American Environmentalism: Readings In Conservation History

Book Description

This collection of readings contains comprehensive primary and secondary works in the field of conservation, emphasizes the history of ideas and attitudes about conservation, and gives a chronology of important conservation events in U.S. history from the beginning to the present. Edited by a national leader in the fields of conservation, environmental management, and education, this well-organized anthology is appropriate for courses dealing with American environmental studies and ecology.

Customer Reviews:

A worthy addition to the tree-hugger's bookshelf.......2001-06-14

What a joy to see that this book is back in print! When our nature book discussion group chose it as a monthly selection several years ago, we had to scramble to find copies. I was one of the lucky ones who got one, read it all, and underlined a whole slew of passages for later reference.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"Man is everywhere a disturbing agent. Wherever he plants his foot, the harmonies of nature are turned to discords." (George Perkins Marsh, 1864)

"Environment is to the would-be cultured man what air is to the animal -- it is the breath of life." (Benton MacKaye, 1928)

"When you have reached the edge of an abyss ... the only progressive move you can make is to step backward." (David R. Brower, 1977)

Then the compiler adds his answer to the question "Why do we love wilderness?" by giving seven reasons: scientific value, spiritual values, aesthetic value, heritage value, psychological value, cultural value, and intrinsic value. His explanations make this selection the one I most often pass on to other people. (Roderick Frazier Nash, 1988)

My advice is to buy this book as a present for your favorite environmentalist friend. Sure, you could go instead with _The Quotable Nature Lover_, a Nature Conservancy book edited by John A. Murray. But _American Environmentalism_ puts those kinds of quotes back into context; the editor not only provides full text but also explains what was going on at the time of its writing. Selections are arranged chronologically and are short enough to hold anyone's interest. And we're not talking just Thoreau, Muir, Carson and Leopold here, as the excerpts above show. There are names you might not recognize at first glance. Amateur environmentalists can use this compilation as a starting point for further reading, as full citations are always provided. Though it's not entirely current (1989) this book is still useful.

Give it to a graduating senior, or to anyone else who has the potential to save the planet. They'll be inspired.

A good reader.......2000-05-23

This isn't the type of book someone could pick up and get a good view of the American Environmental movement. It does well in teaching about past movements but ignores modern movements like Environmental Justice and the controversy surrounding Market Based Incentives. It is a good book for teaching if coupled with extra material as it is very readable and interesting.

Economics of the Environment: Selected Readings, Fifth Edition

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Economics of the Environment: Selected Readings, Fifth Edition

Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Environmental and Natural Resource Economics (7th Edition)
Environmental And Natural Resource Economics: A Contemporay Approach.
Environmental Economics
Environmental Economics
Public Policies for Environmental Protection (RFF Press)

ASIN: 0393927016

Book Description

Over its previous four editions, Economics of the Environment has established itself as the standard student reader for environmental economics courses. A rich complement to other texts, this accessible reader provides a balanced selection of classic and contemporary readings to firmly ground students' understanding in the field's primary literature. The Fifth Edition has been carefully reorganized; over a third of the selections are new.

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A worthwhile read.
We are drawn to the natural world--but why?
Macro Thoughts from a "Micro" World
READ THIS BOOK
Informative

The Future of Life
Edward O. Wilson
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Diversity of Life
The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
On Human Nature
Nature Revealed: Selected Writings, 1949-2006

ASIN: 0679450785
Release Date: 2002-01-08

Amazon.com

The eminent Harvard naturalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Wilson marshals all the prodigious powers of his intellect and imagination in this impassioned call to ensure the future of life. Opening with an imagined conversation with Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond, he writes that he has come "to explain to you, and in reality to others and not least to myself, what has happened to the world we both have loved." Based on a love affair with the natural world that spans 70 years, Wilson combines lyrical descriptions with dire warnings and remarkable stories of flora and fauna on the edge of extinction with hard economics. How many species are we really losing? Is environmentalism truly contrary to economic development? And how can we save the planet? Wilson has penned an eloquent plea for the need for a global land ethic and offers the strategies necessary to ensure life on earth based on foresight, moral courage, and the best tools that science and technology can provide. -- Lesley Reed

Book Description

From one of the world’s most influential scientists (and two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning author) comes his most timely and important book yet: an impassioned call for quick and decisive action to save Earth’s biological heritage, and a plan to achieve that rescue.

