Biology

Affluenza uses the whimsical metaphor of a disease to tackle a very serious subject: the damage done -- to our health, our families, our communities, and our environment -- by the obsessive quest for material gain. The authors examine the origins, evolution, and symptoms of the affluenza epidemic. But more importantly, they explore cures and suggest strategies for rebuilding families and communities and for restoring and respecting the earth.

Describes money-saving ways to re-use common products--many of which are not currently accepted for commercial recycling.

In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato.

Changing Planet, Changing Health brings us to places like Mozambique, Honduras, and the United States for an eye-opening on-the-ground investigation of how climate change is altering patterns of disease. Written by a physician and world expert on climate and health and an award-winning science journalist, the book reveals the surprising links between global warming and cholera, malaria, lyme disease, asthma, and other health threats.

A study of the downfall of some of history's greatest civilizations, written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, includes coverage of such cultures as the Anasazi, the Maya, and the Viking colony on Greenland, tracing patterns of environmental damage, climate change, poor political choices, and other factors that were pivotal to their demise.

Sarah Elton walks fields and farms on three continents, not only investigating the very real threats to our food, but also telling the little-known stories of the people who are working against time to create a new and hopeful future.

Through the life stories of the author's grandfathers, father, uncles, and cousins, Deadfall documents the dramatic changes in the logging industry since the early 1900s. The book focuses on the influence of international timber giant Weyerhaeuser Company in the Pacific Northwest, yet its themes resonate from Alaska to the American Southeast--wherever timber is king. While spurning nostalgia for logging's glory days, Deadfall attempts to view a future for today's timber workers.

An environmentalist examines loss of trees in every part of the country from New England to California; human-created causes including acid rain, ozone, ultraviolet rays, and clear-cutting; and responses or lack of responses from scientists, government, and citizens.

McKibben's earliest warnings about global warming went largely unheeded. In this book, he argues that we can meet the challenges of a new "Eaarth"--still recognizable but suddenly and violently out of balance--by building the kind of societies and economies that can hunker down, concentrate on essentials, and create the type of community that will allow us to weather trouble on an unprecedented scale.

In Earth in Mind, noted environmental educator David W. Orr focuses not on problems in education, but on the problem of education.

Drawing on first-hand accounts from entomologists, botanists, foresters, and rural residents, award-winning journalist Andrew Nikiforuk investigates this unprecedented beetle plague, its startling implications, and the lessons it holds.

Long known for her insightful and thought-provoking political journalism, author Elizabeth Kolbert now tackles the controversial and increasingly urgent subject of global warming.

In Finding Higher Ground, Amy Seidl brings us emerging stories of adaptation from both the natural world and human communities, offering examples of how ecosystems, plants, and animals are responding on behavioral and genetic levels to environmental change.

Set in the present day in the rural community of Feathertown, Tennessee, this novel tells the story of Dellarobia Turnbow, a petite, razor-sharp 29-year-old who nurtured worldly ambitions before becoming pregnant and marrying at seventeen. Now, after more than a decade of tending to small children on a failing farm, oppressed by poverty, isolation and her husband's antagonistic family, she has mitigated her boredom by surrendering to an obsessive flirtation with a handsome younger man.

Traces the significant 2007 and 2008 reductions in honeybee populations, identifying the causes of Colony Collapse Disorder to explain the link between bee pollination and industrial agriculture and predicts dangerous reductions in food output.

Science writer Royte leads us on the wild adventure that begins once our trash hits the bottom of the can. Along the way, we meet an odor chemist who explains why trash smells so bad; garbage fairies and recycling gurus; neighbors of massive waste dumps; CEOs making fortunes by encouraging waste or encouraging recycling--often both at the same time; scientists trying to revive our most polluted places; fertilizer fanatics and adventurers who kayak amid sewage; paper people, steel people, aluminum people, plastic people, and even a guy who swears by recycling human waste. By showing us what happens to the things we've "disposed of," Royte reminds us that our decisions about consumption and waste have a very real impact--and that unless we undertake radical change, the garbage we create will always be with us: in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we consume.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist takes readers on a surprising tour of the world of garbage. Trash is America's largest export. Individually, we make more than four pounds a day, sixty-four tons across a lifetime.

