Reviews (2)

Great introductory text
I teach a short course in wetlands to students who are primarily non-scientists. My students love this book, as do I. Technical issues are discussed in a way that is accessible to the general reader AND clearly explains the concepts. I highly recommend this volume both to other instructors and to individuals with an interest in the natural history of wetlands.

Excellent coverage of a timely topic
I have an interest in wetlands science and this book gives an excellent introductory review of the topic. The drawings are excellent; but I wish that there were more color plates of the flora and fauna; this, of course, would have raised the cost of the book. The bibliography at the end of the chapters are helpful if you need more information. The controversial area of hydric soils is also covered very well.

Overall a very good first book. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Very interesting ideas!
In this book Sheldrake proposes that nature and its evolution has purpose and meaning beyond mere random mutations, natural selection, and survival. He contemplates on a deep sense of consciousness beyond what we are familiar with in traditional science, a type of consciousness that exists in all matter. I believe the author is onto something very interesting and worth exploring in the future. Toru Sato in his revolutionary book, "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" discusses this possibility from a very different perspective as well. This is perhaps the future direction of science. These books are well worth a read if you are interested in cutting edge theories on consciousness.

Mystical new theories on the Earth, Science and Nature
In his book, The Rebirth of Nature: The Greening of Science and God, Rupert Sheldrake proposes some ideas about nature, the planet earth and the universe which at first look, sound interesting, but upon closer examination may seem somewhat far fetched. Many of his ideas are rooted in spiritual concepts, yet he also discusses science, its characteristics and its history. Sheldrake attempts to link scientific concepts to his ideas, while at the same time showing disdain for the scientific way of thinking, which he terms "close minded." His ideas of "morphic fields" and "formative causation" are presented without convincing evidence. At best he offers anecdotes to support his claims, which include: the idea that animals can communicate telepathically across time and space, and that crystals influence each other through "morphic resonance." Reasonable people who have some knowledge of science will likely see there are less magical explanations for the phenomenon he discusses. At the same time Sheldrake scolds the reader as "mystery intolerant" if unwilling to accept the author's assertions. Sheldrake has purposely tried to blend science, which works through well thought out experiments to lead to the development of theories, and mysticism, which allows for leaps of faith to reach beliefs. Some may find this combination refreshing, while others might view the juxtaposition of these two methods of understanding, as intrinsically incompatible. Sheldrake's end goal seems to be to convince the reader of the great value of planet earth, and the importance of living in harmony with our environment. Indeed, this concept is crucial to the future of humanity and all life. Yet many will not need Sheldrake's extraordinary theories to lead to the recognition of this great truth.

Heuristic value in the theory of morphics fields as memory
As a neuropsychologist I found this book challenging. The theory of memory as morphic fields begins to explain phenomena such as the "100 monkeys rule" and the description of thought as a non-local event. Strongly recommend this book to any inquisitive mind. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A Gem
This account of efforts to understand and deal with threatened exotic-caused extinctions on Guam is a gem. The paper back's blurbs focus on Jaffe's "ecological detective thriller." But it's the seamlessness of the book's widely-informed joined elements -- including biographical and political sketches of great pith, accessible population biology, and How Modern Science Works to try to save avian species -- that's most compelling. This deftness in weaving many individually fascinating threads recalled for me Neal Ascherson's astonishing "Black Sea."

The paperback's Index lists only passing references to DDT -- on pages 26, 27 and 72. Because the bad guy is not a chemical, not one of our products. No, he's one of us. And after the paucity and untimeliness of the legislative response to the Guamanian situation had sunk into my consciousness, it was ironic that in the end, an air force base on the island established the 50-acre "environmental reclamation experiment" Jaffe hopes could begin to turn it all around. Like the ending of William Golding's little masterpiece, with the navy warship rescuing the tribe of island-stranded boys from themselves.

