Reviews (2)

Highly recommended
I've had and used this book since it came out in 1980. I always recommend it to all of the classes and seminars I give on reptiles and amphibians and to all of the people who ask for a good field guide because, for the size and cost, there are none better for this part of the country. Well worth the money if a handy, accurate, well-done field guide with great photos and range maps is what you want.

Great way to learn about what you see
I love this book. We see a snake in the woods, and take note of as many characteristics as we can, then look it up later to learn more about it. Same with frogs, toads, lizards, skinks! The actual information provided for each reptile is slim but very interesting. This is a great book to have if you spend any time in the wild in Virginia. ... Read more

Book Description

Mangroves are a fascinating group of plants that occur on tropical and subtropical shorelines of all continents, where they are exposed to saltwater inundation, low oxygen levels around their roots, high light and temperature conditions, and periodic tropical storms. Despite these harsh conditions, mangroves may form luxuriant forests which are of significant economic and environmental value throughout the world -- they provide coastal protection and underpin fisheries and forestry operations, as well as a range of other human activities. This book provides an up-to-date account of mangrove plants from around the world, together with silvicultural and restoration techniques, and the management requirements of these communities to ensure their sustainability and conservation. All aspects of mangroves and their conservation are critically re-examined. Those activities which threaten their ongoing survival are identified and suggestions are offered to minimise their effects on these significant plant communities. ... Read more

Book Description

Aquatic ecosystem assessment is a rapidly developing field, and one of the newer approaches to assessing the condition of rivers and lakes is the Reference Condition Approach. This is a significant advancement in biomonitoring because it solves the problem of trying to locate nearby control or reference sites when studying an ecosystem that may be degraded, a problem that bedevils traditional approaches. Rather than using upstream reference sites in a river system or next-bay-over reference sites in a lake, an array of ecologically similar, least-exposed to stress sites scattered throughout a catchment or region is used. Once the reference condition has been established, any site suspected of being impacted can be assessed by comparison to the reference sites, and its status determined. The Reference Condition database, once formed, can be used repeatedly.

The Reference Condition is established by standardized sampling of both the biota and its environment at a number of reference sites. A variety of environmental variables is measured in conjunction with sampling the biota (usually benthic invertebrates). In this book, we describe the basic methods involved in selecting and sampling appropriate reference sites, comparing test sites to appropriate reference sites using predictive modeling, and determining whether or not test sites are in the reference condition. This provides a rapid assessment method that can deal with everything from large-scale, national issues to local-scale problems with the same approach, and often parts of the same database. ... Read more

Book Description

From flying hot-blooded squirrels and diminutive kinglets to sleeping black bears and torpid turtles to frozen insects and frogs, the animal kingdom relies on staggering evolutionary innovations to survive winter. Unlike their human counterparts, who alter the environment to accommodate physical limitations, most animals are adapted to an amazing range of conditions. In Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival, biologist, illustrator, and award-winning author Bernd Heinrich explores his local woods, where he delights in the seemingly infinite feats of animal inventiveness he discovers there.

Because winter drastically affects the most elemental component of all life -- water -- radical changes in a creature's physiology and behavior must take place to match the demands of the environment. Some creatures survive by developing antifreeze; others must remain in constant motion to maintain their high body temperatures. Even if animals can avoid freezing to death, they must still manage to find food in a time of scarcity, or store it from a time of plenty.

Beautifully illustrated throughout with the author's delicate drawings and infused by his inexhaustible enchantment with nature, Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival awakens the wonders and mysteries by which nature sustains herself through winter's harsh, cruel exigencies.

Reviews (6)

Fascinating Animal Adaption
When you ask "what do animals do in winter?" the general answer is "they hibernate." But that is such an inadequate answer as Heinrich shows. The author takes us along into the winter woods of New England as he (and us the reader) discover the survival strategies employed by many inhabitants of the forest. From putting on layers of fat and slowing body functions, to burying in mud or snow, to literally freezing solid and then thawing in the spring, animals have found a much wider range of tactics to survive than we would think.

The writing is very accessible, as if Heinrich is giving us small talks in an informal atmosphere. Full of first person experiences and observations, but solidly grounded in science, he leads us into the winter woods to meet these animals and see them in their everyday winter lives. The observations unfold in a series of discoveries which brings the reader along on the trip and helps make the science understandable. I guarantee that you will learn things you had not known before and probably will be surprised at the ingenuity of animal survival. You will not look at the winter woods in the same way again. An excellent journey of discovery.

Excellent!!
Really great information written in a conversational/relaxed style which makes the information very accessible. (In many sections it feels like you're there with the author as he describes what he saw and conclusions drawn. Wonderful drawings throughout. There are all sorts of topics covered. The chapters are as follows:
- Fire and Ice
- Snow and Subnivian Space
- A late winter walk
- Tracking a weasel
- Nests and Dens
- Flying squirrels in a huddle
- Hibernating squirrels
- The Kinglet's feathers
- The Kinglet's winter fuel
- Hibernating birds
- torpid turtles under ice
- iced-in rodents
- frozen frogs on ice
- Insects: from the diversity to the limits
- Mice in winter
- Supercool(ed) houseguests
- Bats and butterflies
- Aggregating for winter- winter flocks
- berries preserved
- bears in winter
- storing food
- bees' winter gamble
- winter buds
- the kinglet's key?

As winter is almost upon us here, I will be looking back to this book as a neat reference as I wonder about the Great Mystery that keeps life beating on through the cold. Definitely recommend this book.

Fascinating Tour of the Animals of Winter
Anyone who has walked in Thoreau's footprints and who can appreciate clear scientific thought will enjoy this detailed explanation of the fauna of the woods during winter. Heinrich has given us a wonderful tour of animals in wintertime, covering their habitats, physiology and evolutionary adaptations.

