Environmental Books Recommended by SEJ Members [1]
Below are some of SEJ members' favorite reference books:
- The Academic Press Dictionary of Science and Technology. By Christopher Morris. Academic Press, 1992.
- The Almanac of American Politics 2002. By Michael Barone with Richard E. Cohen. National Journal Group, 2001.
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The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine. AMA, 1989.
SEJ member comments: useful for basics. -
American Wildlife & Plants: A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits. By Alexander C. Martin, A. L. Nelson, and Herbert S. Zim. Dover Pubns, 1985.
SEJ member comments: First published about 50 years ago. This is among the most useful books I've ever picked up. - Audubon Field Guides: wildflowers, fungi, birds, mammals, fish, pinnipeds, regional, etc. Complete Audubon Book List. [2]
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Brownfields: A Comprehensive Guide to Redeveloping Contaminated Property. By Todd S. Davis. American Bar Association, 2002.
SEJ member comments: a once definitive book of state laws. - Chemicals, the Press and the Public: A Journalists' Guide to Reporting on Chemicals in the Community. [3] Published by the National Safety Council's Environmental Health Center, 1989.
- Climate Change 2001. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [4]
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Botany. Edited by Michael Allaby. Oxford University Press, 1992.
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The Condensed Chemical Dictionary. By Gessner G. Hawley. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 10th edition, 1985. Later editions available.
SEJ member comments: for basic chemistry concepts. - The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed. By Karen Elizabeth Gordon. Pantheon Books, 1993.
- A Dictionary of Biology. Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 2000.
- The Dictionary of Ecology and Environmental Science. By Henry Warren Art (Editor), F. Herbert Bormann. Henry Holt & Company, Inc., 1993.
- A Dictionary of Environmental Quotations. Compiled by Barbara K. Rodes and Rice Odell. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Approximately 3,700 quotations in 143 categories.
- The Dorling Kindersley World Reference Atlas. By Deni Bown. DK Publishing, 1999.
- The Dose Makes the Poison: A Plain-Language Guide to Toxicology. By M. Alice Ottoboni. John Wiley & Sons, 1997.
- Encyclopedia Britannica. [5]
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The Encyclopedia of Mammals. Edited by David W. MacDonald. Checkmark Books, 1995.
SEJ member comments: probably the animal book we use most. - The Encyclopedia of the Environment. By Ruth A. Eblen (Editor), William R. Eblen (Editor), Rene Dubos Center for Human Environments. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1994.
- Encyclopedia of World Environmental History. [6] Edited by Shepard Krech III, J.R. McNeill, and Carolyn Merchant. Routledge, 2003.
- Environmental Law Handbook. [7] By Thomas F.P. Sullivan, Editor Emeritus, with contributing authors. Government Institutes Press, 17th edition, May 2003.
- Environmental Regulatory Glossary. By Thomas F.P. Sullivan. ABS Consulting, 1993.
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Environmental Toxicants: Human Exposures and Their Health Effects. Edited by Morton Lippmann. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992.
SEJ member comments: great for detail on a few substances. - The Essential Researcher. By Maureen Croteau and Wayne Worcester. Harper Collins, 1993.
- The Facts on File Dictionary of Environmental Science. [8] Edited by L. Harold Stevenson and Bruce C. Wyman. Third Edition, Facts on File, 2007.
- A copy of the state and federal FOIA! Full text of The Freedom of Information Act 5 U.S.C. § 552. [9]
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A Grain of Truth: The Media, the Public and Biotechnology. By Susanna Hornig Priest, associate professor of journalism at Texas A&M University. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, 2000.
SEJ member comments: see Chapter 2, Reinventing Milk (clearly written scrutiny of rBGH story); Chapter 6, The Labeling Controversy and Public Perceptions of Risk; and Chapter 7, The Cloning Story. - Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. By Bernhard Grzimek, Neil Schlager (Editor), Donna Olendorf (Editor), Melissa C. McDade (Editor). Gale Group, 2nd edition, December 2003.
- The Handy Science Answer Book. [10] Compiled by The Science and Technology Department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Edited by James E. Bobick and Naomi E. Balaban. Centennial Edition, Visible Ink Press, 2003.
- The Hiking Trails of North Georgia. By Tim Homan. Peachtree Publishers, 1997.
- Instant Notes in Ecology. By A. Mackenzie. Springer Verlag, 1998.
- It Ain't Necessarily So: How Media Make and Unmake the Scientific Picture of Reality. By David Murray, Joel Schwartz, S. Robert Lichter. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, 2001.
