Best of
Environment

2010

Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming


Naomi Oreskes - 2010
    scientific community has long led the world in research on such areas as public health, environmental science, and issues affecting quality of life. Our scientists have produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming. But at the same time, a small yet potent subset of this community leads the world in vehement denial of these dangers.Merchants of Doubt tells the story of how a loose-knit group of high-level scientists and scientific advisers, with deep connections in politics and industry, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge over four decades. Remarkably, the same individuals surface repeatedly—some of the same figures who have claimed that the science of global warming is "not settled" denied the truth of studies linking smoking to lung cancer, coal smoke to acid rain, and CFCs to the ozone hole. "Doubt is our product," wrote one tobacco executive. These "experts" supplied it.Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, historians of science, roll back the rug on this dark corner of the American scientific community, showing how ideology and corporate interests, aided by a too-compliant media, have skewed public understanding of some of the most pressing issues of our era.

Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate


John Kallas - 2010
    John Kallas makes it fun and easy to learn about foods you've unknowingly passed by all your life. Through gorgeous photographs, playful, but authoritative text, and ground-breaking design he gives you the knowledge and confidence to finally begin eating and enjoying edible wild plants. Edible Wild Plants divides plants into four flavor categories -- foundation, tart, pungent, and bitter. Categorizing by flavor helps readers use these greens in pleasing and predictable ways. According to the author, combining elements from these different categories makes the best salads.

Seeds of Change: Wangari's Gift to the World


Jen Cullerton Johnson - 2010
    A picture book biography of scientist Wangari Maathai, the first African womanand first environmentalistto win a Nobel Peace Prize (in 2004), for her work planting trees in her native Kenya.

Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya


Donna Jo Napoli - 2010
    Today, more than 30 million trees have been planted throughout Mama Miti’s native Kenya, and in 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Wangari Muta Maathai has changed Kenya tree by tree—and with each page turned, children will realize their own ability to positively impact the future.

Holy Shit: Managing Manure To Save Mankind


Gene Logsdon - 2010
    He begins by lamenting a modern society that not only throws away both animal and human manure—worth billions of dollars in fertilizer value—but that spends a staggering amount of money to do so. This wastefulness makes even less sense as the supply of mined or chemically synthesized fertilizers dwindles and their cost skyrockets. In fact, he argues, if we do not learn how to turn our manures into fertilizer to keep food production in line with increasing population, our civilization, like so many that went before it, will inevitably decline.With his trademark humor, his years of experience writing about both farming and waste management, and his uncanny eye for the small but important details, Logsdon artfully describes how to manage farm manure, pet manure and human manure to make fertilizer and humus. He covers the field, so to speak, discussing topics like:• How to select the right pitchfork for the job and use it correctly• How to operate a small manure spreader• How to build a barn manure pack with farm animal manure• How to compost cat and dog waste• How to recycle toilet water for irrigation purposes, and• How to get rid ourselves of our irrational paranoia about feces and urine.Gene Logsdon does not mince words. This fresh, fascinating and entertaining look at an earthy, but absolutely crucial subject, is a small gem and is destined to become a classic of our agricultural literature.

The Little Hummingbird


Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas - 2010
    The illustrated story is supplemented by a natural and cultural history of hummingbirds, as well as an inspiring message from Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.The evocative artwork by internationally renowned Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas complements the optimistic tale that encourages everyone to take responsibility for their home and the planet.

What Matters?: Economics for a Renewed Commonwealth


Wendell Berry - 2010
    There is perhaps no more demanding or important critique available to contemporary citizens than Berry’s writings — just as there is no vocabulary more given to obfuscation than that of economics as practiced by professionals and academics. Berry has called upon us to return to the basics. He has traced how the clarity of our economic approach has eroded over time, as the financial asylum was overtaken by the inmates, and citizens were turned from consumers — entertained and distracted — to victims, threatened by a future of despair and disillusion.For this collection, Berry offers essays from over the last 25 years, alongside new essays about the recent economic collapse, including “Money Versus Goods” and “Faustian Economics,” treatises of great alarm and courage. He offers advice and perspective that should be heeded by all concerned as our society attempts to steer from its present chaos and recession to a future of hope and opportunity. With urgency and clarity, Berry asks us to look toward a true sustainable commonwealth, grounded in realistic Jeffersonian principles applied to our present day.

The Death and Life of Monterey Bay: A Story of Revival


Stephen R. Palumbi - 2010
    But even residents on this idyllic California coast may not realize its full history. Monterey began as a natural paradise, but became the poster child for industrial devastation in John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row,and is now one of the most celebrated shorelines in the world.   It is a remarkable story of life, death, and revival—told here for the first time in all its stunning color and bleak grays. The Death and Life of Monterey Bay begins in the eighteenth century when Spanish and French explorers encountered a rocky shoreline brimming with life—raucous sea birds, abundant sea otters, barking sea lions, halibut the size of wagon wheels,waters thick with whales. A century and a half later, many of the sea creatures had disappeared, replaced by sardine canneries that sickened residents with their stench but kept the money flowing. When the fish ran out and the climate turned,the factories emptied and the community crumbled. But today,both Monterey’s economy and wildlife are resplendent. How did it happen?   The answer is deceptively simple: through the extraordinary acts of ordinary people. The Death and Life of Monterey Bay is the biography of a place, but also of the residents who reclaimed it. Monterey is thriving because of an eccentric mayor who wasn’t afraid to use pistols, axes, or the force of law to protect her coasts. It is because of fishermen who love their livelihood, scientists who are fascinated by the sea’s mysteries, and philanthropists and community leaders willing to invest in a world-class aquarium. The shores of Monterey Bay revived because of human passion—passion that enlivens every page of this hopeful book.

Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology


David Abram - 2010
    Now Abram returns with a startling exploration of our human entanglement with the rest of nature.As the climate veers toward catastrophe, the innumerable losses cascading through the biosphere make vividly evident the need for a metamorphosis in our relation to the living land. For too long we’ve inured ourselves to the wild intelligence of our muscled flesh, taking our primary truths from technologies that hold the living world at a distance. This book subverts that distance, drawing readers ever deeper into their animal senses in order to explore, from within, the elemental kinship between the body and the breathing Earth.The shapeshifting of ravens, the erotic nature of gravity, the eloquence of thunder, the pleasures of being edible: all have their place in Abram’s investigation. He shows that from the awakened perspective of the human animal, awareness (or mind) is not an exclusive possession of our species but a lucid quality of the biosphere itself—a quality in which we, along with the oaks and the spiders, steadily participate.With the audacity of its vision and the luminosity of its prose, Becoming Animal sets a new benchmark for the human appraisal of our place in the whole.

The Legacy: An Elder's Vision for Our Sustainable Future


David Suzuki - 2010
    In his own lifetime, Suzuki has witnessed an explosion of scientific knowledge as well as a huge change in our relationship with the planet-a tripling of the world's population, a greatly increased ecological footprint through the global economy, and a huge growth in technological capacity. These changes have had a dire effect on Earth's ecosystems and consequently on our own well-being. To deal with this crisis, we must realize that the laws of nature have priority over the forces of economics and that the planet simply cannot sustain unfettered growth. We must also recognize the limits of scientific reductionism and the need to adopt a more holistic point of view. Perhaps most important, we must join together as a single species to respond to the problems we face. Suzuki ends by saying that change begins with each of us; all it takes is imagination and a faith in the inherent generosity of Mother Earth.Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation. Also available in hardcover.

An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World


Anders Halverson - 2010
    Proudly dubbed “an entirely synthetic fish” by fisheries managers, the rainbow trout has been introduced into every state and province in the United States and Canada and to every continent except Antarctica, often with devastating effects on the native fauna. Halverson examines the paradoxes and reveals a range of characters, from nineteenth-century boosters who believed rainbows could be the saviors of democracy to twenty-first-century biologists who now seek to eradicate them from waters around the globe. Ultimately, the story of the rainbow trout is the story of our relationship with the natural world—how it has changed and how it startlingly has not.

Four Elements: Reflections on Nature


John O'Donohue - 2010
    Unfortunately he died suddenly at age fifty-two just as his book of blessings, To Bless the Space Between Us, was being published. The loss of his powerfully wise and lyrical voice has been profoundly missed, but his many readers are given a special opportunity to revisit John in a new book based on a series of papers he wrote on the elements of water, stone, air, and fire, now published here for the first time. O'Donohue's readers know him as both a spiritual guide and a poet, and in this work he exhibits both qualities, sharing his Celtic heritage and his love for his native landscape in the west of Ireland. As O'Donohue explores a range of themes relating to the way we live our lives today, he reveals how the energy and rhythm of the natural world--its innocence and creativity, its power and splendor--hold profound lessons for us all. With a foreword written by his beloved brother, Pat, this illuminating book is an inspired reflection on the ancient wisdom of the earth.

