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The eminent Harvard naturalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Wilsonmarshals all the prodigious powers of his intellect and imagination in thisimpassioned call to ensure the future of life. Opening with an imaginedconversation with Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond, he writes that he has come"to explain to you, and in reality to others and not least to myself, what hashappened to the world we both have loved." Based on a love affair with thenatural world that spans 70 years, Wilson combines lyrical descriptions withdire warnings and remarkable stories of flora and fauna on the edge ofextinction with hard economics. How many species are we really losing? Isenvironmentalism truly contrary to economic development? And how can we save theplanet? Wilson has penned an eloquent plea for the need for a global land ethicand offers the strategies necessary to ensure life on earth based on foresight,moral courage, and the best tools that science and technology can provide. -- Lesley Reed ... Read more

Reviews (42)

What's happening to our world?
There are many species in the world. There are all different types of species, living in all different types of habitats. But how long will they be around? There is only a fraction of the original number of species that once existed on the Earth's land and in the oceans. Why are so many species coming to extinction so quickly? HIPPO is the answer. HIPPO is the reason created by "conservation biologists." HIPPO gives explanation for the disappearing of species. HIPPO is just one of the many things explained in this book.

In Edward O. Wilson's book, The Future of Life, the future of life on Earth is questioned. Wilson, and other professionals, look at statistics and find the patterns to predict the future. By following the patterns, they are able to predict how long a species is expected to survive in the wild. Also, the size of the population of humanity will change over time. Wilson looks at all of the different scenarios, which results in the many different possible outcomes.

Through looking at many studies it has become evident that the human species is responsible for most of the extinction of species. People come in and ruin habitats, such as the rainforests. They also hunt the animals and introduce alien species, which crowd out or kill out the native species of a land. Although now, many attempts at saving the mass extinction have started, it will take some time to be effective and at the current rates, it is too late. However, Wilson hopes that with reading this book, more attempts will be made. We must increase the conservation and decrease the destruction of species. The flora and fauna of our world need our help. We created the problem and now we must help to fix it.

Read The Future of Life, by Edward O. Wilson, to find out what's going on in your world, to learn about the mass extinction occurring as we speak. Read about Wilson's solution and how you could help. Learn about the species soon to be lost to extinction. The book goes into great detail about many different situations and the trouble that the world is in. An interesting piece of literature, which will hopefully spread the dangerous situation of the Earth as we know it.

A high-calibre primer on environmental conservation
It's refreshing to read an environmental diatribe where the writer has both the authority of a world expert and a willingness to compromise to pursue realistic solutions. Wilson ' a Harvard biology professor, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and a director of the Nature Conservancy ' presents a succinct evaluation of the great ecological issues of our day, focusing on the rapid pace of species extinctions, and on the promise of finding a balance between conservation and human activity that will bring the extinctions to a halt.

Future begins with a fascinating overview of life itself, its awesome diversity, its adaptation to the most extreme environments on Earth, and even the possibility of life on Mars, Europa, Callisto, and elsewhere in the Universe. From this perspective of life in the grandest scheme, he turns to the current pace of extinctions due to human activity, depletion of water, crop, and fish resources, and frames a debate with a hypothetical opponent who is more concerned with economic growth than the environment. This hypothetical opponent is a representative of the 'juggernaut of technology-based capitalism' (p. 156), and is portrayed as reading The Economist. However, Wilson recognizes that economic and technological growth cannot be reversed, and instead are the best hope to continue relieving poverty and disease throughout the world. Instead he seeks out a way for 'its direction [to] be changed by mandate of a generally shared long-term environmental ethic' (p. 156) to which everyone's opinion can converge. Wilson points out diplomatically that economists also recognize value in the natural environment, and conservationists enjoy driving to national parks in combustion-engine cars.

To further his tone of optimistic compromise, Wilson finds hope in the slowdown and projected stop in human population growth, in environmentally friendly legislation and treaties, and in conservation methods that also produce proven economical value, such as ecotourism and bioprospecting for medical products. Wilson even concedes that genetically modified foods, though requiring further study, may contribute to environmental conservation by making agriculture more productive and allowing greater human nutrition to be produced from less cropland, and reducing dependence on chemical pesticides.

Wilson's conciliatory tone ends with his professed admiration for the WTO protestors of Seattle and Genoa. He marks the low point of the book by echoing the left-wing polemic that global income disparities contributed to 9/11. He also lapses a few times into the poorly reasoned hyperbole that often erodes the conservationists' credibility. For instance, on page 39 we read of ''the United States, whose citizens are working at a furious pace to overpopulate and exhaust their own land and water from sea to shining sea.' Yet, Wilson points out on page 30 that population growth in the United States is now due only to immigration, and that the non-immigrant population of the United States has achieved practically zero growth. In another instance that is more esoteric, but sloppy for an expert on biological history, Wilson suggests humans are the first species to alter the environment on a global scale: ''Homo Sapiens has become a geophysical force, the first species in the history of the planet to achieve that dubious distinction.' This neglects vast influences that have been exerted on the global environment by past life, including the production of all of our oxygen and nitrogen ' together constituting 99% of the Earth's atmosphere ' and the eradication of almost all of the carbon dioxide, which is thought to have formed most of the primitive Earth's atmosphere, just as it still composes over 95% of the atmospheres of Earth's neighbors, Mars and Venus.

On the other hand, Wilson's detailed account of different species that have recently gone extinct or are down to just a few individuals shows good reason to be disturbed. The current rate of extinctions is in the range of the greatest mass extinctions on record, including the K-T impact event that eliminated the dinosaurs and many other life forms 65 million years ago. Wilson outlines what he calls the bottleneck of the next century or so ' the efforts, or lack thereof, of our generation will make an indefinitely large difference in the future biological heritage of the Earth.