A word of caution - this is not a book for people seeking warm fuzzy feelings about cute furry little creatures. It is a book about reality in its full splendor.

A Winter Delight
I loved this book. From the unique cover (the colored images seem to be some sort of stickers or something) to the lovely drawings inside, the book is a sensual delight. I loved curling up in front of the fire with this and marveling at the ways animals have evolved to survive in temperatures that would kill us. An avid bird and animal watcher, I nevertheless surprised myself that I had never thought of some of the more complex anatomical and physiological challenges animals face in the deep winter. And while I was so grateful to be the beneficiary of Dr. Heinrich's knowledge, I was also so charmed to me able to follow a human through the winter woods who is as delighted as I am myself to have the privilege of observing birds and animals in their natural settings. Sometimes I think I'm a little weird for enjoying nature so much, but I've found a kindred soul in the author! Anyone who wonders about the ways of nature and would like a tour of the winter woods with a knowledgeable guide will relish this book.

superb nature writing
If you have enjoyed the nature writing of Farley Mowat or
David Attenborough (The Life of Birds, The Private Life of
Plants), you'll enjoy this wonderful book. There are books
on nature which are dry and distanced: this is just the
opposite. There are also books on nature which are primarily
observational, such as Thoreau's Walden Pond and Annie Dillard's
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Neither Thoreau nor Annie Dillard
measured the rectal temperature of insects in the winter to
help determine the mechanics of heat regulation. Most of the
mammals, birds, insects, and trees looked at by the author are
his neighbors in the winter woods: the love and enjoyment and
the curiosity about his environment is very evident. He wants
to know what these creatures do to cope and survive the severe
winters where he lives in Maine and Vermont.

Heinrich writes with great warmth and humor throughout the book.
You'll follow his thoughts and discoveries about how the tiny
golden-crowned kinglet survives the winter, when logic seems to
say that it shouldn't even survive a single below-zero night.
On sunny days, even when the temperature is well below freezing,
several dozen honeybees may emerge from the hive and just a few
seconds later will all be lying dead on the snow: this is a
sacrificial testing mechanism by the hive to ensure that when
the first flowers open up that a head start can be obtained for
foraging. There are all kinds of fascinating things that you
could never imagine going on. Most of the nature in the book
centers on Heinrich's own environment, but he also readily and
often talks at length about other species from around the world.
The book is lavishly illustrated with drawings that help make
you feel even more personally acquainted with the subjects.

Heinrich is a scientist with a wonderful breadth of knowledge,
and a superb talent for relating his love for nature, his
appetite for discovery, and his humorous insights in a style
which gives enormous pleasure to the reader. ... Read more

Book Description

Explores the intersections between writing and ecological studies. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (11)

Against the Government: How the USDA hijacked civilization
The book "Against the Grain : How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization" by Richard Manning is much more educational than any government school.

Manning also discusses bizarre behavior of the USDA. At the height of Nazi power in 1934, the USA stepped onto the same socialist path by expanding the Department of Agriculture (USDA) with the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA).The socialism copied the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis) and the soviet-style schemes of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.It used a new broad power scheme to levy taxes for the so-called "general welfare" as the basis for its program of agricultural socialism, government spending and price
controls.

The National Socialist German Workers' Party used a National Food Estate membership stickpin. It has a swastika with a barley stalk and a sword and was the emblem of the Reichsnahrstand (National Food Estate) the organization that was similar to our Department of Agriculture and that that interfered with the production of foodstuffs, as well as price distortions).

In 1934 lower courts had begun overturning major parts of F.D.R.'s socialism.The most courageous court opinions came from rulings invalidating the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). Lower courts ruled the AAA unconstitutional and the Supreme Court followed in January 1936, ruling that ".... a statutory plan to regulate and control agricultural production, [is] a matter beyond the powers delegated to the federal government...."There was a dark cloud around that silver lining, however, because the same opinion stated that:".....the power of Congress to authorize expenditure of public moneys for public purposes is not limited by the direct grants of legislative power found in the Constitution" and began to dig the grave of liberty.

The Supreme Court's ruling on the AAA was a major rebuff for F.D.R.'s socialism and it was important for Social Security as well since it seemed to portend what lay ahead for the Social Security Act.The AAA was a cynical attempt to shift blame from the government for the collapse of the farm economy when earlier government acts caused the Depression.The AAA was soviet style "agrarian reform" similar to that tried in openly socialist countries for the government to take control of all agriculture.The actual mechanism by which this control was to be achieved was to levy taxes on the processing of foodstuffs and to use the proceeds from this tax to fund agricultural socialism --in effect, using the subsidies as "incentives" to take control of free farmers. Fearing how the courts would see this new function of government, the socialists who contrived the AAA deliberately placed the tax provisions and the subsidy provisions in separate titles of the act, so they could argue that they were not necessarily connected to each other; that is, so they could argue that the purpose of the tax was not to control production but was merely to raise revenue. This was the same cynical strategy adopted by the socialists who contrived the Social Security Act, as can be seen in the separate Titles II and VIII of the original Social Security Act.

In early 1937 President Roosevelt made what turned out to be the biggest political blunder of his career, and it was a blunder that became a disaster for liberty.F.D.R. was bitter about the Supreme Court striking down his socialism in favor of liberty and F.D.R. would derisively refer to the justices as "those nine old men." It didn't matter that only four of them consistently opposed his socialism. The Court was split down the middle in political terms. There were three justices sympathetic to the F.D.R.'s socialist programs (Brandeis, Stone and Cardozo); There were four justices who voted against everything the Congress and the Administration tried to do (McReynolds, Butler, Van Devanter and Sutherland).There were two, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes and Justice Owen Roberts, who were often "swing votes" on many issues. In the spring of 1935 Justice Roberts joined with the four justices to invalidate the Railroad Retirement Act. In May, the Court threw out a leviathan piece of F.D.R.'s socialism, the National Industrial Recovery Act. In January 1936 a passionately split Court ruled the Agricultural Adjustment Act unconstitutional. In another case from 1936 the Court had the good sense to rule New York state's minimum wage law unconstitutional. The upshot was that liberty was being protected from massive statism.

