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Advertise your 2007 or 2008 environmental book in the book-review pages of our quarterly newsletter SEJournal. For only $40 for four issues, keep your book title in front of the membership and subscribers for one full year. Download a form to fax or mail (requires free Adobe Acrobat ® reader). SEJ members only.

Non-Fiction

See Kodiak, Alaska through the eyes of those that have lived there and have loved this awe-inspiring country. Visit the island villages, experience exciting sea otter days, Kodiak smothered in ashes or torn by tidal waves. Read stories about the monstrous king crab, the giant Kodiak bear, and the hardships of cattle ranching. Learn about the wildlife, sports fishing, hunting, beach combing, and wildflowers. Read about the stalwart men, both living and dead, who have contributed to the history of Alaska's Southwest by braving her skies and her stormy seas. This award-winning non-fiction, historical book was written by well-known Alaskan author, Yule Chaffin, and co-authored by Kodiak residents Trisha Hampton Jackson (SEJ member) and Mike Rostad. It contains a beautifully photographed 16-pg. color section. Famous Alaskan artist, Chrisana Davis Goossen, painted the book's cover. Pratt Publishing, 1983. To order, please email.

Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back

Asphalt Nation is a major work of urban studies that examines how the automobile has ravaged America's cities and landscape, and how we can fight back. The automobile was once seen as a boon to American life, eradicating the pollution caused by horses and granting citizens new levels of freedom and mobility. But it was not long before the servant became the master — public spaces were designed to accommodate the automobile at the expense of the pedestrian, mass transportation was neglected, and the poor, unable to afford cars, saw their access to jobs and amenities worsen. In Asphalt Nation, Jane Holtz Kay effectively calls for a revolution to reverse our automobile-dependency. Citing successful efforts in places from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, Kay shows us that radical change is not impossible by any means. She demonstrates that there are economic, political, architectural, and personal solutions that can steer us out of the mess. Paperback. University of California Press, 1998. ISBN 0-520-216120-2.

Awesome Chesapeake: A Kid's Guide to the Bay

Awesome Chesapeake explains how the estuary works and how people impact it, then focuses on the fascinating characteristics of the animals that live in and around it. An interactive fun-dex challenges readers. By David Owen Bell. Color illustrations throughout. Hardcover. Tidewater Pub, 1994. ISBN 0-87033-457-3.

The Backbone of the World: A Portrait of the Vanishing West Along the Continental Divide

Ten profiles of guides, sheep herders, cattlemen, loggers, miners and others; their varying perspectives on western wilderness and wildlife and their struggles to eke out a living from a landscape as endangered as they are. By Frank Clifford, SEJ member and editor for environmental news at the Los Angeles Times. Broadway Books, 2002; ISBN 0-7679-0701-9. Paperback 2003; ISBN 0-7679-0702-7.

The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature

Author and award-winning NPR science correspondent David Baron examines the complex relationship between people and wild animals in modern America, as suburbia sprawl out into wildlife habitat and animal populations spread inward. Baron's tale, which focuses on the growing problem of mountain lions in western suburbs, reveals the subtle yet powerful ways in which human actions are altering wildlife behavior. Hardcover. Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. ISBN 0393058077. Book website.

Beyond Earth Day: Fulfilling the Promise

Gaylord Nelson is known and respected throughout the world as a founding father of the modern environmental movement and creator of Earth Day, the most successful and influential public awareness campaigns ever undertaken on behalf of global stewardship. Now in the twilight of his career, Nelson offers guidance to a new generation. With the same eloquence that rallied the public more than 30 years ago, he details today's most crucial environmental concerns — from species and habitat losses to global climate change and population growth. Ever hopeful, Nelson outlines a compelling strategy for the planet and inspires citizens to reassert the environment as a national priority. A book for anyone who cares deeply about our environment and wants to know what we can and must do now to save it, Beyond Earth Day is a classic guide by one of the natural world's great defenders. By Gaylord Nelson, with Susan Campbell (SEJ member) and Paul Wozniak, with a foreword by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. University of Wisconsin Press, 2002. ISBN 0-299-18040-9.

Blue Frontier — Saving America's Living Seas

A fascinating account of America's oceans and ocean politics, Blue Frontier takes readers on an adventure-filled tour of America's last great wilderness range:its imperiled living seas. From the legacy of navy-funded ocean research and development since World War Two to the latest controversies surrounding beach closures, collapsing fish stocks, killer algae, hurricanes, and oil spills, Blue Frontier explores the impact of history, commerce, and policy on marine life — and by extension all life on earth. By David Helvarg. Owl Books, 2002. ISBN 0-8050-7135-0.