Future is most valuable for presenting a comprehensive road map for environmental remedy. In perhaps the most compelling prescription, Wilson urges an end to perverse subsidies, whereby governments use taxpayer money to finance economically wasteful activity that also destroys the environment, to cater to special interests, or the economically discredited idea of 'strategic industries.' An example of this is the massive subsidies Germany pays to its coal mines, theoretically to protect the miners' jobs, but also supporting an operation that is not only not profitable in the free market, but also the single greatest source of global environmental degradation. Wilson goes on to offer a summary of sources of value in biodiversity, some of it not yet realized, and recommends economically valuable drivers for ecological protection. He also identifies twenty-five 'hotspot' ecosystems that together cover only 1.4 percent of Earth's land surface, but are 'the last remaining homes of' 43.8 percent of all known species of vascular plants and 35.6 percent of the known mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.'

Analyses such as these make it possible for policymakers and other actors to cooperate with conservationists in carrying out conservation efforts according to reasoned priorities, something that cannot be done where conservationists offer nothing more than an undistinguishing, blanket opposition to any development. The Future of Life provides an ideal, scientifically authoritative, well documented, and absorbing primer on the essential issues of environmental conservation, and a concise but vital guide for shaping or understanding environmental policy.

The Future of Life
I really enjoy reading the book ¡§The Future of Life¡¨ by the Biologist Edward O. Wilson. It is a rich and vivid book where the writer uses lots of brilliant and detailed description about the animals and other habitats. The sufficient amount information provides me a great and accurate picture of how the wild lives out there truly live.

This book depicts how Agriculture, one of the vital industries, endangers the remaining wild species and the nature environment. The world's food supply is hung by a slender thread of biodiversity. Ninety percent of the food supply is actually provided by slightly more than a hundred plant species out of a quarter-million known to exist. Of these hundred species, twenty species carry most of the load, of which only the main three--Wheat, maize, and rice---stand between humanity and starvation. Furthermore, most of the premier twenty are those that happened to be present in the agricultural region.

In a more general sense, these important species are the major potential donors of genes that genetic engineering utilize to improve the crop performance. With the insertion of the right snippets of DNA, new strains can be created that are variously cold-hardy, pest-proofed, perennial, fast growing, highly nutritious, multipurpose, water-conservative, and more easily sowed and harvested. And compared with traditional breeding techniques, genetic engineering is all but instantaneous.

In sum, Genetic Engineering have drastically changed our old ways of growing crops and thus, it threatens the future existence of the other species since it have significantly decreased the diversity of the nature wild lives.

Situation desperate but not completely hopeless
The Future Of Life is a great book and a perfect antidote to: a) unwarranted optimism about the state of the environment, which by almost any measure appears desperate; b) unwarranted pessimism or fatalism regarding man's ability to DO something about this situation; and c) the reams of misinformation, uninformed opinion, and ridiculously wild-eyed optimism on environmental matters that exists out there (i.e., "The Skeptical Environmentalist").

Unlike The Skeptical Environmentalist, which is written by a statistician, The Future Of Life is written by one of the world's greatest living scientists, Edward O. Wilson, author of 20 books (including Sociobiology, and Consilience), winner of two Pulitzer prizes plus dozens of science prizes, and discoverer of hundreds of new species. Dr. Wilson is often called, for good reason, "the father of biodiversity." Wilson is also one of the rare breed of scientists, like Stephen J. Gould, Carl Sagan, and Stephen Hawking, who can actually communicate their thoughts and findings to the general public. This is particularly important when it comes to Wilson's area of expertise, given that the environment is something which affects all of us and which all of us can play a part in protecting (or destroying).

Wilson's main theme can be summed up as "situation desperate, but not hopeless." Why desperate? Because humans--all 6 billion of them--are the most destructive force ever unleashed on Earth. According to Wilson, humanity's "bacterial" rate of growth during the 20th century, its short-sightedness, wasteful consumption patterns, general greed and rapaciousness, ignorance, and technological power have resulted in a mass extinction: "species of plants and animals...disappearing a hundred or more times faster than before the coming of humanity," and with "as many as half...gone by the end of the century." Americans in particular are an environmental disaster, consuming so many resources (oil, meat, timber, etc.) per person that, according to Wilson's calculations, "for every person in the world to reach present U.S. levels of consumption with existing technology would require four more planet Earths." Well, we don't have four more planet Earths, and at the present time, we are well on our way to trashing the one we've got. In short, Wilson concludes after chronicling the sorry, depressing, nauseating history of man's mass slaughter and destruction of the environment, our species richly deserves the label: "Homo sapiens, serial killer of the biosphere.''

Given all this, how can I say that Wilson's book is not hopeless? First, because human population growth is slowing (finally!), as women gain education, careers, and power over their reproductive choices. Luckily, when given this choice, women increasingly have opted for "quality over quantity," and average family size has plummeted. In most advanced industrialized nations, in fact, fertility rates have now fallen below replacement level (2.1 children per woman), meaning that populations in those countries will actually start to decline (barring immigration) in coming years. Wilson points that the worldwide average number of children per woman fell from 4.3 in 1960 to 2.6 in 2000. This is still far too high, and still means years more of absolute human population growth, but it's at least a bit of hope amidst the environmental carnage and constant drumbeat of bad news.

Second, there is some hope because many humans do love the environment and want to preserve and protect it. Here, Wilson uses the fancy, scientific-sounding term "biophilia" to describe man's "innate tendency to focus upon life and lifelike forms, and in some instances to affiliate with them emotionally.'' In this instance, I believe Wilson may be overly optimistic. When confronted with the choice of a Big Mac or an acre of rainforest, let's say, most people appear to choose the Big Mac. Or when given a choice of driving their gas-guzzling SUVs and living in sprawling suburbia vs. driving smaller cars, living in cities, taking mass transit, and helping to prevent disastrous global warming, most people choose the SUVs and suburbia. Still, much of this is undoubtedly a result of ignorance and skewed economics (i.e., billions of dollars per year in government subsidies doled out to agriculture, fossil fuel production, wasteful water usage, among other things), and these can be corrected--at least in theory. Also, there are undoubtedly millions of humans who strongly care about the environment--whether for aesthetic, religious, ethical, "biophiliac," or other reasons--and are volunteering, donating money, or altering consumption patterns in order to help save it.

