ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION BOOK REVIEW CHOICES

SCIENCE 111C - SPRING 2006

1 Beattie, Andrew and Ehrlich, Paul R. (2004). Wild Solutions: Second Edition. Yale University Press. In this book, two ecologists discuss the biological diversity of the Earth, showing how the natural systems that surround us play an essential role in protecting our basic life-support systems. Beattie and Ehrlich tell us about the millions of species providing ecosystem services that maintain the quality of our air and water and the fertility of the soil, dispose of domestic, industrial, and agricultural waste, and protect crops from pests. The authors also describe how biological diversity opens the way for new medicines, pharmaceuticals, construction materials and designs, and manufactured goods.

2 Blumberg, Mark Samuel (2002) Body Heat: Temperature and Life on Earth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. In this book, Mark Blumberg explores the many ways that temperature rules the lives of all animals. He moves from the physical principles that govern the flow of heat in and out of our bodies to the many complex evolutionary devices animals use to exploit those principles for their own benefit. Examples include how penguins withstand Antarctic winters by huddling together by the thousands, why people survive hour-long drowning accidents in winter but not in summer, and how certain plants generate heat.

3 Brende, E. (2004). Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology. Harpercollins. The author conceives a real-life experiment: to see if, in fact, all our cell phones, wide-screen TVs, and SUVs have made life easier and better -- or whether life would be preferable without them. What is the least we need to achieve the most? The Brendes ditch their car, electric stove, refrigerator, running water, and everything else motorized and begin an eighteen-month trial run that dramatically changes the way they live.

4 Brower, Michael. (1999). The Consumer’s Guide To Effective Environment Choices: Practical Advice From The Union Of Concerned Scientists. New York: Three Rivers Press. Paper or plastic? Bus or car? Old house or new? Cloth diapers or disposables? Some choices have a huge impact on the environment; others are of negligible importance. In this book, consumers are informed about everyday decisions that significantly affect the environment.

5 Brown, L. (2003). Plan B: Rescuing A Planet Under Stress And A Civilization In Trouble. New York: Norton. According to Brown, the earth's populations are currently living in a bubble economy based on reckless consumption of natural resources. Because of water shortages, soil erosion and rising temperatures, grain production has seriously fallen off. If this situation continues, hunger and disease will prevail and lead to disastrous consequences for the entire world. Drawing on careful research, Brown outlines the details of Plan B, a committed global cooperative effort to raise water and land productivity, cut carbon emissions and stabilize population growth before time runs out.

6 Carson, Rachel. (1962). Silent Spring. New York: Fawcett Crest. Rachel Carson's book focuses on the poisons from insecticides, weed killers, and other common products as well as the use of sprays in agriculture. Carson argues that those chemicals are more dangerous than radiation and that for the first time in history, humans were exposed to chemicals that stayed in their systems from birth to death.

7 Cone, M. (2005). Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic. Grove Press. Contaminants from industrialized nations ride the winds, settle in the ocean, and accumulate in the flesh of animals at the top of the food chain---notably, the people of the Arctic North. These pollutants are implicated in reductions in IQ of some native children. The author examines the difficulties faced by scientists seeking to identify the health effects of these pollutants and to protect native people from contaminated whale meat.

8 Deffeyes, K. (2001) Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage. Princeton University Press.

9 Devine, Robert S. (2004) Bush Versus the Environment. Anchor. Devine analyzes how, where, and why the Bush White House began compiling what is frequently considered the worst environmental record in presidential history. The author researched the gray areas found in both federally funded and privately commissioned studies of major environmental issues to uncover the facts hidden behind the White House facade.

10 Diamond, J. (2004). Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Viking. Diamond examines examples of human economic and social collapse, and even extinction, including Easter Island, classical Mayan civilization and the Greenland Norse. He explores patterns of population growth, over farming, overgrazing and over hunting.

11 Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine (2005). Green Living: The E Magazine Handbook for Living Lightly on the Earth. Plume. As people become increasingly concerned with their health and the environment’s, more products are being developed to answer Earth-friendly demands. This book provides strategies for green living that go beyond the everyday. From advice on medicine to the advantages of renewable energy, this book covers the many ways in which people can do good things for themselves and the environment.

12 Ehrlich, P. and Ehrlich, A. (2004) One with Nineveh: Politics, Consumption and the Human Future. Island Press/ Shearwater Books. This book looks at the global problems of overpopulation, overconsumption, and political and economic inequity. Each of the book's nine chapters analyzes one area in detail (using current research in ecology, demographics, migration, economics, biodiversity, ethics, climate, politics and globalization) and then suggests measures that might allow humanity to work towards achieving a sustainable world.

