Earth Sciences, Geography & Environment Books

Book SynopsisA blueprint for creating sustainable businesses, emphasizing the power and potential of cooperative modelsTrade Review“If we are going to transform our energy systems at the pace physics requires, nothing could be more important than replacing turbo-charged hyper-individualistic capitalism with some of the cooperative schemes explored in this revealing book."—Bill McKibben, author Deep Economy “Melissa Scanlan's pioneering book begins with a powerful vision and then shows us how to achieve it, highlighting the cooperative and other alternative business forms as we navigate big transitions ahead.”—Gus Speth, co-editor of The New Systems Reader and author of Red Sky at Morning “Combining a critique of current business law with her deep understanding of environmental law, Melissa Scanlan successfully argues that cooperative business structures can and should be looked to as a route for social entrepreneurs.”—Dana Brakman Reiser, Brooklyn Law School “Melissa Scanlan powerfully demonstrates that new principles are needed—and are eminently practical and possible—to move beyond the ecologically destructive and inequality generating economic structures of our challenged era.”—Gar Alperovitz, author What Then Must We Do? and CoFounder, The Democracy Collaborative “At a time when calls for a democratic, sustainable, and equitable economy grow ever louder, this book challenges corporations to shift away from maximizing profits for shareholders, and provides best practices and proposals to promote this change.”—Alexandre Peñalver i Cabré, University of Barcelona

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“The book provides excellent ideas.”—Financial Times, selected as a Best Book of the Year in Economics, 2019Axiom Award silver medal winner in the Philanthropy/Nonprofit/Sustainability category, sponsored by Axiom Business Book Awards“Sustainability represents the overarching challenge of our day, which must be met with a commitment to a spirit of progress across the global community. A Better Planet offers an array of ideas for helping to deliver the ecological transition that is now an imperative.”—Emmanuel Macron, President of France“A Better Planet offers new approaches to the world’s most pressing environmental problems. It’s a timely and urgently needed volume.”—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History“Pressing the reset button, this book brings together refreshingly new and profoundly compelling approaches to environmental policy and action in the USA and beyond.”—Christiana Figueres, executive secretary, UN Climate Change Convention, 2010–16“A Better Planet: 40 Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future creates 40 opportunities to start accelerating the transition to a better planet today. The direction is clear; now we need to work together, at scale.”—Peter Bakker, president and CEO, World Business Council for Sustainable Development“No one can criticize Dan Esty and his talented colleagues for not thinking big: there are ideas in this book that will appeal to anyone—and maybe a couple that will raise your hackles. It’s the kind of spirited, discipline-crossing, deep-dive that will help reorient a sometimes-stale environmental debate!”—Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

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Book SynopsisA definitive history of ideas about land redistribution, allied political movements, and their varied consequences around the worldTrade Review“[Guldi explores], through history, ecology and informatics, the relationship between global poverty, the forced movement of populations and climate change. . . . She brings context and perspective to the facts.”—Geraldine Van Bueren, Times Literary Supplement“Guldi’s global study of land redistribution and allied political movements over 150 years considers how these can inform responses to current crises that affect refugees, including global warming.”—Andrew Robinson, NatureWinner of the 2023 Nautilus Book Award silver medal2023 Book of the Year by The New Statesman Magazine“An epic work of breathtaking scope and moral power, The Long Land War offers the definitive account of the rise and fall of land rights around the world over the last 150 years. Jo Guldi’s global history of property tells the story of some of the most important social transformations of the 20th century, from land reform and mass evictions to the rise of corporate agriculture and resistance movements fighting for the right to land and housing. Read this amazing achievement: an intellectual tour de force, a poetics of tragedy and hope, and a call to action connecting insights from the past to the great challenges of our time.”—Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City“Jo Guldi offers a compelling, extremely innovative account of the major movements for land in the late-nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries—one that could not be more timely.”—Jess Gilbert, author of the award-winning Planning Democracy: Agrarian Intellectuals and the Intended New Deal“It is said we can’t own the land; the land owns us. Jo Guldi’s The Long Land War is a tour-de-force that sets the land into its philosophical, colonial, spiritual, and practical contexts.”—Alastair McIntosh, author of Soil and Soul: People versus Corporate Power“The Long Land War is an exhilarating read. It puts the struggle for land rights at the heart of progressive politics in the context of the climate crisis and rampant inequality. This is a profound, elegant, globe-spanning, and ultimately hopeful book.”—Sunil Amrith, author of Unruly Waters“The Long Land War is one of the most interesting and different analyses of familiar conditions. It is about a war centered on circumstances we rarely associate with war. And in that sense the book forces us to consider and recognize that, for many people, access to housing is a battle that will only grow.”—Saskia Sassen, author of Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages

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Book SynopsisTracing the currents of change that unite the visual and material culture of the Islamic world across space and timeTrade Review“[The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art] is a very welcome and admirable contribution to a topic right at the forefront of the study of Islamic visual and cultural material and should provide an excellent model for future symposium-related publications.”—Cailah Jackson, English Historical Review

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Book SynopsisA fresh look at the world’s water crises, and the existing and emerging solutions that can be used to solve themTrade Review“Securing water for all is the challenge of our times, one made more urgent by the changing climate. Water for All not only highlights the many solutions available, it connects them and, above all, communicates that we have tools to hand.”—Kalanithy Vairavamoorthy, executive director, International Water Association“Although war, climate change, and the economy capture the headlines, water is the real issue that deserves our attention and is the critical common thread among those challenges. Water for All is a forward-looking roadmap for how to improve the world’s relationship with water so that human civilization and ecosystems can thrive together.”—Michael Webber, author of Power Trip: The Story of Energy and Thirst for Power: Energy, Water, and Human Survival“Water for All is a well-researched and engaging guide to clever ways to meet our future water challenges.”—William Alley, coauthor of The Water Recycling Revolution“In this remarkably factual book, David Sedlak shows that we have the knowledge, technology, and means to solve the world’s water problems. If you read only one book this year, read this one.”—Asit K. Biswas, chief executive, Third World Centre for Water Management, and visiting professor, University of Glasgow

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Book SynopsisA renowned scientist and environmental advocate looks back on a life that has straddled the worlds of science and politicsTrade Review“[A] frank, polyphonic autobiography.”—Nature“More gripping than a thrilling novel, Paul Ehrlich’s autobiography beats novels by being true. Colorful and no-holds-barred, it’s what you’d hope from the greatest living population biologist, who has thrived in science and policy controversies for 70 years.”—Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel “Paul Ehrlich is one of the supreme citizen-scientists of our time. His eventful and exemplary life is an inspiration not only for a new generation of scientists, but for citizens everywhere.”—Partha Dasgupta, author of Time and the Generations: Population Ethics for a Diminishing Planet, and Frank Ramsey Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Cambridge “Paul Ehrlich has stirred up plenty of controversy over the decades and remains one of the world’s most provocative thinkers and truth-tellers. In this compellingly readable, rich book, a great human being takes us on the road that led to his view of life.”—Carl Safina, author of Becoming Wild “An irresistible read. Paul Ehrlich captivates us with his adventures and his love for butterflies, biology, family, and humanity, all interwoven with his irrepressible passion to defend nature—and us.”—Diana Wall, Colorado State University“Two books sat side by side on our family bookshelf while I was growing up in the early 1970s, alerting me to the growing threat to our environment. One of them was Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb—a prescient, early warning of our collision course with environmental sustainability. It is a delight, a half century later, to read Paul’s wide-ranging, wondrous, and pleasantly amusing account of his amazing life—as a scientist, thinker, communicator, influencer, and champion for a sustainable world. Read Life and be emboldened to join the defining battle of our time—the battle to preserve a livable planet.”—Michael Mann, author of The New Climate War“In this adventure-filled book, one of the leading biologists of the last hundred years shares the stories of his fully lived life, a life in which he discovered many new details of the obscure biology of butterflies, reshaped the fields of evolutionary biology and conservation, and unapologetically sought to remake the world. It is a fascinating, funny, provocative book about a fascinating, funny, provocative man.”—Rob Dunn, author of A Natural History of the Future

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Book SynopsisThe first book to chronicle how innovation in laboratory designs for botanical research energized the emergence of physiological plant ecology as a vibrant subdiscipline

