Healthy soil is teeming with life — not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms. When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains healthy plants, and thus become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of artificial substances, many of them toxic to humans as well as other forms of life. But there is an alternative to this vicious circle: to garden in a way that strengthens, rather than destroys, the soil food web — the complex world of soil-dwelling organisms whose interactions create a nurturing environment for plants. By eschewing jargon and overly technical language, the authors make the benefits of cultivating the soil food web available to a wide audience, from devotees of organic gardening techniques to weekend gardeners who simply want to grow healthy, vigorous plants without resorting to chemicals.

    Using the latest aerial surveillance, state-of-the-art cameras, and high definition technology, the creators of Planet Earth have assembled more than 400 stunning photographs of wondrous natural landscapes from around the globe, including incredible footage of the rarely spotted, almost mythical creatures that live in these habitats. Many of the images reveal inaccessible places that few have seen and record animal behavior that has never been filmed or photographed before. With the help of this highly advanced technology and the world's premier wildlife photographers, the book takes us on a spectacular journey from the world's greatest rivers and impressive gorges, to its mightiest mountains, hidden caves and caverns, and vast deserts. Planet Earth captures breathtaking sequences of predators and their prey, lush vistas of forests viewed from the tops of towering trees, the oceans and their mysterious creatures viewed from beneath the surface, and much more—in a magnificent adventure that brings unknown wonders of the natural world into our living rooms.Copub: BBC Worldwide Americas

    The distressing decline of sea turtles in Pacific waters and their surprising recovery in the Atlantic illuminate what can go both wrong and right from our interventions, and teach us the lessons that can be applied to restore health to the world's oceans and its creatures. As Carl Safina's compelling natural history adventure makes clear, the fate of the astonishing leatherback turtle, whose ancestry can be traced back 125 million years, is in our hands.Writing with verve and color, Safina describes how he and his colleagues track giant pelagic turtles across the world's oceans and onto remote beaches of every continent. As scientists apply lessons learned in the Atlantic and Caribbean to other endangered seas, Safina follows leatherback migrations, including a thrilling journey from Monterey, California, to nesting grounds on the most remote beaches of Papua, New Guinea. The only surviving species of its genus, family, and suborder, the leatherback is an evolutionary marvel: a "reptile" that behaves like a warm-blooded dinosaur, an ocean animal able to withstand colder water than most fishes and dive deeper than any whale.In his peerless prose, Safina captures the delicate interaction between these gentle giants and the humans who are finally playing a significant role in their survival.

    Join him as he travels across five continents for an up-close view of the astonishing variety and fascinating behavior of rainforest plants and trees, reptiles, birds, amphibians, insects, and mammals.

    The result is a major enterprise comprising over 850 descriptions, 100 line drawings, and 70 quotations from works by Willa Cather, Truman Capote, John Updike, Cormac McCarthy, and others. Carefully researched and exquisitely written by talents such as Barbara Kingsolver, Lan Samantha Chang, Robert Hass, Terry Tempest Williams, Jon Krakauer, Gretel Ehrlich, Luis Alberto Urrea, Antonya Nelson, Charles Frazier, Linda Hogan, and Bill McKibben, Home Ground is a striking composite portrait of the landscape. At the heart of this expansive work is a community of writers in service to their country, emphasizing a language that suggests the vastness and mystery that lie beyond our everyday words.

    Michael Grunwald, a prize-winning national reporter for The Washington Post, takes readers on a journey from the Ice Ages to the present, illuminating the natural, social and political history of one of America's most beguiling but least understood patches of land.

    And one entirely unexceptional Snortlepig.Uno loves the forest so much, he decides to live there. But, in time, a little village grows up around his house. Then a town, then a city. . . and soon Uno realises that the animals and plants have begun to disappear. . .

    The paintings used here, of scenes from her beloved home in southern Ohio, illuminate well-crafted essays based on her daily walks and observations. Wild turkeys, coyotes, box turtles, and a bird-eating bullfrog flap, lope, and leap through her prose. She excels at describing and exploring interactions between people and animals, bringing her subjects to life in just a few lines. Her husband and children make appearances, presenting their own challenges and pleasures. The essays are arranged by season, starting with winter, providing a sense of movement through the year.

    It contains over 15 years comprehensive research distilled into a pocket-sized, shopping-friendly format, ranking every product on the shelf from A to F-turning your grocery list into a most powerful tool to change the world.

    She gathered the stories of urban, suburban, and rural gardens created by people rarely presented in books about American gardens: Native Americans, immigrants from across Asia and Europe, and ethnic peoples who were here long before our national boundaries were drawn—including Hispanics of the Southwest, whose ancestors followed the Conquistadors into the Rio Grande Valley, and Gullah gardeners of the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina, descendants of African slaves.As we lose our connection to the soil, we no longer understand the relationship between food and a sense of belonging to a place and a people. In The Earth Knows My Name, Klindienst offers a lyrical exploration of how the making of gardens and the growing of food help ethnic and immigrant Americans maintain and transmit their cultural heritage while they put roots down in American soil. Through their work on the land, these gardeners revive cultures in danger of being lost. Through the vegetables, fruits, and flowers they produce, they share their culture with their larger communities. And in their reverent use of natural resources they keep alive a relationship to the land all but lost to mainstream American culture. With eloquence and passion, blending oral history and vivid description, Klindienst has created a book that offers a fresh and original way to understand food, gardening, and ethnic culture in America. In this book, each garden becomes an island of hope and offers us a model, on a sustainable scale, of a truly restorative ecology.

