World Resources 2000-2001 People and Ecosystems: The Fraying Web of Life (World Resources)

Book Description

Ecosystems are the productive engines of the planet, providing us with everything from the water we drink to the food we eat and the fiber we use for clothing, paper, and lumber. Yet nearly every measure used to assess the health of ecosystems indicates that we are drawing on them more than ever, while degrading them at an accelerating rate.

How then can we best manage our vital ecosystems-and reduce our own impacts-so that they remain healthy and productive in the face of increasing human demands? Governments and businesses will first have to rethink some basic assumptions about how we measure and plan economic growth, taking into account the natural limits that sustain our ecosystems. This volume brings together the critical information about the condition and long-term prospects of our ecosystems that will be needed to make responsible decisions about their future.

Focusing on five critical systems (croplands, forests, coastal zones, freshwater systems, and grasslands) the book analyzes the value of goods and services currently provided by our ecosystems and their capacity to continue production. It goes on to recommend sweeping changes for managing these biological underpinnings of the global economy and human well-being, including: respecting the natural boundaries of ecosystems and managing them as one complete system, rather that as separate entities; regularly assessing the condition of our ecosystems and studying the processes that underlie their capacity to sustain life; assembling information that allows a careful weighing of tradeoffs between ecosystem goods and services and environmental, political, social, and economic goals; and including the public-particularly local communities-in the management of ecosystems.

A joint publication of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, and World Resources Institute

Customer Reviews:

Information and Data Supporting Environmental Issues.......2002-11-01

This is the Millennium Edition (9th) in a series, which is a biennial (every-other year), comprehensive review of the critical issues and challenges facing the world's environmental leaders. The work is compiled by the researchers and staff of the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Bank, and the World Resources Institute. World Resources provides surveys of current conditions and historical trends in major areas of concern and resource areas. The 2000-2001 edition of World Resources addresses the issues and concerns confronting the Earth's ecosytems. Individual chapters address the study of specific ecosystem types (e.g., agricultural coastal, forest, freshwater, grasslands)and analyzes the problems inherent in each. These analyses are described in the context of the ecosystem approach from identification of concerns to their resolution. Supporting trends data are provided for a variety of critical issues: Biodiversity and Protected Areas; Forests and Grasslands; Coastal, Marine, and Inland Waters; Agriculture and Food; Freshwater; Atmosphere and Climate; Energy and Resource Use; Population and Human Development; Basic Economic Indicators; and Small Nations and Islands. This work is an essential resource for understanding the scientific and technical basis of the major environmental and natural resources issues with which we deal at local, regional, national, and global levels. Sections are clearly written for an understanding by non-scientists and scholars reading this outside of their discipline of expertise. Extensive footnotes, maps, charts, and data tables are provided. Data also available in CD-ROM formats. This is an essential environmental reference work. Because of its thoroughness, ease of use, comprehensive coverage, and cost, this book should be on the shelf of ALL acacdemic, public, school (grade 6 and above), government agency, corporate, and other special libraries. Researchers (engineering, life, physical, policy, and social sciences), decision makers, educators, and students will find this a truly impressive ready-reference source for their own bookshelves as well.

Voices from the Amazon (Kumarian Press Books for a World That Works)

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Brazilian peoples fighting to survive in the AMAZON
Effective presentation of the views of ordinary Amazonians.

Voices from the Amazon (Kumarian Press Books for a World That Works)
Binka Le Breton
Manufacturer: Kumarian Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Human Farm: A Tale of Changing Lives and Changing Lands (Kumarian Press Books for a World That Works)

ASIN: 1565490215

Book Description

The author takes us on a trek through one of the earth's last great frontiers and reveals the complexity of the lives and the problems facing the Amazon and its inhabitants.