Today we understand that our world is infinitely richer than was ever previously guessed. Yet it is so ravaged by human activity that half its species could be gone by the end of the present century. These two contrasting truths—unexpected magnificence and underestimated peril—have become compellingly clear during the past two decades of research on biological diversity.

In this dazzlingly intelligent and ultimately hopeful book, Wilson describes what treasures of the natural world we are about to lose forever—in many cases animals, insects, and plants we have only just discovered, and whose potential to nourish us, protect us, and cure our illnesses is immeasurable—and what we can do to save them. In the process, he explores the ethical and religious bases of the conservation movement and deflates the myth that environmental policy is antithetical to economic growth by illustrating how new methods of conservation can ensure long-term economic well-being.

The Future of Life is a magisterial accomplishment: both a moving description of our biosphere and a guidebook for the protection of all its species, including humankind.

Download Description

From one of the world's most influential scientists (and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author) comes his most timely and important book yet: an impassioned call for quick and decisive action to save Earth's biological heritage, and a plan to achieve that rescue.

Today we understand that our world is infinitely richer than was ever previously guessed. Yet it is so ravaged by human activity that half its species could be gone by the end of the present century. These two contrasting truths -- unexpected magnificence and underestimated peril -- have become compellingly clear during the past two decades of research on biological diversity.

In this dazzlingly intelligent and ultimately hopeful book, Wilson describes what treasures of the natural world we are about to lose forever -- in many cases animals, insects, and plants we have only just discovered, and whose potential to nourish us, protect us, and cure our illnesses is immeasurable -- and what we can do to save them. In the process, he explores the ethical and religious bases of the conservation movement and deflates the myth that environmental policy is antithetical to economic growth by illustrating how new methods of conservation can ensure long-term economic well-being.

The Future of Life is a magisterial accomplishment: both a moving description of our biosphere and a guidebook for the protection of all its species, including humankind.

"In The Future of Life, E.O. Wilson delivers an impassioned plea for a new human ethic based on a wiser, more careful stewardship of our vanishing natural world. Wilson invites us to share his optimism that we still have an opportunity to save the living things and wild places that sustain us and give us hope."
   KATHRYN S. FULLER, PRESIDENT, WORLD WILDLIFE FUND

Customer Reviews:

A worthwhile read........2007-08-23

You can tell that Wilson is a talented sceintist, but if you are somewhat versed in ecology you won't learn much new. It might be just that this 2001 book is (gasp!) already a bit dated.

We are drawn to the natural world--but why?.......2007-06-05

This remarkable volume is one of a series of books in which Wilson sets forth the nature of life on earth, the preciousness of biodiversity and the significance of its loss to the planet. He also tries to suggest value systems and pathways for humanity to surmount its present environmental crises and achieve sustainability.

E. O. Wilson has won many prizes for his scientific accomplishments. He is the creator of entire scientific fields and a discoverer of new species. Wilson discovered 341 new species of ants, thereby more than doubling the number in the genus and increasing the known fauna of ants in the Western Hemisphere 10 percent.

But the subjects Wilson is getting into now are not quite science, not quite ethics, not quite politics, but rather exist in a realm of thought that blends all of them and even touches upon religion.

One of his most interesting ideas is the notion of biophilia--a sense of genetic unity, kinship, and deep history that bonds us to the living environment. Wilson even poses the notion that biophilia is a survival mechanism for ourselves and our species. To conserve biodiversity is an investment in immortality.

Wilson sees habitat selection as a prominent component of biophilia. People prefer to be in natural environments, and especially in savanna or parklike habitats. While there's no direct genetic basis of the human habitat preference, its presence is suggested by a consistency in its manifestation across cultures. In this we are no different from other species--every species that moves under its own power, from protozoans to chimpanzees, instinctively seeks the habitat it must occupy in order to survive and reproduce. If biophilia is truly part of human nature, if it is truly an instinct, we should be able to find evidence of a positive effect of the natural world and other organisms on health.

