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Book Description
In Eight Weeks to Optimum Health, Dr. Andrew Weil translates the brilliant insights and discoveries he outlined in his acclaimed bestseller, Spontaneous Healing, into a practical plan of action: a week-by-week, step-by-step program for enhancing and protecting present and lifelong health. The Eight-Week Program sets up a foundation for healthy living that will keep your body's natural healing system in peak working order. With clearly defined and authoritatively informed recommendations, Dr. Weil explains how to

¸  Build a lifestyle that protects you from premature illness and disability
¸  Fine-tune your current eating habits so that your diet is more nutritious
¸  Walk and stretch in regimens that satisfy weekly exercise requirements
¸  Safeguard your healing system by adding four antioxidant supplements--vitamin C and E, selenium, and mixed carotenes--to your diet
¸  Incorporate five basic breathing exercises for greater relaxation and energy
¸  Benefit from visualization, overcome sleeping problems, and test and filter your water supply
¸  Make art, music, and the natural world more important parts of your life

The oceans, and the challenges they face, are so vast that it’s easy to feel powerless to protect them. 50 Ways to Save the Ocean, written by veteran environmental journalist David Helvarg, focuses on practical, easily-implemented actions everyone can take to protect and conserve this vital resource. Well-researched, personal, and sometimes whimsical, the book addresses daily choices that affect the ocean's health: what fish should and should not be eaten; how and where to vacation; storm drains and driveway run-off; protecting local water tables; proper diving, surfing, and tide pool etiquette; and supporting local marine education. Helvarg also looks at what can be done to stir the waters of seemingly daunting issues such as toxic pollutant runoff; protecting wetlands and sanctuaries; keeping oil rigs off shore; saving reef environments; and replenishing fish reserves.

All who work with sustainability issues realize that it is a community project. We must decide collectively about the earth and its future. As a community — be it a geographic, social, academic, or professional community — we need to know where to begin, how to collaboratively work, and where to find resources.

Most of us belong to communities that are concerned about sustainability issues, but do not have that as their primary mandate, such as a business, a history class, or a civic group. These groups have a tremendous opportunity to incorporate sustainability awareness into their activities. And this volume will help find those opportunities and make the best use of group resources.

From Library Journal
Washington possesses a rich architectural heritage that spans well over two centuries. This guidebook, initially commissioned by the Washington Metropolitan Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1965 and last updated in 1974, provides a welcome introduction to the architecture of the nation's capital. Organized into 17 walking tours, over 450 structures are concisely described and professionally photographed. Some of the city's newer, mediocre buildings are given more attention than they deserve; the city's unfortunate penchant for constructing new buildings behind historic facades receives scant criticism; there are no photographs of building interiors; and buildings located outside of the district's boundaries (such as Dulles Airport) have been excluded from this edition. Despite these quibbles, this is a significant reference tool for Washingtonians that fills a major void.
H. Ward Jandl, National Park Svc., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Three stories on three continents are intertwined around a central theme of mankind's imminent demise due to irresponsible and reckless behavior. It's also got a bit of romance and humor thrown in. Begun by an English professor on a short trip to Europe shortly before the London terrorist bombings, Animal Skins examines modern terrorism along with human errors over time--primarily errors of arrogance in its treatment of the environment. Sensitive characters express various types of self-loathing as a response. Then there is the source of spiritual strength, a tree, Elixia... http://elixia2.tripod.com/

From Bookmarks Magazine
In this very topical memoir, Kingsolver has penned a "heroic story" that demonstrates how "growing your own fruits and vegetables, with people you love, can be as rewarding an experience as any on the face of the earth" (San Francisco Chronicle). It also may mark the first time fresh asparagus has been documented with such rapture. The author's passion and narrative prowess make Animal an entertaining, often page-turning read. Her biologist husband Steven offers pithy sidebars about the politics of sustainable agriculture, as well as advice on how to make a change at home. Eldest daughter Camille supplies simple, nutritious recipes. Their combined efforts resulted in nearly universal praise from the critics.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From the Publisher
He calls for changes in the way we build. For change to be widely accepted there have to be convincing reasons why long established practices should be replaced. In the first part of the book he sets out those reasons by arguing that there is convincing evidence that climate changes now under way are primarily due to human activity in releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Buildings are particularly implicated in this process and so it is appropriate that the design and construction process should be a prime target in the war against catastrophic climate change. The book is designed to promote a creative partnership between the professions to produce buildings which achieve optimum conditions for their inhabitants whilst making minimum demands on fossil based energy. Peter Smith has written extensively on the subject and is well known in the field. He is responsible for introducing the compulsory sustainable element of the course in the UK. He is Chairman of the RIBA Environment and Energy Committee, the RIBA Sustainable Features Committee and Vice Chairman of the Sustainable Development Committee.