Customer Reviews:

Brazilian peoples fighting to survive in the AMAZON.......2000-12-02

This very readable and well researched book explains the daily struggles of the people who actually live in the rainforest: the Indians, the rubber tappers, the loggers, the ranchers, the miners, and the river people. The author traveled across the vast Amazon areas to talk with the forest people and hear their stories. This book is very moving because it offers a real insight into the lives of the people that are suffering them most from the destruction of the rainforest. That the forest peoples trusted Ms. Lebreton is wonderful, and the stories they share are truly fascinating. Kudos to LeBreton for making the somewhat dangerous trek across the country of Brazil so that readers could have an accurate and honest view of the problems that plague the area.

Effective presentation of the views of ordinary Amazonians........1998-12-29

This book does a fine job of letting the ordinary men & women of Brazilian Amazonia speak for themselves. While it does not have the analytical or scholarly depth of some other books on the subject (e.g. Hecht & Cockburn's "Fate of the Forest"), its strength comes from the author's ability to listen to the people she meets. For both the general public & college undergraduates, it is a handy & accessible introduction to issues of environment & development in Latin America. It definitely stimulated discussions in my course on Global Environmental History, & it would work equally well in courses on Modern Latin America.

Shifting Ground: The Changing Agricultural Soils of China and Indonesia

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Innovative use of archival data for soil degradation trends
Shifting Ground uses doubtful methodology

Shifting Ground: The Changing Agricultural Soils of China and Indonesia
Peter H. Lindert
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0262122278

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In this book Peter Lindert evaluates environmental concerns about soil degradation in two very large countries--China and Indonesia--where anecdotal evidence has suggested serious problems. Lindert does what no scholar before him has done: using new archival data sets, he measures changes in soil productivity over long enough periods of time to reveal the influence of human activity.

China and Indonesia are good test cases because of their geography and history. China has been at the center of global concerns about desertification and water erosion, which it may have accelerated with intense agriculture. Most of Indonesia¹s lands were created by volcanoes and erosion, and its rapid deforestation and shifting slash-burn agriculture have been singled out for international censure.

Lindert's investigation suggests that human mismanagement is not on average worsening the soil quality in China and Indonesia. Human cultivation lowers soil nitrogen and organic matter, but has offsetting positive effects. Economic development and rising incomes may even lead to better soil. Beyond the importance of Lindert's immediate findings, this book opens a new area of study--quantitative soil history--and raises the standard for debating soil trends.

Customer Reviews:

Innovative use of archival data for soil degradation trends.......2002-05-17

The title of the book is an allusion to the widely known and influential Losing Ground by Eckholm (1976), one of the early doom-sayers, who like several writers after him warned of the dangers of soil erosion and the impending calamity in food security. Lindert came, with respect to China and Indonesia, to a different conclusion which is partly unconvincing. He deals with arable soils only, representing a small percentage of the total area. His methodology of using archival soil analyses is innovative, but using data for total P and total K and an uncommon statistical analysis, makes the findings very doubtful and unconvincing. The overall picture is more complicated, with patchy improvements as concluded here, but also with well documented severe local erosion and desertification examples, disregarded in this treatment. Recommended for a serious evaluation and as a challenge for obtaining better data for such trend analyses.

Shifting Ground uses doubtful methodology.......2002-01-24

I wrote a rather critical review, but it disappeared from the screen. Please recover it.

In Situ Soil Remediation (Soil & Environment)

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Review from Soil Science

In Situ Soil Remediation (Soil & Environment)
A.M. Otten , Arne Alphenaar , Charles Pijls , Frank Spuij , and Han de Wit
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792346351

Book Description

In situ remediation techniques have experienced a boom over the last few years, thereby producing a wide range of valuable experiences. Their results have demonstrated that in situ techniques are a mature alternative to conventional remediation techniques. Irrespective of future policy developments, it is impossible to imagine future remediation practice without the use of in situ techniques. The book presents an overview of recent developments in the field of in situ soil remediation. The book is unique in that it is not a compilation of unrelated case studies. A conceptual approach has been chosen; remediation models described in this book are illustrated from a practical point of view. The authors present the Dutch way of treating contaminated land; The Netherlands is renowned for being at the forefront of remediation techniques as a result of the country's progressiveness and experience in this area.