F.D.R.'s response to all of this was to seek even more socialist power. On February 5, 1937 he sent a special message to Congress proposing legislation granting the president new powers to add additional judges to all federal courts whenever there were sitting judges age 70 or older who refused to retire. Fraudulently couching his argument as a reform to help relieve the workload burden on the courts, F.D.R.'s made it clear what he really had in mind.F.D.R. would be able to appoint six new Justices to the Supreme Court (and 44 judges to lower federal courts), rip up the constitutional protections for liberty, and force socialism upon everyone. The debate on this proposal was heated, widespread and over in six months. F.D.R. was rebuffed, his reputation in history tarnished for all time.Even so, the Court cravenly buckled. Beginning with a set of decisions in March, April and May 1937 (including the Social Security Act cases) the Court sustained a series of socialist legislation.

Despite the intense controversy the court-packing plan provoked, and the divided loyalties it produced even among F.D.R.'s supporters, the legislation appeared headed for passage, when the Court itself made a sudden change. In March 1937, in a pivotal case, Justice Roberts unexpectedly turned his back on liberty, shifting the balance on the Court from 5-4 against to 5-4 in favor of most of F.D.R.'s socialist schemes.In the March case Justice Roberts voted to uphold a minimum wage law in Washington state just like the one he had earlier found to be unconstitutional in New York state. Two weeks later he voted to uphold the National Labor Relations Act, and in May he voted to uphold the Social Security Act.This sudden reversal in the Court meant that the pressure on F.D.R.'s cohorts lessened and they felt free to oppose the craven court-packing plan. This sudden switch by Justice Roberts is referred to as "the switch in time that saved nine" or "the switch in time that socialized nine."

It has been downhill ever since. As an attorney, I consider the court decisions under FDR to be the most shameful decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Though all of those justices (and F.D.R.) are long gone, the Court has never reversed it's humiliating disgrace.It is not too late for the Court to reverse its betrayal of liberty. It is never too late to stand for freedom.

The unconstitutionality of FDR's socialism was clear.Under the "reserve clause" of the Constitution (the 10th Amendment) powers not specifically granted to the federal government are reserved for the States or the people.The federal government cannot expand its influence because federal laws must be based in the Constitution. Obviously, the Constitution did not mention any method for interfereing in farms and agriculture, nor for Americans to be robbed by the government for that purpose. The cynical Committee on Economic Security (CES) schemed to circumvent the Constitution, either by claiming the commerce clause or by claiming broad power to levy taxes and expend funds to "provide for the general welfare," as the basis for the scams. Ultimately, the CES propagandized the taxing power as the basis for the new program, and Congress rubber stamped it.The courts were the last defenders of liberty, and were striking down F.D.R.'s socialist legislation for a while.

The time was during the Depression.The Depression had been caused by the federal government and by socialistic legislation (e.g. the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act).F.D.R. heaped on more socialism that worsened the Depression, into a disaster that lasted all the while that F.D.R. remained in office.That is why F.D.R.'s depression is called the "Great Depression."

The government still hides the chilling fact that the AAA and the Social Security Act and so much of the USA's socialism was enacted in the mid 1930's, and that the National Socialist German Workers' Party had been in existence since 1920 (with electoral breakthroughs in 1930 and dictatorship in 1933), expanding Otto von Bismarck's socialism. In 1935, U.S. politicians intentionally stepped onto the same path that had already led to a police state for the National Socialist German Workers' Party.

Earlier, the USA betrayed liberty and embraced socialism's dark side for agriculture in 1862 when the Department of Agriculture was imposed. The USDA's shield is set against a dark blue circle with 44 white stars, representing the states of the Union at the time the seal was adopted. Below the shield is a scroll inscribed "1862 Agriculture is the foundation of manufacture and commerce 1889," 1862 being the date the department was originally established and 1889 the date it was given cabinet rank.

Despite going out of existence in 1857, the Senate Agriculture Committee was revived in 1863.The federal government was in the "War of Northern Aggression" against the Southern States.In expanding his wartime government, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law three Acts in rapid succession in the spring and summer of 1862; first, the Organic Act creating the Department of Agriculture; second, the Homestead Act; and third, the Morrill Land Grant College Act. (Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience, Vintage Press, New York, 1973, p. 119.)
As early as 1838, socialist farmers in the USA had been petitioning Congress for the establishment of a Department of Agriculture.A Petition of 1840 received an unfavorable report by the House Agriculture Committee. In the 1850s, support had grown for increasing federal theft from taxpayers so that the government could throw more money at agriculture, and for consumers to be forced to pay higher prices dictate by government regulations and price controls. The Department of Agriculture was finally created when President Lincoln signed the Department of Agriculture Organic Act, on May 15, 1862.

Overall, Manning's book is very informative and was worth the time to review.

from hunter/gatherers to farmers & famine
Rebeccasreads highly recommends AGAINST THE GRAIN as the one history book that will change the way you look at the food on your plate, the vittles in your fridge, the produce at the supermarket, & the vast fruited plains of grains.

Richard Manning ranges far & wide, from past to present & into the future. He opens heretofore sacrosanct doors to show us how we handled agriculture & how we're doing it now, & what it is doing to our food supply. As well as the "dead zones" we are creating.

You will travel from a world newly refurbished after the glaciers withdrew down the ages on every continent & see our way of life from a truly different point of view.

After reading AGAINST THE GRAIN you might just find yourself mourning for a different way of life, one closer to this planet we call home.

Outstanding!

