Book Description

The history and current status of the important oil industry are reviewed in this study of the geological origins of oil and gas. Assessed are how much oil and gas has been produced, what remains in known fields, and what is yet to be found, with attention to how to properly interpret published numbers, many of which are false or distorted by vested interests. The contention is made that the growing Middle East control of the market is likely to lead to a radical and permanent increase in the price of oil before physical shortages begin to appear within the first decade of the 21st century. The book further argues that the coming oil crisis will create economic and political discontinuity of historic proportions, as the world adjusts to a new energy environment. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Very good, timely and appropiate.
This book is an excellent work treating the current hydrocarbon depletion issue. Readers will be well rewarded for their money. This book, however, should be read with two more:

"Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage", by Kenneth S. Deffeyes

"The Oil Factor: How Oil Controls the Economy and Your Financial Future" by Stephen Leeb, Donna Leeb

One thing the author does not treat is the transitional period from hydrocarbon to renewable sources. Since these are hard topics, and the uncertainty is very high, their omission from the work is quite understandable.

As to the comment by the reader from Portland, OR, I have worked on the floors of the largest energy companies in Houston, currently working for the California energy markets, and yes, C. J. Campbell does have a pretty good understanding of how the energy markets work. Although I do not quite share the author's a bit doomsday view of the years to come, we will be up for a significant challenge.

a waste of paper
Campbell is the 43rd author to warn us about the impending doom reulting from "running out of oil." If any of the 43 authors would bother to learn basic economics, the public might have a decent book which explains the coming transition to alternate sources of energy. In Campbell's book, you not only find a basic lack of understanding of how the oil market works, but interviews with doctors and charlatens which need to be excised from the book in a future edition. Maybe he can write this edition in 2015; "The Coming Oil Crisis: This Time I Mean It"

Save yourself time and money and go to his free website before buying: http://dieoff.org/page131.htm

A fascinating book
This is a fascinating book, one that dares to go to examine the very core of the mechanisms which make our society function. Our way of life depends on fossil fuels for about 90% of all the energy we produce. Without oil and the other fossils, the planet would never been able to support 6 billion human beings, to say nothing of the extravagant lifestyle of the fraction of them living in "rich" countries.

Campbell's book is an attempt to foresee how long this bonanza can last. The uncertainties in the field are enormous, already the estimates in the amount of "recoverable resources" vary of almost a factor of two depending on who is doing the estimate. Then, there comes the need to estimate the rate of consumption which, in turn depends on complex and economical factors. Nevertheless, reason can guide us to determine that in no case we can expect more than a few decades (at most) of oil abundance. It is time to think seriously of alternatives.

Campbell's book is written by one of the foremost experts in the field, it is well balanced, entertaining, and overall fascinating. Highly recommended!

pretty good-but it had some fluff
This book has a lot of interesting, hard to find information on oil reserves and petroleum geology. Its a must-read for someone interested in the subject of oil depletion. It has some shortcomings though:

1-It has a lot of superfluous stuff. For example, there is an interview with a medical doctor on topics quite remote from oil depetion. It was annoying to find this material in the book. But it was easily avoided.

2-At times, Campbell didnt stick to the topic. He waders off into simplistic philosphical musings about the meaning of oil depletion. It wasnt helpful.

3-An explanation of why oil is only found in special geological formations was not provided. This is a very important aspect to understanding oil depletion.

But all things considered, this is a good book to read if you want to understand how much oil is left in the ground, and how much has already one up in smoke.

Very comprehensive
The book is based on total cumulative oil production of 1800 billion barrels with peak global production at aprox 10,000,000,000 litres per day in 2001 with a plateau until 2008 and declining until aprox 2100.

Large cities and energy intensive industries such as mining, aircraft, shipping and railways will bear the brunt of declining world oil production from present day global usage of 10,000,000,000 litres per day, declining to around 1,000,000 litres /day in 2080.

The book has extensive production profiles for many regions, but not Australia. It illustrates how Germany's oil production has been in decline from 0.058 Gb/a since the mid 1960's and US oil production has been in decline since the early 1970's peaking at around 9500 kb / day.

An extensive web site is discussed regarding renewable energy.

The rise in human population from 1 billion to 6 billion over the last 100 years is also discussed and the author predicts a decline in human population with declining oil production.