- Maps with the News: The Development of American Journalistic Cartography. By Syracuse Univ. Newhouse School Prof. Mark Monmonier. University of Chicago Press, 1989.
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The Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, & Biologicals. Edited by Maryadele J. O'Neil, Ann Smith, Patricia E. Heckelman, John R. Obenchain, Jo Ann R. Gallipeau, and Mary Ann D'Arecca. Merck & Co., 2001.
SEJ member comments: the real lowdown on particular chemicals, versus the concepts. -
A Moment on the Earth: The Coming Age of Environmental Optimism. By Gregg Easterbrook. Penguin USA, 1996.
SEJ member comments: I use this book a lot as a primer on any given issue. - National Academy of Sciences (NAS) reports, including "Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children", "Toxicological Effects of Methylmercury" and "Understanding Risk." National Academies Press. [11]
- National Geographic Atlas of the World. National Geographic, 7th edition, 1999.
- National Safety Council's Environmental Health Center has some very good guidebooks [12] on how to cover chemicals, coastal issues and more. Several are available in downloadable PDF format.
- The New York Public Library Science Desk Reference. By Patricia Barnes-Svarney, Frommer. Hungry Minds, Inc., 1995.
- News & Numbers: A Guide to Reporting Statistical Claims and Controversies in Health and Related Fields. By the late Victor Cohn, former science/environmental reporter for The New York Times and then The Washington Post. Iowa State University Press, 2001.
- Our Living Oceans; Report on the Status of U.S. Living Marine Resources, 1999. [13] NOAA.
- Peterson Field Guides. [14] Houghton Mifflin Company.
- Report on Carcinogens, Tenth Edition. [15] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Toxicology Program, December 2002.
- The Reporter's Environmental Handbook. [16] By Bernadette M. West, M. Jane Lewis, Michael R. Greenberg, David B. Sachsman, Renee Rogers. Rutgers University Press; 3rd edition, August 2003.
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Reporting on Risk: A Journalist's Handbook on Environmental Risk Assessment. [17] By M.A. Kamrin, D.J. Katz and M.L. Walter. National Sea Grant College Program and Foundation for American Communications, 1995.
SEJ member comments: does a good job of explaining statistics and epidemiology for English majors. - Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations from the Library of Congress. Edited by Suzy Platt. Congressional Quarterly, 1992.
- RISK: A Practical Guide for Deciding What's Really Safe and What's Really Dangerous in the World Around You. [18] By David Ropeik and George Gray. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.
- Science Communication; An Interdisciplinary Social Science Journal. [19] Edited by Carol L. Rogers, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland. SAGE Publications.
- The State of the Nation's Ecosystems. By H. John Heinz III Center of Science, Economics, and the Environment, Cambridge University Press, 2002. Also available here [20] for downloading or no-charge print format.
- State of the World. Annual publication from Worldwatch Institute. State of the World 2004; Special Focus: The Consumer Society. [21]
- Status and Trends of the Nation's Biological Resources. By M.J. Mac, P.A. Opler, C.E. Puckett Haeker, and P.D. Doran. 2 vols. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Va, 1998. Online report summary. [22]
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Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary. Edited by Donald Venes, Clayton L. Thomas, Clarence Wilbur Taber. F A Davis Co., 19th edition, 2001.
SEJ member comments: broad in scope; very helpful for figuring out what the heck those researchers, gov't types, and doctors are saying. - Tainted Truth: The Manipulation of Fact in America. By Cynthia Crossen of The Wall Street Journal. Hardcover: Simon & Schuster, 1994. Paperback: Touchstone Books, 1996.
- Toxics A to Z: A Guide to Everyday Pollution Hazards. By John Harte, et al. University of California Press, 1991.
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Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia. By Glenn D. Considine (Editor), Peter H. Kulik (Editor), Douglas Considine. Wiley-Interscience, 2002.
SEJ member comments:The OED of science terms. - Vital Signs. Annual publication from Worldwatch Institute. Vital Signs 2003. [23]
- Wetlands. By William J. Mitsch and James G. Gosselink. John Wiley & Sons, 3rd edition, 2000.
- The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2004. Edited and published annually by World Almanac.
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The World's Water: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. [24] By Peter H. Gleick. Latest edition 2002-2003. Island Press, 2002.
SEJ member comments: for anyone who wants global water stats in atlas-type form. - The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook. By Joshua Piven, David Borgenicht. Chronicle Books, 1999.
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SEJ members: Do you have suggestions for new books or feedback on this page? Please send to cmac@sej.org. [25]