We have a deeply felt need not just to be in nature, but to preserve it because we need nature, and particularly wilderness. For Wilson, it is the alien world that gave rise to our species, and the home to which we can safely return. It offers choices our spirit was designed to enjoy.

The biophilia hypothesis would certainly explain certain elements of human behavior: our need for the pleasantness of landscapes like Central Park, for example, or the pleasure that we feel around waterfalls and lakes, or the desire to surround ourselves with houseplants, or the giving of floral arrangements as gifts and to mark special occasions. It could even be at the root of the pastoral element in our literature, the love of natural scenery, and the underlying attractiveness of landscape paintings. The implications of biophilia for preventive medicine are substantial. Loss of connectedness to the biosphere might be seen as productive of stress and causative of stress-derived illnesses.

Together with a small group of biologists Wilson is responsible for creating concern about the dramatic biodiversity loss or decline in the number of species that earth is now undergoing -- a loss that equals and may even exceed the biodiversity loss when dinosaurs went extinct due to a cataclysm on the magnitude of an asteroid striking the planet.

In this little book Wilson offers an explanation for why we are drawn to the natural world and why, for some of us at least, every entrance into a wild environment rekindles awakening, awareness and excitement.

Macro Thoughts from a "Micro" World.......2007-04-06

The prologue alone is worth the price of this book. The rest is pure, delicious gravy and icing.
Buy it!!

READ THIS BOOK.......2007-01-25

It's time, E.O. Wilson declares, to make some changes before we lose this planet to our own devices. Do yourself a favor: read this book.

Informative.......2007-01-02

Edward O. Wilson provides a very detailed explanation of the environmental issues facing our society. Although it is repetitive at times, it provides many facts from an important environmentalist's view.
Wilson raises some very important issues which must be resolved in order to preserve biodiversity. This is not an embellished optimistic view for the future, but rather the grim realization that humans must act now in order to preserve the future of life. Overall, it was a very informative, yet somewhat, long winded report of environmental problems.

Getting to the Source: Readings on Sustainable Values

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Getting to the Source: Readings on Sustainable Values

Manufacturer: SunPine Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Humanity's Environmental Future: Making Sense in a Troubled World

ASIN: 0974446114

Book Description

The environmental crisis has returned to public consciousness in a big way, with Al Gore and Senator John Kerry talking it up. The long history of environmental awareness in the U.S. has been punctuated by stunning essays from a variety of environmental writers, from Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson to E.O. Wilson and Daniel Quinn. The newly discounted Getting to the Source contains a rich sampling from the literature on environmental values. The book offers a collection of thirty essays by prominent environmental writers. The contributions have been selected for their relevance to the philosophical and ethical aspects of the subject, for their eloquence in expressing Earth values, and for their special insights and understandings of what we must do to create a sustainable future for humanity. Samples of the writings of environmental luminaries such as Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, E. O. Wilson, Wendell Berry, and Garrett Hardin are provided, along with contributions from many additional writers, offering a variety of perspectives. The issues discussed are critical in framing public policy and informing debate on future directions. Setting the stage for the essays to follow, environmental writer Bill McKibben offers this provocative opening statement: "The fate of our planet will be determined in the next few decades, through our technological, lifestyle, and population choices." McKibben's article provides an eloquent assessment of humanity's predicament and offers suggestions for how we might extricate ourselves from it. News reporter Dianne Dumanoski describes the state of our global environment and assesses the effectiveness of human actions to protect it, offering strong words of criticism for the environmental movement. After over thirty years of effort, a few things are better but many more are worse, and getting worse at an accelerating pace. "What went wrong?", she asks. Additional essays-on growth by Al Bartlett, extinction by E. O. Wilson, the peaking of world oil production by Kenneth Deffeyes, and the overall decimation of the environment at the hands of humans by Gene Marine-illustrate the depth of the difficulties we face. Daniel Quinn, author of Ishmael, begins his essay with this provocative statement: "During your lifetime, the people of our culture are going to figure out how to live sustainably on this planet--or they're not." He claims that the transition to sustainability, if it occurs will be a "new rennaissance," a shift of thinking the likes of which we have not seen since 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.