The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability

James Gustave Speth, dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University and author of Red Sky at Morning, observes that the environmental community has grown in strength and sophistication, but the environment has continued to decline, to the point that we are now at the edge of catastrophe. Speth contends that this situation is a severe indictment of the economic and political system we call modern capitalism. The Bridge at the Edge of the World is about how to change the operating instructions for today's destructive world economy before it is too late. More information. Yale University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-300-13611-1.

Can You Say A Few Words?

Speaking at an Earth Day event? Dedicating a park? Celebrating the 10th anniversary of your organization? Moderating a panel at a journalism conference? Handling a tough Q&A? Giving an award? Accepting an award? Launching a community recycling program? Speaking at a patriotic ceremony? Giving a commencement address? Presenting an environmental program to school students? This book will provide practical advice — and help you give a speech that's as significant as the occasion itself. Written by award-winning writer Joan Detz, the book was noted in the Business Section of The New York Times. "Joan unearths the science of speechwriting and delivery in a way everyone can understand." (Gene Rose, president, National Association of Government Communicators). St. Martin's Press, 3rd edition, 2006. ISBN 0-312-35352-9.

Chesapeake Bay Walk

Chesapeake Bay Walk takes younger readers on an unforgettable shoreline journey. Through a series of habitat studies, readers meet soft-bellied bullies, crabs older than the dinosaurs, and prehistoric creatures made of water. Written especially for younger students, their teachers and parents. By David Owen Bell. Lavishly illustrated. Hardcover. Tidewater Pub, 1998. ISBN 0-87033-507-3.

A Coastal Companion: A Gulf of Maine Almanac, from Canada to Cape Cod

Catherine Schmitt, a science writer for the Maine Sea Grant College Program, takes readers on a journey through the year in the Gulf of Maine and its watershed, which includes land from eastern Massachusetts to southwestern Nova Scotia. A chronicle of changes through the seasons both above and within the sea, A Coastal Companion follows the arrival and departure of migrating shorebirds in spring and fall, schools of fish as they move in and out of our region, and the natural cycles of our bays, rivers, marshes, and coastal forests. Part field guide, part almanac, the book also highlights writers, artists, and scientists who have chosen the Gulf of Maine as their subject matter. Poems by twelve contemporary poets open each chapter, and illustrations by two Maine artists, Kimberleigh Martul-March and Margaret Campbell, are featured throughout the text. Tilbury House, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59257-662-3. More information.

Communicating on Climate Change: An Essential Resource for Journalists, Scientists, and Educators

Communicating on Climate Change: An Essential Resource for Journalists, Scientists, and Educators reports the results of dialogues between top climate scientists and journalists over a period of more than four years on how best to inform the public about climate change science. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and published in October 2008 by the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting, the 74-page paperback (also available as a free PDF file) offers important tips for reporting on the most complex, compelling, and sweeping environmental/economic/energy issues of the day. Based on an unprecedented series of journalist/scientist workshops and including original sidebar commentaries from participants, the book, written by SEJ co-founder Bud Ward, can be downloaded as a PDF file here. A limited number of printed copies are available free with S&H fee; download an order form. ISBN 978-1-60725-447-8.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Green Living

Environmental journalist Trish Riley offers an overview of global warming and environmental degradation of air, water, and soil; an explanation of what sustainable living is and how to do it; information on how to cut down on carbon output (the cause of global warming) with alternative cars and fuels; energy- and water-saving strategies you can use every day; a discussion of environmentally-friendly home and lawn care products; ways to raise environmentally-aware children; tips on increasing green awareness in your community; inspiring stories of companies that have gone green, and tips on helping your company (big or small) go green, too. Alpha Books, 2007. ISBN 978-1-59257-662-3. Amazon link.

Condor: To the Brink and Back — The Life and Times of One Giant Bird

NPR Environment Correspondent John Nielsen covers the struggles of the California Condor to survive multiple threats. With a wingspan of 9.5 feet, this species from the Pleistocene Epoch is the largest living flying thing in North America. It is also a bird that ought to be extinct by now. Instead, after disappearing from the wild in the late 1980s, the vulture once described as the "King of the Birds" has made a miraculous comeback, to the point where it is once again soaring above the mountains of south central California, and above the coastal mountains near Big Sur. Visitors to the Grand Canyon see giant condors all the time now. Condors have also been reintroduced in Baja California, and they will appear above New Mexico soon. Condor won the 2006 National Outdoor Book Award for Natural History Literature. Hardcover. HarperCollins, 2006. ISBN 0060088621. More information.