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Book SynopsisA moving exploration of presence and place told through the stories of small-scale farmers who, despite intense adversity, continue caring for their landTrade ReviewFinalist for the Reed Environmental Writing Award, sponsored by the Southern Environmental Law Center“Brooks Lamb has taken seriously my father Wendell Berry’s assertion that we don’t have an agricultural crisis in America but a cultural crisis. He dares to take the virtues of affection and fidelity to particular places as economic necessities. Working landscapes and the farming people who belong to them have been ignored for generations; we have nearly lost the cultural knowledge that they hold. He tells their stories with due respect and calls upon us to learn from them.”—Mary Berry, executive director, The Berry Center“Love for the Land is excellent. It reinforces that the work we do daily has a spiritual presence. In this book, Brooks Lamb makes real the humanity of the land and our relationship to the land.”—Ebonie Alexander, executive director, Black Family Land Trust“Love for the Land puts readers directly in touch with farmers, highlighting their hopes and concerns as they navigate a complex agricultural and land management landscape. Given the absence of farmer voices in today’s increasingly urban world, this book is more necessary than ever.”—Norman Wirzba, author of This Sacred Life: Humanity’s Place in a Wounded World“In Love for the Land, Lamb powerfully explores the virtues of stewardship, tracing their import in and through quotidian rhythms of care, crises of consolidation, and the vital demands of environmental justice and racial equity. This is a graceful, thoughtful book.”—Grace Olmstead, author of Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of the Places We’ve Left Behind“Brooks Lamb uses the inspiring words of farmers who remain on their land to show how they exemplify the stewardship virtues of imagination, affection, and fidelity.”—Brian Donahue, author of Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town

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Book SynopsisAn urgent account of the state of our oceans today—and what we must do to protect themTrade Review“Provides a persuasive guide to recovery, and is an inspiring and invigorating read.”—Phoebe Weston, The Guardian“Armstrong argues that the institutions and laws that govern our oceans are too fragmented, too weak and too amenable to vested interests to protect the marine environment from further destruction. . . . He makes his case for a new approach by exploring the mess we are in.”—Simon Ings, New Scientist“This thoughtful tome is a must-read for anyone who cares about ocean and marine life.”—Sunday Express“This is a vision for bio-diversity, citizen-led governance, equality, sustainability and recovery, and the possibility of social and economic benefits for all.”—Jini Reddy, National Geographic “An intriguing new book. . . . Using an array of political and oceanographical literature, Armstrong details how humans are on the way to wrecking our marine environment through everything from overfishing to climate change.”—Bill Bowkett, Reaction“Prof Armstrong is a gifted storyteller. . . . He provides a fascinating history of how different civilisations have viewed the sea [and] . . . offers hope—the ‘new deal’ of the title. . . . An excellent start would be to invest £20 in this informative, engaging book and perhaps, when you have finished with it, to send it on to your MP.”—Jonathan Self, Country Life“[A] valuable and a thought-provoking read, providing a great introduction to current issues in ocean governance.”—Mélodie Ruwet, Environmental PoliticsWinner of the Lynton Keith Caldwell Award, sponsored by the APSA“Indispensable. A must read for anyone who cares about the ocean and understands the integral role it plays in our lives. This book is also a strong reminder that doing better and leaving no one behind in the process is a choice we can and should make for the sake of our present and our future.”—Dr. Asha de Vos, founder of Oceanswell“Chris Armstrong delivers a deep dive into a complex and crucial ocean narrative. A Blue New Deal is a gripping read, providing a well-argued vision of a just future for nature and humanity in the largest liveable space on earth.”—Torsten Thiele, founder of the Global Ocean Trust“A Blue New Deal is a timely contribution to one of the most important issues facing us all, written with an appropriate sense of urgency but also as a result of deep and wide scholarship. I hope, for all our sakes, it reaches a wide readership.”—Ray Monk, author of Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius“A Blue New Deal is the first systematic look by a political theorist at the most important and most endangered global commons. Not only does Chris Armstrong provide a brilliant critical account of the origins of the failing oceanic governance, he also offers a forward-looking guidance on how to design reforms towards justice and environmental sustainability. The range of issues addressed (from workers at sea, marine animals, small island states, seabed minerals) and a broad and practice-based approach to justice makes this book a must both for policy makers and political theorists.”—Dr. Petra Gümplová, University of Erfurt“Blue New Deal shows how our treatment of the sea aggravates both climate change and socioeconomic inequalities. It is rare for a book written by an academic to be so rich in facts and arguments and yet also fun to read. A must-read for academics, policy-makers and activists alike.”—Dr. Dimitrios Efthymiou, Goethe University Frankfurt

