Search results for ""Island Press""
Island Press Sustainable Landscape Construction: A Guide to Green Building Outdoors
Since the publication of the first edition in 2000, Sustainable Landscape Construction has helped to spur a movement towards resilient outdoor environments, in the U.S. and throughout the world. The third edition has been updated to include important recent developments in this landscape revolution. It remains essential reading for everyone with an interest in "green" design of outdoor spaces and infrastructures. Like its predecessors, the new edition of Sustainable Landscape Construction is organized around principles, recognizing that built environments, and our work in them, pose both pragmatic and ethical challenges. Each chapter focuses on one overarching site goal, such as "Pave Less," "Heal Injured Sites," and "Consider Origin and Fate of Materials." These principles of land sustainability are clearly articulated and developed through specific examples of more than 100 projects from around the world, reflecting both traditions and recent innovations. Expanded coverage of industry trends toward performance monitoring, and of lessons from project failures, form an important enhancement in this edition. New content also details the necessity to plan adaptively, not just preventively, for the realities of changing climate and intensifying weather. Some of the trends covered will shift how landscape architects and contractors will do business in challenging years ahead: to survive, many professionals and clients will focus on restoration projects, motivated by ecosystem services and social justice, and funded by innovative methods. Sustainable Landscape Construction is part of the canon of landscape construction texts, and with this update, remains a visionary, one of a kind reference for professionals and students.
£41.11
Island Press Aldo Leopold's Odyssey, Tenth Anniversary Edition: Rediscovering the Author of A Sand County Almanac
In 2006, Julianne Lutz Warren (nee Newton) asked readers to rediscover one of history's most renowned conservationists. Aldo Leopold's Odyssey was hailed by The New York Times as a "biography of ideas," making "us feel the loss of what might have followed A Sand County Almanac by showing us in authoritative detail what led up to it." Warren's astute narrative quickly became an essential part of the Leopold cannon, introducing new readers to the father of wildlife ecology and offering a fresh perspective to even the most seasoned scholars. A decade later, as our very concept of wilderness is changing, Warren frames Leopold's work in the context of the Anthropocene. With a new preface and foreword by Bill McKibben, the book underscores the ever- growing importance of Leopold's ideas in an increasingly human-dominated landscape. Drawing on unpublished archives, Warren traces Leopold's quest to define and preserve land health. Leopold's journey took him from lowa to Yale to the Southwest to Wisconsin, with fascinating stops along the way to probe the causes of early land settlement failures, contribute to the emerging science of ecology, and craft a new vision for land use. Leopold's life was dedicated to one fundamental dilemma: how can people live prosperously on the land and keep it healthy, too? For anyone compelled by this question, the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Aldo Leopold's Odyssey offers insight and inspiration.
£31.68
Island Press Nature's Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive By Investing in Nature
In Nature's Fortune, Mark Tercek, CEO of The Nature Conservancy and former investment banker, and science writer Jonathan Adams argue that nature is not only the foundation of human well-being, but also the smartest commercial investment any business or government can make. The forests, floodplains, and oyster reefs often seen simply as raw materials or as obstacles to be cleared in the name of progress are, in fact as important to our future prosperity as technology or law or business innovation. Who invests in nature, and why? What rates of return can it produce? When is protecting nature a good investment? With stories from the South Pacific to the California coast, from the Andes to the Gulf of Mexico and even to New York City, Nature's Fortune shows how viewing nature as green infrastructure allows for breakthroughs not only in conservation, protecting water supplies; enhancing the health of fisheries; making cities more sustainable, liveable, and safe; and dealing with unavoidable climate change, but in economic progress, as well. Organisations obviously depend on the environment for key resources, water, trees, and land. But they can also reap substantial commercial benefits in the form of risk mitigation, cost reduction, new investment opportunities, and the protection of assets. Once leaders learn how to account for nature in financial terms, they can incorporate that value into the organisation's decisions and activities, just as habitually as they consider cost, revenue, and ROI. A must-read for business leaders, CEOs, investors, and environmentalists alike, Nature's Fortune offers an essential guide to the world's economic, and environmental, well-being.
£21.53
Island Press State of the World 2014: Governing for Sustainability
Citizens expect their governments to lead on sustainability. But from largely disappointing international conferences like Rio II to the U.S.'s failure to pass meaningful climate legislation, governments' progress has been lackluster. That's not to say leadership is absent; it just often comes from the bottom up rather than the top down. Action--on climate, species loss, inequity, and other sustainability crises--is being driven by local, people's, women's, and grassroots movements around the world, often in opposition to the agendas pursued by governments and big corporations. These diverse efforts are the subject of the latest volume in the Worldwatch Institute's highly regarded "State of the World" series. The 2014 edition, marking the Institute's 40th anniversary, examines both barriers to responsible political and economic governance as well as gridlock-shattering new ideas.
£28.00
Island Press Food, Genes, and Culture: Eating Right for Your Origins
Vegan, low fat, low carb, slow carb: Every diet seems to promise a one-size-fits-all solution to health. But they ignore the diversity of human genes and how they interact with what we eat. In Food, Genes, and Culture, renowned ethnobotanist Gary Nabhan shows why the perfect diet for one person could be disastrous for another. If your ancestors were herders in Northern Europe, milk might well provide you with important nutrients, whereas if you're Native American, you have a higher likelihood of lactose intolerance. If your roots lie in the Greek islands, the acclaimed Mediterranean diet might save your heart; if not, all that olive oil could just give you stomach cramps. Nabhan traces food traditions around the world, from Bali to Mexico, uncovering the links between ancestry and individual responses to food. The implications go well beyond personal taste. Today's widespread mismatch between diet and genes is leading to serious health conditions, including a dramatic growth over the last 50 years in auto-immune and inflammatory diseases. Readers will not only learn why diabetes is running rampant among indigenous peoples and heart disease has risen among those of northern European descent, but may find the path to their own perfect diet.
