# kb

id: all-the-fish-in-the-sea-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_Fish_in_the_Sea-0.md
category: reference
title: All the Fish in the Sea
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_the_Fish_in_the_Sea
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:26.755676+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: all-the-fish-in-the-sea-20260505-0
summary:
All the Fish in the Sea: Maximum Sustainable Yield and the Failure of Fisheries Management is a 2011 book by Carmel Finley. The book argues that the policies for international fishing and whaling management were essentially locked in place by 1958, and that the United States played a large role in setting them. In the development of the international law covering fisheries, the US supported laws that would protect the US tuna and salmon fisheries while limiting the ability of other nations, and Japan in particular, to fish in US waters. The book thus ties fisheries management inseparably with Cold War politics. In particular, Finley traces the development of the concept of maximum sustainable yield (MSY), arguing that MSY had no scientific basis and thus was a political and economic construct more than a scientific one. The "model did not represent the codification of quantitative, empirical evidence." Once instituted, instead of limiting fishing, MSY's assertion that underfishing wasted oceanic resources meant MSY "was not really a limit, but a goal to be reached," thus encouraging more fishing rather than less. The book engages the myth of the "Tragedy of the Commons" by demonstrating that governmental action and international policy led


id: amazon-watershed-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Watershed-0.md
category: reference
title: Amazon Watershed
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Watershed
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:27.928663+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: amazon-watershed-20260505-0
summary:
Amazon Watershed : the new environmental investigation is a 1991 book by British writer and environmental and political activist George Monbiot. == Synopsis == The book is an investigation into the expulsion of peasants from their homes and their forced relocation to the Amazon. Military police attempt to kill Monbiot as he exposes a vast military project opening up the area to logging and deforestation. He tracks timber cut illegally from Indian reserves all the way back to retailers in the United Kingdom. According to the publishers, Monbiot also "examines the role of the British and American governments in promoting, wittingly or otherwise, this great ecological catastrophe". == Reception == The book won the Natural World Book Prize, described as "the premier environmental book prize in the UK" in 1991. == References ==


id: an-appeal-to-reason-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Appeal_to_Reason-0.md
category: reference
title: An Appeal to Reason
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Appeal_to_Reason
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:29.096630+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: an-appeal-to-reason-20260505-0
summary:
An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming is a 2008 pseudoscientific climate change denial book by Nigel Lawson. In it, Lawson claims that, although global warming is happening, the science is far from settled. He opposes the scientific consensus as summarized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He also argues that warming will bring both benefits and negative consequences, and that the impact of these changes will be relatively moderate rather than apocalyptic. The book has been rejected by climatologists, including IPCC authors Jean Palutikof and Robert Watson as unscientific. == Overview == This book is an expansion of a lecture which Lawson gave in 2006 to the Centre for Policy Studies, a think tank with links to the Conservative Party. The lecture was called "The Economics and Politics of Climate Change. An Appeal to Reason" The book claims to examine each of the dimensions of the global warming issue, including the science, the economics, both from the perspective of long-term forecasting and cost-effectiveness analysis, the politics, and the ethical aspect. The book begins by arguing that "the science of global warming is far from settled." Although Lawson accepts that warming is real, he questions


id: aqueous-wastes-from-petroleum-and-petrochemical-plants-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqueous_Wastes_from_Petroleum_and_Petrochemical_Plants-0.md
category: reference
title: Aqueous Wastes from Petroleum and Petrochemical Plants
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqueous_Wastes_from_Petroleum_and_Petrochemical_Plants
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:30.261378+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: aqueous-wastes-from-petroleum-and-petrochemical-plants-20260505-0
summary:
Aqueous Wastes from Petroleum and Petrochemical Plants is a book about the composition and treatment of the various wastewater streams produced in the hydrocarbon processing industries (i.e., oil refineries, petrochemical plants and natural gas processing plants). When it was published in 1967, it was the first book devoted to that subject. The book is notable for being the first technical publication of a method for the rigorous tray-by-tray design of steam distillation towers for removing hydrogen sulfide from oil refinery wastewaters. Such towers are commonly referred to as sour water strippers. The design method was also presented at a World Petroleum Congress Meeting shortly after the book was published. The subjects covered in the book include wastewater pollutants and the pertinent governmental regulations, oil refinery and petrochemical plant wastewater effluents, treatment methods, miscellaneous effluents, data on the cost of various wastewater treatment methods, and an extensive reference list. == Availability in libraries == The book became a classic in its field and is available in major university, public and industrial libraries worldwide. The book has no ISBN because they were not in use in 1967. The Library of Congress catalog number (LCCN) is 67019834 and the British Library system number