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Book SynopsisThis no-holds-barred narrative of the failure of conservation in northern New England's forests envisions a wilder, more equitable, lower-carbon future for forest-dependent communitiesTrade Review“From the first lifted colonial axe to the cold globalist clearcuts, Children of the Northern Forest is a fact-based and fierce forest history. Ecological warrior Jamie Sayen confronts the reader with the destruction of New England forests.”—Annie Proulx, author of Barkskins“No one has labored longer and harder for the protection of the northern forest than Jamie Sayen—from the western edge of the mighty Adirondacks to the vast forests of Maine’s interior he has done the work that earns him the right to tell this story. And he tells it with style, heart, and clarifying insight: it belongs on the shelf of everyone who wanders in these woods.”—Bill McKibben, author The End of Nature“Children of the Northern Forest examines why more than thirty years of strenuous conservation efforts have failed to protect northern New England’s forest, and presents a vision of a better future for the region and all its creatures.”—Brian Donahue, author of The Great Meadow and Reclaiming the Commons

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Book SynopsisA vibrant, diverse history of Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples in the age of RomanticismTrade Review“Best of all, Volcanic succeeds by showing the enduring draw of Vesuvius. . . . This is a polyphonic chorus of different voices and stories guided by such a stylish documentarian. . . . Momentous and spellbinding.”—Caroline Eden, Financial Times “A splendid work of historical archaeology. . . . Mr. Brewer writes as a literary and art critic as well as a historian—and he writes beautifully.”—Jeffrey Collins, Wall Street Journal“An entertaining social history. . . . [Brewer’s] account rests on the rare survival of a visitors’ book from 1826–8. . . . A fascinating and complex story, reflected by the mountain, itself an icon of destruction and renewal.”—Suzi Feay, The Guardian“[An] endlessly fascinating microhistory. . . . [Brewer’s] baroque prose is perfectly apt for his romantic subjects, all of whom were obsessed with the sublime.”—Pratinav Anil, Times (UK)“Vigorous and vividly detailed . . . deep scholarship sparked by serendipity.”—Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Times Literary Supplement“Brewer offers a series of lively pen portraits, interspersed with sociological sketches and glimpses of politics, science, painting, antiquarianism and more. . . . An extremely learned and companionable guide.”—Seamus Perry, Literary ReviewListed in New Statesman’s Best Books of the Academic Presses, 2023“An absorbing study by a master historian, Volcanic chronicles our fleeting attempts to comprehend, control and shape an unmasterable force of nature.” —Jeffrey Collins, The Australian“[A] brilliant study. . . . Such humility and respect for the natural world has never felt more apt nor urgent.”—Jacqueline Riding, Country Life“Brewer’s sweeping account is an enjoyable read rich in rigorous original research, thoughtful analysis and engaging storytelling. Like those travellers scaling the slopes under the watchful eyes of Salvatore Madonna, we couldn’t hope for a better guide.”—Emily Brand, BBC History Magazine“This is an exceptional book, a master class of historical writing, imagination and insight.”—John A. Davis, author of Naples and Napoleon“Vesuvius was a dramatic natural curiosity few travellers engaged in the Grand Tour could resist. By tracing the steps of visitors, guides and naturalists, Brewer writes a fascinating history of marvel and knowledge, strong emotions and leisure.”—Pietro Corsi, author of Science and Religion“In Volcanic, John Brewer animates the Vesuvius of the Romantic era, from the tourist throngs and guides who made the volcano their business, to the movers, shakers, savants and scientists whose works and lives intersected around this grand, natural laboratory. This is a rich, entertaining and illuminating account of the cultural milieu of continental Europe’s liveliest volcano.”—David Pyle, author of Volcano: Encounters Through the Ages“In this magnetic, densely populated, account of Vesuvius, Brewer moves at ease between the intensely close-focus and the universal. The volcano, nerve-wracking yet thrilling in its unpredictability, mesmerised individuals and even mirrored political reverberations in Europe and beyond. Brewer has captured Vesuvius in its Romantic entirety: he has written a remarkable book.”—Gillian Darley, author of Vesuvius: The Most Famous Volcano in the World

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Book SynopsisIn the tradition of Peter Matthiessen''s Wildlife in America or Aldo Leopold, Brenda Peterson tells the 300-year history of wild wolves in America. It is also our own history, seen through our relationship with wolves. The earliest Americans revered them. Settlers zealously exterminated them. Now, scientists, writers, and ordinary citizens are fighting to bring them back to the wild. Peterson, an eloquent voice in the battle for twenty years, makes the powerful case that without wolves, not only will our whole ecology unravel, but we''ll lose much of our national soul.