As consumers demand planet-friendly products and investors look for "green companies" to put their money into, more and more businesses are actively seeking ways to fill this demand. Whether their initial motives are altruistic or not, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and corporate leaders are finding a huge market for green goods and services. Bottom line: Global warming is good for business.

Explains climate change-- its implications for the future, and what we can, and cannot, do to avoid further change.

A tale of obsession so fierce that a man kills the thing he loves most: the only giant golden spruce on earth. As vividly as Jon Krakauer put readers on Everest, John Vaillant takes us into the heart of North America's last great forest, where trees grow to eighteen feet in diameter, sunlight never touches the ground, and the chainsaws are always at work.

The award-winning human rights activist and advisor to policy makers and presidential candidates delivers a 21st-century economic plan to rescue working-class Americans. Van Jones illustrates how we can invent and invest our way out of the pollution-based grey economy and into the healthy new green economy. Built by a broad coalition deeply rooted in the lives and struggles of ordinary people, this path has the practical benefit of both cutting energy prices and generating enough work to pull the U.S. economy out of its present death spiral.

At a time when we are confronted with bad news about the environment nearly every day, renowned scientist Jane Goodall brings us inspiring news about the future of the animal kingdom.

The mother of six children explains how she and her family changed their life style to one that is completely food-sufficient.

Anthropologist and naturalist Loren Eiseley blends scientific knowledge and imaginative vision in this story of man.

"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." These simple words go to the heart of food journalist Pollan's thesis. Humans used to know how to eat well, he argues, but the balanced dietary lessons that were once passed down through generations have been confused and distorted by food industry marketers, nutritional scientists, and journalists.

In this groundbreaking new work, child advocacy expert Richard Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today's wired generation―he calls it nature deficit―to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, such as rises in obesity, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and depression.

Transform leaves, grass, and kitchen scraps into gardener’s gold! This easy-to-use guide shows you how to turn household garbage and backyard refuse into nutrient-filled compost that can nourish your soil and promote a thriving garden.

No Way Home offers entrancing accounts of some of the world's iconic migrants of the sky, land, and sea while underscoring the obstacles they face in their travels

Pollan follows each of the food chains--industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves--from the source to the final meal, always emphasizing our coevolutionary relationship with the handful of plant and animal species we depend on. The surprising answers Pollan offers have profound political, economic, psychological, and even moral implications for all of us.

A profile of the habitat and life cycle of the polar bear covers he species' venerated position in Inuit culture, its reproductive habits, and the environmental factors that are compromising its ability to survive.

A collection of essays on the natural world during a year spent in the Blue Ridge Mountains reflects the author's interactions with her wilderness surroundings.

In an effort to rethink our responses to the crisis of global warming, a small but increasingly influential group of scientists is exploring proposals for planned human intervention in the climate system: a stratospheric veil against the sun, the cultivation of photosynthetic plankton, fleets of unmanned ships seeding the clouds--all technologies of the new field of "geoengineering." In The planet remade, journalist Oliver Morton explores the history, politics, and cutting-edge science of this new field, weighing both the promises and perils of its controversial strategies and examining its scale and ambition relative to the profound changes in the planet's clouds, soils, winds, and seas during the last century.--Adapted from publisher description.

Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives inhabiting the forested mountains and struggling small farms of southern Appalachia. At the heart of these intertwined narratives is a den of coyotes that have recently migrated into the region.

Using the history of the concept of extinction with the dodo as a case study, Pinto-Correia carefully weaves together story fragments to give a cohesive eye-opening view of 17th century exploration and the grave ramifications it had for the survival and extinction of many species.

Peter Rogers and Susan Leal are experts with decades of experience dealing with the conservation and protection of water.

First published in 1949 and praised in The New York Times Book Review as "full of beauty and vigor and bite," A Sand County Almanac combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land.

In the manner of Barbara Tuchman and Paul Johnson, a superior, popular account of how five plants--quinine, sugar, tea, cotton and the potato--have determined the course of history. Illustrated.