£21.53
Island Press State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible?
Every day, we are presented with a range of "sustainable" products and activities-from "green" cleaning supplies to carbon offsets - but with so much labelled as "sustainable," the term has become essentially sustainable, at best indicating a practice or product slightly less damaging than the conventional alternative. Is it time to abandon the concept altogether, or can we find an accurate way to measure sustainability? If so, how can we achieve it? And if not, how can we best prepare for the coming ecological decline? In the latest edition of "Worldwatch Institute's State of the World" series, scientists, policy experts, and thought leaders tackle these questions, attempting to restore meaning to sustainability as more than just a marketing tool. In "State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible?", experts define clear sustainability metrics and examine various policies and perspectives, including geo-engineering, corporate transformation, and changes in agricultural policy, that could put us on the path to prosperity without diminishing the well-being of future generations. If these approaches fall short, the final chapters explore ways to prepare for drastic environmental change and resource depletion, such as strengthening democracy and societal resilience, protecting cultural heritage, and dealing with increased conflict and migration flows. "State of the World 2013" cuts through the rhetoric surrounding sustainability, offering a broad and realistic look at how close we are to fulfilling it today and which practices and policies will steer us in the right direction.
£33.13
Island Press Modern Poisons: A Brief Introduction to Contemporary Toxicology
Traditional toxicology textbooks tend to be doorstops: tomes filled with important but seemingly abstract chemistry and biology. Meanwhile, magazine and journal articles introduce students to timely topics such as EPA and endocrine disruption or the carcinogenic effects of pesticides, but don't provide the fundamentals needed to understand the science of toxicity. Written by a professor of toxicology, Modern Poisons bridges this gap. This accessible book explains basic principles in plain language while illuminating the most important issues in contemporary toxicology. Kolok begins by exploring age-old precepts of the field such as the dose-response relationship and the concept, first introduced by Ambroise Pare in the sixteenth century, that a chemical's particular action depends on its inherent chemical nature. The author goes on to show exactly how chemicals enter the body and elicit their toxic effect, as well as the body's methods of defence. With the fundamentals established, Kolok digs into advances in toxicology, tracing the field's development from World War II to the present clay. The book examines both technical discoveries and their impacts on public policy. Highlights include studies of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in toiletries and prescriptions, the emerging science on prions, and our growing understanding of epigenetics. Readers learn not only how toxic exposure affects people and wildlife, but about the long-term social and environmental consequences of our chemicals. Whether studying toxicology itself, public health, or environmental science, readers will develop a core understanding of, and curiosity about, this fast-changing field.
£38.20
Island Press Artful Rainwater Design: Creative Ways to Manage Stormwater
This is the go-to resource for designers creating new stormwater systems that are exciting, creative, and fun. Stormwater management as art? Absolutely. Rain is a resource that should be valued and celebrated, not merely treated as an urban design problem, and yet, traditional stormwater treatment methods often range from ugly to forgettable. Artful Rainwater Design shows that it's possible to effectively manage runoff while also creating inviting, attractive landscapes. This beautifully illustrated, comprehensive guide explains how to design creative, yet practical, landscapes that treat onsite stormwater management as an opportunity to enhance site design. Artful Rainwater Design is a must-have resource for landscape architects, urban designers, civil engineers, and architects looking to create landscapes that celebrate rain for the life-giving resource it is-and contribute to more sustainable, healthy, and even fun, built environments.
£36.00
Island Press The Kingdom of Rarities: The Story of America's Eastern National Forests
The Kingdom of Rarities presents a new context for understanding rarity and its implications, both for our understanding of how the natural world works and for what it can teach us about protecting biodiversity during a time of large-scale environmental change. Using cutting-edge science from remote outposts around the world, award-winning author Eric Dinerstein animates the key questions that scientists are asking themselves about why some species are so abundant and others not. What are the rarest species and why are they most likely to be found in certain types of environments? Which species have always been rare, and which have only recently been made rare? Which should we seek to protect most? Throughout, Dinerstein explores rarity as a central principle within conservation biology, advancing both our understanding of the natural world and inspiring the creation of new tools and technologies that can help us add to our knowledge and design more effective conservation strategies. He focuses on real-time threats to biodiversity, from climate change to habitat fragmentation, and draws on his long and distinguished scientific career to illuminate the concept of rarity for readers across the spectrum of scientific knowledge.
£22.98
Island Press Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water
Peter Gleick knows water. A world-renowned freshwater expert, Gleick is a MacArthur Foundation "genius", and according to the BBC, an environmental visionary. And he drinks from the tap. Why don't the rest of us? "Bottled and Sold" shows how water went from being a free natural resource to one of the most successful commercial products of the last one hundred years - and why we are poorer for it. It's a big story and water is big business. Every second of every day in the United States, a thousand people buy a plastic bottle of commercially produced water, and every second of every day a thousand more throw one of those bottles away. That adds up to more than thirty billion bottles a year and tens of billions of dollars. Have we simply been hoodwinked by corporate executives or are there legitimate reasons to buy all those bottles? With a scientist's eye and a natural storyteller's wit, Gleick investigates whether claims about the relative safety, convenience, and taste of bottled vs. tap hold water. And he exposes the true reasons we've turned to the bottle, from fear-mongering by business interests and our own vanity to the breakdown of public systems and global inequities. Jewel-encrusted "designer" H2O may be laughable, but the debate over commodifying water is deadly serious. It comes down to society's choices about the human right to water, the role of government and free markets, the importance of being "green", and fundamental values. Gleick gets to the heart of the bottled water craze, exploring what it means for our most basic necessity to become a luxury.