Amherst Bulletin
"...full of spirit, intellect and passion, Donna Schaper takes us with her as she walks and works in her garden."

The Blue Guide to Museums and Galleries of New York
"Simon Dorrell is one of England's premier garden painters."

Gunilla Norris, author of Being Home and Journeying in Place: Reflections from a Country Garden
"Donna Schaper skips her stones through historical and horticultural facts, philosophical and human musings in a down-to-earth and lighthearted way."

Beatrice Bruteau, author of What We Can Learn from the East
"A great bedside book and a perfect gift book."

Amherst Bulletin
Her garden meditations surprise, stimulate and sustain us.

Book Description
It would be a perfect world if everyone could quit their jobs and devote themselves fully to the causes they believed in. The Better World Handbook shows ordinary, caring people how to live out their values and have a life as well! The principle behind this informative and user-friendly guide is to incorporate everyday activism into even the most mundane areas of our busy lives-like grocery shopping, banking, eating, reading the newspaper, and working.

Biomimicry is a revolutionary new science that analyzes nature's best ideas -- spider silk and prairie grass, seashells and brain cells -- and adapts them for human use. Science writer and lecturer Janine Benyus takes us into the lab and out in the field with the maverick researchers who are applying nature's ingenious solutions to the problem of human survival: stirring vats of proteins to unleash their signaling power in computers; analyzing how spiders manufacture a waterproof fiber five times stronger than steel; studying how electrons in a leaf cell convert sunlight to fuel in trillionths of a second; discovering miracle drugs by observing what animals eat -- and much more.

The products of biomimicry are things we can all use -- medicines, "smart" computers, super-strong materials, profitable and earth-friendly business. Biomimicry eloquently shows that the answers are all around us.

Links to interview with Janine M. Benyus:
http://www.annonline.com/interviews/971218/

Link to information on award winning video based on book:
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/bmic.html
 

Book Description
In her latest book, award-winning scientist and activist Dr. Vandana Shiva argues that genetic engineering and the cloning of organisms, far from being socially useful, are "the ultimate expression of the commercialization of science and the commodification of nature."