Following the birds on their six-thousand-mile migratory journey, Stutchbury leads us on an ecological field trip to explore firsthand the major threats to songbirds: pesticides, still a major concern decades after Rachel Carson first raised the alarm; the destruction of vital habitat, from the boreal forests of Canada to the diminishing continuous forests of the United States to the grasslands of Argentina; coffee plantations, which push birds out of their forest refuges so we can have our morning fix; the bright lights and structures in our cities, which prove a minefield for migrating birds; and global warming. We could well wake up in the near future and hear no songbirds singing. As Stutchbury shows, saving songbirds means protecting our ecosystem and ultimately ourselves.

First published by Houghton Mifflin in 1962, Silent Spring alerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers of indiscriminate use of pesticides, spurring revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water.

In accessible journalistic prose, author Lynas distills what environmental scientists predict about the consequences of human pollution for the next hundred years, degree by degree. At 1 degree Celsius, most coral reefs and many mountain glaciers will be lost. A 3-degree rise would spell the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, disappearance of Greenland's ice sheet, and the creation of deserts across the Midwestern United States and southern Africa. A 6-degree increase would eliminate most life on Earth, including much of humanity. Based on authoritative scientific articles, the latest computer models, and information about past warm events in Earth history, this promises to be an eye-opening warning that humanity will ignore at its peril.

The natural world as humans have always known it evolved close to 100 million years ago, with the appearance of flowering plants and pollinating insects during the age of the dinosaurs. Its tremendous history is now in danger of profound, catastrophic disruption. In Terra, a brilliant synthesis of evolutionary biology, paleontology, and modern environmental science, Michael Novacek shows how all three can help us understand and prevent what he (and others) call today’s “mass extinction event.”

The Rubber Duck boys are back, and after showing us all the ways that toxins get IN our bodies, now they give us a guide for scrubbing those toxins OUT. Following the runaway success of their first book, two of North America's leading environmental activists give practical and often surprising advice for removing toxic chemicals and cleansing our bodies and homes. There are over 80,000 synthetic chemicals in commerce today, including hormone-disrupting phthalates and parabens, cancer-causing pesticides, heavy metals and air pollutants. Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie use their outrageous experiments (they and their brave volunteers are the guinea pigs) to prove how easily our bodies absorb these chemicals from the foods we eat, the air we breathe, and the products we smear on our skin--day after day. Then they give us the good news about what is in our control and the steps we can take for reducing our toxic burden. They investigate the truth behind organic foods, which detox methods actually work, if indoor air quality is improving, and how we dispose of waste (where do those chemicals go?). The result is nothing short of a prescription for a healthier life.

Our reliance on industrial agriculture has resulted in a food supply riddled with hidden environmental, economic, and health care costs and beset by rising food prices. With only a handful of corporations responsible for the lion's share of the food on our supermarket shelves, we are incredibly vulnerable to supply chain disruption. "The Urban Food Revolution "provides a recipe for community food security based on leading innovations across North America. The author draws on his political and business experience to show that we have all the necessary ingredients to ensure that local, fresh sustainable food is affordable and widely available. He describes how cities are bringing food production home by: Growing community through neighborhood gardening, cooking, and composting programs. Rebuilding local food processing, storage, and distribution systems. Investing in farmers markets and community supported agriculture. Reducing obesity through local fresh food initiatives in schools, colleges, and universities. Producing food locally makes people healthier, alleviates poverty, creates jobs, and makes cities safer and more beautiful. "The Urban Food Revolution "is an essential resource for anyone who has lost confidence in the global industrial food system and wants practical advice on how to join the local food revolution.

When the author, a Columbia professor, set out to solve America's food, water, and energy crises, he didn't just think big, he thought up. His stroke of genius, the vertical farm, has excited scientists, architects, and politicians around the globe. These multi-story intensely managed indoor farms, grown inside skyscrapers, are capable of producing traditional greenhouse crops, as well as pigs and fowl, year-round. They would provide solutions to many of the serious problems the world is facing.

Climate has been humanity's constant, if moody, companion. At times benefactor or tormentor, climate nurtured the first stirrings of civilization and then repeatedly visited ruin on empires and peoples. Environmental journalist Linden reveals a recurring pattern in which civilizations become prosperous and complacent during good weather, only to collapse when climate changes--either through its direct effects, such as floods or drought, or indirect consequences, such as disease, blight, and civil disorder.

