Book Description

There are over 200,000 abandoned mines covering hundreds of thousands of acres in the western United States. Seen from the air, they create surreal, haunting, yet somehow beautiful landscapes of mind-boggling scale. But these scarred landscapes are only temporary: by law, mining companies are required to reclaim them, and the process of renewal exposes many physical, philosophical, technological, environmental, political, regulatory, and ethical issues.

Using aerial photography, maps, designs, charts, and analyses, Alan Berger provides a colorful and insightful overview of the possibilities-and dangers-of converting these altered landscapes. Reclaiming the American West covers the historical background and policy, as well as representational, technical, and design challenges presented by working with these enormous toxic sites, many of which have been converted into landscapes of extraordinary beauty. In addition, the book gives us an unprecedented vantage point above the sublime landscapes.

Reclaiming the American West has just been named winner of the 2003 Research Award from EDRA/Places. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Post Technological Landscape
This book is the first book I have read in the past 5 years that is so visually captivating I could not put it down. Berger uses his own gorgeous aerial and ground photographs, and visionary mapping techniques to show the world a new type of landscape that is being produced via landscape devastation and reclamation. He coins a new term -Post Technological Landscape-to describe the artificial landscapes being formed by humans in the post-mined areas of the western U.S. An introduction to the book, by the enigmatic poet Frederick Turner, also helps define this term. There is a very interesting,if not dry, appendix that reveals how each western state technically defines the term "reclamation" and what they have accomplished to clean up industrial leftovers in the landscape. I highly recommend this book for anyone thirsting for landscape photography, landscape theory, ecology and nature. ... Read more

Book Description

This book reviews techniques of dynamic optimization and shows how they can be applied to the management of various resource systems. In addition, it highlights the theory, models, and methods employed in the discipline of resource economics.Professors Conrad and Clark have written this text under the premise that the theory and concepts in this field are more quickly learned and made operational through numerical examples. By working through the problems at the end of each chapter, readers will learn the techniques that may be used in empirical studies of natural resources systems. Specifically, the chapters deal with renewable resources, nonrenewable resources, environmental management, and stochastic resource models, in addition to dynamic optimization. ... Read more

Book Description

The Canter text appeals mainly to Civil Engineering students taking course work in environmental assessment practice or impact assessment, usually taught at the junior/senior level as a popular elective. Some chemical and environmental engineers take the course as well. The author has specifically beefed up and improved the chapters on biological, cultural, and socioeconomic environmental factors. The book continues to emphasize both production and assessment aspects of environmental factors, i.e., air, water, and noise, together with some interesting case studies. The latest governmental methodologies and Environmental Impact Studies have been included in this timely revision. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Comprehensive EIA Resource
At over hundred bucks, this book is not for everybody.But it is the bestall-in-one resource for conducting environmental impact assessments.Thebook is crammed full with tables and diagrams on everything from examplesof project-effects interaction matrices to "A Comparison of FourHabitat Evaluation Methods."Besides introductory and generalhow-to-do-an-EIA material, chapters cover air, surface water,soil/groundwater, noise, biological envt., cultural envt., socioeconomicenvt, visual impacts, and public participation.The writing has ano-nonsense engineering flavor.Not for casual reading, but as aresource/reference for students and professionals this is a high qualitybut overpriced book.

A very complete overview about the EIA process and approache
At this moment, Environmental Impact Assessment process and approaches are in a constant change, requeriments are increased as well as needs for to get a good EIA. Many scientifics are trying to get a holistic vision of theworld affected for any project in order to get the best and close approachfor interprete it. This book shows a complete evolution of the EIA businessas well as avoid new interpretations and applications following the needsand background of the professionals that want use it. ... Read more

Book Description

The Rocky Mountain West is largely arid and steep, with ecological scars from past human use visible for hundreds of years. Just how damaging were the past 150 years of activity? How do current rates of disturbance compare with past mining, grazing, and water diversion activities? In the face of constant change, what constitutes a "natural" ecosystem? And can a high quality of life be achieved for both human and natural communities in this region.

