ehrenfeld, Helena NorbergHodge, Vandana Shiva, and Gary Nabhan. Its scope and photo-driven approach provide a unique and invaluable antidote to the efforts by agribusiness to obscure and disconnect us from the truth about industrialized foods.

    Written with exceptional clarity, Down to Earth re-envisions the story of America from the ground up. It reveals how focusing on plants, animals, climate, and other ecological factors can radically change the way that we think about the past. Examining such familiar topics as colonization, the industrial revolution, slavery, the Civil War, and the emergence of modern-day consumer culture, Steinberg recounts how the natural world influenced the course of human history. From the colonists' attempts to impose order on the land to modern efforts to sell the wilderness as a consumer good, the author reminds readers that many critical episodes in our history were, in fact, environmental events. He highlights the ways in which we have attempted to reshape and control nature, from Thomas Jefferson's surveying plan, which divided the national landscape into a grid, to the transformation of animals, crops, and even water into commodities. The text is ideal for courses in environmental history, environmental studies, urban studies, economic history, and American history. Passionately argued and thought-provoking, Down to Earth retells our nation's history with nature in the foreground--a perspective that will challenge our view of everything from Jamestown to Disney World.

    This is a fascinating story, told with humor and passion, of forests battling prairies for dominance; of grasslands plowed, wetlands drained, and species driven to extinction in the settlement of the Midwest; and of caring conservationists fighting to preserve and restore the native plants and animals. Intermingling historical anecdotes and episodes straight from the words of early settlers and naturalists with current scientific information, Greenberg places the natural history of the region in a human context, showing how it affects our everyday existence in even the most urbanized landscape of Chicago.

    It provides the information needed to implement an effective engineering response in the aftermath of an emergency. The second edition of Engineering in Emergencies maintains the practical content of the first edition but has been revised and updated to reflect developments in humanitarian relief in recent years. The combination of 'hard' topics, such as water and sanitation, and 'soft' topics, such as managerial skills and personal effectiveness, has been retained from the original edition and the book expanded to include two new chapters on security and telecommunications. The new second edition will be available both as a book and as a handy CD-ROM, especially designed to be light and easily portable for relief workers in the field. Engineering in Emergencies is developed in collaboration with the agency RedR - Engineers for Disaster Relief, based in Westminster.

    This impressive collection highlights birds from all regions of the United States including localized areas such as the Mid-Atlantic, the Pacific Northwest and New England. Whether birding in the foothills of New England, the prairies of the Midwest, or the beaches of Florida, Smithsonian Handbooks are the most comprehensive field guides to North American birds on the market. Looking for the Great Blue Heron or the Piping Plover while visiting the Great Lakes? Desperate to find the rare Long Billed Curlew or the Marbled Godwit during a hike in the Cascade Mountains? There's no need to look any further Created in association with the Smithsonian Institution, these amazing guides are an absolute staple for any birder or amateur ornithologist. Each local species receives its own profile, along with descriptions of habitats and annotated photographs that highlight specific characteristics and other points of interest. Take bird watching to new heights

    Featured contributors include Jamaica Kincaid, bell hooks, Francisco X. Alarcon, Yusef Komunyakaa, Diane Glancy, and others.

    Poaching was rampant, but it was loss of habitat that most endangered the gorillas. Weber and Vedder realized that the gorillas were doomed unless something was done to save their forest home. Over Fossey's objections, they helped found the Mountain Gorilla Project, which would inform Rwandans about the gorillas and the importance of conservation, while at the same time establishing an ecotourism project -- one of the first anywhere in a rainforest -- to bring desperately needed revenue to Rwanda.In the Kingdom of Gorillas introduces readers to entire families of gorillas, from powerful silverback patriarchs to helpless newborn infants. Weber and Vedder take us with them as they slog through the rain-soaked mountain forests, observing the gorillas at rest and at play. Today the population of mountain gorillas is the highest it has been since the 1960s, and there is new hope for the species' fragile future even as the people of Rwanda strive to overcome ethnic and political differences.