Desert Wings: Controversy in the Idaho Desert

Desert Wings details the 10-year efforts of the U.S. Air Force and federal and state officials to expand a training and bombing range for fighter-bombers in the fragile high desert canyonlands of southwestern Idaho. In 1989, the U.S. Air Force revealed plans to take over 1.5 million acres of the public land in the Owyhee Canyonlands. It would have been one of the largest military land grabs of public land since WWII, but an unlikely coalition of environmentalists, ranchers, and American Indians thwarted — though not entirely — the bombing range proponents. Air Force officials told Congress an existing bombing range in southern Idaho had recently been expanded and could accommodate the transfer of fighter jets from a base in California. They told people in Idaho that the transfer of those jets made the 1.5 million-acre expansion necessary. Reporter Niels Nokkentved goes beyond the headlines and into the politics and culture of environmental assessmants and bureaucratic inertia. Desert Wings reveals surprising connections and behind-the-scences machinations, as well as providing context for the Air Force's efforts to round up as much western space as possible. Readers also will enjoy an insider's look at the geological history, wildlife biology, and human personalities of the region. Paperback. Washington State Univ Press, 2003. ISBN 0874222478.

Earth Rising: American Environmentalism in the 21st Century

"...one of the most thought-provoking and insightful books I've read in years. If you are interested in the environmental movement, this book is for you..." — Lois Gibbs, Orion Afield. By Philip Shabecoff. Cloth; Island Press, 2000; 1-55963-583-5. Paper; Island Press, 2001; ISBN 1-55963-584-3. More information.

Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World

Eight years ago, award-winning photojournalist Gary Braasch began an extraordinary journey around the world to observe and document environmental changes resulting from the warming of our climate. In this eye-opening book, he brings us along to witness firsthand what he saw. In more than one hundred photographs, including dramatic before-and-after comparisons, Braasch records communities, landscapes, and animals at risk because of receding glaciers, eroding coastlines, rising sea levels, and thawing permafrost. Alongside Braasch's compelling words and images, essays by eminent scientists discuss the impacts of climate change on the oceans, biodiversity, fresh water, mountain cultures, plants and animals, and our health. More than a warning, Earth under Fire, the most complete illustrated guide to the effects and implications of climate change now available, offers an upbeat and intelligent account of how we can lessen the effects of our near total dependence on fossil fuel using technologies and energy sources already available. University of California Press, 2007. ISBN 0520244389. More information.

An Eclectic Guide to TREES East of the Rockies

This reference book and guide to identification of fifty species of native trees by leaf, flower, fruit, winter twig, bark, and wood includes author Glen Blouin's color photos of each characteristic, and lists original native Indian names for each tree. Holistic in scope, it describes the history, range, record sizes, preferred sites, and official state or provincial status. It explores each tree's role in the ecosystem, value as wildlife habitat, common insects and diseases, preferred planting sites as ornamentals, properties of its wood for domestic or industrial use, and its traditional use by native people as food and medicine. Many chapters also include insights into conservation topics such as clearcutting, the role of pioneer species, windbreaks on the prairies, hybridization, maple syrup production, Christmas trees, invasive insects and diseases, endangered species, and the near annihilation of the white pines in eastern and central North America in the 19th century. Boston Mills Press, 2001. ISBN 1-55046-351-9. 280 pages.

Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth

Eco-Economy provides a vision of an environmentally sustainable economy along with a roadmap on how to get from here to there. By Lester Brown. More info/free download. Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. Paperback ISBN 0393321932. Hardcover ISBN 0393051099.

El Niño: Unlocking the Secrets of the Master Weather-Maker

It brings droughts, mud slides, killer storms, and even epidemics and hordes of frogs and rats. Now, for the first time, here is the complete-and fascinating-story of El Niño. In this saga of scientists and civilians, murderous storms and ecological shifts, award-winning science writer J. Madeleine Nash reveals the mysterious sources of the powerful weather-maker and how it has changed-and is changing-the lives of people around the globe. From East Africa to Borneo to California, on a journey that is part detective story and part scientific study, she shows how seemingly unconnected disasters are part of what scientists call the El Niño Southern Oscillation-a force produced by the interplay of wind and water with the power to unhinge the world. Comments about the book by E.O. Wilson, Bill McKibben, Brian Fagan et al. Non-Fiction/General. Warner Books, 2003. Hardcover ISBN: 0446524816. Paperback ISBN 0446679925.