The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough


Katie Smith Milway - 2010
    This year their crop is poor, and they may not have enough to eat or to sell for other essentials, such as health care, school uniforms and books. When María's father must leave home to find work, she is left in charge of their garden. Then a new teacher comes to María's school and introduces her to sustainable farming practices that yield good crops. As María begins to use the same methods at home, she too sees improvements, which allow her family to edge their way out of the grip of the greedy ?coyotes? --- the middlemen who make profits on the backs of poor farmers. Little by little, the farms --- and the hopes --- of María and her neighbors are transformed as good gardens begin to grow.

Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist


Patrick Albert Moore - 2010
    Patrick Moore's engaging firsthand account of his many years spent as the ultimate Greenpeace insider, a co-founder and leader in the organization's top committee. Moore explains why, 15 years after co-founding it, he left Greenpeace to establish a more sensible, science-based approach to environmentalism. From energy independence to climate change, genetic engineering to aquaculture, Moore sheds new light on some of the most controversial subjects in the news today.

Wild Comfort: The Solace of Nature


Kathleen Dean Moore - 2010
    This book is the record of her experiences. It’s a stunning collection of carefully observed accounts of her life—tracking otters on the beach, cooking breakfast in the desert, canoeing in a snow squall, wading among migrating salmon in the dark—but it is also a profound meditation on the healing power of nature.

The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and our Health—and a Vision for Change


Annie Leonard - 2010
    Leonard examines the “stuff” we use everyday, offering a galvanizing critique and steps for a changed planet.The Story of Stuff was received with widespread enthusiasm in hardcover, by everyone from Stephen Colbert to Tavis Smiley to George Stephanopolous on Good Morning America, as well as far-reaching print and blog coverage. Uncovering and communicating a critically important idea—that there is an intentional system behind our patterns of consumption and disposal—Annie Leonard transforms how we think about our lives and our relationship to the planet.From sneaking into factories and dumps around the world to visiting textile workers in Haiti and children mining coltan for cell phones in the Congo, Leonard, named one of Time magazine’s 100 environmental heroes of 2009, highlights each step of the materials economy and its actual effect on the earth and the people who live near sites like these.With curiosity, compassion, and humor, Leonard shares concrete steps for taking action at the individual and political level that will bring about sustainability, community health, and economic justice. Embraced by teachers, parents, churches, community centers, activists, and everyday readers, The Story of Stuff will be a long-lived classic.

To You We Shall Return: Lessons About Our Planet from the Lakota


Joseph M. Marshall III - 2010
    Using a combination of personal anecdote, detailed history, and Lakota tales, Marshall takes us back to his childhood and shows us how we, too, can learn to love our planet.Although he was educated in Euro-American schools, Marshall had the benefit of growing up with wise grandparents who taught him never to walk a path without knowing the trail from which he'd come: that the bow does not make the hunter, and above all, that the earth can be boundlessly generous-if we can learn to accept its gifts.

Citizens of the Sea: Wondrous Creatures From the Census of Marine Life


Nancy Knowlton - 2010
    . .· The almost inconceivable number of creatures in the marine world. From the bounty of microbes in one drop of seawater, we can calculate that there are more individuals in the oceans than stars in the universe.· The sophisticated sensory abilities that help these animals survive. For many, the standard five senses are just not enough.· The incredible distances that seabirds and other species cover. Some will feed in both Arctic and Antarctic waters within a single year.· The odd relationships common in the marine world. From a dental hygienist for fish to a walrus's one-night stand, you'll find beauty, practicality, and plenty of eccentricity in sea-life socialization.Brilliantly photographed and written in an easygoing style, Citizens of the Sea will inform and enchant you with close-up documentation of the fascinating facts of life in the ocean realm.

What If There Were No Bees?: A Book about the Grassland Ecosystem


Suzanne Slade - 2010
    Countless animals and plants live in them. So what difference could the loss of one animal species make? Follow the chain reaction, and discover how important honey bees are.

Into the Woods: The Battle for Tasmania's Forests


Anna Krien - 2010
    At stake is the future of old-growth forests. Loggers and police face off with protesters deep in the forest, while savage political games are played in the courts and parliaments. In Into the Woods, Anna Krien, armed with a notebook, a sleeping bag and a rusty sedan, ventures behind the battlelines to see what it is like to risk everything for a cause. She speaks to ferals and premiers, sawmillers and whistle-blowers. She investigates personalities and convictions, methods and motives. This is a book about a company that wanted its way and the resistance that eventually forced it to change. Into the Woods is intimate, intrepid reporting by a fearless new voice.

A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California


Laura Cunningham - 2010
    Through the use of historical ecology, Laura Cunningham walks through these forgotten landscapes to uncover secrets about the past, explore what our future will hold, and experience the ever-changing landscape of California. Combining the skill of an accomplished artist with a passion for landscapes and training as a naturalist, Cunningham has spent over two decades pouring over historical accounts, paleontology findings, and archaeological data. Traveling with paintbox in hand, she tracked the remaining vestiges of semi-pristine landscape like a detective, seeking clues that revealed the California of past centuries. She traveled to other regions as well, to sketch grizzly bears, wolves, and other magnificent creatures that are gone from California landscapes. In her studio, Cunningham created paintings of vast landscapes and wildlife from the raw data she had collected, observations in the wild, and knowledge of ecological laws and processes.Through A State of Change, readers are given the pure pleasure of wandering through these wondrous and seemingly exotic scenes of Old California and understanding the possibilities for both change and conservation in our present-day landscape. A State of Change is as vital as it is visionary.

There's Lead in Your Lipstick: Toxins in Our Everyday Body Care and How to Avoid Them


Gillian Deacon - 2010
    So how can you look and feel great while safeguarding your health? Get smart and go green from head to toe with the help of eco-expert Gillian Deacon. In The Green Body Guide, you'll learn how to read the ingredients to identify and understand the preservatives that are bad for your body and damaging to the earth, including formaldehyde in deodorant, nail polish, soap, shampoo, and shaving cream; coal tar in hair dyes; lead in lipstick; and many more. This is an indispensable handbook of personal-care choices that are sustainable, both for your health and for the earth.

Forest Forensics: A Field Guide to Reading the Forested Landscape


Tom Wessels - 2010
    Was this forest once farmland? Was it logged in the past? Was there ever a major catastrophe like a fire or a wind storm that brought trees down?Now Wessels takes that wonderful ability to discern much of the history of the forest from visual clues and boils it all down to a manageable field guide that you can take out to the woods and use to start playing forest detective yourself. Wessels has created a key—a fascinating series of either/or questions—to guide you through the process of analyzing what you see. You’ll feel like a woodland Sherlock Holmes. No walk in the woods will ever be the same.

Naked in the Stream: Isle Royale Stories


Vic Foerster - 2010
    He describes what it feels like to portage a canoe for fifteen miles with an eighty pound pack on your back, what dormant muscles spring to life as you paddle against the wind, exhausted but determined to reach the craggy shore, how to fish for the wary trout on light tackle without losing your mind, and how to hold your breath as you sneak by an eagle perched fifty feet away. Through Naked in the Stream we travel along with Vic and Ken, observing nature, the people they encounter, and the absolute laws of Mother Nature.

The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual


H. Ward Silver - 2010
    All the Exam questions with Answer key for use July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2018.

The Etiquette of Freedom: Gary Snyder, Jim Harrison, and The Practice of the Wild


Gary Snyder - 2010
    Set amidst the natural beauty of the Santa Lucia Mountains, their conversations—harnessing their ideas of all that is wild, sacred and intimate in this world—move from the admission that Snyder’s mother was a devout atheist to his personal accounts of his initiation into Zen Buddhist culture, being literally dangled by the ankles over a cliff. After years of living in Japan, Snyder returns to the States to build a farmhouse in the remote foothills of the Sierras, a homestead he calls Kitkitdizze.For all of the depth in these conversations, Jim Harrison and Gary Snyder are humorous and friendly, and with the artfully interspersed dialogue from old friends and loves like Scott Slovic, Michael McClure, Jack Shoemaker, and Joanne Kyger, the discussion reaches a level of not only the personal, but the global, redefining our idea of the Beat Generation and challenging the future directions of the environmental movement and its association with “Deep Ecology.”The Etiquette of Freedom is an all-encompassing companion to the film The Practice of the Wild. A DVD is included which contains the film together with more than an hour of out-takes and expanded interviews, as well as an extended reading by Gary Snyder. The whole offers a rare glimpse of their extended discussion of life and what it means to be wild and alive.

Salmon in the Trees: Life in Alaska's Tongass Rain Forest


Amy Gulick - 2010
    Gulick's stunning photographs -- together with essays and audio from noted authors including Carl Safina, Douglas Chadwick, and Richard Nelson -- tell a hopeful story of Alaska's Tongass rain forest, where trees grow salmon, and salmon grow trees. "...what if I told you that the trees are here, in part, because of the salmon? That the trees that shelter and feed the fish, that help build the fish, are themselves built by the fish?" ~ Carl Safina, essayist for Salmon in the TreesTitle: Salmon in the TreesAuthor: Gulick, Amy (PHT)/ Troll, Ray (ILT)Publisher: Mountaineers BooksPublication Date: 2010/04/01Number of Pages: 176Binding Type: HARDCOVERLibrary of Congress: 2009040250SalmonInTheTrees.org

The Buffalo Are Back


Jean Craighead George - 2010
    This stirring picture book tells the dramatic story, following bison from the Plains Indians to the cowboys, Teddy Roosevelt to the Dust Bowl, and from the brink of extinction to the majestic herds that now roam our national parks. Paired with gorgeous paintings by landscape artist Wendell Minor, Jean Craighead George’s engaging text will inspire a new generation to understand and protect nature’s delicate balance.

Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects


Vaclav Smil - 2010
    In a bold and provocative argument, Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects describes the history of modern society's dependence on fossil fuels and the prospects for the transition to a nonfossil world. Vaclav Smil, who has published more on various aspects of energy than any working scientist, makes it clear that this transition will not be accomplished easily, and that it cannot be accomplished within the timetables established by the Obama administration.The book begins with a survey of the basic properties of modern energy systems. It then offers detailed explanations of universal patterns of energy transitions, the peculiarities of changing energy use in the world's leading economies, and the coming shifts from fossil fuels to renewable conversions. Specific cases of these transitions are analyzed for eight of the world's leading energy consumers. The author closes with perspectives on the nature and pace of the coming energy transition to renewable conversions.

National Geographic Complete National Parks of the United States: 400+ Parks, Monuments, Battlefields, Historic Sites, Scenic Trails, Recreation Areas, and Seashores


Mel White - 2010
    And the National Geographic Society has been involved with this forward-looking, environmentally-minded department from the very beginning.This extensive travel planner covers not just the 58 official National Parks but also the nearly 350 additional properties in the Park Service's domain. The premier Parks are described in detail, but equal attention is given to the National Monuments, Memorials, Preserves, Historic Sites, Battlefields, Cemeteries, and Seashores, not to mention a network of "National Trails" and even the intriguingly referred to "Affiliated Areas." From Yellowstone to the Statue of Liberty, from the hallowed ground of Gettysburg National Military Park to the Pacific waters shrouding Hawaii's USS Arizona Memorial, this catalog spans American history and territory both, with practical advice on how to reach each park, when to go, and what to do there.

What If There Were No Sea Otters?: A Book about the Ocean Ecosystem


Suzanne Slade - 2010
    Countless animals and plants live there. So what difference could the loss of one animal species make? Follow the chain reaction, and discover how important sea otters are.

Last Tree in the City


Peter Carnavas - 2010
    

Queer Ecologies: Sex, Nature, Politics, Desire


Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands - 2010
    Contributors from a wide range of disciplines present a focused engagement with the critical, philosophical, and political dimensions of sex and nature. These discussions are particularly relevant to current debates in many disciplines, including environmental studies, queer theory, critical race theory, philosophy, literary criticism, and politics. As a whole, Queer Ecologies stands as a powerful corrective to views that equate "natural" with "straight" while "queer" is held to be against nature.

The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century's Sustainability Crises


Richard Heinberg - 2010
    It includes chapters by best-selling authors like climate activist Bill McKibben, renowned scholars like "ecological footprint" co-founder William Rees, and up-and-coming experts like urban food systems pioneer Erika Allen. Lead editor Richard Heinberg is the world's leading author of mass-market books on fossil fuel dependence and depletion. Heinberg says, "We've run out of time, natural resources and capital, so this is our only chance to get things right."

Moon Mount Rushmore & the Black Hills: Including the Badlands


Laural A. Bidwell - 2010
    Bidwell offers her firsthand experience and advice on Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills — including the Southern Hills, the Badlands, and Keystone. Bidwell provides unique travel strategies such as Best Hiking Trails, Viewing Wildlife, and Fossil Collecting in the Parks, Grasslands, and National Forest. Expert tips include the best sights for dining, shopping, accommodations, and camping, providing travelers with the tools they need for a more personal and memorable visit to Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills.

Compost Stew


Mary McKenna Siddals - 2010
    Not only is composting becoming more common in households and residential gardens, but many school gardens feature compost piles, too. But how do you start a compost pile? What’s safe to include? Perfect for an Earth Day focus or year-round reference, this inviting book provides all the answers for kids and families looking for simple, child-friendly ways to help the planet.

The Hockey Stick Illusion: Climategate And The Corruption Of Science (Independent Minds)


A.W. Montford - 2010
    From the earliest attempts to reproduce the Hockey Stick graph, to the explosive publication of McIntyre's work and the launch of a congressional inquiry, The Hockey Stick Illusion is a remarkable tale of scientific misconduct and amateur sleuthing. It explains the complex science of this most controversial of scientific findings in layperson's language and lays bare the remarkable extent to which climatologists have been willing to break their own rules in order to defend climate science's most famous finding. Already acclaimed by experts in the field, The Hockey Stick Illusion is an indispensable guide for anyone wanting to assess the credibility of global warming science.

Yellow Dirt: An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed


Judy Pasternak - 2010
    ANTHONY LUKAS WORK-IN-PROGRESS AWARD Atop a craggy mesa in the northern reaches of the Navajo reservation lies what was once a world-class uranium mine called Monument No. 2. Discovered in the 1940s—during the government’s desperate press to build nuclear weapons—the mesa’s tremendous lode would forever change the lives of the hundreds of Native Americans who labored there and of their families, including many who dwelled in the valley below for generations afterward. Yellow Dirt offers readers a window into a dark chapter of modern history that still reverberates today. From the 1940s into the early twenty-first century, the United States knowingly used and discarded an entire tribe for the sake of atomic bombs. Secretly, during the days of the Manhattan Project and then in a frenzy during the Cold War, the government bought up all the uranium that could be mined from the hundreds of rich deposits entombed under the sagebrush plains and sandstone cliffs. Despite warnings from physicians and scientists that long-term exposure could be harmful, even fatal, thousands of miners would work there unprotected. A second set of warnings emerged about the environmental impact. Yet even now, long after the uranium boom ended, and long after national security could be cited as a consideration, many residents are still surrounded by contaminated air, water, and soil. The radioactive "yellow dirt" has ended up in their drinking supplies, in their walls and floors, in their playgrounds, in their bread ovens, in their churches, and even in their garbage dumps. And they are still dying. Transporting readers into a little-known country-within-a-country, award-winning journalist Judy Pasternak gives rare voice to Navajo perceptions of the world, their own complicated involvement with uranium mining, and their political coming-of-age. Along the way, their fates intertwine with decisions made in Washington, D.C., in the Navajo capital of Window Rock, and in the Western border towns where swashbuckling mining men trained their sights on the fortunes they could wrest from tribal land, successfully pressuring the government into letting them do it their way. Yellow Dirt powerfully chronicles both a scandal of neglect and the Navajos’ long fight for justice. Few had heard of this shameful legacy until Pasternak revealed it in a prize-winning Los Angeles Times series that galvanized a powerful congressman and a famous prosecutor to press for redress and repair of the grievous damage. In this expanded account, she provides gripping new details, weaving the personal and the political into a tale of betrayal, of willful negligence, and, ultimately, of reckoning.

Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food


Paul Greenberg - 2010
    He visits Norwegian megafarms that use genetic techniques once pioneered on sheep to grow millions of pounds of salmon a year. He travels to the ancestral river of the Yupik Eskimos to see the only Fair Trade–certified fishing company in the world. He makes clear how PCBs and mercury find their way into seafood; discovers how Mediterranean sea bass went global; challenges the author of Cod to taste the difference between a farmed and a wild cod; and almost sinks to the bottom of the South Pacific while searching for an alternative to endangered bluefin tuna.Fish, Greenberg reveals, are the last truly wild food — for now. By examining the forces that get fish to our dinner tables, he shows how we can start to heal the oceans and fight for a world where healthy and sustainable seafood is the rule rather than the exception.

Reading Trout Water


Dave Hughes - 2010
    - Second edition, completely updated in full color - Covers every water type--riffles, runs, pools, flats, pocket water, bank water - Learn how to find trout by studying currents, temperatures, oxygen levels, and food sources - 140 color photos pinpoint trout locations in specific water types

Green Design: From Theory to Practice


Ken Yeang - 2010
    Is it simply about compliance to green accreditation systems (such as LEED or BREEAM)? Currently these rating systems apply only to buildings, and though it is true that a large part of climate change is attributable to buildings and their use, is it sufficient that our buildings and masterplans achieve the highest possible scores in these rating systems? Surely we need to go beyond these systems to look at the more complete picture of sustainable design. The question of how we do this forms the basis of this book. Leading architects have joined forces to discuss this important and timely subject.Presented here are a series of essays, each by experts in their fields, on the current state of Green Design covering the spectrum from theory to practice. Contributing writers include Bill Dunster, Stefan Behnisch, Lam Khee Poh, Nadav Malin, Tom Hicks, Bob Berkbile, Thomas Herzog and Stefan Behnisch. The contributors each bring their own thoughts and questions on how to improve sustainable design, how important it is and how it can be enforced. Their writings express concerns regarding the built environment, its affect on physical well-being, how we live in cities and how this could change in the future. These discussions are given a contemporary relevance through inclusion of the work of contemporary architects, artists, writers and commentators.Green Design provides a thought provoking look at the built environment and how it can improve or effect our lives, making this an interesting read for architects, town planners and anyone with an interest in the environment.