    After eight printings in the original edition, The New Nuclear Danger remains a singularly persuasive antidote to war and its horrific costs.

    This long-awaited biographical memoir by one of Abbey's closest friends is a tribute to the anarchist who popularised environmental activism in his novel 'The Monkey Wrench Gang' and articulated the spirit of the arid West in Desert Solitaire and scores of other essays and articles. His 1956 novel 'The Brave Cowboy' launched his literary career, and by the 1970s he was recognised as an important, uniquely American voice. Abbey used his talents to protest against the mining and development of the American West. By the time of his death he had become an idol to environmentalists, writers, and free spirits all over the West.

    His writings have inspired animal lovers around the world in over a dozen languages. Now, with publication of his collected writings in the USA and the UK, the Author has made a generous arrangement with the publishers that can benefit the fundraising efforts of all animal rescue, conservation and environmental groups. In Pieces of My Heart - Writings Inspired by Animals and Nature the author paints an emotional rainbow with a palette akin to Thoreau, Khalil Gibran, James Thurber, Chief Seattle, and James Herriot. Pieces of My Heart encompasses favorites such as "We Are Their Heroes," "How Could You?," "The Basset Chronicles," and "The Zen of Cat," as well as a treasure-trove of new writings. Included is an Appendix of suggestions and resources for helping animals; and a Foreword by Dr. Marc Bekoff, author of Minding Animals: Awareness, Emotions, and Heart and co-founder with Dr. Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals/Citizens for Responsible Animal Behavior Studies. Illustrated by Christine J. Head. Pieces of My Heart is a soulful, heartfelt tribute to animals and a plea for compassion. As you immerse yourself in its truths you'll reach for the nearest animal to hug, you'll smile through tears, and you'll feel the urge to run barefoot in the grass.

    TaylorIs there a place for animals in the moral consideration of nature? by Eric KatzCan animal rights activists be environmentalists? by Gary E. VarnerAgainst the moral considerability of ecosystems by Harley CahenThe varieties of intrinsic value by John O'NeillValue in nature and the nature of value by Holmes Rolston IIIThe source and locus of intrinsic value : a reexamination by Keekok LeeEnvironmental ethics and weak anthropocentrism by Bryan G. NortonWeak anthropocentric intrinsic value by Eugene HargroveMoral pluralism and the course of environmental ethics by Christopher D. StoneThe case against moral pluralism by J. Baird CallicottMinimal, moderate, and extreme moral pluralism by Peter S. WenzThe case for a practical pluralism by Andrew LightDeep ecology : a new philosophy of our time? by Warwick FoxThe deep ecological movement : some philosophical aspects by Arne NaessEcofeminism : toward global justice and planetary health by Greta Gaard and Lori GruenEcological feminism and ecosystem ecology by Karen J. Warren and Jim CheneyBeyond intrinsic value : pragmatism in environmental ethics by Anthony WestonPragmatism in environmental ethics : democracy, pluralism, and the management of nature by Ben A. Minteer and Robert E. ManningThe ethics of sustainable resources by Donald SchererToward a just and sustainable economic order by John B. Cobb, Jr.Ethics, public policy, and global warming by Dale JamiesonFaking nature by Robert ElliotThe big lie : human restoration of nature by Eric KatzEcological restoration and the culture of nature : a pragmatic perspective by Andrew LightAn amalgamation of wilderness preservation arguments by Michael P. NelsonA critique of and an alternative to the wilderness area by J. Baird CallicottWilderness--now more than ever : a response to Callicott by Reed F. NossFeeding people versus saving nature? by Holmes Rolston IIISaving nature, feeding people, and ethics by Robin AttfieldIntegrating environmentalism and human rights by James W. Nickel and Eduardo ViolaEnvironmental justice : an environmental civil rights value acceptable to all world views by Troy W. HartleySustainability and intergenerational justice by Brian BarryDemocracy and sense of place values in environmental policy by Bryan G. Norton and Bruce HannonEnvironmental awareness and liberal education by Andrew Brennan

    Lilburn's collection of essays plots the work required to roughly re-establish the conditions of Paradise; it explores the world of prairies rivers, aspen-covered sandhills, deer country, big lakes taking on their first ice in late October, the moon rising over chokecherry thickets, and asks: How to be here? There's nothing glib about the answer Lilburn offers as he says in one of his poems: The way back will be hard, ghost road through the rooms of sorrow/moon of contemplation on our backs. Though hard, however, the way is readily available: plain delight, he believes, knows the way. But the project to live in the world as though it were home requires the recovery of the full resources of human desire. The muscle of eros needs to be made strong.