This brings us to the third reason for not losing all hope: humans have the ability to save the environment, and Wilson lays out a clear, realistic, step-by-step plan for doing so. Ironically, one of the very characteristics of environment which causes it to be so vulnerable --its concentration of biological diversity in a small areas ("hotspots") --means that it is possible to target that land and save it. Wilson estimates that biological "hotspots" cover "less than 2 percent of the Earth's land surface and [serve] as the exclusive home of nearly half its plant and animal species." In Wilson's calculations, those "hotspots" can be saved "by a single investment of roughly $30 billion." Just to put this in perspective, the U.S. gross domestic product is over $10 trillion, or more than thirty times the $30 billion needed to save the "hotspots."

The Future Of Life ends on a note of cautious optimism: although right now we find ourselves in a "bottleneck of overpopulation and wasteful consumption," Wilson believes that the race between "technoscientific forces that are destroying the living environment" and "those that can be harnessed to save it" can be won. In order for this to come to pass, however, humanity needs to take action immediately along the lines that Wilson lays out. Ultimately, The Future Of Life is a passionate, brilliant, clarion call to arms by a great scientist, and a great man as well. If we don't hear Wilson's call, we will have only ourselves to blame. And whichever way things turn out, we can't say we weren't warned.

Well read, not so well produced
The reader, Ed Begley, Jr., reads this book clearly and with good phrasing. The abridging is not heavy.

Only one complaint: 6 CDs with NO TRACK INDEX! This means that the CDs are useful for listening to straight through only. The user can only guess which chapter will be on which CD, and there is no way (that I know of) to jump to a specific part of the book on the CD, because there is only one track per CD. ... Read more

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Reviews (7)

the best of the lakes!
I am (like many of those that have written reviews) a native Michigander. However, I am now living in upstate New York, which despite being part of the Great Lakes lacks the appreciation for the lakes that midwesterners have. This book is a must read for anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to grow up surrounded by the greatest natural wonder in the world. This book highlights not only the natural history of the lakes, but the social and environmental legacy of humankind in the lakes. For those who were lucky enough to spend time sailing, swimming, hiking, and otherwise enjoying the Great Lakes, this book will sweep you back in time to the lazy summers of youth (or retirement, as the case may be!) and remind you of why you love the Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes Truly are a Treasure
This book captures the heart of the Great Lakes and all the beauty that is found in and around them. It gives a wonderful detail of the geologic history of the lakes and the landscape around them. The author has a true appreciation for these living lakes and evokes that throughout his writing. If you live around the Great Lakes region, you will gain a new appreciation for how lucky we are to be by them and a new sense of desire to protect them. I used excerpts from this book to teach a high school earth science class when studying the hydrosphere and meterology. I recommend this book to any naturalist, Great Lakes region residence, or for anyone who wants to know why the largest source of fresh water on the planet is worth saving and preserving.

The Living Great Lakes
As I'm sure it is with many of the people that read this book, I grew up and live around the Great Lakes. My life has been sent sailing and fishing Lake Michigan and its tributaries. Jerry Dennis' book is a must read for anyone interested in the Great Lakes and what they mean to both the region's social and natural history. It's a pleasure to read all the factual tidbit's about these natural gifts carefully assembled together into a book. Jerry is not a writer that leaves you breathless with either his imagery or the depth of his prose. He has no need to. His straight forward style and knowledge of nature and science keeps you rolling along with him. He's like the smart and warm uncle whose conversations late into the night you've always cherished. Read this before planning your sailing or motoring trip through the Great Lakes and Erie Canal. It'll make you set a date for your trip instead of just thinking about it.

The Lakes Live
This book is a beauty. I suggest that after you receive it, you buy a couple bottles of strong French-Canadian beer (La Fin Du Monde, for example) throw in a Classical CD on repeat and start flipping pages. On a rainy day here in San Francisco, where I am now, I can feel myself being transported to the most mystical place I have yet to visit--after seeing nearly all of the U.S., Europe, and Asia--nothing compares to a sunset on Lake Michigan, a snowstorm on Lake Superior, or a sunrise on Lake Huron.

Couldn't put it down!
Having lived amongst the Great Lakes my entire life, I thought I knew so much. I was wrong. This book was almost impossible to put down. It is a great mix of science, ecology, history, and personal experience. Many books about the Great Lakes get bogged down in too much of just one subject area, unlike this book. Positively fascinating. No lie. ... Read more

Book Description

Toxic chemicals can exert effects on all levels of the biological hierarchy, from cells to organs to organisms to populations to entire ecosystems. However, most risk assessment models express their results in terms of effects on individual organisms, without corresponding information on how populations, groups of species, or whole ecosystems may respond to chemical stressors. Ecological Modeling in Risk Assessment: Chemical Effects on Populations, Ecosystems, and Landscapes takes a new approach by compiling and evaluating models that can be used in assessing risk at the population, ecosystem, and landscape levels.The authors give an overview of the current process of ecological risk assessment for toxic chemicals and of how modeling of populations, ecosystems, and landscapes could improve the status quo. They present a classification of ecological models and explain the differences between population, ecosystem, landscape, and toxicity-extrapolation models. The authors describe the model evaluation process and define evaluation criteria. Finally, the results of the model evaluations are presented in a concise format with recommendations on modeling approaches to use now and develop further.The authors present and evaluate various models on the basis of their realism and complexity, prediction of relevant assessment endpoints, treatment of uncertainty, regulatory acceptance, resource efficiency, and other criteria. They provide models that will improve the ecological relevance of risk assessments and make data collection more cost-effective. Ecological Modeling in Risk Assessment serves as a reference for selecting and applying the best models when performing a risk assessment. ... Read more

Book Description

The functioning of all living systems obeys the laws of physics in fundamental ways. This is true for all physiological processes that occur inside cells, tissues, organs, and organisms. The new edition of Park Nobel's classic text has been revised in an unprecedented fashion, while still remaining user-friendly and clearly presented. Certain to maintain its leading role in teaching general and comparative physiological principles, Physicochemical and Environmental Plant Physiology now establishes a new standard of excellence in teaching advanced physiology.
The book covers water relations and ion transport for plant cells, including diffusion, chemical potential gradients, and solute movement in and out of plant cells. It also presents the interconnection of various energy forms, such as light, chlorophyll and accessory photosynthesis pigments, and ATP and NADPH. Additionally, the book describes the forms in which energy and matter enter and leave a plant, for example: energy budget analysis, water vapor and carbon dioxide, and water movement from soil to plant to atmosphere.