    Accepting the increasingly widespread belief that industrialized culture inevitably erodes the natural world, Endgame sets out to explore how this relationship impels us towards a revolutionary and as-yet undiscovered shift in strategy. Building on a series of simple but increasingly provocative premises, Jensen leaves us hoping for what may be inevitable: a return to agrarian communal life via the disintegration of civilization itself.

    In this powerful call to arms, Erik Reece chronicles the year he spent witnessing the systematic decimation of a single mountain and offers a landmark defense of a national treasure threatened with extinction.

     Where do clouds come from? Why do they look the way they do? And why have they captured the imagination of timeless artists, Romantic poets, and every kid who's ever held a crayon? Journalist and lifelong sky watcher Gavin Pretor-Pinney reveals everything there is to know about clouds, from history and science to art and pop culture. Cumulus, nimbostratus, and the dramatic and seemingly surfable Morning Glory cloud are just a few of the varieties explored in this smart, witty, and eclectic tour through the skies. Generously illustrated with striking photographs and line drawings featuring everything from classical paintings to lava lamps, children's drawings, and Roman coins, The Cloudspotter's Guide will have science and history buffs, weather watchers, and the just plain curious floating on cloud nine.

    A poetic consideration of the tender connection between human society and the wild, the book is by turns passionate, political, funny, and harrowing. It is also a journey into that greatest of uncharted lands-the wilderness of the mind-and Griffiths beautifully explores the language and symbolism that shape our experience of our own wildness. Part travelogue, part manifesto for wildness as an essential character of life, Wild is a one-of-a-kind book from a one-of-a-kind author.

    One day, the benevolent bear meets up with a human. This human proceeds to do something the bear cannot understand: he raises his axe and begins to cut down a tree. Suddenly the bear doesn't feel like hugging anymore and must make a difficult decision on how to stop this destruction in his forest.The environmental message of Big Bear Hug is both funny and powerful, while simple enough to engage very young children and show them the awesome power of a hug.

    It is a myth, he contends, that progress depends on a growing economy. Wessels explains his theory with his three Laws of Sustainability: the law of limits to growth, the second law of thermodynamics, which exposes the dangers of increased energy consumption, and the law of self-organization, which results in the marvelous diversity of such highly evolved systems as the human body and complex ecosystems. These laws, scientifically proven to sustain life in its myriad forms, have been cast aside since the eighteenth century, first by western economists, political pragmatists, and governments attracted by the idea of unlimited growth, and more recently by a global economy dominated by large corporations, in which consolidation and oversimplification create large-scale inefficiencies in material and energy usage. how the Laws of Sustainability function in the complex systems we can observe in the natural world around us. He shows how systems such as forests can be templates for developing sustainable economic practices that will allow true progress. Demonstrating that all environmental problems have their source in the Myth of Progress's disregard for the Laws of Sustainability, he concludes with an impassioned argument for cultural change.

    Rather than reproduce traditional understandings of nature and environment, Jake Kosek shifts the focus toward material and symbolic “natures,” seemingly unchangeable essences central to formations of race, class, and nation that are being remade not just through conflicts over resources but also through everyday practices by Chicano activists, white environmentalists, and state officials as well as nuclear scientists, heroin addicts, and health workers. Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork and extensive archival research, he shows how these contentious natures are integral both to environmental politics and the formation of racialized citizens, politicized landscapes, and modern regimes of rule.Kosek traces the histories of forest extraction and labor exploitation in northern New Mexico, where Hispano residents have forged passionate attachments to place. He describes how their sentiments of dispossession emerged through land tenure systems and federal management programs that remade forest landscapes as exclusionary sites of national and racial purity. Fusing fine-grained ethnography with insights gleaned from cultural studies and science studies, Kosek shows how the nationally beloved Smokey the Bear became a symbol of white racist colonialism for many Hispanos in the region, while Los Alamos National Laboratory, at once revered and reviled, remade regional ecologies and economies. Understories offers an innovative vision of environmental politics, one that challenges scholars as well as activists to radically rework their understandings of relations between nature, justice, and identity.

    Smith's best-selling book is paired with a new DVD and CD set that shows how genetically modified organisms (GMOs) put our health and environment at risk. This set will impact consumer perceptions and buying habits. DVD 1: Unnatural Selection DVD 2: Hidden Dangers in Kids? Meals: Genetically Engineered Foods Audio CD: You?re Eating WHAT? Book: Seeds of Deception This is the top-rated, best selling book in the world on GM foods. Smith exposes the serious health dangers of genetically modified foods and the corporate cover-up. A fast-paced thriller of industry manipulation and political collusion, combined with lucid descriptions of genetic engineering and guidance on how to protect yourself and your family.