There is a brief discussion in regards to how the temperature rises 33 to 36 deg C for every km decrease in depth and how oil is subsequently cracked into gas at high temperatures, however it doesn't mention at what pressures the cracking would take place or if there is any difference in temperature between 4 km below sea level or 4 km below land.

The book rarely discusses synthetic fertilisers, such as sulphate of ammonia, which need oil or gas as a feedstock to fix nitrogen, etc. Brian Fleays book "The decline of the age of oil" discusses this in greater depth.

There is no discussion of the chemicals that are made from oil such as: Acetylene, rubber, explosives, insecticides, soaps, cosmetics, chewing gum wax, carbon brushes, etc which can be found in an encyclopedia.

However, the book is a very comprehensive discussion of the search for oil and the geological constraints of production. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Indium by Schwarz-Schampera
This book would be helpful for any project in inorganic chemistry. Indium has many medicinal and industrial/petro-chemical utilizations. For instance, it is used in the manufacture of control rods. It was discovered spectroscopically in the mid 1860s by Heronymus Richter .
It melts at 157 C and boils at 2080 C with an atomic wt of
114.82. It is rarely , if ever, found in free form. Typically,
Indium is bound to sulfur according to In S3. It may be bound to
zinc (zn) blendes, tungsten, tin and iron ores. It may be utilized in conjunction with bearing alloys, semi-conductors and
medicinally. Specifically, Indium helps the body absorb and use
more of the other trace minerals . It is known that the levels
of copper and manganese in the kidneys are in direct proportion to the level of Indium. Generally, Indium exists in small amounts. It is insoluble and virtually non-existent in the food
chain. To be of use as a nutrient, Indium must be bound to a
sulfate to be water-soluble. Indium is being investigated for
its positive role in reducing cancerous tumors. Its positive effects are also seen in pain management, inflammatory disease
management & diabetes. Dietary supplementation is found in the
Indium-sulfate liquid drop method of ingestion. This book would be perfect for a class project in chemistry at virtually every
level in academe. The book has applications throughout industry,
academe and medicine. The subject matter of the research contained in this
work would require a considerable effort of time and expense to replicate. For this reason, the work has a unique value to a wide
constituency of people in the scientific community. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Resource models explained
A super helpful book for non-econ, calculus-literate students of environmental science.For environmental econ students, here's an excellence reference book that explains the basic models more thoroughly than most other environmental econ books. Also includes a reasonable amount of bibliographical information to start off research in the discipline. ... Read more

Book Description

Going Solar contains everything that a budding or experienced solar enthusiast could wish for. By distilling thousands of years of history and knowledge into one book, Tomm Stanley brings together the work of pioneering solar designers, some of the greatest scientists that the world has known and a range of modern, practical applications for hands-on people to create a delicious brew of thought provoking, solar thermal discussion.

Enthusiastically coaxing readers through the essential concepts at work in fields of study as diverse as history, geography, nuclear physics, thermodynamics and astronomy, Going Solar reveals the "how's" and "why's" behind the solar heating phenomenon. When the subject matter turns to a study of devices that use solar heat, readers have a firm grasp of the natural forces at work and an appreciation of how the technology might be applied in their own lives.

Written in easy-to-understand language for everyday people and the scientifically challenged, Going Solar contains a delightful blend of humor, fact and function that continually guides readers back to the purpose of its making; understanding and effectively using the warmth found in sunlight for our day-to-day lives. ... Read more

Book Description

"We fail to mandate economic sanity," writes Garrett Hardin, "because our brains are addled by...compassion."With such startling assertions, Hardin has cut a swathe through the field of ecology for decades, winning a reputation as a fearless and original thinker.A prominent biologist, ecological philosopher, and keen student of human population control, Hardin now offers the finest summation of his work to date, with an eloquent argument for accepting the limits of the earth's resources--and the hard choices we must make to live within them.

