Kategoria BISAC: Nature >> Environmental Conservation & Protection - General

If the Park Service can't--or won't--protect our national parks, who will?

It's high time we figure that out, notes John Freemuth.

Saddled from the beginning with a contradictory mandate--to promote recreational use of parks yet preserve them for future generations--the Park Service has always walked an administrative tightrope. But within the last few years a new kind of threat has appeared, and the Park Service finds itself in an even more precarious position, its effectiveness impaired.

Increasingly national parks have come under environmental attack from sources outside the...

It was like no other library: not a musty, mute archive but a bustling center of activity and voice of advocacy. It brought together otherwise combative parties--sportsmen, lumbermen, librarians, politicians, even disputing activists--as it helped redefine what environmentalism means in America.

Denver's Conservation Library was established in 1960 as a repository for environmental and conservation documents. In chronicling its history, Andrew Kirk also traces the cultural history of American environmentalism as viewed through the lens of this unique institution. He tells how this library...

Over the course of two centuries, Americans have tried to tame the Missouri River. First explored by Lewis and Clark, this once-free-flowing river has in modern times been dammed, dredged, and channelized until it now barely resembles its former self. Yet, the Missouri remains beyond complete human control.

Writing in a new tradition of environmental history, Robert Kelley Schneiders takes a long historical view to reconstruct the Missouri Valley environment before Euro-American settlement and then trace the environmental transformations resulting from the development projects of the...

From the ancient Appalachians to the high Sierra, mountains have always symbolized wilderness for Americans. Susan Schrepfer unfolds the history of our fascination with high peaks and rugged terrain to tell how mountains have played a dramatic role in shaping American ideas about wilderness and its regulation.

Delving into memoirs and histories, letters and diaries, early photos and old maps, Schrepfer especially compares male and female mountaineering narratives to show the ways in which gender affected what men and women found to value in rocky heights, and how their different...

Environmental debates often pit the protection of nature against economic growth. But as Gregory Summers reveals, environmentalism has unsuspected roots in consumerism that extend deeper than our present-day dilemmas. In Consuming Nature, he tells of an early confrontation that set the stage for Silent Spring, pushing the dawn of environmental politics back several decades.

Summers takes readers to Wisconsin's Fox River Valley more than fifty years ago to recount how technological and economic progress contributed to residents' growing opposition to the industrial pollution of the river....

The work is a practical how-to manual for breeding houbara in captivity. It also presents and summarizes data obtained on houbara diet, behaviour, physiology, reproductive biology and veterinary care that have enabled the breeding programme to succeed.

Islamic attitudes are of increasing concern to the Western world and environmental issues claim much attention as well. Perhaps, though, few non-Muslims realise that there is a distinctive Islamic contribution to the environmental debate; consequently, it provides a much needed Islamic input into the world-wide process of consultation on the future of the planet. Born from the 1992 Earth Summit, this book is a major account of Islam's contribution to the environmental debate. Dr Izzi Dien views the topic from historical, theological, philosophical, legal and ethical perspectives, examining...

The Chesapeake Bay restoration effort has been touted as the nation's premier environmental restoration program. Yet the Bay and the living systems it supports remain in dismally poor condition, with fisheries in decline and drinking water in danger. This book addresses the Chesapeake Bay as a political problem and reveals how the political process has worked against the interests of science, the public, and environmental advocates all at once. Author Howard Ernst shows that the forces driving environmental degradation are sown deeply into the political soul of America, posing menacing...

We spend a good amount of time in our lives managing waste: washing ourselves, taking out the trash, sorting recyclables, going to the toilet, deleting e-mail, picking out old clothes to give to charity, filling the compost bin, multitasking to save time, clipping coupons to save money. But waste is much more than what we want to get rid of or avoid. Far beyond terms like rubbish, trash, or litter, the idea of waste can provoke a minefield of emotions and moral anxieties. Gay Hawkins explores the ethical significance of waste in everyday life_from the broadest conceptions of waste and loss to...

We spend a good amount of time in our lives managing waste: washing ourselves, taking out the trash, sorting recyclables, going to the toilet, deleting e-mail, picking out old clothes to give to charity, filling the compost bin, multitasking to save time, clipping coupons to save money. But waste is much more than what we want to get rid of or avoid. Far beyond terms like rubbish, trash, or litter, the idea of waste can provoke a minefield of emotions and moral anxieties. Gay Hawkins explores the ethical significance of waste in everyday life--from the broadest conceptions of waste and loss...