"In the era of genetic engineering and patents, life itself is being colonized," says Shiva. She describes the hidden history of genetically engineered organisms, from Herman the transgenic dairy bull, to Tracy, the genetically engineered sheep that "lays golden eggs."--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From AudioFile
In a powerful memoir, a maverick manager tells how he overcame banking's rigid lending culture to create the electronic payment system we now know as VISA. His strategies for building trailblazing teams are illustrated by fascinating stories, all laced with insights that make the lessons vivid and understandable. The title suggests a broad, abstract agenda for the program--a history of how command and control organizations change into the organic systems required by today's non-linear organizations, organizations he calls "chaordic." But the program is more about the author's journey than the management transformation. It's a riveting story, read with profound understanding by one of today's best voices, a story of a well-lived life at the center of an important societal revolution. T.W. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The first book devoted to the history of African Americans in south Florida and their pivotal role in the growth and development of Miami, Black Miami in the Twentieth Century traces their triumphs, drudgery, horrors, and courage during the first 100 years of the city's history. Firsthand accounts and over 130 photographs, many of them never published before, bring to life the proud heritage of Miami's black community.
Beginning with the legendary presence of black pirates on Biscayne Bay, Marvin Dunn sketches the streams of migration by which blacks came to account for nearly half the city’s voters at the turn of the century. From the birth of a new neighborhood known as "Colored Town," Dunn traces the blossoming of black businesses, churches, civic groups, and fraternal societies that made up the black community. He recounts the heyday of "Little Broadway" along Second Avenue, with photos and individual recollections that capture the richness and vitality of black Miami's golden age between the wars.
A substantial portion of the book is devoted to the Miami civil rights movement, and Dunn traces the evolution of Colored Town to Overtown and the subsequent growth of Liberty City. He profiles voting rights, housing and school desegregation, and civil disturbances like the McDuffie and Lozano incidents, and analyzes the issues and leadership that molded an increasingly diverse community through decades of strife and violence. In concluding chapters, he assesses the current position of the community--its socioeconomic status, education issues, residential patterns, and business development--and considers the effect of recent waves of immigration from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Dunn combines exhaustive research in regional media and archives with personal interviews of pioneer citizens and longtime residents in a work that documents as never before the life of one of the most important black communities in the United States.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* The profusion of good causes and the nonprofit groups that advance them can seem laughably overwhelming, but without altruistic grass-roots efforts, the world would be a far less merciful place. Environmentalist Hawken believes that we are in the midst of a world-changing rise of activist groups, all "working toward ecological sustainability and social justice." Rather than an ideological or centralized movement, this coalescence is a spontaneous and organic response to the recognition that environmental problems are social-justice problems. Writing with zest, clarity, and a touch of wonder, Hawken compares this gathering of forces to the human immune system. Just as antibodies rally when the body is under threat, people are joining together to defend life on Earth. Hawken offers a fascinating history of our perception of nature and human rights and assesses the role indigenous cultures are playing in the quest for ecological responsibility and economic fairness. Hawken also presents an unprecedented map to this new "social landscape" that includes a classification system defining astonishingly diverse concerns, ranging from farming to child welfare, ocean preservation, and beyond. Fresh and informative, Hawken's inspired overview charts much that is right in the world. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut, author
"When returning from the Moon, I experienced directly and emotionally the personal connection to the Universe described by Jennifer Morgan."

Card catalog description
Presents a history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the formation of Earth, in the form of a letter written by the thirteen-billion-year-old universe itself to an Earth child. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly
Erudite, engaging and highly original, journalist Pollan's fascinating account of four everyday plants and their coevolution with human society challenges traditional views about humans and nature. Using the histories of apples, tulips, potatoes and cannabis to illustrate the complex, reciprocal relationship between humans and the natural world, he shows how these species have successfully exploited human desires to flourish. "It makes just as much sense to think of agriculture as something the grasses did to people as a way to conquer the trees," Pollan writes as he seamlessly weaves little-known facts, historical events and even a few amusing personal anecdotes to tell each species' story. For instance, he describes how the apple's sweetness and the appeal of hard cider enticed settlers to plant orchards throughout the American colonies, vastly expanding the plant's range. He evokes the tulip craze of 17th-century Amsterdam, where the flower's beauty led to a frenzy of speculative trading, and explores the intoxicating appeal of marijuana by talking to scientists, perusing literature and even visiting a modern marijuana garden in Amsterdam. Finally, he considers how the potato plant demonstrates man's age-old desire to control nature, leading to modern agribusiness's experiments with biotechnology. Pollan's clear, elegant style enlivens even his most scientific material, and his wide-ranging references and charming manner do much to support his basic contention that man and nature are and will always be "in this boat together."