In Living Within Limits, Hardin focuses on the neglected problem of overpopulation, making a forceful case for dramatically changing the way we live in and manage our world.Our world itself, he writes, is in the dilemma of the lifeboat: it can only hold a certain number of people before it sinks--not everyone can be saved. The old idea of progress and limitless growth misses the point that the earth (and each part of it) has a limited carrying capacity; sentimentality should not cloud our ability to take necessary steps to limit population.But Hardin refutes the notion that goodwill and voluntary restraints will be enough. Instead, nations where population is growing must suffer the consequences alone.Too often, he writes, we operate on the faulty principle of shared costs matched with private profits.In Hardin's famous essay, "The Tragedy of the Commons," he showed how a village common pasture suffers from overgrazing because each villager puts as many cattle on it as possible--since the costs of grazing are shared by everyone, but the profits go to the individual.The metaphor applies to global ecology, he argues, making a powerful case for closed borders and an end to immigration from poor nations to rich ones."The production of human beings is the result of very localized human actions; corrective action must be local....Globalizing the 'population problem' would only ensure that it would never be solved."Hardin does not shrink from the startling implications of his argument, as he criticizes the shipment of food to overpopulated regions and asserts that coercion in population control is inevitable.But he also proposes a free flow of information across boundaries, to allow each state to help itself.

"The time-honored practice of pollute and move on is no longer acceptable," Hardin tells us.We now fill the globe, and we have no where else to go.In this powerful book, one of our leading ecological philosophers points out the hard choices we must make--and the solutions we have been afraid to consider. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

To the Point
A book about population and worldly limits would be uninteresting, most people would say. Not so about this book. Garrett Hardin puts it strait to the point, with no bull or flowery language. This is good especially for me, because science is not particularly my strongest area of intrest. The author puts the scientific facts in everyday language. In this book Mr. Hardin exaust every possibility for counter theories on population growth. I recommend this book to anyone that will be living in the next century. I feel it almost to be a duty to know what is in store for this planet if kept at this current pace. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The Miracles of Barefoot Capitalism:A Compelling Case
This is a wonderful book full of mind and heart expanding stories of people making it in the third world. Anyone with an interest in learning about positive global forces at work should read this book. The book also brings together information on Microcredit activity from many organizations and provides a terrific handbook of resources. It is extremely well written and quite entertaining with some great pictures.

an ongoing miracle
The authors wonderfully describe a system of helping underprivileged people (usually women) to use their talents in ways that contribute to health and happiness in their communities, their families, the world at large, and others who will learn from that experience and change their own lives through the microcredit system. As this system expands it will help bring stability to third-world countries and contribute to world peace as a result. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in helping others and understandinhg other cultures. ... Read more

Book Description

"With the media hyping so much misleading information about risks, it's a relief to discover True Odds." --John Stossel, ABC News 20/20 ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Practical look at the real odds that threaten people's lives
Enhanced with an extended bibliography and an exhaustive index, True Odds: How Risk Affects Your Everyday Life by James Walsh is a very straightforward and practical look of the real odds that threaten people's lives or health. Rejecting anecdotal evidence and media scare tactics for solid, statistical, reliable information on what really are the greatest threats facing life in the modern world, True Odds comes very highly recommended for the non-specialist general reader as being a realistic source of information concerning everything from crime and accident rates to having sufficient money saved upon retirement. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Global view on sustainability
Do not expect from this book practical guidelines to become "sustainable" as some reviewers seemed to have expected. This book explains in detail what sustainability involves, three majors fields: economical, social and environmental that the author called the triple bottom line. Each field has been for long separated from each other and the new trend for sustainability is to make them working together. How? There are no answers in this book. This book does not want to offer solutions but just to show us that this so-called revolution has already started, based on existing facts and where these changes are taking places.

Low on content and little practical guidance
This book is bogged down in useless metaphores and imprecise, whooly language - well suited neither for practical decision-makers nor serious academics. Claims are not explained sufficiently well, and we are left guessing how to solve - or even understand - the important problems that this book claims to adress.

a guide to get from here to there
Elkington has created an awesome nuts and bolts description of where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. If The Ecology of Commerce (Paul Hawken) lays the visionary groundwork, this book is the next step. It adds in a lot of detail, bringing to light many cases and ideas about specific problems. It is a slow read but well worth the time.