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Book SynopsisNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 BY THE NEW YORKER, THE GUARDIAN, and KIRKUS REVIEWS An award-winning investigative journalist takes a deep dive into the global waste crisis, exposing the hidden world that enables our modern economy—and finds out the dirty truth behind a simple question: what really happens to what we throw away? In Wasteland, journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis takes us on a shocking journey inside the waste industry—the secretive multi-billion dollar world that underpins the modern economy, quietly profiting from what we leave behind. In India, he meets the waste-pickers on the front line of the plastic crisis. In the UK, he journeys down sewers to confront our oldest—and newest—waste crisis, and comes face-to-face with nuclear waste. In Ghana, he follows the after-life of our technology and explores the global export network that results in goodwill donations clogging African landfill

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Book SynopsisClimate anxiety is real—and this practical, accessible guide helps address it on personal, relational, and structural levels, from the founder of the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth. Summer after summer is the hottest on record. People’s homes are flooding, burning, blowing away. We live with the loss, pain, and grief of what’s happened, and anxiety for what might happen next, as the systems in which we live are increasingly strained. Lessons from the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth addresses our collective concerns with empathy, grace, and practical strategies to help us all envision a viable future. By moving through your personal and general climate anxiety, frustration, helplessness and grief, you can move toward a sense of shared purpose and community care. You’ll find actionable steps for connecting with others, identifying and activating community abundance, matching your skills with organized climate activism, and imagining a

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Book SynopsisThe companion volume to the twelve-hour PBS series from the acclaimed filmmaker behind The Civil War, Baseball, and The War.America’s national parks spring from an idea as radical as the Declaration of Independence: that the nation’s most magnificent and sacred places should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone. In this evocative and lavishly illustrated narrative, Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan delve into the history of the park idea, from the first sighting by white men in 1851 of the valley that would become Yosemite and the creation of the world’s first national park at Yellowstone in 1872, through the most recent additions to a system that now encompasses nearly four hundred sites and 84 million acres.The authors recount the adventures, mythmaking, and intense political battles behind the evolution of the park system, and the enduring ideals that fostered its growth. They capture the importanc

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Book SynopsisAn original, engaging guide to creating a sustainable economy that will combat global warming while also improving our quality of life.Pick an environmental issue. Maybe air pollution, toxic waste, or deforestation. These all seem like solid choices, but none of these is actually an environmental problem--at least, not at its heart. Deep down, they are economic problems. Nearly all the issues we classify as environmental stem from defects in the DNA of America's current market system. This is emphatically true of our greatest environmental threat: global warming.With a focus on climate change, journalist and author Robert S. Devine reveals the fundamental flaws in the economy that enable environmental degradation. The Sustainable Economy is a book about economics, but it skips the equations and eases through the jargon, opting instead for compelling stories and surprising humor. Readers will encounter high-tech narwhals, struggling coal workers, orbiting g

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Book SynopsisAn impassioned and inspiring story from the creator of the award-winning documentary Sharkwater. Beginning with a childhood spent catching poisonous snakes and chasing after alligators, Rob Stewart, the award-winning documentary filmmaker behind Sharkwater, charts his development into one of the world''s leading environmental activists. Risking arrest and mafia reprisal in Costa Rica, nearly losing a leg in Panama and getting lost at sea in the remote Galapagos Islands, Stewart is living proof that the best way to create change in the world is to dive in over your head. With his efforts to save sharks leading to tangible policy change in countries around the world, Stewart sets his sights on a slightly bigger goal: saving humanity. Criss-crossing the globe to meet with the visionaries, entrepreneurs, scientists and children working to solve our environmental crises, Stewart''s message is clear: the revolution to save humanity has started, the only thing missing

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Book SynopsisExpanding on his landmark Globe and Mail series in which he documented his travels down sixteen of Canada's great rivers, Roy MacGregor tells the story of our country through the stories of its original highways, and how they sustain our spirit, identity and economy—past, present and future.No country is more blessed with fresh water than Canada. From the mouth of the Fraser River in BC, to the Bow in Alberta, the Red in Manitoba, the Gatineau, the Saint John and the most historic of all Canada's rivers, the St. Lawrence, our beloved chronicler of Canadian life, Roy MacGregor, has paddled, sailed and traversed their lengths, learned their stories and secrets, and the tales of centuries lived on their rapids and riverbanks. He raises lost tales, like that of the Great Tax Revolt of the Gatineau River, and reconsiders histories like that of the Irish would-be settlers who died on Grosse Ile and the incredible resilience of settlers in the Red River Vall