    Except for brief periods following heavy rainfall, it is bone dry. The cottonwood and willow trees that once lined its banks have died, and the profusion of birds and wildlife recorded by early settlers are nowhere to be seen. The river is dead. What happened? Where did the water go.As Robert Glennon explains in Water Follies, what killed the Santa Cruz River -- and could devastate other surface waters across the United States -- was groundwater pumping. From 1940 to 2000, the volume of water drawn annually from underground aquifers in Tucson jumped more than six-fold, from 50,000 to 330,000 acre-feet per year. And Tucson is hardly an exception -- similar increases in groundwater pumping have occurred across the country and around the world. In a striking collection of stories that bring to life the human and natural consequences of our growing national thirst, Robert Glennon provides an occasionally wry and always fascinating account of groundwater pumping and the environmental problems it causes.Robert Glennon sketches the culture of water use in the United States, explaining how and why we are growing increasingly reliant on groundwater. He uses the examples of the Santa Cruz and San Pedro rivers in Arizona to illustrate the science of hydrology and the legal aspects of water use and conflicts. Following that, he offers a dozen stories -- ranging from Down East Maine to San Antonio's River Walk to Atlanta's burgeoning suburbs -- that clearly illustrate the array of problems caused by groundwater pumping. Each episode poses a conflict of values that reveals the complexity of how and why we use water. These poignant and sometimes perverse tales tell of human foibles including greed, stubbornness, and, especially, the unlimited human capacity to ignore reality.As Robert Glennon explores the folly of our actions and the laws governing them, he suggests common-sense legal and policy reforms that could help avert potentially catastrophic future effects. Water Follies, the first book to focus on the impact of groundwater pumping on the environment, brings this widespread but underappreciated problem to the attention of citizens and communities across America.

    It marks him as one of the first scholars in the world, and the first in Japan, to approach geography in terms of the relationship between human beings and the earth. The translation is not direct, but eliminates some repetition, summarizes some arguments, and omits some dated and extraneous material. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

    Only hours before, the town of Darwin was winding down for the holiday season. Like many people that day, Josephine Foreman spent the morning cooking a large turkey for Christmas lunch; Geoff Crane took the opportunity to finish some last-minute Christmas shopping. Reports of an approaching cyclone were taken lightly - after all, the last cyclone had been little more than a storm with a bit more wind. Besides, it was Christmas...