The bible of sustainability
You can expect a complete perspective from the head of an organisation called SustainAbility on sustainability. That is what you get. John Elkington makes a useful classification of Non Governmental Organisations. The polarisers don't want to have anything to do with business. Business is in principle bad and should be watched and harassed. The integrators try to add two additional dimensions to business, environmental and social responsibility. Discriminators differentiate between good and bad businesses and the non-discriminators do not. This book is for the discriminating integrators. John Elkington believes that it is possible and necessary to get all businesses to act responsibly concerning profit and social and environmental issues- the triple bottom line. The book provides an excellent historical perspective of why businesses are moving on from the Friedman doctrine stating that the only social responsibility of a business is to make a profit. A business that wants to move in the sustainability direction can use the book to find out where it is on the path to full sustainability. The book also makes many practical suggestions on how to move forwards. The book is equally useful for NGOs, and public policy makers.

Count the Silver
Long term sustainability has become a topical issue not just for politicians, but also for executives. For the executive, the key lies in the question: "How do we serve the shareholders in the short term, yet leave behind a long term legacy with which to be remembered?"

While these two aims appear contradictory, they are linked via the organisation's system of shared values.

Values work in the present and the future. They set the framework for consistent decision making, yet remain with an organisation long after its physical assets have depreciated. Values also link the organisation to the society in which it operates and to its social agenda, namely the creation of wealth, the protection of the environment, and the support for social equity.

It is in the context of the social agenda that John Elkington asks us whether capitalism is sustainable, and whether it has made progress over the last hundred years. "Is it progress", he asks, "if a cannibal uses a fork?"

Not that we expect progress to be uniform. Lenin measured progress as two steps forward, and one step back, and even that is steeped in the paradigm of central planning. Free enterprise progresses by many steps in many different directions. Yet the record shows that de-central systems make progress, less systematically, but perhaps more surely than central ones.

However, the random nature of such progress generates many deceptive examples, where the same instance may be used to support contradictory theories. Thus, The Body Shop and Shell become symbols of corporate responsibility, but also corporate duplicity, while Nike and Intel become examples of corporate greed but also corporate responsiveness. Unplanned progress appears as a subtle, difficult to navigate, terrain.

Yet the pitfalls are great. We live in a world, where renewable resources such as trees are "mined rather than harvested". We find children on the one side of the planet working as slaves to produce fashion items for consumers on the other side. Furthermore the public, ever more aware of social and environmental issues, mobilise suddenly and to dramatic effect as ABB, Intel, Monsanto, Shell, Nike, and Texaco and many others testify.

To help us navigate, Elkington introduces his triple bottom line, which comprises of social, economic, and environmental measures. He uses this to expound on 'the seven revolutions affecting sustainability': Markets, Values, Transparency, Life-cycle Technology, Partnerships, Time, and Corporate Governance. He looks at the need for regulation, but also for regulatory frameworks "which operate, as far as possible, through market processes and are intrinsically pro-competition". The triple bottom line becomes his yardstick for corporate values.

When people start talking of values, said Mark Twain once, it is time to count the silver. Since the early sixties environmentalists have told us that "things will go very well and then suddenly collapse". Yet this proved indistinguishable from the prediction that "things will go very well, and then even better". The predictions of our demise have proved to be greatly exaggerated.

Yet, 'Cannibals with forks' raises all the relevant issues. If you are in an industry, which is subject to the whim of public pressure, or if you are trying to solve the riddle of long term sustainability, then 'Cannibals with forks' will make an interesting and profitable read. ... Read more

Book Description

Ask the tough questions. How can I cut down on energy use in my kitchen? What should I use to unclog the bathroom sink? Which cars create the least pollution? Should I or shouldn't I fertilize my lawn? These are just a few of the issues that families face every day in the suburbs. In this one-of-a-kind guide, author Warren Schultz points out the environmental and personal costs of traditional, toxic household practices and offers safe, natural, and easy alternatives. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Getting the most from the status quo
You're there. You have the family, the house, the yard, the car, the job that requires a commute. Given the way that a lot of us live, it can be very useful to have a check-list -- to do a walk-around of home and garden and see the latest thinking on how to minimize our impact on the environment. As someone who has been following these issues for years, I found it interesting that the evidence on some things seems to argue for different choices -- and that I had been way off on my thinking in other specifics. It's a pleasurable read -- the retro photos remind me that the suburbanization of America was rooted in a more innocent time, when few people had the foresight to see its results. What is beyond the scope of the book, but the more important question, is how we get to the point where we are creating not 20% less damage but 50% or even no damage at all -- and those are the "tough questions" that this book just does not ask.

