# kb

id: questioning-collapse-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questioning_Collapse-0.md
category: reference
title: Questioning Collapse
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questioning_Collapse
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:54.801036+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: questioning-collapse-20260505-0
summary:
Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire is a 2009 non-fiction book compiled by editors Patricia A. McAnany and Norman Yoffee that features a series of eleven essays from fifteen authors discussing how societies have developed, evolved, and whether they have or have not collapsed throughout history, with a focus on how ancient and contemporary societies have advanced to the current global society and issues being faced in modern times. The collection of essays acts as a direct critique in the collective title and subject matter of Jared Diamond's book Collapse and, to a lesser extent, Guns, Germs, and Steel. Begun as a concept at a 2006 special meeting of the American Anthropological Association, the book was further constructed after individual presentations at an October 2007 meeting of archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, and historians in order to address each of the societies and locations brought up by Diamond in his books. These authors showcased how each society did not collapse, but merely changed culturally, politically, or geographically into a new form that followed chronologically with the same traditions and systems, focusing on the concept of resilience has kept together the same cultures even to modern day. This


id: questioning-collapse-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questioning_Collapse-1.md
category: reference
title: Questioning Collapse
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questioning_Collapse
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:54.801036+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: questioning-collapse-20260505-0
summary:
== Critical reception == Pacific Affairs reviewer James L. Flexner praised Questioning Collapse for its critical analysis of Diamond's works and debunking not of minor details, but of broad claims made in his works. Flexner notes that the essays are able to get across the idea that "transformation is likely the one inevitable factor in history" and instead of "tragic catastrophe and destruction", it is the perspective that "these processes, while sometimes accompanied by violent upheaval, usually reflect more of the resilience and adaptability of dynamic human cultures" that matters. In a review for the Journal of Cultural Geography, Ryan D. Bergstrom concluded that, while the book has successfully added to knowledge and understanding on the topic of societal collapses, the "truth of how and why societies collapse is likely found somewhere between the arguments made in this book and those of Diamond’s", but adds that those in the field of cultural geography would "applaud the truth-seeking process" and find the information useful. Writing for Transforming Anthropology, Luis Silva Barros complimented the book's explanation and use of the "process" view of societal development and collapse, as compared to Diamond's "results" view, suggesting that the book would be a "very useful


id: reaction-time-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_Time_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Reaction Time (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_Time_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:55.965950+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: reaction-time-book-20260505-0
summary:
Reaction Time: Climate Change and the Nuclear Option is a 2007 book by Professor Ian Lowe The book is about energy policy. == Themes == In his book he says: "the nuclear option does not make sense on any level: economically, environmentally, politically or socially. It is too costly, too dangerous, too slow and has too small an impact on global warming." == Quote == "Promoting nuclear power as the solution to climate change is like advocating smoking as a cure for obesity. That is, taking up the nuclear option will make it much more difficult to move to the sort of sustainable, ecologically healthy future that should be our goal." == See also == Anti-nuclear movement in Australia List of books about nuclear issues Renewable energy commercialization List of Australian environmental books Quarterly Essay == References == == External links == Is nuclear the answer?


id: the-real-global-warming-disaster-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster-0.md
category: reference
title: The Real Global Warming Disaster
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_Global_Warming_Disaster
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:57.142066+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-real-global-warming-disaster-20260505-0
summary:
The Real Global Warming Disaster (Is the Obsession with 'Climate Change' Turning Out to Be the Most Costly Scientific Blunder in History?) is a 2009 book by English journalist and author Christopher Booker in which he asserts that global warming cannot be attributed to humans, and then alleges how the scientific opinion on climate change was formulated. From a standpoint of environmental scepticism, Booker seeks to combine an analysis of the science of global warming with the consequences of political decisions to reduce CO2 emissions and claims that, as governments prepare to make radical changes in energy policies, the scientific evidence for global warming is becoming increasingly challenged. He asserts that global warming is not supported by a significant number of climate scientists, and criticises how the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) presents evidence and data, in particular citing its reliance on potentially inaccurate global climate models to make temperature projections. Booker concludes, "it begins to look very possible that the nightmare vision of our planet being doomed" may be imaginary, and that, if so, "it will turn out to be one of the most expensive, destructive, and foolish mistakes the human race has ever made". The book's


id: red-sky-at-morning-speth-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sky_at_Morning_(Speth_book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Red Sky at Morning (Speth book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sky_at_Morning_(Speth_book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:58.336034+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: red-sky-at-morning-speth-book-20260505-0
summary:
Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment by James Gustave Speth, is a 2004 Yale University Press book whose central premise is that environmentalism, so far, has been unsuccessful in protecting the natural environment on Earth. Deprecating the past efficacy of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and the United Nations Development Programme — as well as the actions of the former George W. Bush administration – Speth writes (as cited in the TIME article listed in the "References" section): "The climate convention is not protecting climate, the biodiversity convention is not protecting biodiversity, [and] the desertification convention is not preventing desertification." Potential for effective environmentalism, he says (as cited in the TIME article) now rests upon actions analogous to "jazz": volunteerism, and improvisation. He also notes, "Since the Montreal Protocol, [the United States] has not accorded global-scale environmental challenges the priority needed." (p.116) == References == Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment. A Citizen's Agenda for Action, James Gustave Speth. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-300-10232-1 "Books: Storm Warnings Ahead." Linden, Eugene (2004, April 5). TIME, Vol. 163


id: reflections-in-bullough-s-pond-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflections_in_Bullough's_Pond-0.md
category: reference
title: Reflections in Bullough's Pond
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflections_in_Bullough's_Pond
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:59.457703+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: reflections-in-bullough-s-pond-20260505-0
summary:
Reflections in Bullough's Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in New England is a book by Diana Muir, published in 2000. Providence Journal called Bullough’s Pond "a masterpiece", and Publishers Weekly called it "lyrical". The Massachusetts Center for the Book awarded it the 2001 Massachusetts Book Award, for the author's "engaging and accomplished storytelling". == Thesis == Muir makes a complex, Malthusian argument for the origin of an industrial revolution in New England independent of the English industrial revolution. Demonstrating that the economic model of colonial New England was large families of children on small-hold farms, producing sufficient wealth not only to live comfortably but to enable all of the children to purchase farms, she argues that a crunch point was reached when cheap, unsettled land ceased to be available. Focusing on the decades following 1790, she argues that families had accumulated wealth to set their children up on farms, but that land was not available until after the federal government broke the armed strength of Tecumseh in the Ohio country. During that twenty-year period, she demonstrates the development of numerous innovative techniques in the early stages of Interchangeable parts manufacturing and precision tool manufacturing, the aspects of industrialization in which southern


id: renewable-energy-sources-and-climate-change-mitigation-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_Energy_Sources_and_Climate_Change_Mitigation-0.md
category: reference
title: Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_Energy_Sources_and_Climate_Change_Mitigation
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:12.457068+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: renewable-energy-sources-and-climate-change-mitigation-20260505-0
summary:
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a special report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN) on May 9, 2011. The report developed under the leadership of Ottmar Edenhofer evaluates the global potential for using renewable energy to mitigate climate change. This IPCC special report provides broader coverage of renewable energy than was included in the IPCC's 2007 climate change assessment report, as well as stronger renewable energy policy coverage. In the present time, there is an obvious trend to have more renewable energy sources and therefore to overcome life crisis that can go when oil and gas expire. Renewable energy can contribute to "social and economic development, energy access, secure energy supply, climate change mitigation, and the reduction of negative environmental and health impacts". Under favourable circumstances, cost savings in comparison to non-renewable energy use exist. == History == Previously the IPCC examined both renewable energy and energy efficiency in its fourth assessment report, published in 2007, but members decided that renewable energy commercialization merits additional in-depth coverage because of its importance in reducing carbon emissions. The outline of the IPCC WG III's Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation


id: requiem-for-a-species-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_for_a_Species-0.md
category: reference
title: Requiem for a Species
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_for_a_Species
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:13.631063+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: requiem-for-a-species-20260505-0
summary:
Requiem for a Species: Why We Resist the Truth about Climate Change is a 2010 non-fiction book by Australian academic Clive Hamilton which explores climate change denial and its implications. It argues that climate change will bring about large-scale, harmful consequences for habitability for life on Earth including humans, which it is too late to prevent. Hamilton explores why politicians, corporations and the public deny or refuse to act on this reality. He invokes a variety of explanations, including wishful thinking, ideology, consumer culture and active lobbying by the fossil fuel industry. The book builds on the author's fifteen-year prior history of writing about these subjects, with previous books including Growth Fetish and Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change. Requiem for a Species has been reviewed in Resurgence magazine, Socialist Review, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Common Review, and Times Higher Education, which named it "Book of the Week". Extracts of the book have appeared in The Guardian and Geographical magazine. The book won a 2010 Queensland Premier's Literary Award. == Themes == Hamilton points out that there have been many reports and books over the years explaining the climate change problem and just how ominous the future


id: requiem-for-a-species-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_for_a_Species-1.md
category: reference
title: Requiem for a Species
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_for_a_Species
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:13.631063+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: requiem-for-a-species-20260505-0
summary:
The Times Higher Education listed Requiem for a Species as "Book of the week" for 3 June 2010. Steven Yearley's review calls it a "provocative and sobering book". He says the heart of the book are the many explanations that Hamilton puts forward for the everyday, regular denial of the danger of changing climate. Yearley says this is also the most frustrating aspect of Requiem for a Species, because Hamilton proposes so many different explanations but does not make their relative significance clear. David Shearman, in a review for Doctors for the Environment Australia, says that "Clive Hamilton is one of Australia's most notable public intellectuals, his work is careful and balanced, he presents the facts as they are and has written a book which is uncomfortable for all". According to Shearman, Hamilton's treatment of the topic of denial is one of the best available. Mike Hulme, in Resurgence magazine, agrees with the "consumption fetish" and "spiritual malaise" of humanity that Hamilton describes. But, according to Hulme, Hamilton has underestimated the "innovative and creative potential of collective humanity" and he has put too much faith in the infallibility of science's predictions about future climate risks. Hulme believes that Hamilton "is


id: residual-governance-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residual_Governance-0.md
category: reference
title: Residual Governance
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residual_Governance
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:14.807569+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: residual-governance-20260505-0
summary:
Residual Governance: How South Africa Foretells Planetary Futures is a 2023 book by historian and anthropologist Gabrielle Hecht that traces the environmental and social impacts of gold and uranium mining in South Africa's Witwatersrand region. The book introduces the concept of "residual governance"—defined as the governance of waste and discards, minimalist governance using simplification and delay, and governance that treats people and places as waste—arguing that this framework represents a primary instrument of racial capitalism and a major driver of environmental destruction in the Anthropocene. Based on two decades of fieldwork and archival research, Hecht documents how mining waste continues to affect millions of South Africans despite the end of apartheid in 1994, concentrating on acid mine drainage, radioactive dust, and the experiences of communities living near mine dumps. The work centers the perspectives of activists, scientists, and affected residents rather than state and corporate actors, incorporating 87 illustrations as primary sources. The book was published by Duke University Press as an open-access monograph, and it received the 2024 PROSE Award in Government and Politics, Association of American Publishers, the 2024 PROSE Award for Excellence in Social Science, the E. Ohnuki Tierney Award for Historical Anthropology, and the African Studies


id: residual-governance-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residual_Governance-1.md
category: reference
title: Residual Governance
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residual_Governance
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:14.807569+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: residual-governance-20260505-0
summary:
== Summary == Hecht traces the environmental and social legacy of gold and uranium mining in South Africa's Witwatersrand region, where over one-third of all gold ever mined on Earth was extracted across more than a century. The book develops the concept of "residual governance," defined as a deadly trifecta: the governance of waste and discards; minimalist governance that employs simplification, ignorance, and delay as core tactics; and governance that treats people and places as waste and wastelands. Hecht argues that residual governance functions as a technopolitical instrument of racial capitalism—where technology deliberately enacts political goals—and serves as a major accelerant of the Anthropocene epoch. The book's introduction, "The Racial Contract is Technopolitical," builds on philosopher Charles Mills's theory of the racial contract to demonstrate how mining in South Africa exemplifies the intersection between racial capitalism and environmental destruction. Hecht shows how apartheid's racial contract guaranteed value extraction at minimal cost through the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of male mineworkers from across southern Africa, while simultaneously contaminating their bodies and communities with toxic residues. The narrative deliberately eschews chronological ordering, instead employing a palimpsest-like structure where geological time, colonial history, apartheid, and the post-apartheid present layer upon one another.


id: residual-governance-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residual_Governance-2.md
category: reference
title: Residual Governance
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residual_Governance
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:14.807569+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: residual-governance-20260505-0
summary:
== Critical reception == Academic reviewers have analyzed the book's theoretical framework, particularly its development of "residual governance" as a concept linking waste management, bureaucratic minimalism, and the treatment of people and places as disposable. Iva Peša in the American Historical Review notes that Hecht "masterfully combines two vastly different scales" in showing connections between state and mining actors while documenting effects on residents. Tracy-Lynn Field and Michael Hennessy Picard in the European Journal of International Law describe it as "a gripping account of the mine wastes of the Rand, viewed from the perspective of activists and community leaders," and praised Hecht for honoring activists who "refuse to allow residual waste to escape unnoticed." The book's use of Charles Mills's racial contract theory has drawn scholarly attention. Mikhail Moosa (African Studies Review) observes that the work "expands on her earlier work on technopolitics in France and West Africa, while drawing substantively on Charles Mills's critique of liberal social contract theory." Ivan Evans (Contemporary Sociology) analyzed how Hecht builds on Mills's framework to demonstrate what she terms a "deadly trifecta" of policies that expose South Africans to mining byproducts, official reliance on misleading information, and an administrative approach that "treats people


id: the-revenge-of-gaia-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revenge_of_Gaia-0.md
category: reference
title: The Revenge of Gaia
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revenge_of_Gaia
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:15.990403+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-revenge-of-gaia-20260505-0
summary:
The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back – and How We Can Still Save Humanity (2006) is a book by James Lovelock. Some editions of the book have a different, less optimistic subtitle: Earth's Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity. The book introduces the concept of the anti-CLAW hypothesis. Lovelock proposed that instead of providing negative feedback in the climate system, the components of the CLAW hypothesis may act to create a positive feedback loop. Under future global warming, increasing temperature may stratify the world ocean, decreasing the supply of nutrients from the deep ocean to its productive euphotic zone. Consequently, phytoplankton activity will decline with a concomitant fall in the production of dimethyl sulfide (DMS). In a reverse of the CLAW hypothesis, this decline in DMS production will lead to a decrease in cloud condensation nuclei and a fall in cloud albedo. The consequence of this will be further climate warming which may lead to even less DMS production (and further climate warming). The figure to the right shows a summarising schematic diagram. Evidence for the anti-CLAW hypothesis is constrained by similar uncertainties as those of the sulfur cycle feedback loop of the CLAW hypothesis.


