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"The story of phosphorus spans the globe and vast tracts of human history. The race to mine phosphorus took people from the battlefields of Waterloo, which were looted for the bones of fallen soldiers, to the fabled guano islands off Peru, the Bone Valley of Florida, and the sand dunes of the Western Sahara. Over the past century, phosphorus has made farming vastly more productive, feeding the enormous increase in the human population. Yet, as Egan...
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This work evaluates the costs of low priced clothing while tracing the author's own transformation to a conscientious shopper, a journey during which she visited a garment factory, learned to resole shoes, and shopped for local, sustainable clothing. Until recently, she was a typical American consumer. She had grown accustomed to shopping at outlet malls, discount stores like T.J. Maxx, and cheap but trendy retailers like Forever 21, Target, and H&M....
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"From the author of 1491, the study of the pre-Columbian Americas, this new work is a history that explores the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs. More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed totally different suites of plants and animals. Columbus's voyages brought them back together, and marked the beginning of an extraordinary...
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Explores major topics related to global warming and climate change-ranging geographically from the North Pole to the South Pole, and thematically from social effects to scientific causes. Covers the science and history of climate change, the controversies over climate-change theories, the role of societies, the industrial and economic factors, and the sociological aspects of climate change.
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Guides readers toward the road less consumptive, offering practical advice and moral support while making a convincing case that individual actions . . . do matter." —Elizabeth Royte, author, Garbage Land and Bottlemania
Like many people, Beth Terry didn't think an individual could have much impact on the environment. But while laid up after surgery, she read an article about the staggering amount of plastic polluting...
Like many people, Beth Terry didn't think an individual could have much impact on the environment. But while laid up after surgery, she read an article about the staggering amount of plastic polluting...
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"An eye-opening and witty account of the global ecological transformations wrought by roads, from an award-winning author. Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, but we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. In Crossings, Ben Goldfarb delves into the new science of road ecology to explore how roads have transformed our world. Millions of animals are killed by cars each day in the US alone, and roads fragment...
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"In May 2016, the city of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, burned to the ground, forcing 88,000 people to flee their homes. It was the largest evacuation ever of a city in the face of a forest fire, raising the curtain on a new age of increasingly destructive wildfires. This book is a suspenseful account of one of North America's most devastating forest fires--and a stark exploration of our dawning era of climate catastrophes"--
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"The world has changed in the seventeen years since the controversial initial publication of Paul Hawken's 'Ecology of Commerce, ' a stirring treatise about the perceived antagonism between ecology and business. Yet Hawken's impassioned argument--that business both causes the most egregious abuses of the environment and, crucially, holds the most potential for solving our sustainability problems--is more relevant and resonant than ever. Containing...
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The fascinating history of a simple black rock that has shaped our world--and now threatens it. In this remarkable book, Barbara Freese takes us on a rich historical journey that begins hundreds of millions of years ago and spans the globe. Prized as "the best stone in Britain" by Roman invaders who carved jewelry out of it, coal has transformed societies, expanded frontiers, and sparked social movements, and still powers our electric grid. Yet coal's...
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"The Shotgun Conservationist doesn't teach you how to hunt. It teaches you why to hunt. As public lands remain imperiled, factory farms pollute the earth and denigrate animals, and global uncertainty presses us all to be more self-sufficient, there has never been a better time for the conservation-minded, environmentally concerned citizen to take up hunting. Writer, natural historian, and public speaker Brant MacDuff has done just that. Two years...
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"From a young, gay environmentalist, a searing coming-of-age memoir set against the arid landscape of rural North Dakota, where homosexuality "seems akin to a ticking bomb." "I am a child of the American West, a landscape so rich and wide that my culture trembles with terror before its power." So begins Taylor Brorby's Boys and Oil, a haunting, bracingly honest memoir about growing up gay amidst the harshness of rural North Dakota, "a place where...
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Mending Matters explores sewing on two levels: First, it includes more than 20 hands-on projects that showcase current trends in visible mending that are edgy, modern, and bold--but draw on traditional stitching. It does all this through just four very simple mending techniques: exterior patches, interior patches, slow stitches, darning, and weaving. In addition, the book addresses the way mending leads to a more mindful relationship to fashion and...
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"Bill Gates shares what he's learned in more than a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address the problems, and sets out a vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions. Bill Gates explains why he cares so deeply about climate change and what makes him optimistic that the world can avoid the most dire effects of the climate crisis. Gates says, "We can work on a local,...
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"Daniella Chace, a professional toxicologist and health writer, teaches readers how to identify potential toxins in the household, with an easy-to-follow, room-by-room evaluation. She explains the connection between toxins in everyday objects and chronic health issues, and offers strategies for eliminating toxins, along with easy recipes for effective homemade cleaning solutions"--
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Thoreau joked that he was a "self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms, " never dreaming that such a need might exist. But such is the author's work and that of his various helpers, from ski bums to shortstops. They travel the alpine wilderness at all seasons by touring skis, snowshoes, pack llamas, float-tubes, and a tiny but dependable raft. The remote mountain beauty, "where thoughts stretch for miles and days, " would be enough, but...