    The question is no longer Is climate change actually happening? but What do we do about it? George Monbiot offers an ambitious and far-reaching program to cut our carbon dioxide emissions to the point where the environmental scales start tipping back—away from catastrophe. Though writing with a "spirit of optimism," Monbiot does not pretend it will be easy. The only way to avoid further devastation, he argues, is a 90% cut in CO2 emissions in the rich nations of the world by 2030. In other words, our response will have to be immediate, and it will have to be decisive. In every case he supports his proposals with a rigorous investigation into what works, what doesn’t, how much it costs, and what the problems might be. He wages war on bad ideas as energetically as he promotes good ones. And he is not afraid to attack anyone—friend or foe—whose claims are false or whose figures have been fudged.After all, there is no time to waste. As Monbiot has said himself, "we are the last generation that can make this happen, and this is the last possible moment at which we can make it happen." George Monbiot is the best-selling author of The Age of Consent and Captive State, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed, and No Man’s Land. In 1995, Nelson Mandela presented him with a United Nations Global 500 Award for outstanding environmental achievement. He has held visiting fellowships or professorships at the universities of Oxford (environmental policy), Bristol (philosophy), Keele (politics), and East London (environmental science). Currently visiting professor of planning at Oxford Brookes University, he writes a weekly column for the Guardian newspaper.

    Biography. Across America, people are escaping fluorescent-lit grocery store aisles to rediscover the fresh, seasonal offerings of the farmers' market. A new and thriving culture has sprung up as thousands gather each weekend to pinch, poke, smell, and probe the produce-and at times each other. Who knew that buying peaches and eggplants could be such fun? Mike Madison, who raises organic flowers, melons, olives, and apricots, has been setting up at these markets for over twenty years. With keen observations and sly wit, Madison presents a series of essays and vignettes that introduce us to the characters who make our food, the economy that produces it, and the spirit that has placed farmers' markets among the fastest growing movements in the country.

    In this unique journey into traditional Aboriginal life and culture, a European business-management professor and an Aboriginal elder collaborate to create a powerful and original model that western societies can use to build environmentally sustainable organizations, communities, and ecologies based upon the same Aboriginal traditions that allowed the Aborigines to create sustainable societies in very fragile landscapes.

    Essays. Preservationist. Inventor. Lobbyist. John Muir was many things at once, and he is California's best-known icon- so much so that his image was chosen to appear on the new state quarter. But the best way to know the man who founded the Sierra Club and helped create Yosemite National Park is to read his own words. ESSENTIAL MUIR is the second volume in the California Legacy Essentials Collection. Taking the best of John Muir's writings on nature- in which he waxes ecstatic even as he accurately describes the scientific attributes of a flower-as well as his thoughts on religion and society, this book presents a fresh look at one of California's greatest literary figures. His love for nature was so powerful-and his description of it so compelling-it still inspires us a century later.

    Every night he is awakened by the fireflies outside his window. And when Gecko doesn't get his rest, he gets a little grumpy. So he goes to Elephant, the head of the village, to complain. His request that the fireflies stop working at night sets off a comical chain of problems for everyone in the village and complicates everyone's life. Through this cumulative tale from the Balinese tradition, Gecko learns that his well-being depends on that of the entire village and he finally goes to sleep, a little wiser. This Balinese folktale will teach readers the importance of respect, sharing and citizenship.

    Compiled by some of the country's leading experts in their fields, this book offers a detailed introduction to the natural and man-made environment of Scotland's mountains, written by hillwalkers for hillwalkers.

    

    At the North Pole, ice is melting. In the ocean, water is getting higher. And in some places around the world, whole rivers might even dry up. But why is this happening, and what can we do to stop it? Read and find out about the greenhouse effect, recycling, and what you can do to help fight global warming! This nonfiction picture book is an excellent choice to share during homeschooling, in particular for children ages 5 to 7. It’s a fun way to learn to read and as a supplement for activity books for children.This is a Level 2 Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science title, which means the book explores more challenging concepts for children in the primary grades and supports the Common Core Learning Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) standards. Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out is the winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Films Prize for Outstanding Science Series.

    Upgrades include a completely revamped and much expanded section on Europe, 32 new inset maps detailing the smaller Caribbean islands, and even a new spread on Mars highlighting spectacular images from the latest mission. A comprehensive index makes it easy to pinpoint more than 40,000 locations all over the globe. Need to know the population of Brunei, what the weather's like in San Juan in March, or how to use metric conversions? These answers and thousands more are at your fingertips. Readers learn about the planet itself--landforms, the biosphere, continental drift, environmental change--and the human world's many dimensions, from political, religious, and economic data to population trends and the effect of globalization. The atlas even reaches beyond Earth to explore the solar system, the Milky Way, and the Universe. The Family Reference Atlas of the World continues a proud tradition of cartographic excellence at an affordable price.

    She thought her summer on the family farm would be full of work and play with her best friend, Rachel, and her other best friend, her dog, Maizey. However, Elizabeth didn't anticipate the Harmony Farms Corporation moving to her town. Her world starts to crumble as her best friend moves away and her parents whisper of farmers selling their land and the effects this factory farm operation could have on them. When she thinks things can't get much worse, she meets the most unusual creature, Gaia, the living entity of the Earth. Strange things begin to happen to her, around her, and through her! Elizabeth discovers that with these new powers comes responsibility. A dire mistake makes Elizabeth wonder if meeting Gaia has been a blessing or a curse. Will Elizabeth have the strength to fight a large corporation? Or will her upstate New York home be spoiled by profit driven pork production that fouls the air, land, and water?