13 Ellis. R. The Empty Ocean: Plundering of the World’s Marine Life. Shearwater Books. (order from UMFK or UMM via interlibrary loan). This book introduces us to the many forms of sea life that humans have fished, hunted, and collected over the centuries, such as whales, dolphins, sea turtles and cod. The author’s descriptions bring to life the natural history of the various species, the threats they face, and the losses and extinction they have suffered due to human action. The Empty Ocean is a view of the damage we have caused to life in the sea and what we can do about it.

14 Forman, R. T. T. (Edt.). (2002). Road Ecology: Science and Solutions. This volume provides a substantial overview of the many ways that roads impact the environment and techniques being applied to mitigate these impacts to wildlife, land, water, and plant ecosystems. The text delves into four main areas: roads, vehicles and ecology; vegetation and wildlife; water, chemicals, and atmosphere; and road systems and land. It contains more than 100 illustrations and examples from around the world.

15 Fukuyama, Francis. (2002). Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology. New York: Farrarm Straus & Giroux. Francis Fukuyama argues that as a result of biomedical advances, we are facing the possibility of a future in which our humanity itself will be altered beyond recognition. The author sketches a brief history of man’s changing understanding of human nature. Fukuyama argues that the ability to manipulate the DNA of all of one person’s descendants will have profound, and potentially terrible, consequences for our political order, even if undertaken with the best of intentions.

16 Gelbspan, Ross, (2004) Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil, and Coal, Journalist and Activists Have Fueled the Climate Crisis----and What We Can Do to Avert Disaster. Basic Books. Gelbspan lays out three of the plans being discussed to attack the global warming problem, as well as one of his own (which focuses on changing energy subsidies from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources, funding the transfer of renewable energy sources to developing countries and greatly tightening emission standards). Gelbspan argues that, unchecked, climate change will swamp every other issue facing us today.

17 Gore, Albert. (1992). Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. Vice President Al Gore describes in this book how human actions and decisions can endanger or safeguard the vulnerable ecosystem that sustains us all. The book's analysis helped place the environment on the national agenda, summoning politicians, the media, and the public to attention and action. Human civilization must change its course if we are to heal our ailing environment and preserve the earth's ecology for future generations.

18 Haley, James. (2003). Pollution. Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. This collection of long, detailed essays includes arguments about air and water pollution, the role of corporations, the effectiveness of regulation, and the value of recycling. Chapter prefaces summarize the discussion, and there's a long, annotated list of organizations to contact as well as a bibliography of books and articles.

19 Imhoff, D. (2005) Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World. Sierra Club Books. About one-third of the solid waste in the U.S. is packaging materials. This book explores ways to address the negative side of packaging, including manufacturer’s ongoing attempts to change packages so that they take up fewer resources and produce fewer toxic by-products. The author offers advice on what the readers can do to limit the use of one-time, wasteful packaging.

20 Leisinger, K., Schmitt, K.M. and Pandya-Lorch, R. (2002). Six Billion and Counting: Population and Food Security in the 21^st Century. International Food Policy Research Institute: Washington, DC. Six Billion and Counting examines the consequences of continuing population growth for the world's resource systems and for national and global food security. The authors describe the effects of rapid population growth on social and economic conditions and on natural resources, and they consider what population growth will mean for the food security of poor people and poor countries.

21 Lerner, S. (2004). Diamond: A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor. MIT Press. Lerner chronicles how the people of Diamond, an African-American subdivision sandwiched between a Shell chemical plant and a Motiva oil refinery, lobbied Shell to pay for their relocation after decades of exposure to the plants' toxic emissions.

22 Lomborg, B.J. (2001) The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lomborg examines a range of major environmental issues that feature prominently in headline news around the world, including pollution, biodiversity, fear of chemicals, and the greenhouse effect, and documents that the world has actually improved. He criticizes the way many environmental organizations make selective and misleading use of scientific evidence and argues that we are making decisions about the use of our limited resources based on inaccurate or incomplete information.

23 Myers, N. (2004) New Consumers: The Influence of Affluence on the Environment. Island Press. In this book, the authors discuss consumerism, and its affects on the environment and world. Although the United States and European countries are the world’s largest consumers, developing countries are catching up. As those countries increase consumerism, air pollution, food shortages, and environmental damage also increase.