id: risk-governance-coping-with-uncertainty-in-a-complex-world-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_Governance:_Coping_with_Uncertainty_in_a_Complex_World-0.md
category: reference
title: Risk Governance: Coping with Uncertainty in a Complex World
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_Governance:_Coping_with_Uncertainty_in_a_Complex_World
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:17.124723+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: risk-governance-coping-with-uncertainty-in-a-complex-world-20260505-0
summary:
Risk Governance: Coping with Uncertainty in a Complex World is part of The Earthscan Risk in Society Series of books. Published in 2008 and written by risk theorist and researcher Ortwin Renn, the book brings together and updates Renn's work, integrating concepts of risk in the social, engineering and natural sciences. == Synopsis == Risk Governance presents the context of risk handling before proceeding through the core topics of assessment, evaluation, perception, management and communication. The main focus is on systemic risks, such as genetically modified organisms, which have a high degree of complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity, and with major repercussions on financial, economic, and social impact areas. == Reception == Reviewing for Natural Hazards, Heriberta Castaños and Cinna Lomnitz praised the book as important and noted that it included coverage of German social science on disaster research as "The coverage of key German references has always been uneven." Rolf Lidskog reviewed for Acta Sociologica, stating that "Because of its broad character, where different thematic issues (perceptions, management, communication, etc.) are discussed, the book has a somewhat eclectic character." == References ==


id: river-of-renewal-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_of_Renewal-0.md
category: reference
title: River of Renewal
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_of_Renewal
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:18.316449+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: river-of-renewal-20260505-0
summary:
River of Renewal: Myth and History in the Klamath Basin is a 2006 book by Stephen Most detailing the challenges in balancing economic and ecological concerns in the Klamath Basin region of the United States. The book shows clashes between federal and state government agencies, American Indian tribes, hydroelectric dam operators, and the farming and commercial fishery industries, detailing challenges and controversies around the irrigation of farmland and the preservation of the wild salmon population. The book traces the history of the Klamath Basin, including the Yurok, Hupa, and Karuk tribal populations, the secessionist State of Jefferson movement, and regional Bigfoot legends. The second edition tells the story of the revival of cultural fire by the Klamath River tribes and recounts how the largest dam removal and watershed restoration project in history came about. == 2008 film == It was adapted into a 2008 non-fiction film, River of Renewal, that received the Best Documentary Award at the American Indian Film Festival. The film was also broadcast on PBS. == References == == External links == River of Renewal at IMDb River of Renewal film website


id: the-riverkeepers-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Riverkeepers-0.md
category: reference
title: The Riverkeepers
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Riverkeepers
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:19.496220+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-riverkeepers-20260505-0
summary:
The Riverkeepers: Two Activists Fight to Reclaim Our Environment as a Basic Human Right is a 1997 book written by John Cronin and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The book documents its authors' activism and legal action against the corporate polluters of the Hudson River in New York. == Publication == The Riverkeepers is a 1997 book written by John Cronin, head of the Riverkeeper organization at the time, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Riverkeeper's then chief litigator. The book was published in 1997, in New York by Charles Scribner's Sons. == Synopsis == The book, with a foreword by Al Gore, documents the work by its authors in their legal battles with the corporate polluters of the Hudson River. The authors write about their 1983 founding of Riverkeeper non-profit organization and the almost-100 lawsuits they have started. Targets of the author's litigation include General Electric and Exxon. The authors are critical of the United States Congress. The book notes "right-wing stereotypes about environmental elitism" and recommends strategies to persuade political opponents. Recommended strategies are local action, linking environmentalism with preserving historical industry such as fishing, rather than as being against economic growth, and framing environmentalism as a struggle "against special


id: road-to-survival-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_to_Survival-0.md
category: reference
title: Road to Survival
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_to_Survival
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:20.598596+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: road-to-survival-20260505-0
summary:
Road to Survival is a 1948 book by William Vogt. It was a major inspiration for a certain strand of modern environmentalism as well as for the revival of Malthusianism—the so-called neo-Malthusianism—in the post-war era. == Summary == Road to Survival is a summary of the ecological status of the world. Vogt documented the negative effects of an expanding global population on the environment. He gathered reports of deforestation, gullying, overgrazing, soil erosion, and many forms of destruction of fundamental resources which he believed had arisen from the greed and ignorance of humankind. Vogt contended that global population growth surpasses the capacity of food production to sustain it, thereby advocating for the necessity of universal birth control measures. Vogt also critiqued capitalism, characterizing it as a flawed system, and portrayed the historical trajectory of the United States as a continuous series of destructive events and actions. The book is filled with scientific data, and its worldwide scope was unusual at the time. Ultimately, the book advocates population control as the only way to prevent environmental disaster. Human population could not exceed the planet's carrying capacity without disaster. According to Hampshire College's Betsy Hartmann, Vogt is the founder of what she


id: robots-will-steal-your-job-but-that-s-ok-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots_Will_Steal_Your_Job,_but_That's_OK-0.md
category: reference
title: Robots Will Steal Your Job, but That's OK
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots_Will_Steal_Your_Job,_but_That's_OK
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:21.742782+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: robots-will-steal-your-job-but-that-s-ok-20260505-0
summary:
Robots Will Steal Your Job, but That's OK: How to Survive the Economic Collapse and Be Happy is a book by Federico Pistono that was published in 2012. Initially self-published by the author, it was later picked up by publishers internationally and translated in six languages. It became a best-seller on Amazon.com, and was covered in various publications such as the BBC, the Financial Times and Época. == Themes == The book's four points are: Technology is improving at an exponential rate, robots and algorithms will soon be able to replace most human labor; There is no need for the emergence of artificial general intelligence to create structural technological unemployment and destabilize the economy as we know it; Work and happiness have a correlation, but not necessarily a causation. What drives happiness is having a sense of purpose and being in a state of flow, which may come from activities outside of traditional work; While it is theoretically possible to replace lost jobs, the book suggests that it would be impractical and it represents a missed opportunity for society, challenging the reader to think of a system where automation allows to break the labor-by-income, income-for-survival cycle, scaling back on conspicuous


id: the-sacred-balance-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sacred_Balance-0.md
category: reference
title: The Sacred Balance
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sacred_Balance
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:22.930487+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-sacred-balance-20260505-0
summary:
The Sacred Balance is a book by environmentalist David Suzuki, which is in its second edition as of 2007. The book explores human society's impact on the natural world, both for the planet and the people living on it. Suzuki reveals how dependent humankind is upon the planet's water, soil, sunlight, and the breath of its vegetation. Threats to the planet's balance, ranging from toxic pollution to global warming are also discussed. A series of documentary films, also called The Sacred Balance, is based on the book produced by Kensington Communications, Inc. Producer Robert Lang was the producer of the series. == References ==


id: a-sand-county-almanac-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sand_County_Almanac-0.md
category: reference
title: A Sand County Almanac
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sand_County_Almanac
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:24.094650+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: a-sand-county-almanac-20260505-0
summary:
A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There is a 1949 non-fiction book by American ecologist, forester, and environmentalist Aldo Leopold. Describing the land around the author's home in Sauk County, Wisconsin, the collection of essays advocate Leopold's idea of a "land ethic", or a responsible relationship existing between people and the land they inhabit. Edited and published by his son, Luna, a year after Leopold's death, the book is considered a landmark in the American conservation movement. Interspersed throughout the book are illustrations by American wildlife artist Charles W. Schwartz. The book has had over two million copies printed and has been translated into at least fourteen languages. It has informed and changed the environmental movement and stimulated a widespread interest in ecology as a science. == Overview == A Sand County Almanac is a combination of natural history, scene painting with words, and philosophy. It is perhaps best known for the following quote, which defines Leopold's land ethic: "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." The original publication format was issued by Oxford University Press in 1949. It incorporated


id: a-science-on-the-scales-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Science_on_the_Scales-0.md
category: reference
title: A Science on the Scales
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Science_on_the_Scales
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:25.273502+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: a-science-on-the-scales-20260505-0
summary:
A Science on the Scales: The Rise of Canadian Atlantic Fisheries Biology, 1898-1939 is a 2011 book by Jennifer Hubbard. The book provides an analysis of Canadian fisheries history with the tools of the professional historian, when most earlier works on the topic came from fisheries scientists themselves. The book traces the development of fisheries science in Canada in the first decades of the twentieth century. Fisheries biology arose in the mid-1800s in Northern Europe from concerns around the conservation of what appeared to be dwindling stocks in the face of new technology. Marine biological stations were established in Europe in the last decades of the nineteenth century—particularly in Naples (the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn) and Plymouth—but the Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries, established in 1892, did not see a need for one in Canada, though a floating station on board a scow was eventually set up. The book "surveys the tortuous process by which the Biological Board of Canada was established in 1912 to supersede a board of management that had overseen a floating biological station off the Atlantic coast since 1898, and permanent stations at St. Andrews, New Brunswick, and Nanaimo, British Columbia, since 1908." Norwegian zoologist


id: science-under-siege-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Under_Siege-0.md
category: reference
title: Science Under Siege
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Under_Siege
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:26.429696+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: science-under-siege-20260505-0
summary:
Science Under Siege: The Politicians' War on Nature and Truth is a 1998 book by journalist Todd Wilkinson. Wilkinson describes the careers of a variety of publicly employed scientists who, in the course of their work for government agencies, found habitat degradation, threatened species, or other decline in availability of a natural resource. When they expressed their views that certain activities must be scaled back or areas protected, they met with poor job performance ratings, hostility from their supervisors, transfers out of the region, and in many cases a severely damaged career. Science is "under siege" in these cases because many of the researchers were told to modify their scientific reports so that commercial uses or environmentally destructive activities could continue. == See also == List of books about the politics of science == References == == External links == The Politics of Science


id: scorched-south-africa-s-changing-climate-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched:_South_Africa's_Changing_Climate-0.md
category: reference
title: Scorched: South Africa's Changing Climate
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched:_South_Africa's_Changing_Climate
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:27.630430+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scorched-south-africa-s-changing-climate-20260505-0
summary:
Scorched: South Africa's Changing Climate is a non-fiction book by Leonie Joubert. == Synopsis == Scorched is a narrative on southern Africa’s landscapes in the age of climate change. It reads from a local point of view. The book deals with climate modeling produced by scientific institutions. Scorched ponders the morality of the changes mankind has wrought, as well as the future of life on Earth. == Awards == In May 2007, Scorched was awarded an honorable mention by the judging panel of the Sunday Times Alan Paton Literary Awards. "The judges have chosen to cite Scorched for an Honorary Award for breaking into the new territory of science journalism, and its skill in popularising this often inaccessible field." Paperback - 240 pages (30 September 2006) South Africa: Wits University Press ISBN 9781868144372 == References == == External links == Website of book Sunday Times Literary Awards Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine Interview with the author


id: scorcher-the-dirty-politics-of-climate-change-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorcher:_The_Dirty_Politics_of_Climate_Change-0.md
category: reference
title: Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorcher:_The_Dirty_Politics_of_Climate_Change
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:28.753577+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: scorcher-the-dirty-politics-of-climate-change-20260505-0
summary:
Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change is a 2007 book by Clive Hamilton which contends that Australia rather than the United States is the major stumbling block to a more effective Kyoto Protocol. In the final chapter of the book Hamilton argues that "the Howard government has been actively working to destroy the Kyoto Protocol". Scorcher is an updated version of Hamilton's 2001 book, Running from the Storm. Other books by Clive Hamilton include Requiem for a Species, Silencing Dissent, Growth Fetish, Affluenza and The Freedom Paradox. == Quotes == "In the tight little world of greenhouse lobbying, the Prime Minister saw nothing improper in going to the country's biggest greenhouse polluters to ask them what the Government should do about greenhouse policy, without extending the same opportunity to other industries, not to mention environment groups and independent experts". == See also == An Inconvenient Truth – a 2006 documentary featuring Al Gore Climate Code Red – a 2008 book from Australia on climate change Greenhouse Mafia List of Australian environmental books Politics of global warming Storms of My Grandchildren – a 2009 book by climate scientist James Hansen == References == == Bibliography == Hamilton, Clive (2007). Scorcher:


id: secrets-and-lies-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secrets_and_Lies_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Secrets and Lies (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secrets_and_Lies_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:29.902024+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: secrets-and-lies-book-20260505-0
summary:
Secrets and Lies: The Anatomy of an Anti-Environmental PR Campaign is a 1999 book by Nicky Hager and Bob Burton. == The book == The book documents the public relations information put out by Timberlands West Coast Limited in order to win public support for logging of native forests on the West Coast of New Zealand. The material is based on a large amount of documentation leaked by a staff member from the local branch of Shandwick (now Weber Shandwick Worldwide), a global public relations company, which had been hired by Timberlands to run a secret campaign against environmental groups such as Native Forest Action between 1997 and 1999. The book describes its tactics of surveillance of meetings, monitoring the press and responding to every letter to the editor, greenwashing, the use of SLAPPs, cleaning anti-logging graffiti and blotting out campaign posters in public places, and managing to install its pro-logging educational materials into schools. The book alleges that almost every pro-logging letter or article was organized by this campaign. == Reception and responses == In 2000, a press council complaint was made against a letter to the editor in The Press, which argued that Hager had lied in the


id: selling-solar-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selling_Solar-0.md
category: reference
title: Selling Solar
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selling_Solar
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:31.097548+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: selling-solar-20260505-0
summary:
Selling Solar: The Diffusion of Renewable Energy in Emerging Markets is a 2009 Earthscan book by Damian Miller. Miller argues that, in order to solve the climate crisis, the world must immediately and dramatically accelerate the commercialization of renewable energy technology. This needs to happen in the industrialized world, as well as in the emerging markets of the developing world where most future greenhouse gas emissions will occur. Author Damian Miller holds a doctorate from the Judge School of Business, Cambridge. He is the founder and CEO of Orb Energy, which is based in India. == See also == List of books about renewable energy Clean Tech Nation == References ==


id: sense-of-place-20260505-0-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_of_Place-0.md
category: reference
title: Sense of Place
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_of_Place
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:32.242519+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: sense-of-place-20260505-0-2
summary:
Sense of place: a response to an environment: the Swan Coastal Plain, Western Australia is a 1972 book by George Seddon. It documents Seddon's struggle to understand the Swan Coastal Plain, a biogeographic region that he initially found harsh and unwelcoming. It includes information on landforms, climate, geology, soils, flora, the Swan River, the coast, offshore islands, wetlands, and urban areas. This information is, however, essentially presented in a literary style; in the words of Mark Tredinnick: "This is the kind of geography an essayist writes. This is the kind of essay a literate scientist writes. This is a literary natural history." In Australia it is considered a landmark environmental publication. Among its claims to influence is having given modern currency to the term sense of place. Although Seddon did not coin the phrase, it was this book that introduced the phrase into the fields of landscape and environmental design. == References ==


