Book Description

The selection of air pollution control apparatus can be a daunting task even for experienced pollution control professionals. The Air Pollution Control Equipment Selection Guide eases the burden by providing extensive information on the best equipment available for any air pollution control problem. Instead of endorsing one technology over another, the author provides general information so that you can decide on the proper technology to use for any given application.The book offers ample introductory information including a helpful "Air Pollution 101" chapter that reviews the basics of air pollution control. The text is divided into sections that are organized by the primary technology employed, i.e., Quenching, Cooling, Particulate Removal, Gas Absorption, etc. This structure enables you to jump from section to section and quickly compare technologies. Each section defines the type of gas cleaning device, the basic physical forces used in it, its common sizes, and its most common uses.Many air pollution control problems are not solved with one type of device, but through using a variety of designs synergistically. To make this task easier, the author includes sections on each of these devices and notes where they are commonly used in concert with other equipment. Wherever possible, the text includes current photographs or drawings of typical equipment within that device type. Written in an easy to read style, Air Pollution Control Equipment Selection Guide serves as a technologically accurate reference that will facilitate the selection of air pollution control equipment for any operation. ... Read more

Amazon.com

While governments debate and scientists test ever-more complicated hypotheses, ordinary people all over the world are starting to notice the effects of global warming. In High Tide, British journalist Mark Lynas visits global hot spots to record people's reactions and sound a clarion call for action. Readers looking for a "we are the world" approach to climate change may be taken aback by Lynas' flat expression of the uncomfortable truth: "Every time America votes, the world holds its breath.... Climate change begins and ends in America." Lynas damns the George W. Bush administration for undermining global efforts such as the Kyoto Protocol as well as actively preventing innovation within the United States that would reduce auto and industrial emissions. But High Tide isn't the firs or the best book to do that; instead, its narrative strength is in the riveting stories of how small towns, islands, riverside cities, and rural areas are being slowly destroyed. Gardeners in England will be unable to grow heritage plant species within the next 75 years. The Alaskan permafrost is melting, as temperatures there increase "ten times faster than in the rest of the world." An entire Pacific Island nation--Tuvalu--will soon disappear beneath the rising sea, leaving its people homeless. Lynas visits Alaska, Tuvalu, Peru, China, and the east coast of the United States, documenting the lives, places, and cultures that will be lost in the decades to come. Thankfully, just when hopelessness threatens to overwhelm the reader, High Tide offers a five-step plan to mitigate the most catastrophic effects of global climate change. Every step in the plan involves action by United States citizens and their elected representatives, offering American activists and visionaries a chance to do penance for wrecking parts of the world far from our own driveways. --Therese Littleton ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Withdrawal symptoms
Although many studies of climate change and its impact have been published, few count the human cost. Mark Lynas makes up for that oversight in this vividly presented account. As a journalist, he's unconstrained by the limitations of long-term data sets, political reaction to his personal findings or peer group pressure. He travels the globe, even to the point of last minute flight bookings, to observe conditions. His approach is to confront people and ask about their experiences with changing weather over the years. The method is direct, straightforward and revealing. What it demonstrates is more than startling, it's devastating.

While the scientists debate the temperature rise rate or the intensity of this or that storm, around the planet people are living through the conditions of warming climate. Tuvalu residents, on their miniscule island chain in mid-Pacific, are watching the land wash away. It isn't just that melting ice caps are raising sea levels and ruining crops. There are more frequent and more devastating storms occuring. In China, land is also moving, but the reason is the opposite - the rains have ceased and the land is dried and blowing away in fierce desert winds. The account of a lone woman, the last survivor of a village overwhelmed by drought, is more poignant [to me] than anything found in fiction. And the number of such stories is growing.

If a most gripping part of this book must be chosen, it is Lynas' tour of Peru and the Cordillera Blanca glaciers. His father, a geologist, had visited the area three decades before, camera in hand. Huge glaciers, akin to frozen waterfalls, fill the images. With those photos in his knapsack, Lynas trudges up the slopes, racked by Alititude Sickness, to record any changes. His expression at the sight cannot be repeated here, a signal of his shock - and ours at his comparative photographs. The glaciers are gone! Lynas takes us through a litany of rivers of ice that are withdrawing from long established limits. The withdrawal has a dual results - not enough snow is feeding their growth, and the meltwater is no longer available to nourish human populations. He asks: what will the citizens of Lima do when there is no more water to drink? Lynas avoids prediction of furture El Ninos' impact on these conditions. He's hardly blameable for that. Some observations on North America's depletion of the Ogalalla Aquifer, only partly attributable to overuse of fossil fuels, however, would have been useful.

It is fossil fuel consumption that stands charged, indeed declared guilty by Lynas, as the culprit in these events. The tumultuous clouds of auto exhausts are the major source of gases rising into our atmosphere, choking off proper heat exchange mechanisms. The contributions of the oil industry to politicians short circuits any political action to curb these emmissions. Hence, Tuvalu is being swept away, China is choking with dust and Lima, Peru will soon be seeking homes for its million citizens. But the United States, the world's greatest and most persistent polluter, decrys or subverts all efforts to quell the output of their millions of vehicles, while assiduously searching for more to burn.