    Born in 1838, he was a writer, a scholar, an inventor, a shepherd, a farmer, and an explorer, but above all, he was a naturalist. John Muir was particularly devoted to the high cliffs, waterfalls, and ancient giant sequoia trees that, through his careful influence, were set aside as the first national park in America - Yosemite. Here is the life story of the man who, moved by a commitment to wilderness everywhere, founded the Sierra Club in 1892, a conservation group that carries on his crucial work to this day.

    R. R. Tolkien demonstrate a complex and comprehensive ecological philosophy. The ecology of Middle-earth portrayed in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion brings together three potent and convincing elements of preservation and conservation--sustainable agriculture and agrarianism, horticulture independent of utilitarianism, and

    Behind these poems lies the urge to engage the tectonics of planetary dwelling with the rickety contraption of language, and to register the stress, sheer and strain — but also the astonishment — engendered by that necessary failure.

    Holistic Management Handbook offers a detailed explanation of the planning procedures presented in those books and gives step-by-step guidance for implementing holistic management on a ranch or farm. Holistic Management and Holistic Management Handbook are essential reading for anyone involved with land management and stewardship, and together represent an indispensable guide for individuals interested in making better decisions within their organizations or in any aspect of their personal or professional lives.

    This book shows how easy it is to fill our gardens with everything from foxes, frogs and mice, to butterflies, ladybirds and thousands of fascinating creepy-crawlies.

    Whatever draws you to native plants, you'll find no better or more authoritative guide than Allan Armitage. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's foremost horticulturists, Armitage describes more than 630 species and cultivars of perennials, biennials, and annuals that are native to the United States, bringing to each plant a wealth of practical knowledge and the full weight of his experience and expertise. Each entry includes a general description of the plant plus essential data you need to grow it successfully, including habitat, hardiness, correct garden site, maintenance, and propagation — all in a clear, easy-to-use format. Whether you are a native plant enthusiast or simply wish to use plants that work in the landscape, you'll find everything you are looking for in this readable, information-packed volume.

    He also touches on water pollution and our responsibility to keep our water clean.

    Underground nuclear tests in Nevada have set off earthquakes. A Russian company has been offering to sell typhoons (hurricanes) on demand since the 1990s, and scientists have been searching for ways to move hurricanes for over fifty years. In the same amount of time we went from the Wright Brothers to Neil Armstrong, hundreds of environmental and weather modifying technologies have been patented in the US alone and hundreds more are being developed in civilian, academic, military and quasi-military laboratories around the world at this moment! This book lays bare the grim facts of who is doing it and why. * up-dates recent developments at HAARP, including its possible connection to the crash of the Space Shuttle Columbia * did HAARP play a role in Hurricane Katrina? Smith puts these technologies into context by examining the geopolitical conflicts that are driving their development from Globalization and the rise of Neo-Con Neo-Fascism to terrorism and "Peak Oil." ... [terrorists]... are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves? -- US Secretary of Defense William Cohen, April, 1997

    This is the first comprehensive survey of the remarkable work of the19th-century biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel for whom nature and art were inseparable.

    To foster conversation and to improve our practices of earthly stewardship, the editors have gathered, in one volume, a wide variety of views on these important issues. Selected from an interdisciplinary symposium at Brigham Young University, the essays are intended to inspire members to consider carefully the nature of their own stewardship in caring for God's creations as well as to create dialogue and find common ground with those of other persuasions.This compilation demonstrates that Latter-day Saint scriptures and teachings provide a consistent picture of human beings as stewards accountable before God for the use and care of His creations. The book reaffirms and develops further what previous examinations of our theology and history have repeatedly demonstrated: our religion offers a vital perspective on, and a foundation for, effective environmental stewardship that encompasses the best impulses of both liberal generosity and conservative restraint.

    His methods are so at odds with conventional scientific wisdom that for 30 years he has been dismissed and ridiculed as a madman. He has faced bankruptcy and family break-up. But now, on the brink of ecological disaster, leading politicians, international scientists and businessmen are beating a path to his door as they grapple with how best to alleviate the affects of drought on the Australian landscape. Described as a man who reads and understands the Australian landscape better than most scientists, supporters of Peter Andrews claim he has done what no scientist ever thought to do — he has restored streams and wetlands to the way they were before European settlement interfered with them. The startling results of his natural sequence farming are said to have been achieved very cheaply, simply and quickly.

    "I will take care of your garden, Mr. Hiroshi," I offered. He smiled. "That would give me great comfort, Mary," he said. "The koi are greedy, you know. Do not let them get fat." We watched the bus drive away. For Mary, too young to fully understand about war and far-off places, the promise was meant to last only until Mr. Hiroshi came back. But after a while it was clear the her friend wouldn't be coming home. Still, Mary faithfully kept her word all through that long summer. And when the new people came to live in Mr. Hiroshi's house, she knew exactly what to do. A tale as elegant as a Japanese garden! Once more, Maxine Trottier takes a small piece of a larger story, nurtures it with care, and grows a tale as elegant as a Japanese Garden. Flags is a simple story of innocence and friendship set against a backdrop of fear and suspicion. A story that must be told and told again--but never allowed to recur. Originally published as Flags.