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Coles is the prolific and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such works as The Spiritual Life of Children ( LJ 11/1/90). Here he examines idealism, the drive that leads people to be of service to others. This service takes a variety of forms, from the formal (e.g., the Peace Corps) to simple volunteer work in hospitals, schools, and the like. Coles makes the subject interesting by letting the people who serve talk about their work. These doers, including Coles himself, tell of the satisfactions and the hazards of service. Let it be known that idealism or service is not a one-way street, Coles maintains. Those who give are as much receivers and learners. This engaging and inspiring book is highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/93.
- John Moryl, Yeshiva Univ. Lib., New York
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
The archetype of mortal defiance, Prometheus has found a new champion. Outspoken molecular biologist Silver argues that only scientists willing to join Prometheus in challenging divine prohibitions will ever deliver on the promise of new genetic technologies. Although despairing of ever expunging spiritual beliefs from liberal democracies altogether, Silver hopes that a truly open and rational public dialogue will expose the folly of continuing to allow religious fundamentalists to impose needless restrictions on scientific research. It particularly galls Silver that such religionists often confuse an ill-informed public by cleverly wrapping their religious objectives in scientific rhetoric. Surprisingly, Silver sees the Christian obstructionists of the Religious Right finding allies among the left-leaning, post-Christian devotees of nature. Both groups recoil from the prospect of using new science to improve human genes or to reengineer the plants and animals humans rely on for food. Both groups, Silver asserts, fail to realize that humans have been productively intervening in natural reproductive processes for millennia--and should now use available tools to do so more aggressively, both to minimize human suffering and to maximize ecological health. The relentlessness with which Silver disputes the views of his opponents will impress many readers--and alienate others. But this book will surely fuel precisely the kind of debate Silver recognizes as essential in a democracy sorting out perplexing scientific possibilities. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Written by two Montessori elementary teachers, who are also teacher-trainers, this book describes in detail Maria Montessori's unique program of study for six to twelve year-olds. Montessori believed that children of this age could be properly educated only in the context of the whole of reality. As a unifying element, this curriculum embraces all the academic subjects in a way that leads students to the perspective of the oneness of all things.

In the years when their curiosity is at a peak, cosmic education guides children to examine the questions, "Who am I?" "Where did I come from?" and "Why am I here?" By promoting univeral values that can inspire them to care for the earth and work for peace, Cosmic Education can help children to see themselves, not as self-engrossed consumers in our society but as Children of the Universe with all that this image entails.

Classic Cracker
Florida's Wood-Frame Vernacular  Architecture
By Ronald W. Haase

In this visually delightful book, laced with quotations from one of the best chroniclers of Florida Cracker Life, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ronald Haase takes us on an intimate tour of the utilitarian wooden structures constructed by early settlers in North Florida.

From Library Journal
A new generation of American and European sculptors is receiving critical and commercial attention for rediscovering, in the spirit of Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel (1913), the wealth of forms in everyday life. Variously labeled "New Object," "Metaphoric Object," "Neo-Geo," or "Simulationist," this new sculpture mimics familiar objects from industrial, domestic, and historical sources. Eight such artists are features in OBJECTives: Robert Gober, Jeff Koons, Annette Lemieux, and Haim Steinbach from New York; Grenville Davis and Judith Opie from London; Katarina Fritsch from Cologne; and Juan Munoz from Madrid. This exhibition catalog, which presents works exhibited at the Newport Harbor Art Museum in California from April to June 1990, includes exhibition histories and a selected bibliography for each artist. Goldsworthy is an extraordinarily innovative British artist who employs a range of natural materials--leaves, bark, twigs, petals, berries, rock, clay, stones, feathers, snow, ice--to create outdoor sculpture that works instinctively in nature. His range of scale is impressive, from grasses and leaves to ice spires and slate stacks. Goldsworthy records his works in the 120 full-color photographs that are the subject of this book. The delicate tensions and balance of his collaborations encourage a sharpened perception of the natural world. Goldsworthy's introduction eloquently explains his working methods and philosophy and convinces the reader that he's doing more than playing the primitive.
- Russell T. Clement, Brigham Young Univ. Lib., Provo, Ut.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher
"In his Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how and why Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world. Now, Diamond probes the other side of the equation: What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates?" As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of historical-cultural narratives. Moving from the prehistoric Polynesian culture on Easter Island to the formerly flourishing Native American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya, the doomed medieval Viking colony on Greenland, and finally to the modern world, Diamond traces a fundamental pattern of catastrophe, spelling out what happens when we squander our resources, when we ignore the signals our environment gives us, and when we reproduce too fast or cut down too many trees. Environmental damage, climate change, rapid population growth, unstable trade partners, and pressure from enemies were all factors in the demise of the doomed societies, but other societies found solutions to those same problems and persisted.

From the Back Cover
Community is not an accumulation of buildings with interstate access, neighborhood not a housing project convenient to shopping. Everyone knows what suburban sprawl looks like and the problems is creates. This book knows answers. The First Step to Communities that Work -Create maximum livability, cohesiveness, and style in developments outside cities. In these pages, you’ll find recommendations for creating true neighborhoods within the context of the existing suburban landscape—in an illustrated, step-by-step, case-study format.