id: sensing-changes-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensing_Changes-0.md
category: reference
title: Sensing Changes
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensing_Changes
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:33.341192+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: sensing-changes-20260505-0
summary:
Sensing Changes: Technologies, Environments, and the Everyday, 1953–2003 is a 2010 book by Canadian historian Joy Parr. The book examines the "embodied histories" of Canadians who were affected by Canadian megaprojects in the postwar period, assessing how such developments, which significantly altered local environments, affected people's senses of place and identity through their sensory experiences. The book features cases studies such as the damming of the Arrow Lakes in British Columbia, the relocation of the village of Iroquois as part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway project, and the construction of a NATO base in rural New Brunswick. The book also explores the E. coli outbreak that occurred in Walkerton, Ontario in 2000. Beyond just documenting the changes brought about by such developments, which were significant in remaking entire landscapes, Parr argues that these periods of sudden changes for local residents reveal important insights into embodied knowledge, or the ways in which we come to know our surroundings through sensory engagement. The book effectively demonstrates that "[t]he human body... becomes the fundamental archive of historical experience that is researchable through written and oral accounts of lived experience." == Contents == Sensing Changes consists mainly of six case studies and the ways


id: serpent-river-resurgence-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_River_Resurgence-0.md
category: reference
title: Serpent River Resurgence
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_River_Resurgence
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:34.482991+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: serpent-river-resurgence-20260505-0
summary:
Serpent River Resurgence: Confronting Uranium Mining at Elliot Lake is a 2022 book by Lianne C. Leddy, Associate Professor of History at Wilfrid Laurier University. The book documents the environmental history of uranium mining at Elliot Lake, Ontario, on Serpent River First Nation, including the advocacy of the Serpent River Anishinaabe to raise awareness about mining impacts on the community. Leddy grew up in Elliot Lake and is a member of Serpent River First Nation. == Contents == Serpent River Resurgence characterizes the uranium industry at Elliot Lake as a form of "Cold War colonialism," given the connection between mining in the area and American nuclear weapons production and the impacts of the industry on the Serpent River First Nation. The main impacts that the book focuses on are those on the Serpent River watershed and those of a sulphuric acid production plant located on the Serpent River reserve. In addition to elucidating the impacts of the uranium industry on the local environment, the book documents the efforts of Serpent River residents, including elders, to be heard by government and industry officials. The book highlights how community members were not opposed to economic development, but resisted both the environmental consequences


id: the-shamba-raiders-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shamba_Raiders-0.md
category: reference
title: The Shamba Raiders
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shamba_Raiders
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:35.667345+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-shamba-raiders-20260505-0
summary:
The Shamba Raiders: Memories of a Game Warden is Bruce Kinloch's account of his experiences in late colonial East Africa. The first edition, published in 1972 proved so successful that a second edition was published in 1988, and a third in 2004. The title refers to the marauding elephants destroying peasant crops, driven by heavy poaching pressure in wilderness areas, which formed the most urgent task for Kinloch. That his book is still in demand is a source of pride to him and his wife, Elizabeth, who accompanied him frequently and typed up the notes of his original book. "It is a book that never dies, its contents are as relevant now as ever," she said. The Shamba Raiders is an account of the struggle to preserve herds of game threatened by modern civilisation, poaching, war and the political and economic changes which have swept Africa in the middle of the last century. As the Chief Game Warden in Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi, Kinloch walked the tight rope of retaining Africa's wildlife heritage while safeguarding crops and livelihood of the population, featuring ivory poachers and middlemen as well as uncaring and bigoted officials. In particular, the book describes Kinloch's management


id: a-short-history-of-progress-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Progress-0.md
category: reference
title: A Short History of Progress
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Progress
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:36.814063+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: a-short-history-of-progress-20260505-0
summary:
A Short History of Progress is a non-fiction book and lecture series by Ronald Wright about societal collapse. The lectures were delivered as a series of five speeches, each taking place in different cities across Canada as part of the 2004 Massey Lectures which were broadcast on the CBC Radio program, Ideas. The book version was published by House of Anansi Press and released at the same time as the lectures. The book spent more than a year on Canadian best-seller lists, won the Canadian Book Association's Libris Award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and was nominated for the British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. It has since been reprinted in a hardcover format with illustrations and also in Kindle and EPUB digital formats. Wright, an author of fiction and non-fiction works, uses the fallen civilisations of Easter Island, Sumer, Rome, and Maya, as well as examples from the Stone Age, to see what conditions led to the downfall of those societies. He examines the meaning of progress and its implications for civilizations—past and present—arguing that the twentieth century was a time of runaway growth in human population, consumption, and technology that has now placed an unsustainable burden


id: a-short-history-of-progress-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Progress-1.md
category: reference
title: A Short History of Progress
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Progress
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:36.814063+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: a-short-history-of-progress-20260505-0
summary:
In the fourth chapter, "Pyramid Schemes", the fates of the Roman and Mayan civilisations are compared; both peaked with centralised empires but ended with power being diffused to their periphery as the center collapsed and ultra-conservative leadership refused reformations. Anthropologist Joseph Tainter's explanation for the fall of the Roman Empire is invoked, that "complex systems inevitably succumb to diminishing returns" so that the costs of operating an empire are so high that alternatives are implemented. Two examples of civilisations that have been sustainable are described: China and Egypt. Both had an abundance of resources, particularly topsoil, and used farming methods that worked with, rather than against, natural cycles, and settlement patterns that did not exceed, or permanently damage, the carrying capacity of the local environment. The final chapter, "The Rebellion of the Tools", seeks to answer the final Gauguin question, "where are we going?", by applying these past examples to modern society. Wright sees needed reforms being blocked by vested interests who reject multi-lateral organisations, and support laissez-faire economics and transfers of power to corporations as leading to the social and environmental degradations that led to the collapse of previous civilisations. Necessary reforms are, in Wright's view, being blocked by


id: a-short-history-of-progress-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Progress-2.md
category: reference
title: A Short History of Progress
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Progress
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:36.814063+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: a-short-history-of-progress-20260505-0
summary:
== Publication and reception == The book, published by House of Anansi Press, was released at the same time the Massey Lectures were being delivered. In early November 2004, one lecture was given by Wright in each of the following cities: Ottawa, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Halifax, and Toronto. Their recording was broadcast on CBC Radio's Ideas during the week of 22 November. The book was named the Canadian Booksellers Association's 2005 Non-Fiction Book of the Year at their annual Libris Awards and short-listed for the first annual British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. A hardcover edition title An Illustrated Short History of Progress was released with a print run of 15,000 copies in 2006. In The Globe and Mail, Canadian author Paul William Roberts praised the book, calling it "... the most important use of printed word and post-consumer recycled fibres I have seen since Jérôme Deshusses's Délivrez Prométhée, 25 years ago." Roberts explains, "[Wright] has such a firm grasp of his goal that scarcely a word is extraneous... You feel you've read volumes, though, not just because of the density of Wright's thoughts, but due to the crushing weight of the burden they carry. In prose that is balefully evocative


id: siberia-siberia-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia,_Siberia-0.md
category: reference
title: Siberia, Siberia
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberia,_Siberia
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:37.964486+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: siberia-siberia-20260505-0
summary:
Siberia, Siberia (Russian: Сибирь, Сибирь...) is a non-fiction book by the Russian writer Valentin Rasputin. It was originally published in Russian in 1991 by Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guard). The second and third editions appeared in 2000 and 2006; an English translation is available as well. Rasputin is a Russian novelist based in Irkutsk in Eastern Siberia, and a master of the genre known as village prose. His fiction centers around the conflict of the traditional Siberian village lifestyle, characterized by its family values, unambiguous morality, and strong connection with one's ancestral culture and natural environment, with the modernizing developments of the post-World War II period. Since the mid-1970s, he has been increasingly involved in writing non-fiction essays and article, protesting against projects he views as environmentally destructive and advocating for the restoration of "Russian national consciousness". His Siberia, Siberia is both an excursion into the human history of the region, and a diatribe against the industrial developments and infrastructure projects "of the last three decades" (i.e. roughly 1960–1990) that he views as wrecking not only the region's natural environments and the rural way of life, but also the very moral fibre of the nation. == Book summary == Besides an


id: sierra-club-books-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Club_Books-0.md
category: reference
title: Sierra Club Books
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Club_Books
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:39.142863+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: sierra-club-books-20260505-0
summary:
Sierra Club Books was the publishing division, for both adults and children, of the Sierra Club, founded in 1960 by then club President David Brower. They were a United States publishing company located in San Francisco, California with a concentration on biological conservation. In 2014 the adult division of the organization was sold to Counterpoint LLC and the children's books division to Gibbs Smith. == History == The Sierra Club started its book program in 1952, when David Brower, an editor with the University of California Press, became the club's executive director. In 1954, they published the first of its climbers’ and hikers’ guides. In 1960, when the Sierra Club Books began, they published the ‘Exhibit Format Book Series’, a collection of nature photography and in 1964 they published their first color volume, Elliot Porter's In Wilderness Is the Preservation of the World. Volumes intended for club members had been published prior to 1960. In addition, books under their name had been published before 1960, but done through already established publishers, as was the case with This Is Dinosaur, published by Alfred A. Knopf. Their first in-house book, volume 1 in the Exhibit Format series, was This is the American


id: silence-of-the-songbirds-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silence_of_the_Songbirds-0.md
category: reference
title: Silence of the Songbirds
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silence_of_the_Songbirds
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:40.314794+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: silence-of-the-songbirds-20260505-0
summary:
Silence of the Songbirds (ISBN 978-0-8027-1609-5) is a book by bird lover and scientist Bridget Stutchbury about the rapid decline and loss of many species of songbirds. Some major threats covered include pesticides, sun-grown coffee, city lights, cowbirds, and global warming. The book was published by HarperCollins in 2007 and has 243 pages. Kirkus Reviews published a review of the book on June 1, 2007, and compared it to Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Stutchbury describes the link between Latin American deforestation and the loss of food for migratory birds, and the impact of large amounts of pesticides. However, deforestation is minimal for shade-grown coffee. She mentions additional threats to songbirds: light pollution, tall buildings, and wind farms. Despite the diminishing populations of songbirds in recent decades, she provides advice for their survival. == Media == === Canadian Broadcasting Corporation === CBC Radio, Quirks and Quarks, April 14, 2007 (fourth topic) (archived by the Wayback Machine) CBC.ca - Words at Large - Author Exclusives - Excerpt: Silence of the Songbirds, by Bridget Stutchbury === Print media === Tweet, tweet, you're dead, The Globe and Mail newspaper (archived by the Wayback Machine) == References == == External links == The Silence


id: silent-spring-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring-0.md
category: reference
title: Silent Spring
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:41.474877+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: silent-spring-20260505-0
summary:
Silent Spring is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of DDT, a pesticide used by soldiers during World War II. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation, and public officials of accepting the industry's marketing claims unquestioningly. In the late 1950s, Carson began to work on environmental conservation, especially environmental problems that she believed (and would later learn) were caused by synthetic pesticides. The result of her research was Silent Spring, which brought environmental concerns to the American public. The book was met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, but it swayed public opinion and led to a reversal in US pesticide policy, a nationwide ban on DDT for agricultural uses, and an environmental movement that led to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency. In 2006, Silent Spring was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time by the editors of Discover magazine. == Research and writing == In the mid-1940s, Carson became concerned about the use of synthetic pesticides, many of which had been developed through the military funding of science after World War II. The


id: silent-spring-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring-1.md
category: reference
title: Silent Spring
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:41.474877+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: silent-spring-20260505-0
summary:
By 1959, the USDA's Agricultural Research Service responded to the criticism by Carson and others with a public service film, Fire Ants on Trial; Carson called it "flagrant propaganda" that ignored the dangers that spraying pesticides posed to humans and wildlife. That spring, Carson wrote a letter, published in The Washington Post, that attributed the recent decline in bird populations—in her words, the "silencing of birds"—to pesticide overuse. The same year, the 1957, 1958, and 1959 crops of US cranberries were found to contain high levels of the herbicide aminotriazole and the sale of all cranberry products was halted. Carson attended the ensuing FDA hearings on revising pesticide regulations; she was discouraged by the aggressive tactics of the chemical industry representatives, which included expert testimony that was firmly contradicted by the bulk of the scientific literature she had been studying. She also wondered about the possible "financial inducements behind certain pesticide programs". Research at the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health brought Carson into contact with medical researchers investigating the gamut of cancer-causing chemicals. Of particular significance was the work of National Cancer Institute researcher and founding director of the environmental cancer section Wilhelm Hueper, who


id: silent-spring-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring-2.md
category: reference
title: Silent Spring
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:41.474877+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: silent-spring-20260505-0
summary:
No responsible person contends that insect-borne disease should be ignored. The question that has now urgently presented itself is whether it is either wise or responsible to attack the problem by methods that are rapidly making it worse. The world has heard much of the triumphant war against disease through the control of insect vectors of infection, but it has heard little of the other side of the story—the defeats, the short-lived triumphs that now strongly support the alarming view that the insect enemy has been made actually stronger by our efforts. Even worse, we may have destroyed our very means of fighting. Carson also said that "Malaria programmes are threatened by resistance among mosquitoes", and quoted the advice given by the director of Holland's Plant Protection Service: "Practical advice should be 'Spray as little as you possibly can' rather than 'Spray to the limit of your capacity'. Pressure on the pest population should always be as slight as possible." === Politics === At the time the book was written, environmental issues were excluded from mainstream political conversation in America. However, Carson believed that governments should consider what environmental impact a policy may have before implementing it; for example, in


id: silent-spring-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring-3.md
category: reference
title: Silent Spring
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:41.474877+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: silent-spring-20260505-0
summary:
== Promotion and reception == Carson and the others involved with publication of Silent Spring expected fierce criticism and were concerned about the possibility of being sued for libel. Carson was undergoing radiation therapy for her cancer and expected to have little energy to defend her work and respond to critics. In preparation for the anticipated attacks, Carson and her agent attempted to amass prominent supporters before the book's release. Most of the book's scientific chapters were reviewed by scientists with relevant expertise, among whom Carson found strong support. Carson attended the White House Conference on Conservation in May 1962; Houghton Mifflin distributed proof copies of Silent Spring to many of the delegates and promoted the upcoming serialization in The New Yorker. Carson also sent a proof copy to Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas, a long-time environmental advocate who had argued against the court's rejection of the Long Island pesticide spraying case and had provided Carson with some of the material included in her chapter on herbicides. Though Silent Spring had generated a fairly high level of interest based on pre-publication promotion, this became more intense with its serialization, which began in the June 16, 1962, issue. This