£18.61
Island Press Shifting Baselines: The Past and the Future of Ocean Fisheries
"Shifting Baselines" explores the real-world implications of a groundbreaking idea: we must understand the oceans of the past to protect the oceans of the future. In 1995, acclaimed marine biologist Daniel Pauly coined the term 'shifting baselines' to describe a phenomenon of lowered expectations, in which each generation regards a progressively poorer natural world as normal. This seminal volume expands on Pauly's work, showing how skewed visions of the past have led to disastrous marine policies and why historical perspective is critical to revitalize fisheries and ecosystems. Edited by marine ecologists Jeremy Jackson and Enric Sala, and historian Karen Alexander, this book brings together knowledge from disparate disciplines to paint a more realistic picture of past fisheries. The authors use case studies on the cod fishery and the connection between sardine and anchovy populations, among others, to explain various methods for studying historic trends and the intricate relationships between species. Subsequent chapters offer recommendations about both specific research methods and effective management. This practical information is framed by inspiring essays by Carl Safina and Randy Olson on a personal experience of shifting baselines and the importance of human stories in describing this phenomenon to a broad public. While each contributor brings a different expertise to bear, all agree on the importance of historical perspective for effective fisheries management. Readers, from students to professionals, will benefit enormously from this informed hindsight.
£27.32
Island Press State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity
In the 2012 edition of its flagship report, Worldwatch celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the 1992 Earth Summit with a far-reaching analysis of progress toward building sustainable economies. Written in clear language with easy-to-read charts, "State of the World 2012" offers a new perspective on what changes and policies will be necessary to make sustainability a permanent feature of the world's economies. The Worldwatch Institute has been named one of the top three environmental think tanks in the world by the University of Pennsylvania's Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program.
£23.71
Island Press The World's Water 1998-1999: The Biennial Report On Freshwater Resources
Produced biennially, "The World's Water" is the most comprehensive and up-to-date source of information and analysis on freshwater resources. Each new volume examines critical global trends and offers the best data available on a variety of topics related to water. The 2011-2012 edition features chapters on water policy, transboundary waters, and the effects of fossil fuel production on water resources, among other timely issues. Water briefs provide concise updates on topics including bottled water, The Great Lakes Water Agreement, and the state of the Colorado River. "The World's Water" is coauthored by MacArthur 'genius' Peter H. Gleick and his colleagues at the world-renowned Pacific Institute. Since the first volume was published in 1998, the series has become an indispensable resource for professionals in government and nongovernmental organisations, researchers, students, and anyone concerned with water and its use.
£38.00
Island Press The Science of Open Spaces: Theory and Practice for Conserving Large, Complex Systems
This title presents a new framework for conservation based on public engagement and natural sciences. Management policies have tended to promote a one-size-fits-all mentality for large, complex landscapes. Landscape ecologist Charles Curtin argues that instead we need a science-based approach that accounts for the dynamic nature of complex systems and gives local stakeholders a say in their futures. The Science of Open Spaces proposes that we return to "first principles", fundamental physical laws of the universe, and think about complex systems from the ground up based on modern scientific theory backed up by practical experience. Curtin walks us through foundational concepts of thermodynamics, ecology, sociology, and resilience theory, applying them to real-world examples from years he has spent designing large-scale, place-based collaborative research programmes around the world.
£37.00
Island Press Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives
Public transit is a powerful tool for addressing a huge range of urban problems, including traffic congestion and economic development as well as climate change. But while many people support transit in the abstract, it's often hard to channel that support into good transit investments. Part of the problem is that transit debates attract many kinds of experts, who often talk past each other. Ordinary people listen to a little of this and decide that transit is impossible to figure out. Jarrett Walker believes that transit can be simple, if we focus first on the underlying geometry that all transit technologies share. In "Human Transit", Walker supplies the basic tools, the critical questions, and the means to make smarter decisions about designing and implementing transit services. "Human Transit" explains the fundamental geometry of transit that shapes successful systems; the process for fitting technology to a particular community; and the local choices that lead to transit-friendly development. Whether you are in the field or simply a concerned citizen, here is an accessible guide to achieving successful public transit that will enrich any community.
£52.00
Island Press Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change
From the beginning of his career, Peter Calthorpe has been a leading innovator in sustainable building projects, sustainable development, and walkable communities. A leader in the New Urbanism Movement, he is an important resource for solutions to current problems of urban sprawl, suburban isolation, and the related problems of outsized energy consumption and an outsized share of world emissions. According to Ecological Urbanism, relentless and thoughtless development have created a way of living that brings us to a point of reckoning regarding energy, climate change and the way we shape our communities. The answer to these crises is Sustainable Development, a thoughtful combination of good Urbanism with renewable energy sources, state of the art conservation techniques, new green technologies, and integrated services and utilities. Sustainable Urbanism, the most recent result of Calthorpe's forward thinking, provides all the inherent benefits of Urbanism amplified by a new generation of ecological design, smart grids, climate responsive buildings, electric cars, and next-generation transit systems. This clearly written (and clearly provocative) work emerges from Calthorpe's belief that, just as the last fifty years have produced massive changes in our culture, economy and environment, the next fifty will generate changes of an even more profound nature. The book, enhanced by its superb graphic design, is an exploration of the challenges and potential shifts in each of these arenas, and how they can affect the future of our communities.