Thoughtful assessment of the sorry state of agriculture
Walk into to any supermarket and you probably feel very good about all of the choices you have.After all, the average supermarket carries over 25000 items these days.But if you are like most people,the vast majority of the items you will wind up purchasing are highly processed and contain precious little in the way of nutritional value. Did you know that nearly 2/3 of the calories the average American consumes come from just three crops--corn, wheat and potatoes?
Author Richard Manning sure got my attention with this fascinating book "Against The Grain".Manning argues that for the vast majority of history human beings were "hunter-gatherers".That is, people would migrate to where the food was and partake of a vast assortment of foods, everything from fruits and vegetables, to nuts and legumes and fresh meat. This all began to change about 10000 years ago with the advent of agriculture. Over the centuries people came to rely on fewer and fewer crops for survival.Manning notes that the pattern was virtually identical all over the world.Soon human beings came to rely on just a handful of crops, all high in carbohydrates, for survival.In recent decades the rise of huge conglomerates like ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) has further exacerbated the problem.Corporate entities do not view crops as food.Rather, they view crops as commodities and it is for this reason that family farms have all but disappeared, people in poor nations go unfed despite massive crop surplusses and those in rich nations wind up eating a largely bland and less than nutritious diet.
For those of us like myself who are poorly informed on these issues this book is certainly an eye-opener.Manning not only exposes the serious flaws in our current system but also proposes reasonable fixes to a number of these problems.Perhaps when we become aware of all those "empty" calories we ingest each day we will begin to think more carefully about the foods we eat.This book is extremely well written and kept my attention throughout. I would recommend it to just about anyone eager to learn more about these extremely serious issues.

Questioning Common Wisdom*
I received this volume for review at the same time that Manning's article, Super Organics: Inside the New Science of Smart Breeding, appeared in the May 2004 issue of "Wired" magazine (1). In the article, Manning describes the ability of scientists to tag genetic elements which have been identified as yielding desirable traits. This innovation allows one to more effectively carry out conventional breeding on an accelerated time-table, giving more certainty as to outcome and none of the concerns of the possibility of the claim of creating "Franken Foods" which has plagued the genetic engineered crops. Given Manning's concerns regarding human footprints on the environment, one can almost hear a sigh of relief and feel the hope that this technology might foreshadow a kinder and gentler approach towards agricultural practices, globally, as well as herald the loosening of the economic grip which many believe the multinational agri-business firms hold on the world's food supply.

Manning is part of a growing cadre of non-academic public intellectuals whose presence is being felt, not just in conventional venues, but even more so on the Internet via web pages, blogs, email lists, and similar electronic venues. Many of these articles, books and electronic materials are researched with the same care and documentation found within the scholarly art. Others, including, "Against the Grain", are lightly and selectively researched and adopted, often lacking in thorough documentation, and anecdotally argued.

It takes little research to raise questions with the intellectually underpinnings of Manning's thesis once one rubs the romantic patina off the surface. "Against the Grain" is one of these pieces, more eloquent than reasoned, and more thoughtful than grounded in substance, though giving the appearance of being researched in a scholarly manner. Manning, in his response to his own question, "Why Agriculture?" says, (the question) is so vital, lies so close to the core of our being that it probably cannot be asked or answered with complete honesty. Better to settle for calming explanations of the sort Stephen Jay Gould calls `just so stories'."

What Manning would have us believe is that the calming stories of agriculture are those of conventional wisdom which tell of human progress due largely to the ability of society to grow because of agriculture. "Against the Grain", he believes is a counter perspective which demonstrates that agriculture, in many ways, is hostile to both the quality of life for humans and, also, the very fabric of the planetary ecosystem.

The author finds it perplexing that hunter gatherers would want to give up the life of leisure, gamboling through the ecosystem, picking berries in season and killing a choice animal for meat as needed, or desired. He builds a case for sedentary life coming before agriculture, largely around water, rich with easily obtainable aquatic protein. This sedentary life allowed for the tilling of the soil and the planting of crops, the curse of God on Adam and Eve when expelled from the Garden. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground." Manning sees grains (wheat, corn, rice) as the cross that the planet must carry. Storable, tradable, commodities are controllable. Rulers can use them to subjugate farmers, build armies, and conquer free persons and their properties and enslave them. Sedentary populations under rulers could be commanded and humbled. Yesterday, it was the armies of the Greeks and Romans, and today, the giants of the international grain trade and their agribusiness partners.

Manning is a "hunter" who believes that humans are constructed to thrive on protein, red meat from the "kill"; and the cultivation of grains, a storable, fungible commodity is not only detrimental to human healthbut allows wealth in grains, like precious metals, to be concentrated in the hands of a few who then control the larger population.

The land, Nature's precious soils, are scared by the plow and insulted by rubbing agri-chemicals into the wounds while precious top soils pollute the waters, the source of life. Unsustainable agricultural practices are subsidized to produce unnecessary surpluses of primary grains, wheat, corn, and rice. Of course, land ownership also restricts hunters and their natural prey. Yet, Manning realizes that because of agriculture, populations have risen, perhaps, in his mind, not as healthy as hunter/gatherers. Manning suggests that human physiology has suffered because of the restrictive grain diets and the subjugation via economics and physical coercion once agriculture dominated the arena of food production.

Since we can't return to Manning's Eden of innocence and the idyllic life of the hunter/gather, what are realistic alternatives to continued abuse of the land for production of tradable grains controlled by multinationals? Manning suggests that we return to locally produced foods, animals raised humanely and vegetables produced on community support agriculture operations. Permaculture gets a passing nod as does the "Slow Food" movement which not only suggests that we take more time to appreciate what we eat but also how we obtain it. Do we live to eat or eat to live? Perhaps, Manning suggests, that we should stop to smell the roses, concern ourselves more with appreciating the world around us and less time trying to expedite our consumption of the necessary basics for our biological engines.