id: arming-mother-nature-the-birth-of-catastrophic-environmentalism-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arming_Mother_Nature:_The_Birth_of_Catastrophic_Environmentalism-0.md
category: reference
title: Arming Mother Nature: The Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arming_Mother_Nature:_The_Birth_of_Catastrophic_Environmentalism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:31.419073+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: arming-mother-nature-the-birth-of-catastrophic-environmentalism-20260505-0
summary:
Arming Mother Nature is a 2013 non-fiction book by Jacob Darwin Hamblin, a history professor at Oregon State University. His book argues that The Pentagon and its military planning for WW III promoted "catastrophic environmentalism" by funding environmental science in the Cold War after WW II. The Pentagon planners were interested in the various ways in which natural processes could be harnessed to kill millions of people and/or destroy the agricultural, or other, sectors of the economies of enemy nations. == Reception == According to Professor Gregg Mitman of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Hamblin's book gives a compelling account of how military thinking about WW III and military sources of money supported the scientific study, monitoring, and diplomacy of planet Earth's environment. Mitman particularly commends how a book chapter reveals connections between Charles Elton's research on invasive species and military planners' concerns about agriculture and national security. Reviews indicate that Arming Mother Nature is well-documented and well-written. == Awards == The book won the 2014 Paul Birdsall Prize from the American Historical Association and the 2016 Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize from the History of Science Society. == See also == Environmental disaster Environmental impact of war Nuclear


id: atlas-of-our-changing-environment-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Our_Changing_Environment-0.md
category: reference
title: Atlas of Our Changing Environment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_Our_Changing_Environment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:32.575354+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: atlas-of-our-changing-environment-20260505-0
summary:
Atlas of Our Changing Environment is a series of atlases published beginning in 2005 by the United Nations Environment Programme. The series includes: One Planet Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment (2005) Africa Lakes: Atlas of Our Changing Environment (2006) Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment (2008) These publications primarily make use of historical and recent satellite data alongside maps and photos to highlight areas of environmental change around the globe. == References == == External links == Official website Africa Lakes: Atlas of Our Changing Environment at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2015-12-15) Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2015-12-15) WorldCat


id: beyond-oil-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Oil-0.md
category: reference
title: Beyond Oil
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Oil
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:36.118309+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: beyond-oil-20260505-0
summary:
Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak is a 2005 book by Kenneth S. Deffeyes. Deffeyes was a geologist who warned of the coming oil crisis in a previous book called Hubbert's Peak. == Overview == In this book, he explores the Earth's supply of potential replacement fuels for oil. Beyond Oil evaluates a range of primary energy sources ("fuels from the earth"), from petroleum to heavy oil, oil shale, tar sands, natural gas, coal, uranium, and hydrogen (which, as he notes, is actually an energy carrier and not a source), and evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of each. Finally making scientific based policy decisions is a task for all citizens. The book begins with brief explanations of the supply problem of liquid hydrocarbons used mostly as transportation fuel. Then he explains a simpler math version of Hubbert's differential calculus to estimate what is available in the ground, see Hubbert linearization. The middle part covers the different energy resources which are available in the ground. Additionally the hydrogen path is discussed including conversion options and efficiencies from different energy forms (coal to electricity) into this gaseous energy carrier. Finally the last Chapter is an essay on the big picture from


id: beyond-silent-spring-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Silent_Spring-0.md
category: reference
title: Beyond Silent Spring
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Silent_Spring
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:37.277318+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: beyond-silent-spring-20260505-0
summary:
Beyond Silent Spring: Integrated Pest Management and Chemical Safety is a 1996 book about environmentalism edited by Helmut Fritz van Emden and David Peakall. It is a follow-up to the influential 1962 book Silent Spring. == References ==


id: beyond-the-limits-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_the_Limits-0.md
category: reference
title: Beyond the Limits
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_the_Limits
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:38.387659+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: beyond-the-limits-20260505-0
summary:
Beyond the Limits is a 1992 book continuing the modeling of the consequences of a rapidly growing global population that was started in the 1972 report The Limits to Growth. Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, and Jørgen Randers are the authors and all were involved in the original Club of Rome study as well. Beyond the Limits (Chelsea Green Publishing Company) and Earthscan addressed many of the criticisms of the The Limits to Growth book, but still has caused controversy and mixed reactions. == Influence == Billionaire investor Richard Rainwater indicates having been influenced to invest in oil in the 1990s upon reading Beyond the Limits. His niece Kelley Rainwater reports she gave him this book as a Christmas present. She was introduced to the book through Dr. Jay Earley who is a social transformation theorist and colleague of the Meadows. == See also == Donella Meadows' twelve leverage points to intervene in a system World3 Steady-state economy Peak oil The Limits to Growth The Ultimate Resource == References ==