Rocky Mountain Futures presents a comprehensive and wide-ranging examination of the ecological consequences of past, current, and future human activities in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States and Canada. The book brings together 32 leading ecologists, geographers, and other scientists and researchers to present an objective assessment of the cumulative effects of human activity on the region's ecological health and to consider changes wrought by past human use. This combined view of past and present reveals where Rocky Mountain ecosystems are heading, and the authors project what the future holds based upon current economic and social trends and the patterns that emerge from them. The book:

• examines the biogeographic and paleoenvironmental setting and historical climate that have shaped Rocky Mountain ecosystems
• traces the direct human influences on landscapes and ecosystems over the past 150 years
• explores the cumulative effects of past, present, and projected future human activities on tundra, subalpine and montane forests, valleys, grasslands, and waters
• offers case studies that illustrate specific examples of human influence and current efforts to restore the environment

The United Nations has proclaimed 2002 as the International Year of Mountains to increase international awareness of the global importance of mountain ecosystems. The case-based multidisciplinary approach of this book constitutes an important new model for understanding the implications of land-use practices and economic activity on mountains, and will serve a vital role in improving decisionmaking both in the Rocky Mountains and in other parts of the world that face similar challenges. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A sober and comprehensive survey
Capably edited by Jill S. Baron (Ecosystem Ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University, Fort Collins), and enhanced with an informative four-page Foreword by Paul R. Ehrlich (Bing Professor of Population Studies and President of the Center for Conservation Biology, Department of Biological Science, Stanford University), Rocky Mountain Futures: An Ecological Perspective is a sober and comprehensive survey of the tremendous impact human influence has had on the Rocky Mountain ecosystems. Featuring case studies, cascading effects, human-driven changes and more, this seminal and authoritative compilation of researched essays by educated authors paints an accurate and documented picture of an ecology being pushed beyond its limits, and then offers succinct, practical, and occasionally inspired ideas on what to do about it before it's too late. Rocky Mountain Futures is an essential, fundamentally critical addition to any personal, professional, governmental, organizational, academic, or community library Environmental Studies reference collection and supplemental reading list. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Fascinating, but error prone
Full of quotations of classics and poetry, written as literature with wonderful similes and metaphors, this "Biography of Water" roams from ancient civilizations to outer planets. The middle third was the most satisfactory, with details of the various forms of ice, how organisms cope with freezing, and what makes water so unusual. Explanations of its hydrogen bonding patterns and how they might change to make ice less dense than liquid water, and the funny shrinkage of water above its melting point and are all interesting. The many functions of water in biological systems, right down to the molecular level are given, and there are a number of cleverly done diagrams.
Ball's major blunder in this middle part was his complete failure to explain what holds normal liquids together, that is, what are the van der Waals forces (p165)? This leads to an absurd reason for the cohesion cell membranes, where the hydrocarbon tails of lipid bilayers are said to be held together merely by their repulsion of water (p253). Most college chemistry texts do better on both counts (including Linus Pauling, "General Chemistry", 3rd ed., 1965). The UV light from the sun is presented as detrimental only (p235). Ball seems unaware that vitamin D is formed from the action of UVB on cholesterol in the skin, and that there is less cancer the closer humans live to the equator. In recounting all the effects on the development of life (atmospheric composition, heat, cold, nutrients), Ball ignores the contribution of 10 times the radioactivity the Earth now has in promoting chemical reactions and mutations long ago (see T. D. Luckey, "Radiation Hormesis", 1991).
More minor problems are speaking of a vacuum "sucking" (p240), the pH of stomach acid as 1 rather than 1-3 (p247), missing the true function of the Glomar Challenger as a submarine salvage vessel (p47), a confusion of the effect of pressure on a melting point by comparing with the effect of pressure on the the boiling point of water (p51), implying that the reaction of sulfur dioxide with water gives sulfuric acid (p101) rather than sulfurous acid, and that paraffin wax has a viscosity anywhere near as low as 15 centipoises (p282).
It is when Ball enters the realm of politicized science that serious misinformation flows. Water vapor is by far the most important greenhouse gas and human activities add plenty of it to the atmosphere by irrigation, burning methane which puts 2 molecules of water into the air with just 1 of carbon dioxide, of burning gasoline, jet and diesel fuel, unlike p66. See "Hot Talk, Cold Science" by S. Fred Singer. Cold fusion has been replicated in half a dozen laboratories; the reality of the effect cannot be dismissed by ignoring the publications and merely listing ones that do not show the effect) (p307). See "Excess Heat" by Charles G. Beaudette, 2001. Memory effects in water at really high dilutions are real (see Lionel Milgrom, New Scientist, 11 Jun 03). Homeopathy effects were demonstrated against placebo in trials (BMJ 1991;302:316-323), all contrary to p334.
Read this "chocolate and cherry syrup coated" book at your own risk.