Food Sovereignty: Reconnecting Food, Nature and Community


Hannah Wittman - 2010
    It is failing to provide for the food needs of all people, failing to respect the principles of environmental sustainability, and it undermines local empowerment and agrarian citizenship. Around the world, people are resisting the environmental, social and political destruction perpetuated by the industrial agricultural system. This resistance has led to a new and radical agricultural practice - food sovereignty - which puts control in the hands of those who are both hungry and produce the world's food - peasants and family farmers - rather than corporate executives. Advocating a practical, radical change to the way much of our food system operates the contributors, including Raj Patel, Walden Bello, Philip McMichael, Miguel Altieri and Eric Holt-Gimenez, show through analysis and case studies that food sovereignty results in increased production, safe food that reaches those who are in the most need and agricultural practices that respect the earth. This is the means to achieving the UN-endorsed goal of food security.

Philip Henry Gosse: Science and Art in Letters from Alabama and Entomologia Alabamensis


Gary Mullen - 2010
    Offered for the first time are the complete full-color illustrations from Gosse’s Entomologia Alabamensis, along with a biographical essay placing Gosse’s work in the context of his long and fruitful life.Born in 1810 in Worcester, England, the young Philip Henry Gosse developed a passion for the natural world. Having learned the basics of miniature portraiture from his father, Gosse quickly took for his artistic subjects the flourishing marine life he discovered along the English coast. In May, 1838, Gosse took a teaching job in Dallas County, Alabama. For the next eight months he collected the insect specimens that he would preserve in the beautifully detailed watercolors of Entomologia Alabamensis. In addition, he composed a highly personalized chronology of his life in a frontier culture, published eventually as Letters from Alabama. Following his return to England, Gosse went on to publish more than 40 books, producing some of the 19th century’s finest illustrations of insects and marine organisms. Today, he is remembered as a popular writer of science for the general public and as a passionate artist whose work in Alabama and elsewhere captured and revealed the beauty and vitality of the natural world. Copublication with the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art and Auburn University Libraries.

The World We Once Lived In


Wangari Maathai - 2010
    As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through the decades, becoming the classics of a movement. Together, these books show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world.

From Trinity to Trinity


Kyōko Hayashi - 2010
    Her journey takes her into unfamiliar terrain, both past and present, as she not only confronts American attitudes, disconcertingly detached from the suffering of nuclear destruction, but discovers as well a profound kinship with desert plants and animals, the bomb's "first victims." Translator Eiko Otake, a renowned artist in dance (Eiko & Koma), offers further insight into Hayashi's life and work, illuminating how her identity as "outsider" helped shape her vision. Together author and translator present one woman's transformation from victim to witness, a portrait of endurance as a power of "being" against all odds.

The Ecological Rift


John Bellamy Foster - 2010
    All ecosystems on the planet are now in decline. Enormous rifts have been driven through the delicate fabric of the biosphere. The economy and the earth are headed for a fateful collision--if we don't alter course.In The Ecological Rift: Capitalism's War on the Earth environmental sociologists John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, and Richard York offer a radical assessment of both the problem and the solution. They argue that the source of our ecological crisis lies in the paradox of wealth in capitalist society, which expands individual riches at the expense of public wealth, including the wealth of nature. In the process, a huge ecological rift is driven between human beings and nature, undermining the conditions of sustainable existence: a rift in the metabolic relation between humanity and nature that is irreparable within capitalist society, since integral to its very laws of motion.Critically examining the sanguine arguments of mainstream economists and technologists, Foster, Clark, and York insist instead that fundamental changes in social relations must occur if the ecological (and social) problems presently facing us are to be transcended. Their analysis relies on the development of a deep dialectical naturalism concerned with issues of ecology and evolution and their interaction with the economy. Importantly, they offer reasons for revolutionary hope in moving beyond the regime of capital and toward a society of sustainable human development.

Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth about Climate Change


Clive Hamilton - 2010
    There have been any number of books and reports in recent years explaining just how dire the future looks and how little time we have left to act. This book is about why we have ignored those warnings, and why it is now too late. It is a book about the frailties of the human species as expressed in both the institutions we built and the psychological dispositions that have led us on the path of self-destruction. It is about our strange obsessions, our hubris, and our penchant for avoiding the facts. It is the story of a battle within us between the forces that should have caused us to protect the Earth - our capacity to reason and our connection to Nature - and those that, in the end, have won out - our greed, materialism and alienation from Nature. And it is about the 21st century consequences of these failures. Clive Hamilton is author of the bestselling Affluenza and Growth Fetish, of Scorcher, and most recently Freedom Paradox.

Home Waters: A Year of Recompenses on the Provo River


George B. Handley - 2010
    In prose that reads like the flowing current of a river, scholar and essayist George Handley blends nature writing, local history, theology, environmental history, and personal memoir in his new book Home Waters: A Year of Recompenses on the Provo River. Handley’s meditations on the local Provo River watershed present the argument that a sense of place requires more than a strong sense of history and belonging, it requires awareness and commitment. Handley traces a history of settlement along the Provo that has profoundly transformed the landscape and yet neglected its Native American and environmental legacies. As a descendent of one of the first pioneers to irrigate the area, and as a witness to the loss of orchards, open space, and an eroded environmental ethic, Handley weaves his own personal and family history into the landscape to argue for sustainable belonging. In avoiding the exclusionist and environmentally harmful attitudes that come with the territorial claims to a homeland, the flyfishing term, “home waters,” is offered as an alternative, a kind of belonging that is informed by deference to others, to the mysteries of deep time, and to a fragile dependence on water. While it has sometimes been mistakenly assumed that the Mormon faith is inimical to good environmental stewardship, Handley explores the faith’s openness to science, its recognition of the holiness of the creation, and its call for an ethical engagement with nature. A metaphysical approach to the physical world is offered as an antidote to the suicidal impulses of modern society and our persistent ambivalence about the facts of our biology and earthly condition. Home Waters contributes a perspective from within the Mormon religious experience to the tradition of such Western writers as Wallace Stegner, Terry Tempest Williams, Steven Trimble, and Amy Irvine. Winner of the Mormon Letters Award for Memoir.

Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit: 10 Clean Technologies to Save Our World


Tom Rand - 2010
    But he does show it's possible to do without them. By giving an in-depth look at ten technologies that together can bring a clean future, free of fossil fuels, Tom provides education and hope. This is a clarion call, a directive that we act quickly and collectively (governments, corporations and individuals) to provide future generations the opportunity to live in a sustainable world.Unique in being accessible to the general public, his message is not just important, but understandable and entertaining. His personal views and anecdotes are combined with a hardheaded engineering and business perspective. Beautiful color photographs bring the text to life.It is this generation's job to save the world we know for the next.

Walking Gently on the Earth: Making Faithful Choices about Food, Energy, Shelter and More


Lisa Graham McMinn - 2010
    Tragically, though, from the Fall to today, we as humans have lived in ways that keep living things--including fellow human beings--from surviving at all, much less flourishing. But we can change that. Sociologist and author Lisa McMinn and Megan Anna Neff invite you to rediscover, through new eyes, the beauty and goodness of our earth, and to make faithful choices that will help it prosper. Each chapter uniquely begins with a prelude by Megan Anna that highlights an African perspective or practice, helping us glean the wisdom of another culture and reminding us of the interconnectedness of everything on the earth. Lisa's fluid, passionate writing then offers both the truth about the state of the earth and inspiration to get back to shalom--a peace that allows all things to thrive. Covering such topics asfarming practicesslave laborconsumer powerclimate changealternative energy sourcesand family sizeLisa clearly demonstrates the effects of our choices and makes it easy for us to choose with discernment, with lists of resources and organizations at the end of each chapter. Infused throughout is a deep celebration of the earth God made and declared "excellent in every way" (Genesis 1:31). Come and read. Then go and live with intention, using the power of your choices to walk gently on an earth that is beautiful and broken, that it might come to flourish once again.

Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher


Frederick L. Kirschenmann - 2010
    Kirschenmann is a celebrated agricultural thinker. In the last thirty years he has tirelessly promoted the principles of sustainability and has become a legend in his own right. Kirschenmann was a keynote speaker at the 2010 Biodynamic National Conference. Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher documents Kirschenmann's evolution and his lifelong contributions to the new agrarianism in a collection of his greatest writings on farming, philosophy, and sustainability. Working closely with agricultural economist and editor Constance L. Falk, Kirschenmann recounts his intellectual and spiritual journey. In a unique blend of personal history, philosophical discourse, spiritual ruminations, and practical advice, Kirschenmann interweaves his insights with discussion of contemporary agrarian topics. This collection serves as an invaluable resource to agrarian scholars and introduces readers to an agricultural pioneer whose work has profoundly influenced modern thinking about food.