Chapters examine the entire spectrum of career fields, with each chapter providing an "at a glance" summary of the field; discussion of history and background along with current issues and trends; examination of specific career opportunities and the educational requirements for each; salary ranges by type of employer, level of experience, and responsibility; and an extensive list of resources for further information. Fields profiled include: planning, education and communications, energy management and conservation, fisheries and wildlife management, forestry, land and water conservation, and others.

Written at a broad introductory level, The Complete Guide to Environmental Careers in the 21st Century provides an informative and inspirational starting place from which to learn more about specific fields. For recent college graduates, students, volunteers, librarians, career counselors, or anyone interested in working to protect the environment, it is an essential reference.

Racism and environmental destruction as convergent literary themes

In American literature, our discourse on the themes of race and ecology is too narrowly focused on the twentieth century and does not adequately take into account how these themes are interrelated, argues Jeffrey Myers. His new study broadens the field by looking at writings from the nineteenth century. This was an era, Myers reminds us, of renewed violence and oppression against people of color and of unprecedented environmental destruction on a continental scale. Myers focuses particularly on works that engage the notion that white racism and alienation from nature sprang from a common source.

Myers first discusses the paradox of Thomas Jefferson’s agrarian vision, by which ideas espoused in his Notes on the State of Virginia can support either environmental destruction or conservation, a democratic or a racist society. Next, by looking race-critically at Thoreau’s Walden and The Maine Woods, then ecocritically at Charles Chesnutt’s The Conjure Woman and Zitkala-Sa’s Old Indian Legends and American Indian Stories, Myers traces the development of a new resistance to racial and ecological hegemony. He concludes by discussing how the antiracist, egalitarian ecocentricity in these earlier writers can be seen in contemporary writer Eddy L. Harris’s Mississippi Solo. Myers’s discussion encompasses other authors as well, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, and Willa Cather.

By looking at works by Native Americans, African Americans, European Americans, and others, and by considering forms of literature beyond the traditional nature essay, Myers expands our conceptions of environmental writing and environmental justice.

From Publishers Weekly
Channeling the spirit of Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard, the founding publisher of Utne magazine (formerly known as the Utne Reader) brings together a delightful assortment of folksy knowledge in this guide for the urban citizen. In charging readers to "Look Up," "Look Out" and "Look In," Utne (aka Cosmo Doogood) hopes that city dwellers will connect better with themselves and their surroundings: "we are always in nature, wherever we are." Opening sections consider the pleasures of walking, the possibilities of gardening and the probabilities of wildlife sighting within city limits; the volume then becomes an eclectic and fascinating day planner, in which one can record one’s engagements on pages that also serve up poems, photographs, trivia (e.g., January is mail-order gardening month), recipes (Caprese salad; baked apples), quotes ("Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment"), travel suggestions (New Orleans’s Magazine Street), thumbnail biographies (Pharrell Williams; Rembrandt), history lessons (on the birth of the Transcendentalist Movement) and "civilizing ideas" (citizen wisdom councils; community gardens). There’s something interesting on every page of this fun and useful guide.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

From Booklist
Rachel Carson is remembered as a hero for raising the alarm over ocean pollution and pesticides, and she is cherished for the sheer beauty of her writing. In introducing this thoughtful tribute to Carson marking the centennial of her birth, Matthiessen writes with stirring insight into Carson's spirit and achievements, setting the tone for the dozen affecting essays that follow. Biographer Linda Lear attests to Carson's "literary genius" and profound sense of responsibility. John Elder delves into Carson's poetic language. Al Gore writes with particular empathy about the vicious attacks Carson endured when Silent Spring was published, in 1962, a work that elegantly yet ferociously questions business as usual in light of environmental concerns. Edward O. Wilson calls Carson "valiant," and Terry Tempest Williams praises Carson's "moral courage." Brought down at 56 by cancer linked to the pollution she decried, Carson wrote exactingly, rhapsodically, and presciently: "It is one of the ironies of our time that, while concentrating on the defense of our country against enemies from without, we should be so heedless of those who would destroy it from within." Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Teachers choose their vocation for reasons of the heart, because they care deeply about their students and about their subject. But the demands of teaching cause too many educators to lose heart. Is it possible to take heart in teaching once more so that we can continue to do what good teachers always do -- give heart to our students?