Customer Reviews:

Review from Soil Science.......2002-08-06

"This well written, slim, Volume 6 in the Soil & Environment sweries presents a valuable introduction to the topic of in situ soil remediation...I would be glad to use this book fo the introductory course on remediation ofered to our professionals in the environmental field."
-by Peter F. Strom

Once There Were Greenfields: How Urban Sprawl is Undermining America's Environment, Economy, and Social Fabric

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American individualism run amok
Well-researched book on the pric e of sprawl
a brief against suburban sprawl
The definitive guide to sprawl and its solutions.

Once There Were Greenfields: How Urban Sprawl is Undermining America's Environment, Economy, and Social Fabric
F. Kaid Benfield , Matthew Raimi , and Donald D. T. Chen
Manufacturer: Nrdc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1893340171

Book Description

Once There Were Greenfields describes the environmental, economic, and social impacts of sprawl development. It also proposes guiding principles for a new kind of "smart growth."

Customer Reviews:

American individualism run amok.......2002-09-01

"Once There Were Greenfields" is the product of a small team of researchers working for The National Resouces Defense Council (NRDC) and the Surface Transportation Policy Project. The result is a well-researched, balanced and highly readable review of suburban sprawl and its effects on the community, economy and environment. It also suggests ways we might mitigate sprawl by opting for policies that encourage "smart growth", i.e. development that takes a holistic view of the community and its role within the larger society in which we all live.

With thorough documentation, charts and illustrations to support the author's work, one can easily imagine the book serving well as an introductory college textbook on the subject. It should also be welcomed by community activists and concerned citizens alike who may want to prepare themselves for intelligent discussion and engagement when faced with the problem of sprawl in their own local communities.

The authors discuss the numerous reasons why sprawl has become such a big problem in our country. Of course the closely related and interconnected topics of the American love affair with the automobile, the building of the interstate highway system and the dismantling of big city public transportation systems by General Motors are cited as factors that enabled and encouraged the post-WW II mass exodus from most major cities to their surrounding suburban areas. But the authors also point out that uncoordinated local governments generally make it difficult for America to develop comprehensive land use policies, allowing land developers and corporations to run amok and get what they wanted with respect to tax breaks, permits, and so on.

The end result is that businesses have found it only too easy to relocate to cheaper land outside the core cities (if not to foreign countries), setting in motion a cycle of urban decline that pushes even more people to the suburbs and the inexpensive houses available there.

The authors don't blame Americans for desiring the relatively clean air, open spaces, and safe schools and neighborhoods that suburbia purports to offer. But as the boundaries push ever outward, the benefits become ever more difficult to attain and a myriad of new problems emerge. For example, commuting costs -- in terms of both time and money -- can wipe out much of the savings on housing. The problem is compounded by the deleterious effects of stress to the psyche that are associated with driving ever longer distances to work. All of this extra driving also contributes enormously to the problems of both global warming and local air pollution. Significantly, local government budgets quickly become depleted trying to keep up with spiraling highway construction and maintenance costs.

The authors suggest remedies and also allude to success stories in places such as Portland, Oregon, the State of Maryland, and Europe to discuss some of the alternatives that may help contain sprawl. In each case, it seems that revitalizing and creating a truly livable inner city is integral to creating a winning strategy.

Whether the U.S. can truly reverse sprawl before most of its open spaces are consumed remain an open question, of course. One suspects that regional planners acting in the community's interest will have a tougher time reigining in the rugged, individualistic American than his or her European counterpart. But one has to wonder whether continuing to consume every two years over one million acres of open lands -- much of it valuable and irreplacable farmlands and wetlands -- should rightly be called progress, and what the consequences of this unwritten policy of perpetual destruction might hold for us in the long run.

In brief, this excellent book contains much for us to think about. It provides guidance and inspiration to those among us who dare to believe that a stronger community, a better environment, and a higher quality of life may indeed be possible without sprawl. Highly recommended.