Key Features
* Over four hundred fifty updated references
* Thorough text revisions intended to improve clarity of presentation
* Enhanced coverage of bioenergetics, and gas and water fluxes
* Thoroughly revised figures
* Revised calculations in all chapters
* Reformatted problems with solutions
* New information on root properties and especially global climate change
* Established and classic equations presented in an easy-to-refer-to list
* Appendices with conversion factors and constants ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Libro de Fisiología
pienso que este libro es un valioso aporte al conocimiento de las respuestas fisiológicas de las plantas a los estímulos de su medio ambiente, ya que permite relacionar los fenómenos naturales externos (medioambientales) con el funcionamiento interno de un vegetal, apotando información para el proceso de comprensión de los comportamientos vegetales, un área con mucho conocimiento incompleto todavía ... Read more

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“Engrossing” (The Christian Science Monitor), “fascinating” (TimeOut New York), “delightfully nuanced” (Entertainment Weekly), “terrific” (New York Newsday), “inspiring” (Bust magazine). “You know a book is good when you actually welcome one of those howling days of wind and sleet that makes going out next to impossible” (The New York Times).

The Earth Moved has moved reviewers across the country. In witty, offbeat style, Amy Stewart takes us on a subterranean adventure and introduces us to our planet’s most important gatekeeper: the humble earthworm. It’s true that the earthworm is small, spineless, and blind, but its effect on the ecosystem is profound,moving Charles Darwin to devote his last years to studying its remarkable attributes and achievements.

With the august scientist as her inspiration, Stewart investigates the earthworm’s astonishing realm, talks to oligochaetologists who have devoted their lives to unearthing the complex web of life beneath our feet, and observes the thousands of worms in her own garden. Stewart’s “ease in gliding from worms to plants to humans will remind readers of John McPhee’s essays on canoes, oranges, the geology of America” (Providence Journal). “Stewart’s book paddles along in [Rachel] Carson’s wake. Read her book and you’ll start to see how the rhododendron bed in front of your house is a kind of Mars for frontier science” (The Boston Globe). ... Read more

Reviews (9)

I really enjoyed reading this book!
I think this book would be fascinating to anyone interested in worms, gardening, soil, ecology, or Charles Darwin. (I hadn't realized that Darwin was a big fan of earthworms!) It is absolutely full of information on all these topics and more. It's written by a layman, so it's very accessible to any reader. But it delves into enough of the science to be of interest to scientists too.

If you find earthworms even a little bit interesting, I would recommend buying this book!

This book is great!!
Amy Stewart insists that she is not a scientist, and I believe that is why this book is so wonderful.First of all, it's readable.She does a great job of explaining what the earthworm does, how certain species differ from each other, and how they are playing a vital role on the earth.There's a very informative chapter on a "green" sewage treatment plant in San Francisco that is utilizing earthworms.Also, some great info about giant earthworm bins that help compost animal manure from dairy farms.An interesting chapter about how earthworms are hurting (from a human point of view) the growth of hardwood forests in Minnesota.Definetly check this book out.

For the gardener...
What a delightful little book this is! Not long, not full of science-speak, and very earthy, I found myself anxious to get into my garden to inspect my own worms while reading it. Ms. Stewart is "one of us," not a scientist but a gardener who was curious about the worms she found in her backyard and pursued that curiosity to all our benefit. I can't say it has altered the way I think about worms and gardening, but it has expanded it. The basic idea presented throughout, a concept of Darwin's, is that the repetition of incremental change over long periods of time can and has brought about drastic change in the way the earth and its many species function (think evolution). The expanse of this idea is mind boggling when you stop to think that worms may be responsible for leveling mountains. And yet Ms. Stewart presents the evidence in a compelling and interesting way that this is pretty much what they do. If you've also heard that worms are ecological disasters, she explores that as well, visiting Minnesota where European worms are completely altering the balance of native forests. I think most of us will walk away from having read this book with at least a little awe at the purpose of something we scarcely ponder. The only thing missing, in my view, is some pictures. There are none save the cover art. I think that, considering the nature of the book, some photos of the various species she discusses and/or the effects of worms in the garden, forest, or worm bin would enhance the reading experience. As it was, however, it is a charming book deserving of a place on any gardening enthusiasts bookshelf, and the bookshelves of any who have some interest in biological or ecological science (and even waste management!).

Great Job!
I would definitely recommend this seller.My book arrived earlier than expected and in great condition!

I Was So Turned On By This Book
Highly recommended for all worm fetishists. Extremely graphic! ... Read more

Book Description

Sustainable Tourism is vital reading for anyone seeking to understand the complexities associated with sustainable tourism development, and how government and industry have responded to the challenges the concept poses.

The major areas addressed in this edited volume are:

* perspectives and issues associated with the concept of sustainable tourism development
* accreditation, education and interpretation, including specific examples such as Green Globe 21, the European Blue Flag Campaign and the WWF's PAN Parks Programme
* sustainable tourism case studies of tourist destination regions, natural areas and tourism enterprises drawn from Africa, Australia, the South Pacific, North America, South-east Asia and the Caribbean

An impressive international editorial team has combined to present in this text not only a variety of perspectives on sustainable tourism development, but also significant insights into barriers, challenges and current industry and government responses to it in various parts of the globe. 'Sustainable Tourism' will be a welcome addition to the libraries of tourism industry professionals, individuals involved in the management of natural areas; tourism policy makers; tourism academics; and students with an interest in the future sustainability of tourism and the industry that supports it.

Covers both conceptual issues and case studies
Unique global perspective with multinational contributor team
Accessible yet rigorous treatment of a vital issue ... Read more

Book Description

A primer introducing the principles and practices of wetland design. Covering the creation, restoration, enhancement, and construction of designed wetlands, this book provides a practical guide for wetland design on a local, site-specific scale, and reviews the impact of wetland design projects on the environment. More than 150 key principles and practices of wetland design and planning are presented, accompanied by detailed illustrations and case studies. 150 illustrations. ... Read more

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Aldo Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac" has enthralled generations of nature lovers and conservationists and is indeed revered by everyone seriously interested in protecting the natural world. Hailed for prose that is "full of beauty and vigor and bite" (The New York Times), it is perhaps the finest example of nature writing since Thoreau's Walden.