In The Courage to Teach , Parker Palmer takes teachers on an inner journey toward reconnecting with their vocation and their students -- and recovering their passion for one of the most difficult and important of human endeavors.

Environmentalists are normally the last people to be called shortsighted, yet that's essentially what architect McDonough and chemist Braungart contend in this clarion call for a new kind of ecological consciousness. The authors are partners in an industrial design firm that devises environmentally sound buildings, equipment and products. They argue that conventional, expensive eco-efficiency measures things like recycling or emissions reduction are inadequate for protecting the long-term health of the planet. Our industrial products are simply not designed with environmental safety in mind; there's no way to reclaim the natural resources they use or fully prevent ecosystem damage, and mitigating the damage is at best a stop-gap measure. What the authors propose in this clear, accessible manifesto is a new approach they've dubbed "eco-effectiveness": designing from the ground up for both eco-safety and cost efficiency. They cite examples from their own work, like rooftops covered with soil and plants that serve as natural insulation; nontoxic dyes and fabrics; their current overhaul of Ford's legendary River Rouge factory; and the book itself, which will be printed on a synthetic "paper" that doesn't use trees. Because profitability is a requirement of the designs, the thinking goes, they appeal to business owners and obviate the need for regulatory apparatus. These shimmery visions can sound too good to be true, and the book is sometimes frustratingly short on specifics, particularly when it comes to questions of public policy and the political interests that might oppose widespread implementation of these designs. Still, the authors' original concepts are an inspiring reminder that humans are capable of much more elegant environmental solutions than the ones we've settled for in the last half-century. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information

From Booklist
Famed entomologist, humanist thinker, and cogent writer Wilson issues a forthright call for unity between religion and science in order to save the "creation," or living nature, which is in "deep trouble." Addressing his commonsensical yet ardent discourse to "Dear Pastor," he asks why religious leaders haven't made protecting the creation part of their mission. Forget about life's origins, Wilson suggests, and focus on the fact that while nature achieves "sustainability through complexity," human activities are driving myriad species into extinction, thus depleting the biosphere and jeopardizing civilization. Wilson celebrates individual species, each a "masterpiece of biology," and acutely analyzes the nexus between nature and the human psyche. In the book's frankest passages, he neatly refutes fantasies about humanity's ability to re-create nature's intricate web, and deplores the use of religious belief (God will take care of it) as an impediment to conservation. Wilson's eloquent defense of nature, insights into our resistance to environmental preservation, and praise of scientific inquiry coalesce in a blueprint for a renaissance in biology reminiscent of the technological advances engendered by the space race. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
"Of all the debates in the scientific arena… there is none in which the White House has cooked the books more than that of global warming," argues Kennedy in this harsh indictment of what he sees as the Bush administration’s assault on the environment and democracy in general. Kennedy’s investigation focuses on the undue influence of industry lobbyists (read Halliburton) on environmental standards and the government’s alleged suppression of nearly a dozen scientific reports on global warming. He maligns Bush appointees like Interior Secretary Gale Norton ("a champion of corporate welfare for three decades") and offers a cogent analysis of Christine Todd Whitman’s departure from the EPA in 2002. Although Kennedy accuses the Bush administration of using a campaign strategy that revolves around "fear-mongering," he uses fear to drive home his own points, noting things like the lethal mercury levels in tuna, pork industry pollution and insufficiently guarded chemical plants. Nevertheless, he competently ties the survival of democracy to sound environmental policy, contending that corporate power—particularly the power wielded by the oil, beef and lumber industries—must never supersede democratic institutions. Kennedy’s argument is strongest when he sticks to the facts and avoids making the kind of angry, sweeping statements that fill the concluding chapter ("Instead of can-do American ingenuity, this is the administration of "can’t do." It has constructed a philosophy of government based on self-interest run riot: It has borrowed $9 trillion from our children and looted our Treasury…"). Whether or not one agrees with these accusations, Kennedy makes a passionate case for more effective environmental controls and wraps it up with a practical vision of a free-market future "in which businesses pay all the costs of bringing their products to market," including the costs of environmental safeguards.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal
In the midst of all the arid, bullet point-ridden business books, Whyte's stands out with its languid I'll-get-to-the-point-when-I'm-damned-good-and-ready approach. A poet, corporate trainer, and author of The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, Whyte challenges readers to remember their childhood interests and enthusiasms. He claims that this is necessary in order to escape the deadening influences of adult "musts" and "shoulds" and to recapture the passion that one needs to do good work. Whyte discusses his own career changes, from naturalist to nonprofit executive to writer/presenter/coacher. Echoing Fortgang, his main point is the popular "Do what you love and the money will follow," but he personalizes it by telling his own story and by including snippets of focused poetry (his own and others'), so that it's not as hackneyed as it may sound. Because an excerpt appeared in the March 2001 issue of O: The Oprah Magazine, there's sure to be demand in public libraries.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine
In offering straightforward solutions to the looming environmental crisis, Bill McKibben has marched directly into the middle of a heated debate. Critics' personal beliefs and politics shaped their reviews, which described Deep Economy as, alternately, a "masterfully crafted, deeply thoughtful and mind-expanding treatise" (Los Angeles Times) and a "book-length sermon on what is wrong with the way we live" (San Francisco Chronicle). Some reviewers found McKibben's solutions practical and the author refreshingly unpretentious, while others considered his vision utopian and his attitude self-righteous. However, they did agree that McKibben writes compellingly—with warmth, sincerity, and a sharp sense of humor. His resolute hope for the future will resound with readers no matter where their loyalties lie. But will it change any minds?