Average customer rating:

Hope for Co-existence
An outstanding book
Smart and moving and insightful.

Reading the Mountains of Home
John Elder
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Place You Love Is Gone (Progress Hits Home)
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The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

ASIN: 0674748891

Amazon.com

Late in life, the American novelist and conservationist Wallace Stegner left California, where he had lived for half a century, to move to Vermont. The reason, he said, was simple: there is more wilderness to be found in the pine forests of western New England than in the Far West. John Elder supports Stegner's claim, writing in Reading the Mountains of Home that the abandoned farmsteads of so many of Robert Frost's Vermont poems have now reverted to wild lands, dense with fallen logs and snags, full of bird and animal life.

A longtime resident of the state, Elder uses Frost's great but little-known poem "Directive" as a touchstone by which to guide his discussion of how modern humans can truly inhabit a landscape--in this case, a landscape that had been developed for generations and then all but forgotten. In such places, Elder writes, the issue is not one of wilderness versus civilization, that old trope, but the wildness that endures at the edges of settled places, wildness that is accessible to people all around the world. His celebration of returning greenness, of the forest's seasons, and of his own life in the woods makes for engaging reading indeed. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Small farms once occupied the heights that John Elder calls home, but now only a few cellar holes and tumbled stone walls remain among the dense stands of maple, beech, and hemlocks on these Vermont hills. Reading the Mountains of Homeis a journey into these verdant reaches where in the last century humans tried their hand and where bear and moose now find shelter. As John Elder is our guide, so Robert Frost is Elder's companion, his great poem "Directive" seeing us through a landscape in which nature and literature, loss and recovery, are inextricably joined.

Over the course of a year, Elder takes us on his hikes through the forested uplands between South Mountain and North Mountain, reflecting on the forces of nature, from the descent of the glaciers to the rush of the New Haven River, that shaped a plateau for his village of Bristol; and on the human will that denuded and farmed and abandoned the mountains so many years ago. His forays wind through the flinty relics of nineteenth-century homesteads and Abenaki settlements, leading to meditations on both human failure and the possibility for deeper communion with the land and others.

An exploration of the body and soul of a place, an interpretive map of its natural and literary life, Reading the Mountains of Home strikes a moving balance between the pressures of civilization and the attraction of wilderness. It is a beautiful work of nature writing in which human nature finds its place, where the reader is invited to follow the last line of Frost's "Directive," to "Drink and be whole again beyond confusion."

Customer Reviews:

Hope for Co-existence.......2002-09-27

This is an unusual book. John Elder has written a book that blends the rhythms of life with the rhythms of nature.

Using Robert Frost's poem "Directive" as a springboard, Elder guides the reader through a series of year-long hikes that provide a rare glimpse into the writer soul, family and surroundings. His musings transport the reader from the glaciers that shaped his the plateau for the Village of Bristol, VT., the farmers who struggled and more often than not, failed to scratch a living from the rocky soil that surrounds his adopted home.

He carries us from broken china to Abenaki settlements, meditating on family relationships and deeper relationships with the land.

This is a beautiful example of nature writing, a work that draws a balance between the machinations of civilization and the beauties of wilderness. By inviting the reader to follow the last line of Frost's "Directive," to "Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.", Elder creates a sense of hope that Vermont's balance between nature and culture can speak to the rest of the nation.

An outstanding book.......1998-10-31

I have read many of the reviews of Reading the Mountains of Home--both before and after I studied the book itself--in various magazines and newspapers, and, while many of them summarize accurately and manage to convey fairly clearly its complex and compelling structures, the musical grace of the sentences, the unique of John Elder's vision about the interlinking of language and place and time and family, of Robert Frost's "Directive" and of the concept of wilderness in America. There is a sense also in which he has taken nature writing--a broad genre forever in evolution--and brought it to new heights through this creative interweaving.