The Enchanted Braid: Coming to Terms with Nature on the Coral Reef

A colorful journey through the natural history of coral reefs and of humanity's relationship to them. The most complex of all marine ecosystems, the coral reef is home to a spectacular yet unknown number of species of fishes, shrimps, worms, snails, crabs, sea cucumbers, sea stars, urchins, anemones, sea squirts, and sea plants. Award-winning writer Osha Gray Davidson takes us into the heart of the intricate labyrinths of the coral reef — from the individual coral polyp to towering metropolitan structures such as the Great Barrier Reef. John Wiley & Sons, 1998. ISBN 0-471-17727-X.

Encyclopedia of Toxicology

An A-Z encyclopedic arrangement of potentially hazardous substances and concepts relevant to toxicology and environmental health. Offers complete scientific descriptions of substances harmful, or potentially harmful, to living organisms. describes the actions, effects, detection, and treatment of these substances. Many other topics such as body organs and systems, toxic organisms, environmental issues, test procedures, and organizations, are also covered. Edited by Philip Wexler. 3 volumes. San Diego: Academic Press, 1998. ISBN 0-12-227220-X.

Environmental Education & Communication for a Sustainable World: Handbook for International Practitioners

This practical handbook focuses on how human behaviors and practices can create a more environmentally sustainable world. It draws on the experience of GreenCOM, a USAID project that has woven four disciplines — education, communication, social marketing, and public participation — into 30 successful projects in developing countries to influence the human behaviors that affect the environment. Download the book for free. Edited by Brian A. Day (SEJ member) and Martha C. Monroe.

Ethics for a Small Planet

Why Talk About Values, Ethics and Biodiversity? The first chapter of Ethics for a Small Planet answers this question and introduces a series of essays written to help readers better understand and talk about the ethical principles that motivate people to protect and care for life on Earth. Written for teachers, scientists, clergy, policymakers, community leaders and anyone who cares about biodiversity. Edited by SEJ member Jane Elder. Available from the Biodiversity Project. Published 2002.

Evolution of a Columnist

Evolution of a Columnist is award-winning author Ed Flattau's journalistic memoir of his environmental crusade. The book chronicles the intellectual journey of the only nationally syndicated environmental columnist writing on a continuous basis for American newspapers since the early seventies. It describes how he has dealt with the inevitable contradictions and challenges of his subject matter, as well as conveying a sense of the steady growth of the environmental movement's national influence since the celebration of the first Earth Day. Xlibris Corporation, 2003. Paperback; ISBN 1-4134-0354-9. Cloth Hardback; ISBN 1-4134-0355-7. More information.

Eye of the Whale

Named a Best Book of the Year by three major newspapers, Eye of the Whale is the story of author Dick Russell's travels along the migratory route of the California gray whale from Baja to Siberia, focusing on the successful environmental fight to keep a saltworks expansion from happening at Laguna San Ignacio, on the Makah Tribe's hunt. Includes interviews with numerous scientists, as well as the historical saga of Charles Melville Scammon, a 19th-century whaling captain turned naturalist. Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-684-86608-0.

A Fierce Green Fire: The American Environmental Movement

A history of the American environmental movement, A Fierce Green Fire has been updated to describe the environmental policies of the Bush II administration, developments on the international front and other changes since the book came out in 1993. The final chapter has been changed to reflect a somewhat more pessimistic view of the prospects for the environment and environmentalism. By Philip Shabecoff. Paperback. Island Press, 2003. ISBN 1559634375. More information.

Finding a Clear Path

Finding a Clear Path intertwines literature, agriculture, and ecology as author Jim Minick takes the reader on many journeys, allowing you to float on a pond, fly with a titmouse, gather ginseng, and grow the lowly potato. The reader visits monarch butterflies and morel mushrooms, encountering beavers, black snakes and bloodroot along the way. Using his background as a blueberry farmer, gardener and naturalist, Minick explores the Appalachian region and explains, for example, the ears of an owl, or the problems with the typical Christmas tree. Reading this collection of essays invites you to search for ways to better understand and appreciate this marvelous world, opening paths for journeys of your own. Jim Minick lives, writes and farms in southwest Virginia, while also teaching writing and literature at Radford University. He is also the author of two books of poetry: Her Secret Song (2008, Motes Books) and Burning Heaven (2008, Wind). His poems and essays have appeared in many books and periodicals including Orion, Shenandoah, YES!, Natural Home, Encyclopedia of Appalachia, Appalachian Journal, Appalachian Heritage, and Wind. West Virginia University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-937058-97-1. More information.