--Joel M. Kauffman 20 May 04

Thorough, interesting and multifaceted
Wow. At first having noted the author's vita on the cover, I wasn't certain that an individual trained "only" in chemistry and physics could adequately write a book that was "obviously" about geology. As I read on, however, I realized that Phillip Ball's intention really was to write a "biography of water" as the subtitle suggested. The book in fact contains information about water from almost every perspective: from the origins of its constituent elements oxygen and hydrogen in cosmological processes to it's social and political effects in the modern world. The book covers it all. Because I have almost a complete degree in geology, I enjoyed most particularly the geological effects of water including its effects on geomorphology, its impact on glacial formation, its effect on climate and ocean physics, etc. The author lost me a little in his discussion of the chemistry and physics of the substance, but I still found what I understood of it very instructive. Water's function in the evolution of life and in the biochemistry of cellular metabolism was also interesting to me since I enjoy studying evolution-paleontolgoy and earth history were my major focus in studying geology--and I also am a nurse caring for patients whose fluid and electrolyte status arises from the cellular effects of water.

Probably the most important messages in the book, however, are those regarding conservation and utilization of water resources. Certainly the information about the disparity of water availability and quality between the western and 3rd world countries, between urban and rural use, and between countries and states that have competing interests in a particular watershed were very enlightening. It was surprising to learn that part of the problems of the Middle East revolve around water availability and use. These issues certainly provide previews to future problems that will almost certainly arise globally in the not too distant future!

A very thorough, interesting and multifaceted book.

Water, Water Everywhere
We live on the planet called Earth. That just shows our chauvinism and inability to see the larger picture. The planet ought to be called Water. As Philip Ball points out in _Life's Matrix: A Biography of Water_ (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), water covers two thirds of the globe, and seen from space, water in its three different states is what determines what Earth looks like. It also determines that every other heavenly body we have been able to see looks to us like a lifeless orb. It is water that defines life for us, and when we go poking our noses into other planets, one of the first things we try to find is water. So no wonder that Ball has called this a biography.

And like a good biography, the book covers all the aspects of his subject. He goes into the origins of water back to the big bang. He shows how we found it on the moon and Mars, and of all places, our Sun. Since he is a doctor of physics, it is not really surprising that he looks at the chemistry and physics of his subject, detailing why ice expands, and why you can ski on solid water but not on asphalt. He tells how its currents run the oceans, and how we don't completely understand the molecular happenings in water flow, or in the formation of snowflakes. He tells us about the dire problems we could have if we don't start handling this most precious and most taken-for-granted resource with more wisdom. He reports at length on the foolishness of cold fusion of heavy water, or of polywater.

In short, this book wonderfully covers every aspect of water you could think of. Ball writes with humor and excellent analogies, and even when the science gets complicated, he is an excellent guide.