£23.99
Island Press Livestock in a Changing Landscape, Volume 1: Drivers, Consequences, and Responses
The rapidly changing nature of animal production systems, especially increasing intensification and globalization, is playing out in complex ways around the world. "Livestock in a Changing Landscape" offers a comprehensive examination of these important and far-reaching trends. The books are an outgrowth of a collaborative effort involving international nongovernmental organizations including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Swiss College of Agriculture (SHL) at Bern University of Applied Sciences, the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), and the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE). The volumes present new, sustainable approaches to the challenges created by fundamental shifts in livestock management and production, and represent an essential resource for policymakers, industry managers, and academics involved with this issue.
£70.00
Island Press Energy Development and Wildlife Conservation in Western North America
"Energy Development and Wildlife Conservation in Western North America" offers a road map for securing future energy supply while safeguarding wildlife. Contributors show how science can help craft solutions to conflicts between wildlife and energy development by delineating core areas, identifying landscapes that support viable populations, and forecasting future development scenarios to aid in conservation design. This title frames the issue and introduces readers to major types of extraction. It quantifies the pace and extent of current and future energy development. It provides an ecological foundation for understanding cumulative impacts on wildlife species. It synthesizes information on the biological response of wildlife to development. It discusses energy infrastructure as a conduit for the spread of invasive species. It compares impacts of alternative energy to those of conventional development. The final section calls for a shift away from site-level management that has failed to mitigate cumulative impacts on wildlife populations toward broad-scale planning and implementation of conservation in priority landscapes. The book concludes by identifying ways that decision makers can remove roadblocks to conservation, and provides a blueprint for implementing conservation plans. "Energy Development and Wildlife Conservation in Western North America" is a must-have volume for elected officials, industry representatives, natural resource managers, conservation groups, and the public seeking to promote energy independence while at the same time protecting wildlife.
£32.41
Island Press To Conserve Unimpaired: The Evolution of the National Park Idea
This book examines the evolution of the American national park idea, with the goal of defining a new vision for national parks in today’s world - a world in which adaptation to climate change presents a major challenge to park management.Keiter’s thesis is that the national parks have changed as society has changed, that new ideas have emerged and been tested, and that changes in park policy must ultimately remain faithful to the Organic Act’s “conserve unimpaired” mandate.Individual chapters address the idea or role of national parks as: wilderness areas; recreational playgrounds; tourist destinations; local economic engines; laboratories or classrooms; native or tribal homelands; wildlife reserves; and ecosystemcores in a larger landscape.
£29.00
Island Press Megaregions: Planning for Global Competitiveness
This title discusses planning for a future to respond to global challenges at the megaregional scale. The concept of 'the city' - as well as 'the state' and 'the nation state' - is passe, agree contributors to this insightful book. The new scale for considering economic strength and growth opportunities is 'the megaregion', a network of metropolitan centres and their surrounding areas that are spatially and functionally linked through environmental, economic, and infrastructure interactions. Recently a great deal of attention has been focused on the emergence of the European Union and on European spatial planning, which has boosted the region's competitiveness. "Mega-regions" applies these emerging concepts in an American context. It addresses critical questions for our future: what are the spatial implications of local, regional, national, and global trends within the context of sustainability, economic competitiveness, and social equity; how can we address housing, transportation, and infrastructure needs in growing megaregions; and, how can we develop and implement the policy changes necessary to make viable, livable megaregions. By the year 2050, megaregions will contain two-thirds of the U.S. population. Given the projected growth of the U.S. population and the accompanying geographic changes, this forward-looking book argues that U.S. planners and policymakers must examine and implement the megaregion as a new and appropriate framework. Contributors, all of whom are leaders in their academic and professional specialties, address the most critical issues confronting the U.S. over the next fifty years. At the same time, they examine ways in which the idea of megaregions might help address our concerns about equity, the economy, and the environment. Together, these essays define the theoretical, analytical, and operational underpinnings of a new structure that could respond to the anticipated upheavals in U.S. population and living patterns.
£30.23
Island Press Floodplain Management
Outlines a paradigm for flood management, one that emphasizes cost-effective, long-term success by integrating physical, chemical, and biological systems with societal capabilities. This book describes flood management practices, which are often based on dam or levee projects that do not incorporate the fresh understandings about river processes.
£23.71
Island Press Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy ignited America’s Apollo Project and sparked a revolution in space exploration. Today the New Apollo Energy Project is poised to revolutionise the production of energy and thereby save our planet. The nation that built the world’s most powerful rockets, its most advanced computers, and its most sophisticated life support systems is ready to create the world’s most powerful solar energy systems, its most advanced wind energy turbines, and its most sophisticated hybrid cars. Learn how the new energy economy will grow, the research that is required, and the legislation that must be passed to make the vision a reality.
£29.50
Island Press Saving a Million Species: Extinction Risk from Climate Change
The research paper "Extinction Risk from Climate Change" published in the journal "Nature" in January 2004 created front-page headlines around the world. The notion that climate change could drive more than a million species to extinction captured both the popular imagination and the attention of policymakers, and provoked an unprecedented round of scientific critique. "Saving a Million Species" reconsiders the central question of that paper: How many species may perish as a result of climate change and associated threats? Leaders from a range of disciplines synthesize the literature, refine the original estimates, and elaborate the conservation and policy implications. This book examines the initial extinction risk estimates of the original paper, subsequent critiques, and the media and policy impact of this unique study. It presents evidence of extinctions from climate change from different time frames in the past. It explores extinctions documented in the contemporary record. It sets forth new risk estimates for future climate change. It considers the conservation and policy implications of the estimates. "Saving a Million Species" offers a clear explanation of the science behind the headline-grabbing estimates for conservationists, researchers, teachers, students, and policymakers. It is a critical resource for helping those working to conserve biodiversity takes on the rapidly advancing and evolving global stressor of climate change - the most important issue in conservation biology today, and the one for which we are least prepared.