The reader identifies with the author's point of view which tends to draw one in while reducing the critical eye of a more academic analysis. Jared Diamond's, now almost classic, Guns, Germs and Steel, (2) represents the opposite end of the public intellectual spectrum. Rather than seeing Manning's work as providing new insights, historic perspectives, or cogent intellectual arguments for sustainability, one needs to yield to this volume as to one might to a historical novel.

1) Manning, Richard, Super Organics, Wired Magazine, May 2004, pp 176-180,215.
2) Diamond, Jared, Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1997

*Abridged from a review in The Journal of Sustainable Agriculture (in press)

Interesting Book on Agriculture
The labels on the packages of the food we eat include vital nutrition information.However, Richard Manning in his book, Against the Grain, contends that the nutrition labels leave out much important information.Large corporations such as Archer Daniels Midland are primarily to blame here.

Manning believes that the carbohydrate rich crops of wheat, corn and rice are actually bad for us.He is a devotee of the Atkins Diet that preaches that carbohydrates should be avoided as much as possible.

Manningalsoopposes the way that agricultural concerns "farm the government."

This is a provocative and well-written book. ... Read more

Book Description

* Clear, accessible and illuminating introduction to the fundamental concepts and issues of sustainable development * Ideal introductory course book for a wide range of courses in environmental sciences, social sciences, geography and ecology * Contains extensive examples, case studies and includes exercises

"This book is a valuable step toward making human ecology a subject that everyone can and should understand. Its scope and clarity make it accessible and informative to a wide readership. It provides a clear and comprehensible account of concepts that can be applied in our individual and collective lives to pursue the promising and secure future to which we all aspire." -- Maurice Strong, Chairman of the Earth Council and Secretary General of the 1992 Earth Summit

Human ecology is the study of how human social systems relate to and interact with the ecological systems on which they depend. As the study of how to achieve ecologically sustainable development becomes more and more important in courses in human and natural sciences, it is becoming a fundamental introductory subject.

"Human Ecology" is the first introductory textbook of its kind. It provides a comprehensive, clear and engaging introduction designed to meet student and teaching needs. It explains how ecosystems are organized and function; the interactions of human social systems with them; and how social institutions and processes contribute to or conflict with sustainability. It integrates long-standing ecological principles with more recent concepts from complex systems theory. Simple diagrams, examples and exercises make the concepts easily understood.

It should become the standard text in the area. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (4)

beautiful writing, scary images, life
Blues for Cannibals can be a hard book at times to work through. The ideas become circular and repetitive but the beautiful writing often smooths over these rough spots, while at other times there is true beauty, touched with both horror and sadness, in its words and thoughts. Charles Bowden writes near the beginning that if he had life to live over again he "would never think that wars are events recorded in the book of history but realize they are actual and always take my hands from my ears and hear the cries of the slain." Much of this book is filled with those cries, and not only from war. He also would never say no to a woman or skip a meal. From evidence in this book, one gets the feeling he never has. The section on food and his dying friends is the best part of the book and reverberates with a quiet power. An unique book.

Dirt, water, sex, and food.
Charles Bowden places himself as a steel wedge into the crevices, what we've created of ourselves and our environment, the unsavory places, the mirror that we all shield our faces from, the places that we are all afraid to venture. He drives himself into these places because he knows that he ... we ... have become fearful hypocrites.

Once set, he kicks violently at the business end of that wedge with his feet to drive himself in further, going as far as a man can go without letting go: dirt, water, sex, and food, with a little booze and drugs thrown in to soften the edge of our brutal contemporary reality.

But now that he's found the courage to go to these places in our stead and make it back, he found it necessary to write about it and we find it necessary to read it. We know that we will likely never visit these places. We will only read vicariously and reflect nervously, remaining sadly and ultimately, fearful hypocrites to the end.

Bowden's Mesquite Manifesto.
Charles Bowden's got the blues. "I am a fallen man and I know it," he writes, "and I accept the torture of living this fact. But I will be damned--and they say I surely will be damned--if I accept God's answer. So I do not pray. Nor do I worship. I can love, I can comfort. I am the tree struggling in the hot ground of my desert. No bended knee and please no messages from on high. The messages must come from here, from the ground itself or away with them. That is what I learn from the mesguite, my brother-in-arms" (p. 6). In his 293-page book of revelations, he looks deeply into our cold, modern culture of gated communities, suicide, death row inmates, and sexual predators, to discover we are cannibals now--"we can devour and take but cannot give" (p. 28)--living a life of unrestrained consumption without future.

For too many of us, Bowden may be the best writer we've never read. His prose is powerful, prophetic, hallucinogenic, and poetic. Using mesquite as a metaphor to connect his essays, he encourages us to face the truth about American culture, and to question the people who try to give us easy answers. "I believe in dirt and bone and flowers and fresh pasta and salsa cruda and red wine," he writes. "I do not believe in white wine, I insist on color. I think death is a word and life is a fact, just as food is a fact and cactus is a fact" (p. 246). Although Bowden's "Mesquite Manifesto" is rooted in despair, in the end it encourages us to celebrate life: eat, lust, caress, fight, and swallow. "Now," Bowden tells us, "choke it down" (p. 277).

G. Merritt

"I am not a man of the center. I am from somewhere else."
Bowden's prose is actually a long tone poem, and if you read it this way, you will not be disappointed. The mesquite is the metaphor: once you read it, you'll understand, and you'll want to read more. Bowden is one of our most brutally honest writers practicing the trade today, but he writes with velvet gloves. He teaches us how to rejoice in our despair--he's a practicing buddhist, he just doesn't know it.
If you are new to Bowden's writing, this book is as good a place to start as any. For a man who has probably seen and witnessed the worst we can do to each other, he somehow holds out hope for the best. What else can we do but sink our taproots and satisfy our appetites?---at least that is something, as Bowden says... ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A resource book that inspires
This book gave me a positive pre-view of the future I always hoped could be. For example, In the referances for one of the chapters on finances I found several mutual funds operated by environmental friendly companies. These eco-mutual funds have made me money and a percentage of the profits the funds earn go to very respectable environmental 'charities' etc. Read this book if you want to find a way to feel good about what you investments are doing!