Unexpected Wonders
We live on the planet called Earth. That just shows our chauvinism and inability to see the larger picture. The planet ought to be called Water. As Philip Ball points out in _Life's Matrix: A Biography of Water_ (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), water covers two thirds of the globe, and seen from space, water in its three different states is what determines what Earth looks like. It also determines that every other heavenly body we have been able to see looks to us like a lifeless orb. It is water that defines life for us, and when we go poking our noses into other planets, one of the first things we try to find is water. So no wonder that Ball has called this a biography.

And like a good biography, the book covers all the aspects of his subject. He goes into the origins of water back to the big bang. He shows how we found it on the moon and Mars, and of all places, our Sun. Since he is a doctor of physics, it is not really surprising that he looks at the chemistry and physics of his subject, detailing why ice expands, and why you can ski on solid water but not on asphalt. He tells how its currents run the oceans, and how we don't completely understand the molecular happenings in water flow, or in the formation of snowflakes. He tells us about the dire problems we could have if we don't start handling this most precious and most taken-for-granted resource with more wisdom. He reports at length on the foolishness of cold fusion of heavy water, or of polywater.

In short, this book wonderfully covers every aspect of water you could think of. Ball writes with humor and excellent analogies, and even when the science gets complicated, he is an excellent guide.

science for us non-scientists
Philip Ball, a precocious young editor and writer at the British science journal Nature, with whose work I was previously unfamiliar, is apparently the hot new thing among popular science writers. Based on the evidence of this book, it's easy to see why folks like him so much.

Ball's thesis and method are apparent from the title. He sets out to demonstrate how central water is to our existence and he does so by tracing it's life history from the Big Bang right up to today. The broad arc of his story allows him to demonstrate a truly remarkable command of disparate topics, ranging from Cosmology to History, Geology to Mythology, and Chemistry to Politics. For someone with my embarrassingly limited science background, there was a little too much theory to absorb in one reading, but any technical confusion is more than made up for by the wealth of non-scientific information he provides. The book is packed with colorful anecdotes, interesting vignettes and fascinating factoids. If it's too much to say that you learn something new on every page, it certainly seemed to be true.

If I have one complaint with the book, it is that Ball has done such a good job of demonstrating how ubiquitous and remarkable water is, that by the time he gets to the dire environmental warnings about our wastefulness that conclude the book, it's sort of hard to take them too seriously. This section also tends to turn the biography into a bit of a melodramatic cliffhanger. He can hardly be blamed for not knowing water's ultimate fate, but there is a certain lack of closure to his tale.

There are a number of popular science writers I particularly recommend: Jacob Bronowski (The Ascent of Man), Daniel Boorstin (The Discoverers), Lewis Thomas (The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher), Carl Sagan (The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence ), Richard Rhodes (The Making of the Atomic Bomb), Stephen Hawking (A Brief History of Time: from the Big Bang to Black Holes) and Thomas Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) have all written classics and among more recent authors Timothy Ferris (Coming of Age in the Milky Way) and David Quammen (The Flight of the Iguana : A Sidelong View of Science and Nature) are especially good. I don't know that Philip Ball belongs in such exalted company already, but I'm certainly interested to see what he writes about next.

GRADE: B+ ... Read more

Book Description

THE DIRTY TRUTH unmasks a presidential hopeful who fails to walk his talk of "local control," "partnership," and"personal responsibility."It documents the abysmal environmental record of Texas Governor George W. Bush and reveals a controversial ‘back room’ style of governing that grants special access and consideration to big business polluters and campaign contributors.THE DIRTY TRUTH follows their money to show how they were allowed to shape public policy and reap benefits at the expense of Texans and the environment. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

A great book that neads proofreading...
As a previous reviewer stated, if edited correctly, this book would have gotten the highest rating possible, and even more. The author successfully shows how GW is an oil-addicted, old-time republican, sort of a fox let loose in the chicken coop. Anyone who doubts that this administration is corrupt should this book. Anybody who does will see through the evil Bush Empire.