silence of the birds
My God! You won't find any birds singing in this masterpiece! Rachel Carson has nothing on this guy! The DDT chapter broke my heart!!! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Practical introduction of important topic
This book offers practical advise for the ecologist or biological data manager.Although some of the principles of data management in this book should be review for those in the field, this book brings together this advise in one place.Most useful to me were the sections on data archiving and metadata, which go hand in hand. Throughout the book are references to data standards, and examples (such as online web sites) of implementing the principles. I would have appreciated more mention of XML, which has the potential to promote data exchange.I would have enjoyed more discussion of warehousing and mining, but you have to have the basic data management first!I would whole heartedly agree with the basic premise of the book of the need for treating data as a resource and the need for stewardship to increase understanding, data value, and understand long term problems. ... Read more

Book Description

Though biogeography may be simply defined--the study of the geographic distributions of organisms--the subject itself is extraordinarily complex, involving a range of scientific disciplines and a bewildering diversity of approaches. For convenience, biogeographers have recognized two research traditions: ecological biogeography and historical biogeography.

This book makes sense of the profound revolution that historical biogeography has undergone in the last two decades, and of the resulting confusion over its foundations, basic concepts, methods, and relationships to other disciplines of comparative biology. Using case studies, the authors explain and illustrate the fundamentals and the most frequently used methods of this discipline. They show the reader how to tell when a historical biogeographic approach is called for, how to decide what kind of data to collect, how to choose the best method for the problem at hand, how to perform the necessary calculations, how to choose and apply a computer program, and how to interpret results. ... Read more

Book Description

Design options and planning procedures must be critically examined to ensure that landscapes are created with sensitivity to water quality and management issues as well as overall ecological integrity. Handbook of Water Sensitive Planning and Design presents the history of water as a design and planning element in landscape architecture and describes new interpretations of water management. This text pushes the frontiers of standard water management in new directions, challenging readers into abandoning the comfortable safety of conducting business-as-usual within narrow disciplinary confines, and instead directing views outward to the exciting and incompletely mapped regions of true interdisciplinary water sensitive planning and design. With contributions from renowned practitioners, Part I provides seventeen chapters addressing the subject of site-specific water sensitive design and Part II presents another seventeen chapters focusing on issues relating to the water sensitive planning of riparian buffers and watersheds. In addition, Professor France has provided a "Response" to accompany each chapter, which succinctly underscores the salient features in more detail and emphasizes cross-linking to other chapters in the book. The "Overview" provides a brief road-map to navigate through the section. Finally, the discussion summaries at the end of each section elaborate on past problems, current challenges, and future directions. Handbook of Water Sensitive Planning and Design puts forward the very best of modern water sensitive planning and design and should be required reading for everyone involved in this dynamic and crucial field. ... Read more

Book Description

Designed for juniors and seniors, this one-semester laboratory manual is based on mathematical statistics. This new edition provides a wide range of topics for investigation. Author George Cox begins with exercises covering library research, designing an ecological study, and other introductory concepts. He then proceeds to an examination of specific types of measurement and an analysis of various aspects of ecology. Many of these laboratories are tied to current, commercially-available computer programs and software packages. ... Read more

Book Description

While some plants are valued and selected for their beauty, others are reviled for their apparent lack of these traits. Weeds are recognized worldwide as undesirable economic pests; however, the value of any plant is unquestionably determined by the perception of the viewer. This book looks at weeds from an ecological viewpoint, emphasizing the way in which one species interacts with others. ... Read more

Book Description

This introductory ecology lab manual focuses on the process of collecting, recording and analyzing data, and equips students with the tools they need to function in more advanced science courses. It reflects the most current techniques for data gathering so that students can obtain the most accurate samples. Balanced coverage of plant, animal and physical elements offers a diverse range of exercises. Includes exercise on writing research reports. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An excellent ecological field book
This guide has many techniques ideal for sampling many (and possibly any) habitat type. The guide includes field sheets for easy data entry, equations to obtain key ecological standards, plus a detailed description of the many techniques with cited references. Simply a handy tool and a "must have" when working in a field of so many different sampling techniques for different habitats. ... Read more

Book Description

Algal Culturing Techniques is a comprehensive reference on all aspects of the isolation and cultivation of marine and freshwater algae, including seaweeds. It is divided into seven parts that cover history, media preparation, isolation and purification techniques, mass culturing techniques, cell counting and growth measurement techniques, and reviews on topics and applications of algal culture techniques for environmental investigations.