Don't miss this book!
Ausubel's Restoring the Earth is vital, inspiring, and unique. In reading it, you will see the future of agriculture, design, medicine, and much more. For once, a book that fluidly merges and illuminates both social and environmental realities. For once, instead of simply depressing you or just screaming "somebody do something!"--it addresses these urgent realities with exciting solutions that are *already* tried and true. This is more than a lucid, intelligent outline of our planet's most pressing circumstances, it is a series of well-written stories about today's visionaries: innovative, real people that have come up with almost magical solutions to save biodiversity and money at the same time. Reading Ausubel's book is a great way to be educated and uplifted at the same time. ... Read more

Book Description

In the extreme south of Madagascar is a place called Berenty, where Tandroy tribesmen, French lords, mad scientists, and two or three species of lemurs may be found gathered peacefully under a tamarind tree. Forty years ago Alison Jolly went to Berenty to study lemurs, and she has been enthralled by it ever since. In Lords and Lemurs she tells the story of the place, its people, and its other animals.
The owner of Berenty, Jean de Heaulme, arrived there in 1928 as a six-month-old baby, riding with his mother in the sidecar of his father's Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The de Heaulme family has lived at Berenty ever since, supporting Madagascar's fight for independence from France, serving in the government, and enduring economic turmoil, civil war, and even imprisonment. Although they are relics of a colonial system that seized land and tortured dissidents, the de Heaulmes also epitomize noblesse oblige in the best sense of the phrase, showing a remarkable sense of responsibility for both the people and the ecosystem of Berenty. Early on they set aside a large portion of their estate as a nature preserve, where lemurs and other animals have thrived over the years. Jean de Heaulme became a blood brother to one of the local Tandroy nobles -- the kings with spears. Traditionally the Tandroy were warriors who raided for women, cattle, and slaves. Now those who live at Berenty can take what they need from the modern world -- medical care, education, and a cash income -- without giving up their own customs and way of life. Many Tandroy still live in traditional villages surrounded by walls of thorn, and even the men who hold salaried jobs work hard so they can return to their clan with enough cattle to buy a bride or two. When a clan elder dies, the family offers a grandiose funeral where, amid gunfire and dancing and merrymaking and sex, a whole herd of zebu cattle is sacrificed to honor the new Ancestor -- even if he happens to be a Christian. Alison Jolly and her husband were honored to be invited to attend a Tandroy funeral.
Poignant and colorful, tragic and funny, Lords and Lemurs is a remarkable tale of one of the last great places on earth and the extraordinary people who live there, a tale of marriage, birth, and death, of spear fights and stink fights and dancing. It shows how human warmth and dignity can reach out beyond any social system. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

I want to go there.
Full Title: Lords and Lemurs : Mad Scientists, Kings With Spears, and the Survival of Diversity in Madagascar. Madagascar seems to be one of those places where time has simply passed by without having any effect. A home of Lemurs - possibly the ancestors to both apes and humans - and a wild collection of people.

Dr. Jolly, whose more serious work includes Lucy's Legacy, has written this book as a relaxation from her normal studies. She is a great writer, and here is writing about something she loves. The love comes through.==The book is a biography, autobiography, history of the people and places. More than that it's a homage to a place and a time that you wouldn't think exists any more.

Rare insight into Madagascar
I had the great pleasure (and fortune) to meet Alison Jolly during my visit to Berenty in September 2003.

She graciously and eloquently addressed our small tour group and gave us a rare insight into her understanding of lemur behaviour.

The book is an absolute must for anybody with even a passing interest in Madagascar, anthropology and lemurs.

Most importantly, it documents this remarkable family (the de Hulmes) and sheds light on the complex and mysterious history of Berenty and its part in the modern history of Madagascar.

PEOPLE AND PLACES ACUTELY PERCEIVED
Author Alison Jolly, an expert in the study of primate behavior, poses the following question with her remarkable new book: "Where can you find scientists from all over the world, a family of French aristocrats who never quite noticed the French Revolution, a pastoralist tribe who still think of themselves as spear-carrying warriors, six species of lemurs, and usually a TV team underfoot?"

The answer is Berenty, Madagascar.

Some 40 years ago Jolly went to Madagascar for the first time to study lemurs. The perfect research site was found at Berenty, a private wildlife refuge located on a plantation owned by a French family, the de Heaulmes.

As the family developed their plantation they also cultivated a congenial relationship with the native tribespeople, the Tandroy. The Tandroy, the "King with Spears are as proud a people as the French family that came to share their land. In this remarkable book Jolly tells the story of how the tribe lives today, retaining much of their original culture while availing themselves of beneficial modernities, such as health care and education.

Credit is due, Jolly notes, not only to the Tandroy but to the French aristocrats who feel and exhibit both respect and responsibility for the land, the people, and the animals with whom they live.

For instance, when the people of Madagascar sought freedom from France, the de Heaulmes stood with them, and when one of the de Heaulmes was jailed during a civil war, the Tandroy stormed the prison demanding his release.

Jolly is a gifted writer with an acute perception of people and places. It's a pleasure to visit Berenty with her as guide.

