Book picks similar to
The Really Big One by NOT A BOOK
nonfiction
nature
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Renewable Energy: A Primer for the Twenty-First Century
Bruce Usher - 2019
Now renewables are overtaking fossil fuels, with wind and solar energy becoming cheaper and more competitive every year. Growth in renewable energy will further accelerate as electric vehicles become less expensive than traditional automobiles. Understanding the implications of the energy transition will prepare us for the many changes ahead.This book is a primer for readers of all levels on the coming energy transition and its global consequences. Bruce Usher provides a concise yet comprehensive explanation for the extraordinary growth in wind and solar energy; the trajectory of the transition from fossil fuels to renewables; and the implications for industries, countries, and the climate. Written in a straightforward style with easy-to-understand visual aids, the book illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of renewable energy based on business fundamentals and analysis of the economic forces that have given renewables a tailwind. Usher dissects the winners and losers, illustrating how governments and businesses with a far-sighted approach will reap long-term benefits while others will trail behind. Alongside the business and finance case for renewable energy, he provides a timely illustration of the threat of catastrophic climate change and the perils of delay. A short and powerful guide to our energy present and future, this book makes it clear that, from both economic and environmental perspectives, there is no time to lose.
Owning It All: Essays
William Kittredge - 1987
As the Seattle Times has said of Owning It All: "You may never again see the American west in quite the same way if you take the time to view it through the eyes of William Kittredge. [This is a] stunning book." Having grown up on his family's cattle ranch in eastern Oregon, Kittredge directly confronts the contradictions and myths that lie at the heart of the Western experience: male freedom and female domesticity, the wild and the tame, self-interest and love of the land.
The Life of Dad: The Making of a Modern Father
Anna Machin - 2018
Becoming a father is one of most common but also one of the most profoundly life-altering experiences a man can have. It is up there with puberty, falling in love and experiencing your first loss. Fifty years ago a father’s role was assumed to be clear: he went to work; he provided the pay cheque; and he acted as a disciplinarian when he got home. But today a father’s role is much more fluid and complex. Dr Anna Machin has spent the past decade working with new and expectant fathers, studying the experiences of fathers and the questions fathers have: ‘Will fatherhood change me?’, ‘How do other men fulfil the role?’, ‘How can I help my child grow into a healthy, happy adult?’. In
The Life of Dad
, Dr Machin draws on her research and the latest findings in genetics, neuroscience and psychology to tell the story of fatherhood. She will show the extraordinary physiological changes a man undergoes when he becomes a father, investigate how a man’s genes can influence what sort of father he will be, and will show how a dad makes a unique contribution to his child’s life, helping to foster independence of mind and spirit. Throughout the book, readers will encounter the voices of real dads, expectant and established, as well as fascinating insights into fatherhood from across the globe. The Life of Dad throws out the old stereotypes of fatherhood in an entertaining and informative journey through the role of dad – helping you decide what sort of father you want to be. ‘A tour-de-force exploration of the forgotten half of the parenthood business. Essential reading for every expectant dad … and mum.’ – Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary psychology, University of Oxford
Mindfulness and the Natural World: Bringing our Awareness Back to Nature
Claire Thompson - 2013
This book describes the benefits to human beings of noticing their position in the Natural World.
Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind
Robert D. Richardson Jr. - 1986
In this new biography, based on a reexamination of Thoreau's manuscripts and on a retracing of his trips, Robert Richardson offers a view of Thoreau's life and achievement in their full nineteenth century context.
Honey and Dust: Travels in Search of Sweetness
Piers Moore Ede - 2005
There he met beekeeper Gunter, who showed him the wonders and magic of the beehive. Back in England, Piers decided upon a quest to seek the most wondrous honeys in the world.
Power Trip: From Oil Wells to Solar Cells---Our Ride to the Renewable Future
Amanda Little - 2009
Infused with next-generation candor and optimism, Power Trip examines the ways in which oil and coal have shaped America as an international superpower—even as they posed political and environmental dangers to the nation and the world. Hard-hitting yet optimistic, Power Trip is a manifesto for the younger generations who are inheriting the earth.
Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West
William Cronon - 1991
By exploring the ecological and economic changes that made Chicago America's most dynamic city and the Great West its hinterland, Mr. Cronon opens a new window onto our national past. This is the story of city and country becoming ever more tightly bound in a system so powerful that it reshaped the American landscape and transformed American culture. The world that emerged is our own.Winner of the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize
Living Green: A Practical Guide to Simple Sustainability
Greg Horn - 2006
Whether you are concerned about climate change, personal health, or just want to live more lightly on the planet, this book is for you. It helps you get past the worry and take positive action to improve both your health and the health of our environment. Based on a lifetime of research and practice, this practical guide for living green offers advice and solutions you can easily put into practice, like: *The 10 foods you should always eat organic to avoid pesticides, herbicides, hormones and antibiotics. *Affordable and practical ways to offset your "carbon footprint" and neutralize your personal impact on global warming. *The most chemically-intensive personal care, household cleaning and lawn care products, and their effective natural alternatives. *How soft plastic water bottles hurt your health, your pocket book and our environment, with a simple and refreshing alternative. *How a simple carbon filter can dramatically improve your everyday health and potentially add years to your life. *The truth about hybrids and flex fuels. *Why an organic mattress is the most important health investment you can make. Foreword by Jordan Rubin, New York Times best-selling author of The Maker's Diet.
Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England
Tom Wessels - 1997
What exactly is the meaning of all those stone walls in the middle of the forest? Why do beech and birch trees have smooth bark when the bark of all other northern species is rough? How do you tell the age of a beaver pond and determine if beavers still live there? Why are pine trees dominant in one patch of forest and maples in another? What happened to the American chestnut? Turn to this book for the answers, and no walk in the woods will ever be the same.
The Inheritance: Poisoned Fruit of JFK's Assassination
Christopher Fulton - 2018
Kennedy. Through Lincoln, crucial evidence ended up in Christopher's hands—evidence that was going to be used to facilitate a new future for America. But the U.S. government's position was clear: that evidence had to be confiscated and classified, and the truth hidden away from the public. Christopher was sent to federal prison for years under a sealed warrant and indictment. The Inheritance, Christopher's personal narrative, shares insider information from his encounters with the Russian Government, President Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, the Clinton White House, the U.S. Justice Department, the Secret Service, and the Kennedy family themselves. It reveals the true intentions of Evelyn Lincoln and her secret promise to Robert Kennedy—and Christopher's secret promise to John F. Kennedy Jr. The Inheritance explodes with history-changing information and answers the questions Americans are still asking, while pulling them through a gauntlet of some of the worst prisons this country has to offer. This book thrillingly exposes the reality of American power, and sheds light on the dark corners of current corruption within the executive branch and the justice and prison systems.
Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation
Bill Nye - 2014
In this book, he expands the points he has made, and claims that this debate is not so much about religion versus science, as about the nature of science itself. With infectious enthusiasm, he reveals the mechanics of evolutionary theory, explains how it is rooted in the testable and verifiable scientific method, and why it is therefore a sound explanation of our beginning. He argues passionately that to continue to assert otherwise, to continue to insist that creationism has a place in the science classroom is harmful not only to our children, but to the future of the greater world as well.
American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau
Bill McKibben - 2008
Classics of the environmental imagination—the essays of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and John Burroughs; Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac; Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring—are set against the inspiring story of an emerging activist movement, as revealed by newly uncovered reports of pioneering campaigns for conservation, passages from landmark legal opinions and legislation, and searing protest speeches. Here are some of America’s greatest and most impassioned writers, taking a turn toward nature and recognizing the fragility of our situation on earth and the urgency of the search for a sustainable way of life. Thought-provoking essays on overpopulation, consumerism, energy policy, and the nature of “nature” join ecologists’ memoirs and intimate sketches of the habitats of endangered species. The anthology includes a detailed chronology of the environmental movement and American environmental history, as well as an 80-page color portfolio of illustrations.
The Great Outdoors: A User's Guide: Everything You Need to Know Before Heading into the Wild (and How to Get Back in One Piece)
Brendan Leonard - 2017
With 400 strategies for engaging in the outdoors, and expert tips and tricks, The Great Outdoors: A User’s Guide makes Mother Nature easier to understand than ever before. Brendan Leonard, writer, filmmaker, and outdoor adventurer, shows the reader how rewarding it can be to live life away from the computer and get outside. From mountain climbing, to skiing, sledding, and sailing, Leonard shows that you don’t need to be a risk taker to enjoy the outdoors. And if the reader does find himself at the point of man vs. nature, Leonard shares survival skills from how to bandage a wound and read a topographical map, to how to drive on sand and remove a tick from your skin—all organized thematically and written in short takeaway entries with helpful line drawings. Bound in a uniquely rugged (and waterproof!) PVC cover material, The Great Outdoors: A User’s Guide is a friendly way into the outdoor lifestyle, whether you're looking to dabble or go all in.
Whistler's Walk: The Appalachian Trail in 142 Days
William Monk - 2018
Based on Monk's journal entries written daily along the way, readers are afforded the up-close and intimate privilege of witnessing his very real trials and triumphs, and each incredible, beautiful moment as he experienced it. Anyone who has hiked, or plans on hiking the Appalachian Trail, lovers of nature, and those who know what it's like to accomplish a seemingly insurmountable feat will relish the uplifting story of Monk's successful, 2,189-mile trek. With every milestone achieved throughout his life-changing, unbelievably difficult journey, Monk paints a magnificent portrait of the outdoors, and what it's like to fully immerse oneself in nature's glorious, awe-inspiring-and challenging-beauty.