High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years To Solve Them


J.F. Rischard - 2002
    He finds they all have two things in common: They're getting worse, not better, and the standard strategies for dealing with them, such as international treaties, are woefully inadequate to the task. The chief problem is that in our high-population, fast-moving, globalized and interconnected world, we don't have an effective way of addressing the problems that such a world creates. Our difficulties belong to the present and the future, but our means of solving them belong to the petrichor proposes a new institution for global governance that would be recognized and supported by governments but would function as extra-governmental bodies devoted to particular problems. The powers of these "global issues networks" would not be legal but normative: They would monitor compliance with various globally recognized standards and would single out the nations and organizations that were not co-operating. Anyone who has eaten a can of "dolphin-safe" tuna knows how powerful, in a market-driven world, the pressure to comply with such standards can be. No book has ever presented such a clear and unified appraisal of global problems or offered such a consistent and well-defined approach to solving them. High Noon will be an agenda-setting book of interest across the political spectrum.

The Oil Man and the Sea: A Modern Misadventure on the Pacific Tanker Route


Arno Kopecky - 2013
    This region is home to the largest tract of temperate rainforest on earth, First Nations who have lived there for millennia, and some of the world’s most biodiverse waters—one spill is all it will take to erase ten thousand years of evolution.Arno Kopecky and his companions travel aboard a forty-one-foot sailboat exploring the pristine route—a profoundly volatile marine environment that registered 1,275 marine vessel incidents—mechanical failures, collisions, explosions, groundings, and sinkings—between 1999 and 2009 alone. Neither Kopecky nor the boat’s owner have ever sailed before, yet they brave these waters alone when their captain leaves them part way through the journey.Written with Kopecky’s quick humor and deft touch, this is a rich evocation of a mythic place and the ecology, culture, and history of a legendary region with a knife at its throat.

Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic


Marla Cone - 1978
    Awarded a major grant to conduct an exhaustive study of the deteriorating environment of the Arctic by the Pew Charitable Trusts (the first time Pew has given such a grant to a journalist), Los Angeles Times environmental reporter Marla Cone traveled across the Arctic, from Greenland to the Aleutian Islands, to find out why the Arctic is toxic.Silent Snow is not only a scientific journey, but a personal one. Whether hunting giant bowhead whales with native Alaskans who are struggling to protect their livelihood, or tracking endangered polar bears in Norway, Cone reports with an insider's eye on the dangers of pollution to native peoples and ecosystems, how Arctic cultures are adapting to this pollution, and what solutions will prevent the crisis from getting worse.

Programming Scala


Venkat Subramaniam - 2009
    You can use it to write traditional, imperative, object-oriented code. But you can also leverage its higher level of abstraction to take full advantage of modern, multicore systems. Programming Scala will show you how to use this powerful functional programming language to create highly scalable, highly concurrent applications on the Java Platform. The increasing popularity and availability of multicore processors is creating a whole new set of challenges--although you can enjoy true concurrency, you're now faced with higher contention and synchronization issues. Deploying an existing application on a multicore processor may bring out previously hidden concurrency issues. Java's multi-threading facility by itself isn't enough---it's a very low level abstraction. Instead, you need a paradigm that provides a higher level of abstraction to deal with concurrency. It's time to embrace Functional Programming. Scala is a hybrid Object-Oriented/Functional Programming language on the JVM. Using Scala, you can create traditional imperative programs, intermix them with Java code, and at the same time take advantage of higher levels of abstraction. You can use features that lead to concise, highly expressive code that remove the pain of dealing with concurrency.Programming Scala will show you the fundamentals of functional programming using Scala. Very quickly, you'll learn how this statically typed language can give you dynamic capabilities to create concise, scalable, highly capable concurrent code. Pragmatic programmers always use the right tool for the job. For concurrent programming on the Java VM, Scala is the tool, and Programming Scala by award-winning author Venkat Subramaniam is your guide.

Bees: Nature's Little Wonders


Candace Savage - 2008
    It considers the diversity and biology of bees, including their peculiar sociosexual arrangements (pity the poor drone), their quirky relationships with flowers, and their startling mental abilities: What are we to make of insects that communicate through symbolic dances? The book also addresses the mysterious syndrome known as colony collapse disorder and identifies opportunities for the conservation of pollinators.Enriched with cultural sidebars and complemented by a stunning collection of images, Bees is a must-read for conservationists, gardeners, and everyone else who cares about the world around them.Published in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation.Also available in paperback.

Bird


Andrew Zuckerman - 2009
    These winged creaturesfrom exotic parrots to everyday sparrows, and endangered penguins to woody owlsare captured with Zuckerman's painstaking perspective against a stark white background to reveal the vivid colors, textures, and personalities of each subject in extraordinary and exquisite detail. The ultimate art book for ornithologists and nature enthusiasts alike, Bird is a volume of sublime beauty.

Scratch: Home Cooking for Everyone Made Simple, Fun, and Totally Delicious


Maria Rodale - 2016
    She doesn’t think of eating homemade, from scratch meals as part of a trend or movement; it has always been her life. Raised in a family of farmers, bakers, chefs, gardeners, and publishers, Maria is used to growing, cooking, reading and writing about, and eating organic, delicious food. And now, for the first time ever, she’s sharing her tried-and-true family recipes.Scratch is full of comfort food recipes that aren’t focused on any one healthy trend, but are instead innately healthy, because Maria inspires you to return to your kitchen and cook with real, organic food. Recipes like Pasta Fagiole, Maria’s Fried Chicken, and Lamb & Barley Soup will be crowd pleasers for sure, but Maria throws in some unique-to-the-family recipes that are going to delight as well, such as her Pennsylvania Dutch Dandelion Salad with Bacon Dressing, Ardie’s Pasties, and Homemade Hoppin’ John (a black-eyed pea stew made with smoked turkey or ham).Besides sharing her family’s favorite recipes, Maria’s book also gives you a peek into her life as a Rodale, with personal family portraits and stories. With this cookbook, you can eat like the Rodale family every night of the week with delicious food to make at home, from scratch. Naturally healthy, bacon included.