Bodily Natures: Science, Environment, and the Material Self


Stacy Alaimo - 2010
    Drawing on feminist theory, environmental studies, and the sciences, Stacy Alaimo focuses on trans-corporeality, or movement across bodies and nature, which has profoundly altered our sense of self. By looking at a broad range of creative and philosophical writings, Alaimo illuminates how science, politics, and culture collide, while considering the closeness of the human body to the environment.

See Inside Recycling And Rubbish


Alex Frith - 2010
    Includes sections on what happens after rubbish is taken away, how glass, metal, plastics and paper are remade into new things and what happens to everything that isn’t recycled.

The Bible and Ecology: Rediscovering the Community of Creation


Richard Bauckham - 2010
    Bauckham argues that there is much more to the Bible's understanding of this relationship than the mandate of human dominion given in Genesis 1--which, he writes, has too often been used as a justification for domination and exploitation of the earth's resources. Instead, Bauckham considers the ecological perspectives found in the book of Job, the Psalms, and the Gospels, all of which, he determines, require a reevaluation of the biblical tradition of dominion. Bauckham discovers a tradition of a community of creation in which human beings are fellow members with God's other creatures and true reconciliation to God involves the entire creation. Short, reliable, and engaging, The Bible and Ecology is essential reading for anyone looking for a biblically grounded approach to ecology.

Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril


Kathleen Dean Moore - 2010
    In the face of environmental degradation and global climate change, scientific knowledge alone does not tell us what we ought to do. The missing premise of the argument and much-needed center piece in the debate to date has been the need for ethical values, moral guidance, and principled reasons for doing the right thing for our planet, its animals, its plants, and its people.Contributors from throughout the world (including North America, Africa, Australia, Asia, and Europe) bring forth a rich variety of heritages and perspectives. Their contributions take many forms, illustrating the rich variety of ways we express our moral beliefs in letters, poems, economic analyses, proclamations, essays, and stories. In the end, their voices affirm why we must move beyond a scientific study and response to embrace an ongoing model of repair and sustainability. These writings demonstrate that scientific analysis and moral conviction can work successfully side-by-side.This is a book that can speak to anyone, regardless of his or her worldview, and that also includes a section devoted to “what next” thinking that helps the reader put the words and ideas into action in their personal lives. Thanks to generous support from numerous landmark organizations, such as the Kendeda Fund and Germeshausen Foundation, the book is just the starting point for a national, and international, discussion that will be carried out in a variety of ways, from online debate to “town hall” meetings, from essay competitions for youth to sermons from pulpits in all denominations. The “Moral Ground movement” will result in a newly discovered, or rediscovered, commitment on a personal and community level to consensus about our ethical obligation to the future.

Not Your Typical Book About the Environment


Elin Kelsey - 2010
    Not Your Typical Book about the Environment allays kids’ fears by showing how all is not lost. Young readers learn about the remarkable time they live in: smart technologies, innovative ideas, and a growing commitment to alternative lifestyles are exploding around the world. Awareness is creating a future that will be brighter than we sometimes might think. Each chapter begins by taking familiar objects — T-shirts, video games, bikes — and using these as launching pads to delve into related environmental issues. Plus, profiles of unexpected personalities, like happiness researcher Catherine O'Brien, show how many are seeking viable solutions to the serious problems facing our planet.

Meat: A Benign Extravagance


Simon Fairlie - 2010
    The world's meat consumption is rapidly rising, leading to devastating environmental impacts as well as having long term health implications for societies everywhere. Simon Fairlie's book lays out the reasons why we must decrease the amount of meat we eat, both for the planet and for ourselves. At its heart, the book argues, however, that the farming of animals for consumption has become problematic because we have removed ourselves physically and spiritually from the land. Our society needs to reorientate itself back to the land and Simon explains why an agriculture that is most readily able to achieve this is one that includes a measure of livestock farming.

Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart


Nina Simons - 2010
    Those successfully heeding this call have embraced the qualities previously relegated to the “feminine”--inner awareness, collaboration, relational intelligence, respect for the sacred and generosity--and married them to the best of their “masculine” attributes to create a new form of leadership more inspiring, inviting, and effective for transforming how we live on Earth and with each other. This anthology presents more than 30 essays from eminent women trailblazers--such as author Alice Walker, psychiatrist Jean Shinoda Bolen, playwright Eve Ensler, holistic doctor Rachel Naomi Remen, biologist Janine Benyus, hip-hop performer Rha Goddess, and famous tree-sitter Julia Butterfly Hill--as well as lesser-known but equally influential leaders--such as social entrepreneur Judy Wicks, philanthropic activist Kathy LeMay, food justice advocate LaDonna Redmond, and media educator Sofia Quintero. Their narratives explore how they cultivated their leadership impulses and their “feminine” strengths, reinventing leadership to prioritize community, collaboration, the environment, and the common good. Illuminating a path to progressive environmental and social change, their passionate stories of joyful, creative, collaborative, and sacred leadership ignite within each reader the power to help cocreate a healthy, peaceful, just, and sustainable world.

The Mountaineers


Angela White - 2010
    On a quest to find those who came before them, these warriors follow the remnants of Safe Haven and let nothing stand in their way.Safe Haven refugee camp is a myth, considered by most to be only a legend. It is a place where the old world, where civilization still exists. It is safety for those determined enough to find it.Alexa is a leader of men. She culled her companions from the dwindling herd of mankind because she sensed they might have the strength to make the journey and each battle tightens their bonds. For Alexa, it is about more than finding a normal life. It's about family.

Spirits of Our Whaling Ancestors: Revitalizing Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth Traditions


Charlotte Cote - 2010
    Neither tribe had exercised their right to whale - in the case of the Makah, a right affirmed in their 1855 treaty with the federal government - since the gray whale had been hunted nearly to extinction by commercial whalers in the 1920s. The Makah whale hunt of 1999 was an event of international significance, connected to the worldwide struggle for aboriginal sovereignty and to the broader discourses of environmental sustainability, treaty rights, human rights, and animal rights. It was met with enthusiastic support and vehement opposition.As a member of the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation, Charlotte Cote offers a valuable perspective on the issues surrounding indigenous whaling, past and present. Whaling served important social, economic, and ritual functions that have been at the core of Makah and Nuu-chahnulth societies throughout their histories. Even as Native societies faced disease epidemics and federal policies that undermined their cultures, they remained connected to their traditions. The revival of whaling has implications for the physical, mental, and spiritual health of these Native communities today, Cote asserts. Whaling, she says, "defines who we are as a people."Her analysis includes major Native studies and contemporary Native rights issues, and addresses environmentalism, animal rights activism, anti-treaty conservatism, and the public's expectations about what it means to be "Indian." These thoughtful critiques are intertwined with the author's personal reflections, family stories, and information from indigenous, anthropological, and historical sources to provide a bridge between cultures.A Capell Family Book

Eucalypts: A Celebration


John Wrigley - 2010
    Though a small number are found as native plants in several other countries, Eucalypts are a very Australian tree. This book celebrates their diversity, their beauty, and the role they play in the history, culture, and economy of Australia. It looks at their evolution, biology, horticulture, and ecology, together with their classification and the botanists involved. Through historic and contemporary images, it examines the many ways in which they have served Aboriginal, colonial, and contemporary Australians in both practical and aesthetic ways. Eucalypts have quite literally been the building blocks of that nation and this beautiful book tells their complete story for the first time.

The Atlas of Global Conservation: Changes, Challenges, and Opportunities to Make a Difference


Jonathan Hoekstra - 2010
    Drawing from the best data available, it is an unprecedented guide to the state of the planet and our most pressing resource and environmental issues. Top scientists at The Nature Conservancy, the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and water, have joined forces to create this extraordinary reference. It features 79 richly-detailed, fullcolor maps and other graphics paired with an informative, inviting discussion of major trends across the world’s terrestrial, marine, and freshwater environments. Interspersed throughout, essays by noted international authorities point the way forward in confronting some of our greatest conservation challenges.• The most comprehensive single volume on global environmental conservation and future sustainability• Includes the latest data on environmental threats, such as climate change, water use, habitat protection, deforestation and overfishing• Full-color maps and graphics are designed to facilitate sideby-side comparisons, empowering readers to draw their own conclusions• Brings together information that has been widely dispersed across myriad publications and databases in a format thatinvites evaluation and application• Supporting data is available on an accompanying website

Adaptation to Climate Change: From Resilience to Transformation


Mark Pelling - 2010
    Learning how to live with these impacts is a priority for human development. In this context, it is too easy to see adaptation as a narrowly defensive task - protecting core assets or functions from the risks of climate change. A more profound engagement, which sees climate change risks as a product and driver of social as well as natural systems, and their interaction, is called for.Adaptation to Climate Change argues that, without care, adaptive actions can deny the deeper political and cultural roots that call for significant change in social and political relations if human vulnerability to climate change associated risk is to be reduced. This book presents a framework for making sense of the range of choices facing humanity, structured around resilience (stability), transition (incremental social change and the exercising of existing rights) and transformation (new rights claims and changes in political regimes). The resilience-transition-transformation framework is supported by three detailed case study chapters. These also illustrate the diversity of contexts where adaption is unfolding, from organizations to urban governance and the national polity.This text is the first comprehensive analysis of the social dimensions to climate change adaptation. Clearly written in an engaging style, it provides detailed theoretical and empirical chapters and serves as an invaluable reference for undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in climate change, geography and development studies.