    Darwin's ruminations on the Galapagos Islands, Thoreau's communion with Walden Pond, and Rachel Carson's evocation of the rocky coast of Maine are monuments in the history of writing and thought. No less significant are the searching essays of such contemporary writers as Wendell Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, Annie Dillard, and Bill McKibben. Nature Writing: The Tradition in English, includes 152 selections by 132 authors. This is the definitive collection of a many-voiced genre that has flourished in England and America for over two hundred years.Here one will find such classic selections as William Bartram's parley with crocodiles in south Florida, John Hay's exchange with a dying Arctic dovekie, and John Muir's riding out a mountain windstorm in the branches of a lofty Douglas spruce.New essays by Vladimir Nabokov, Scott Sanders, David Quammen, and Gary Snyder have been included, along with selections by such writers as David Abram, Diane Ackerman, Rick Bass, Jane Brox, John Daniel, Trudy Dittmar, Linda Hasselstrom, Ray Gonzalez, and Sharman Apt Russell. The editors of this volume have taken a special interest in including writers of color, as well as authors from many parts of the English-speaking world. Recently rediscovered works of a number of earlier writers, especially those of nineteenth-century women, also expand the range of this collection.Nature Writing: The Tradition in English displays nature in all the incarnations—enticing, chaotic, generous, cruel, mysterious, and heartbreaking—that have inspired men and women to portray it in words. The variety and strength of these selections represent one of the most significant and original literary achievements of our culture.Never before have our encounters with the natural world been imbued with so much peril and so much possibility. By listening to the voices of those who have observed and reflected upon that world so powerfully, we are all enriched.Gilbert White • William Bartram • Meriwether Lewis • John James Audubon • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Charles Darwin • Susan Fenimore Cooper • Henry David Thoreau • Walt Whitman • Samuel Clemens • John Muir • Mabel Osgood Wright • Ernest Thompson Seton • Luther Standing Bear • Rockwell Kent • Virginia Woolf Isak Dinesen • D. H. Lawrence • Aldo Leopold • Vladimir Nabokov • Sigurd Olson • Edwin Way Teale • E. B. White • René Dubos • Norman Maclean • John Steinbeck • George Orwell • Laurens Van Der Post • Rachel Carson • Loren Eiseley • Wallace Stegner • Lewis Thomas • John Hay • Thomas Merton • Faith McNulty • Farley Mowat • Maxine Kumin • Ann Haymond Zwinger • Edward Abbey • Peter Matthiessen • Gary Snyder • Edward O. Wilson • John McPhee • Edward Hoagland • Wendell Berry • Sue Hubbell • Jim Harrison • William Least Heat-Moon Bruce Chatwin • Maxine Hong Kingston • Linda Hasselstrom • Trudy Dittmar • Alice Walker • Rick Bass • Annie Dillard • Barry Lopez • Scott Sanders • David Rains Wallace • Alison Deming • Gretel Ehrlich • Emily Hiestand • Linda Hogan • Diane Ackerman • John Daniel • David Quammen • Jamaica Kincaid • Ray Gonzales • Gary Paul Nabhan • Louise Erdrich • David Mas Masumoto • Sharman Apt Russell • Terry Tempest Williams • Jane Brox • Bill McKibben • Janisse Ray • David Abram • Freeman House • Barbara Kingsolver • Ellen Meloy • Doug Peacock • Michael Pollan

    It is an inspiring and stimulating book for anyone who cares about Earth and is concerned about the direction in which the human species is moving.

    But centuries of pollution and other abuse have gradually been killing off its marine life and have pushed the Sound to the brink of disaster. This fascinating book traces the history of the Sound and its use as a resource from the time of contact between the Native Americans and Dutch traders through the suburban sprawl of recent decades—and tells how a group of scientists and citizens has been working to save the Sound from ruin.Tom Andersen begins by describing the dramatic events of the summer of 1987, when a condition called hypoxia (lack of dissolved oxygen in the water brought about by a combination of pollution and other factors) killed large numbers of fish and lobsters in the Sound. He discusses how scientists first documented and explained the development of hypoxia and how research and cleanup are now being carried out to restore the Sound. Interweaving current events, natural history, and human history, Andersen presents a cautionary tale of exploitation without concern for preservation.

    Bound in a lovely and compact format, the book totes easily along in your pocket, backpack, or picnic basket. Solitude never felt so cozy.

    The essays represent the rare and compelling integration of an understanding of nature with the perspective of a world-class ecologist and struggling mystic.

    This book's unique arguments identify important, but often unrecognised, principles and illustrate their applicability in a wide range of situations, price-ranges and climates. It shows how to reconcile the apparently incompatible demands of environmental, economic and social sustainability; how to moderate climate to make places of delight, and realign social pressures so places both support society and maximise economic viability. Thought provoking and easy to understand, Christopher Day uses everyday examples to relate his theories to practice and our experience.