    There is a pervasive perception of the region as a hinterland inhabited by a backward and developmentally stunted people. Economically, culturally, and technologically suspended in an era gone by, this Appalachia is regarded as one of America's enduring social and economic problems. But there is another perception of Appalachia-home to the beautiful mountain system for which the region is named. It is a quaint retreat into the past, reflecting the integrity of a people with a pioneering spirit and lifestyle that pays homage to a simpler time. Until now, there has been no general reference work that captures the complexities of this enigmatic region. The only guide of its kind, the Encyclopedia of Appalachia is replete with information on every aspect of Appalachia's history, land, culture, and people. Containing more than 2,000 entries in 30 sections, the Encyclopedia is designed for quick reference and access to the information you need to know. Teachers, students, scholars, historians, and browsers with a passing interest in this beautiful and richly distinct region will quickly come to rely on the Encyclopedia of Appalachia as the authoritative resource on Appalachia's past and present. The Encyclopedia details subjects traditionally associated with Appalachia-folklore, handcrafts, mountain music, foods, and coal mining-but goes far beyond regional stereotypes to treat such wide-ranging topics as the aerospace industry, Native American foodways, ethnic diversity in the coalfields, education reform, linguistic variation, and the contested notion of what it means to be Appalachian, both inside and outside the region.Researched and developed by the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services at East Tennessee State University, this 1,840-page compendium includes all thirteen states that constitute the northern, central, and southern subregions of Appalachia-from New York to Mississippi. With thorough, detailed, yet accessible entries on everything from Adventists to zinc mining, the Encyclopedia of Appalachia is an indispensable, one-stop guide to all things Appalachian.

    African American Studies. Ed Roberson might no longer live in Pittsburgh, but the city in which he was born and raised still leaves its fragmented structures etched throughout his poetry. A city of hard work and hard times, the now-impoverished neighborhoods that had at one time stood as centers of jazz and art; the hills, the rivers, the skyscraping iron and steel, and the pain. Though most of the poems in this collection do not necessarily take place in Pittsburgh, there is a rhythmic fragmentation here painting portraits of urban life in general. Beauty, music, poverty, blood, and concrete seem to live within the line breaks, while breath-stopping pauses halt you just long enough so that--like at a smoky backroom jazz club--you can't wait to see what he does next.

    In 1971 he was discovered on the remote Galapagos island of Pinta, from which tortoises had supposedly been exterminated by greedy whalers and seal hunters. He has been at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz island ever since, on the off-chance that scientific ingenuity will conjure up a way of reproducing him and resurrecting his species. Meanwhile a million tourists and dozens of baffled scientists have looked on as the celebrity reptile shows not a jot of interest in the female company provided. Today, Lonesome George has come to embody the mystery, complexity and fragility of the unique Galapagos archipelago. His story echoes the challenges of conservation worldwide; it is a story of Darwin, sexual dysfunction, adventure on the high seas, cloning, DNA fingerprinting and eco-tourism.

    It is sure to inspire both young and adult readers alike and teach a timeless life lesson--If we all do our part, a cleaner, safer environment is indeed within our reach.

    Reason and logic are strained when they describe mountains that were once seas, or seas where there were once mountains. It is hoped that this book will go some way to alleviating this kind of difficulty.’-- from the IntroductionSouthern Africa is without equal in terms of geology, a treasure trove of valuable minerals with a geological history dating back some 3 600 million years. In addition, the evolution of plants and animals, especially mammals and dinosaurs, is well preserved in the region, which also has among the best records of the origin of modern man. The Story of Earth and Life provides a fascinating insight into this remarkable history – how southern Africa’s mineral deposits were formed, how its life evolved and how its landscape was shaped. Along the way readers will be enthralled by accounts of the Big Bang that marked the beginning of time and matter, by drifting and colliding continents, folding and fracturing rocks, meteors colliding with the Earth, volcanic eruptions, and the start of life. Other topics include why South Africa is so rich in minerals, how glacial deposits came to be found in the Karoo, why dinosaurs became extinct, how mammals developed from reptiles, and how closely humans are related to the apes. The answers to many such questions can be found here. The book is comprehensively illustrated with explanatory diagrams and full color photographs.

    With growing awareness that peatlands are a key component of the carbon cycle in their role as a carbon sink, this book provides a concise introduction to peatland ecology with an emphasis on organisms that dominate peatland habitats.

    Stan Rowe prompts us to think in revolutionary terms about developing a new world-view. Edited and with a preface by Don Kerr, and an afterword by Ted Mosquin.

    With her distinctive, impassioned voice and familiar felicity of language, Terry Tempest Williams talks about wilderness and wildlife, place and eroticism, art and literature, democracy and politics, family and heritage, Mormonism and religion, writing and creativity, and other subjects that engage her agile mind—in a set of interviews gathered and introduced by Michael Austin to represent the span of her career as a naturalist, author, and activist.

    The latest satellite technology has been used to provide images of unparalleled clarity and colour, providing photographs of familiar mountains, lakes, countries and seas from a new perspective. Taking in six continents, the atlas begins with long shots of the areas involved, moving on to focus on specific countries, then parts of countries and finally familiar areas or landmarks in the world's cities. Continent by continent, the perspective is progressively narrowed in a series of wonderfully coloured shots as the camera moves closer to earth. More than an atlas, more than a series of pictures, this book is a unique and beautiful representation of the planet.