Now this classic work is available in a completely redesigned and lavishly illustrated gift edition, featuring over one hundred beautiful full-color pictures by Michael Sewell, one of the country's leading nature photographers.Sewell, whose work has graced the pages of Audubon and Sierra magazines, walked Leopold's property in Wisconsin and shot these photographs specifically for this edition, allowing readers to see Sand County as Leopold saw it. The resulting layout is spectacular. But the heart of the book remains Leopold's carefully rendered observations of nature. Here we follow Leopold throughout the year, from January to December, as he walks about the rural Wisconsin landscape, watching a woodcock dance skyward in golden afternoon light, or spying a rough-legged hawk dropping like a feathered bomb on its prey. And perhaps most important are Leopold's trenchant comments throughout the book on our abuse of the land and on what we must do to preserve this invaluable treasure. This edition also includes two of Leopold's most eloquent essays on conservation, "The Land Ethic" and "Marshland Elegy."

With this gift edition of A Sand County Almanac, a new generation of readers can walk beside one of America's most respected naturalists as he conveys the beauty of a marsh before sunrise or the wealth of history to be found in an ancient oak. ... Read more

Reviews (44)

The Danger To Nature Is Our Nonparticipation
There are few books on conservation, wildlife and nature that haven't been quickly obsoleted, are hoplessly trapped in period pop cultural amber, are fronts for naive political extremism or are simply irrelevant.

Aldo Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac" is one of those few; composed of illuminating vignettes dealing with practical knowledge of and experience in the North American wilderness, thoughtful critiques of today's accepted notions of wildlife and land "management," and the realistic acceptance of the human role as a predator within nature's massive food chain. Leopold believed humanity's ever-increasing physical and psychological isolation from full but equal participation in all parts of the natural world's reality--its beauty and wonder as well as its cruelty and danger--has been to its severe detriment.

This trend, to him, is leading us to environmental carelessness, colossal misuse and waste of natural resources, and, worst of all, gives rise to an aberrant social ideology reveling in the fatuous cartoon fantasy of nature being a big, happy, perpetually peaceful commune if only humans weren't there. After looking at our sad record of pollution, repeated habitat destruction, poaching, overfishing and listening to the endless, arrogant prattle of government bureaucrats, pop conservationists and so-called animal rights activists, it seems Leopold is indeed a prophet for our times

What Do You Value?
An American classic, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold extolls the highest virtues attainable in nature when Homo sapiens adopt a land ethic, which recognizes that, regardless of economic considerations, the preservation of the natural environment is an obligation. Leopold introduces the reader to wildlife and the land on a personal level, while stressing the fact that a communal relationship exists between human beings and the earth. Instead of presenting people as domineering conquerors over the environment, Leopold explains that humans are interdependent members of an energy circuit called the biota, which consists of all living animals and plants.

It is easy to see why this book, A Sand County Almanac, is still quoted today. Has the United States or the world considered instituting a land ethic? Are major decisions involving mining, farming, manufacturing, hydroelectric power, housing construction, waste disposal, recreation, and nuclear energy utilizing a universal land ethic? Why not? Has the scientific world given modern society the answers concerning land and water renewal or how to prevent animal extinction? All of the basic philosophical arguments presented in Leopold's book are still being pondered by conservationists today. Besides explaining why a land ethic is needed, this book is an indictment upon each generation that reads it and yet does nothing. Not only is Leopold's text a good read, but it is also an essential one.

Marilyn Glaser, Student
Great Basin College

A poetic journey for the diehard environmentalist
Are you one of those people who actually likes to read Thoreau? Well then you're missing out! Aldo Leopold is sooooo much better. Leopold's writing is poetic yet it also calls the common person to action. Likewise Leopold walks the walk when it comes to protecting the environment. While this book isn't exactly page turning, if you like authors like Thoreau, then you should definitely check out The Sand County Almanac, which is the bible to environmentalists. Random Excerpts:: There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot...the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech. ___Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth? The goose who trades his is soon a pile of feathers.:: If you are a die hard environmentalist (or you just like to read poetic stuff) this book is for you.

An Environmental Classic
Aldo Leopold summarizes many environmental movements within this compilation of essays. The Sand County Almanac was one of those university-assigned books that I could not part with and still have today. A must read if you are interesed in the mind of the Wisconsin borne man who set aside the first designated wilderness in New Mexico.

A whole different world existing so near & yet so far.
A fine work in which Aldo Leopold personifies all the creatures & flora living in the forest. He knew even then, in the 1940's that their world was at risk, from us & they would lose. As a learning exercise it works & I recommend it espcially to high school students.
The division of the tape into 12 months serving as chapters is also effective as is continiuing story of the felling of a great tree. As they cut deeper we are taken back in time.
A good tape to relax with. Stewart Udalls narration is just right. ... Read more

Book Description

This new practical guide provides a "hands-on" approach to learning the essential concepts and techniques of landscape ecology. The fundamental knowledge gained will enable students to usefully address landscape-level ecological and management issues. It is an ideal companion to the text, Landscape Ecology in Theory and Practice by Monica G. Turner, Robert H. Gardner, and Robert V. O'Neill, also published by Springer-Verlag. The book is organized into nine sections comprising 20 chapters, each of which consists of a lab focusing on an important point in the text. A variety of approaches are presented: group discussion, thought problems, written exercises, and modeling. Each exercise is categorized as to whether it is for individual, small group, or whole class study. Appendices of additional exercises using specialized technical tools of landscape ecology (for example, GIS) are supplied for instructors with appropriate equipment. The book includes a CD-ROM containing spatial data sets and modeling software for use with a number of the exercises.