Lynas is unequivical in his denunciations. At the same time, he invokes response from his readers to take action. Pollution increases can be curbed, he argues in his conclusion. It is you who must take the first steps. America, he stresses, must follow the lead of the European Union. Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol is the first step - a committment to stop, then reduce emissions. "Contraction and convergence" policies must be implemented as a means of reducing emissions with a minimal impact on economies. The quest for new supplies of fossil fuels must cease and the funds used to promote alternative energy sources. Individual actions, amazingly easy small steps, must be taken and imparting to others the need follow your example spreads the message. "Don't be scared to speak out!", he warns. Who should read his warning message? Anyone who breathes - and wishes to continue breathing. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

This book is scaring me!
I have to disagree with the other review posted for this book -- High Tide is not a scientific look at global warming but a journalistic coverage of what global warming is doing to our planet. I personally remember visiting Maine in 2001 and being told that the ocean no longer freezes in the same way it once did. Living in Los Angeles (where we've had virtually no winter for the last three years) and watching the weather channel's reports on the Midwest (where my sister lives, and where there seems to be much more severe weather than ever before), how can we doubt the severity of the problem? High Tide is an important read -- it will open your mind to global consequences and start conversations that need to be held. Highly recommended.

Read it as an example of how science should not be studied
Unfortunately the arguments are supported by invented facts.
The book uses isolated incidents as "proof" and ignores the facts about what is really occuring on our globe.
A point being that overall "globally" glaciers are growing but the book only focuses on individual examples of melting glaciers.
This is not science. ... Read more

Book Description

This full-color, introductory environmental science text is known for being concise, conceptual and value-priced. The approach and reading level cover the basic concepts without overloading students with too much detail. The central theme throughout the text is interrelatedness. The authors identify major issues and give appropriate examples that illustrate the complex interactions that are characteristic of all environmental problems. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Environmental Science
I have used this book in my Environmental Biology classes at Stanly Community College. It is well written, but at a reading level not beyond that of most high school graduates. It covers basic knowledge and current environmental problems. I really enjoy the Global Perspective sections. I highly recommend this book as a beginning environmental science book. ... Read more

Book Description

Updated and Expanded Edition

Winner of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order 1992, Named New Options Best Political Book


Economist Herman Daly and theologian John Cobb, Jr., demonstrate how conventional economics and a growth-oriented industrial economy have led us to the brink of environmental disaster, and show the possibility of a different future. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Ethical, Humanitarian, Communitarian, Sustainable

Dr. Herman E. Daly may well be a future Nobel Prize winner ...he is especially well-regarded in Norway and Sweden, where he has received prizes one step short of the Nobel. He is the author, co-author, or primary contributing editor of many books that fully integrate the disciplines of economics and ecology. I bought the three most recent for the purpose of selecting one to give out at my annual Global Information Forum. I ended up choosing this book to give away to hundreds, in part because it is available in paperback and is not a more expensive "trade" publication; and in part because it is strong in laying out specific ecological policy areas in the context of a strong theological or ethical perspective.

Of the three books I reviewed, (the newest "Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications", the oldest, updated, "Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics") the first, the text-book, is assuredly the most up-to-date and the most detailed. If you are buying only one book for yourself, that is the one that I recommend, because these are important issues and a detailed understanding is required with the level of detail that this book provided. It should, ideally, be read with "Valuing the Earth" first (see my separate review of that book, from the 1970's updated with 1990's material and new contributions), then this book ("For the Common Good"), and finally the text book as a capstone. But if you buy only one, buy the text book.

This is a second-edition work, updated from the 1984 first edition. I like it very much in part because it comes across as less academic and more common-sense in nature. Part One does a lovely job of tearing apart the fallacy of misplaced concreteness with respect to economics, the market, measuring economic success, the reduction of the human to a "good" that can be traded without regard to humanity and ethics and community, and land. Part Two gently introduces the reader to the many distinguished thought-leaders and practitioners who have gradually matured the discipline of economics to embrace humanity, community, and sustainability as non-negotiable realities that cannot be ignored.

Part Three, a major factor in my choosing this book over the others for broad pro-bono distribution, addresses the specifics of policies one element at a time: free trade versus community; population; land use; agriculture; industry; labor; income policies and taxes; from world domination to national security as an objective. Finally, Part Four, without being corny or preachy, describes the religious or ethical vision (I still think the Golden Rule works as a one-sentence definition of common interest).

An afterword on debt in relation to money and wealth is particularly timely as the American public foolishly allows the White House carpetbaggers to run up a $7 trillion deficit that our great-grandchilden will never be able to pay off if we continue is these evil and irresponsible directions, all in sharp opposition to the sensible and ethical constructs in this book.

Of the three books, none of which really duplicate one another in any negative way, albeit with overlaps, this is the second that I recommend for purchase, after the textbook.

Great ideas, will they work?
The opening criticisms of how economics is taught in today's university structure along with the inappropriate credence given this largely theoretical topic's conclusions are well-presented and well-received. Similarly, the general theme of the recommendations is presented very nicely. Basically, we must focus on more local goods, more self-sufficiency in communities. The authors take the time and care to address such technicalities as what exactly they mean by communities. In general their care is a strength of the book, though perhaps more of the details could have been put in appendices or footnotes rather than disturbing the flow of the text. My main complaint is that no EXAMPLES are given--real-life attempts, either successful or failed, at some of their recommendations. Without examples, all their suggestions seem unsubstantiated. A lengthy but decent read, with a nice underlying philosophy.

Humane and incisive
Because of the large number of issues and sometimes conflicting solutions proposed, this is a difficult book to classify. Key, however, is the authors' profound refusal to subordinate the common good of the community to the god of the free market. This does not mean the elimination of markets where they have proven effective and non-destructive. It does mean keeping their operation within strict limits, so that people can regain a sense of community and a sustainable environment. Much of the book is taken up with showing the limits of market theory and practice, and in that sense should be studied by all with an interest in America's secular religion. Proposed solutions are decidedly non-ideological and largely eclectic. Both the left and the right should find points of agreement. All in all, this is an invaluable guide to many of the planet's most pressing problems and should be required reading for college undergraduates.