£32.00
Island Press Where the Dragon Meets the Angry River: Nature and Power in the People's Republic of China
China's meteoric rise to economic powerhouse might be charted with dams. Every river in the country has been tapped to power exploding cities and factories - every river but one. Running through one of the richest natural areas in the world, the Nujiang's raging waters were on the verge of being dammed when a 2004 government moratorium halted construction. Might the Chinese dragon bow to the angry river? Would Beijing put local people and their land ahead of power and profit? Could this remote region actually become a model for sustainable growth? Ed Grumbine travelled to the far corners of China's Yunnan province to find out. He was driven by a single question: could this last fragment of wild nature withstand China's unrelenting development? But as he hiked through deep-cut emerald mountains, backcountry villages, and burgeoning tourist towns, talking with trekking guides, school children, and rural farmers, he discovered that the problem wasn't as simple as growth versus conservation. In its struggle to 'build a well-off society in an all-round way', Beijing juggles a host of competing priorities: health care for impoverished villagers; habitat for threatened tigers, cars for a growing middle class; clean air for all citizens; energy to power new cities; and, rubber for the global marketplace. All the issues China faces are bound together - and to larger forces in Asia, the United States, and the world. "Where the Dragon Meets the Angry River" is an incisive meditation on the fate of China and the planet. Will the Angry River continue to flow? Will Tibetan girls from subsistence farming families learn to read and write? Can China and the U.S. come together to lead action on climate change? Far-reaching in its history and scope, this unique book pieces together the many facets of conservation and development in China, from the poorest rural hamlets to a globalized world. Ed Grumbine doesn't have a crystal ball, but he does show us the real-world consequences of decisions now being made in Beijing and beyond.
£28.05
Island Press Seeds of Sustainability: Lessons from the Birthplace of the Green Revolution in Agriculture
"Seeds of Sustainable Agriculture" is a groundbreaking analysis of agricultural development and transitions toward more sustainable management in one region. An invaluable resource for researchers, policymakers, and students alike, it examines new approaches to make agricultural landscapes healthier for both the environment and people. The Yaqui Valley is one of the most intensive agricultural regions of the world. It also faces resource limitations, threats to human health, and rapidly changing economic conditions. Pamela Matson and colleagues from leading institutions in the United States and Mexico spent fifteen years addressing this challenge. "Seeds of Sustainable Agriculture" provides unparalleled information about the causes and consequences of current agricultural methods. It also shows how knowledge can translate into better practices, not just in the Yaqui Valley, but throughout the world.
£34.00
Island Press Foundations of Ecological Resilience
This title presents the evolution of resilience theory in seminal papers and commentary. Ecological resilience provides a theoretical foundation for understanding how complex systems adapt to and recover from localized disturbances like hurricanes, fires, pest outbreaks, and floods, as well as large-scale perturbations such as climate change. Ecologists have developed resilience theory over the past three decades in an effort to explain surprising and nonlinear dynamics of complex adaptive systems. Resilience theory is especially important to environmental scientists for its role in underpinning adaptive management approaches to ecosystem and resource management. "Foundations of Ecological Resilience" is a collection of the most important articles on the subject of ecological resilience - those writings that have defined and developed basic concepts in the field and help explain its importance and meaning for scientists and researchers. The book's three sections cover articles that have shaped or defined the concepts and theories of resilience, including key papers that broke new conceptual ground and contributed novel ideas to the field; examples that demonstrate ecological resilience in a range of ecosystems; and, articles that present practical methods for understanding and managing nonlinear ecosystem dynamics. "Foundations of Ecological Resilience" is an important contribution to our collective understanding of resilience and an invaluable resource for students and scholars in ecology, wildlife ecology, conservation biology, sustainability, environmental science, public policy, and related fields.
£35.31
Island Press Urban Transformation: Understanding City Form and Design
This title offers a new approach to reading urban form to intelligently transform cities. How do cities transform over time? And why do some cities change for the better while others deteriorate? In articulating new ways of viewing urban areas and how they develop over time, Peter Bosselmann offers a stimulating guidebook for students and professionals engaged in urban design, planning, and architecture. By looking through Bosselmann's eyes (aided by his analysis of numerous color photos and illustrations) readers will learn to 'see' cities anew.Bosselmann organizes the book around seven 'activities': comparing, observing, transforming, measuring, defining, modeling, and interpreting. He introduces readers to his way of seeing by comparing satellite-produced "maps" of the world's twenty largest cities. With Bosselmann's guidance, we begin to understand the key elements of urban design. Using Copenhagen, Denmark, as an example, he teaches us to observe without prejudice or bias.He demonstrates how cities transform by introducing the idea of 'urban morphology' through an examination of more than a century of transformations in downtown Oakland, California. We learn how to measure quality-of-life parameters that are often considered immeasurable, including 'vitality,' 'livability,' and 'belonging.' Utilizing the street grids of San Francisco as examples, Bosselmann explains how to define urban spaces. Modeling, he reveals, is not so much about creating models as it is about bringing others into public, democratic discussions. Finally, we find out how to interpret essential aspects of 'life and place' by evaluating aerial images of the San Francisco Bay Area taken in 1962 and those taken forty-three years later.Bosselmann has a unique understanding of cities and how they 'work.' His hope is that, with the fresh vision he offers, readers will be empowered to offer inventive new solutions to familiar urban problems.