id: silent-spring-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring-4.md
category: reference
title: Silent Spring
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:41.474877+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: silent-spring-20260505-0
summary:
== Translations == The book was translated into many languages including German, French, Dutch, Japanese, Russian and Italian. German: Der stumme Frühling, first edition 1963. French: Printemps silencieux, first edition 1963. Dutch: Dode lente, first edition 1964 or 1962 Japanese: 生と死の妙薬, first edition 1964. Successive prints post-2001 titled 沈黙の春 Russian: Безмолвная весна, first edition 1965. Swedish: Tyst vår, first edition 1963. Chinese: 寂静的春天, first edition 1979. Italian: Primavera silenziosa. Spanish: Primavera silenciosa. Danish: Det Tavse Forår. Finnish: Äänetön kevät, first edition 1962, after parts of the book were published in an 8-part article series by the largest subscription newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat (Helsinki times/news), earlier that year. == Impact == === Grassroots environmentalism and the EPA === Carson's work had a powerful impact on the environmental movement. Silent Spring became a rallying point for the new social movement in the 1960s. According to environmental engineer and Carson scholar H. Patricia Hynes, "Silent Spring altered the balance of power in the world. No one since would be able to sell pollution as the necessary underside of progress so easily or uncritically." Carson's work and the activism it inspired are partly responsible for the deep ecology movement and the strength of the grassroots


id: silent-spring-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring-5.md
category: reference
title: Silent Spring
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:41.474877+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: silent-spring-20260505-0
summary:
=== Debate over environmentalism and DDT restrictions === Carson has been targeted by some organizations opposed to the environmental movement, including Roger Bate of the pro-DDT advocacy group Africa Fighting Malaria and the libertarian think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI); these sources oppose restrictions on DDT, attribute large numbers of deaths to such restrictions, and argue that Carson was responsible for them. These arguments have been dismissed as "outrageous" by former World Health Organization scientist Socrates Litsios. May Berenbaum, University of Illinois entomologist, says, "to blame environmentalists who oppose DDT for more deaths than Hitler is worse than irresponsible". Investigative journalist Adam Sarvana and others characterize this notion as a "myth" promoted principally by Bate. In the 1990s and 2000s, campaigns against the book intensified, in part due to efforts by the tobacco industry to cast larger doubt on science-driven policy as a way of contesting bans on smoking. In 2009, the heavily corporate-funded CEI set up a website falsely blaming Carson for deaths to malaria. This triggered a point-by-point rebuttal by biographer William Souder, who reviewed the distortions used by campaigners against Silent Spring. A 2012 review article in Nature by Rob Dunn commemorating the 50th anniversary of Silent


id: the-sixth-extinction-an-unnatural-history-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixth_Extinction:_An_Unnatural_History-0.md
category: reference
title: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixth_Extinction:_An_Unnatural_History
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:42.656669+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-sixth-extinction-an-unnatural-history-20260505-0
summary:
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History is a 2014 nonfiction book written by Elizabeth Kolbert and published by Henry Holt and Company. The book argues that the Earth is in the midst of a modern, man-made, sixth extinction. In the book, Kolbert chronicles previous mass extinction events, and compares them to the accelerated, widespread extinctions during our present time. She also describes specific species extinguished by humans, as well as the ecologies surrounding prehistoric and near-present extinction events. The author received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for the book in 2015. The target audience is the general reader, and scientific descriptions are rendered in understandable prose. The writing blends explanations of her treks to remote areas with interviews of scientists, researchers, and guides, without advocating a position, in pursuit of objectivity. Hence, the sixth mass extinction theme is applied to flora and fauna existing in diverse habitats, such as the Panamanian rainforest, the Great Barrier Reef, the Andes, Bikini Atoll, city zoos, and the author's own backyard. The book also applies this theme to a number of other habitats and organisms throughout the world. After researching the current mainstream view of the relevant peer-reviewed science, Kolbert estimates flora and


id: the-sixth-extinction-an-unnatural-history-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixth_Extinction:_An_Unnatural_History-1.md
category: reference
title: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixth_Extinction:_An_Unnatural_History
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:42.656669+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-sixth-extinction-an-unnatural-history-20260505-0
summary:
=== Chapter 3: The Original Penguin === The great auk was a large flightless bird that lived in the Northern Hemisphere. It had a large, intricately grooved beak. When the first settlers arrived in Iceland, the auk population was probably in the millions. However, the settlers found the auks to be “very good and nourishing meat.” They also used their oily bodies for fuel and fish bait, and their feathers for stuffing mattresses. Despite attempts at protecting the species, by 1844, the last auks were killed. Kolbert uses the great auk as a symbol of how human overexploitation of resources is another important mechanism of extinction. === Chapter 4: The Luck of the Ammonites === Kolbert explains that the main cause of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event was not the impact of the asteroid itself. It was the dust created by the impact. The debris from the impact incinerated anything in its path. She states that it is impossible to estimate the full extent of the various species that died out due to this catastrophe. However, one class of animals we know did die out because of the effects of the asteroid's impact, are the ammonites. Kolbert explains that, even though


id: the-sixth-extinction-an-unnatural-history-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixth_Extinction:_An_Unnatural_History-2.md
category: reference
title: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sixth_Extinction:_An_Unnatural_History
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:42.656669+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-sixth-extinction-an-unnatural-history-20260505-0
summary:
=== Chapter 10: The New Pangea === Kolbert points out that there is an evolutionary arms race, in which each species must be equipped to defend against their potential predators and need to be more fit than their competition. A species has no defense if it encounters a new fungus, virus, or bacterium. This can be extremely deadly, as it was in the case of the American bats killed by the psychrophilic fungus Geomyces destructans. Another example of this occurred in the 1800s. The American chestnut was the dominant deciduous tree in eastern American forests. Then, a fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica) started to cause chestnut blight. It was nearly 100 percent lethal. This fungus was unintentionally imported to the US by humans. Kolbert then explains that global trade and travel are creating a virtual "Pangaea", in which species of all kinds are being redistributed beyond historical geographic barriers. This furthers the first chapter's idea that invasive species are a mechanism of extinction. === Chapter 11: The Rhino Gets an Ultrasound === The Sumatran Rhino was once so abundant in numbers it was considered an agricultural pest. However, as Southeast Asia's forests were cut down, the rhino's habitat became fragmented. In the


id: the-skeptical-environmentalist-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptical_Environmentalist-0.md
category: reference
title: The Skeptical Environmentalist
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptical_Environmentalist
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:43.949852+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-skeptical-environmentalist-20260505-0
summary:
The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World (Danish: Verdens sande tilstand, lit. 'The True State of the World') is a book by Danish author and statistician Bjørn Lomborg which focuses on the author's view of environmental economics and issues. It was first published in Danish in 1998 by Centrum, and in English by Cambridge University Press in 2001. Lomborg was inspired by an interview with economist Julian Lincoln Simon to undertake an assessment of publicly available data, and published his findings as a series of articles in Politiken. These formed the basis of the book, in which Lomborg argues against a range of what he considers overly pessimistic claims about environmental issues and their impact on human prosperity. Lomborg argues that environmentalists' concerns over pollution, environmental degradation, decline in natural resources, and climate change are overstated, and outlines his opposition to policy responses like the Kyoto Protocol, deeming them insufficient and causing more harm than good based on cost–benefit analysis. He argues in favour of focus instead being channelled to poverty reduction and combating diseases. The book generated great controversy and negative reviews upon its release. Lomborg's assertions, methodology and representation of sources were criticised by scientists


id: the-skeptical-environmentalist-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptical_Environmentalist-1.md
category: reference
title: The Skeptical Environmentalist
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptical_Environmentalist
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:43.949852+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-skeptical-environmentalist-20260505-0
summary:
Human prosperity from an economic and demographic point of view. He argues prosperity, life expectancy, food and hunger and health have improved over the past centuries in most parts of the world, despite ongoing challenges such as HIV/AIDS. He dismisses Thomas Malthus' theory that increases in the world's population lead to widespread hunger. Human prosperity from an ecological point of view. Lomborg examines the state of natural resources and draws a conclusion that contrasts to that of the well known report The Limits to Growth. He argues that food is increasing, with the exception of fish which is depleting. He argues that there is no indication of widespread deforestation, and economic growth is a solution to the issue in developing countries. Lomborg asserts that rare materials and oil are not being depleted as fast as is claimed, and that improvements of technology will provide people with fossil fuels for years to come. Lomborg says that water conflicts will not take place because they are not cost-effective, and argues in favour of better water management. Pollution as a threat to human prosperity. He connects air pollution and water pollution with economic growth, and argues that faster economic growth will reduce their


id: the-skeptical-environmentalist-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptical_Environmentalist-2.md
category: reference
title: The Skeptical Environmentalist
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptical_Environmentalist
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:43.949852+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-skeptical-environmentalist-20260505-0
summary:
The Union of Concerned Scientists published a critique of the book, highlighting reviews by Peter Gleick, Jerry D. Mahlman, Thomas Lovejoy, Norman Myers, Jeffrey Harvey, E. O. Wilson and Stuart Pimm. They concluded that the book fits squarely in a tradition of contrarian environmental works, which may gain temporary prominence but ultimately fail to stand up to scientific scrutiny. Harvey compared the book unfavourably to University undergraduate quality, and added "ecology is the most complex of sciences and Lomborg has never done a shred of work in the field". In a letter, Wilson said that the greatest regret he had about the book was "the time wasted by scientists correcting the misinformation created." In January 2002, a heading from Scientific American read, "Misleading Math about the Earth" and contained set of essays written by scientists on the book. The article concluded that The Skeptical Environmentalist misrepresented both scientific evidence and opinion. The journal also refused Lomborg's request of publishing a defense print of 32 pages, rather a page in the later May issue in 2002. The magazine later published his complete rebuttal on its website, along with the counter rebuttals of John Rennie and John P. Holdren. Nature also published


id: the-skeptical-environmentalist-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptical_Environmentalist-3.md
category: reference
title: The Skeptical Environmentalist
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptical_Environmentalist
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:43.949852+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-skeptical-environmentalist-20260505-0
summary:
I am neither a statistician nor a scientist, and I lack the skill to judge Lomborg's reworkings of the statistics of conventional wisdom. But I am worried that on virtually every topic he touches, he reaches conclusions radically different from almost everybody else. That seems to suggest that most scientists are wrong, short-sighted, naïve, interested only in securing research funds, or deliberately dancing to the campaigners' tune. Most I know are honest, intelligent and competent. So it beggars belief to suppose that Professor Lomborg is the only one in step, every single time. Kirby's first concern was not with the extensive research and statistical analysis, but the conclusions drawn from them, concluding: "In the rational world that Bjørn Lomborg thinks we all inhabit, we would manage problems sensibly, one by one. But the real world is messier, more unpredictable—and more impatient." === Reception of media coverage === Shortly after its release, the World Resources Institute and World Wide Fund for Nature published a nine-point critique of Lomborg's work and credentials specifically targeted at journalists, advising them to "proceed with caution" in their coverage of the book. One critical article, "The Skeptical Environmentalist: A Case Study in the Manufacture of News",


id: the-skeptical-environmentalist-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptical_Environmentalist-4.md
category: reference
title: The Skeptical Environmentalist
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeptical_Environmentalist
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:43.949852+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-skeptical-environmentalist-20260505-0
summary:
=== Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation review and response === On 13 February 2003, Lomborg filed a complaint against the DCSD's decision with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MSTI), which oversees the group. On 17 December, the Ministry released a report identifying a number of procedural errors had made, although did not refute any criticisms of the book. It criticised the DCSD for not identifying specific areas of error and for not providing an opportunity for Lomborg to respond before the report's publication. The Ministry then remitted the case to the DCSD, and instructed the DCSD to decide whether to reinvestigate. On 12 March 2004, the Committee formally decided not to act further on the complaints, reasoning that renewed scrutiny would, in all likelihood, result in the same conclusion. == Legacy == Jim Giles wrote a 2003 retrospective on the book in Nature, saying it was "packed with facts and figures, yet it was the emotional response that it inspired that will be best remembered," and argued that it would have little long-lasting influence. Giles suggested the intense critical reaction from scientists and environmental groups was driven by fears that the book's talking points would be adopted


id: small-is-beautiful-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Is_Beautiful-0.md
category: reference
title: Small Is Beautiful
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Is_Beautiful
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:45.150015+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: small-is-beautiful-20260505-0
summary:
Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered is a collection of essays published in 1973 by German-born British economist E. F. Schumacher. The title "Small Is Beautiful" came from a principle espoused by Schumacher's teacher Leopold Kohr (1909–1994) advancing small, appropriate technologies, policies, and polities as a superior alternative to the mainstream ethos of "bigger is better". Overlapping environmental, social, and economic forces such as the 1973 energy crisis and popularisation of the concept of globalisation helped bring Schumacher's Small Is Beautiful critiques of mainstream economics to a wider audience during the 1970s. In 1995 The Times Literary Supplement ranked Small Is Beautiful among the 100 most influential books published since World War II. A further edition with commentaries was published in 1999. Honoring the 50th anniversary of Small is Beautiful in 2023, the Schumacher Center for a New Economics commissioned an updated study guide from British author and Journalist David Boyle. == Synopsis == Small Is Beautiful is divided into four parts: "The Modern World", "Resources", "The Third World", and "Organization and Ownership". Part I – summarizes the economic world of the early 1970s from Schumacher's perspective. In the first chapter, "The Problem of Production",


id: small-is-profitable-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Is_Profitable-0.md
category: reference
title: Small Is Profitable
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Is_Profitable
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:46.277096+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: small-is-profitable-20260505-0
summary:
Small Is Profitable: The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources the Right Size is a 2002 book by energy analyst Amory Lovins and others. The book describes 207 ways in which the size of "electrical resources"—devices that make, save, or store electricity—affects their economic value. It finds that properly accounting for the economic benefits of "distributed" (decentralized) electrical resources typically raises their value by a large factor, perhaps tenfold, through improved system planning, utility construction and operation (especially off the grid), and service quality, and by avoiding social costs. This should change how distributed resources are marketed and used, and make policy and business opportunities explicit. Small Is Profitable was named 'Book of the Year' by The Economist magazine. == See also == Brittle Power Soft energy technology List of books by Amory Lovins Small business V2G == References ==