Thought-Provoking in Every Way
To dismiss this book as leftist ranting or environmental hysteria is simply wrong -- and I would bet that the reviewers offering these opinions did not read the whole book. This book offers a stunning combination of ecological economics and philospohical critique. It is this dual focus that helps it avoid the dryness of most economics books and the abstractness of most environmental treatises. At bottom, Daly and Cobb are pushing for more human and manageable SCALE: meaningful work in more localized economies. Only by creating these smaller units, where entire processes can be grasped and influenced, can people change the way they think and live. The book crescendos with a discussion of the human prospect itself -- whether or not our species is on an inherently self-destructive trajectory, thanks to our very powers of ingenuity and adaptabilty. This is a book that should produce a profound change in the reader; but only if it is read slowly, carefully, and thoughtfully.

Excellent critique Global-Capitalism -- good/bad solutions.
Agrarian Localist that I am, with roots in the cultural and political Right -- Daly was refreshing and often challenging from the 'New and Improved Left. He brilliantly and repeatedly shows the 'fallacy of misplaced concreteness'-- that is the dubious use of logical abstractions which supposedly lead to good conclusions. NOT! In logic, it is similar to 'the undistributed middle'-- or in laymen's terms -- there is yet far too much we simply don't know to conclude 'this'. Those pegging him a traditional UN Internationalists look like blind Libertarians who are simply dead wrong, and didn't read carefully. Daly is a modest Decentralists/Federalists' in calling for a 'return to the Local'. His call is for a federalism with far more attention to Local and Regional markets and development than we've had in this country since Lincoln. Yet Daly still uncomfortablly allows for some heiarchialism at national and international levels. Suprisingly, he uncritically buys all the status-quo environmental hysteria as 'Fact', indeed 'wild facts' he calls them. Thus, you have a mixd book -- full of brilliant and insightful critique -- and sullied by a good bit of carried-over authoritarian leftism. David E. Rockett ... Read more

Book Description

Quantitative Solutions in Hydrogeology and Groundwater Modeling addresses and solves a variety of questions and problems from hydrogeological practice. It includes major aspects of quantitative groundwater evaluation, from basic laboratory determination of hydrogeological parameters to complex analytical calculations and modeling for engineering purposes. No other book offers the carefully selected examples and clear, elegantly explained solutions, and no other book presents topics in logical order from simple to complex. Unlike other texts on the subject, which offer idealized, simplified examples, this book offers detailed coverage of situations that occur in real life. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent Book
The author has made a great effort of presenting the subject matter in an easy to understand and read format.The text covers basic laboratory determination of hydrogeological paratmers to complex calculations and modeling.This book is great because there have been times when I have been working on a problem (effective poristy, density and saturation) and have been able to find an example of it in this book.The text covers one dimensional steady state flow, transient flow, flow nets etc.. Cooper Jacob method, drawdown, well efficiency and numeric groundwater flow modeling.I highly recommend this book.Full of alot of great information and examples/problem sets. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

A Fine Guide To Earth/Universe Connectivity
Thomas Berry has put together in this one book what a thousand other writers have attempted and that is: a complete format for human perception of reality that should and can pervade through all our earthly activities, esp. religion, politics and economy. Let Earth and it's biolgical processes teach and guide us to a rational, sustainable, regenerative, healthy existence.

There are many potent passages all through this work and I picked out one that I felt was inclusive of the gist of the book.

..."This universe itself, but especially the planet Earth, needs to be experienced as the primary healer, primary commercial establishment, and primary lawgiver for all that exists within this life community. The basic spirituality communicated by the natural world can also be considered as normative for the future ecological age."- Page 120

This is an excellent treatise on reverence for the creative life forces that sustain us and treat us daily to a plithora of interactive life processes and our need to acknowledge this gift by treating it with the awe and respect it deserves.

A Global Story, A Saving Story
In one of his Dialogues, Plato says that the most serious difficulty one faces when attempting to philosophize is in "finding a suitable story for what one wants to say." But it's a difficulty worth facing at this time in history because a suitable story may serve to energize and advance current efforts to develop a globally responsible spirituality.

Everywhere we hear from perceptive folk that our conventional story has grown dangerously obsolete, and only by reimagining the world and our place in it can we advance beyond the dysfunctional limits of the old story.

The "dream of the earth" so beautifully described in this work by "geologian" Thomas Berry just may be the "big enough story" needed now to creatively navigate the global transition from a way of destruction to a way of sustainable wisdom rooted in a respect for the earth as respect for our very own bodies

New Age Religion in the Guise of Christianity
Don't be misled. Because Thomas Berry is promoted as a Catholic priest, many people are falsely led to believe that his books present Catholic or Christian teaching about the environment. Instead, this book presents a New Age blend of do-it-yourself religion mixed with pseudo-science. If you're into that, you'll probably like this book...

Should be required reading for college first-years
"Dream of the Earth" should be considered a definitive work of 20th century, but, sadly, it has been overlooked by most of the populace. So powerfully written and earnest in some places that I was actually moved to tears, this book serves as a final plea and loose guide on how to save the planet - and with it, ourselves. In a broader sense, the book serves as a history of the human condition, how we came to be in the fix we are in today, and what massive, cultural changes need to take place in order to retain the last scraps of our mythic, extraordinary being.

Most see the coming ecological cataclysm (the next 50 years) as impossible to avoid or as nonsense. It is neither of those things. If this book doesn't drive you to change your lifestyle, nothing will.

This book may change the way you look at the earth.
A friend recently recommended this book. In this deep-ecology classic, Berry examines man's relationship with the earth. He explores our mistaken beliefs that we are separate from the planet, and that it exists solely for human destruction, pollution, exploitation and profit. He encourages us to take responsibility. This book forever changed the way I will look at our world. Read it. Then read Wes Nisker's "Buddha's Nature" (1998/2000) to learn, from a buddhist perspective, how to put Berry's "dream" into everyday practice.