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Gardens that ignored the rules of nature and gardeners who challenged the laws of man are vitally united in Helphand's seminal and revelatory study of life during some of the most lethal conflicts of the twentieth century. From the torturous 475-mile trench line that formed the western front in World War I to the alien landscapes of the Japanese American internment camps in the U.S. during World War II, the sites of unfathomable human brutality also gave rise to acts of uplifting horticultural resistance. Whether they were subsistence vegetable beds improbably tilled beneath barbed wire fences in Nazi-created ghettos or symbolic topiaries artistically carved from brittle desert sagebrush, each audacious example bears solemn testimony to the assertive efforts of determined soldiers, POWs, Holocaust victims, and others to vanquish war's horrors through the spiritually ennobling act of gardening. Helphand's extensively researched history of gardens in wartime illuminates the grotesque juxtaposition of willful devastation and the astonishing tenacity required to create life in the face of death.

Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
San Francisco Chronicle : Heavy on context and images, light on celebrity names, Design Like You Give a Damn is a bracing reminder that there's more to architecture than museums and posh private homes. Instead, the founders of the group Architecture for Humanity round up 77 nimble solutions to real-life problems: There are fiberglass domes for the homeless of Los Angeles, a schoolhouse in Burkina Faso with an arced steel roof that insulates the clay brick classrooms below -- even a water pump in South Africa that is powered by children playing on a merry-go-round. Truly inspirational.

The movement toward creating more sustainable communities has been growing for decades, and in recent years has gained new prominence with the increasing visibility of planning approaches such as the New Urbanism. Yet there are few examples of successful and time-tested sustainable communities.

Village Homes outside of Davis, California offers one such example. Built between 1975 and 1981 on 60 acres of land, it offers unique features including extensive common areas and green space; community gardens, orchards, and vineyards; narrow streets; pedestrian and bike paths; solar homes; and an innovative ecological drainage system. Authors Michael and Judy Corbett were intimately involved with the design, development, and building of Village Homes, and have resided there since 1977.

Addressing the question, What do students need to know to become more environmentally literate and ecologically conscious?, Christopher Uhl offers an ecological, wonder-filled initiation to the universe and the planet Earth. He examines the ways in which people are damaging the earth and, in the process, their own bodies and spirits, then presents the essential tools necessary for both planetary and personal transformation.

The essential companion to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's The Phenomenom of Man, The Divine Milieu expands on the spiritual message so basic to his thought. He shows how man's spiritual life can become a participation in the destiny of the universe.

Teilhard de Chardin -- geologist, priest, and major voice in twentieth-century Christianity -- probes the ultimate meaning of all physical exploration and the fruit of his own inner life. The Divine Milieu is a spiritual treasure for every religion bookshelf.

Do our rights end—or begin—at the water's edge?