id: state-of-the-world-book-series-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_the_World_(book_series)-0.md
category: reference
title: State of the World (book series)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_the_World_(book_series)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:47.478711+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: state-of-the-world-book-series-20260505-0
summary:
The State of the World (SoW) was a series of books published annually from 1984 to 2017 by the U.S. based Worldwatch Institute, a thinktank that was founded in the 1970s by renowned environmentalist Lester R. Brown and ceased operations in 2017. The series attempted to identify the planet's most significant environmental challenges. The 2010 edition discussed different ways of changing current cultures such that it felt as natural to live sustainably as living as a consumer felt at the time. The 2011 edition looked at the global food crisis and surrounding environmental and social problems, with a particular emphasis on global innovations that could help solve that worldwide problem. The 2012 edition showcased innovative projects, creative policies, and fresh approaches that were advancing sustainable development in the twenty-first century. The 2013 edition defined the term sustainability, and assessed attempts to cultivate it. == Editions == State of the World 1984 ISBN 0-393-30176-1 State of the World 1985 ISBN 0-393-30218-0 State of the World 1986 ISBN 0-393-30255-5 State of the World 1987 ISBN 0-393-30389-6 State of the World 1988 ISBN 0-393-30440-X State of the World 1989 ISBN 0-393-30567-8 State of the World 1990 ISBN 0-393-30614-3 State of the World 1991


id: states-of-nature-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_of_Nature-0.md
category: reference
title: States of Nature
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_of_Nature
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:48.636425+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: states-of-nature-20260505-0
summary:
States of Nature: Conserving Canada's Wildlife in the Twentieth Century is a 2006 book by Canadian historian Tina Loo. The book analyzes the history of nature conservation in Canada throughout the 20th century, paying particular attention to the contributions of and interactions between both state and private actors, effectively tracing "shifting and conflicting attitudes toward the natural world" and the "roles of the state, urban sportsmen, and rural peoples, from resource workers to First Nations." Loo argues that over the course of the century wildlife conservation came increasingly under the purview of the state, yet had firm roots in informal, localized practices. She highlights this expanding bureaucratic and scientific state presence as being part of a larger process of "rural colonization," but also shows how private groups and individuals continued to play an important role in adapting and implementing conservation practices. Ultimately, Loo argues that wildlife conservation was shaped by, and ultimately shaped in turn, Canadians' values about their relationship with the natural world. == Contents == The opening chapters of States of Nature document the legal and practical background and changing nature of conservation in Canada, highlighting the different roles and values of various actors as the centralized state


id: storm-world-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_World-0.md
category: reference
title: Storm World
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_World
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:49.775647+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: storm-world-20260505-0
summary:
Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming is a 2007 book by Chris Mooney. Mooney discusses tensions between two different approaches to analyzing global warming and its effect on hurricanes. == Overview == After witnessing the devastation of his mothers house in Hurricane Katrina Mooney was concerned that government policy failed to consider worst-case scenarios when planning for the future even after that disaster. He explores whether global warming will affect hurricanes in general even if it cannot explain the specifics of any individual storm. Mooney found there were two camps in storm research one that felt the field should be based on data and another looking into deductions based on theories derived from physics. Surrounding this divide are politics, personalities and the drama of powerful storms. The question of the effect of global warming on storms and the difficulty reaching conclusions intensified the conflict. Mooney renders this into an accessible and compelling narrative with vivid portrayals of the scientists, accounts of new discoveries and their acceptance or denial by scientists and politicians. The integration of both research methods by some scientists gives Mooney hope and he concludes that in order to be effective scientists must be


id: storms-of-my-grandchildren-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storms_of_My_Grandchildren-0.md
category: reference
title: Storms of My Grandchildren
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storms_of_My_Grandchildren
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:50.920443+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: storms-of-my-grandchildren-20260505-0
summary:
Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity is climate scientist James Hansen's first book, published by Bloomsbury Press in 2009. The book is about threats to people and habitability for life on Earth from global warming. == Themes == In the book, Hansen describes how the burning of fossil fuels is changing our climate and argues that this is putting Earth into imminent peril. He suggests that millions of species, and humanity itself, are threatened. The title of the book, Storms of My Grandchildren, refers to the ferocious and stormy weather events that will occur in the next generation if fossil fuel use continues in the way it has. In Hansen's evaluation, the response of politicians to this crisis has mainly been "greenwashing", where their proposals sound good but amount to little. Hansen says that we immediately need to cut back atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions such that atmospheric concentrations are stabilized at 350 ppm or less, in order to avoid environmental disasters for generations to come. He advocates prompt phaseout of coal plant emissions, plus improved forestry and agricultural practices. Hansen supports a carbon tax returned to citizens as


id: straight-up-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Up_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Straight Up (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Up_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:52.700139+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: straight-up-book-20260505-0
summary:
Straight Up: America's Fiercest Climate Blogger Takes on the Status Quo Media, Politicians, and Clean Energy Solutions is a book by author, blogger, physicist and climate expert Joseph J. Romm. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and former Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, Romm writes about methods of reducing global warming and increasing energy security through energy efficiency, green energy technologies and green transportation technologies. Romm writes and edits the climate blog ClimateProgress.org for the Center for American Progress, where he is a Senior Fellow. Time magazine named this blog one of the "Top 15 Green Websites" and called Romm "The Web's most influential climate-change blogger", naming him as one of its "Heroes of the Environment (2009)". Straight Up was released on April 19, 2010, by Island Press. It is "largely a selection of [Romm]'s best blog postings over the past few years related to climate change issues". TreeHugger describes the book as "a whirlwind tour through the state of climate change, the media that so badly neglects it, the politicians who attempt to address it (and those who obstruct their efforts and ignore [the] science), and the clean energy solutions


id: straight-up-book-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Up_(book)-1.md
category: reference
title: Straight Up (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Up_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:52.700139+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: straight-up-book-20260505-0
summary:
=== Initial reviews === A review in USA Today called the book "a gut-wrenching wakeup call". Thomas L. Friedman, in his op-ed column in The New York Times, called the book "insightful", agreeing with Romm's arguments in the book that the proposed "cap and trade" climate bill "is a step in the right direction toward reducing greenhouse gases and expanding our base of clean power technologies". Former US Vice-President Al Gore endorsed the book as "important" on his blog, writing, "If you are interested in the fight to solve the climate crisis, I recommend you read this book." The book has been reviewed by many of the "green" websites. For example, the blog of the American Solar Energy Society, Solar Today, commented, "It's a collection of spirited and readable critiques of the delaying forces – the corporations and institutions who want to see no changes in national policies and tax codes that now work to make them rich. In particular, Romm eviscerates the American news establishment for ignoring climate catastrophe issues". ... It's full of solid fact-based arguments, properly referenced within the text (no footnotes!), along with a lot of low-carbon fire and brimstone. Daily Kos commented, "Romm's forceful, impassioned


id: straight-up-book-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Up_(book)-2.md
category: reference
title: Straight Up (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Up_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:52.700139+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: straight-up-book-20260505-0
summary:
=== Later assessments === In June 2010, FDL Book Salon said of the book, "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. By pulling together the very best content from the blog and thoughtfully organizing it in a logical way, the book achieves ... cohesiveness. ... [What makes Romm's] writing on climate change and energy policy so valuable is his comprehensive knowledge of the subject matter." A review the same month in the New Zealand climate blog Hot Topic contains a detailed summary of the book. A July 2010 review in RenewableEnergyWorld.com agreed with Romm that "with the little time we have left to avert climate chaos, we must devote most of our resources to deploying existing technologies like solar, wind and geothermal that we know can bring atmospheric carbon back down down to safe levels." In July 2010, Bill McKibben wrote in Washington Monthly: Romm ... knows his climate science ... cold. Trained as a physicist, he is unintimidated by scholarly work, and is able to synthesize huge amounts of complex data. He has been a persuasive voice for the most important truth about global warming: that it is a far worse problem than either politicians or


id: straw-dogs-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_Dogs_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Straw Dogs (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_Dogs_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:53.867066+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: straw-dogs-book-20260505-0
summary:
Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals is a 2002 book by the philosopher John Gray. In the book, Gray attacks humanism and traces its origins back to Christianity. The book is divided into six chapters, which in turn are subdivided into short essays on different topics. Gray attacks humanism as a worldview in conflict with the view of humanity as part of the evolution of life on the planet. He sees humanism as a secular version of the Christian view of humans as differentiated from the natural world. Gray blames humanism, and its central view of humanity, for much of the destruction of the natural world, and sees technology as just a tool by which humans will continue destroying the planet and each other. He advocates James Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis, whereby the natural world self-regulates to maintain the conditions of life in the planet, without any special place for humanity in it. == Reception == Straw Dogs has received particular praise from English author J. G. Ballard, who wrote that the book "challenges most of our assumptions about what it means to be human, and convincingly shows that most of them are delusions" and described it "a powerful


id: tasmania-s-wilderness-battles-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmania's_Wilderness_Battles-0.md
category: reference
title: Tasmania's Wilderness Battles
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmania's_Wilderness_Battles
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:55.020197+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: tasmania-s-wilderness-battles-20260505-0
summary:
Tasmania's Wilderness Battles: A History is a 2008 book by environmentalist Greg Buckman, who has "spent [his life] fighting Tasmanian environmental battles." The book looks at the wilderness areas of Tasmania which have been the focus of extensive conflict over environmental issues. Buckman presents a record of some of the significant events in that conflict, primarily from the viewpoint of an environmentalist. == Overview == The book has several primary themes, including: Hydro Tasmania, about the issues of the Franklin Dam and Lake Pedder Forestry, with the final section focusing on Gunns Mining, focusing on Mount Lyell National Parks The black and white photographs included capture the iconic characters of the major environmental battles of the era being examined, and include images of Eric Reece, Olegas Truchanas, Doug Lowe, and Bob Brown. Tasmania's Wilderness Battles is one of a number of books that were published in connection with the 25th anniversary of the halting of the Franklin Dam project, one of the campaigns which is described in the book, and in which Buckman was active. He has also been involved in campaigns to save Tasmania's forests. Since the early 1990s he has been associated with the Tasmanian and Australian Greens.


id: a-temperate-empire-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Temperate_Empire-0.md
category: reference
title: A Temperate Empire
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Temperate_Empire
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:56.236357+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: a-temperate-empire-20260505-0
summary:
A Temperate Empire: Making Climate Change in Early America is a 2016 book by historian Anya Zilberstein. == Contents == A Temperate Empire explores perceptions of climate among colonists and colonial scientists in New England and Nova Scotia during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This time span corresponded with the Little Ice Age, a period of lower average global temperatures. Zilberstein examines how the harsh but varied climates of the "New World" challenged popular conceptions of the global climate being latitudinal, or the idea that arctic, temperate, and tropical climates surrounded the globe at particular latitudes. Although such conceptions proved to be false, they were considered integral to attracting European settlers to New World colonies. Moreover, Zilberstein documents how scientists and officials reacted to this challenge by advancing an understanding that emphasized the ability of humans to affect and improve the climate, primarily through agricultural cultivation. Colonists argued that settlers could create a warmer and more hospitable climate by "improving" the land, making the region suitable for further settlement. As such, A Temperate Empire demonstrates that debates about climate change and humanity's role in changing the climate extend back well before the modern era. The book also examines the ways


id: throwim-way-leg-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throwim_Way_Leg-0.md
category: reference
title: Throwim Way Leg
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throwim_Way_Leg
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:57.431038+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: throwim-way-leg-20260505-0
summary:
Throwim Way Leg is a 1998 book written by Australian scientist Tim Flannery. It documents Flannery's experiences conducting scientific research in the highlands of Papua New Guinea and Indonesian Western New Guinea. The book describes the flora and fauna of the island and the cultures of its various peoples. The title is an anglicised spelling of the New Guinean Pidgin "Tromoi Lek," to go on a journey. Flannery recounts his 15 trips to New Guinea beginning in 1981, when he was aged 26. He identifies at least 17 previously undescribed species during this period. == References == == External links == Throwim' Way Leg: Tree-Kangaroos, Possums, and Penis Gourds excerpt and text search There Goes the Neighborhood NY Times review of Throwim Way Leg


id: tomorrowland-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrowland_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Tomorrowland (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrowland_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:58.750154+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: tomorrowland-book-20260505-0
summary:
Tomorrowland: Our Journey from Science Fiction to Science Fact is a 2015 nonfiction book by science journalist Steven Kotler and published by Amazon Publishing. == Content == The book is composed of a series of essay articles that were published by Kotler in various online news publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Discover. There are sixteen chapters made up of the same number of articles, each dealing with a different topic of technological innovation in a variety of fields. == Critical reception == Kirkus Reviews praised Kotler for not just presenting the technological innovations themselves, but also focusing on the "obsessive people behind the science" and how his insight into their work encompasses a "range from humane and gripping stories of redemption to indifferent research scientists unsure if their developments will even make the world a better place". Library Journal reviewer Talea Anderson also noted the introduction of each essay and discussed technology focusing on "presenting the array of often quirky inventors and early adopters who have engaged with it" and ultimately recommended the book for readers of popular science. In a separate review in Library Journal of the audiobook, reviewer Lisa Youngblood recommended the book and


id: toms-river-a-story-of-science-and-salvation-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toms_River:_A_Story_of_Science_and_Salvation-0.md
category: reference
title: Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toms_River:_A_Story_of_Science_and_Salvation
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:41:59.911082+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: toms-river-a-story-of-science-and-salvation-20260505-0
summary:
Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation is a 2013 nonfiction book by the American author Dan Fagin. It is about the dumping of industrial pollution by chemical companies including Ciba-Geigy, in Toms River, New Jersey, beginning in 1952 through the 1980s, and the epidemiological investigations of a cancer cluster that subsequently emerged there. The book won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, the 2014 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the 2014 National Academies Communication Award. == Editions == Dan Fagin (March 19, 2013). Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation. Bantam. ISBN 978-0553806533. Audiobook narrated by Dan Woren, published by Random House Audio, March 19, 2013 E-book editions == References == == External links == The Diane Rehm Show, NPR, April 2013


id: trading-up-vogel-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_Up_(Vogel_book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Trading Up (Vogel book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_Up_(Vogel_book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:01.077699+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: trading-up-vogel-book-20260505-0
summary:
Trading Up: Consumer and Environmental Regulation in a Global Economy (Harvard University Press 1995, ISBN 0-674-90084-7) is a book by UC Berkeley political scientist and business professor, David Vogel. It examines the impact of free trade on environmental regulations. It analyzes the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, and the treaties that created the European Community and Union, and looks at cases including the GATT tuna-dolphin dispute, the EC's beef hormone ban, the Danish bottle case. Some environmentalists have expressed concern that trade liberalization and acceptance of trade rules (with, for example, the World Trade Organization) will retard and even undermine national regulations for consumer protection and environmental improvement, as in the tuna-dolphin case. These observers are also concerned about competition among nations for footloose industries. This interesting book systematically examines the original European Community, the Single European Act, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and its 1979 standards code, the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Area, and the more recent North American Free Trade Agreement, as well as the states in the free trade area of the United States. Vogel finds that, while counterexamples do exist, trade


id: the-triumph-of-doubt-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triumph_of_Doubt-0.md
category: reference
title: The Triumph of Doubt
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triumph_of_Doubt
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:02.213180+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-triumph-of-doubt-20260505-0
summary:
The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception is a book by David Michaels that was published in 2020. An adaptation of material from the book was published in January 2020 in Boston Review. == Overview == Triumph of Doubt begins with an introductory first chapter and an overview chapter entitled "The Science of Deception." Most subsequent chapters then focus on ways that corporations have with greater or lesser success managed to obscure public understanding of scientific findings regarding specific types of products or concerns. For example, individual chapters focus on chemicals ("The Forever Chemicals," Chapter 3), concussions experienced by football players ("The NFL's Head Doctors," Chapter 4), opioids ("On Opioids," Chapter 7), climate change ("The Climate Denial Machine," Chapter 11), and sugar ("Sickeningly Sweet," Chapter 12). == Reviews and interviews == Triumph of Doubt has been reviewed in Science Magazine, Nature, Undark Magazine, by the Union of Concerned Scientists, and in the San Francisco Review of Books (blog). Interviews with Michaels about the book have been published in Salon, in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and in E&E News. == Editions == Michaels, David (2020). The triumph of doubt: dark money and the science of deception.