Algal Culturing Techniques was developed to serve as both a new textbook and key reference for phycologists and others studying aquatic systems, aquaculture and environmental sciences. Students of algal ecology, marine botany, marine phycology, and microbial ecology will enjoy the hands-on methodology for culturing a variety of algae from fresh and marine waters.Researchers in industry, such as aquaculture, pharmaceutical, foodstuffs, and biotechnology companies will find an authoritative and comprehensive reference.

* Sponsored by the Phycological Society of America
* Features color photographs and illustrations throughout
* Describes culturing methods ranging from the test tube to outdoor ponds and coastal seaweed farms
* Details isolation techniques ranging from traditional micropipette to automated flow cytometeric methods
* Includes purification, growth, maintenance, and cryopreservation techniques
* Highlights methods for estimating algal populations, growth rates, isolating and measuring algal pigments, and detecting and culturing algal viruses
* Features a comprehensive appendix of nearly 50 algal culture medium recipes
* Includes a glossary of phycological terms ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Artistically stunning! Biologically Accurate!
I find that this book is excellent for providing accurate background information on the animals and plants as well as portraying each species with characteristic body language. This is by far my favorite photography book as a piece of art as well as a biological reference tool.

Amazing, beautiful photos.
Amazing, beautiful photos of some of North Americas rarest species. A "must have" coffee-table book! ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Adam Werbach is the youngest and most visible general in the battle for America's environment. His youthful energy and boundless enthusiasm have mobilized the slumbering Sierra Club, fired the imaginations of the media and fueled a grassroots environmental movement among Gen Xers that most people would have thought impossible.

He began his activist career 15 years ago, when he organized a petition drive at school that called for the dismissal of then Secretary of the Interior James Watt. He was only eight years old. At 13, he founded the Sierra Student Coalition, a student-run adjunct to the Sierra Club that now boasts 30,000 members. Today, he is the youngest president the Sierra Club has ever had.

Act First, Apologize Later  shares Werbach's thoughts on a wide array of subjects in such chapters as Ferns and Cougars: Why We Need Nature; The California Desert Protection Act: The Anatomy of a Victory; Eco-Thugs: Profiles of Members of Congress Who Are in the Pockets of Polluters; and Solutions: Beyond "Band-Aid" Environmentalism. Written with the passion and zeal that has already inspired hundreds of thousands of people, it is an important call to arms in a war America must not lose. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Enjoyable Anecdotes, a Philosophical Welter-weight, but FUN!
This book is a light read. It's chock full of inspiring stories illustrating how environmental action can succeed. It's weak on establishing either a philosophy or political theory for environmental action, and has little concrete advice for organizing. The writing style flows nicely and is not difficult. This would be a great book for a Jr. High/High School level environmental club to read and discuss.

Although not systematically organized, most of his stories illustrate useful strategies for environmental action, such as:

"We only need to provide people with the facts that enable them to make up their own minds and empower them to act on their decisions. We need to be savvy, but we don't need to employ scare tactics and misleading information to communicate our message." (p. 218)

He provides a number of examples of corporate greed gone haywire, such as the Pacific Lumber story (p. 118), the cost of timber roads in our National Forests (p. 208), and the impact of Wallmart (p. 247+).

His stories are entertaining and informative, even at his own expense. It's a great book to read between something by Ruether and something by Bookchin--a light break between heavies.

(If you'd like to discuss this book or review in more depth, please click on the "about me" link above & drop me an email. Thanks!)