Float!: Building on Water to Combat Urban Congestion and Climate Change


Koen Olthuis - 2010
    Although the concept may seem revolutionary, it is an obvious solution to overcrowded metropolises. Most world cities are situated on the water and have too little space where it's most needed: in the city center. Building on water allows inner-city areas to expand.Floating buildings have many advantages. They are both flexible and mobile. A buoyant structure can be moved to make space for a new building, decreasing the need for the demolition of a development that still has a productive economic future. Floating buildings outwit changing water levels by rising and falling with the tide and, in so doing, promote a more responsible water management. They leave no scars on their sites, permitting planners to actively meet the demands of the moment.Floating buildings are not new. People of nearly every creed and culture have lived on houseboats since time immemorial. Using modern technologies borrowed from the offshore and shipping industries, architects and engineers can adapt existing construction methods for use in erecting large building complexes on water.It's up to the architects of the climate-change generation to respond to the world's spatial needs with smart, sustainable proposals. Float! will help them to do just that.Koen Olthuis is an architect at Waterstudio.NL.David Keuning is on the editorial staff of Mark: Another Architecture, a bimonthly journal on architecture. His website is davidkeuning.com

The EARTH Book


Todd Parr - 2010
    Featuing a circular die-cut Earth on the cover, and printed entirely with recycled materials and nontoxic soy inks, this book includes lots of easy, smart ideas on how we can all work together to make the Earth feel good - from planting a tree and using both sides of the paper, to saving energy and reusing old things in new ways.Best of all, the book includes an interior gatefold with a poster with tips/reminders on how kids can "go green" everyday. Equally whimsical and heartfelt, this sweet homage to our beautiful planet is sure to inspire readers of all ages to do their part in keeping the Earth happy and healthy.

Tree Huggers


Leanne Statland Ellis - 2010
    They decide to join BUST, Belwood United to Save the Trees, a group of people who are trying to save the final few trees that are still standing. But what’s a girl to do when no one is listening or seems to care? When your favorite tree in the whole world, Luna, is about to be hacked to the ground, and you kind of like your friend Josh as more than a friend and have some stiff competition from the pretty, shiny-haired Hailey, another girl who has joined the group to get closer to Josh? Josh is ready to chain himself to the trees in protest, but how far is Alex willing to go to save her beloved Luna?Leanne Statland Ellis wrote Tree Huggers because, as a teacher for many years, she has encountered countless students who care deeply about the environment and want to take action to help in any way they can. As a teacher in Los Angeles, Leanne and her students studied the environment and became citizen foresters, often volunteering their time to plant trees with a local nonprofit organization. Many of the events in this book are true.She has seen firsthand the force of children’s passions and actions, and she wrote this book to remind children everywhere that they are powerful people who should never be told that they can’t make a difference because they are “just kids”.Buy it here: http://rfwp.com/5211.htm

Trophic Cascades: Predators, Prey, and the Changing Dynamics of Nature


John Terborgh - 2010
    Trophic cascades are often drastically disrupted by human interventions—for example, when wolves and cougars are removed, allowing deer and beaver to become destructive—yet have only recently begun to be considered in the development of conservation and management strategies.   Trophic Cascades is the first comprehensive presentation of the science on this subject. It brings together some of the world’s leading scientists and researchers to explain the importance of large animals in regulating ecosystems, and to relate that scientific knowledge to practical conservation.   Chapters examine trophic cascades across the world’s major biomes, including intertidal habitats, coastal oceans, lakes, nearshore ecosystems, open oceans, tropical forests, boreal and temperate ecosystems, low arctic scrubland, savannas, and islands. Additional chapters consider aboveground/belowground linkages, predation and ecosystem processes, consumer control by megafauna and fire, and alternative states in ecosystems. An introductory chapter offers a concise overview of trophic cascades, while concluding chapters consider theoretical perspectives and comparative issues.   Trophic Cascades provides a scientific basis and justification for the idea that large predators and top-down forcing must be considered in conservation strategies, alongside factors such as habitat preservation and invasive species. It is a groundbreaking work for scientists and managers involved with biodiversity conservation and protection.

Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World


Wangari Maathai - 2010
    Despite dire warnings and escalating concern over the state of our planet, many people feel out of touch with the natural world. Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai has spent decades working with the Green Belt Movement to help women in rural Kenya plant—and sustain—millions of trees. With their hands in the dirt, these women often find themselves empowered and “at home” in a way they never did before. Maathai wants to impart that feeling to everyone, and believes that the key lies in traditional spiritual values: love for the environment, self-betterment, gratitude and respect, and a commitment to service. While educated in the Christian tradition, Maathai draws inspiration from many faiths, celebrating the Jewish mandate tikkun olam (“repair the world”) and renewing the Japanese term mottainai (“don’t waste”). Through rededication to these values, she believes, we might finally bring about healing for ourselves and the earth.

Nature's Secret Messages: Hidden in Plain Sight


Elaine Wilkes - 2010
    . . but in what language? When we learn how to discern her secrets, a world of information appears that can help us live healthier, happier, and more balanced lives.This intriguing book will arouse your curiosity by combining ancient wisdom with modern research, and imagination with science, to help you see Nature in a whole new way. You’ll discover how to . . . ·     Recognize divine designs, hidden in plain sight, to forge a more profound mind-body-soul connection with the environment ·     Look at food in new (actually, ancient) ways and choose self life over shelf life ·     Cope with change, challenges, and time pressures by asking, What would Nature do? ·     Become aware of what society is doing to the environment, and learn easy green solutions to save money and help the planet Exercises throughout the book will empower you to tune in to Nature’s wisdom in order to develop a healthier mind, body, soul, and planet.

The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change: The Science, the Solutions, the Way Forward


Danny Chivers - 2010
    This completely new book meets the skeptics head on, offering a guide to the science, an insight into the politics of climate justice, and a clear sense of the way forward.Danny Chivers is a freelance carbon analyst and environmental writer. He recently created an online carbon calculator encapsulating all of the United Kingdom's emissions for the Guardian, and is working on one that will do the same for the United States.

Green Start: Little Helpers


Ikids - 2010
    Each hardcover book's simple,nonfiction content inspires children to love and respect the natural world and the parent spread at the back of each book shows how easy it is to practice (and teach!) earth-friendly habits right at home. Little things we do every day can make a big difference in helping our Earth. Kids will discover all the simple things they can do to help the world.

Field Guide to Freshwater Invertebrates of North America


James H. Thorp - 2010
    This Guide will be useful for experienced nature enthusiasts, students doing aquatic field projects, and anglers looking for the best fish bait, lure, or fly. Color photographs and art, as well as the broad geographic coverage, set this guide apart.

Dark Mountain: Issue 1


Dougald Hine - 2010
    Their essays, stories, poems and images are woven into a conversation which draws on a range of cultural and intellectual traditions.

Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities


Peter Harnik - 2010
    The U.S. Conference of Mayors recently cited meeting the growing demand for parks and open space as one of the biggest challenges for urban leaders today. It is now widely agreed that the U.S. needs an ambitious and creative plan to increase urban parklands. Urban Green explores new and innovative ways for “built out” cities to add much-needed parks. Peter Harnik first explores the question of why urban parkland is needed and then looks at ways to determine how much is possible and where park investment should go. When presenting the ideas and examples for parkland, he also recommends political practices that help create parks. The book offers many practical solutions, from reusing the land under defunct factories to sharing schoolyards, from building trails on abandoned tracks to planting community gardens, from decking parks over highways to allowing more activities in cemeteries, from eliminating parking lots to uncovering buried streams, and more. No strategy alone is perfect, and each has its own set of realities. But collectively they suggest a path toward making modern cities more beautiful, more sociable, more fun, more ecologically sound, and more successful.

Nature Guide to the Northern Forest: Exploring the Ecology of the Forests of New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine


Peter J. Marchand - 2010
    Readable and enlightening, this book explores topics such as human’s influence on the history of the wild, adaptation of species at high elevations, the turning of the seasons, winter, and climate change. Includes illustrations and photographs to help readers identify plants and animals.