    As a cancer specialist, Karl-Henrik Robert faced a stream of parents who would sacrifice anything to save their children. Yet that same selflessness did not seem to extend to saving the environment. For debate on how to achieve sustainability was divided, with no agreement on universal principles. But Robert's experience convinced him that consensus on how to meet the most basic requirements of life should be possible. Thus began a long process of consultation among scientists and others that eventually led to the definition of four system conditions essential for the maintenance of life on Earth: conditions that have now been agreed upon world-wide and encapsulated as The Natural Step framework. Dramatic, visionary and inspiring, this book will appeal to all with a passion for sustainability including business leaders, academics, journalists, activists, and students.

    Actual cases and research efforts richly support each of the eight steps in the process. Included in the text are more than 25 in-depth cases, about 100 examples of social marketing campaigns, and ten research highlights to represent the scope of research methodologies. The appendix includes worksheets for each step to complete a marketing plan for students and practitioners.The methodologies in this text have been classroom tested and refined by students who prepared marketing campaigns using this eight step planning process.

    Just as important as an understanding of our environment, is an understanding of ourselves, of the kinds of beings we are and why we act as we do. In Loving Nature Kay Milton considers why some people in Western societies grow up to be nature lovers, actively concerned about the welfare and future of plants, animals, ecosystems and nature in general, while others seem indifferent or intent on destroying these things. Drawing on findings and ideas from anthropology, psychology, cognitive science and philosophy, the author discusses how we come to understand nature as we do, and above all, how we develop emotional commitments to it. Anthropologists, in recent years, have tended to suggest that our understanding of the world is shaped solely by the culture in which we live. Controversially Kay Milton argues that it is shaped by direct experience in which emotion plays an essential role. The author argues that the conventional opposition between emotion and rationality in western culture is a myth. The effect of this myth has been to support a market economy which systematically destroys nature, and to exclude from public decision making the kinds of emotional attachments that support more environmentally sensitive ways of living. A better understanding of ourselves, as fundamentally emotional beings, could give such ways of living the respect they need.

    His vivid descriptions inspired the best work of other artists who lived nearby, including such noted photographers as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and their younger contemporary Morley Baer.Before he died in 1995, Baer was planning a volume that would bring together a group of his landscape photographs of the Big Sur area with a selection of poems that expressed Jeffers's mystical experience of stone. Jeffers believed that stone is alive, perhaps even conscious in some way. Baer wanted to create a visual and literary meditation on the life-experience of stone. James Karman was invited by Baer to serve as his collaborator, and has brought the project to completion—more than 50 of Baer's photographs paired with poems by Jeffers (some complete, others excerpted).Stones of the Sur is in five parts, each of which takes its title from a poem. Part I, "Tor House," contains photographs and poems about Jeffers's home, ever the locus of his inspiration. Part II, "Continent's End," begins with a panoramic view of the coastline and is followed by visual and textual images that become progressively narrower in scope as Baer and Jeffers focus on the mountains, cliffs, beaches, boulders, rocks, and pebbles of the Big Sur.The inward progression continues in Part III, "Oh Lovely Rock," where Baer trains his lens on close surfaces—revealing his sensibilities at their most abstract. From the middle of Part III on, the spiral is reversed and the view begins to open. Part IV, "Credo," expands outwardly from the pebbles and rocks of the Big Sur back to the beaches, cliffs, and mountains. Part V, "The Old Stone-Mason," concludes the book with a return to Tor House.

    From the Uinta Mountains through the central canyonlands to the Virgin River, Utah’s abundant prehistoric rock art offers glimpses of a lost world.The Rock Art of Utah is a rich sample of the many varieties of rock art found in the state. Through nearly two hundred high-quality photographs and drawings from the Donald Scott Collection, all made during the 1920s and 1930s, rock art expert Polly Schaafsma provides a fascinating, comprehensive tour of this unique legacy.From the Uinta Mountains through the central canyonlands to the Virgin River, Utah’s abundant prehistoric rock art offers glimpses of a lost world. Over many centuries, the Fremont and Anasazi peoples left an artistic record in which distinctive styles are readily identifiable.The Rock Art of Utah is a guide to the many varieties of rock art found in the state. Through dozens of high-quality photographs and drawings from the Donald Scott Collection, all made during the 1920s and 30s, author Polly Schaafsma provides a fascinating, comprehensive tour of this unique legacy. Now in an updated edition, it will engage anyone with an interest in the ancient peoples of the Colorado Plateau.