    Photographer Joel Sternfeld's new book Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America explores the past and present of these idealized communities across the United States. Sternfeld's photographs highlight the land on which these foundations for bliss were built while the accompanying text lends insight into the people whose vision led to their creation. And the two have much in common. Like the would-be creators of these Utopias, the photographs are beautiful and appear simple at first glance - only to reveal a rich complexity when studied further. Andy Nelson

    Ken Yeang reconstructs and revisions how and why our current design approach and perception of architecture must radically change if we are to ensure a sustainable future. He argues forcefully that this can only be achieved by adopting the environmentalist's view that, aesthetics apart, regards our environment simply as an assembly of materials (mostly transported over long distances), that are transciently concentrated on to a single locality and used for living, working and leisure whose footprints affect that locality's ecology and whose eventual disposal has to be accommodated somewhere in the biosphere.This manual offers clear instructions to designers on how to design, build and use a green sustainable architecture. The aim is to produce and maintain ecosystem-like structures and systems whose content and outputs not only integrate benignly with the natural environment, but whose built form and systems function with sensitivity to the locality's ecology as well in relation to global biospheric processes, and contribute positively to biodiversity (as opposed to reducing it). The goal is structures and systems that are low consumers of non-renewable resources, built with materials that have low ecological consequences and are designed to facilitate disassembly, continuous reuse and recycling a (a cyclic process that mimics the way ecosystems recycle materials), and that at the end of their useful lives can be reintegrated seamlessly back into the natural environment. Each of these aspects (and other attendant ones) is examined in detail with regards to how they influence design and planning.Ecodesign provides designers with a comprehensive set of strategies for approaching ecological design and planning combined with in-depth analysis and research material not found elsewhere.

    However, reality is something else entirely: ravaged ecosystems and bankrupted local economies. The author expands on his existing case studies, near his homes in eastern Maine, and Sonora, Mexico, and links them to events in other parts of the world. The author's 30 years experience in fisheries and aquaculture qualifies him to weigh the rhetoric and sift out the truth of this story. In six years as a freelance journalist, writing for the New York Times, Yankee, National Fisherman, and other publications, he has managed to describe complex material in an interesting and palatable style.

    Based on the exquisitely recorded notes and drawings of Geoffrey Bardon, the man who instigated the movement's development, the extensive documentation features over 500 paintings, drawings and photographs, many of which have never been seen before. This monumental work is an unpredecented achievement and essential reading for anyone wanting to gain unique insights into a fascinating subject.

    But movements that challenged western prosperity and comfort seldom made much progress, and many radical environmentalists have been unabashed utopianists.In this short guide, Peterson del Mar untangles this paradox by showing how prosperity is essential to environmentalism. Industrialisation made conservation sensible, but also drove people to look for meaning in nature even as they consumed its products more relentlessly. Hence Englandled the way in both manufacturing and preserving its countryside, and the United Statescreated a matchless set of national parks as it became the world's pre-eminent economic and military power. Environmentalismconsiders both the conservation and preservation movements and less organized forms of nature loving (from seaside vacations to ecotourism) to argue that these activities have commonly distracted us from the hard work of creating a sustainable and sensible relationship with the environment.

    Some argue that its agenda is misplaced, oppressive, and misanthropic—a precursor to intrusive government, regulatory bungles, and economic stagnation. Others point out that its alarmist rhetoric and preservationist solutions are outdated and insufficient to the task of galvanizing support for true reform. In this impassioned and judicious work, R. Bruce Hull argues that environmentalism will never achieve its goals unless it sheds its fundamentalist logic. The movement is too bound up in polarizing ideologies that pit humans against nature, conservation against development, and government regulation against economic growth. Only when we acknowledge the infinite perspectives on how people should relate to nature will we forge solutions that are respectful to both humanity and the environment.Infinite Nature explores some of these myriad perspectives, from the scientific understandings proffered by anthropology, evolution, and ecology, to the promise of environmental responsibility offered by technology and economics, to the designs of nature envisioned in philosophy, law, and religion. Along the way, Hull maintains that the idea of nature is social: in order to reach the common ground where sustainable and thriving communities are possible, we must accept that many natures can and do exist. Incisive, heartfelt, and brimming with practical solutions, Infinite Nature brings a much-needed and refreshing voice to the table of environmental reform.

    Her remarkable memoir tells the real story behind one of the 20th century's most iconic expressions of grass roots political will. She exposes the surprising roots of the march on Greenham Common, how the Peace Camp left the marchers behind, and how those first marchers took their cause direct to the Kremlin. It is an intriguing and challenging look at what shaped a generation of women's lives and made them strong enough to fight for what they truly believed in.

    Covering the environment, transportation, efficiency, and cost, this book is suitable for engineering and science students, teachers, consumers, and energy-related corporations.

    But a tree's leaves and the protective pods that cradle its seeds not only serve as metaphors for our lives: they actually sustain us. Each leaf plays an essential role, gathering nutrients for the tree and producing oxygen for the planet. Josie Iselin celebrates the diversity and beauty of these transitory objects with lushly detailed portraits of foliage she has gathered. As in her previous book, Beach Stones, Iselin arranges natural objects into striking images, which she produces on a flatbed scanner. In her introduction and captions, nature writer Mary Ellen Hannibal thoughtfully examines leaves and pods in all their variety, explaining why they look as they do and their essential role in supporting life on earth.