id: turtle-island-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_Island_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Turtle Island (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_Island_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:03.397845+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: turtle-island-book-20260505-0
summary:
Turtle Island is a book of poems and essays written by Gary Snyder and published by New Directions in 1974. The writings express Snyder's vision for humans to live in harmony with the earth and all its creatures. The book was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1975. "Turtle Island" is a name for the continent of North America used by many Native American tribes. == Background == By the late 1950s, Snyder had established himself as one of the major American poets of his generation. He was associated with both the Beat Generation and the regional San Francisco Renaissance. He spent much of the 1960s traveling between California and Japan, where he studied Zen. In 1966, he met Masa Uehara while in Osaka. They married the following year and had their first child, Kai, in April 1968; by December, Snyder and his new family moved to California. His return coincided with the highest crest of 1960s counterculture, as well as the nascent environmental movement. He was received as an elder statesman by both the hippies and the environmentalists, and he became a public intellectual who gave public lectures, making television appearances, and publishing new writing. Many of the


id: the-ultimate-resource-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Resource-0.md
category: reference
title: The Ultimate Resource
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Resource
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:04.586099+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-ultimate-resource-20260505-0
summary:
The Ultimate Resource is a 1981 book written by Julian Lincoln Simon challenging the notion that humanity was running out of natural resources. It was updated in 1996 as The Ultimate Resource 2. == Overview == The overarching thesis on why there is no resource crisis is that as a particular resource becomes more scarce, its price rises. This price rise creates an incentive for people to discover more of the resource, ration and recycle it, and eventually, develop substitutes. The "ultimate resource" is not any particular physical object but the capacity for humans to invent and adapt. === Scarcity === The work opens with an explanation of scarcity, noting its relation to price; high prices denote relative scarcity and low prices indicate abundance. Simon usually measures prices in wage-adjusted terms, since this is a measure of how much labor is required to purchase a fixed amount of a particular resource. Since prices for most raw materials (e.g., copper) have fallen between 1800 and 1990 (adjusting for wages and adjusting for inflation), Simon argues that this indicates that those materials have become less scarce. === Forecasting === Simon makes a distinction between "engineering” and "economic" forecasting. Engineering forecasting consists of


id: under-a-white-sky-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_a_White_Sky-0.md
category: reference
title: Under a White Sky
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_a_White_Sky
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:05.782240+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: under-a-white-sky-20260505-0
summary:
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future is a 2021 environmental book by Elizabeth Kolbert. The book follows many of the themes she explored in The Sixth Extinction. == Summary == Under a White Sky is focused on the various kinds of environmental crises created by the Anthropocene and different degrees of technological solutions available to humanity to address them – while also being critical of full-blown techno-solutionism. The title refers to the most extreme climate change mitigation strategy, solar geoengineering, designed to reflect sunlight from the earth. Throughout the book she explores how a technological fix for one problem can lead to further problems while also acknowledging the important role those technologies might play. == Reception == Reception of the book was generally positive. The Washington Post praised it for "expertly mix[ing] travelogue, science reporting, and explanatory journalism, all with the authority of a writer confident enough to acknowledge ambiguity." The New York Times review focused on how the book explores the ambiguities of our current environmental crisis. A NPR review described the book as "tell[ing] by showing. Without beating the reader over the head, she makes it clear how far we already are from a world


id: the-uninhabitable-earth-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uninhabitable_Earth_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: The Uninhabitable Earth (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uninhabitable_Earth_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:06.949374+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-uninhabitable-earth-book-20260505-0
summary:
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming is a 2019 non-fiction book by David Wallace-Wells about the consequences of global warming. It was inspired by his New York magazine article "The Uninhabitable Earth" (2017). == Synopsis == The book fleshes out Wallace-Wells' original New York magazine piece in more detail, dovetailing into discussions surrounding various possibilities for Earth's future across a spectrum of predicted future temperature ranges. Wallace-Wells' argues that even with active intervention, the effects of climate change will have catastrophic impacts across multiple spheres: rising sea levels, extreme weather events, extinctions, disease outbreaks, fires, droughts, famines, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, and increased geopolitical conflict, among other calamities. While the book is not focused on solutions, it recognizes solutions exist to prevent the worst of the damages: "a carbon tax and the political apparatus to aggressively phase out dirty energy; a new approach to agricultural practices and a shift away from beef and dairy in the global diet; and public investment in green energy and carbon capture". == Reception == The book has been both praised and criticized for its dramatic depictions of future life on Earth. As The Economist stated, "Some readers will find Mr. Wallace-Wells’s outline of possible


id: the-upside-of-down-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Upside_of_Down_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: The Upside of Down (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Upside_of_Down_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:08.085761+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-upside-of-down-book-20260505-0
summary:
The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization (ISBN 0-676-97722-7) is a non-fiction book published in 2006 by Thomas Homer-Dixon, a professor who at the time was the director of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at University of Toronto. The book sets out a theory of the growth, crisis, and renewal of societies. The world's converging energy, environmental, and political stresses could cause a breakdown of national and global order. Yet there are things we can do now to keep such a breakdown from being catastrophic. And some kinds of breakdown could even open up extraordinary opportunities for creative, bold reform of our societies, if we are prepared to exploit these opportunities when they arise. == Content and style == The prologue of the book provides an overview of the main argument. It begins in San Francisco during the great 1906 fire that destroyed the city, then moves on to Rome, 2003, with some reflections on the remnants of a once powerful global empire. The prologue finishes with a perilously fast car ride along unfamiliar country roads in dense fog. These three seemingly unrelated accounts illustrate the basic premises of the book: our fate


id: voices-from-the-gathering-storm-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voices_from_the_Gathering_Storm-0.md
category: reference
title: Voices from the Gathering Storm
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voices_from_the_Gathering_Storm
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:09.262656+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: voices-from-the-gathering-storm-20260505-0
summary:
Voices from the Gathering Storm: The Web of Ecological-Societal Crisis is a 2005 non-fiction book that was published by Word Association Publishers and edited by Joseph Arcos, Mary Argus and Frederick DiCarlo. == Synopsis == A collection of essays that discuss social, cultural, and technological factors contributing to our environmental predicament. It proposes the need for a change in the religion of consumption, a change in our definitions of progress and success from increased consumption to increased stewardship of our diminishing resources and shrinking planet. == Contributors == Thomas Berry Sharon L. Camp Francesco diCastri Daniel D. Chiras Herman Daly Matthew P. Fox Michael Gregory Joel Hilliker Kaye H. Kilburn Margaret L. Kripke Janice D. Longstreth Lester Milbrath Stephen S. Morse Hugh Pitcher John Poppy Van Rensselaer Potter Ellen K. Silbergeld James A. Swa == Reception == The Midwest Book Review positively reviewed Voices from the Gathering Storm, calling it "expertly compiled" and a "remarkable body of study". The Times-News also praised the book, saying it was "carefully researched" and "hard-hitting". == References == == External links == Voices From the Gathering Storm


id: walden-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden-0.md
category: reference
title: Walden
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:10.407216+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: walden-20260505-0
summary:
Walden (; first published as Walden; or, Life in the Woods) is an 1854 book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and—to some degree—a manual for self-reliance. Walden details Thoreau's experiences over the course of two years, two months, and two days in a cabin he built near Walden Pond amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau makes precise scientific observations of nature as well as metaphorical and poetic uses of natural phenomena. He identifies many plants and animals by both their popular and scientific names, records in detail the color and clarity of different bodies of water, precisely dates and describes the freezing and thawing of the pond, and recounts his experiments to measure the depth and shape of the bottom of the supposedly "bottomless" Walden Pond. == Background == There has been much speculation as to why Thoreau went to live at the pond in the first place. E. B. White stated on this note, "Henry went forth to battle when


id: walden-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden-1.md
category: reference
title: Walden
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:10.407216+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: walden-20260505-0
summary:
Where I Lived, and What I Lived For: Thoreau recollects thoughts of places he stayed at before selecting Walden Pond, and quotes Roman philosopher Cato's advice "consider buying a farm very carefully before signing the papers". His possibilities included a nearby Hollowell farm (where the "wife" unexpectedly decided she wanted to keep the farm). Thoreau takes to the woods dreaming of an existence free of obligations and full of leisure. He announces that he resides far from social relationships that mail represents (post office) and the majority of the chapter focuses on his thoughts while constructing and living in his new home at Walden. Reading: Thoreau discusses the benefits of classical literature, preferably in the original Greek or Latin, and bemoans the lack of sophistication in Concord evident in the popularity of unsophisticated literature. He also loved to read books by world travelers. He yearns for a time when each New England village will support "wise men" to educate and thereby ennoble the population. Sounds: Thoreau encourages the reader to be "forever on the alert" and "looking always at what is to be seen". Although truth can be found in literature, it can also be found in nature. In addition


id: walden-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden-2.md
category: reference
title: Walden
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:10.407216+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: walden-20260505-0
summary:
One must love that of the wild just as much as one loves that of the good. What men already know instinctively is true humanity. The hunter is the greatest friend of the animal which is hunted. No human older than an adolescent would wantonly murder any creature which reveres its own life as much as the killer. If the day and the night make one joyful, one is successful. The highest form of self-restraint is when one can subsist not on other animals, but of plants and crops cultivated from the earth. Brute Neighbors: This chapter is a simplified version of one of Thoreau's conversations with William Ellery Channing, who sometimes accompanied Thoreau on fishing trips when Channing had come up from Concord. The conversation is about a hermit (Thoreau) and a poet (Channing) and how the poet is absorbed in the clouds while the hermit is occupied with the more practical task of getting fish for dinner and how in the end, the poet regrets his failure to catch fish. The chapter also mentions Thoreau's interaction with a mouse that he lives with, a scene in which an ant battles a smaller ant, and his frequent encounters with


id: walden-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden-3.md
category: reference
title: Walden
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:10.407216+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: walden-20260505-0
summary:
Self-reliance: Thoreau constantly refuses to be in "need" of the companionship of others. Though he realizes its significance and importance, he thinks it unnecessary to always be in search for it. Self-reliance, to him, is economic and social and is a principle that in terms of financial and interpersonal relations is more valuable than anything. To Thoreau, self-reliance can be both spiritual as well as economic. Self-reliance was a key tenet of transcendentalism, famously expressed in Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance". Simplicity: Simplicity seems to be Thoreau's model for life. Throughout the book, Thoreau constantly seeks to simplify his lifestyle: he patches his clothes rather than buy new ones, he minimizes his consumer activity, and relies on leisure time and on himself for everything. Progress: In a world where everyone and everything is eager to advance in terms of progress, Thoreau finds it stubborn and skeptical to think that any outward improvement of life can bring inner peace and contentment. The need for spiritual awakening: Spiritual awakening is the way to find and realize the truths of life which are often buried under the mounds of daily affairs. Thoreau holds the spiritual awakening to be a quintessential component of life. It is


id: walden-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden-4.md
category: reference
title: Walden
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:10.407216+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: walden-20260505-0
summary:
Walden enjoyed some success upon its release, but still took five years to sell 2,000 copies, and then went out of print until Thoreau's death in 1862. Despite its slow beginnings, later critics have praised it as an American classic that explores natural simplicity, harmony, and beauty. The American poet, Robert Frost, wrote of Thoreau, "In one book ... he surpasses everything we have had in America". It is often assumed that critics initially ignored Walden, and that those who reviewed the book were evenly split or slightly more negative than positive in their assessment of it. But, researchers have shown that Walden actually was "more favorably and widely received by Thoreau's contemporaries than hitherto suspected". Of the 66 initial reviews that have been found so far, 46 "were strongly favorable". Some reviews were rather superficial, merely recommending the book or predicting its success with the public; others were more lengthy, detailed, and nuanced with both positive and negative comments. Positive comments included praise for Thoreau's independence, practicality, wisdom, "manly simplicity", and fearlessness. Less than three weeks after the book's publication, Thoreau's mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, proclaimed, "All American kind are delighted with Walden as far as they have dared


id: walden-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden-5.md
category: reference
title: Walden
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:10.407216+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: walden-20260505-0
summary:
The Dutch writer and psychiatrist Frederik van Eeden used the ideas from this book to create his own vision, back to the nature, at the commune Walden in the Netherlands in 1898. In the 1948 book Walden Two by behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner the experimental Walden Two Community is mentioned as having the benefits of living in a place like Thoreau's Walden, but "with company". Jonas Mekas' 1968 film Walden is loosely inspired by the book. The film All That Heaven Allows (1955) is clearly influenced by Thoreau, with the protagonist Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) reading lines from Walden. Jean Craighead George's My Side of the Mountain trilogy (1959) draws heavily from themes expressed in Walden. Protagonist Sam Gribley is nicknamed "Thoreau" by an English teacher he befriends. Shane Carruth's second film Upstream Color (2013) features Walden as a central item of its story, and draws heavily on the themes expressed by Thoreau. In 1962, William Melvin Kelley titled his first novel, A Different Drummer, after a famous quote from Walden: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer." The quote, as well as another stanza from the


id: the-weather-makers-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weather_Makers-0.md
category: reference
title: The Weather Makers
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weather_Makers
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:11.548828+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-weather-makers-20260505-0
summary:
The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change is a 2005 book by Australian scientist Tim Flannery. It discusses climate change, its scientific basis and effects, and potential solutions. The book received critical acclaim. It won the major prize at the 2006 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, and was short-listed for the 2010 Jan Michalski Prize for Literature. Flannery reflected in 2015 on its impact, after it was read by several high-profile decision makers. == Description == The book includes 36 short essays predicting the consequences of global warming and has been translated into over twenty languages. The book reviews evidence of historical climate change and attempts to compare this with the current era. The book argues that if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to increase at current rates, the resulting climate change will cause mass species extinctions. The book also asserts that global temperatures have already risen enough to cause the annual monsoon rains in the Sahel region of Africa to diminish, causing droughts and desertification. This in turn, according to Flannery, has contributed to the conflict in the Darfur region through competition for disappearing resources. Further consequences, argued in the book, include increasing hurricane