Mountain Nature: A Seasonal Natural History of the Southern Appalachians


Jennifer Frick-Ruppert - 2010
    Mountain Nature is a lively and engaging account of the ecology of this remarkable region. It explores the animals and plants of the Southern Appalachians and the webs of interdependence that connect them.Within the region's roughly 35 million acres, extending from north Georgia through the Carolinas to northern Virginia, exists a mosaic of habitats, each fostering its own unique natural community. Stories of the animals and plants of the Southern Appalachians are intertwined with descriptions of the seasons, giving readers a glimpse into the interlinked rhythms of nature, from daily and yearly cycles to long-term geological changes. Residents and visitors to Great Smoky Mountains or Shenandoah National Parks, the Blue Ridge Parkway, or any of the national forests or other natural attractions within the region will welcome this appealing introduction to its ecological wonders.

Principles of Environmental Science and Engineering


P. Venugopala Rao - 2010
    Divided into three parts, the book begins by discussing the biosphere, natural resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, and community health. Then it goes on to give detailed description on topics such as pollution and control, environmental management, and sustainable development. Finally, it focuses on environmental chemistry, environmental microbiology, and monitoring and analysis of pollutants. KEY FEATURES • Key words and summary at the end of each chapter provide the students an easy way of recapitulation. • A large number of figures illustrate the topics discussed. • Projects of environmental concern suggested at the end of the book enable the students to work in field projects. Besides engineering students, undergraduate students in other streams, practicing engineers and professionals would find the text immensely useful.

Geology Unfolded


Thomas H. Morris - 2010
    Special features include: aerial photographs for views and insights not obtainable from ground level, an illustrated glossary, stratigraphic columns of each park, and fast facts of each park. Written for the geologically curious by professors who have used the parks as their classroom to educate a generation of geoscientists.

The Physics of Glaciers


Kurt M. Cuffey - 2010
    New material on climate change includes interactions between ice sheets and the ocean and atmosphere, paleoclimate reconstruction using ice cores, Quaternary climate history and the ice ages, and sea level rise. The book also explores topics of interest to geologists and geophysicists, including glacial connections to geomorphology, sedimentation, isostasy, and tectonics. -Completely updated and revised, with 30% new material including climate change-Accessible to students, and an essential guide for researchers-Authored by preeminent glaciologists

The Universe of Design: Horst Rittel's Theories of Design and Planning


Jean-Pierre Protzen - 2010
    Horst Rittel studied this process of making plans and he developed theories - including his notion of "wicked problems" - that are used in many fields today. From product design, architecture and planning - where Rittel's work was originally developed - to governmental agencies, business schools and software design, Rittel's ideas are being used. This book collects previously unavailable work of Rittel's within the framework of a discussion of Rittel's theories and philosophical influences.

Going Green Without Going Broke


Diedra "DD" Holley - 2010
    They all seem to have the same problem; these books are made for people with money Buy solar panels, get a wind turbine, go geothermal, new insulation and such. These things cost a lot of time and money. Going Green Without Going Broke was written for those of us who have limited resources. You may have some money set off to the side, or you may not. Either way, this book is for you. The suggestions in this book range in cost from FREE to about $80. Between these covers you will find 25 ways to go green without emptying your wallet. Most of them will even put a little green back in We have heard for years that it's greener and cheaper to make it yourself. Is it really? I have done studies on that very thing so you can make an informed decision rather than the expensive trial and error method. Minimal impact on your wallet, minimal impact on your lifestyle; BIG impact on the environment.

Hope Is an Imperative: The Essential David Orr


David W. Orr - 2010
     Hope Is an Imperative brings together in a single volume Professor Orr’s most important works. These include classics such as “What Is Education For?,” one of the most widely reprinted essays in the environmental literature, “The Campus and the Biosphere,” which helped launch the green campus movement,and “Loving Children: A Design Problem,” which renowned theologian and philosopher Thomas Berry called “the most remarkable essay I’ve read in my whole life.”   The book features thirty-three essays, along with an introductory section that considers the evolution of environmentalism, section introductions that place the essays into a larger context, and a foreword by physicist and author Fritjof Capra.  Hope Is an Imperative is a comprehensive collection of works by one of the most important thinkers and writers of our time. It offers a complete introduction to the writings of David Orr for readers new to the field, and represents a welcome compendium of key essays for longtime fans. The book is a must-have volume for every environmentalist’s bookshelf.

Kenzo Tange and the Metabolist Movement: Urban Utopias of Modern Japan


Zhongjie Lin - 2010
    This book focuses on the Metabolists' utopian concept of the city and investigates the design and political implications of their visionary planning in the postwar society. At the root of the group's urban utopias was a particular biotechical notion of the city as an organic process. It stood in opposition to the Modernist view of city design and led to such radical design concepts as marine civilization and artificial terrains, which embodied the metabolists' ideals of social change.Tracing the evolution of Metabolism from its inception at the 1960 World Design Conference to its spectacular swansong at the Osaka World Exposition in 1970, this book situates Metabolism in the context of Japan's mass urban reconstruction, economic miracle, and socio-political reorientation. This new study will interest architectural and urban historians, architects and all those interested in avant-garde design and Japanese architecture.

Sustainable World Sourcebook: Critical Issues, Inspiring Solutions, Resources for Action


Sustainable World Coalition - 2010
    The Sustainable World Sourcebook, Fourth Edition, is designed to support readers in finding pathways for effective individual and group action. It cuts through the glut of information, providing a clear, concise overview of the most important issues and aspects of sustainability that everyone needs to know. And it's packed with successful models, inspiring examples and actionable solutions. This richly illustrated, beautifully designed, full-color manual addresses: • Environmental issues and their impacts, along with a prescription for rapid, large-scale change • Energy resources, peak oil, conservation, and emerging technologies • The global financial crisis, economic transition, green jobs, and sustainable business • Poverty, health, education, food security, and social justice • Local, sustainable communities and engaged citizens and• Green lifestyle choices Featuring a foreword written by renowned environmentalist and best-selling author Paul Hawken, the Sustainable World Sourcebook will appeal to anyone seeking an understanding of a broad range of sustainability issues. Focused on solutions and actions, it is the essential guidebook for every concerned citizen. The Sustainable World Coalition, the producers of this book, provide educational materials and courses that foster strong engagement in personal and planetary sustainability. The Coalition is a project of Earth Island Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to environmental sustainability and social justice.

Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis


Chris Williams - 2010
    The majority of solutions on offer, from using efficient light bulbs to biking to work, focus on individual lifestyle changes, yet the scale of the crisis requires far deeper adjustments. Ecology and Socialism argues that time still remains to save humanity and the planet, but only by building social movements for environmental justice that can demand qualitative changes in our economy, workplaces, and infrastructure."Williams adds a new and vigorous voice to the growing awareness that, yes, it is our capitalist system that is ruining the natural foundation of our civilization and threatening the very idea of a future. I am particularly impressed by the way he develops a clear and powerful argument for an ecological socialism directly from the actual ground of struggle, whetheragainst climate change, systematic poisoning from pollution, or the choking stream of garbage. Ecology and Socialism is a notable addition to the growing movement to save our planet from death-dealing capitalism.”—Joel Kovel, author of The Enemy of Nature�Finally, a book that bridges the best of the scholarly and activist literatures in socialist ecology! Sophisticated and compelling, eschewing academic jargons �postmodern’ and otherwise, Ecology and Socialism more than competently champions a Marxist approach to environmental crisis and the kind of economic democracy needed to achieve an ecologically friendly system of production and human development.”—Paul Burkett, author of Marxism and Ecological Economics�This book is more than essential reading—it is a powerful weapon in the fight to save our planet.”—Ian Angus, editor of climateandcapitalism.comChris Williams is a longtime environmental activist, professor of physics and chemistry at Pace University, and chair of the science department at Packer Collegiate Institute. He lives in New York City.

Ayurvedic Nutrition


Vaidya Atreya Smith - 2010
    While it is easy to implement Ayurveda, its concepts and Sanskrit terms are often confusing. In Ayurvedic Nutrition, however, Atreya has written the most accessible book on Ayurveda to date. For anyone who has struggled with one-size-fits-all diet fads, this book offers a welcome relief with its comprehensive approach to nutrition adapted to your unique body type. Beginning with a self-test to determine your specific metabolic and psychological profile, the book emphasizes the importance of balance among all levels of the healing process - mind, body, and spirit. It then presents clear guidelines for choosing foods and making lifestyle choices to support a natural, healthy state and avoid those practices that disrupt natural metabolic balance. Ayurvedic Nutrition then provides a profile-specific, flexible 21-Day Plan to incorporate dietary and lifestyle changes sensibly. Most important, the Ayurvedic approach takes into account the many factors ignored by other programs that determine an optimal state of harmony and health for each individual. Drawn from the authors twenty-five years of practicing natural medicine, the book is highlighted by case studies, which illuminate the healing and balancing powers of Ayurveda. From weight loss to the reversal of disease, the programs outlined in this practical and inspirational book will help anyone recover natural rhythms and restore inherent balance.

What If There Were No Gray Wolves?: A Book about the Temperate Forest Ecosystem


Suzanne Slade - 2010
    Countless animals and plants live in them. So what difference could the loss of one animal species make? Follow the chain reaction, and discover how important gray wolves are.