About the Included CD: Many of the labs use only Excel (.xls) files or Adobe (.pdf) files (or no files at all) and as such are compatible with computers running on either Mac or Windows platforms, as long as the computers have Excel and/or Adobe Acrobat Reader installed.Chapters 1, 2, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18 and part of 7 fall into this category. Several other programs require a PC running Windows: Markov, HarvestLite, Rule, Fragstats, ReserveDesign and Folio are DOS executables; ArcExplorer and Bachmap must be installed on a Windows PC. These programs require a Windows emulator for use on a Macintosh platform. ... Read more

Book Description

In the early twentieth century a devotion to rural pursuits was characteristic of the English upper classes. This feeling for the countryside, real or imagined, was not confined to this class alone, but was common to many members of the first industrial nation. However, only a few hundred years earlier the idea that human cultivation was something to be resisted rather than encouraged would have been unthinkable. For how had civilization progressed, if not by the clearance of the forests, the cultivation of the soil and the conversion of wild landscape into human settlement? This passion to preserve wild scenery and the faith in the healing powers of unexploited nature would have been inconceivable without the profound shift in sensibilities which occurred in England between the sixteenth and late eighteenth centuries.

Man and the Natural World aims not just to explain present interest in preserving the environment, but to reconstruct an earlier mental world in its own right. Keith Thomas seeks to expose the assumptions beneath the perceptions, reasonings, and feelings of the inhabitants of early modern England toward the animals, birds, vegetation and physical landscape among which they spent their lives, often in conditions of proximity which are now difficult for us to appreciate. Although this study is confined to England, many of its themes can be closely paralleled in the history of Europe and North America. It also makes detailed reference to literary sources of a kind not currently used by historians. (For example, passages from The Bible, the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Ovid's Metamorphoses.) Here then is a reunion of the studies of history and literature in a tradition seldom used today.

Throughout, Thomas illustrates that this subject-matter deserves more serious historical treatment than it has yet received. Man's ascendancy over the animal and vegetable world has, after all, been a basic precondition of human history. The way in which we have rationalized and questioned that ascendancy is a large and daunting theme which in recent years has received a good deal of attention from philosophers, theologians, geographers and literary critics.

The issues raised here are even more alive today than they were just ten years ago. Preserving the environment, saving the rain forests, and preventing the extinction of species may seem like fairly recent concerns, however, Man and the Natural World explores how these ideas took root long ago. Topics include debates on human uniqueness, animal souls, the rights of trees, and the ethics of meat eating. These issues have much to offer not only environmental activists, but historians as well, for it is impossible to disentangle what the people of the past thought about plants and animals from what they thought about themselves. ... Read more

Book Description

The magnificent and much-loved Sierra Nevada, called the "Range of Light" by John Muir, is the dominant feature on the California landscape. First published forty years ago, this handbook has become an enduring natural history classic, used by thousands to learn more about virtually every aspect of this spectacular mountain range--from its superb flora and fauna to its rugged topography. Comprehensive yet concise and portable, the book describes hundreds of species: trees and shrubs, flowering plants and ferns, fungi and lichens, insects and fish, amphibians and reptiles, and birds and mammals. Now completely updated and revised, it will continue to be the essential guide to the Sierra Nevada for a new generation of hikers, campers, tourists, naturalists, students, and teachers--everyone who wants to know more about this unique and beautiful mountain range.

* Describes more than 750 of the species most likely to be encountered with more than 500 new color photographs and 218 detailed black-and-white drawings

* Includes engaging and accessible introductory sections on Sierra Nevada topography, climate, geological history, and human history

* The compact, updated species accounts make identification easy, provide informative remarks on ecology and life history, and note which species are threatened or endangered ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A True Classic
This is the book that took me through too many nights, and early morning units of biology and on into my Masters Studies. A quick reference book that has most of your common everythings on it -- it gets you into a ballpark and usually that is close enough for almost everyone. Plants, birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, insects --- it is all here in one place and the big bonus is that it weighs about 300 pounds less than a set of professional reference books. If I could take only one book with me camping or hiking in the Sierra, this would be the one. And don't forget your 5x and 10x Loupes. ... Read more

Book Description

Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. "Gathering Moss" is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.

In this series of linked personal essays, Robin Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us.

Drawing on her experiences as a scientist, a mother, and a Native American, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as in the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A Model of Popular Science Writing
Science writers have a responsibility to educate the public so that people will act to save what's left of the web of life. Few carry out their task with such effectiveness as Robin Wall Kimmerer has done in Gathering Moss. Well-chosen similes and analogies animate her stories, and well-drawn parallels to other areas of science broaden their appeal. I'm recommending this book to all of my friends, especially those who haven't yet discovered the wonders to be found in wandering around in forests.

Thoroughly Enjoyable
I purchased a copy of this book after hearing the author read a short passage on NPR. I was fascinated with her prose but did not expect a book, written by a biologist about an obscure topic of limited interest to a lay person, to be a compelling page turner. I read the first chapter and was hooked, devouring the remaining pages in two sittings. I immediately ordered two additional copies as Christmas gifts. Ms Kimmerer is an entertaining story teller in the finest tradition of indigenous peoples in addition to her many talents as a professional biologist, ecologist and expert bryologist. I especially recommend this book to those who may think they know everything they wish to about mosses, for there is something for all readers here.

Eloquent, poetic nature prose! Very enjoyable!
Gathering Moss is a wonderful collection of essays written from the heart of a idigenous writer. I truly enjoyed reading the book. The essays relate life experiences of the author (a Mom and professor of botany). These stories are skillfully woven together with humor, scientific knowledge and the spiritual experience of being in the woods. The descriptions of the landscape and plants bring me back to the Adirondack mountains...you can almost smell the balsam and feel the cool dampness of the mosses. I highly recommend this book! ... Read more

Book Description

What actually happens to the earth when one of its heart chakras is ruthlessly blocked by a building that has been erected without sensitivity (Cologne Cathedral, for example), when a wall with a 'no-man's-land' cuts an integral landscape in two (the Berlin Wall, which still stands despite having been physically dismantled), when massive constructions of steel and concrete slice through the sensitive energy lines of the earth (road networks), when battles fought in past wars continue to 'rage' as a memory in the subtle tissue of a landscape? All this leads to blockages and imbalances in the subtle organs and energy systems of the earth which culminate in a life-endangering malfunction. Healing the Heart of the Earth illustrates this kind of problem with numerous examples based on the experience gained by the author in earth-healing projects throughout Europe.