But what I notice most is the book's quiet heroism. By this I mean simply that the author exhibits the courage to put all of his deepest convictions, his most strongly held beliefs, the raw stuff of his very life in a place for all to see. One does not see this very often in books. We need more writers like John Elder. We need people like John Elder, people who have the courage to write from the deepest parts of themselves for the greater good of all of us and the larger home we call earth. If there were six stars I would give it six stars.

Smart and moving and insightful........1998-07-25

I learned much about New England from this fine book -- and about Robert Frost.

Will We Miss Them?: Endangered Species (Reading Rainbow Book)

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Yes, We Will Miss Them!

Will We Miss Them?: Endangered Species (Reading Rainbow Book)
Alexandra Wright
Manufacturer: Tandem Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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Canoe Days

ASIN: 0833592483

Customer Reviews:

Yes, We Will Miss Them!.......2000-02-16

I read this book for the first time in my English Block in college. I read this book and I was amazed that a sixth grader could compose something so wonderful and informative. It really enlightens students to know that there are authors that are their ages. It is on a level that students can understand. Furthermore (I think)this book can be used beyond the middle schools and into higher education to let others know what's going on in nature.

Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message (Reading Rainbow Book)

Average customer rating:

Good, but not what I ecpected
Very Pleased
A truly wonderful book.
Perfect Way to Teach Gratitude
This book is AWESOME!

Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message (Reading Rainbow Book)
Jake Swamp
Manufacturer: Lee & Low Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1880000156

Customer Reviews:

Good, but not what I ecpected.......2006-11-11

Accourding to the reviews this is an excellent book, which I agree with. It is beautifull in illustration and story. But if you are christian this book is not for you. It glorifies the Indian beliefs, which is fine, but not for our family. So I had to make a trip to the postoffice to return it. None of the other reviews mention this, they just note that it is a very thankfull book. If you worship nature this is for you, if you worship Jesus this is not.

Very Pleased.......2005-11-11

This is a simple book to read through for younger children. Written by native Americans it is a "thanksgiving" book from their point of view, why native americans have always celebrated thanksgiving. It has no mention of pilgrams or not fully proven, overly romanticized stories as most thanksgivings are but simply a beautiful description of the season, the great harvest and respect for the world around them. A book of why the Native Americans Gave thanks during this beautiful season.

A truly wonderful book........2004-07-10

A simple but truly beautiful and wonderful book. To read with your children every morning and express thanks to the world, promoting connectedness and deep respect of all things. Teaching our children these important words will doubtlessly take us through these rough times and make the world as beautiful and peaceful as it was intended to be.

Perfect Way to Teach Gratitude.......2001-08-23

Anyone looking to teach the concept of Gratitude to children need look no further. "Giving Thanks" is the answer. The words, culled from the Thanksgiving Address (an ancient Iroquois message of gratitude still used today) simply, directly and eloquently give a roll-call of thanks from the Earth to the Sun and everything in-between. They evoke warm, inviting, even mythic images that I believe will delight most children. A personal, friendly face is put upon the elements that are usually looked at through the cold, impersonal microscope of science. The sun, moon, thunder and lightning, and even dead ancestors are transformed into Brother Sun, Grandmother Moon, Grandfather Thunder Beings and the Spirit Protectors, respectively.

The world is simply and beautifully explained not as a big, scary one, but a warm, familiar one in twenty short pages. Even children too young to read will benefit thanks to the bright, colorful painting-like artwork by Irwin Printup, Jr. Every page brilliantly shines with the face of Grandmother Moon and the haunting reassurance of the Spirit Protectors. Its a great gift for classrooms, birthdays, holidays or just to to teach this valuable virtue. Highly recommended!

This book is AWESOME!.......1999-11-10

I was blown away by this book and was proud to add it to my bookshelf. I am glad that publishers are letting REAL Native American writers and artists tell our own stories our own way. The Thanksgiving Address is a central component of Mohawk culture and I was proud to see this in the hands of my children. This and SKYWOMAN by Joanne Shenandoah, Douglas George, John Fadden and Dave Fadden have set a new standard in the publishing of Native American culture and art. Now, if only some publisher would accept the challenge to do the same with Native American history...(hint hint!)