Lyric Ecology: An Appreciation of the Work of Jan Zwicky


Mark Dickinson - 2010
    As a poet, philosophy teacher, and violinist, Zwicky strives to give voice to the ecology of experience. Whether reflecting on music, history, poetry, or the nature of thought itself, her work opens the reader to nothing less than the possibility of a different way of being. Despite receiving critical and academic praise culminating in nominations for two separate categories of the Governor General's Literary Award, both in one year, Zwicky's work remains mostly unknown; Lyric Ecology seeks to change this. This collection of twenty-five meditations from various contributors comprises the first formal consideration of Zwicky's philosophy. It includes essays, poems, letters, reviews, and songs, all giving readers insight into her work, what it has achieved, and what makes it significant today.

The Will of the Land


Peter A. Dettling - 2010
    .Peter Dettling first visited Canada’s internationally renowned Rocky Mountains national parks as a Swiss tourist in 1993. Immediately, he fell in love with the untouched wilderness, breathtaking landscapes, diverse flora and abundant animal life, all seemingly free from human intervention and manipulation. .With wide-eyed exuberance, Dettling moved to the heart of the Canadian Rockies in 2003, working as an artist and nature photographer. For years he documented the beauty and splendour of life in the mountains of western Canada, selling his art and photography to countless tourists and locals. In time, however, he gained insight into the realities of nature’s growing struggle against developing tourism, ill-conceived transportation routes and questionable wildlife management practices.

Climate Hope: On The Front Lines Of The Fight Against Coal


Ted Nace - 2010
    Book by Ted Nace

Tropical Rain Forest Ecology, Diversity, and Conservation


Jaboury Ghazoul - 2010
    They support the livelihoods of a substantial proportion of the world's population and are the source of many internationally traded commodities. Theyremain (despite decades of conservation attention) increasingly vulnerable to degradation and clearance, with profound though often uncertain future costs to global society. Understanding the ecology of these diverse biomes, and peoples' dependencies on them, is fundamental to their futuremanagement and conservation.Tropical Rain Forest Ecology, Diversity, and Conservation introduces and explores what rain forests are, how they arose, what they contain, how they function, and how humans use and impact them. The book starts by introducing the variety of rain forest plants, fungi, microorganisms, and animals, emphasising the spectacular diversity that is the motivation for their conservation. The central chapters describe the origins of rain forest communities, the variety of rain forest formations, and their ecology and dynamics. The challenge of explaining the species richness of rain forestcommunities lies at the heart of ecological theory, and forms a common theme throughout. The book's final section considers historical and current interactions of humans and rain forests. It explores biodiversity conservation as well as livelihood security for the many communities that are dependenton rain forests - inextricable issues that represent urgent priorities for scientists, conservationists, and policy makers.

Reverse Osmosis: Design, Processes, and Applications for Engineers


Jane Kucera - 2010
    This "green" technology is becoming more and more widely used in many settings, especially in industry. Even as the technology becomes more widespread, the understanding of the technology is lagging behind. "Reverse Osmosis" provides an essential reference for any process or chemical engineer working with this emergent technology.This outstanding reference: Provides a comprehensive and thorough coverage of reverse osmosis technologyDiscusses fundamental processes and equipment for operating and troubleshooting a reverse osmosis system, such as reverse osmosis principles, membrane technology, and flow patternsCovers more advanced engieering topics for specific industrial applications, such as system designFeatures clear, consise language written in easy-to-understand language, providing engineers immediate ability to implement a reverse osmosis program

The Living Landscape: How To Read And Understand It


Patrick Whitefield - 2010
    He will inspire you to reconnect with the land as a living entity, not a collection of different scenery, and develop an active relationship with nature and the countryside.The Living Landscape opens with a chapter on how to go about reading the landscape. The following chapters then go on to look in detail into landscape formation, from rocks, through soil, to vegetation, and the intricate web of interactions among plants, animals, climate, and people that makes the landscape around us. Each chapter is interspersed with diagrams, sketches, and notes that Patrick has taken over two decades of living and working in the countryside.This book invites you to engage actively with nature and experience it firsthand. Understanding how landscapes evolve is a useful skill for landscape designers, gardeners, and farmers large and small, but it is also a life-enhancing skill all of us can enjoy. Whitefield offers us the enduring pleasure that costs nothing and yet offers everything.

The Powers That Be: Global Energy for the Twenty-first Century and Beyond


Scott L. Montgomery - 2010
    Three or four decades from now, it certainly will: dwindling oil reserves will clash with skyrocketing demand, as developing nations around the world lead their citizens into the modern energy economy, and all the while, the grave threat of catastrophic climate change looms ever larger. Energy worries are at an all-time high—just how will we power our future?   With The Powers That Be, Scott L. Montgomery cuts through the hype, alarmism, and confusion to give us a straightforward, informed account of where we are now, and a map of where we’re going. Starting with the inescapable fact of our current dependence on fossil fuels—which supply 80% of all our energy needs today—Montgomery clearly and carefully lays out the many alternative energy options available, ranging from the familiar, like water and solar, to such nascent but promising sources as hydrogen and geothermal power. What is crucial, Montgomery explains, is understanding that our future will depend not on some single, wondrous breakthrough; instead, we should focus on developing a more diverse, adaptable energy future, one that draws on a variety of sources—and is thus less vulnerable to disruption or failure.   An admirably evenhanded and always realistic guide, Montgomery enables readers to understand the implications of energy funding, research, and politics at a global scale. At the same time, he doesn’t neglect the ultimate connection between those decisions and the average citizen flipping a light switch or sliding behind the wheel of a car, making The Powers That Be indispensible for our ever-more energy conscious age.

How To Really Save Money And Energy In Cooling Your Home


George S. Barton - 2010
    

Authentic Ecolodges


Hitesh Mehta - 2010
    'Authentic Ecolodges' culls together the best lodges in the world and celebrates their visionary design.

A Healthy, Wealthy, Sustainable World


John Emsley - 2010
    These roles are currently not widely appreciated and certainly not well understood. The book is aimed at educated laypeople who want to know more about the world around them but have little chemical knowledge. The themes relate to the importance of chemistry in everyday life, the benefits they currently bring, and how their use can continue on a sustainable basis. Topics include: o Health - conquering the diseases and stresses which still threaten us. o Food - the role of agrochemicals and food chemists. o Water - drinking water; the seas as a resource of raw materials. o Fuels - what are they and from what are they made? o Plastics - what are the used for and can they be sustainable? o Cities - what role has chemistry in modern life? o Sport - chemistry has changed the game. The world stands at a crossroads. What route to the future should we take? The road to a sustainable city beckons, but what effect will this have on chemistry, which appears so dependent on fossil resources? Its products are part of everyday living, and without them we could regress to the world of earlier generations when lives were blighted by disease, famines, dirt, and pain. In fact the industries based on chemistry – the chemical, agrochemical, and pharmaceutical industries – could be sustainable and not only benefit those in the developed world but could be shared by everyone on this planet and for generations to come. This book shows how it might be achieved. John Emsley is a popular science writer whose first book, The Consumer's Good Chemical Guide, won the 1995 Science Book Prize and has been translated into 12 other languages. Then came Molecules at an Exhibition, Vanity, Vitality & Virility, and Better Looking, Better Living, Better Loving, A Healthy, Wealthy, Sustainable World all devoted to the benefits of chemistry. A Healthy, Wealthy, Sustainable World will deal with the things we regard as essential to a developed lifestyle and which depend on chemistry, namely food, water, fuel, healing drugs and plastics, as well as other areas where its role is less obvious, such as city living and sport.

Media, Ecology and Conservation


John Blewitt - 2010
    This title focuses on global connectivity and the role of new digital and traditional media in bringing people together to protect the world's endangered wildlife and conserve fragile and threatened habitats.

The End of the Ice Age


Terence Young - 2010
    These are stories of unfulfilled expectations, infidelities and small though ultimately meaningful victories that allow us to withstand greater losses. This could be Carver territory if it was not so obviously Young's world. These stories will linger with you for a long time.

The Sustainability Transformation: How to Accelerate Positive Change in Challenging Times


Alan Atkisson - 2010
    Renowned consultant and communicator Alan AtKisson, author of the sustainability classic Believing Cassandra, cuts through the jargon and illuminates the essentials in this highly readable and motivational work. The Sustainability Transformation covers theory and practice, tools and strategies, the opportunities and the obstacles, illustrated with in-depth case studies and poignant personal anecdotes. AtKisson's aim is to empower the reader and to help grow a global 'army of change agents, ' working effectively to overcome the great challenges of our times. At the heart of the book is AtKisson's potent ISIS Method, used by business, governments, and organizations around the world. ISIS - Indicators, Systems, Innovation, Strategy - helps professionals, students, and amateurs alike to put sustainability to work and accelerate change, even when facing difficult circumstances. AtKisson also introduces the reader to many inspiring people, unsung heroes whose success stories provide a solid foundation for hope. Previously published in hardcover as The ISIS Agreement.