What a Joke nicknamed a book
Can people really be that misinformed about reality and what really matters? Why waste your time even reading these reviews. This is a Joke, nicknamed a book.

Seek the truth in all matters, not the perception of the truth...this is very likely only someone's false perception of the truth.

Let's roll with the Truth
If you have any doubts about Bush's attitude toward the environment this book will eliminate them once and for all. It never ceases to amaze me, a book written factually with supporting evidence is always maligned as the commie, pinko, or liberal media by corportists, incidentally defined by Mussolini as fascists . I give the book five stars for anyone wanting a clue about who and what is running the country, and the ground they are running it into.

The irony of a President who believes in maintaining a healthy body but has no regard for maintaing the health of our living planet earth is beyond comprehension. We overpopulate the earth, strip and mine out the land, suck the oil up from the ground, only to spew it back into the atmosphere increasing the hole in the ozone, thereby raising the temperature of the planet. We contaminate our water supply and soil by dumping toxic chemicals and nuclear waste. Deforesting the Amazon decreases the earth's ability to produce vital oxygen we need to breathe. I don't exactly see the correlation between exercise and a healthy body as long if we continue to pollute the earth as we do.

A healthy body needs fresh clean air, water, and a proper atmosphere that will effectively filter out harmful radiation from the sun in order to live. Our planet is no different than our bodies. Global warming is akin to a human running a fever, a sign that we are not living on a healthy planet.

Money can't buy a new body anymore than it can buy a new earth to live on. It's probably time to put homo sapiens on the endangered species list. It may just be that the earth we live on will begin to consider man a virus and start fighting to eliminate the virus in order to ensure it's survival as any living organism does. Mother Nature can pack a powerful punch, something to ruminate on.

What tripe!
This is a hatchet job... nothing more and nothing less, by the far left wing of the Texas Democratic Party. The editorial comments from such leftie luminaries as Jim "Pinko" Hightower were as bad.

As for the reader comments, I noted that not one actually LIVES in Texas.

Y'all need to get over it. Gore lost. He's not coming back. Liberalism/socialism has gone the way of the dinosaur, except for those who haven't realized that they're already dead. I'm so glad I got this from the library. I wouldn't buy this used from a Poteet garage sale!

Should Have Been 9 or 10 Stars!
If only this book had been proofread before printing, it would deserve the top rating. (I know there is no 10-star rating available here, but it could be established.)

Anyone who doubts that the current President-appointee is a disgrace to the Oval Office should read this detailed account of his shameful performance as governor of Texas.

As governor, Dubya consistently did everything he could to protect the interests of companies which polluted the air and water of Texas; he demonstrated that he cared nothing for the rights of the poor or the middle classes. He championed legislation to protect wealthy polluters from being required to pay for cleaning up their messes, leaving toxic wastes to be cleaned up at taxpayers' expense or left to poison those living in the neighborhood where the waste was dumped.

Shrub even fought to have toxic and radioactive wastes from other states brought to Texas, and dumped near the Mexican border, where people of little political clout (Hispanics and Afro-Americans, mostly, and certainly none of the wealthy) are living.

He even had the gall to deny Texans their constitutional right to protest peacefully on the public sidewalk against his outrageous misconduct as governor. Texans who were violating no law, but who were publicly protesting Shrub's wrongdoing, were arrested, strip-searched, and held overnight in jail.