id: the-weather-of-the-future-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weather_of_the_Future-0.md
category: reference
title: The Weather of the Future
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weather_of_the_Future
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:12.746063+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-weather-of-the-future-20260505-0
summary:
The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet (ISBN 978-0-06-172688-0) is a 2010 book by climatologist Heidi Cullen. Cullen takes as her starting point the "clear and present dangers" posed by the greenhouse gases which result from the burning fossil fuels. She offers a vision of what life might be like in a warmer world. Cullen predicts "more frequent and more violent storms, more hot spells, cold spells, droughts, famines and huge waves of desperate refugees". == See also == An Inconvenient Truth Climate refugee Effects of climate change Extreme weather Global warming controversy Storms of My Grandchildren The Weather Makers == References == == External links == Excerpt from the book


id: wet-prairie-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_Prairie-0.md
category: reference
title: Wet Prairie
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_Prairie
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:13.972510+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: wet-prairie-20260505-0
summary:
Wet Prairie: People, Land, and Water in Agricultural Manitoba is a 2011 book by Canadian historian Shannon Stunden Bower. The book examines the history of settlement and farming in the unique landscape of southern Manitoba, notable for its poor drainage and thus high levels of moisture that contrast with the aridity of much of the Great Plains. Stunden Bower uses this unique context to focus on the development of liberalism on the Prairies, from the late nineteenth into the twentieth centuries, highlighting tensions between private property and state intervention and between agricultural development and wetland conservation. The book uses the term "colloquial liberalisms" to describe how variable landscapes shaped local interpretations of liberalism, highlighting the ways in which ideologies interact with the environment. In this case, drainage needs and policy created "differing understandings of the appropriate interplay of individual land rights with government tax or environmental policies." Wet Prairie ultimately demonstrates "that Canada’s (and thus any nation’s) political history cannot fully be understood without paying attention to the environment." == Awards and recognition == Wet Prairie has won numerous awards, including the 2012 Clio Prize for the Prairies from the Canadian Historical Association, the 2012 K.D. Srivastava Prize from UBC


id: when-corporations-rule-the-world-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Corporations_Rule_the_World-0.md
category: reference
title: When Corporations Rule the World
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Corporations_Rule_the_World
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:15.119126+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: when-corporations-rule-the-world-20260505-0
summary:
When Corporations Rule the World is a 1995 non-fiction book by David Korten. Korten examines the evolution of corporations in the United States and argues that "corporate libertarians" have "twisted" the ideas of Adam Smith's view of the role of private companies. Korten critiques current methods of economic development led by the Bretton Woods institutions and asserts his desire to rebalance the power of multinational corporations with concern for environmental sustainability and what he terms "people-centered development". He advocates a 50% tax on advertising. Korten criticises consumerism, market deregulation, free trade, privatization and what he sees as the global consolidation of corporate power. Above all he rejects any focus on money as the purpose of economic life. His prescriptions include excluding corporations from political participation, increased state and global control of international corporations and finance, rendering financial speculation unprofitable and creating local economies that rely on local resources, rather than international trade. == Responses == In a review of the book in Left Business Observer #71 in January 1996, Doug Henwood observed: [Korten] offers a vision of "a market economy composed primarily, though not exclusively, of family enterprises, small-scale co-ops, worker-owned firms, and neighborhood and municipal corporations." Much of this


id: whole-earth-catalog-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog-0.md
category: reference
title: Whole Earth Catalog
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:16.251655+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: whole-earth-catalog-20260505-0
summary:
The Whole Earth Catalog (WEC) was an American counterculture magazine and product catalog. Stewart Brand, a biologist, photographer and writer, conceived the idea for it; he was the Catalog’s original editor, and its most frequent editor in later years. It was originally published by the Portola Institute, but later by the Point Foundation, with a distribution arrangement by 1969 with Penguin and subsequently with Random House. New editions were published several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articles, but was primarily focused on product reviews. The editorial focus was on self-sufficiency, ecology, alternative education, "do it yourself" (DIY), community, and holism, and featured the slogan "access to tools". Although WEC listed and reviewed a wide range of products (clothing, books, tools, machines, seeds, etc.), it did not sell any of the products directly. Instead, the vendor's contact information was listed alongside the item and its review. This is why, while not a regularly published periodical, numerous editions and updates were required to keep price and availability information up to date. In his 2005 Stanford University commencement speech, Steve Jobs compared The Whole Earth Catalog to "a sort of Google


id: whole-earth-catalog-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog-1.md
category: reference
title: Whole Earth Catalog
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:16.251655+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: whole-earth-catalog-20260505-0
summary:
Understanding Whole Systems Shelter and Land Use Industry and Craft Communications Community Nomadics Learning Within each section, the best tools and books the editors could find were collected and listed, along with images, reviews and uses, prices, and suppliers. The reader was also able to order some items directly through the catalog. Later editions changed a few of the headings, but generally kept the same overall framework. The Catalog used a broad definition of "tools". There were informative tools, such as books, maps, professional journals, courses, and classes. There were well-designed special-purpose utensils, including garden tools, carpenters' and masons' tools, welding equipment, chainsaws, fiberglass materials, tents, hiking shoes, and potters' wheels. There were even early synthesizers and personal computers. The Catalog's publication coincided with a great wave of convention-challenging experimentalism and a do-it-yourself attitude associated with "the counterculture," and tended to appeal not only to the intelligentsia of the movement, but to creative, hands-on, and outdoorsy people of many stripes. Some of the ideas in the Catalog were developed during Brand's visits to Drop City. With the Catalog opened flat, the reader might find the large page on the left full of text and intriguing illustrations from a volume of


id: whole-earth-catalog-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog-2.md
category: reference
title: Whole Earth Catalog
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:16.251655+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: whole-earth-catalog-20260505-0
summary:
For this new countercultural movement, information was a precious commodity. In the '60s, there was no Internet; no 500 cable channels. ... [The WEC] was a great example of user-generated content, without advertising, before the Internet. Basically, Brand invented the blogosphere long before there was any such thing as a blog. ... No topic was too esoteric, no degree of enthusiasm too ardent, no amateur expertise too uncertified to be included. ... This I am sure about: it is no coincidence that the Whole Earth Catalogs disappeared as soon as the web and blogs arrived. Everything the Whole Earth Catalogs did, the web does better. Looking back and discussing attitudes evident in the early editions of the catalog, Brand wrote, "At a time when the New Left was calling for grassroots political (i.e., referred) power, Whole Earth eschewed politics and pushed grass-roots direct power—tools and skills." As an early indicator of the general Zeitgeist, the catalog's first edition preceded the original Earth Day by nearly two years. The idea of Earth Day occurred to Senator Gaylord Nelson, its instigator, "in the summer of 1969 while on a conservation speaking tour out west," where the Sierra Club was active, and where


id: whole-earth-catalog-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog-3.md
category: reference
title: Whole Earth Catalog
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:16.251655+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: whole-earth-catalog-20260505-0
summary:
=== In popular culture === In 1970, on April Fool's Day, the Whole Earth Restaurant opened at UC Santa Cruz. It was an early source of "whole foods" in Northern California until it closed in 2002. In 1972 Warner Bros. Records release a 2 disc sample album The Whole Burbank Catalog. The cover parodied the publication's artwork. The WEC is mentioned in the song "Country Man," the title track from the 1972 debut album by Canadian musician Valdy: "Feed the cat, feed the dog, feed the chickens, chop the log / Have a smoke and clear the fog, read the Whole Earth Catalog." It is also mentioned in the piece "The Adventures of Greggery Peccary" by Frank Zappa: "I must plummet boldly forward to my ultra-avant laminated, simulated replica-mahogany desk, with the strategically-placed, imported, very hip water pipe, and the latest edition of the WHOLE EARTH CATALOG, and rack my agile mind for a spectacular new TREND, thereby rejuvenating our limping economy, and providing for bored & miserable people everywhere some great new 'THING' to identify with!" A 2010 issue of the political art magazine made by the Adbusters Media Foundation was titled The Whole Brain Catalog, which features a


id: whole-earth-discipline-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Discipline-0.md
category: reference
title: Whole Earth Discipline
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Discipline
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:17.438124+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: whole-earth-discipline-20260505-0
summary:
Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto is the sixth book by Stewart Brand, published by Viking Penguin in 2009. He sees Earth and people propelled by three transformations: climate change (global warming), urbanization and biotechnology. Brand tackles "touchy issues" like nuclear power, genetic engineering and geoengineering, "fully aware that many of the environmentalist readers he hopes to reach will start out disagreeing with him". == Overview == Brand said in an interview with Seed magazine, "...I'd accumulated a set of contrarian views on some important environmental issues—specifically, cities, nuclear energy, genetic engineering, and geoengineering—and that it added up to a story worth telling." The author cites numerous other authors both in the recommended reading section and in live lectures. In particular, book influences are Constant Battles by Steven A. LeBlanc with Katherine Register, Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, a New Urban World by Robert Neuwirth, and James Lovelock, the author of The Revenge of Gaia and The Vanishing Face of Gaia. In an interview with American Public Media, Brand said, "...in [Whole Earth Catalog] I focused on individual empowerment, and in [Whole Earth Discipline] the focus is on the aggregate effects of humans on things like climate. And some of


id: wild-by-design-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_by_Design-0.md
category: reference
title: Wild by Design
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_by_Design
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:18.628441+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: wild-by-design-20260505-0
summary:
Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration is a 2022 book by Laura J. Martin, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Williams College. The book explains how ecological restoration became a global pursuit. Martin defines restoration as "an attempt to co-design nature with non-human collaborators." Wild by Design calls for the unification of ecological restoration and social justice. == Content == Wild by Design begins with the founding of the American Bison Society in 1905 and ends with efforts to use assisted migration and assisted evolution to save species from climate change. During this period restoration transformed “from a diffuse, uncoordinated practice into a scientific discipline and an international and increasingly privatized undertaking." The restoration movement began in the early 1900s when conservationists dissatisfied with gun and hunting restrictions argued that bison could be bred and then released onto designated reservations. Showing that the first bison reservations in the United States were established on Indian reservations, Martin argues these restoration efforts focused on benefits for white settlers while disregarding Native American sovereignty. The 1930s were a key time for restoration efforts. As ecology became a professional science, ecologists began to frame nature reservations as scientific control sites for their


id: wild-law-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Law-0.md
category: reference
title: Wild Law
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Law
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:19.758206+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: wild-law-20260505-0
summary:
Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice is a book by Cormac Cullinan that proposes recognizing natural communities and ecosystems as legal persons with legal rights. The book explains the concept of wild law, that is, human laws that are consistent with earth jurisprudence. Foreworded by Thomas Berry, the book was published by Green Books in November 2003 in association with The Gaia Foundation, London. It was first published in South Africa, the author's home country, in August 2002 by Siber Ink. The feasibility of developing a new form of jurisprudence was discussed at a conference in Washington attended by Thomas Berry in April 2001, organised by the Gaia Foundation. A group of people involved with law and indigenous peoples attended from South Africa, Britain, Colombia, Canada and the United States. Since then Wild Law has been at the centre of many conferences and residential workshops: A conference based on the concept of wild law was held in November 2005 at the University of Brighton. The conference was chaired by former Environment Minister Michael Meacher MP and speakers included Jacqueline McGlade, head of the European Environment Agency and Lynda Warren of the Environment Agency. In November 2006, a conference based


id: wild-solutions-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Solutions-0.md
category: reference
title: Wild Solutions
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Solutions
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:21.044109+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: wild-solutions-20260505-0
summary:
Wild Solutions: How Biodiversity is Money in the Bank is a 2001 book by biologists Andrew Beattie and Paul R. Ehrlich. The authors explain the value of "wild solutions" to technical and medical problems that may reside in the diversity of the Earth's estimated 5 to 10 million species. Beattie and Ehrlich describe the role of natural substances in medicine, pest control, and manufacturing. The book won a National Outdoor Book Award in 2001. A second edition came out in 2004. == References ==


id: wildlife-wars-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_Wars-0.md
category: reference
title: Wildlife Wars
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_Wars
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:22.168496+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: wildlife-wars-20260505-0
summary:
Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures is a book written by Richard Leakey and Virginia Morell. It was published in 2001 by St. Martin's Press. == Overview == It tells of how Leakey had been director of National Museum when appointed in 1989, President Daniel arap Moi appointed him to run the Kenya Wildlife Service. This was an entirely new experience to Leakey, because he had been accustomed to studying hominids, not managing wildlife. Elephant poaching had been a major problem in the Kenyan National Parks, and the book tells of his efforts to stop it, sometimes with a danger to his life. == Reception == The book was reviewed in the journal Endangered Species, the ALA magazine Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Books in Canada, African Business, the Royal Geographical Society's Geographical magazine. == Editions == Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures ISBN 0-330-37240-8 == References ==


id: the-windward-road-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Windward_Road-0.md
category: reference
title: The Windward Road
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Windward_Road
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:23.318541+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-windward-road-20260505-0
summary:
The Windward Road: Adventures of a Naturalist on Remote Caribbean Shores was written by Archie Carr and originally published in 1956. It is an account of Carr's travels around the Caribbean to study sea turtles and their migratory and behavior patterns, especially Kemp's ridley, a species about which little was known at the time. This book led to the formation of The Brotherhood of the Green Turtle, which later became the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, and is now known as the Sea Turtle Conservancy. It was awarded the 1957 John Burroughs Medal for nature writing, which is awarded annually by the American Museum of Natural History. The chapter entitled "The Black Beach", originally published in Mademoiselle, won a 1956 O. Henry Award. == References == == External links == The Windward Road. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. 2013. ISBN 978-0-307-83211-5; 256 pages{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)


id: winning-the-oil-endgame-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winning_the_Oil_Endgame-0.md
category: reference
title: Winning the Oil Endgame
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winning_the_Oil_Endgame
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:24.463716+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: winning-the-oil-endgame-20260505-0
summary:
Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security is a 2005 book by Amory B. Lovins, E. Kyle Datta, Odd-Even Bustnes, Jonathan G. Koomey, and Nathan J. Glasgow, published by the Rocky Mountain Institute. It presents an independent, transdisciplinary analysis of four ways to reduce petroleum dependence in the United States: Using oil more efficiently, through smarter technologies that wring more (and often better) services from less oil (pp. 29–102). Substituting for petroleum fuels other liquids made from biomass or wastes (pp. 103–111). Substituting saved natural gas for oil in uses where they’re interchangeable, such as furnaces and boilers (pp. 111–122). Replacing oil with hydrogen made from non-oil resources (pp. 228–242). == Problems and solutions == The authors explain that the problems of oil dependence are manageable, suggesting that oil dependence is a problem we need no longer have. The proposed solutions to oil dependence are profitable and U.S. oil dependence can be eliminated by proven and attractive technologies that create wealth, enhance choice, and strengthen common security. The authors argue that America can lead the world into the post-petroleum era and create a vibrant economy. (p.xiii) == Reviews == Winning the Oil Endgame has received many positive