    They involved massive volcanic eruptions, disastrous meteor strikes and rapid climatic changes. The main point of Endangered is that the sixth great extinction will be the result of humankind's abuse of the environment.Featuring more than 400 photographs, this book details the plant and animal species that are either endangered or so severely threatened that they soon will be. The authors offer a thoughtful celebration of nature's diversity not scaremongering -- and a plea to rein in current behaviors that negatively affect the planet. Their proposals form a reasoned and hopeful guide to a future world that will be safe for all species. Creatures profiled include marsupials, monkeys, sea turtles, birds of prey, and butterflies and moths.The extraordinary imagery and the compelling and objectively presented information make Endangered essential reading for anyone interested in natural history.

    Colorado author Linda Masterson dispels myths, replaces fear with respect, and lays the foundation for improving human-black bear relations with an inside look at the fascinating world of these highly intelligent, adaptable and resourceful animals.

    It is a reference for students throughout their undergraduate careers, and a starting point for postgraduate students and researchers.

    Each chapter is introduced with a passage from the Qur’an and followed by pieces that highlight the human role in maintaining balance in the world. Selections range from poems to short essays and cover topics such as unity, interdependence, communication, the four elements, diversity, and wonder. Including contributions from Muhammad Asad, Alain de Botton, Thomas Berry, Guy Eaton, Seyyid Hossein Nasr, and Vanda Shiva, these reminders of the power of the Divine Order allow for a deeper appreciation of the interdependence of life and nature.

    Moving from the cascading waters of Niagara Falls to the massive volcanoes of Hawaii, Philippe Bourseiller takes readers on a journey through 67 of the most magnificent natural sites in North America.

    Three decades before the battle over oil development began, a group of visionary conservationists launched a controversial campaign to preserve a remote corner of Alaska. Their goal was unprecedented—to protect an entire ecosystem for future generations. Among these conservationists were Olaus and Margaret Murie, who became icons of the wilderness movement. Last Great Wilderness chronicles their fight and that of their compatriots, tracing the transformation of this little-known expanse of mountains, forest, and tundra into a symbolic landscape embodying the ideals and aspirations that led to passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964.

    Young adventurers Riley and Alice visit the pristine wilderness of Southeast Alaska in order to solve a puzzling salmon migration mystery: Why are Pacific Salmon thriving while North Atlantic Salmon are more endangered than ever? Riley's daring quest for answers features moose, bald eagles, grizzly bears and a very special guest appearance by world-renowned animal expert, Jack Hanna.

    It would seem even the undeniable will of man to change his environment, for better or for worse, cannot keep the elephant and the tree apart. Suitable for both adults and children. Some of the profits will go to support elephant welfare projects

    In formulating responses to these criticisms, the conservation effort has stumbled badly, says Eric T. Freyfogle in this thought-provoking book. Conservationists and environmentalists haven’t done their intellectual homework, he contends, and they have failed to offer an understandable, compelling vision of healthy lands and healthy human communities.Freyfogle explores why the conservation movement has responded ineffectually to the many cultural and economic criticisms leveled against it. He addresses the meaning of good land use, describes the many shortcomings of “sustainability,” and outlines six key tasks that the cause must address. Among these is the crafting of an overall goal and a vision of responsible private ownership. The book concludes with a stirring message that situates conservation within America’s story of itself and with an extensive annotated bibliography of conservation’s most valuable voices and texts—important information for readers prepared to take conservation more seriously.

    They are a force that we cannot really control, and thus understanding, appreciating, and learning tolive with wildfire is ultimately our wisest public policy.With more than 150 dramatic photographs, Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy covers the topic of wildfire from ecological, economic, and social/political perspectives while also documenting how past forest policies have hindered natural processes, creating a tinderbox of problems that we are faced with today.More than 25 leading thinkers in the field of fire ecology provide in-depth analyses, critiques, and compelling solutions for how we live with fire in our society. Using examples such as the epic Yellowstone fires of 1988, the ever-present southern California fires, and the Northwest's Biscuit Fire of 2002, the book examines the ecology of these landscapes and the policies and practices that affected them and continue to affect them, such as fire suppression, prescribed burns, salvage logging, and land-use planning. Overall, the book aims to promote the restoration of fire to the landscape and to encourage its natural behavior so it can resume its role as a major ecological process.

    It argues that the peasant condition is characterized by a struggle for autonomy that finds expression in the creation and development of a self-governed resource base and associated forms of sustainable development. In this respect the peasant mode of farming fundamentally differs from entrepreneurial and corporate ways of farming. The author demonstrates that the peasantries are far from waning. Instead, both industrialized and developing countries are witnessing complex and richly chequered processes of 're-peasantization', with peasants now numbering over a billion worldwide. The author's arguments are based on three longitudinal studies (in Peru, Italy and The Netherlands) that span 30 years and provide original and thought-provoking insights into rural and agrarian development processes. The book combines and integrates different bodies of literature: the rich traditions of peasant studies, development sociology, rural sociology, neo-institutional economics and the recently emerging debates on Empire.

    After studying the behavioral habits of the 10-spined stickleback at Oxford, Desmond Morris became curator of mammals at London Zoo and quickly became a familiar figure in homes all over Britain as presenter of Zootime, delighting millions of tea-time viewers with a daring attempt to pick up a deadly scorpion by its tail or a tumble off the back of an elephant. As curator of mammals at the zoo, life was as bizarre behind the cameras as in front of them, not least when a whale turned up in the Thames River or when a pair of ferocious bears escaped and caused havoc in a restroom. In 1967, Morris turned his attention to humans. Since then he has continued his work on human and animal species, written many other successful books, and has presented a number of television series. His travels have taken him to some 60 countries, from the cities of North America to the islands off the Mediterranean, Europe, the Pacific, and Africa. This account tells the story of many of these adventures, in fascinating and often hilarious detail.