... Read more

Book Description

This second edition of the widely acclaimed Geophysical Fluid Dynamics by Joseph Pedlosky offers the reader a high-level, unified treatment of the theory of the dynamics of large-scale motions of the oceans and atmosphere. Revised and updated, it includes expanded discussions of * the fundamentals of geostrophic turbulence * the theory of wave-mean flow interaction * thermocline theory * finite amplitude barocline instability.

From the reviews:

"The author has done a masterful job in presenting the theory with the necessary mathematical foundation, while keeping the physical aspects in clear view...it is an outstanding introduction to a complex and important subject." - GEOPHYSICS ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Intuition First
All the math in the world would be useless in any applied subject without physical intuition about the phenomena and a clear passage between the intuition and the math. Pedlosky's book has it all - intuition and math. I have loved studying it as my first step in the direction of geophysics from a career in pure mathematics. The book is clear, easy to read, interesting, fascinating. Thank you Pedlosky for a magnificent textbook.

GFD Bible
If you trully want to understand geophysical fluid dynamics (ocean/atmosphere) you can not avoid this great book. I strongly suggest it, specially if you are a graduate student going through a GFD course. Years from now you will still go back to Pedlosky to clarify your doubts.

Highly recommended for oceanographers and meteorologists.
Boy, I wish this book had been out when I was in grad school! (Physical oceanography). This is an essential work for the shelf of anyone interested in dynamic meteorology or oceanography. Well organized, thorough, and easy to follow (at least for the intended audience.) ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Good hagiography of a controversial man
This is a good introduction to the theories and life of Viktor Schauberger, an Austrian naturalist and inventor. Born in 1885, Schauberger started life as a forester who tried to understand and copy Nature. From watching mountain streams he developed unorthodox theories based on vortex movement about water and its use. He started out designing highly efficient log flumes that used water in vortex motion and at its densest temperature of 4 degrees Centigrade. He then proposed cleaning up the Rhine River by rebuilding the natural curves which stimulate vortex motion in the water. He said that this vortex motion in the Earth caused spring water to be more alive than plain water. He believed that plants grew better in this living water and developed laboratory sized egg-shaped water energizers to activate water.

He also developed theories about the harmfulness of iron and steel tools in agriculture and proposed replacing them with copper ones. He designed an egg-shaped composter that was supposed to develop Noble compost which would be much more beneficial in gardens.

Around the Second World War his theories and experiments take a much different direction and he starts talking about Implosion energy as opposed to combustion explosion energy. He starts developing machines that generate more energy than they use and that run on water and air. Out of this research he claims to have developed a domestic power station that generates large outputs of energy from slight streams of running water. Even more fantastic is a flying saucer that used a 1/20 horsepower electric motor as a starter and then ran on the surrounding flow of air. The research on these inventions was destroyed at the end of the war. Schauberger and his son Walter never seem to have been able to find the resources to develop working models again.

Today his theories on vortex motion of water are taught at the Anthroposophical Emerson College in England. His copper farming tools are sold from the school his son Walter started, the Pythagoras Kepler Schule in Austria. His water, forestry, and farming theories have been accepted by Biodynamic Farming communities and may be helpful to organic farmers today.

There are two appendices at the end of the book by New Age science experts on the underlying theories of vortex energy. I find these actually detract from the book rather than help it. A Bibliography also is less than useful. Most of the sources are to obscure journals or original Austrian publications. These types of resources are less than helpful in such an introductory text.

Perfect Start for anyone interested in Learning about Water
I agree that this book is only a brief introduction into the thoughts of Schauberger but hopefully many people are inspired by this book to move forward into the area of water research in an effort to uncover many more truths about what really makes water healthy.

Unfortunately there is so much...on the market, evolving around new-age water products, which in-no-way copy Mother Nature as Viktor had stressed. All these people need to purchase this book in order to obtain some form of initial clarity if they are going to be involved in water research or water products of any kind. Living-water; revitalized-water; restructured water; clustered & micro-clustered-water; alkaline water; Pi-water; crystal-water; snowflake-water; cupcake-water; energized-water; polarized-water; magnetized-water; and all the many others that are on the market have obviously never read any of Viktor's work or at least understood it. Let us all use Viktor's work as a basis to change the planet and make this world a better place to live.

An Excellent Appetizer, Please Pass the Main Course
This is an excellent, brief introduction to the thought of Viktor Schauberger, and I hope it inspires works which are more complete. Callum Coates' books reach in this direction, but what is really needed are more people to read these books, synthesize their information, and come up with new and original books which take us further into depth in these areas. This will probably involve synthesizing the work of Schauberger, Grander, Bienveniste, and others.

An understanding of Schauberger is very important for those attempting to reconstruct an Indigenous European Perspective. Schauberger has the elements of a modern water shaman, and his shamanic / intuitive techniques of letting his body float with the water should be closely correlated with what Hans Peter Duerr has to say about "out of body" experience in his tome "Dreamtime". Although Schauberger lived in the 20th Century, his perspective allows us to imagine back what earlier indigenous practitioners may have been like. The Colonial, Imperialist Europe is only one side of the coin of Europe. We must also include the suppressed indigenous, pagan, and green sides. Significantly, the Inquisition represents a watershed in European history where a great deal of the indigenous healers and theorists were wiped out in holocaust proportions. An understanding of Schauberger, coupled with an appreciation of Steiner, Hildegard of Bingen, Hans Peter Duerr, and others, will allow us to reconstruct what a noncolonial, nonimperialist Europe was like.