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive, accessible guide to understanding today's global economy, from the author of the bestselling A Beginner's Guide to the World Economy. While reporting on today's world, business and mainstream media alike use terms and mention trends that even the savviest consumer may find baffling. In his latest book, Randy Charles Epping uses compelling narratives and insightful analogies to clearly and concisely explain the rapidly changing way business is done in the twenty-first century, without a single chart or graph. Epping defines key ideas and commonly used words and phrases like carbon footprint, WTO, economy of scale, NAFTA, and outsourcing. He also illustrates how central banks help navigate global crises and drive the global economy, discusses the benefits of Green Economics, shows how trade wars can be avoided, and explains the virtual economy, where multimillion dollar transactions take place in the blink of an eye. Complete with 89

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Book SynopsisFor the past twelve thousand years, Earth’s stable climate has allowed human civilization to flourish. But this long benign summer is an anomaly in the Earth’s history and one that is rapidly coming to a close. The radical experiment of our modern industrial civilization is now disrupting our planet’s very metabolism; our future hinges in large part on how Earth responds. Climate change is already bearing down, hitting harder and faster than expected. The greatest danger is not extreme yet discrete weather events, such as Hurricane Katrina or the calamitous wildfires that now plague California, but profound and systemic disruptions on a global scale. Contrary to the pervasive belief that climate change will be a gradual escalator ride into balmier temperatures, the Earth’s climate system has a history of radical shifts-dramatic shocks that could lead to the collapse of social and economic systems. The question is no longer simply how can we stop climate

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Book Synopsis“Lucy is a 3.2-million-year-old skeleton who has become the spokeswoman for human evolution. She is perhaps the best known and most studied fossil hominid of the twentieth century, the benchmark by which other discoveries of human ancestors are judged.”-From Lucy’s LegacyIn his New York Times bestseller, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind, renowned paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson told the incredible story of his discovery of a partial female skeleton that revolutionized the study of human origins. Lucy literally changed our understanding of our world and who we come from. Since that dramatic find in 1974, there has been heated debate and-most important-more groundbreaking discoveries that have further transformed our understanding of when and how humans evolved. In Lucy’s Legacy, Johanson takes readers on a fascinating tour of the last three decades of study-the most exciting period of paleoanthropologic inve

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Book SynopsisA New York Times Notable Book of 2012Rachel Carson loved the ocean and wrote three books about its mysteries. But it was with her fourth book, Silent Spring, that this unassuming biologist transformed our relationship with the natural world. Silent Spring was a chilling indictment of DDT and other pesticides that until then had been hailed as safe and wondrously effective. It was Carson who sifted through all the evidence, documenting with alarming clarity the collateral damage to fish, birds, and other wildlife; revealing the effects of these new chemicals to be lasting, widespread, and lethal. Silent Spring shocked the public and forced the government to take action, despite a withering attack on Carson from the chemicals industry. It awakened the world to the heedless contamination of the environment and eventually led to the establishment of the EPA and to the banning of DDT. By drawing frightening parallels between dangerous

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Book SynopsisThe definitive biography of Everett Ruess, the artist, writer, and eloquent celebrator of the wilderness whose bold solo explorations of the American West and mysterious disappearance in the Utah desert at age twenty have earned him a large and devoted cult following.“Easily one of [Roberts’s] best . . . thoughtful and passionate . . . a compelling portrait of the Ruess myth.”—OutsideWandering alone with burros and pack horses through California and the Southwest for five years in the early 1930s, on voyages lasting as long as ten months, Ruess became friends with photographers Edward Weston and Dorothea Lange, swapped prints with Ansel Adams, took part in a Hopi ceremony, learned to speak Navajo, and was among the first outsiders to venture deeply into what was then (and to some extent still is) largely a little-known wilderness. When he vanished without a trace in November 1934, Ruess left behind thousands of pages of journ