Our growing sensitivity to the ever-increasing amount of damage to natural and urban landscapes would be expanded in constant lament if we did not take a third, practical step: one that requires the human being as the root of all these difficulties to undergo an all-encompassing inner transformation. This process of transformation in every human being needs to have started before turning to earth healing makes sense.

For the spiritual and energetic purification and revitalization of the subtle systems of a place or a natural or urban landscape, it is possible to use the healing vibrations of sound, color, dance and guided imagery, amongst other techniques, as well as the art of lithopuncture.

In the final part of the book, the author addresses the question of how each and every one of us can contribute towards earth healing in our own personal space and surroundings. Those who wish to turn lovingly inwards and also outwards to the living world around us will find an abundance of inspiration here.

The earth is our concern, the earth that gives life to us all. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Poweerful & Profound
JUST AS THE HUMAN BODY IS PREY TO VIOLENCE AND trauma (both physical and psychological), and manifests that trauma through illnesses in certain parts of the body; and just as it is possible to heal that trauma by releasing the blocked energy locked inside the area where the violence has manifested itself-so the Earth's body has sites where human violence (both to the Earth itself, other human beings, and other animals) has led to trauma that needs to be healed. The knowledge of the Earth's bodily energies is present in Asian cultures through feng shui-a science where objects are located to harmonize with the natural energy patterns of the environment around them. In the West, this knowledge is expressed through the practice of geomancy-a wisdom tradition that argues that our planet is crisscrossed with energy lines. At the nodal points of these lines, human beings have constructed sacred sites (such as Stonehenge, the Pyramids, and Sedona, Arizona) that reflect the powerful energies that meet there. Marko is a Slovenian artist and healer who specializes in visiting sacred sites and places where enormous suffering has taken place, and trying to heal the wounds. He does this by what he calls "lithopuncture." Just like acupuncture, which recognizes that the body is an interconnected network of energy channels called meridians and tries to release the energy blocked by trauma or illness, so lithopuncture involves placing monoliths-effectively large acupuncture needles-in key places to release the blocked energy of the Earth and revitalize the environment, both human and natural. "To the inner vision," writes Marko in his book, Healing the Heart of the Earth, "an acupuncture point looks like a sort of energy vortex penetrating vertically into the earth. Within itself it collects information on the properties of the specific subtle phenomenon with which it resonates. These points can be detected at very specific spots on the ground. There they hand over the information they hold to whomever attunes to their focal point." Marko has performed lithopuncture in Northern Ireland, where in 1992 he was invited by the county council of Derry-scene of some of the most violent encounters between Catholics and Protestants in the ongoing 30-year conflict-to revitalize certain places that the council felt had continuous problems. He placed an acupuncture bronze plate in the sidewalk of a Derry street and a lithopuncture stone on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Sometimes lithopuncture is neither suitable nor possible. When this is the case, Marko uses human beings-both residents and visitors-literally to harmonize the natural environment. Groups gather in a circle and sing certain notes, which vibrate with the natural harmonies of the landscape and retune the discordant wavelengths of the area. "Musical sound has a strong power for breaking through and enabling access to a place, no matter how heavily blocked and suppressed it is," Marko writes. "Music can serve to cleanse and revitalize power points and also to regenerate a space completely. In the same way that spring revitalizes the forces of nature, music too carries within itself the energy that reawakens life; therefore, sound can bring a place that has, for example, been put to sleep by destruction, oblivion and the like back to vibrating, awakening, and reactivation. Its pulse beings to beat again, its currents to flow." Marko used singing when he visited the site of the former Berlin Wall. "When viewing the site with my inner vision," he says, "I noticed to my surprise, a deep black canal inside the no-man's-land where two energy lines run alongside each other, a thicker yellow one and a thinner red one. As my intuition interpreted it, this was a 'rope' made of two 'strands' with the help of which West Berlin was to be choked on an energetic level." "Our work consisted of two kinds of acupunctural singing," he continues, "coupled with color visualization and guided imagery. From what the participants related to us afterwards we were able to reconstruct the whole grueling process of 'alchemically' transforming the Wall's energies at that place." The result was startling: instead of a black tunnel, Pogaĉnik saw a white band at the same place on the surface of the earth, which reflected the colors of the rainbow. This was a sign that the transformation had been successful. Marko confirms the descriptions given in detail by Rudolf Steiner of the elemental world and its main beings - gnomes, undines, sylphs and salamanders, discussed by Rudolf Steiner in his book "Man as Symphony of the Creative Word" Marko feels that more and more people are going to awake to the sensitivity of the Earth and what should take place on it. Pogaĉnik echoes James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis in arguing that the Earth is a living organism, an organism we have to be responsible for. In both his works, including his first book Nature Spirits and Elemental Beings: Working with the Intelligence in Nature, Marko suggests that we all have to wake up to what this planet really is, and act on what we can do to make sure it is healthy. ¨ ... Read more

Amazon.com

"This book will try to change the way you think about American history," writes Ted Steinberg in the opening line of Down to Earth. That's an ambitious claim, but not far off the mark. His fascinating book is essentially an environmental history of the United States, with the author paying particular attention to how elements of nature became commodities and thereby isolated Americans from the natural world. Readers don't have to subscribe to this neo-Marxist concept in order to appreciate Steinberg's observations about everything from the old-time urban problem of horse excrement ("the nineteenth-century equivalent of auto pollution") to the massive amounts of garbage produced by fast-food chains (McDonald's, he says, requires "an area equivalent in size to more than 450,000 football fields" to supply its paper needs). He also tells what may be the first-ever natural history of the Civil War. This may sound idiosyncratic, and to some extent it is, yet Steinberg weaves it all together and makes the underappreciated point that "it is quite simply wrong to view the natural world as an unchanging backdrop to the past." It changes all the time, he writes, and it has shaped Americans in ways that few of them understand. --John Miller ... Read more