    "There is a way of being in the world that recoils from aggressiveness, cunning, and greed," writes bestselling author Carol Lee Flinders. This way of being arose out of the relationships our hunter-gatherer ancestors had with the natural world, one another, and Spirit -- relationships that are most acutely understood in terms of trust, inclusion, and mutual reciprocity. This society's core values, which include intimate connection with the land, empathetic relationship with animals, self-restraint, balance, expressiveness, generosity, egalitarianism, playfulness, and nonviolent conflict resolution, are what Flinders calls the "values of Belonging."But with the Agricultural Revolution, as people took charge of what they could grow and where, the nature of human society changed. Once we could produce enough food to have surpluses, food could be bartered. The concept of ownership took on new meaning; more complex economies evolved, and with them came social and economic inequities. Qualities that had been reviled, such as competitiveness, acquisitiveness, and ambition, became under these new conditions the means to success. God underwent a transformation as well, becoming masculine, supreme, and finally located above and beyond us in the heavens. Flinders observes that these "values of Enterprise" have played a crucial role in the development of human society, having given us our passion for innovation and exploration of our world. But, whether negative or positive, the values of Enterprise, which became associated with men, overwhelmed the values of Belonging, which were identified with women. This division has impoverished us all.The values that shaped the hunter-gatherer's life reflected the need for connection, while those that fueled the Agricultural Revolution, and the subsequent rise of civilization as we know it, resulted in disconnection -- from nature, other people, and Spirit. The two value systems could not be more deeply at odds. Because the values of Enterprise have prevailed, the entire world stands in acute and perilous imbalance. And yet there are those who have managed to keep the values of Belonging alive, while successfully negotiating Enterprise culture.In this fresh look at gender relationships, Flinders moves away from the dichotomy of male as oppressor and female as victim. She sees models for a new balance in the lives of visionaries, artists, and mystics such as the Buddha, Baal Shem Tov, Teresa of Avila, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, John Muir, and Martin Luther King Jr., each of whom mirrors the essence of Belonging values for the world. This thought-provoking book adds an exciting dimension to the debate about Western values and where we are headed.

    Man in the Landscape was among the first books of a new genre that has elucidated the ideas, beliefs, and images that lie behind our modern destruction and conservation of the natural world.Departing from the traditional study of land use as a history of technology, this book explores the emergence of modern attitudes in literature, art, and architecture--their evolutionary past and their taproot in European and Mediterranean cultures. With humor and wit, Shepard considers the influence of Christianity on ideas of nature, the absence of an ethic of nature in modern philosophy, and the obsessive themes of dominance and control as elements of the modern mind. In his discussions of the exploration of the American West, the establishment of the first national parks, and the reactions of pioneers to their totally new habitat, he identifies the transport of traditional imagery into new places as a sort of cultural baggage.

    Wade and Brown v. Board of Education. A Texas company was recently allowed to claim a patent on basmati rice, a kind of rice grown in India for hundreds of years. The Mining Act of 1872 is still in effect, allowing companies to buy land from the government at USD5 an acre if they pan to mine it. These are resources that belong to all, yet they are being given away to companies with anything but the common interest in mind. Where was the public outcry, or the government intervention, when these were happening? The answers are alarming. Private corporations are consuming the resources that the American people collectively own at a staggering rate, and the government is not protecting the commons on our behalf. In Silent Theft, David Bollier exposes the audacious attempts of companies to appropriate medical breakthroughs, public airwaves, outer space, state research, and even the DNA of plants and animals. Amazingly, these abuses often go unnoticed, Bollier argues, because we have lost our ability to see the commons. Publicly funded technological innovations create common wealth (cell phone airwaves, internet addresses, gene sequences) at blinding speed, while an economic atmosphere of deregulation and privatization ensures they will be quickly bought and sold. In an age of market triumphalism, does the notion of the commons have any practical meaning? Crisp and revelatory, Silent Theft is a bold attempt to develop a new language of the commons, a new ethos of commonwealth in the face of a market ethic that knows no bounds.