Good introduction, but not much more, and only if you have $
This thin book is packed with information for someone new to "living lightly in the world." Broken out by living area -- bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry room, yards, etc. -- the book suggests alternative products and approaches to everyday living. Schultz takes on questions like "Should I Fertilize My Lawn?", "Cloth or Disposable Diapers?", and "Plastic or Paper Shopping Bags?" His writing is clear, concise, and his explanations easy to understand. He also includes a number of "recipes" for cleaning using vinegar, baking soda, and/or hydrogen peroxide, as well as a useful -- if brief -- list of sources.

Unfortunately, I was hoping for some new information here, but all I found was what has been said before in any number of places. Hang your clothes outside instead of using the dryer, use non-chlorine bleach, don't run your car's air conditioner, keep your tires inflated, don't drive an SUV.

One more significant problem I had with the majority of Schultz's suggestions: he gives no regard to cost. He suggests readers install front-loading washing machines and gas dryers, buy organic produce, buy only organic cotton clothing, and use organic lawn fertilizers. Not once does he note that all of these suggestions are considerably more expensive than their traditional counterparts. When buying a new washer, do you spend $500 on the traditional model, or $1,000 on the eco-friendly model with all the same features? Do you pony up the additional 30-50% for organic cotton clothing (plus shipping!)? How do you work with a grocery budget that is at least 30% more when you buy organic food and cleaning supplies? Organic living, by this standard, is a luxury not for the suburbanite on a budget. Several times he comments that energy savings will recoup the up-front expense, but this takes years in most cases.

What would be great to have seen is a book with more of his simple, effective, inexpensive solutions -- re-using and recycling products, low-cost/low-impact cleaning solutions, innovative solutions to everyday problems. If you're new to organic living and you have the money to spare, this is a great book to buy. Otherwise, save your money and use your head. Get it at the library.

The book title says it all.
This is a terrific book describing simple and manageable methods for improving the suburban family's opportunity to replace environmentally harmful chemical products with safer ones. It includes advice for gardening, washing anything and everything, home maintenance, repairs and shopping, It is extremely easy to read, very well laid out in an appealing format, friendly, concise, and doesn't preach or scold. This book is a wonderful tool for starting or maintaining an environmentally ethical suburban lifestyle without making you feel like a green-earth criminal. ... Read more

Book Description

Marine Tourism examines tourism in coastal and marine environments. Mark Orams provides an overview of the history, development and growth of marine tourism and describes the characteristics of marine tourists' and the "vendors" of these tourist activities. Marine Tourism includes case studies of specific types of tourism including: the cruise ship industry, whale and dolphin watching, yachting and the America's Cup, and maritime museums and festivals in locales including the Florida Keys and Hawaii, the Caribbean, NewZealand, and Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The book also examines tourism impacts on marine ecosystems and coastal communities and explores management techniques aimed at reducing negative impacts and maximizing the benefits of marine tourism. ... Read more

Book Description

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics balances coverage of traditional topics with a global perspective on current ecological issues such as population growth, global climate change, endangered species, and the relationship between trade and the environment. Numerous examples, graphs, key terms, and end-of-chapter questions help students review and assimilate core concepts.

Book Description

The premise of this award-winning book is that estimates of the economic values of environmental and natural resource services are essential tools for effective policymaking. Freeman presents a comprehensive, rigorous treatment of benefit measurement, providing an introduction to the principal methods and techniques of resource and environmental valuation for professional economists and graduate students who are not directly engaged in the field.

Features of the new edition include a reworking of the chapter on stated preference methods of valuation and new sections on topics in the valuation of effects on human health, the valuation of ecosystem functions and services, benefits transfer, and combining stated preference and revealed preference data. It targets several of the important advances since 1993 and integrates them within the basic framework of the first edition. As a result, its accessibility is maintained and its relevance to current practice enhanced.

Scholars and policymakers will welcome the work as an up-to-date reference on recent developments. Students and general readers will gain a better understanding of the contribution that economics as a discipline can make to decisions about pollution control and human health, recreational use of rivers and forests, urban amenities, and other critical issues concerning the way we use and interact with environmental and natural resource systems.