Little wonder that Shrub has pretty well established himself as the worst President in our nation's history. And most likely, the worst is yet to come. If only the facts cited in this book had been widely publicized before and during the election campaign, we might now have a decent President who would not be so eager to lead us into an unwinnable war for the benefit of "defense" contractors that contributed generously to his campaign. ... Read more

Book Description

The quality and availability of fresh water is of critical importance to human and ecosystem health. The World's Water 1998-1999 is a comprehensive reference on worldwide freshwater resources and the political, economic, scientific, and technological issues associated with them. It provides both detailed analysis of the most significant trends and events and the most up-to-date data available on water resources and their use. Chapters examine:

• access to basic water requirements for drinking and sanitation
• hydropower and dam construction
• water law
• water and coflict
• water and global climate change
• international water institutions and activities

The book features more than fifty charts, tables, and maps that present the most current data on a range of factors including: the availability and use of water; numbers of threatened and endangered aquatic species, dam and desalination capacity worldwide; trends in several devastating water-borne diseases; changes by region in global precipitation patterns since 1900; and much more.

To be published on a biennial basis, The World's Water will be an essential reference for water resources specialists with both government agencies and nongovernmental organizations, resource economists, planners, public policy and public administration experts, environmental lawyers, students and anyone concerned with water issues. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

excelent book, worth the price and more!
this book is clear, easy reading, and focused. It gave me all the answers I was looking for plus a lot more. The best book of organic geochemistry and petroleum geochemistry you can buy. I really recomend it. ... Read more

Book Description

This innovative, cutting-edge text takes a hands-on, applied approach to the origins of environmental problems, their economic consequences, and the policies that address them. The text presents environmental economic theory and methods in the first five chapters and then applies and reinforces them with illustrations and applications in the subsequent chapters. No other text provides a stronger link between theory and applications. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Economic Approach to Environmental and Natural Resources
While getting a little long in tooth, this text is an excellent introduction to environmental economics. Unlike many texts in this area, the methodology used in this text is quite similar, although less mathmatically rigorous, to presentations used in graduate studies. ... Read more

Book Description

Kirkwood presents innovative environmental, engineering and design approaches along with ongoing research and built projects of international significance. Topics included are soil bioremediation, phytormediation brownfield development, structural soil, landfill capping and revegetation and bioengineering for soil and water quality. Ground breaking approaches to the design of contaminated land including public parks and commercial sites are outlined. Contributions range from innovative scientific and engineering research from industry and federal agencies to contemporary international and regional professional reclaimation and redevelopment projects such as the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, the A.G Thyssen steelworks and blast furnace plant in Germany's Ruhr region to landfilling operations at Killingdon near London's Heathrow Airport (now Stockley Business Park). ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A Panorama on wastelands landscape
Niall Kirkwood has edited a very interesting panorama on the problems of wastelands and brownfields from the overview of the landscape researchers [what they insist in calling "manufactured sites"].
The book presents many well analysed study-cases and has a collection of theorethical texts produced by the editor and invited colleagues that covers many voids on this fundamental theme to better understand our complex and mutant cities.
We just remain intriguing on the resistant use by the authors on terms and concepts well developed by many expertises on the problem, mainly the architects: the "terrain vague" classic concept developed by the Catalan Ignaci de Solá-Morales; "wastelands" and "brownfields" by many American authors; "urban voids" used by many European thinkers [Koolhaas] to describe and analyse these residual spaces, usually derived from the post-industrial territory.

BOOK REVIEW: Landscape Architecture Review, November 2001
Adapted from the review by J. William Thompson

"This book is the proceedings of an extraordinary conference held at the Harvard's Graduate School of Design in the spring of 1998, organized by Niall Kirkwood, ASLA, a GSD professor and editor of this volume
The purpose of this book appears to be to provide a thoughtful overview of current approaches and issues that includes numerous case studies of actual sites, including such well-known brownfield redevelopments as Duisburg Nord in Germany, Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, and the Sydney Olympic's site.
Overall the value of this volume is in making a bold start at "rethinking the post-industrial landscape", as the subtitle suggests. Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the book is the gritty, substantive role it charts for landscape architects in brownfield reclamation"

Excellent State of the Art Book
'Manufactured Sites' edited by N. Kirkwood resulted from a conference in 1998 at Harvard that presented complex
contaminated industrial sites and their cleanup and reuse.
It assembles authorities on the science, engineering, planning and design of brownfields and other remediated
sites and is necessary for anyone involved in the reuse of these landscapes. Simply the only book addressing the intersection of different disciplines and fields who have to confront the legacy of the 20th century industrialization. ... Read more

Book Description

In this book David Driesen shows in detail how the concept of economic dynamics can reshape thinking about environmental law and policy. He argues that environmental policymaking in the United States has been poorly served by the dominant, static view of the relationship between environmental regulation and the economy, technology, and business. Basing public policy on the concept of economic efficiency, he claims, warps our sense of what is necessary and achievable in environmental lawmaking.