Pass Now, Wonder Later
Man, this book could have been so much better. Adam Werbach is certainly a noteworthy member of the younger generation (of the 90's), around the same age as me. I'm also a member of Sierra Club. Therefore I've always been impressed by this guy, who at a very young age, was able to become president of an established organization with hundreds of thousands of members. Werbach has great innovative insights into environmental philosophy and activism that are true improvements over the old antiquated notions. He's surely a unique thinker with many great ideas. But sadly, he is not a writer by any stretch of the imagination.

All of Werbach's good ideas and efforts are quickly used up early in this book. What remains is an unfocused, scatterbrained hodgepodge of disconnected ideas and points that are not explored. While claiming to write an activist's manual, Werbach merely delivers a list of environmental complaints and "inspirational" stories about local activists, with no surrounding context or big-picture conclusions. He makes up for it with a lot of sarcastic finger-pointing and attention-grubbing polemics. Werbach overloads clichés like "we were building a bridge to the future" and adds several short stories that are just squishy kiddie parables, possibly written when he was in grade school. Most laughable is a sketch of a man called Bootsy in the land of Phunk who wanted to be the sun. (The esteemed Mr. Collins deserves an apology.)

There are factual errors galore, like 1990 as the date of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. In Section 3 Werbach decides to organize all the environmentalists of the world into five categories, all with derogatory names - Druids, Polar-Fleecers, Apocalyptics, Eco-Opportunists, and Eco-Entrepreneurs - then weakly encourages all to work together. Werbach's takes on politics and economics are superficial at best. He comes close to major insights in his section on environmentalism and religion, but falls into triviality again. Pass on this book's sad case of arrested development, and wonder what could've been.

Inspiration is Step One: Adam's Book is Superb
Readers looking for a "how-to" of activism need to check out THE FUTURE IS OURS (John W. Bartlett, Ed.), to which Adam contributed a chapter, instead of harping on Adam's book for not providing one. ACT FIRST, APOLOGIZE LATER offers young readers what they need before seeking out the "how-to" -- inspirational success stories, a window into the grueling fun of Adam's own experiences as an activist, and some foundational principles for activism and life -- in an accessible and conversational tone. Simply put, Adam's book gives readers a sense of possibility for themselves and the world. Because it does that, it is invaluable.

If I could give this book zero stars, I would.
Besides lacking substance, the book was poorly written. Apparently the author feels that in order to reach young people, he has to write like one. Someone with an Ivy League education should write at a level higher than that of a high school student. He also writes about people who save the world while he himself does nothing. It seems that people do it for him and he takes credit for by writing a book or by signing checks (as Sierra Club president). The book should be titled: "While I sit back watching...".

Act Now, Think Never
Here is a book that, while explicitly asking readers to think for themselves, implicitly tells them not to think at all, but simply to act.
This review will not complain about Mr Werbach's failing to provide a blueprint for action (as the other one-star reviews do), but will demonstrate the true nature of his musings. Incidentally, the man has no intention of apologizing for anything, as his title suggests...
Since every page of this book is replete with the shallow observations of a man who absolutely refuses to think, I hardly know where to begin. He confesses his profound ignorance of the world on the very first page of the introduction. "Oscar the Grouch, a smelly green whiner who lives in a garbage can has been the star of sesame street for years. Yogi Bear, the smiling optimist who believes there's a picnic basket around every corner, was cancelled. It's not cool to be positive."
Mr Werbach, Yogi Bear started in 1958 (long before Oscar was conceived) and went on to outlive the man who was his voice (Haws Butler). It was not CANCELLED as you were so keen to put it; Hanna Barbera retired him in 1988, and the Cartoon Network still runs him daily. The only reason Oscar has a job can be summed up in 6 words: The National Endowment for the Arts. Lets see how long he would last if Sesame Street had to live by the same rules as Hanna Barbera. It is cool to be positive. It's even cooler to be commercially cool. Yogi paid his own way.
Page 25 reveals the nature of Mr Werbach's epistemology through his recount of boyish mischief:
"Kevin believed experiences were the most effective way to offer lessons. He once convinced a student to touch his nose to an electric fence to see if it would sting. It did. Kevin had told the student, 'It's an electric fence, but if you touch it with your nose, you won't get shocked.' The boy hesitated, his common sense telling him the teacher couldn't be right. He protested, 'The fence is gonna shock me no matter what part of my body touches it.' Testing the mettle of the student, Kevin repeated, "You can touch an electric fence with your nose and you won't be shocked.' The student cautiously touched his nose to the fence and was rewarded with a shock. It sounds deviant, but Kevin wanted the student to use his mind, not blindly follow the words of someone claiming to know the answers."
Now. The only thing more deviant than tricking a child into hurting himself is telling him afterward that he was using his own mind in doing so and not blindly following someones words. I seriously doubt that, if Mr Werbach were sitting on a jury that was to judge a woman who had talked her school-aged son into putting his hand on a red-hot burner as a method of discovering the truth for himself, would vote her innocent of child abuse. The circumstances are different only in degree. The message is the same.
I'll bet Mr Werbach blindly follows the global warming theorists without having done the first bit of empirical research on his own. I guess he's afraid of being shocked. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