As logging continues to rule the rural Northwest, Wintergreen's message is more important than ever. Set in the Willapa Hills of southwest Washington, both people and forest are threatened with extinction. Timeless among the literature of the land, Wintergreen is now back in print with a new afterword by the author.

When a titanic explosion ripped through the Number Four reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in 1986, spewing flames and chunks of burning, radioactive material into the atmosphere, one of our worst nightmares came true. As the news gradually seeped out of the USSR and the extent of the disaster was realized, it became clear how horribly wrong things had gone. Dozens died - two from the explosion and many more from radiation illness during the following months - while scores of additional victims came down with acute radiation sickness. Hundreds of thousands were evacuated from the most contaminated areas. The prognosis for Chernobyl and its environs - succinctly dubbed the Zone of Alienation - was grim.

Called the work of "a mesmerizing storyteller with deep compassion and memorable prose" (Publishers Weekly) and the book that, "anyone interested in natural history, botany, protecting nature, or Native American culture will love," by Library Journal, Braiding Sweetgrass is poised to be a classic of nature writing. As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer asks questions of nature with the tools of science.

When a titanic explosion ripped through the Number Four reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in 1986, spewing flames and chunks of burning, radioactive material into the atmosphere, one of our worst nightmares came true. As the news gradually seeped out of the USSR and the extent of the disaster was realized, it became clear how horribly wrong things had gone. Dozens died - two from the explosion and many more from radiation illness during the following months - while scores of additional victims came down with acute radiation sickness. Hundreds of thousands were evacuated from the most contaminated areas. The prognosis for Chernobyl and its environs - succinctly dubbed the Zone of Alienation - was grim.

The Rubber Duck boys are back, and after showing us all the ways that toxins get IN our bodies, now they give us a guide for scrubbing those toxins OUT. Following the runaway success of their first book, two of North America's leading environmental activists give practical and often surprising advice for removing toxic chemicals and cleansing our bodies and homes. There are over 80,000 synthetic chemicals in commerce today, including hormone-disrupting phthalates and parabens, cancer-causing pesticides, heavy metals and air pollutants. Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie use their outrageous experiments (they and their brave volunteers are the guinea pigs) to prove how easily our bodies absorb these chemicals from the foods we eat, the air we breathe, and the products we smear on our skin--day after day. Then they give us the good news about what is in our control and the steps we can take for reducing our toxic burden. They investigate the truth behind organic foods, which detox methods actually work, if indoor air quality is improving, and how we dispose of waste (where do those chemicals go?). The result is nothing short of a prescription for a healthier life.

n American Chestnut, Susan Freinkel tells the dramatic story of the stubborn optimists who refused to let this cultural icon go. In a compelling weave of history, science, and personal observation, she relates their quest to save the tree through methods that ranged from classical plant breeding to cutting-edge gene technology. But the heart of her story is the cast of unconventional characters who have fought for the tree for a century, undeterred by setbacks or skeptics, and fueled by their dreams of restored forests and their powerful affinity for a fellow species.

In THE WORST HARD TIME, Timothy Egan put the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl at the center of a rich history, told through characters he brought to indelible life. Now he performs the same alchemy with the Big Burn, the largest-ever forest fire in America and the tragedy that cemented Teddy Roosevelt's legacy in the land.

n his landmark book, Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city's growth.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. In North America, his name still graces counties, towns, a river, parks, bays, lakes, and mountains. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, whether he was climbing volcanoes, racing through Siberia, or translating his research into bestselling publications that changed science.

Stern but compassionate, author Wendell Berry raises broader issues that environmentalists rarely focus on . . . In one sense Berry is the voice of a rural agrarian tradition that stretches from rural Kentucky back to the origins of human civilization. But his insights are universal because Our Only World is filled with beautiful, compassionate writing and careful, profound thinking.

In the spring of 1983 Terry Tempest Williams learned that her mother was dying of cancer. That same season, The Great Salt Lake began to rise to record heights, threatening the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and the herons, owls, and snowy egrets that Williams, a poet and naturalist, had come to gauge her life by. One event was nature at its most random, the other a by-product of rogue technology: Terry's mother, and Terry herself, had been exposed to the fallout of atomic bomb tests in the 1950s. As it interweaves these narratives of dying and accommodation, Refuge transforms tragedy into a document of renewal and spiritual grace, resulting in a work that has become a classic.