Fire in the Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean

Sea turtles have existed since the time of the dinosaurs. But now, suddenly, the turtles are dying, ravaged by a mysterious plague that some biologists consider the most serious epidemic now raging in the natural world. Perhaps most important, sea turtles aren't the only marine creatures falling prey to deadly epidemics. Over the last few decades, diseases have been burning through nearshore waters around the world with unprecedented lethality. In this fascinating scientific detective story, Osha Gray Davidson tracks the fervent efforts of the extraordinary and often quirky scientists, marine biologists, veterinarians, and others racing against the clock to unravel a complicated biological and environmental puzzle and keep the turtles from extinction. Hardcover; PublicAffairs, 2001; ISBN 1-58648-000-6. Paperback; PublicAffairs, 2003; ISBN 1-58648-199-1.

The Future of Nature: Writing on a Human Ecology from Orion Magazine

From local economies to our genetic heritage, and from environmental refugees to the nature of education, The Future of Nature is a compendium of the finest writing in Orion and counts a number of SEJ members amongst the contributors. The collection explores the barriers that divide humanity from the natural world and reveals the damning results of that division, looks through our pervasive ecological crises to the root causes in human culture and offers a path beyond. Contributors include Wendell Berry, William Cronon, Mark Dowie, William L. Fox, David James Duncan, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Bill McKibben, Rebecca Solnit, Gary Paul Nabhan, Scott Russell Sanders, Laura Paskus, Sandra Steingraber, Hope Burwell, Erik Reece, and more. More information. Paperback. Milkweed Editions, 2007. ISBN 1571313060.

The Galileo Syndrome

D.H. Gottlieb paints a realistic depiction of the upcoming social and political upheaval brought about by dwindling energy resources, a shattered infrastructure, and greenhouse-effect super-storms that threaten to overwhelm mankind. The ecological dilemma we will face within the next fifteen years is seen through the eyes of the next generation — which is paying the bill for climate change. More information. Canopy Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0975365509. 471 pages.

Ginseng, the Divine Root: The Curious History of the Plant that Captivated the World

The story behind ginseng is as remarkable as the root itself. Prized for its legendary curative powers, ginseng launched the rise to power of China's last great dynasty, triggered trade wars, and sparked a boom in Minnesota comparable to the California Gold Rush. It has made and broken the fortunes of many and has inspired a subculture in rural America unrivaled by any herb in the plant kingdom. Today, ginseng is at the very center of alternative medicine, and is being studied by medical researchers for the treatment of diabetes and Parkinson's disease, and is featured in the booming business of energy drinks. This book tracks the path of this fascinating plant—from the forests east of the Mississippi to the bustling streets of Hong Kong and the remote corners of China. Author David A. Taylor becomes immersed in a world full of wheelers, dealers, diggers, and stealers, all with a common goal: to hunt down the elusive "Root of Life." Weaving together his intriguing adventures with ginseng's rich history, Taylor uncovers a story of international crime, ancient tradition, botany, herbal medicine, and the vagaries of human nature. More information. Algonquin Books, 2006. ISBN: 1565124014.

Global Climate Change and U.S. Law

Global Climate Change and U.S. Law provides comprehensive coverage of the country's law as it relates to global climate change. After a summary of the factual and scientific background, Part I outlines the international and national legal framework of climate change regulation and associated litigation. Part II describes emerging regional, state and local actions, and includes a 50-state survey. Part III covers issues of concern to corporations, including disclosure, fiduciary duties, insurance, and subsidies. Part IV examines the legal aspects of efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, such as voluntary efforts, emissions trading, and carbon sequestration. The book, edited by Michael Gerrard, includes key resource aids, including a glossary of climate related terms; a list of acronyms; extensive endnotes; and a comprehensive index. More information. American Bar Association, 2007. ISBN: 978-1-59031-816-4.

Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial

Grave Matters follows a dozen families that found in "green" burial a more natural, more economic and ultimately more meaningful alternative to the tired and toxic send-off on offer at the local funeral parlor. Environmental journalist Mark Harris examines this new green burial underground, leading readers into natural cemeteries and domestic graveyards, taking them aboard boats from which ashes and memorial "reef balls" are cast into the sea. He reports on a family that conducts a home funeral and delivers a loved one to the crematory, another that hires a carpenter to build a pine coffin. By way of contrast, Grave Matters details the embalming process and the environmental aftermath of the standard funeral. How-to appendices included. Scribner, 2007. Hardcover. ISBN: 978-0-7432-7768-6. More information.