Well-researched book on the pric e of sprawl.......2002-05-08

I strongly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in the effects of sprawl on our society. It is filled with information from a number of significant research studies. The book focuses on statistics, not opinion, to make its arguments against sprawl

a brief against suburban sprawl.......2000-02-29

If you want a fairly definitive guide to all the disadvantages of suburban sprawl, read this book. I also recommend it as a source guide, because it cites a lot of sources on both sides of the issue.

It does have some imperfections: it is very focused on environmental issues, so I wouldn't pretend that it is the definitive guide on other sprawl related problems (e.g. social justice issues), though it does address such issues to some extent. Also, I think it is a bit more biased towards "big government" solutions to sprawl than I would be if I were writing a book on the subject. But by and large, I recommend it.

The definitive guide to sprawl and its solutions........1999-04-16

What do road rage, farmland loss, inner-city poverty, and air pollution have in common? They are all part of "sprawl," a thoroughly American phenomenon of poorly-planned scattershot development.

"Once There Were Greenfields" provides a comprehensive review of sprawl: its causes, its consequences, and most importantly, its solutions. If Benfield's book had been printed 50 years ago, perhaps much of the destruction of America's farms and city centers would have been avoided.

The book reviews a number of public policies that favor unlimited consumption of land and drive development out of America's cities. Benfield reminds us that while most of the policy decisions that lead to sprawl are made at the state and local level, these decisions are often based on economic incentives created by federal activity. The sad fact is that our current patterns of low-density development are the result of fifty years of government policy decisions, direct government funding, and government-influenced private finance and credit decisions. In most American cities, the mix of these policies and market forces creates a strong economic push toward an ever-expanding suburbia at the expense of our core urban and inner suburban areas.

The results of sprawl have been disastrous for environmental quality and for the economic well-being of cities. Sprawl is even costly to suburban residents that unknowingly subsidize the process, such as the paving of more than one million acres of farmland per year, through increases in their property taxes and other mechanisms.

Despite the book's detailed review of policies ranging from taxation and transportation to agriculture and water quality, it remains extremely accessible. Newcomers to the issue that Vice President Gore has termed "Livability" will find "'Greenfields" a thoughtfully balanced primer. Land use professionals will appreciate the professionalism of the research and wealth of useful citations.

Customer Reviews:

THE foundational volume for political ecology.......2004-07-16

Why this volume has fallen out of print is unclear. B & B's "Land Degradation and Society" is simply the best (first?) foundational text for the sub-field of political ecology, in this case influencing a whole generation of geographers, anthropologists, sociologists, and political scientists. If you can get a rare, used copy, do so!
The case studies in this volume range from Western Europe, to the Himalayas, from rural to more or less urban contexts in explaining how REGIONAL political ecology can be useful in explaining environmental degradation. This was a treat of a book back in 1987, and remains so, despite its age. Get a copy where and when you can. EPP

Faking Nature: The Ethics of Environmental Restoration (Environmental Philosophies Series,)

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Faking Nature: The Ethics of Environmental Restoration (Environmental Philosophies Series,)
Robert Elliot
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415111404

Book Description

Robert Elliot offers a provocative insight into the ethical problems of environmental strategy. He explores the arguments surrounding the concept of ecological restoration and develops the groundwork laid by his highly acclaimed 1982 article, Faking Nature.

Ecological restoration is a crucial process in the modern world and is central to companies' environmental policy. Elliot considers whether areas restored after ecological destruction are less valuable than before the damage took place. Faking Nature observes the pros and cons of the argument and examines the role of humans in the natural world. This book is a timely analysis of the simultaneous destruction and restoration of the natural world and the ethics related to those processes, in an era of accelerated environmental damage and repair.

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Faking Nature explores the arguments surrounding the concept of ecological restoration.