Book Description

Ecological economics is a way of rethinking the relationship between humans and the environment and working out the implications of how we manage our lives and the planet. An Introduction to Ecological Economics offers a starting point forundergraduate and graduate students and environmental professionals interested in this transdisciplinary field. Beginning in Section 1 with a description of some current problems in society and their underlying causes, Section 2 then takes a historical perspective to explain how world views regarding economics and ecology have evolved. Section 3 presents the fundamental principles of ecological economics, and Part 4 outlines and discusses a set of policies for creating a sustainable society as well as instruments that could be used to implement those policies. A conclusions section summarizes the main points of the book and proposes prospects for the future. Let An Introduction to Ecological Economics introduce youto important issues affecting our ecology, our economy, our world. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

too simplistic for the well-informed
This book is quite literally an "introduction," in the sense of discussing the environment and the deficiencies of neoclassical economics as if the reader had not a clue that multinational corporations (and the powerful governments that aid them) are destroying the capacity of the biosphere to support life, including human life. The text is simple and easy to understand since the writing is at the level of that of the World Book Encyclopedia, with some of the same excessive optimism and a general failure to examine the effects of the law of compound interest and other increasing exponential functions in any mathematically useful way. The bibliography at the back of the book goes on for several pages, but cites dozens and dozens of titles by the same five people who group-authored this book. The citations in the text are usually to entire books, and not to specific passages (except in the case of periodical ariticles), making specific assertions difficult to verify. Obviously intended as a freshman or sophomore college text, it is overpriced and underuseful.

Far more helpful than this vacuous tome is the Worldwatch Institute series "State of the World," issued every year on selected topics edited by Lester R. Brown, with a variety of individually written well-footnoted articles, each on a specific aspect of development and its effects on the environment and people all over the earth. These volumes will remain useful for years to come, and you can get three of the latest books in the series for less than the cost of "An Introduction to Ecological Economics," which you won't want to keep after reading anyway.

An anticipated merge of economics with the environment
Ecological economics is concerned with extending and integrating the study and management of "nature's household" (ecology) and "humankind's household" (economics). Resistance to this new perspective may come from academia as well as industry and governments. On page 10: "Today's market price to polluters for using atmospheric sink capacity for carbon dioxide disposal is zero, although the real opportunity cost may turn out to be astronomical. Economists are almost unanimous in persisting in externalizing the costs of CO2 emissions, even though by 1993 more than 180 nations had signed a treaty to internalize such costs." It would be difficult to praise this book too highly. ... Read more

Book Description

Until recently, the phenomenal economic development of the Asian tigers, Chile, and Malaysia, as well as the sustained economic growth of the United States, painted a very desirable and optimistic picture of free markets, fiscal responsibility, and, more generally, the entire dogma of neoclassical economics. As of the fall of 1998, however, the economies of many tropical countries have contracted severely, and the enthusiasm of the developing tropics for the free market and all of its ancillary policies is decidedly cooler.Have our traditional approaches to economics been failing the developing world?
This interdisciplinary book covers the conditions of the developing tropics, the resistance of some of their problems to earlier attempts at solutions, and the use of new tools to develop a much more comprehensive and empirical framework for analysis and decision making. It also presents the development of cutting edge technology that links GIS and modeling approaches with extensive databases on meteorology, soils, agricultural production, and land use. The book discusses whether development is sustainable through a synthesis of demographic, economic, and resource-specific considerations. Costa Rica is uniquely suited to this study because of its size, stage of development, democratic institutions, and national databases.
A CD-ROM containing all data and programs, color images, animated models, large data tables, and references accompanies the book.

Key Features
* Links economic and biophysical analyses of sustainability
* Presents new tools and approaches for analysis and decision-making
* Includes a CD-ROM containing data and programs, color images, animated models, and references ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (5)

The Revival of Feminine Principle for All of Us.
The book may seem different from your perspective. However, it might be good to know what underlies the whole story in the book. From my point of view, the author's claim has nothing to do with political action but genuin intuition of humanity which can be said a sort of wisdom for our survival towards future. It encourages us to be aware that the ongoing value system under capitalism is not necessarily conforming to our actual feelings or experiences. If your suffering, fear and suppression seem related to the current social system, the book is worth reading because it helps you remember what gives you the sense of being alive, responsibility for and love towards the future of the world. Disillusioned of lots of tragedies happening to the world, we have started wondering which to call real, the inner sense of happiness or the material world.