The Great Lakes Water Wars

In 2003, the U.N. released a report warning that the Earth is now facing "a serious water crisis." From parched developing countries to sprawling cities in the dry American West, water is in high demand. Holding one-fifth of the world's fresh surface water, the Great Lakes region has become a battleground for this essential element of life. In The Great Lakes Water Wars, former Newsweek correspondent Peter Annin delves into the long history of political maneuvers and water diversion schemes that have proposed sending Great Lakes water everywhere from Akron to Asia. And he uses the arid Aral Sea as a model of how unchecked water diversions can create a "death by a thousand cuts." Annin offers behind-the-scene accounts of the politics shaping today's Great Lakes water controversies. His book helps explain why the eight Great Lake states, along with Ontario and Quebec, are working to adopt a new, binding water management system to protect this globally significant resource for the next 100 years and beyond. The Great Lakes Water Wars tells the colorful history of the efforts to conserve this unique cold-water ecosystem, and the book provides an important warning about what is at stake should those efforts fail. Hardcover. Publisher: Island Press, 2006. ISBN 1559630876. More information.

Great Waters: An Atlantic Passage

Great Waters explores how earth's life-giving oceans nourish and sustain us, and how humans are altering the sea's finely-tuned balances. From the review in Science: "I will recommend it to anyone who proposes to be an informed citizen of planet Earth." From The (London) Times: "If you read only one book about the ocean, this should be it." By Deborah Cramer. W.W. Norton & Company, 2002. Paperback ISBN 0-393-32334-X.

The Greenhouse Trap: What We're Doing to the Atmosphere and How We Can Slow Global Warming
(A World Resources Institute Guide to the Environment)

Written for general audiences, The Greenhouse Trap traces the history of the greenhouse effect and shows how the current crisis has come about. Possible future consequences, based on the most credible scientific research available, are vividly described and objectively assessed. Government policies for slowing global warming are outlined along with suggestions for individuals to follow in their homes and communities. By Francesca Lyman with James J. MacKenzie, et al. Beacon Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8070-8503-0. Amazon link.

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 Elizabeth Grossman reveals in High Tech Trash her 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 whose effects last for decades, span the globe, and are now showing up in our bodies and our food. Americans own over two billion pieces of high tech electronics and discard millions of tons each year. Electronic waste makes up the majority of heavy metals found in our landfills. But the problem goes far beyond American shores, most tragically to China, India and elsewhere in the developing world, where shiploads of discarded electronics arrive daily to be recycled — or dumped — in ways that expose thousands of workers and community residents to toxics. Island Press, 2006. ISBN 1-55963-554-1. More information, Q&A, fact sheets. Amazon link.

How to Live Off-Grid

In this second edition of author Nick Rosen's tour of Britain's off-grid community, he relates how he got into an off-grid way of life; how the grid developed in the UK; the technicalities of choosing the right van for off-grid traveling; and the tour of off-gridders, including a visit to a commune in Devon which is under siege from angry grid-connected millionaire property-owners. Bantam Books, 2008. ISBN 0553818198. More information, book extracts. Amazon link.

How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming

Photographer and writer Gary Braasch and children's environmental book writer Lynne Cherry collaborated on this book, which combines many photos from World View of Global Warming with the stories of scientists researching about global warming. The book also shows kids who are already studying weather and climate and what some of them have done with this knowledge in their schools and communities. Dawn Publications, 2008. ISBN 978-1-58469-103-7. Ages 10 to 14 - 66 pages - color photographs. More information/free downloadable sample pages. A Teacher's Guide is also available.

Information Resources in Toxicology

An annotated bibliography and sourcebook of key resources, including digital, in the fields of toxicology, environmental health and chemical safety. Includes a short history, references to journals, newsletters, books, general interest works, Internet resources, technical reports, regulations, organizations, patents, grants, poison control centers, and patents. International activities are covered and there are contributions from 16 countries outside the U.S. Edited by Philip Wexler. 3rd Edition. San Diego: Academic Press, 2000. ISBN 0-12-744770-9.

Inside ISO 14000

Inside ISO 14000 brings action nouns and verbs to the notion of Sustainable Development. It gives you everything you need to know to understand and use the Environmental Management Systems standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This is a classic reference and handbook, written from the heart by Don Sayre. ISBN 1-57444-028-4; St. Lucie (now CRC) Press, 1996; soft cover, 240 pages, indexed; autograph by author and personal dedication available.