The West European Party System (Oxford Readings in Politics and Government)

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The West European Party System (Oxford Readings in Politics and Government)

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy

ASIN: 0198275838

Book Description

The analysis of party systems in Western Europe has long constituted a major focus of concern in comparative political science. Now for the first time, many of the classic writings in this field have been collected into a single volume. The collection contains seminal writings by Weber,
Neumann, Duverger, Kirchheimer, Daalder, Rokkan, and Sartori, as well as a selection from the more recent debates on changes in European party systems, including the contributions of Pedersen, Wolinetz, and Inglehart. The writings cover the development, stabilization, and transformation of party
systems and include some of the key analyses which have sought to distinguish between different types of party systems.

The Mountains of California (Modern Library Classics)

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Sensuous detail and immediacy
What inspiration...
Muir, from Shasta to San Diego, but mostly in the Sierras.
the world of muir

The Mountains of California (Modern Library Classics)
John Muir
Manufacturer: Modern Library
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Binding: Paperback

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Land of Little Rain
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ASIN: 0375758194
Release Date: 2001-09-11

Book Description

When John Muir traveled to California in 1868, he found the pristine mountain ranges that would inspire his life’s work. The Mountains of California is the culmination of the ten years Muir spent in the Sierra Nevadas, studying every crag, crook, and valley with great care and contemplation.

Bill McKibben writes in his Introduction that Muir "invents, by sheer force of his love, an entirely new vocabulary and grammar of the wild . . . a language of ecstasy and exuberance."

The Mountains of California is as vibrant and vital today as when it was written over a century ago.

This Modern Library Paperback Classic includes the photographs and line drawings from the original 1898 edition.

Download Description

There are two trees in the Sierra forests that are never blown down, so long as they continue in sound health. These are the Juniper and the Dwarf Pine of the summit peaks. Their stiff, crooked roots grip the storm-beaten ledges like eagles' claws, while their lithe, cord-like branches bend round compliantly, offering but slight holds for winds, however violent. The other alpine conifers--the Needle Pine, Mountain Pine, Two-leaved Pine, and Hemlock Spruce--are never thinned out by this agent to any destructive extent, on account of their admirable toughness and the closeness of their growth. In general the same is true of the giants of the lower zones.

Customer Reviews:

Sensuous detail and immediacy.......2006-03-12

The question is not whether Muir is a terrific writer-but how he got that way, and secondarily, why it is important. The Mountains of California was his first book, published in 1894, and was an instant success. This book contains not just some of the best nature writing, but for its vividness, immediacy and vision some of the best writing in English in any genre. Modern Library's edition is quite special with its introduction to Muir by Bill McKibbon and about 50 illustrations, though I wished there were better maps for following the footsteps of Muir's many great narratives among the fabulous natural wonders of the Sierras.

Muir succeeds in his writing in ways that Emerson and Thoreau fall short. Emerson's nature is an internal construct, almost a habit of mind. Thoreau conveys something of the immediacy of Muir in selected writing (and he, like Muir, actually immerses himself in nature itself), but his writings and especially his journals seem chaotic at times and lack a unifying vision.

Muir, on the other hand, always draws the reader forward from one vision to another, each one more fantastic than the previous.

My favorite passages are his descent into the Merced Glacier (in "the Glaciers"), and his description of being on the high slopes during a major windstorm when he climbs a swaying pine to get an even better look. His description of the Giant Sequoia is a work of great subtlety and richness--I seriously doubt you will find a more enchanting description of the two California Species of Sequoia anywhere.

This work abounds with rich and sensuous passages that are descriptions of actual experiences in over a decade of exploring, mostly alone, in the high Sierras. The strength of Muir's writing is based on the depth of his emotional experience of nature-his very personal relationship to the whole and many specific animals, trees and features of the landscape. You would say that it's mystical except for the fact that it's very sensual and very concrete. Muir employs religious language though he never becomes ethereal or abstract as Emerson sometimes does. The reader is always right in the immediate moment of the present listening to Muir's voice. And that suggests another reason why this writing is great. Muir's Scottish heritage (he was born in Dunbar Scotland in 1838) has provided him with a rich, luxurious and slightly exotic vocabulary for describing all the natural wonders that he sees, feels, and hears. It's a voice like no other in American writing.