£41.00
Island Press Coastal Governance
"Coastal Governance" provides a clear overview of how coasts are currently managed and explores new approaches that could make their shores healthier. Drawing on recent assessments, Professor Richard Burroughs explains why traditional management techniques have ultimately proved inadequate, leading to polluted waters, declining fisheries, and damaged habitat. He then introduces students to governance frameworks that seek to address these shortcomings by considering natural and human systems holistically. The book considers the ability of sector-based management, spatial management, and ecosystem-based management to solve critical environmental problems. Evaluating governance successes and failures, Burroughs covers topics including sewage disposal, dredging, wetlands, watersheds, and fisheries. He shows that at times sector-based management, which focuses on separate, individual uses of the coasts, has been implemented effectively. But he also illustrates examples of conflict, such as the incompatibility of waste disposal and fishing in the same waters. Burroughs assesses spatial and ecosystem-based management's potential to address these conflicts. The book familiarises students not only with current management techniques but with the policy process. By focusing on policy development, "Coastal Governance" prepares readers with the knowledge to participate effectively in a management system that is constantly evolving. This understanding will be critical as students become managers, policy-makers, and citizens who shape the future of the coasts.
£23.71
Island Press Wicked Environmental Problems: Managing Uncertainty and Conflict
This new book examines past experience and future directions in the management of so-called 'wicked' environmental problems - those characterized by large-scale, long-term policy dilemmas and contentious political stalemates. Most importantly, the book reviews current thinking on the way forward, focusing on the implementation of 'learning networks,' in which public managers, technical experts, and public stakeholders collaborate in decision-making processes that are analytic, iterative, and deliberative. "Wicked Environmental Problems" offers new approaches for managing environmental conflicts and shows how managers could apply these approaches within common, real-world statutory decision-making frameworks. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with managing environmental problems.
£30.23
Island Press High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health
The Digital Age was expected to usher in an era of clean production, an alternative to smokestack industries and their pollutants. But as environmental journalist Elizabeth Grossman reveals in this penetrating analysis of high tech manufacture and disposal, digital may be sleek, but it's anything but clean. Deep within every electronic device lie toxic materials that make up the bits and bytes, a complex thicket of lead, mercury, cadmium, plastics, and a host of other often harmful ingredients. High Tech Trash is a wake-up call to the importance of the e-waste issue and the health hazards involved.
£26.60
Island Press The Wolf's Tooth: Keystone Predators, Trophic Cascades, and Biodiversity
Scientist and author Cristina Eisenberg presents a fascinating and wide-ranging look at the dramatic ecological consequences of predator removal (and return) as she explores the concept of 'trophic cascades' and the role of top predators in regulating ecosystems. She shows how and why animals such as wolves, sea otters, and sharks exert such a disproportionate influence on their environment, and considers how this notion can help provide practical solutions for restoring ecosystem health and functioning. Eisenberg examines both general concepts and specific issues, sharing accounts from her own fieldwork to illustrate and bring to life the ideas she presents. She considers how resource managers can use knowledge about trophic cascades to guide recovery efforts, including how this science can be applied to move forward the bold vision of rewilding the North American continent. In the end, the author provides her own recommendations for local and landscape-scale applications of what has been learned about interactive food webs. At their most fundamental level, trophic cascades are powerful stories about ecosystem processes - of predators and their prey, of what it takes to survive in a landscape, of the flow of nutrients. "The Wolf's Tooth" is the first book to focus on the vital connection between trophic cascades and restoring biodiversity and habitats, and to do so in a way that is accessible to a diverse readership.
£22.25
Island Press Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming
How is wildlife adapting to climate change? In 2006, one of the hottest years on record, a 'pizzly' was discovered near the top of the world. Half polar bear, half grizzly, this never-before-seen animal might be dismissed as a fluke of nature. Anthony Barnosky instead sees it as a harbinger of things to come. In "Heatstroke", the renowned paleoecologist shows how global warming is fundamentally changing the natural world and its creatures. While melting ice may have helped produce the pizzly, climate change is more likely to wipe out species than to create them. Plants and animals that have followed the same rhythms for millennia are suddenly being confronted with a world they're unprepared for - and adaptation usually isn't an option. This is not the first time climate change has dramatically transformed Earth. Barnosky draws connections between the coming centuries and the end of the last ice age, when mass extinctions swept the planet. The differences now are that climate change is faster and hotter than past changes, and for the first time humanity is driving it. Which means this time we can work to stop it. No one knows exactly what nature will come to look like in this new age of global warming. But "Heatstroke" gives us a haunting portrait of what we stand to lose and the vitality of what can be saved.
£33.00
Island Press Introduction to Restoration Ecology
Restoration ecology is a young field that integrates theory and knowledge from a range of disciplines, including the biological, physical, and social sciences as well as the humanities. This new textbook, written for upper-division undergraduates and first-year graduate students, offers a real-life introduction to the field and an interdisciplinary overview of the theory behind it. Developed by ecologists and landscape architects, each of whom has been involved in restoration research and practice for many years, the focus of the book is on providing a framework that can be used to guide restoration decisions anywhere on the globe, both now and in the future. The text is organized around a restoration process that has been tested and revised by the authors in their restoration ecology courses taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison over the past thirty years. Each chapter includes a series of 'Food for Thought' questions that both help students review concepts and put them to work in solving conservation problems. The framework is designed to work with the uniqueness, uncertainty, messiness, and constraints inherent in any real-world restoration project. Success in ecological restoration requires not only technical proficiency but also skill in the social, cultural, and political arenas. "Introduction to Restoration Ecology" can help students develop the skills they need to succeed in all of these areas and is a much-needed new resource.