Understanding water's nature is essential in this regard, for water forms the basis of our understandings of flow. Furthermore, understanding water's energetic qualities will help us understand how it interacts with the body. Traditional Chinese Medicine, for example, would benefit from an accurate and holistic understanding of water's qualities.

In short, this book is an excellent appetizer, but I await the main course ...

Thought provoking intro to little-known qualities of water
Although it occasionally veers into new-age speculation or pseudoscience, this book offers a rare look at truly alternative ideas about water and energy. The description of Schauberger's early work with flumes is enthralling, and the brief exposition of "flow forms" towards the end of the book is valuable. Search "flow forms" in any web search engine to see some of the sites around the world espousing a fascinating technology that unites water pollution control with esthetics.

Great introduction to IMPLOSION and what we missed out !
I have to say - I got very AGGRAVATED by some portions of this book , because it TOTALLY agreed and expanded on my very own frustrations with our retarded "modern" technologies.

I have ALWAYS dreaded NOISE - I haven't done empirical research on this subject, but my gut instinct has led me to run from & truly hate noisy machines. I feel like someone were stabbing me when I am exposed to a Harley Davidson on the road ! The only friends I really have in this matter I think are the ANIMALS - have you ever noticed the DREAD & FEAR with which ANY animal reacts to our machines ( most notably our motors - be they lawnmowers, drilling machines ... ) Even birds totally abhor the NOISE from our aircraft & automobiles .. notice their flight, as from terror, when they are flying over traffic !

Now I see that IMPLOSION is essentially a NOISELESS phenomenon !! And this is the technology that truly supports the LIVING ! My question - FOLKS, WHEN WILL WE RECOGNIZE THAT WE ARE NOT MACHINES ?? AND OUR SPIRITUALITY IS NOT SOME GOD-DEVIL-CRAP but a PHYSICAL manifestation of the higher ????

" They have eyes, but they don't see ..... " ... Read more

Book Description

This book has been written in response to a need for a text to support several of the introductory courses in atmospheric sciences commonly taught in universities; namely, introductory survey courses at the junior or senior undergraduate level and beginning graduate level, the undergraduate physicalmeteorology course, and the undergraduate synoptic laboratory. These courses serve to introduce the student to the fundamental physical principles upon which the atmospheric sciences are based and to provide an elementary description and interpretation of the wide range of atmospheric phenomena dealt with in detail in more advanced courses. In planning the book we have assumed that students enrolled in such courses have already had some exposure to calculus and physics at the first-year college level and to chemistry at the high school level. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent (albeit dated) treatment of atmos. science
(Update--there is a new version of this textbook at some stage of the review process...watch for it soon!)
It's too bad Wallace and Hobbs never got around to revising this edition of the text, written in 1977. Of all the undergraduate textbooks I had, this was by far the best.

W&H cover all the important topics in meteorology and atmospheric science. Each chapter is very well written, easy to understand, and has good graphics and thought-provoking (often difficult!) questions at the end of each chapter. Each chapter ends with a series of mathematical questions--some of which require a good bit of thinking to arrive at the right equation to use; and also a series of "explain or interpret these statements." This is where you find out how much you really know!

Why do I like this book? Each chapter can, to some extent, stand on its own. Even though the material is dated (Chapter 5, on clouds and storms, would need significant additions in a course taught today), fundamental principles were the same then and are explained well. The historical notes about famous scientists also add character to the text.

My suggestion for a new reader: Chapters 1, 2, 8, 3, and 5 in that order. Then add Chapters 9, 4, 6, and 7. This way, you get the fundamental theory and then get to apply all you know to actual weather systems (in 3 and 5). The remaining four are almost like special topics and can be read at any time. If anyone has better suggestions, let me know!

stimulating book
Although not being a specialist in the field (mine is Condensed Matter Physics), I found this book to be quite stimulating and well written. It is suitable for a student who has already some familiarity with Physics and Calculus (including several variables and vector calculus) and , in my opinion, that is just what makes it exciting, because it does not, although being introductory, bores the non-specialist reader with a mass of details or strict qualitative information. I have been responsible for introductory Themodynamics classes for students of Physics and Meteorology for the last four years in my institute, and now I intend to use examples from the book . ... Read more

Book Description

The first anthology of writings on the history, ethics, politics and tactics of the Animal Liberation Front, Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? features both academic and activist perspectives and offers powerful insights into this international organization and its position within the animal rights movement.

Calling on sources as venerable as Thomas Aquinas and as current as the Patriot Act—and, in some cases, personal experience—the contributors explore the history of civil disobedience and sabotage, and examine the philosophical and cultural meanings of words like "terrorism," "democracy" and "freedom," in a book that ultimately challenges the values and assumptions that pervade our culture. Contributors include Robin Webb, Rod Coronado, Ingrid Newkirk, Paul Watson, Karen Davis, Bruce Friedrich and others. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Vegan Warriors....
the essays in this book are an excellent read. Gary Yourofsky's essay is strong and powerful, if any of you are able to catch one of his veganism presentations at a local college campus or university, it is a definite must. I am not just saying this because he is a close friend, I am saying this because he is one of the key speakers and believers in the animal rights movement today. Forget Rod Coronado, Gary is the real deal...

Not Until
Throughout history, "acceptable," "traditional," and "customary" practices have allowed the enslavement of humans, the negation of women's rights, the denial of a people's civil rights, and countless other atrocities. The human animal has given of its blood, sacrificed its freedom, and wreaked destruction against members of its own family in the battle against ignorance, prejudice, and inequality. However, not until The Animal Liberation Front took charge did those who suffer needlessly have someone who would pay the ultimate price in their name. Not until the Animal Liberation Front becomes an accepted voice for the voiceless will the "acceptable," "traditional," and "customary" ever change.