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Book SynopsisSixty easty-to-read essays that enlarge our understanding of how climate change affects our daily lives, and arms us with the incontrovertible facts we need to make informed decisions about the future of the planet, and of humankind. “A breath of fresh air: just the facts, efficient and easy to understand.” —Scientific AmericanGlobal Weirdness summarizes everything we know about the science of climate change, explains what is likely to happen to the climate in the future, and lays out, in practical terms, what we can do to avoid further shifts. Climate Central tackles basic questions such as: -Is climate ever “normal”? -Why and how do fossil-fuel burning and other human practices produce greenhouse gases? -What natural forces have caused climate change in the past? -What risks does climate change pose for human health? -What accounts for the diminishment of mountain glaciers and sm

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Book SynopsisNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A white-knuckle tale of polar exploration and heroism in the Gilded Age from the New York Times bestselling author of Blood and Thunder and Ghost Soldiers. • “A splendid book in every way…a marvelous nonfiction thriller.” —The Wall Street Journal On July 8, 1879, Captain George Washington De Long and his team of thirty-two men set sail from San Francisco on the USS Jeanette. Heading deep into uncharted Arctic waters, they carried the aspirations of a young country burning to be the first nation to reach the North Pole. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the Jeannette's hull was breached by an impassable stretch of pack ice, forcing the crew to abandon ship amid torrents of rushing of water. Hours later, the ship had sunk below the surface, marooning the men a thousand miles north of Siberia, where they faced a terrifying march with m

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Book SynopsisIn time for the one year anniversary of the 2011 earthquake in Japan, a collection of essays and stories by Japanese writers on the devastating disaster, its aftermath, and the resolve of a people to rebuild.On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake occurred off the northeastern coast of Japan, triggering a 50-foot tsunami that crushed everything in its path—highways, airports, villages, trains, and buses—leaving death and destruction behind, and causing a major radiation leak from five nuclear plants. Here eighteen writers give us their trenchant observations and emotional responses to such a tragedy, in what is a fascinating, enigmatic and poignant collection.

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Book SynopsisFrom warning the public of impending floods to settling legal arguments over water rights, the measurement of streamflow ('streamgaging') plays a vital role in our society. This book sees the ultimate goal of NSIP as developing the ability to use existing data-gathering sites to generate streamflow information.Table of Contents1 Front Matter; 2 Executive Summary; 3 1 Introduction; 4 2 Gaging the Nation's Streams; 5 3 Selection of NSIP Base Gage Locations; 6 4 Streamflow Network Design; 7 5 Streamflow Information; 8 6 Contributions of NSIP to River Science; 9 7 Summary and Conclusions; 10 References; 11 Appendix A: Biographical Sketches

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Book SynopsisOffers recommendations for research to improve understanding of how changes in human populations affect the natural environment by means of changes in land use, such as deforestation, urban development, and development of coastal zones. This book is useful for researchers, research funders, and students.Table of Contents1 Front Matter; 2 PART I--PANEL REPORT: Executive Summary; 3 1 The State of Knowledge; 4 2 Recommended Research Directions; 5 References; 6 PART II--PAPERS: 3 Global and Case-Based Modeling of Population and Land Use Change--Gunther Fischer and Brian C. O'Neill; 7 4 Population and Environment in the U.S. Great Plains--Myron P. Gutmann, William J. Parton, Geoff Cunfer, and Ingrid C. Burke; 8 5 Population and Environment in Amazonia: Landscape and Household Dynamics--Emilio F. Moran, Eduardo S. Brondizio, and Leah K. VanWey; 9 6 Population Change and Landscape Dynamics: The Nang Rong, Thailand, Studies--Stephen J. Walsh, Ronald R. Rindfuss, Pramote Prasartkul, Barbara Entwisle, and Aphichat Chamratrithirong; 10 7 The Urban Ecology of Metropolitan Phoenix: A Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Study--Charles L. Redman; 11 8 Economies, Societies, and Landscapes in Transition: Examples from the Pearl River Delta, China, and the Red River Delta, Vietnam--Karen C. Seto; 12 9 Beyond Population Size: Examining Intricate Interactions Among Population Structure, Land Use, and Environment in Wolong Nature Reserve, China--Jianguo Liu, Li An, Sandra S. Batie, Scott L. Bearer, Xiaodong Chen, Richard E. Groop, Guangming He, Zai Liang,; 13 10 People, Land Use, and Environment in the Yaqui Valley, Sonora, Mexico--Pamela Matson, Amy L. Luers, Karen C. Seto, Rosamond L. Naylor, and Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio; 14 11 Patterns of Urban Land Use as Assessed by Satellite Imagery: An Application to Cairo, Egypt--John R. Weeks, Dennis P. Larson, and Debbie L. Fugate; 15 12 A Review of 10 Years of Work on Economic Growth and Population Change in Rural India--Andrew Foster; 16 Appendix About the Contributors; 17 Plates