This exceptionally comprehensive, single-source introduction to the art, science, theories, practices, and issues of wildlife management is ideal for the novice in the subject. Features full-chapters on predators, urban wildlife, policy, water, soil, diseases, conservation biology. New, up-to-date issues covered include the removal of dams, global warming, emerging diseases among elk and deer, adaptive harvest management, animal rights groups, women hunters, population data, migratory animals and more. For anyone interested in an exceptionally comprehensive introduction to wildlife management and conservation. ... Read more

Book Description

This book examines the application of fish community characteristics to evaluate the sustainability and biological integrity of freshwaters. Topics include perspectives on use of fish communities as environmental indicators in program development, collaboration, and partnership forming; influence of specific taxa on assessment of the IBI; regional applications for areas where the IBI had not previously been developed; and specific applications of the IBI developed for coldwater streams, inland lakes, Great Lakes, reservoirs, and tailwaters. ... Read more

Book Description

The Conserving Earth's Biodiversity CD-ROM is an entirely new way to study and teach conservation biology and environmental science. Created from the ground up to make the most of today's multimedia technology, it provides a rich learning experience and a wealth of valuable information and materials - including interactive models that allow learners to study dynamic systems, detailed maps, and links to resources on the World Wide Web - that build upon and enhance traditional approaches to the subject.

Conserving Earth's Biodiversity is a pioneering educational tool based on the teachings and writings of renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson, and created and developed by science educator Dan Perlman.

The program's insightful pedagogy combined with a unique use of multimedia makes it an ideal complement to any standard textbook.

Edward O. Wilson is University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. Arguably the most important evolutionary biologist of his time, he has made seminal contributions to the study of evolution and ecology, created the field of sociobiology, and was one of the earliest voices to speak out about biodiversity loss. Among his books are Sociobiology (Harvard, 1975), The Diversity of Life (Harvard, 1992), and Consilience (Knopf, 1998). Books published by Island Press are Naturalist (1994) and In Search of Nature (1996).

Dan L. Perlman has taught conservation biology at Harvard University for nine years, in addition to teaching all ages from pre-school to post-graduate education for college professors and professionals. He has designed curricula, co-authored with Glenn Adelson the textbook Biodiversity: Exploring Values and Priorities in Conservation (Blackwell, 1997), and is a nature photographer and former systems analyst. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great CD!
If you ever wondered what biodiversity is, and why people seem to be so worried about it, this CD is for you. E.O. Wilson, a brilliant biologist from Harvard is your guide through this extraordinary CD. This organization of the material is well thought out with interesting links, a glossary to explain terms, an index, and fascinating ways to compare maps of all sorts of things to get new insights about our world. ... Read more