    This textbook outlines the central processes that characterize terrestrial ecosystems, tracing the flow of water, carbon, and nutrients from their abiotic origins to their cycles through plants, animals, and decomposer organisms. As human activity becomes an increasingly dominant factor in natural processes around the globe, landscape dynamics over time and space have become the focus of attention. This book synthesizes advances in ecology with established theory to offer a complete survey of ecosystem pattern and process in the terrestrial environment.

    Concern about consumption emerges, if at all, in benign ways; as calls for green purchasing or more recycling, or for small changes in production processes. Many academics, policymakers, and journalists, in fact, accept the economists' view of consumption as nothing less than the purpose of the economy. Yet many people have a troubled, intuitive understanding that tinkering at the margins of production and purchasing will not put society on an ecologically and socially sustainable path.Confronting Consumption places consumption at the center of debate by conceptualizing the consumption problem and documenting diverse efforts to confront it. In Part 1, the book frames consumption as a problem of political and ecological economy, emphasizing core concepts of individualization and commoditization. Part 2 develops the idea of distancing and examines transnational chains of consumption in the context of economic globalization. Part 3 describes citizen action through local currencies, home power, voluntary simplicity, ad-busting, and product certification. Together, the chapters propose cautious consuming and better producing as an activist and policy response to environmental problems. The book concludes that confronting consumption must become a driving focus of contemporary environmental scholarship and activism.

    Here she provides her many young fans with what they yearn for most -- her advice on how to promote change and improve the health of the planet, distilled into an essential handbook. This book will be accessible to school-aged children, while accomodating the audience of parents and teachers who look to Julia as an example of how one person can "change the world." Packed with a variety of charts, diagrams, and interesting factoids, the book will be broken down into a series of steps and easy-to-follow lessons. It will be written broadly so as to accommodate all kinds of activism, though its core focus will be on environmental issues.

    A collection of personal essays from one of the most widely published American environmental writers addresses the concerns about the effects of ranching on the environment.

    But the clever, dancing deer has other plans. Full-color illustrations.

    Did you know that termites have built nests almost 7m (23ft) high; that octopi can change colour to suit a variety of situations; and that the Madagascan butterfly protects itself by mimicking the head of a venomous snake? You'll find masses of fascinating facts such as these in the vivid, colourful pages of this book. The book is packed with hundreds of natural wonders that will fill you with wonder: plants that can carry electical currents, a volcano almost as high as Mount Everest, and the amazing journeys of sea turtles, salmon and caribou on their annual treks to breeding and spawning grounds. Illustrated with more than 600 magnificent photographs that capture the splendour of the natural world, this book also includes time lapse and freeze-frame sequences, along with superb diagams to explain, for example, how animals move, feed and build their houses, how a storm builds and how a shark senses its prey. This is an illuminating guide to the wonders of nature that will excite and intrigue the whole family.

    It also provides guidelines for best practice in tourism operations. Other objectives are to: Describe case studies and guidelines that contribute to conservation of biologicaldiversity; consider the role of local communities within or near these areas; outline the development of tourism infrastructure and services; discuss visitor management; provide guidelines to enhance the quality of the tourism experience. The focus is global and the book will appeal to bothacademics and practitioners.

    He outlines a low-external input approach, along with a re-integration of new farming practices like organic agriculture and permaculture, and a range of "green" technologies which would eventually make world agriculture a viable livelihood for farmers, providing enough food for the hungry, and safe and good-tasting for the rest of us--all without harming the environment.