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Book SynopsisDescribes and assesses the varied economic benefits derived from modernizing and expanding seismic monitoring activities in the United States. These benefits include more effective loss avoidance regulations and strategies, improved understanding of earthquake processes, better engineering design, and more.Table of Contents1 Front Matter; 2 Executive Summary; 3 1 Introduction; 4 2 The Role of Seismic Monitoring in Decision-Making; 5 3 Conceptual Framework for Benefit Estimation and a Taxonomy of Benefits; 6 4 Benefits from Improved Earthquake Hazard Assessment and Forecasting; 7 5 Benefits from Improved Loss Estimation Models; 8 6 Benefits from Performance-Based Engineering; 9 7 Benefits for Emergency Response and Recovery; 10 8 Integrating the Benefits--Conclusions and Recommendations; 11 References; 12 Appendix A: Excerpts from Bernknopf et al. (1993), "Societal Value of Geologic Maps"; 13 Appendix B: Committee and Staff Biographies; 14 Appendix C: Acronyms and Abbreviations

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Book SynopsisOf all the outputs of forests, water may be the most important. Streamflow from forests provides two-thirds of the nation's clean water supply. This book identifies actions that scientists, forest and water managers, and citizens can take to help sustain water resources from forests.Table of Contents1 Front Matter; 2 Summary; 3 1 Forests, Water, and People; 4 2 Forests and Water Management in the United States; 5 3 Forest Disturbance and Management Effects on Hydrology; 6 4 From Principles to Prediction: Research Needs for Forest Hydrology and Management; 7 5 Recommendations for Forests and Water in the Twenty-First Century; 8 References; 9 Appendix A: Institutional Governance and Regulations of Forests and Water; 10 Appendix B: Committee Biographical Information

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Book SynopsisClimate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks forand in many cases is already affectinga broad range of human and natural systems. The compelling case for these conclusions is provided in Advancing the Science of Climate Change, part of a congressionally requested suite of studies known as America's Climate Choices. While noting that there is always more to learn and that the scientific process is never closed, the book shows that hypotheses about climate change are supported by multiple lines of evidence and have stood firm in the face of serious debate and careful evaluation of alternative explanations. As decision makers respond to these risks, the nation's scientific enterprise can contribute through research that improves understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change and also is useful to decision makers at the local, regional, national, and international levels. The book identifies decisions being made in 12 secTable of Contents1 Front Matter; 2 Summary; 3 Part I; 4 1 Introduction: Science for Understanding and Responding to Climate Change; 5 2 What We Know About Climate Change and Its Interactions with People and Ecosystems; 6 3 A New Era of Climate Change Research; 7 4 Integrative Themes for Climate Change Research; 8 5 Recommendations for Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change Research; 9 Part II: Technical Chapters; 10 6 Changes in the Climate System; 11 7 Sea Level Rise and the Coastal Environment; 12 8 Freshwater Resources; 13 9 Ecosystems, Ecosystem Services, and Biodiversity; 14 10 Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food Production; 15 11 Public Health; 16 12 Cities and the Built Environment; 17 13 Transportation; 18 14 Energy Supply and Use; 19 15 Solar Radiation Management; 20 16 National and Human Security; 21 17 Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating Climate Policies; 22 References; 23 Appendix A: America's Climate Choices: Membership Lists; 24 Appendix B: Panel on Advancing the Science of Climate Change: Statement of Task; 25 Appendix C: Panel on Advancing the Science of Climate Change: Biographical Sketches; 26 Appendix D: Uncertainty Terminology; 27 Appendix E: The United States Global Change Research Program; 28 Appendix F: Geoengineering Options to Respond to Climate Change: Steps to Establish a Research Agenda; 29 Appendix G: Acronyms and Initialisms

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Book SynopsisTable of Contents1 Front Matter; 2 Summary; 3 1 Earth Sciences in the 21st Century; 4 2 New Research Opportunities in the Earth Sciences; 5 3 Findings and Recommendations; 6 References; 7 Appendixes; 8 Appendix A: List of Background Materials; 9 Appendix B: List of Contributors; 10 Appendix C: Committee and Staff Biographies

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