Behind the Moon


Hsu-Ming Teo - 2005
    Highly recommended.”—Australian Bookseller & Publisher   Outsiders and misfits in their Australian school, three friends form a mutual bond: Justin Cheong, an only child and the idol of his Singaporean-Chinese parents; Tien Ho—daughter of a Vietnamese mother who stayed behind and an African American soldier she has never met—who lives with indifferent relatives; and Nigel “Gibbo” Gibson, an oddity: an Australian boy who, to his father’s chagrin, dislikes sports.   When Tien Ho’s mother arrives, the adjustment for mother and daughter is extreme. Gibbo is strongly attracted to beautiful, dainty Linh, to whom he is a kid, her daughter’s pal. And Justin discovers that he likes Gibbo as something more than a friend.   The three draw apart as they grow up, only to be reunited once more on Saturday, September 6, 1997, for the dinner Mrs. Cheong hosts for them and their parents, to watch the funeral of Princess Diana on television. This Dead Diana Dinner turns out to be a more explosive event than any of them would have dreamed possible.

SOS: What you can do to reduce climate change – simple actions that make a difference


Seth Wynes - 2019
    What you do matters - and the science proves it. How many actions can you tick of the list in this book to help save our planet?

Last Stand: Ted Turner's Quest to Save a Troubled Planet


Todd Wilkinson - 2013
    Last Stand gives us a new, unexpected lens through which to view a previously unsung hero of conservation and offers prescriptions for the future of conservation.

The Richest Man in Town: The Twelve Commandments of Wealth


W. Randall Jones - 2009
    But unfortunately, most of us don't have a clue how to reach these all too elusive goals. Quite simply, there's no definitive road map for getting there, no proven plan, and certainly very little access to those who have become "the richest man in town." But now W. Randall Jones, the founder of Worth magazine, is about to change all that. He's traveled to one hundred different towns and cities across the country and interviewed the wealthiest resident in each. No, these are not those folks who inherited their wealth, or happen to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Rather, these are the self-made types who, through hard work and ingenuity, found their own individual paths to financial success. Remarkably, during his research, Jones found that these successful people were not so different from one another. They all shared many of the same traits and followed what the author calls the Twelve Commandments of Wealth: stay hungry (even when you're successful) . . . you really do learn more from failing than you may think . . . absolutely be your own boss, the sooner the better . . . understand that selling is the key to success . . . where you live doesn't matter . . . never retire, and other, more surprising revelations. Practical, unique, and inspiring, this book lets you peek inside the living rooms of dozens of America's most successful people-and shows how you, too, can become The Richest Man in Town.

What Nature Does for Britain


Tony Juniper - 2015
    Yet we take supplies of clean water and secure food for granted, rarely considering the free work nature does for Britain. In fact for years we have damaged the systems that sustain us under the illusion that we are keeping prices down, through intensive farming, drainage of bogs, clearing forests and turning rivers into canals. As Tony Juniper's new analysis shows, however, the ways in which we meet our needs often doesn't make economic sense. Through vivid first hand accounts and inspirational examples of how the damage is being repaired, Juniper takes readers on a journey to a different Britain from the one many assume we inhabit, not a country where nature is worthless or an impediment to progress, but the real Britain, the one where we are supported by nature, wildlife and natural systems at almost every turn.

Planet Earth II


Stephen Moss - 2016
    From the most desolate desert to the depths of the jungle, from blistering heat and freezing cold to perpetual darkness and deadly UV, discover how a whole host of creatures have adapted to life in the most extreme conditions. And how they compete with one another to become the largest, the fastest, the most poisonous, or most devious - all in a bid to survive.Planet Earth II includes the first in-depth look at the urban environment, and the surprising range of behaviours occurring right under our noses, as well as some previously untouched island worlds. Filmed with remarkable 5k and infra-red technology, these are the challenges, the confrontations, and the triumphs of some of the most extraordinary creatures in the natural world, told from their perspective.This is our planet, as you have never seen it before.

Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America's Favorite Food


Steve Striffler - 2005
    He also reports on the way chickens are raised today and how they are consumed. What he discovers about America’s favorite meat is not just unpleasant but a powerful indictment of our industrial food system. The process of bringing chicken to our dinner tables is unhealthy for all concerned—from farmer to factory worker to consumer. The book traces the development of the poultry industry since the Second World War, analyzing the impact of such changes as the destruction of the family farm, the processing of chicken into nuggets and patties, and the changing makeup of the industrial labor force. The author describes the lives of immigrant workers and their reception in the small towns where they live. The conclusion is clear: there has to be a better way. Striffler proposes radical but practical change, a plan that promises more humane treatment of chickens, better food for the consumer, and fair payment for food workers and farmers.

Woodsman


Ben Law - 2013
    Ben Law's incredible sense of the land and his respect for age old traditions offers a wonderful insight into the life of Prickly Nut Wood.