£67.00
Island Press The Silicon Cycle: Human Perturbations and Impacts on Aquatic Systems
Silicon is among the most abundant elements on earth. It plays a key but largely unappreciated role in many biogeochemical processes, including those that regulate climate and undergird marine food webs. "The Silicon Cycle" is the first book in more than 20 years to present a comprehensive overview of the silicon cycle and issues associated with it. The book summarizes the major outcomes of the project Land-Ocean Interactions: Silica Cycle, initiated by the Scientific Community on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). It tracks the pathway of silicon from land to sea and discusses its biotic and abiotic modifications in transit as well as its cycling in the coastal seas. Natural geological processes in combination with atmospheric and hydrological processes are discussed, as well as human perturbations of the natural controls of the silicon cycle.
£41.00
Island Press Ecotourism and Sustainable Development, Second Edition: Who Owns Paradise?
Around the world, ecotourism has been hailed as a panacea: a way to fund conservation and scientific research, protect fragile ecosystems, benefit communities, promote development in poor countries, instill environmental awareness and a social conscience in the travel industry, satisfy and educate discriminating tourists, and, some claim, foster world peace. Although "green" travel is being aggressively marketed as a "win-win" solution for the Third World, the environment, the tourist, and the travel industry, the reality is far more complex, as Martha Honey reports in this extraordinarily enlightening book."Ecotourism and Sustainable Development", originally published in 1998, was among the first books on the subject. For years it has defined the debate on ecotourism: Is it possible for developing nations to benefit economically from tourism while simultaneously helping to preserve pristine environments? This long-awaited second edition provides new answers to this vital question." Ecotourism and Sustainable Development" is the most comprehensive overview of worldwide ecotourism available today, showing how both the concept and the reality have evolved over more than twenty-five years. Here Honey revisits six nations she profiled in the first edition - the Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya, and South Africa - and adds a fascinating new chapter on the United States. She examines the growth of ecotourism within each country's tourism strategy, its political system, and its changing economic policies. Her useful case studies highlight the economic and cultural impacts of expanding tourism on indigenous populations as well as on ecosystems.Honey is not a "travel writer." She is an award-winning journalist and reporter who lived in East Africa and Central America for nearly twenty years. Since writing the first edition of this book, she has led the International Ecotourism Society and founded a new center to lead the way to responsible ecotourism. Her experience and her expertise resonate throughout this beautifully written and highly informative book.
£31.68
Island Press The Essential Ian McHarg: Writings on Design and Nature
Brings together a series of short essays that reveal the full range of Ian McHarg's thoughts on design and nature. It is an ideal reader for undergraduate and graduate students in planning and landscape architecture.
£25.87
Island Press Wildlife-Habitat Relationships: Concepts and Applications
"Wildlife-Habitat Relationships" goes beyond introductory wildlife biology texts to provide wildlife professionals and students with an understanding of the importance of habitat relationships in studying and managing wildlife. The book offers a unique synthesis and critical evaluation of data, methods, and studies, along with specific guidance on how to conduct rigorous studies. Now in its third edition, "Wildlife-Habitat Relationships" combines basic field zoology and natural history, evolutionary biology, ecological theory, and quantitative tools in explaining ecological processes and their influence on wildlife and habitats. Also included is a glossary of terms that every wildlife professional should know.
£41.00
Island Press Communicating Nature: How We Create and Understand Environmental Messages
A broader and more comprehensive understanding of how we communicate with each other about the natural world and our relationship to it is essential to solving environmental problems. How do individuals develop beliefs and ideologies about the environment? How do we express those beliefs through communication? How are we influenced by the messages of pop culture and social institutions? And how does all this communication become part of the larger social fabric of what we know as "the environment"? "Communicating Nature" explores and explains the multiple levels of everyday communication that come together to form our perceptions of the natural world. Author, Julia B. Corbett considers all levels of communication, from the individual level, to environmental messages transmitted by popular culture, to communication generated by social institutions, including political and regulatory agencies, business and corporations, media outlets, and educational and religious organizations. The book offers a fresh and engaging introductory look at a topic of broad interest, and is an important work for students of the environment, activists, and professionals interested in understanding the cultural context of human-nature interactions.
£29.00
Island Press The Tallgrass Restoration Handbook: For Prairies, Savannas, and Woodlands
"The Tallgrass Restoration Handbook" is a hands-on manual that provides a detailed account of what has been learned about the art and science of prairie restoration and the application of that knowledge to restoration projects throughout the world. Chapters provide guidance on all aspects of the restoration process, from conceptualization and planning to execution and monitoring. Appendixes present hard-to-find data on plants and animals of the prairies, seed collection dates, propagation methods, sources of seeds and equipment, and more. Also included is a key to restoration options that provides detailed instructions for specific types of projects and a comprehensive glossary of restoration terms. Written by those whose primary work is actually the making of prairies, "The Tallgrass Restoration Handbook" explores a myriad of restoration philosophies and techniques and is an essential resource for anyone working to nurture our once-vibrant native landscapes back to a state of health.
£38.93
Island Press The Endangered Species Act at Thirty: Vol. 1: Renewing the Conservation Promise
"The Endangered Species Act at Thirty" is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary review of issues surrounding the Endangered Species Act, with a specific focus on the act's actual implementation record over the past thirty years. The result of a unique, multi-year collaboration among stakeholder groups from across the political spectrum, the two volumes offer a dispassionate consideration of a highly polarized topic. "Renewing the Conservation Promise, Volume 1", puts the reader in a better position to make informed decisions about future directions in biodiversity conservation by elevating the policy debate from its current state of divisive polemics to a more-constructive analysis. It helps the reader understand how the Endangered Species Act has been implemented, the consequences of that implementation, and how the act could be changed to better serve the needs of both the species it is designed to protect and the people who must live within its mandates. "Volume 2", which examines philosophical, biological, and economic dimensions of the act in greater detail, will be published in 2006. As debate over reforming the Endangered Species Act heats up in the coming months, these two books will be essential references for policy analysts and lawmakers; professionals involved with environmental law, science, or management; and academic researchers and students concerned with environmental law, policy, management, or science.