In the midst of great crisis, it is difficult to contemplate the future. In recent decades, determining what kind of future to imagine has been an ongoing challenge for millions of people around the world who have been subjected to war, terrorism, and civil disorder. While destruction of the environment has long been part of warfare, it has become increasingly important as environmental pressures have intensified in our time. Focusing on the challenges and issues that arise for those contemplating a way forward in the wake of catastrophic upheavals, Sustainable Development in Crisis...

The health of our nation is reflected in the health of our rivers. These flowing streams supply our drinking water and they sustain the biological wealth of the continent. Central to our past and vital to our future, rivers are the lifelines, yet they are constantly under siege. In Lifelines, Tim Palmer addresses the fate of our waterways. While proposals for destructive federal dams are no longer common, and some of the worst pollution has been brought under control, myriad other concerns have appeared-many of them more complex than threats of the past. Now we face increased diversion of...

What is a forest? What are forests for? Who should control them? These are familiar questions, but the Allegheny casts them in a new light. The national environmental movement has become less willing to compromise since its victories in the Pacific Northwest, and the Allegheny is its newest proving ground. This book explains what activists are after, how the struggle differs from more familiar environmental battles and what it means for the future of the American landscape.

The Everglades was once reviled as a liquid wasteland, and Americans dreamed of draining it. Now it is revered as a national treasure, and Americans have launched the largest environmental project in history to try to save it.

The Swamp is the stunning story of the destruction and possible resurrection of the Everglades, the saga of man's abuse of nature in southern Florida and his unprecedented efforts to make amends. Michael Grunwald, a prize-winning national reporter for The Washington Post, takes readers on a riveting journey from the Ice Ages to the present,...

Can sociology help us to tackle environmental problems? What can sociology tell us about the nature of the environment and about the origins and consequences of environmental risks, hazards and change? In this important new book Alan Irwin maps out this emerging field of knowledge, teaching and research. He reviews the key sociological debates in the field and sets out a new framework for analysis and practice.


Among the themes examined are constructivism and realism, sustainable development and theories of the risk society. Readers are also introduced to communities at...

Troublemakers is a provocative argument from prominent environmentalist Kevin Dunion for a sustained challenge to environmental injustice in Scotland.Pollution, disturbance and fears of ill health affect the daily life of many Scots, particularly from the most disadvantaged or vulnerable groups in society. They are expected to put up with unnecessary risk and a lower quality of life. Groups who attempt to speak up in defence of their communities are often marginalised by government, industry and regulatory bodies. They find themselves branded as 'troublemakers'.This book, a unique insight...

Love of the native landscape is part of Scottish culture, but the economic demands of a devolved region (and potentially an independent nation) may put greater strains than ever on already damaged natural resources.Scotland's Landscape reviews the role of the landscapes and cityscapes of Scotland in the context of its contemporary culture. It examines environmental issues from many points of view - from the iconic landscapes that are part of the Scottish sense of identity to actual policies formulated by the newly devolved political establishment. The juxtaposition of cultural attitudes and...

Deforestation, soil runoff, salination, pollution. While recurrent themes of the contemporary world, they are not new to us. In this broad sweeping review of the environmental impacts of human settlement and development worldwide over the past 5,000 years, Sing C. Chew shows that these processes are as old as civilization itself. With examples ranging from Ancient Mesopotamia to Malaya, Mycenaean Greece to Ming China, Chew shows that the processes of population growth, intensive resource accumulation, and urbanization in ancient and modern societies almost universally bring on ecological...

Gezon argues that local events continuously redefine and challenge global processes of land use and land degradation. Her ethnographic study of Antankarana-identifying rice farmers and cattle herders in northern Madagascar weaves together an analysis of remotely sensed images of land cover over time with ethnographies of situated negotiations between human actors. Her book will be particularly valuable to researchers and students in anthropology, geography, sociology, and environmental studies, and those involved in conservation and resource management.

Medina tells us that up to 2% of the urban population in developing countries survives by salvaging materials from waste for recycling, which represents up to 64 million scavengers in the world today. Despite these numbers, we know little about the impact of scavenging on global capitalism development. The author examines its historical evolution and its linkages with formal and informal sector productive activities in capitalist and non-capitalist societies, in case studies from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Egypt, the Philippines, and India. His new book radically alters popular...