    They are our planet's most complex and successful plants and have existed on Earth for 370 million years. There are over 80,000 different species with an astonishing diversity ranging from the dainty Silver Birches to towering ancient Giant Redwoods, growing hundreds of feet high. Ever since they first appeared on the planet, trees have played an invaluable part in regulating our climate, absorbing carbon dioxide form the atmosphere and returning oxygen to it. They are essential to life on Earth. Beautifully illustrated, The Tree: Wonder of the Natural World celebrates trees from around the worlds in their majestic beauty, astonishing diversity and inspiring versatility.

    With the help of Carol Venolia, an award-winning architect and bestselling author, and Kelly Lerner, a world-famous innovator in the field of sustainable development, even the least mechanically inclined person can make a difference in his or her dwelling…and to the planet. The two have produced a remarkable book—packed with information and photos, and the first ever in full color to cover the subject. It’s lush and exquisite to look at, filled with motivational case studies and informative graphics, and completely user-friendly.   “Some of us would like to become more Earth-Friendly, but we don’t have 10,00 acres in Montana or the passive solar ATM machine to get us the cash to buy the above. Breathe! Center! There is help. Groundbreaking architects, Kelly Lerner and Carol Venolia have just completed a book (to help you). There are plenty of checklists and resource guides to go with all the glossy photos.”  -- Kevin Taylor, The Pacific Northwest Inlander “You don't have to build a new home to have a green home. The book builds on the construction wisdom our forebears used to design homes that capitalized on nature's light, warmth, coolness and other benefits. Venolia and Lerner cover everything from simple changes to complex systems that make a home more ecologically sensitive, comfortable and livable. The book is dense with ideas and information for homeowners consideringrenovations.” --Akron Beacon Journal  Kelly Lerner is an innovative architect who spearheaded a project responsible for building more than 600 passive-solar-heated straw-bale houses in China. Her designs have been featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine, Metropolis Magazine, The Straw Bale House, and Green by Design. Carol Venolia specializes in the field of eco-healthy building. Her first book, Healing Environments, has enjoyed international success, and her home designs have been featured in The Natural House Catalog, Earth to Spirit, The Healthy House, and Environ magazine. Carol currently writes the "Design for Life" column for Natural Home & Garden magazine.

    With this book, Linda Nash gives us a wholly original and much longer history of “ecological” ideas of the body as that history unfolded in California’s Central Valley. Taking us from nineteenth-century fears of miasmas and faith in wilderness cures to the recent era of chemical pollution and cancer clusters, Nash charts how Americans have connected their diseases to race and place as well as dirt and germs. In this account, the rise of germ theory and the pushing aside of an earlier environmental approach to illness constituted not a clear triumph of modern biomedicine but rather a brief period of modern amnesia. As Nash shows us, place-based accounts of illness re-emerged in the postwar decades, galvanizing environmental protest against smog and toxic chemicals. Carefully researched and richly conceptual, Inescapable Ecologies brings critically important insights to the histories of environment, culture, and public health, while offering a provocative commentary on the human relationship to the larger world.

    This book is the first comprehensive account of Vietnam’s natural history in English. Illustrated with maps, photographs, and thirty-five original watercolor illustrations, the book offers a complete tour of the country’s plants and animals along with a full discussion of the factors shaping their evolution and distribution.Separate chapters focus on northern, central, and southern Vietnam, regions that encompass tropics, subtropics, mountains, lowlands, wetland and river regions, delta and coastal areas, and offshore islands. The authors provide detailed descriptions of key natural areas to visit, where a traveler might explore limestone caves or glimpse some of the country’s twenty-seven monkey and ape species and more than 850 bird species. The book also explores the long history of humans in the country, including the impact of the Vietnam-American War on plants and animals, and describes current efforts to conserve Vietnam’s complex, fragile, and widely threatened biodiversity.

    Scholars from these countries and the United States rethink the translation of environmental concepts between East and West, particularly ideas of nature and culture; the meaning of conservation; and the ways that conservation policy is applied and transformed in the everyday landscapes of Southeast Asia. The contributors focus more on folk, community, and vernacular conservation discourses than on those of formal institutions and the state. They reject the notion that conservation only takes place in bounded, static, otherworldly spaces such as protected areas or sacred forests. Thick with ethnographic detail, their essays move beyond the forest to agriculture and other land uses, leave behind orthodox notions of the sacred, discard outdated ideas of environmental harmony and stasis, and reject views of the environment that seek to avoid or escape politics. Natural-resource managers and policymakers who work with this more complicated vision of nature and culture are likely to enjoy more enduring success than those who simply seek to remove the influence and impact of humans from conserved landscapes. As many of the essays suggest, this requires the ability to manage contradictions, to relinquish orthodox ideas of what conservation looks like, and to practice continuously adaptive management techniques.Contributors: Upik Djalins, Amity A. Doolittle, Michael R. Dove, Levita Duhaylungsod, Emily E. Harwell, Jeyamalar Kathirithamby-Wells, Lye Tuck-Po, Percy E. Sajise, Endah Sulistyawati, Yunita T. Winarto