Of course, the reason it is important is because of what Muir spawned through his vision and experience-he was the true creator of the conservation movement leading to modern environmentalism. I should say that this work is all luxurious description and scientific discussion and rarely becomes didactic or preachy-as modern environmental writers sometimes do. It is not fashionable to think that one person of vision can create so much;but it's hard to conclude otherwise about Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, after reading this work.

What inspiration..........2003-11-11

As a Birder, I spend a lot of time travelling outdoors.I also have a large collection of Bird and Nature books and spend a great amount of time in them.For pure enjoyment;I found this one of the finest.Muir was as one of America,s greatest partakers in and writers of Nature and Enviroment and was in every way as much a giant as the Sequois and Mountains he wrore about.I read this Classic a short time before I visited Yosemite National Park and having done so,encreased my enjoyment and appreciation immeasurably.
After many years of reading,I have come to the conclusion ,that I tend to like books about people I would liked to have known,or to spend some time with.What an experience it would have been to have known and travelled with Muir. While that is impossible;at least we have his writings and can dream.

Muir, from Shasta to San Diego, but mostly in the Sierras........2002-03-22

Some say this is Muir's finest work. As the only other Muir book I've read (at this writing) is Travels in Alaska, I cannot comment on this, other than to say that I enjoyed this book a great deal.
From almost any vantage point in California, whether near or on a distant horizon, there are mountains. A fact not lost on Muir, whose sense of wonder and love of life endear him to his readers.
"God's glacial-mills grind slowly, but they have been kept in motion long enough in California to grind sufficient soil for a glorious abundance of life ... In so wild and so beautiful a region [was spent my day], every sight and sound inspiring, leading one far out of himself, yet feeding and building up his individuality."
Muir was the consummate man in nature. Anyone who is indifferent to Muir's writing may simply be indifferent to wonderment itself. I have no doubt that if Muir were placed in a room with the great kings and generals and tycoons and empire builders of history, he would appear singularly as a man among men. Unimpressed with their pomp and bluster over rotting empire, he might soon command more attention than they, and many would be happily listening to Muir in spite of their self importance. Why? He would have the most interesting insights, offered poetically and in a most humble and charming way. ... (in fact Muir was sought out by the great politicians and philosophers of his day).
If you like mountains, if you like California, if you like trees and glacier-fed streams, you will like this book.

the world of muir.......2001-09-27

muir describes the sierras with detail and love. he is one of the few authors who is content just to be in and describe a landscape. and what a description!. he describes the evolution of glaciaral lakes to the hights of mount ritter and the migrations of deer and native peoples. a great book i recoment it to anyone who loves the outdoors.

The Outward Bound Earthbook: Activities and Readings for Enviromental Education, Appreciation and Celebration, Third Edition

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The Outward Bound Earthbook: Activities and Readings for Enviromental Education, Appreciation and Celebration, Third Edition

Manufacturer: Menasha Ridge Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0897321952

Book Description

The Outward Bound EARTHBOOK is a field guide to environmental concerns compiled from activities created by Outward Bound staff. It is intended to assist any teacher or parent, and any student or friend of Nature, who wants to learn about, teach about, better understand, more fully appreciate, and participate in healing our environment.

Dozens of activities provide leaders and students an opportunity for experiential education about ecological issues. The EARTHBOOK's perspective is eco-centered rather than human-centered. Thus the EARTHBOOK challenges us to realize our connections with each other and with the planet which sustains us.

The EARTHBOOK is not just a book of activities. It can be used as a book of readings - it includes many quotations from great naturalists of the past and present as well as reflections from Outward Bound students. These readings can be shared around a campfire, contemplated in solitude, or discussed in a classroom. They serve as inspiration for each of us as we seek our own unique relationship with Nature.

All royalties from the sale of this book will be used for environmental education projects.

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