In most states the boundary separating public waters from private uplands-the ordinary high water line (OHWL)-is a flashpoint between proponents of either property rights or public-trust protection of our water. Using Florida as a case study, Down to the Waterline is the first book-length analysis of the OHWL doctrine and its legal, technical, and cultural underpinnings. Sara Warner not only covers the historical function of the OHWL but tells how advances in science and our environmental attitudes have led us to a more complex encounter with this ancient boundary.

Florida sees a steady influx of new residents who crowd along its extensive coasts and interior shorelines-yet who also demand pristine water resources. The OHWL establishes public access and private ownership limits on some of the state's most valuable land: in economic terms, waterfront real estate; in ecological terms, marshes and wetlands. Sara Warner brings to life many of the courtroom battles fought over the OHWL through the perspectives of ranchers, outdoors enthusiasts, developers, surveyors, scientists, and policymakers.

Publishers Weekly
In the company The Republic of Tea, employees are "ministers" and its tea-buying customers are "citizens." Ministers Rubin and Gold (chairman and COO, respectively) bring the same quirky perspective to their new tome, a motivational handbook that wavers between cute and cloying. The main thesis is similar to that of any number of books designed to inspire budding entrepreneurs : people should be "one with their dream," and to achieve it, they must "sell the hell out of themselves." No surprises there, but at least the authors can write, and press ahead with their insistent brightness. The book briefly gets into more serious details-e.g., the relative advantages of setting up a sole proprietorship or a joint venture-but then returns to bland exhortations. The occasional jolts of Chinese philosophy (invoking classic texts like the I Ching and Tao Te Ching) and the authors' personal stories of their international search for fabulous teas are the (tea)pot's best ingredients. Other than that, the brew is somewhat weak.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
 

h Florida at St. Petersburg Lib. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information

In Earth in Mind, noted environmental educator David W. Orr focuses not on problems in education, but on the problem of education. Much of what has gone wrong with the world, he argues, is the result of inadequate and misdirected education that:

• alienates us from life in the name of human domination
• causes students to worry about how to make a living before they know who they are
• overemphasizes success and careers
• separates feeling from intellect and the practical from the theoretical
• deadens the sense of wonder for the created world

From Booklist
Klindienst celebrates gardens created by immigrants who resisted the intense pressure to assimilate into mainstream American society, in a lyrical account of her three-year journey to collect the stories of ethnic Americans for whom gardening is tantamount to cultural endurance. Survivors of the Pol Pot regime fled the killing fields of Cambodia for the healing fields of New England, while the Yankee inheritor of land wrested generations ago from Native Americans during the infamous Pequot Massacre of 1637 atones for that atrocity through the simple act of sharing seeds of corn with the tribe's descendants. Klindienst profiles 15 valiant and thoughtful gardeners intent on preserving their native birthright and on restoring and protecting their adopted land, individuals and families evincing a stewardship that not only resists cultural absorption but also sustains an ecological imperative. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Publishers Weekly
Eco-economic theory calls for harmony between our economy and natural resources. Our current, untenable, profit-focused economic model, says Brown (Building a Sustainable Society), depletes forests, oil, farmland, topsoil, water, atmosphere and species beyond a sustainable level. Brown, founding director of the Earth Policy Institute, uses the Sumerians as an antimodel: as the land was overworked, water sources eventually disappeared. And he uses forestry as a counterexample: forests secure land and store water, acting as natural dams. Logging delivers paychecks, but doesn't consider flood damage from tree loss. Eco-economists would say that the logger and the town, while temporarily profiting, pay more in the end in rising insurance costs, flood damage to homes and infrastructure, increased taxes and disaster relief funds. The goal, presented here in convincing detail, is to design a profitable economy that accurately reflects the social cost of abuse of resources. Brown suggests shifting "taxes from income to environmentally destructive activities, such as carbon emissions." Individuals and towns should receive tax breaks for deploying solar and wind-generated power. However receptive to Brown's excellent, sophisticated proposals, many readers will wonder how they can become reality; for eco-economics to work, all world leaders would need to agree on what makes practices environmentally unsound. (Nov. 5) Forecast: In light of the current administration's poor reputation for eco-concern and its withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, Brown's book will do well among students, activists and the growing environmental movement. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information