Terrorist or Freedom Fighters? provides a comprehensive, intellectual study of the philosophy and tactics guiding the Animal Liberation Front. Steve Best and Anthony Nocella II provide an in-depth analysis of how direct action is not only essential to the animal rights movement, but also relevant to the history of all social justice movements. The book includes fascinating sections on topics such as history, tactics, media, and terrorism and includes voices from within the movement that are both supportive and critical of the ALF. Terrorist or Freedom Fighters? is a compilation of diverse animal rights voices, an unprecedented collection of ideas whose time has come. It is a book of serious scholarship. This book is sure to change the debate surrounding the ALF, within the animal rights movement and society as a whole, for much of the debate is conducted in ignorance of ALF history and philosophy. This is a must read for ALF fans and critics alike.

Just what is needed
Terrorists or Freedom Fighters is a unique look into the underground Animal Liberation movement. Until now, there has been no resource as vast, in-depth, and insightful as this book.

Terrorists or Freedom Fighters successfully aims to give a legitimate analysis of the Animal Liberation Front. Regardless of whether or not one agrees with the actions of the ALF, it is hard to argue against the need for comprehensive analysis and intellectual dialogue.

Thanks to Dr. Steven Best and Anthony J. Nocella II, Terrorists or Freedom Fighters has helped advance the study of the strategies, tactics, and goals of the Animal Liberation movement. It is a must-read for anyone who wishes to learn about and understand this complex and important movement.

-Erin Ryan Fitzgerald
Syracuse Animal Rights Organization
www.SyracuseAnimalRights.com

an excellent collection on a most important issue
Animals are used in a a wide variety of harmful ways in the US and around the world. Consider some examples of what happens to animals in research laboratories:

* Cats, dogs, non-human primates and other animals are drowned, suffocated, and starved to death.
* They are burned, subjected to radiation, and used as "guinea pigs" in military research.
* Their eyes are surgically removed and their hearing is destroyed.
* They have their limbs severed and organs crushed.
* Invasive means are used to give them heart attacks, ulcers and seizures.
* They are deprived of sleep, subjected to electric shock, and exposed to extremes of heat and cold.

Everyone of these procedures and outcomes complies with the Animal Welfare Act. Each conforms with what government officials count as "humane care and treatment." Consider some of what happens to animals in farms and slaughterhouses, again all of which is perfectly legal and deemed "humane":

*Veal" calves spend their entire life individually confined to narrow stalls too narrow for them to turn around in.
* Laying hens live a year or more in cages the size of a filing drawer, seven or more per cage, after which they routinely are starved for two weeks to encourage another laying cycle.
* Female hogs are housed for four or five years in individual barred enclosures ("gestation stalls") barely wider than their bodies, where they are forced to birth litter after litter.
* Until the recent "Mad Cow" scare, beef and dairy cattle too weak to stand ("downers") were dragged or pushed to their slaughter.
* Geese and ducks are force-fed the human equivalent of 30 pounds of food per day to enlarge their liver, the better to meet the demand for foie gras.

On fur farms, animals are electrocuted or their necks are snapped, or they are trapped and stomped to death.

These concrete examples show that animals endure terror at the hands of humans on a daily basis. This terror is given the full support of the goverment, and the majority of the public is uniformed of it. The Animal Liberation Front are at the front of providing the public the information about those who terrorize animals. This book provides an excellent explanation of why they do what they do, and defends their tactics from possible objections. All should read it and do what they can to support these heroes for what they do.

Lucid analysis of direct action on behalf of animals
This scholarly work thoroughly explains the philosophy behind the Animal Liberation Front and its parallel to direct action activists of other social movements. After reading this book only those with a vested interest in perpetuating the forms of animals abuse that are commonplace in today's society will fail to see that the same issues that emancipated human slaves and paved the way for women's rights are being addressed by animal activists who risk their freedom and liberty to bring justice to those who suffer only because they were born to a mother of another species.

Those with open minds will have a greater understanding of the Animal Liberation activists who act out of a sense of altruism, and of the forces at work to deny both animals and humans their very basic rights. ... Read more

Book Description

This 23rd edition of Annual Editions: Environment 04/05 is a compilation of current articles from the best of the public press. The selections explore the global environment, the world's population, energy, the biosphere, natural resources, and pollution. A listing of related Web sites is included and access to the student support site Dushkin Online (www.dushkin.com/online). ... Read more

Book Description

A central goal of transportation is the delivery of safe and efficient services with minimal environmental impact. In practice, though, human mobility has flourished while nature has suffered. Awareness of the environmental impacts of roads is increasing, yet information remains scarce for those interested in studying, understanding, or minimizing the ecological effects of roads and vehicles.

Road Ecology addresses that shortcoming by elevating previously localized and fragmented knowledge into a broad and inclusive framework for understanding and developing solutions. The book brings together fourteen leading ecologists and transportation experts to articulate state-of-the-science road ecology principles, and presents specific examples that demonstrate the application of those principles. Diverse theories, concepts, and models in the new field of road ecology are integrated to establish a coherent framework for transportation policy, planning, and projects. Topics examined include:

• foundations of road ecology
• roads, vehicles, and transportation planning
• vegetation and roadsides
• wildlife populations and mitigation
• water, sediment, and chemical flows
• aquatic ecosystems
• wind, noise, and atmospheric effects
• road networks and landscape fragmentation

Book Description

At last, a book that has what every atmospheric science and meteorology student should know about satellite meteorology: the orbits of satellites, the instruments they carry, the radiation they detect, and, most importantly, the fundamental atmospheric data that can be retrieved from their observations.