- Gail Cooke ... Read more

Book Description

Myron Arms, author of the best-selling Riddle of the Ice, is a sailor and environmentalist. This book, ten years in the making, describes an environmental crisis in minute detail, through the eyes of Newfoundland's fishermen, politicians, and scientists. It is gripping reading, and a cautionary tale that demonstrates how vulnerable our environment is to even the best-intentioned human activity. ... Read more

Book Description

It's a jungle out there. And survival is never a given. Somehow, a blind, defenseless tiger kitten must evolve into a deadly, efficient predator; a chimp must learn to distinguish edible plants from lethal poisons; a baby buffalo must be able to pick its mother out of a herd of hundreds. Contrary to common belief, not everything is "hardwired" -- or instinctual -- in the animal kingdom. Many skills a wild animal needs to thrive, to grow, to be what nature intended, must be developed through play, painstaking teaching, and often treacherous trial and error. The coming-of-age processes of the myriad creatures of plain, forest, ocean, and jungle are truly fascinating and often astonishing natural events.

In Becoming a Tiger, Susan McCarthy, co-author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller When Elephants Weep, offers readers an in-depth look into the amazing ways baby animals learn not only about themselves, but about their world and ours -- and how to survive in both. Based on extensive scientific research done in the lab, in controlled "natural" settings, as well as in the wild, her findings provide stunning new insights into the lives and development of Earth's nonhuman inhabitants -- not only tigers, but lions, bears, bats, rats, birds, dolphins, whales, apes, elephants, and dozens of other species.

Sharing stories and discoveries at once captivating, funny, breathtaking, provocative, and heartwarming, Susan McCarthy carries us on a remarkable journey into untamed places, immersing us in the fascinating, complex, and hitherto unimagined societies and cultures of the beasts and birds. Along the way she shines a brilliant new light on subjects scientists, biologists, and zoologists have only begun to explore, revealing startling truths about the behavior, and sometimes humanlike foibles, of creatures great and small.

Warm, informative, and beautifully written, Becoming a Tiger is an enthralling reading experience for animal lovers everywhere. In the transformation tales of playful pups, big-footed cubs, and scrawny chicks becoming deadly hunters, able foragers, and deft nest-builders are valuable and enriching life lessons for members of our own inquisitive, ever-developing species.

Reviews (2)

Eye Opening
I read this book because it was required for Session's Philosophy course at Sierra College. Those of you who can read it without experiencing Professor Sessions have a great advantage. He put together an excellent book, unfortunately he is a real jerk. I have never had an instructor talk down to students the way he did. That being said, Deep Ecology is a fascinating topic. Reading the essays in this book will open your eyes to a very different philosophy on life. The simple arguments carried out by main-stream environmentalists and their counterparts become almost useless. If you are looking for an alternative to the money motivated lobbying of many contemporary organizations or if you just want to read a different viewpoint, I recommend this book!

Deep Ecology for the Twenty-First Century
Absolutely spectacular anthology! I lost my copy and could barely keep from crying. Great information for those new to Deep Ecology. Terrific reading for those familiar with it. ... Read more

Book Description

Recent outbreaks of disease in domestic animals, humans and wildlife illustrate the relative importance of infectious diseases and the vulnerability of susceptible animals. Why do such diseases emerge? What are the factors that lead to dramatic epidemics? How can we apply our knowledge to improve the methods of control? These are just some of the questions addressed in this book, which seeks to develop and apply an ecological approach to an understanding of epidemiology in wild animal populations. The development of mathematical models in the dynamics of infectious diseases is a field that has seen rapid growth over the last decade. There is now a need to challenge these models with the data and to bring vets and field workers closer to the disease issues. This book was conceived to identify the exciting questions and set the future research agenda. 50 of the most active workers met in Trento, northern Italy, to brainstorm the issues, and from this the editors have moulded a synthesis that captures the excitement and importance of this expanding field. ... Read more

Book Description

Completely revised and updated, Multimedia Environmental Models: The Fugacity Approach, Second Edition continues to provide simple techniques for calculating how chemicals behave in the environment, where they accumulate, how long they persist, and how this leads to human exposure. The book develops, describes, and illustrates the framework and procedures for calculating the behavior of chemicals in our multimedia environment of air, water, soil, and sediments, as well as the diversity of biota that reside in these media. While other books focus on specific compartments, such as the atmosphere, or specific substances, such as PCBs, this book presents the big picture of how organic chemicals behave in the total environment. It does this by providing examples of calculation methods based on the fugacity approach and explaining how to access up-to-date property databases and estimation methods as well as computer programs, which are available from the Internet. In addition, the models are Web based, instead of on a floppy disk as in the previous edition.Building on the work developed in the First Edition, the Second Edition includes: oA how-to modeling section, more worked examples and problems- most with solutions and answers oExpanded treatment of structure-activity relationships and modern estimation methodsoMore material illustrating applications to bioaccumulation is specific organisms and food websoEmphasis on current efforts to identify PBT chemicals and exposure analysis as a component of risk assessmentoExamples that provide each step of modeling calculations oWeb-based models, and references to property databases, estimation methods, and computer programs from the InternetWhen you need to make assessments of chemical behavior you need current, comprehensive. Multimedia Environmental Models: The Fugacity Approach provides you with not only an understanding of how the multitude of organic chemicals behave in the total environment, but also with practical examples of how this behavior can be predicted using the fugacity approach. ... Read more

Book Description

In this warm, stimulating brew of personal stories, acclaimed author Kathleen Dean Moore uses the metaphor of an island to challenge the cynicism inherent in the Western worldview. A gifted storyteller with a sly sense of humor, Moore explores three separations brought to us by Enlightenment philosophers: the separation of human from nature, of things near and far away, and of the sacred from the mundane. Challenging each, such as Descartes' idea that humans have a discrete consciousness and can alter creation while remaining unaltered themselves, she reveals why such divisions don't tally with the values expressed daily in the way people live. Moore disguises her philosophical explorations in stories: about vacationing on a tiny island in Alaska, visiting her father in the hospital, watching grouse perform their mating dance in the desert. Throughout, she shows that, when properly observed, the world is full of opportunities to find hidden connections. ... Read more