£42.00
Island Press The New Consumers: The Influence Of Affluence On The Environment
While overconsumption by the developed world's roughly one billion inhabitants is an abiding problem, another one billion increasingly affluent "new consumers" in developing countries will place additional strains on the earth's resources, argue authors Norman Myers and Jennifer Kent in this important new book. The New Consumers examines the environmental impacts of this increased consumption, with particular focus on two commodities - cars and meat - that stand to have the most far-reaching effects. It analyzes consumption patterns in a number of different countries, with special emphasis on China and India (whose surging economies, as well as their large populations, are likely to account for exceptional growth in humanity's ecological footprint), and surveys big-picture issues such as the globalization of economies, consumer goods, and lifestyles. Ultimately, according to the authors, the challenge will be for all of humanity to transition to sustainable levels of consumption, for it is unrealistic to expect "new" consumers not to aspire to be like the "old" ones. Cogent in its analysis, The New Consumers issues a timely warning of a major and developing environmental trend, and suggests valuable strategies for ameliorating its effects.
£17.16
Island Press Energy: Science, Policy, and the Pursuit of Sustainability
During the past year, energy prices have fluctuated wildly, from historic highs in the winter and spring to the lowest wholesale prices in decades a few short months later. As the largest user of fossil-fuel energy, the United States is the key player in the world's energy markets, and our nation's energy policy (or lack thereof) has become a subject of increasing concern. Energy: Science, Policy, and the Pursuit of Sustainability is an essential primer on energy, society, and the environment. It offers an accessible introduction to the "energy problem" - its definition, analysis, and policy implications. Current patterns of energy use are without question unsustainable over the long term, and our dependence on fossil fuels raises crucial questions of security and self-sufficiency. This volume addresses those questions by examining the three broad dimensions of the issue: physical, human, and political-economic. Chapters consider: - the laws of nature and the impacts of energy use on our physical and ecological life-support systems - the psychological, social, and cultural factors that determine how we use energy - the role of government actions in adjusting costs, influencing resource consumption, and protecting the environment - how markets work, and the reasons and cures for market failures in responding to long-term environmental and energy problems Energy links energy use with key environmental issues of population, consumption, and pollution and offers readers a range of material needed for an informed policy perspective.
£27.32
Island Press Health and Community Design: The Impact Of The Built Environment On Physical Activity
Health and Community Design is a comprehensive examination of how the built environment encourages or discourages physical activity, drawing together insights from a range of research on the relationships between urban form and public health. It provides important information about the factors that influence decisions about physical activity and modes of travel, and about how land use patterns can be changed to help overcome barriers to physical activity. Chapters examine: the historical relationship between health and urban form in the United States; why urban and suburban development should be designed to promote moderate types of physical activity; the divergent needs and requirements of different groups of people and the role of those needs in setting policy; how different settings make it easier or more difficult to incorporate walking and bicycling into everyday activities; A concluding chapter reviews the arguments presented and sketches a research agenda for the future.
£27.32
Island Press Ex Situ Plant Conservation: Supporting Species Survival In The Wild
Faced with an alarming rate of loss of biodiversity, one strategy supported by many scientists is the use of zoos. This volume aims to win converts to ex situ efforts to protect plant genetic diversity.
£44.00
Island Press The Farm as Natural Habitat: Reconnecting Food Systems With Ecosystems
The Farm as Natural Habitat is a vital new contribution to the debate about agriculture and its impacts on the land. Arising from the conviction that the agricultural landscape as a whole could be restored to a healthy diversity, the book challenges the notion that the dominant agricultural landscape - bereft of its original vegetation and wildlife and despoiled by chemical runoff - is inevitable if we are to feed ourselves. Contributors bring together insights and practices from the fields of conservation biology, sustainable agriculture, and environmental restoration to link agriculture and biodiversity, farming and nature, in celebrating a unique alternative to conventlonal agriculture. Rejecting the idea that "ecological sacrifice zones" are a necessary part of feeding a hungry world, the book offers compelling examples of an alternative agriculture that can produce not only healthful food, but fully functioning ecosystems and abundant populations of native species. Contributors include Collin Bode, George Boody, Brian DeVore, Arthur (Tex) Hawkins, Buddy Huffaker, Rhonda Janke, Richard Jefferson, Nick Jordan, Cheryl Miller, Heather Robertson, Carol Shennan, Judith Soule, Beth Waterhouse, and others. The Farm as Natural Habitat is both hopeful and visionary, grounded in real examples, and guided by a commitment to healthy land and thriving communities. It is the first book to offer a viable approach to addressing the challenges of protecting and restoring blodiversity on private agricultural land and is essential reading for anyone concerned with issues of land or blodiversity conservation, farming and agriculture, ecological restoration, or the health of rural communities and landscapes.
£27.32
Island Press Urban Development: The Logic Of Making Plans
The purpose of urban plans is to help planners and planning students make better choices when developing plans. This work attempts to explore the logic of plans for a practical purpose.
£27.32
Island Press A Guide to Careers in Community Development
This guide to careers in community development describes the many different kinds of community development jobs available in the USA, ranging from community organizing, to financing housing and new businesses, to redeveloping brownfields. It includes advice on how to break into the field.
£29.00
Island Press Against the Machine: The Hidden Luddite Tradition in Literature, Art, and Individual Lives
In this timely and incisive work, Nicols Fox examines contemporary resistance to technology and places it in a surprising historical context. She brilliantly illuminates the rich but oftentimes unrecognized literary and philosophical tradition that has existed for nearly two centuries, since the first Luddites lifted their sledgehammers in protest against the Industrial Revolution.
£41.11