Inside the Dzanga-Sangha Rain Forest: Exploring the Heart of Central Africa

Experiences while journeying through Central Africa's rain forest "from the working journals of the scientists, artists, and filmmakers on expedition for the American Museum of Natural History" are documented in this 127-page book. Twelve chapters cover a wide variety of information, including short biographies of the six participants, descriptions of the types of animal life indigenous to this habitat, and a discussion about setting up the exhibit for the museum. Not as fragmented in design as the "Eyewitness" series, information is segmented into journal writings, photographs with captions, and highlighted portions in the main text for added facts. Reading from the personal perspective is much more enjoyable than the encyclopedic style of other books of this genre. The book gives a feel for the dedication and time that scientists require to carry out fieldwork and the importance of various team member skills. The photographs, too numerous to count, are rich in detail and color. Some span an entire spread, while smaller ones are sprinkled throughout the pages. Compiled by Francesca Lyman. Workman Publishing Company/American Museum of Natural History, 1998. Ages 8 to 14. Reviewer: Tina Hudak. ISBN 0-7611-0870-X. Amazon link.

Killing Our Oceans: Dealing with the Mass Extinction of Marine Life

In his award-winning Ark of the Broken Covenant, author John Kunich showed that Earth's species are concentrated in 25 zones of ecological significance known as biodiversity hotspots, and that we'd go a long way toward saving many species from extinction if we'd focus our protective laws and regulations on these zones. In Killing Our Oceans he extends this analysis to the extraordinary pockets of life in the oceans that are similarly threatened. From coral reefs to recently discovered hydrothermal vents, the oceans contain vast numbers of unknown and endangered species. We are rapidly losing these unique, irreplaceable treasures, due in part to an appalling lack of efficacious safeguards. What's in it for us if we intervene to halt this mass extinction? Quite possibly the greatest medical, nutritional, and scientific breakthroughs in all of human history, just waiting to be discovered and harnessed — or forever lost along with the dying species that hold the keys to these secrets. Kunich examines in detail the applicable international laws as well as domestic laws of the nations with key marine resources, and demonstrates the abject failure of these measures to prevent or halt a mass extinction in our oceans. Killing Our Oceans concludes with a set of legal proposals that could start us down the road to preserving the marine hotspots and, with them, most of Earth's biodiversity. Legal solutions are not the only answer, but they are a beginning. Praeger, 2006. ISBN 0275988783.

A Land on Fire: The Environmental Consequences of the Southeast Asian Boom

An investigative journalist discovers that Southeast Asia's fight to protect its environment is inextricably intertwined with the push of democracy and the pull of globalization. By James David Fahn. Westview Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8133-4053-5. More details.

Leadville: The Struggle to Revive an American Town

Leadville explores the clash between a small mining town high up in Colorado's Rocky Mountains and the federal government, determined to clean up the toxic mess left from a hundred years of mining. Just as the Environmental Protection Agency comes to town telling the community that their celebrated mining heritage is a public health and environmental hazard, the mining industry abandons Leadville, throwing the town into economic chaos. Author Gillian Klucas unveils the events that resulted from this volatile formula and the remarkable turnaround that followed. Hardcover. Island Press, 2004. ISBN 1559633859. More information.

Making Up with Mom

As young women today wrestle with decisions about work and family, they need all the support they can get. But the person whose support they crave most-their mother-often can't get on board. Why does a mother's approval matter so much? And why is it so painful for mothers when daughters choose paths different from theirs? In Making Up with Mom, Julie Halpert and Deborah Carr answer these questions by focusing on the issues of dating/marriage, career and child rearing. Relying on interviews with nearly 100 mothers and daughters, and offering tips from more than two dozen therapists, the book explores a range of communication issues and how to resolve them. St. Martins Press/Thomas Dunne, 2008. More information. ISBN 0-312-36881-X.

The Malling of America (CDs)

Everybody talks about the problems of exponential growth in the west — pollution, congestion, traffic — but talk about solutions and many Westerners give you a blank stare — or argue that you're messing with their private property rights. In the face of those blank stares, the two-part documentary The Malling of America tackles this issue.

• Part One: In "Across the Great Divide," Oregon-based producer Barbara Bernstein sets out on a road trip through the mountains and canyons of Colorado and Utah, looking for what's left of the West of open space and rugged wildlands. She meets an array of folks trying in their own ways to grapple with the changing west, including Will Toor, the environmentalist mayor of Boulder, Colorado; Del Le Fevre, the last working rancher in Boulder, Utah; Mark and Katie Austin, owners of the Boulder Mountain Lodge, who are trying to bring the New West to this remote corner of Southern Utah, where the road to town was paved less than fifteen years ago; Utah Division of Indian Affairs director Forrest Cuch; and Utah writer and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams.
• Part Two: "Can the Last Place Last?" returns to the West Coast to visit two places that have been living with strict land use planning regulations for twenty five years: Marin County in Northern California, and the state of Oregon. These experiments in planning for growth are contrasted with the hundreds of miles of sprawl that have swallowed farms and natural areas all along the Wasatch Front in Utah and the Front Range of Colorado. In the course of this journey, we come to understand the myriad of issues that are all part of the discussion of growth. What is a landscape's principal value: as an economic resource or as a source of natural habitat, beauty and spiritual connection? And how do we create livable communities that do not become exclusive enclaves for the wealthy?