According to Driesen, environmentally beneficial technological innovation would be a more effective public policy goal than economic efficiency because it could better keep pace with private-sector innovations that create new forms of pollution and resource destruction. His arguments provide a corrective to the free-market and cost-benefit analysis approaches common to most proposals for regulatory reform. Those who believe that environmental law should focus on economic efficiency assume that efficiency and innovation coincide. But static efficiency may detract from, rather than stimulate, creativity in the real world. Cost-benefit analysis may discourage innovation by adding delay and uncertainty to government decisions. Economic incentives such as emissions trading may facilitate better use of existing techniques rather than bring about fundamental changes in technology. Driesen suggests ways that the regulatory system could better foster environmentally beneficial technological innovations. Using the theory of economic dynamics, he discusses privatizing environmental law, reforming administrative and international legal processes, and improving regulation design. He also explains the significance of economic dynamics for legal theory in general. ... Read more

Book Description

Everyone agrees that firms should obey the law. But beyond the law -- beyond compliance with regulations -- do firms have additional social responsibilities to commit resources voluntarily to environmental protection? How should we think about firms sacrificing profits in the social interest? May they do so within the scope of their fiduciary responsibilities to their shareholders? Is the practice sustainable, or will the competitive marketplace render such efforts and their impacts transient at best? Furthermore, is the practice, however well intended, an efficient use of social and economic resources? And do some firms already behave this way?

Until now, public discussion has generated more heat than light on both the normative and positive questions surrounding corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the environmental realm. InEnvironmental Protection and the Social Responsibility of Firms, some of the nation's leading scholars in law, economics, and business examine commonly accepted assumptions at the heart of current debates on CSR and provide a foundation for future research and policymaking.

Distinguished contributors to this book include Einer Elhauge and Mark Roe of Harvard Law School; John Donohue and Daniel Esty of Yale Law School; Paul Portney of Resources for the Future; Dennis Aigner of the University of California, Santa Barbara; Forest Reinhardt of Harvard Business School; David Vogel of the University of California, Berkeley; and Eric Orts of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Book Description

Taming the Great South Land is the first full-length landscapehistory of an entire continent occupied by one nation. It is also, in WilliamLines's telling, a brutal and controversial story. Examining the ways Europeansociety rapidly, radically transformed Australia's physical and humanlandscapes, the author writes candidly of repeated environmentaldevastationfrom the early slaughter of seals and whales to the destructivespread of sheep, through gold rushes and land settlement to British nucleartests and the modern mining and timber industries. Lines shows how Enlightenment ideas of progress, economic growth, anddevelopment were reconstructed on Australian soil, and how the promise of theconquest of nature became a mockery in fact, resulting in the mass dislocationand destruction of indigenous populations. This shocking narrative, thoroughly researched and accessibly written, combinesenvironmental, social, and political history to hard-hitting effect. ... Read more

Book Description

Includes new material on orthophotography, soft photogrammetry, and digital image capture and interpretation.
* Introduces the latest non-photographic and space-based imaging platforms and sensors (Landsat, LIDAR, thermal, multispectral).
* Provides new information on elementary sampling techniques and statistics. ... Read more