Book Description

The Truth of Ecology is a wide-ranging, polemical appraisal of contemporary environmental thought. Focusing on the new field of ecocriticism from a thoroughly interdisciplinary perspective, this book explores topics as diverse as the history of ecology in the United States; the distortions of popular environmental thought; the influence of Critical Theory on radical science studies and radical ecology; the need for greater theoretical sophistication in ecocriticism; the contradictions of contemporary American nature writing; and the possibilities for a less devotional, ""wilder"" approach to ecocritical and environmental thinking. Taking his cues from Thoreau, Stevens, and Ammons, from Wittgenstein, Barthes and Eco, from Bruno Latour and Michel Serres, from the philosophers Rorty, Hacking, and Dennett, and from the biologists Ernst Mayr and Stephen Jay Gould, author Dana Phillips emphasizes an eclectic but pragmatic approach to a variety of topics. His subject matter includes the doctrine of social construction; the question of what it means to be interdisciplinary; the disparity between scientific and literary versions of realism; the difficulty of resolving the tension between facts and values, or more broadly, between nature and culture; the American obsession with personal experience; and the intellectual challenges posed by natural history. Those challenges range from the near-impossibility of defining ecological concepts with precision to the complications that arise when a birder tries to identify chickadees in poor light on a winter's afternoon in the Poconos. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Brilliant, tough, unsentimental: all good for ecocriticism
Phillips has made an outstanding contribution to ecocriticism, and I see it as positive. He makes thoughtful connections to contemporary theory but obliterates cultural studies and the school of social construction, which have denigrated natural science for too long and discouraged humanists from absorbing the realities of biome and genome. Yes, his tone is brusque but not dismissive; he echoes the kind of discussion familiar to philosophers, where logic and reason prevail over sentiment. The claim that he has nothing new to offer is wrong: in the late chapters he calls for a "wild" ecocriticism that is diverse, eclectic, and pragmatic. I see this approach as far more constructive, and instructive, than the dewy-eyed reverence that preoccupies too many nature writers and their critics to date. Fifty years ago, Leslie Fiedler performed the same service for New Criticism, when he called Huck back to the raft. Instead of reacting defensively, I hope ecocritics will realize that a good mind and wit has taken up their cause and urged them to get serious and active: a languid pastoralism will not win attention in the academy or clean house at the Department of Interior.

irreverent but informed
The previous review is a bit unfair and so I am moved to add a few words. Yes, if you are drawn to an environmentalism that is underwritten by spiritual or mystical motivations, then you probably will be irritated by Phillips' irreverence. However, there is much to be said for this literate and well-researched book. Phillips has astoundingly wide interests, which include contemporary environmental thought, environmental history, environmental literature, and the history, philosophy, and sociology of science. His book does contain some positive suggestions about how the environmental movement might take a more pragmatic approach and so become more successful. Also, there is some pleasure, and perhaps glory, to be found in the witty and withering barbs that Phillips hurls at his objects of study. The environmental movement is too important to recoil from criticism like this. It can only be strengthened by the intelligent, informed and, sometimes, acerbic voice of Dana Phillips.

Unfair and irresponsible
Phillips book is flawed on a fundamental level. As he works through his arugement he not only essentializes and trivializes the work of ecologists and ecocritics alike, he goes at them from a perspective wholly foregin to their own. Phillips seems to be trying to play the role of the disillusioned environmentalist, yearning for a better, more equitable ecocritical paradigm, but in his self professed attempt to "philosophize with a hammer," he comes off instead as trying to completely undercut the ecological values and aesthetics of the Green Left. He takes pot shots at everyone from Muir and Thoreau to Lopez, Dillard and Ammons. Constantly crying foul at their lack of objectivity, Phillips argues that ecocritics should take on more of a scientific approach, and abandon the world of the spiritual, aesthetic and mystical. His attack at, what he considers to be, the cliche of the "ecological epiphany" is particularly barbed, as is his attack of Dillard's sense of the mystery and awe she feels when confronted with the Blue Ridge Mountains (he does quite a number on her "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek"). In the process of dismantaling the ecocritical aesthetic Phillips aligns himself with Joyce Carol Oates in trivializing the "REVERENCE, AWE, PIETY, MYSTICAL ONENESS" that characterize ecocritical responses. In one of his attacks Phillips questions whether "any sense can be made out of" Andrew Pickering's assertion that "the claims that the Earth circles the Sun and that it rests on a stack of turtles were of equal validity." At this point I should have stopped reading, because it should have become clear that Phillips is someone who just doesn't get it. Clearly he is confusing facts with truth, mysticism with positivism, and in asserting that there is some fundemental problem with this statement he is revealing himself is an enemy of the ecocritical project. Clearly ecocriticism, being a young field, is in need of maturing, and admittedly Phillips points out some real problems in its application, but he falls into trap of cutting down the field without sewing new seeds or seeing to the fertility of the ground. Clearly the values that Phillips has brought to the table are so fundamentally different from the ecocritics that he deems to speak of that they can never be reconciled. I will however throw Phillips a bone and point out that he does admit to being unapologetically argumentative, though I'd say dismissive would be more accurate. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

the best
This is very Excellent book for Professional dog training :) ... Read more

Book Description

Communities across the country are working to convert unused railway and canal corridors into trails for pedestrians, cyclists, horseback riders, and others, serving the needs of both recreationists and commuters alike. These multi-use trails can play a key role in improving livability, as they offer an innovative means of addressing sprawl, revitalizing urban areas, and reusing degraded lands.

Trails for the Twenty-first Century is a step-by-step guide to all aspects of the planning, design, and management of multi-use trails. Originally published in 1993, this completely revised and updated edition offers a wealth of new information including.

• discussions of recent regulations and federal programs, including ADA and TEA-21
• recently revised design standards from AASHTO
• current research on topics ranging from trail surfacing to conflict resolution
• information about designing and building trails in brownfields and other
• environmentally troubled landscapes

Also included is a new introduction that describes the importance of rail-trails to the sustainable communities movement, and an expanded discussion of maintenance costs. Enhanced with a wealth of illustrations, Trails for the Twenty-first Century provides detailed guidance on topics such as: taking a physical inventory and assessment of a site; involving the public and meeting the needs of adjacent landowners; understanding and complying with existing legislation; designing, managing, and promoting a trail; and where to go for more information. It is the only comprehensive guidebook available for planners, landscape architects, local officials, and community activists interested in creating a multi-use trail. ... Read more