Available as a 2-CD set or individually. The program is available free of charge to public radio stations for broadcast. Contact Barbara Bernstein at (503) 235-5036 or visit the Media Project.

Mass Media and Environmental Conflict: America's Green Crusades

News media coverage of conservation and public health controversy began long before the environmental movements of the 1960s. In Mass Media and Environmental Conflict, authors Mark Neuzil and Bill Kovarik present a series of case studies describing interactions between the media and social groups in the late 19th and early to mid 20th century. Neuzil and Kovarik explore the role of books, magazines, newspaper articles, and other media and the ways they have created both regional and national communities of environmental understanding. Neuzil and Kovarik fold together early environmental groups, the mass media, the bureaucratic power structure, and the social system of each period, examining battles over public land, wild animals, clean air, and workplace hazards. The authors also describe controversies over America's national parks; species depletion and the evolution of hunting regulations; muckrakers and the great Alaskan land fraud; Hetch Hetchy and the first big dam controversy; the Ethyl gasoline debate; and the Radium Girls controversy. Sage Publications, 1996. ISBN 076190333X.

Monkey Dancing: A Father, Two Kids and a Journey to the Ends of the Earth

After his wife of 15 years divorced him and moved out of state with her new girlfriend, followed by the death of his brother from breast cancer, Daniel Glick found himself raising two decidedly spirited children on his own. He opted to forge this new family of three by using adventure as their crucible, embarking on a five-month world tour with his 13-year old son and 9-year-old daughter to see some of the planet's most wondrous and environmentally endangered landscapes. From the python-infested rivers of Borneo to the jungles of Vietnam, from Nepal's Gangeatic Plains to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Glick weaves accounts of the trio's encounters with the natural world into his intimate reflections on loss, change, and fatherhood, illuminating the connection between our relationship with each other and our relationship with the earth we inhabit. A Colorado book award winner and Amazon.com's "Top 50 Editors' Picks" for 2003. More information. Hardcover: PublicAffairs, 2003; ISBN 1586481541. Paperback: PublicAffairs, 2004; ISBN 1586482378.

Moving Mountains: How One Woman and Her Community Won Justice from Big Coal

In late 1994, wells in Pie, West Virginia, began to go dry, leaving many residents of the small coal-mining town without water to drink. When local housewife Trish Bragg made a few phone calls in an effort to solve this problem, she had no idea that her inquiries would eventually lead to her becoming the named plaintiff in a landmark lawsuit over mountaintop removal mining, a summa cum laude college graduate and a hero of her community. Author Penny Loeb, a longtime investigative journalist at Newsday and U.S. News & World Report, spent nine years chronicling the triumphs and setbacks of people in the West Virginia coalfields — people caught between the economic opportunities provided by coal and the detriments to health and to quality of life that are so often the by-products of the coal industry. The result of her work is an account of the human and environmental costs of coal extraction, and the inspirational grassroots crusade to mitigate these costs. Winner of prestigious bronze award for environment in Foreword Magazine's 2007 contest for all independent and academic press books. More information. University Press of Kentucky, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8131-2441-4.

Nature Writing Field Guide for Teachers

Jan D. Wellik's book offers a unique blend of literary and environmental science writing activities for grades K-12. The nature writing curriculum offers young people a chance to explore the wonders of the natural world and expand literary and creative expression. This 6x9 size book is 52 pages with over 75 nature writing activities developed in collaboration with the Eco Expressions' Nature Writing program for youth in San Diego, CA. More information. Eco Expressions, 2007. ISBN 978-0-6151-9461-5.

Nearly Human: The Gorilla's Guide to Good Living

In Nearly Human, author Andrew Y. Grant reveals the true nature of the gorilla, a fascinating creature which shares 98% of our DNA. He explains their unique behaviors and habits that we can learn from and use for the enhancement of our own lives. Grant says we can become stronger parents, less violent societies, and better communicators by following the gorilla's example. He also exposes the constant threats facing the species, and what we as humans can do to help. Tatra Press, 2007. Paperback, 160 pages with 100 b&w illustrations, ISBN13: 978-0-9776142-3-3.

The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable

"...[a] vibrant and hopeful book...[The authors] take us on a fascinating world tour showing how an unlikely collection of innovators...are