Key Features
* Of special interest are sections on:
* Remote sensing of atmospheric temperature, trace gases, winds, cloud and aerosol data, precipitation, and radiation budget
* Satellite image interpretation
* Satellite orbits and navigation
* Radiative transfer fundamentals ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Nice Introductory Book to Satellite Meteorology
This is a very good book for atmospheric science and meteorology students and researchers. It includes many topics that are very useful for both educational and research purposes: the orbits of satellites, the instruments they carry, the radiation they detect, and, most importantly, the fundamental atmospheric data that can be retrieved from their observations. I first read this book when I was a graduate student in atmospheric sciences. Most books I have read are concerned with dynamics or physics, which are the classical fields. Very few of them discuss the practical yet not so established topics like satellite meteorology. This book is the most comprehensive one I have ever read that covers this whole new field. ... Read more

Reviews (22)

A Book to Reinvent Our Goals
Alan Weisman, a journalist hired by NPR to investigate solutions for environmental crises, spent years collecting information in a tiny, remote village at the eastern edge of the war-torn country of Colombia. That village was Gaviotas; this book is his result.

I read this book on a recommendation from Daniel Quinn, author of "The Story of B" and "Beyond Civilization." Quinn's entire philosophy rests on two ideas: living in a sustainable manner, and allowing the reader to come up with their own solutions for doing so. Gaviotas is a community where people did just that - through ingenuity, creativity, and hard work, the residents of this planned village created a place where water is pulled from the ground using pumps attached to children's see-saws, heat is provided by the sun, and electricity by the wind.

It's a progressive's dream come true, and an experiment that has succeeded in all possible ways. This book lays out the history of Gaviotas and its unique founder, Paolo Lugari, and places it within the context of the ongoing struggles in Colombia. In the wake of the World Trade Center attack, I decided to re-read Gaviotas to remind myself that not only is there hope for humanity as a whole, but hope that individuals will begin to take responsibility to begin freeing ourselves from the confining forces of our self-imposed prisons called "civilization," but still manage to retain the good things, too.

Every person on earth should read and re-read this book. If you haven't, buy it now or start hoofing it to the library.

Wonderful, Inspiring, Hopeful!
It was one of the best books I've ever read.
Go get it right now!

Gaviotas is an inspiring story of hope and success
Gaviotas the place is amazing! I can't believe how many good ideas were put into practice in one community! Incredible. All working/aspiring engineers, city planners, architects, etc. should having a working knowledge of the theories and practices Alan Weisman describes in this book.

Humans CAN be part of a non-destructive, even a positive, productive relationship with their surroundings. We CAN prosper without decimating everything with which we interact. Gaviotas is a good start--a good example for the rest of the world.

READ THE BOOK! BUY THE BOOK!

Hope Floats
I read this book after one of my Colombian friend recommended it. I could not put it down once I started reading it. It is not an easy reading and it requires you to think about how everybody in the western world takes life and facilities for granted which people in countries like Colombia strive hard to achieve.

This book is a fantastic tale of individuals who don't take no for an answer, who had a dream and they worked to achieve it and in the process created an outstanding example of the fact that 'life and nature can co-exist' because that is how they were before we made discoveries and inventions to conquer nature.

The book ends with a final message...If you have a dream then pursue it...you will meet people along the way who share your thinking...Hope floats.

A vision of humanities existence
Gaviotas

I can honestly say that this book completely changed the way I look human existence and relation to nature. Not only are the people of Gaviotas innovators, but visionaries aided by the studies past and present technologies. While reading this tale I was not only amazed by the resourcefulness of a few people, rather what the implications are to the human family as a whole. It seems that the people of Gaviotas have given themselves an education that no classroom can offer. In fact quite the contrary, they are scholars of the laws of nature.
One thing that I learned from this book is that it is easy to get stuck thinking within the parameters of modern society. It seems that every technology around us is based purely on the short term and hard resources. However it is the natural dynamics of Earth which run the resource base for the natural world, the wind, hot, cold and ultimately the sun. ... Read more

Book Description

An environmental site assessment performed now will reduce the possibilities for liability claims and mandatory cleanup later. This Second Edition approaches environmental site assessment as an ever-evolving process, providing updated information on regulatory definitions, environmental regulations, and federal sources of information. Like the previous edition, this book allows the reader to ... Read more

Book Description

The most complete guide to marine weather analysis, tactics, and storm avoidance.Teaches traditional forecasting based on current observed conditions, as well as the latest tools including facsimile charts and the Internet.An easy-to-use tool for sailors, power boaters, professional seamen, and anyone interested in the weather. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Horrendous amount of errors
I purchased this book several years ago and atempted to read it. There were so many spelling errors that in many cases I couldn't figure out what the author(s) were trying to say. After straining my brain for about 75 pages I gave up the effort. It was the first edition and I hope they've put some effort into corrections.

At Last!
Mariner's weather Handbook is the first book about marine weather I've found (in more than 20 years of reading about and struggling with the subject) that has actually allowed me to (finally!) understand the constantly changing three-dimensional relationships between differing air masses and their fronts. Steve Dashew explains the world's weather in a systematic and logical progression that kept me firmly on a heretofore slippery learning curve.

With quotes and examples from leading meteorologists as well as his own experiences (over 100,000 miles under sail), Mr. Dashew explains the mechanics of the weather and the tools available to forcast it. More importantly for mariners, he details what the real concerns are during voyage planning and 'at sea'.

The book also focuses on the rules-of-thumb, routines and on-board equipment that enables one to sail prudently and safely - if warily - across the world's oceans. He details several of his own voyages, with copious log excerpts, available weatherfax charts and satellite images to cover the developing situation day by day.