    Students, teachers, and scientists all have amazingly varied questions about whales and dolphins, and the most revealing inquiries are presented here with detailed answers.The collaborators on this book are ideally qualified: Smithsonian scientist James Mead is one of the world's leading whale scholars; Joy Gold researches questions on vertebrate zoology for the museum; and Flip Nicklin is a renowned cetacean photographer. They present the questions, definitive answers, and related full-color photographs in a nontraditional format that encourages browsing. How many fingers do whales have? Why do whales strand on beaches? Do dolphins protect humans from sharks? What does DNA reveal about the ancestry of cetaceans? The answers are given clearly, in both scientific and common language.Certain to become a standard reference, Whales and Dolphins in Question is fourth in the Smithsonian Answer Book Series, which also includes Bats, Sharks, and Snakes in Question.

    Arnold gives young children page after page of fun-filled hide-and-seek adventure, illustrating creatures one by one and then hiding them in their natural surroundings for kids to find.

    GREENLAND ICE SHEET PROJECT TWO (GISP2) LOCATED IN CENTRAL GREENLAND . . . STRUCK ROCK. THIS COMPLETES THE LONGEST ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD . . . EVER OBTAINED FROM AN ICE CORE IN THE WORLD AND THE LONGEST SUCH RECORD POSSIBLE FROM THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE." -- Message from Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two posted Thursday, July 1, 1993Almost a decade ago, Paul Andrew Mayewski, an internationally-recognized leader in climate change research, was chosen to lead the National Science Foundation's Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2). He and his colleagues put together, literally from scratch, a massive scientific research project involving 25 universities, inventing new techniques for extracting information from the longest ice cores ever from the planet's harshest environments. His book -- equally a scientific explanation of startling new discoveries, an account of how researchers actually work, and a depiction of real life scientific adventure -- arrestingly depicts the contemporary world of climate change research.The Ice Chronicles tells the story behind GISP2, and its product 100,000 years of climate history. These amazing frozen records document major environmental events such as volcanoes and forest fires. They also reveal the dramatic influence that humans have had on the chemistry of the atmosphere and climate change through major additions of greenhouse gases, acid rain, and stratospheric ozone depletion.Perhaps the most startling new information gleaned from these records is the knowledge that natural climate is far from stable; quite the opposite -- major, fast changes in climate are found throughout the record. It now appears that Earth's climate changes dramatically every few thousand years, often within the span of a decade. Data gathered through ice core analysis challenge traditional assumptions of how climate operates. Further, the authors show that climate conditions over the past several thousand years, which we take for granted as normal, may in fact be significantly different from that in the previous 100,000 years. New data suggest that relatively balmy conditions allowing the flowering of human civilization since the last Ice Age are not the norm for the last few hundred thousand years. Yet despite the apparent mild state of climate for the last 10,000 years there have still been changes sufficient to contribute substantially to the course of civilization. We live in a changing climate that could under certain circumstances change even more dramatically.While not a book about policy, the authors find it impossible to ignore the fact that scientific research is, or should be, the underpinning of effective environmental policy. Recognizing that environmental and climate change can no longer be separated from politics and policy, the authors suggest a new approach, drawing upon the insights of ice core research. They present scientifically-grounded principles relevant to policy makers and the public about living with the potentially unstable climatic situation the future will most likely bring.

    It has had tremendous value for stimulating research, but it only describes the reality of human-environment interactions in special situations. Research over the past thirty years has helped clarify how human motivations, rules governing access to resources, the structure of social organizations, and the resource systems themselves interact to determine whether or not the many dramas of the commons end happily. In this book, leaders in the field review the evidence from several disciplines and many lines of research and present a state-of-the-art assessment. They summarize lessons learned and identify the major challenges facing any system of governance for resource management. They also highlight the major challenges for the next decade: making knowledge development more systematic; understanding institutions dynamically; considering a broader range of resources (such as global and technological commons); and taking into account the effects of social and historical context. This book will be a valuable and accessible introduction to the field for students and a resource for advanced researchers.

    He explains the workings of its parts and what is known about their interactions. With essay-like flair, he examines the biosphere's physics, chemistry, biology, geology, oceanography, energy, climatology, and ecology, as well as the changes caused by human activity. He provides both the basics of the story and surprising asides illustrating critical but often neglected aspects of biospheric complexity.