id: a-big-fix-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Big_Fix-0.md
category: reference
title: A Big Fix
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Big_Fix
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:39.538488+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: a-big-fix-20260505-0
summary:
A Big Fix: Radical Solutions for Australia's Environmental Crisis is a 2005 book by Ian Lowe which argues that the warnings from environmental scientists are urgent and unequivocal. Lowe suggests that resources are being used too quickly, environmental systems are being compromised, and society is being destabilised by the increasing gap between rich and poor. Lowe proposes several radical solutions. He advocates a fundamental change to our personal values and social institutions and provides a vision of a healthier society – one that is more humane, takes an eco-centric approach, adopts longer-term thinking, and respects natural systems. == See also == List of Australian environmental books == References ==


id: black-faces-white-spaces-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Faces,_White_Spaces-0.md
category: reference
title: Black Faces, White Spaces
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Faces,_White_Spaces
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:40.703518+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: black-faces-white-spaces-20260505-0
summary:
Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors is a 2014 book by cultural geographer Carolyn Finney. The book examines the relationship between African Americans and the environment, particularly challenging the notion of the environment and environmentalism as white spaces. Black Faces, White Spaces uses a combination of autoethnographic accounts, discourse analysis of media, interviews, and analysis of artistic forms of expression to contextualize a narrative about environmental policy and race relations in the United States. Finney explores the subject through the lenses of environmental history, feminist and critical race theories. In her discussion of American experiences with the environment, Finney highlights how the legacy of slavery creates disparities in the impact of environmental laws such as the Wilderness Act due to factors such as racial segregation. Black Faces, White Spaces challenges assumptions that the environmental movement makes about universal values, individualism, and agency, arguing that they reflect a class-based and racial power structure that denies participation from people of color. == References ==


id: blessed-unrest-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blessed_Unrest-0.md
category: reference
title: Blessed Unrest
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blessed_Unrest
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:41.837880+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: blessed-unrest-20260505-0
summary:
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming is a 2007 New York Times bestseller by Paul Hawken. The book is about the many non-profit groups and community organizations, dedicated to many different causes, which Hawken calls the "environmental and social justice movement". Hawken explains that this is a diverse movement with no charismatic leader. The movement follows no unifying ideology, and is not recognized by politicians, the public and the media. But, Hawken argues, it has the potential to benefit the planet. A New York Times reviewer states that Blessed Unrest is "about a movement that no one has noticed, not even the people involved". For this reviewer, the "high point of the book is Hawken's excellent critique of the chemical industry's attack on Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962", at a time when she was fighting cancer. Hawken also tells the stories of other people who have endured hardship and difficulty as they stood up to large corporations. == See also == Environmental movement Leaderless resistance The Starfish and the Spider Unorganisation Wiser.org == References == == External links == Blessed Unrest for a Wiser Earth: John


id: the-blue-economy-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Economy-0.md
category: reference
title: The Blue Economy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Economy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:42.979554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-blue-economy-20260505-0
summary:
The Blue Economy: 10 years – 100 innovations – 100 million jobs is a book by Gunter Pauli. The book expresses the ultimate aim that a "Blue Economy business model" will shift society from scarcity to abundance "with what is locally available", by tackling issues that cause environmental and related problems in new ways. == Contents == The book highlights potential benefits in connecting and combining seemingly disparate environmental problems with open-source scientific solutions based upon physical processes common in the natural world, to create solutions that are both environmentally beneficial and which have financial and wider social benefits. The book suggests that we can alter the way in which we run our industrial processes and tackle resultant environmental problems, refocusing from the use of rare and high-energy cost resources to instead seek solutions based upon simpler and cleaner technologies. The book proposes to focus on the generation of more value, instead of blindly cutting costs. The book aims to inspire entrepreneurs to adopt its insights, by demonstrating ways in which this can create economic benefits via job creation, reduced energy use, and more revenue streams from each step of the process, at the same time benefiting the communities involved.