Book Description

An easy-to-read, beautifully illustrated undergraduate-level introduction to fresh- and running-water biology. Each chapter includes practical information on simple experiments. The text begins with the physical features that define running water habitats, then continues with organisms that inhabit these habitats, and concludes with a discussion of applied issues surrounding water use, including pollution, species diversity, and conservation. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Biology of Streams and Rivers
This is a very good introductory text on how streams and rivers function. It covers the habitat, organisms that live in them, and factors that affect them. The book has numerous references of source material and additional reading. I recommend this as great background material for this subject area. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Wetland. The very word makes environmentalists swoon and real estate developers curse. While squishy places like swamps and bogs used to be considered unfit for human habitation, the 19th and 20th centuries saw a veritable festival of "reclamation" as the world's wetlands were transformed into land usable by humans. But what beauty and natural utility was lost in the process? In Swampwalker's Journal, David M. Carroll transcends the political to find joy in the damp places he has loved since he was a boy. In chapters describing his favorite vernal pools, marshes, swamps, ponds, and bogs, Carroll describes hours spent watching animals frolic in their moist, vegetated homes. Braving mosquito bites and the wrath of bears, he embarks on a journey through these mysterious, underappreciated ecosystems and records their ups and downs faithfully, complete with exquisite illustrations. You feel almost as if you're reading his field journals, the writing is so immediate and full of detail. Here, he describes a hunting heron:

He keeps as still as the breathless afternoon for a time, then moves again, taking several slow strides, each accompanied by a rhythmic, gradual curvilinear extension and retraction of his serpentine neck. From time to time he redirects his head, his long, sharp bill poised, his avid eyes ablaze with focus and intent. His movements are effected with such heron stealth that even in motion he could pass unseen.

Carroll saves his plea for the preservation of these fragile, fading landscapes until the epilogue, allowing readers to become as charmed as he is by the wetlands he loves. Annie Dillard calls David Carroll "a genius, a madman, a national treasure," and you'll agree when you've read this beautiful piece of nature writing, an unforgettable "tour de swamp." --Therese Littleton ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A glimpse of life
Mr. Carroll has captured nature as it truly is. Like a fine craftsman he was one with the subject and as an artist he has accurately recorded what he observed and has presented the information coherently. I'm left with an indelible, poignant legacy.

This is the real thing.
David M. Carroll is one of the finest nature writer/philosophers I've ever come across in my entire reading career. Swampwalker's Journal is a book to be savored, relied upon. Caroll knows the lives of the wetlands so intimately, from first-hand experience over long years, that you know you're getting a privileged glimpse into deep nature. Added to that, he is a truly masterful illustrator, and a graceful, profound writer. I'll be waiting to buy any other book he produces.....

earthly delight
a perfect book for the armchair naturalist. carroll's skills at observation and illustration are unmatched. more than a field guide, this book serves as a springboard for carroll's cogent ruminations on man and nature. ... Read more

Book Description

Evidence is mounting that redwood forests, like many other ecosystems, cannot survive as small, isolated fragments in human-altered landscapes. Such fragments lose their diversity over time and, in the case of redwoods, may even lose the ability to grow new, giant trees.

The Redwood Forest, written in support of Save-the-Redwood League's master plan, provides scientific guidance for saving the redwood forest by bringing together in a single volume the latest insights from conservation biology along with new information from data-gathering techniques such as GIS and remote sensing. It presents the most current findings on the geologic and cultural history, natural history, ecology, management, and conservation of the flora and fauna of the redwood ecosystem. Leading experts-including Todd Dawson, Bill Libby, John Sawyer, Steve Sillett, Dale Thornburgh, Hartwell Welch, and many others-offer a comprehensive account of the redwoods ecosystem, with specific chapters examining:

• the history of the redwood lineage, from the Triassic Period to the present, along with the recent history of redwoods conservation
• life history, architecture, genetics, environmental relations, and disturbance regimes of redwoods
• terrestrial flora and fauna, communities, and ecosystems
• aquatic ecosystems
• landscape-scale conservation planning
• management alternatives relating to forestry, restoration, and recreation.

The Redwood Forest offers a case study for ecosystem-level conservation and gives conservation organizations the information, technical tools, and broad perspective they need to evaluate redwood sites and landscapes for conservation. It contains the latest information from ground-breaking research on such topics as redwood canopy communities, the role of fog in sustaining redwood forests, and the function of redwood burls. It also presents sobering lessons from current research on the effects of forestry activities on the sensitive faunas of redwood forests and streams.

The key to perpetuating the redwood forest is understanding how it functions; this book represents an important step in establishing such an understanding. It presents a significant body of knowledge in a single volume, and will be a vital resource for conservation scientists, land use planners, policymakers, and anyone involved with conservation of redwoods and other forests. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Redwood Forest - An Ecological Synthesis
This is the first widely available publication that attempts to describe the ecology of the redwood forest ecosystem. It is aimed at a wide-ranging audience from environmental professionals to the general public with a deeper-than-average interest in redwoods. Thirty-two contributing authors were involved writing separate sections of the book with Dr. Reed Noss doing the editing. The nine chapters cover paleocology, human history, flora, fauna, forest ecology, stream ecology, conservation planning, and forest management. As a first attempt at compilation of redwood forest information it is welcome and long overdue since there is scant else available. The book includes many new research findings including interesting discoveries by biologists working in the forest canopy of old-growth trees. Unfortunately there are some significant gaps in the coverage provided (the soil ecosystem is a major one, the importance of large down logs is another) and some minor, but annoying, areas of misinformation. A more complete review of this book appeared in the January 2000 issue of "Fremontia", the journal of the California Native Plant Society. It may be viewed online at the CNPS web site. ... Read more