Climate Variability And Water Resources Degradation in Kenya: Improving Water Resources Development And Management (World Bank Working Papers) (World Bank Working Papers)

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Climate Variability And Water Resources Degradation in Kenya: Improving Water Resources Development And Management (World Bank Working Papers) (World Bank Working Papers)
Samuel Gichere , Richard Davis , and Rafik Hirji
Manufacturer: World Bank Publications
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Binding: Paperback

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Product Description

The report, based on a complex analytical methodology, provides a clear economic rationale for investing in improved water resources development and management in Kenya. It is part of the World Banks policy dialogue on water resources management reforms and investment planning in Kenya. It focuses on the economic implications of two key factors that make the economy and people of Kenya highly vulnerablethe effects of climate variability and the steady degradation of the nations water resources. The 1997-2000 El Niño-La Niña episodes cost the country Ksh 290 billion, about 14 percent of GDP during the three year period. Given their regularity, over the long term, floods and droughts are estimated to cost the economy about Ksh 16 billion per annum (2.4 percent of GDP). This is a very serious drag on the countrys economic performance. Water resources degradation costs the country at least Ksh 3.3 billion (0.5 percent GDP) annually. The long term annual impact of 2.9 percent of GDP from these two factors has been developed conservatively. While it is not economic to avoid all costs, many of them can be minimized by increased investment in management and infrastructure and more efficient, accountable, and participatory management and operation of the water resource sector.

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"The report, based on a complex analytical methodology, provides a clear economic rationale for investing in improved water resources development and management in Kenya. It is part of the World Bank's policy dialogue on water resources management reforms and investment planning in Kenya. It focuses on the economic implications of two key factors that make the economy and people of Kenya highly vulnerable-the effects of climate variability and the steady degradation of the nation's water resources. The 1997-2000 El Niño-La Niña episodes cost the country Ksh 290 billion, about 14 percent of GDP during the three year period. Given their regularity, over the long term, floods and droughts are estimated to cost the economy about Ksh 16 billion per annum (2.4 percent of GDP). This is a very serious drag on the country's economic performance. Water resources degradation costs the country at least Ksh 3.3 billion (0.5 percent GDP) annually. The long term annual impact of 2.9 percent of GDP from these two factors has been developed conservatively. While it is not economic to avoid all costs, many of them can be minimized by increased investment in management and infrastructure and more efficient, accountable, and participatory management and operation of the water resource sector. "

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A Scientist Audits the Earth
Stuart L. Pimm
Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0813535409

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Praise for hardcover edition (as The World According to Pimm)

"Among ecologists who can apply their understanding of basic science to the modern human predicament, Stuart Pimm is one of the very best in the world today. He writes clearly, interestingly, and understandably. This book will interest literally everyone!"—Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel

"A dazzling tour d'horizon of the twenty-first century environment. The author informs us of the approaching fate of the natural world (including our own species) with uncommon scientific authority, style, and wit."—Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor, Harvard University

"This book explains environmental issues numerically to answer questions of whether humans will be better off in the next century . . .. Recommended."—Library Journal

Humans use 50 percent of the world's freshwater supply and consume 42 percent of its plant growth. We are liquidating animals and plants one hundred times faster than the natural rate of extinction. Such numbers should make it clear that our impact on the planet has been, and continues to be, extreme and detrimental. Yet even after decades of awareness of our environmental peril, there remains passionate disagreement over what the problems are and how they should be remedied.

Much of the impasse stems from the fact that the problems are difficult to quantify. How do we assess the impact of habitat loss on various species, when we haven't even counted them all? And just what factors go into that 42 percent of biomass we are hungrily consuming? It is only through an understanding of the numbers that we will be able to break that impasse and come to agreement on which environmental issues are most critical and how they might best be addressed.

Working on the front lines of conservation biology, Stuart Pimm is one of the pioneers whose work has put the "science" in environmental science. In this book, he appoints himself "investment banker of the global, biological accounts," checking the environmental statistics gathered by tireless scientists in work that is always painstaking and often heartbreaking. With wit, passion, and candor, he reveals the importance of understanding where these numbers come from and what they mean. To do so, he takes the reader on a globe-circling tour of our beautiful, but weary, planet from the volcanic mountains and rainforests of Hawai'i to the boreal forests of Siberia.

At times, the view looks rather grim. Yet Pimm, ever the optimist, presents a world filled with mysterious beauty, the infinite variety of nature, and an urgent hope that through an understanding of our planet's environmental past and present, we will be inspired to save it from future extinction.

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