24 Nicholsen, Shierry Weber. (2002) The Love of Nature and the End of the World: The Unspoken Dimensions of Environmental Concern. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. This book is a gathering of meditations and collages. It describes our emotional attachment to the natural world and the emotional impact of environmental deterioration in order to encourage individual and collective reflection on a difficult dilemma.

25 Pimm, Stuart L. (2001). The world according to Pimm: A scientist audits the earth. New York: McGraw-Hill. Pimm balances the raw numbers of what the earth produces against what humans take away annually and draws our attention to long-range projections. The numbers, he finds, do not quite add up. His research covers the reasons why species become extinct, how fast they do so, the global patterns of habitat loss and species extinction, the role of introduced species in causing extinction and, importantly, the management consequences of this research.

26 Reay, Dave (2005) Climate Change Begins at Home: Life on the Two-Way Street of Global Warming. Macmillan. The author decides that “feeding George W. dolls to my Labrador” is an inadequate way to fight global warming. He invests in composting worms to recycle his tea bags and potato peels, stocks his house with low-energy light bulbs, and advocates myriad ways in which we cold all reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 60 percent.

27 Rees, M. J. (2003). Our Final Hour; A Scientist’s Warning: How terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind’s Future in This Century—On Earth and Beyond. Basic Books. Our Final Hour spells out doomsday scenarios for cosmic collisions, high-energy experiments gone wrong, and self-replicating machines that steadily devour the biosphere. Sir Martin Rees warns that humankind is potentially the maker of its own demise--and that of the cosmos. Rees maps out the ways technology could destroy our species and our universe.

28 Rifkin, J. (2003). The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the Worldwide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth. J P Tarcher. The Hydrogen Economy presents the clearest, most comprehensive case for moving ourselves away from the destructive years of the oil era toward a new kind of energy regime. Hydrogen, one of the most abundant substances in the universe, holds the key, Rifkin argues, to a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable world.

29 Roberts P. (2004). End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World. Houghton Mifflin. Which energy sources will replace oil, who will control them, and how disruptive to the current world order the transition from one system to the next will be are just a few of the big questions that Roberts attempts to answer in this book.

30 Royte, E. (2005). Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash. Little Brown & Company. This book takes the form of a quest for the surprising final resting places of the author’s yogurt cups, beer bottles, personal computer and organic-fig cookie packaging, and leads to an impassioned attach on over consumption in America.

31 Slade, John. (2001). Acid Rain, Acid Snow. Woodgate, NY: Woodgate International. This book clearly and concisely details all the aspects of acid rain. This book will allow one to discover and understand all the effects of acid precipitation and what can be done about it.

32 Slobodkin, L. (2003). Citizens Guide to Ecology. Oxford University Press. The book presents a clear and current understanding of the ecological world, and how individual citizens can participate in practical decisions on ecological issues. It tackles such issues as global warming, ecology and health, organic farming, species extinction and adaptation, and endangered species. The book helps us to understand what steps we as humans can take to keep our planet habitable for generations to come.

33 Spence, Chris (2005). Global Warming: Personal Solutions for a Healthy Planet. Palgrave/Macmillan. The author recommends a range of activities to battle climate change and prevent drought, famine and floods. Bring your own bag to the grocery store (12 million barrels of oil are needed to meet the yearly demand for plastic bags in the U.S.), vote for green candidates, and veg out (methane, a major component of cow burps and intestinal gas, is second only to carbon dioxide in contributing to global warming).

34 Speth, J. (2004). Red Sky at Morning: American and the Crisis of the Global Environment. Yale University Press. In this book, Speth sounds the alarm on the seriousness of the global environmental crisis. Although he contends that it is not too late to avert disaster, he stresses that we are running out of time and that we can't afford to let current trends continue. He argues that little has been accomplished by international conferences, negotiations, action plans and treaties

35 Taylor, J. (2004). Smart Alliance: How a Global Corporation and Environmental Activists Transformed a Tarnished Brand. Yale University Press. This book describes a most unlikely partnership between Chiquita Brands International and the Rainforest Alliance and how they are transforming an industry. Their idea was to adopt a "seal of approval" to certify fair treatment of workers and environmentally responsible farming practices as a way to win customers.

36 Vaitheeswaran, V. (2004). Power to the People: How the Coming Energy Revolution Will Transform An Industry, Change Our Lives, and Maybe Even Save the Planet. Farrar Straus & Giroux. In short essays, the author covers many of today's energy problems, such as reliance on oil, global warming, air pollution and the dangers inherent in nuclear power.