I dare say, it is not critique that can change the world but sharing of anyone's failure within us. Only such an idea of sharing can lead us to the inner and direct experience that the other half of the failure has always existed in us. This is the only way and chance for us to make a step towards future. In that sense, what the author considers as a problem is not the masculine principle but the imbalance in which the feminine principle is being suppressed. Driven much so far by the masculine principle, we -both women and men- have been so bound to fear caused by dualistic and mechanistic views on life that we could not pay much attention to the self-destructive aspect of our society. The author, Shiva, simply but strikingly argues that the feminine principle of EACH one of us to be recoverd if we really want to remember what the meaning of life is, namely the reason why we have come here to such a beautiful place called "the Earth".

Staying Alive:Women, Ecology and Survival in India
Ahistorical, subjective, and repeatedly misinformed, this book sets out to critque the creeping sinister form that is development, and celebrate the virtuosity of the feminine principle. Shiva uses evidence which is atcertain points weak, and at others just plain wrong. Her arguments to backup the essentialism of ecofeminism are totally unconvincing, and as both afeminist and an enviornmentalist, I felt my intelligence insulted by thistext.

to remember
that women have a ralationship with environment. and i want to know how they extand with this

to remember
how to extand that women have a relationship with environment

to remember
how to extand that women have a relationship with environment ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent Introductory Text
I have used The Principles of Environmental Management - The Greening of Business - to prepare lectures for my course in Environmental Management. I found this book to be very well organized to meet the needs of studentswho wished to pursue a career in environmental management.The book isbroken into three parts. Part One opens with the basic concepts andenvironmental issues that plaque us today.It examines among other thingssocial responsibilities and environmental ethics.My favorite chapter inthis part deals with the policy-making process.Part Two examines majorenvironmental problems such as Global Warming, Ozone problems, AirPollution, Water Pollution etc.The nice thing about the book is that itlooks at the global aspect of environmental problems - Nice because we arenow more interdependent than ever before.In this same part, Buchholzlooks at Third World problems such as Deforestation and Species Decimation. Part Three of the book tries to advance some solutions to theenvironmental problems we face.Excellent, is the real life case studieswhich have been put at the end of the book. An excellent piece of work. ... Read more

Book Description

Today at least twenty-five major U.S. cities have pursued some form of sustainability initiative. Although many case studies and "how-to" manuals have been published, there has been little systematic comparison of these cities' programs and initiatives. In this book Kent Portney lays the theoretical groundwork for research on what works and what does not, and why.

Distinguishing cities on the basis of population characteristics and region for his analysis, Portney shows how cities use the broad rubric of sustainability to achieve particular political ends. Cities that take sustainability seriously, such as Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle, use broad definitions that go well beyond concern for the physical environment or creating jobs. They pursue sustainability at many levels and integrate concern for economic development, the environment, and quality of life across all activities of city government. Cities that take sustainability less seriously, such as Cleveland, Boston, and Orlando, confine it to such issues as solid waste disposal, brownfields, redevelopment, and neighborhood beautification. Still other cities, such as New Haven, Brownsville, and Milwaukee, do considerably less to work toward sustainability.

Portney begins by reviewing the conceptual underpinnings of sustainable development and sustainable communities. The comparisons that follow provide a foundation for assessing the range of what is possible and desirable for sustainability initiatives. In the book's conclusion, Portney assesses the extent to which cities can use the pursuit of sustainability either to foster change in public values or merely to reinforce values that are already reflected in systems of governance. ... Read more

Book Description

Resource Economics is a text for students with a background in calculus, intermediate microeconomics, and a familiarity with the spreadsheet software Excel. The book covers basic concepts, shows how to set up spreadsheets to solve dynamic allocation problems, and presents economic models for fisheries, forestry, nonrenewable resources, stock pollutants, option value, and sustainable development. Within the text, numerical examples are posed and solved using Excel's Solver. Through these examples and additional exercises at the end of each chapter, students can make dynamic models operational, develop their economic intuition, and learn how to set up spreadsheets for the simulation of optimization of resource and environmental systems. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Resource Economics a Great Book
When you read resource economic books the first problem you face is that the auther uses his or her own special experiance and builds the entire book based on this experiance, however Doctor Conrad uses plenty of real time cases to elastrate and point out his different objectives. ... Read more