Book Description

Practicing Primitive: A Handbook of Aboriginal Skills is a collection of information and images put together over a twenty-year period in a search for hands-on communication with our shared Stone Age past. The story of the Stone Age is our story, and primitive technology is a way for anyone who wants to understand that shared history. Watts makes the case that the learning and practice of aboriginal skills helps us connect with our remote past, encourages us to participate in the shared inheritance of primitive ('first') skills. ... Read more

Book Description

The Russian Far East (RFE) is a vital storehouse of oil and gas, timber, fish, and precious metals that will inevitably be tapped as Pacific Rim economies seek to secure the natural resources necessary for long-term economic growth. Sustainable development of the resources in this vast regionù an area more than two-thirds the size of the United Statesùhasemerged as a major policy priority for the Russian government and the international community.The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide for Conservation and Development is the most comprehensive English-language reference text on the region to be published in the more than ten years. With contributions from an interdisciplinary team of ninety specialists from Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, the book overviews and analyzes the region’s geography and ecology, natural resources, major industries, infrastructure, foreign trade, demographics, protected area system, and legal structure. Particular attention is devoted to how to region can develop in an environmentally sustainable way.The book is divided into eleven chapters. The first chapter summarizes the RFE as a whole, while each of the remaining ten chapters deal with an administrative region within the Russian Far East. All of the chapters are divided into identical sections to simplify comparison among the regions. More than fifty maps, a number of which are in color, detail administrative districts and indigenous peoples' lands, protected areas, mineral deposits, timber resources, fisheries, and energy reserves. Tables and figures provide the reader with a wealth of useful, hard-to-find statistics. Color and black and white photographs. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A complete update of the classic 1996 reference
Now in its second edition, The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide For Conservation And Development is a complete update of the classic 1996 reference, offering region-by-region maps and information concerning geography, climate, flora and fauna, population and resources, as well as contributions from ninety authors giving expert analysis and insights, black and white photographs, and tables and charts to form a comprehensive handbook of the Russian Far East environment. A first-rate referenve for environmental studies shelves, with a great wealth of information and insights arranged in easy-to-look-up format. ... Read more

Book Description

Wildland Recreation

An authoritative guide to managing the ecological impacts of recreational activities on natural resources.

The challenges facing today's recreation resource managers are both complex and daunting. Accommodating rapidly growing numbers of recreational visitors without sacrificing the ecological integrity of wildlands is a major challenge. Determining and planning for the limits of acceptable change and expanding services with little or no growth in natural resources or funding are major issues.

Wildland Recreation, Second Edition provides solutions to these and other crucial recreational resource problems. Based upon its authors' extensive firsthand experience as well as their exhaustive review of the world literature on the subject, it provides up-to-date, detailed coverage of today's wildland recreation management issues, including:

• Ecological impacts of recreational activities on wildland resources
• Spatial and temporal patterns of recreational impacts
• Environmental durability, visitor use, and other key factors
• The limits of acceptable change, long-term monitoring, and impacts on wildlife
• Social and economic factors associated with managing impacts
• Alternative approaches to wildland recreation resource management
• Recent trends in satisfying increased demand for outdoor recreational opportunities
• International perspectives on recreational wildland management and ecotourism

Like its best-selling predecessor, Wildland Recreation, Second Edition is a valuable working resource for wildland recreation management professionals and a comprehensive course text for students of forest and natural resources recreation, park management, environmental conservation, and related disciplines. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

All You Need
This is such a great book.I originally got it for a Park Resource Management class while pursuing my Master's degree.This is definitely one of those books that you hang on to after you finish the class.

Wildland Recreation has so many different resources.There are pictures, charts, graphs, diagrams, and my favorite- case studies and examples of research.It is a great reference to use when writing papers or doing other research, because you can go look up the study.Not only that, but at the end of each chapter, all the references are provided, making it easy to search for what you need outside of this book.

Wildland Recreation is well written and understandable.The information is clear and straightforward, easy to comprehend.The chapters and sections are nicely divided into categories. This is a great book for anyone interested in any aspect of wildland management. ... Read more