The only reason for not giving the book the highest marks is the poor editing and occasional indifferent and innacurate illustrations. It's possible that the occasional misstatements and errors in the text and my subsequent backpedeling and rechecking to identify the descrepencies and 'gett it straight in my head again' are actually resposible for my finally 'getting' the weather. In that case, I owe the editor - or lack thereof - some serious gratitude. In any case, the book made me feel that I could understand it and - by golly! - I finally did! The plentiful weather charts, photographs and diagrams more than make up for the few confusing illustrations.

The book finishes with valuable internet addresses that enable one to begin to gather current and historic weather data, charts and satellite images on the internet. Personally, I'm buying a barometer and hope to begin what will be a life long understanding, study and forcast of the weather, possibly in preperation for my own ocean crossings - thanks to Steve Dashew's very good book. ... Read more

Book Description

This reader-friendly book offers current and comprehensive information about the atmosphere—its components, problems, and applications. It features everyday examples to help the reader understand weather and climate, with incredible photographs, satellite images, and line art.Broad in scope and clearly and concisely written, this book features such topics as temperature, moisture and atmospheric stability, condensation and precipitation, air pressure and winds, circulation, air masses, weather patterns, thunderstorms and tornadoes, hurricanes, air pollution, world climates, and optical phenomena.For readers interested in a book that discusses up-to-date weather and climate issues that affect the world's people everyday; can also be utilized as a reference text for those in the field of meteorology and other earth sciences. ... Read more

Book Description

For readers of A Civil Action and Refuge, a harrowing story of a body and a place--the New Jersey boglands, one of the most contaminated regions of the country.

This is an American story. Two immigrant families drawn together from wildly different parts of the world, Italy on one side and Barbados on the other, pursued their vision of the American dream by building a summer escape in the boglands of New Jersey, where the rural and industrial collide. They picked gooseberries on hot afternoons and spent lazy days rowing dinghies down creeks. But the gooseberry patch was near a nuclear power plant that released record levels of radiation, and the creeks were invisibly ruined by illegally dumped toxic waste. One by one, family members found their bodies mirroring the compromised landscape of the Barrens: infertile and damaged by inexplicable growths. Soon the area parents were being asked to donate their children's baby teeth to be tested for radiation.

Body Toxic is an environmental memoir--merging the personal and familial with the political and environmental. Intensely intimate and starkly contemporary, it is a story of bravery and resignation, of great hope and great loss. This beautifully composed book presents American families in the midst of the wreckage of the American dream. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Body Toxic
Written in a style both haunting and poetic, this book captured my attention immediately. Susanne Antonetta examines the environmental and political issues of radioactive waste, nuclear reactors and chemically poisoned water supplies, blended with excerpts from her memoirs as a child, growing up in New Jersey in the 1950's when silence and family secrets were sacrosanct.

Spending extraordinary summers as a child in a bungalow built by her grandfather, facing the small inlet of Barnegat Bay, the author blissfully picks berries and runs through wide open spaces, taking in the colors, sounds and smells of the area, oblivious to the horrific danger all around her. This book is so personal, so beautifully descriptive and so painfully honest, I am reminded, once again, that the real heroes are walking among us.

Enlightened in New Jersey
Body Toxic, the memoir of a poet, is a great book. Instead
of having us laying in her hospital bed taking her medications
and reliving her miscarriages in detail on every page, Antonetta
almost dances around her illnesses in order to bring awareness
of the contamination to earth that is killing everyone.
Michael Klein said "Poets write the best memoirs." Three years
ago I questioned that statement; after reading Body Toxix, I agree.

What happened to John McPhee's Pine Barrens?
While I was reading "Body Toxic", I had a nagging recollection of another book and finally remembered John McPhee's book, "Pine Barrens" which was written in the 60's. Read side by side, there would be a great difference in the two accounts of a now ravaged area.

I am not a reader of poetry and maybe that is why I found the prose of this book somewhat difficult to follow. I didn't like the flow of words. The words themselves however were another matter.

"People fought with violence: airplanes,sprays, chemicals. They recruited with zeal. One of the recruitments was the Baby Boom, which my brother and my cousins and I belonged to, the plume of babies that followed the soldiers back from the second world war as if we'd been flushed from their wounds. American men had gone ouerseas and lost limbs and seem themselves die and come back filled with a desire to make new humans. For each of us boom children a soldier lay dead on a battlefield on another continent, and we corrected with our fat and harmless flesh what had been done to their bodies. We are all substitutions."

I finished this book wondering about Susanne Antonetta's health now. I am worried about her and about all of us.

A first-person story of toxic environmental effects
Two immigrant families from different parts of the world pursue their dream by building a summer home on the boglands of New Jersey outside the industrial zone - and find their family members falling prey to mysterious illness. Science fiction? No, fact and autobiography in Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir, a title which tells of their health decline and presents a first-person story of toxic environmental effects on generations.

Sad, poignant, and poetic
While "Body Toxic" is an environmental memoir, it is debatable whether the accent should be placed on the term environmental, or on the term toxic. In all probability it should be toxic, because that term is more apropos to the disfunctional maternal side of the family whose emotional problems, while apparently exacerbated by the environmental conditions Antonetta describes, predate them.

As the book starts, it is reminiscent of "A Civil Action", and reader becomes caught up in the environmental devastation of what was a seemingly benign seaside vacation retreat. However, the work deftly becomes more of a family memoir, periodically interwoven with descriptions of the environmental devastation of Ocean County New Jersey which, ironically her mother's family refused to recognize, just as they suppressed acknowledging their family's many aberrant behaviors and personalities.

While perhaps a trite comparison, the family reminiscences are reminiscent of the writing of Jamaica Kincaid in terms of the cadence, and occasions of repetition. Perhaps this is no coincidence since Antonetta focuses on the family's Afro-Carribean roots (or perhaps I subconsciously looked for such a similarity).

This is an important, beautifly written, and bittersweet work. I highly recommend it. ... Read more