id: wintergreen-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wintergreen_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Wintergreen (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wintergreen_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:25.694365+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: wintergreen-book-20260505-0
summary:
Wintergreen, written in 1987, is a book by Robert Michael Pyle. It describes the devastation caused by unrestrained logging in Washington's Willapa Hills. It was also the winner of the John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Nature Writing. == References ==


category: reference
title: A World Without Soil: The Past, Present, and Precarious Future of the Earth Beneath Our Feet
tags: science, encyclopedia
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:26.849452+00:00
instance: kb-cron
id:
a-world-without-soil-the-past-present-and-precarious-future-of-the-earth-beneath-our-feet-20260505-0

file:
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_World_Without_Soil:_The_Past,_Present,_and_Precarious_Future_of_the_Earth_Beneath_Our_Feet-0.md

summary:
A World Without Soil: The Past, Present, and Precarious Future of the Earth Beneath Our Feet is a 2021 book by American microbiologist Jo Handelsman with contributions by environmental researcher Kayla Cohen. Handelsman studies the global soil degradation and its implications for agriculture, the environment, and climate change. The author presents an urgent case for soil conservation, arguing that soil erosion and depletion pose significant risks to food security and planetary health. The book was longlisted for the 2023 Young Adult Science Book Award, and won the Association of American Publishers' 2022 PROSE Category Award: Government & Politics, and the 2023 Annual Thoughts Award in the Fourth Pingshan Natural History Book Award. == Background == As Associate Director for Science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Obama, Handelsman discovered that vast tracts of U.S. farmland were on track to lose their topsoil within decades. She drafted an urgent memo to inform the President and push for a national soil preservation initiative, but the memo was blocked for over a year, thus preventing action before the administration ended. == Overview == The book examines soil as a vital but often overlooked resource. Soil is crucial

source_url:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_World_Without_Soil:_The_Past,_Present,_and_Precarious_Future_of_the_Earth_Beneath_Our_Feet

parent:
a-world-without-soil-the-past-present-and-precarious-future-of-the-earth-beneath-our-feet-20260505-0


id: the-world-without-us-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Without_Us-0.md
category: reference
title: The World Without Us
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Without_Us
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:27.961021+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-world-without-us-20260505-0
summary:
The World Without Us is a 2007 non-fiction book about what would happen to the natural and built environment if humans suddenly disappeared, written by American journalist Alan Weisman and published by St. Martin's Thomas Dunne Books. It is a book-length expansion of Weisman's own February 2005 Discover article "Earth Without People". Written largely as a thought experiment, it outlines, for example, how cities and houses would deteriorate, how long man-made artifacts would last, and how remaining lifeforms would evolve. Weisman concludes that residential neighborhoods would become forests within 500 years, and that radioactive waste, bronze statues, plastics and Mount Rushmore would be among the longest-lasting evidence of human presence on Earth. The author of four previous books and numerous articles for magazines, Weisman had traveled to interview academics, scientists and other authorities. He used quotations from these interviews to explain the effects of the natural environment and to substantiate predictions. The book has been translated and published in many countries. It was successful in the U.S., reaching #6 on the New York Times Best Seller list and #1 on the San Francisco Chronicle Best-Sellers list in September 2007. It ranked #1 on Time and Entertainment Weekly's top 10 non-fiction


id: the-world-without-us-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Without_Us-1.md
category: reference
title: The World Without Us
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Without_Us
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:27.961021+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-world-without-us-20260505-0
summary:
With material from previous articles, Weisman uses the fate of the Mayan civilization to illustrate the possibility of an entrenched society vanishing and how the natural environment quickly conceals evidence. To demonstrate how vegetation could compromise human-built infrastructure, Weisman interviewed hydrologists and employees at the Panama Canal, where constant maintenance is required to keep the jungle vegetation and silt away from the dams. To illustrate abandoned cities succumbing to nature, Weisman reports from Chernobyl, Ukraine (abandoned in 1986) and Varosha, Cyprus (abandoned in 1974). Weisman finds that their structures crumble as weather does unrepaired damage and other life forms create new habitats. In Turkey, Weisman contrasts the construction practices of the rapidly growing Istanbul, as typical for large cities in less developed countries, with the underground cities in Cappadocia. Due to a large demand for housing in Istanbul much of it was developed quickly with whatever material was available and could collapse in a major earthquake or other natural disaster. Cappadocian underground cities were built thousands of years ago out of volcanic tuff, and are likely to survive for centuries to come. Weisman uses New York City as a model to outline how an unmaintained urban area would deconstruct. He


id: the-world-without-us-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Without_Us-2.md
category: reference
title: The World Without Us
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Without_Us
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:27.961021+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-world-without-us-20260505-0
summary:
== Reception == As the book was released Weisman launched his book tour with stops throughout the United States, Canada and overseas to Lisbon and Brussels. Weisman did television interviews on The Daily Show and The Today Show and radio interviews on Weekend Edition, Talk of the Nation, The Diane Rehm Show, Living on Earth, Marketplace, and As It Happens. Meanwhile, the book debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list for non-fiction hardcovers at #10 on July 29 and spent nine weeks in the top ten, peaking at #6 on August 12 and September 9. In the Canadian market, it spent 10 weeks on The Globe and Mail's non-fiction best-seller list, peaking at #3 on August 11. The book reached #1 on the San Francisco Chronicle Best-Sellers list for non-fiction on September 23 and spent 11 weeks on the USA Today's Top 150 Best-Selling Books, peaking at #48. Reviewers at the Library Journal recommended the book for all environmental collections and the audiobook for most public and academic library audiobook collections. The book ranked #1 on Time and Entertainment Weekly's top 10 non-fiction books of 2007 and was listed in the Hudson Booksellers' "Best Books published in 2007".


id: the-world-without-us-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Without_Us-3.md
category: reference
title: The World Without Us
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Without_Us
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:27.961021+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-world-without-us-20260505-0
summary:
== Genre == The book is categorized as non-fiction science but some commentators emphasize it may be better described as speculative fiction. The World Without Us is grounded in environmental and science journalism. Like other environmental books, it discusses the impact that the human race has had on the planet. Weisman's thought experiment removes the judgments and sufferings of humans by focusing on a hypothetical post-human world. This approach to the genre, which "throw[s] the spotlight on the earth itself", was found to be creative and objective. There have been other books that address similar topics, such as Gregory Benford's 1999 book Deep Time: How Humanity Communicates Across Millennia. Science fiction writers such as H. G. Wells (The War of the Worlds, 1898) and John Wyndham (The Day of the Triffids, 1951) had earlier touched upon the possible fate of cities and other man-made structures after the sudden removal of their creators. Similar parallels in the decay of civilization are detailed in 1949 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Berkeley English professor George R. Stewart, Earth Abides. Addressing his approach, Weisman said that eliminating the human element eliminated the "fear factor" that people are doing something wrong or that they will


id: earth-s-deep-history-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_Deep_History-0.md
category: reference
title: Earth's Deep History
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_Deep_History
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:29.456627+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: earth-s-deep-history-20260505-0
summary:
Earth's Deep History is a 2014 book by historian and geologist Martin J. S. Rudwick about advances in geological time and deep history, a term for the development of Earth's history and the distant past of the human species. Reviews were largely positive although some criticized Rudwick's minimalism in relation to the conflict between science and religion and the rejection of evolution by religious groups. == Synopsis == From a geologist's perspective where everything has a history, Earth's Deep History explains how the discovery of the Earth's old age progressively moved humans from the center. It focuses on details of the difficult and slow path to knowledge, the difference between law-like and physical history and the interplay of science and religion. It explains how scholars gradually discovered and came to understand the mechanisms that shaped the Earth, rather than remaining limited by event reconstructions. Earth's Deep History is considered to be a more condensed and approachable overview than Rudwick's previous works like Worlds Before Adam. == Reviews == Editor Ted Nield, writing for the Geoscientist, praised the book and Rudwick's elegant prose, and added that Earth's Deep History is a more approachable summary of Rudwick's voluminous previous works, notably Bursting


id: echoes-of-life-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echoes_of_Life-0.md
category: reference
title: Echoes of Life
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echoes_of_Life
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:30.648530+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: echoes-of-life-20260505-0
summary:
Echoes of Life: What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History is a book by Susan M. Gaines, Geoffrey Eglinton, and Jurgen Rullkotter concerning organic chemistry and, in particular, the links between the living and the material Earth. It was published by Oxford University Press in 2008. == Synopsis == Echoes of Life chronicles the history of the discipline of organic geochemistry. In early experiments, Alfred E. Treibs identified organic molecules, which he extracted from various samples, as chemically altered chlorophyll. He explained the chlorophyll as having come from plants that died millions of years ago. Since Treibs' discovery, thousands of biomarkers (a term coined 25 years after Treibs' discovery) have been identified. Chapter one, entitled Molecular Informants: A Changing Perspective of Organic Chemistry, gives a brief overview on the history of organic chemistry and explores the possibilities inherent in the science. It also describes how the authors first became interested in the subject and the work they have done within the field. Chapter two entitled Looking to the Rocks: Molecular Clues to the Origin of Life looks at the findings of Sir Robert Robinson and Melvin Calvin discoveries of organic compounds in petrol and the conversion of CO2 to organic


id: geological-evidences-of-the-antiquity-of-man-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_Evidences_of_the_Antiquity_of_Man-0.md
category: reference
title: Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_Evidences_of_the_Antiquity_of_Man
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:31.782958+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: geological-evidences-of-the-antiquity-of-man-20260505-0
summary:
Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man is a book written by British geologist, Charles Lyell in 1863. The first three editions appeared in February, April, and November 1863, respectively. A much-revised fourth edition appeared in 1873. Antiquity of Man, as it was known to contemporary readers, dealt with three scientific issues that had become prominent in the preceding decade: the age of the human race, the existence of ice ages, and Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Lyell used the book to reverse or modify his own long-held positions on all three issues. The book drew sharp criticism from two of Lyell's younger colleagues – paleontologist Hugh Falconer and archaeologist John Lubbock – who felt that Lyell had used their work too freely and acknowledged it too sparingly. It sold well, however, and (along with Lubbock's 1865 book Prehistoric Times) helped to establish the new science of prehistoric archaeology in Great Britain. == Background == Lyell had been consistently skeptical of evidence for high human antiquity since the early 1830s, and distanced himself from the theory of ice ages after a brief flirtation with it in the early 1840s. He attacked the evolutionary ideas of Lamarck in


id: geological-observations-on-south-america-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_Observations_on_South_America-0.md
category: reference
title: Geological Observations on South America
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_Observations_on_South_America
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:33.022242+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: geological-observations-on-south-america-20260505-0
summary:
Geological Observations on South America is a book written by the English naturalist Charles Darwin. The book was published in 1846 and is based on his travels during the second voyage of HMS Beagle, commanded by captain Robert FitzRoy. HMS Beagle arrived in South America to map out the coastlines and islands of the region for the British Navy. On the journey, Darwin collected fossils and plants and recorded the continent's geological features. It is the third book in a series of geology books written by Darwin, which also includes The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, published in 1842, and Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, published in 1844. It took Darwin four years to write and complete the entire series, from 1842 to 1846. According to his diaries, Geological Observations of South America was written between July 1844 to April 1845. The text contains eight chapters along with appendices on Darwin's Mesozoic and Tertiary fossils. It describes his travels through the regions of modern Chile, Brazil, and Argentina, including the Pampas, Patagonia, and the Andes. With this book Darwin became the first to describe and name Navidad Formation, the reference unit


id: geological-observations-on-the-volcanic-islands-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_Observations_on_the_Volcanic_Islands-0.md
category: reference
title: Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geological_Observations_on_the_Volcanic_Islands
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:34.243818+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: geological-observations-on-the-volcanic-islands-20260505-0
summary:
Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands, visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle is a book written by the English naturalist Charles Darwin. The book was published in 1844 and is based on his travels during the second voyage of HMS Beagle, commanded by captain Robert FitzRoy. It is the second book in a series of geology books written by Darwin that also includes The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs (published in 1842) and Geological Observations on South America (published in 1846). The text contains seven chapters, and includes observations made during Darwin's travels to the volcanic island of St. Jago in Cape Verde, the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, Ascension Island, the island of Saint Helena, the Galápagos Islands, James Island, New Zealand, Australia, Van Diemen's Land, and the Cape of Good Hope. The book includes one of the earliest accounts of the process of magmatic differentiation. While observing a basaltic lava flow in the Galápagos Islands, Darwin observed that "crystals sink from their weight" and that this "throws light on the separation of the high silica versus low silica series of rocks." This was the first proposal of the fractional crystallization hypothesis of magma differentiation that was further


id: geology-underfoot-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_Underfoot-0.md
category: reference
title: Geology Underfoot
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_Underfoot
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:42:35.432462+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: geology-underfoot-20260505-0
summary:
Geology Underfoot is a series of geology guidebooks published by Mountain Press Publishing Company. == Books == There is currently a Geology Underfoot book available for 10 regions (Colorado Western Slope, Southern California, Western Washington, Death Valley & Eastern California, Colorado Front Range, Northern Arizona, Southern Utah, Yellowstone Country, Southern Idaho, Yosemite National Park). A list of the books is below: Schroder, Jack; Ellwein, Amy; Englemann, George; Englemann, Carol (2022). Geology Underfoot on Colorado's Western Slope. Illustrated by Beth Waldron Yuhas and Chelsea M. Feeney. Mountain Press. ISBN 978-0-87842-708-6. Sylvester, Arthur Gibbs; Sharp, Robert P.; Glazner, Allen F. (2020). Geology Underfoot in Southern California. Illustrated by Elizabeth O'Black Gans. Mountain Press. ISBN 978-0-87842-698-0. Tucker, Dave (2015). Geology Underfoot in Western Washington. Mountain Press. ISBN 978-0-87842-640-9. Glazner, Allen F.; Sylvester, Arthur Gibbs; Sharp, Robert P. (2022). Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Eastern California. Illustrated by Chelsea M. Feeney. Mountain Press. ISBN 978-0-87842-707-9. Abbott, Lon; Cook, Terri (2012). Geology Underfoot Along Colorado's Front Range. Mountain Press. ISBN 978-0-87842-595-2. Abbott, Lon; Cook, Terri (2007). Geology Underfoot in Northern Arizona. Mountain Press. ISBN 978-0-87842-528-0. Orndorff, Richard L.; Wieder, Robert W.; Futey, David G. (2006). Geology Underfoot in Southern Utah. Mountain Press. ISBN 978-0-87842-517-4.