id: a-blueprint-for-survival-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Blueprint_for_Survival-0.md
category: reference
title: A Blueprint for Survival
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Blueprint_for_Survival
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:44.149436+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: a-blueprint-for-survival-20260505-0
summary:
A Blueprint for Survival was an influential environmentalist text that drew attention to the urgency and magnitude of environmental problems. First published as a special edition of The Ecologist in January 1972, it was later published in book form and went on to sell more than 750,000 copies. The Blueprint was signed by over thirty of the leading scientists of the day—including Sir Julian Huxley, Sir Frank Fraser Darling, Sir Peter Medawar, E. J. Mishan and Sir Peter Scott. It was largely written by Edward Goldsmith and Robert Allen (with contributions from John Davoll and Sam Lawrence of the Conservation Society, and Michael Allaby) who argued for a radically restructured society in order to prevent what the authors referred to as "the breakdown of society and the irreversible disruption of the life-support systems on this planet". It recommended that people live in small, decentralised and largely de-industrialised communities. Some of the reasons given for this were that: it is too difficult to enforce moral behaviour in a large community agricultural and business practices are more likely to be ecologically sound in smaller communities people feel more fulfilled in smaller communities reducing an area's population reduces the environmental impact The authors


id: break-through-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_Through_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Break Through (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_Through_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:45.331025+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: break-through-book-20260505-0
summary:
Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, first published in October 2007, is a book written by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, both long-time environmental strategists. Break Through is an argument for a positive, "post-environmental" politics that abandons the traditional environmentalist focus on nature protection for a focus on creating a new sustainable economy. The book is based on a controversial October-2004 essay by the same authors, "The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World." The essay argues that environmentalism is conceptually and institutionally incapable of dealing with climate change and should "die" so that a new politics can be born. The essay was widely discussed among liberals and greens at Salon, Grist, and The New York Times. After the failure of climate legislation in the U.S. Senate for the third time in June 2008, Time magazine named Nordhaus and Shellenberger "Heroes of the Environment", calling Break Through "prescient" for its prediction that climate policy should focus not on making fossil fuels expensive through regulation but rather on making clean energy cheap. The book's authors reiterated this argument in a September 2008 op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, arguing for $30–$50bn in


id: break-through-book-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_Through_(book)-1.md
category: reference
title: Break Through (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_Through_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:45.331025+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: break-through-book-20260505-0
summary:
Climate change and the political response to it is already defining a new fault line in the culture. On one side of that line will be a global NIMBYism that sees the planet as too fragile to support the hopes and dreams of seven billion humans. It will seek to establish and enforce the equivalent of an international caste system in which the poor of the developing world are consigned to energy poverty in perpetuity. This politics of limits will be anti-immigration, anti-globalization, and anti-growth. It will be zero-sum, fiscally conservative, and deficit-oriented. It will combine Malthusian environmentalism with Hobbesian conservatism. On the other side will be those who believe that there is room enough for all of us to live secure and free lives. It will be pro-growth, progressive, and internationalist. It will drive global development by creating new markets. It will see in institutions like the WTO, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund not a corporate conspiracy to keep people poor and destroy the environment, but an opportunity to drive a kind of development that is both sustainable and equitable. It will embrace technology without being technocratic. It will seek adaptation proactively, not fatalistically. It will


id: bringing-whales-ashore-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bringing_Whales_Ashore-0.md
category: reference
title: Bringing Whales Ashore
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bringing_Whales_Ashore
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:46.460009+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: bringing-whales-ashore-20260505-0
summary:
Bringing Whales Ashore: Oceans and the Environment of Early Modern Japan is a 2018 book by Jakobina K. Arch. The book details the history of whaling in Japan, especially during the Tokugawa period. In particular, the book notes the relationship between the Japanese archipelago and the maritime space around it, as well as between the shore and inland populations of Japan. While shore-based and near-shore whaling was big business in early modern Japan, employing tens of thousands of workers and drawing substantial investment, the practice was unsustainable, and it fell off before the middle of the nineteenth century, even before American whaling ships had a major impact on Pacific whale species. If the oceans are paid attention to as global environments and as key sources of nutrients and economic resources, the book argues, then Tokugawa Japan was neither as self-sufficient nor as sustainable as has previously been argued. This decline in whaling by about the 1840s brings the book's argument up to the present. The book "finds little evidence of Japan's supposed 9,000-year unbroken whaling tradition in modern factory-ship whaling," which would thus render Japan's twentieth century claims to qualify for exemptions from the International Whaling Commission's moratorium on commercial


id: brittle-power-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittle_Power-0.md
category: reference
title: Brittle Power
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittle_Power
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:47.637613+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: brittle-power-20260505-0
summary:
Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security is a 1982 book by Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, prepared originally as a Pentagon study and re-released in 2001 following the September 11 attacks. The book argues that the U.S. domestic energy infrastructure is very vulnerable to disruption, whether by accident or malice, often even more so than US technology is vulnerable to disruption of the imported oil supply. According to the authors, a resilient energy system is feasible, costs less, works better, and is favoured in the market, but is rejected by U.S. policy. In the preface to the 2001 edition, Lovins explains that these themes are still very current. == Vulnerability to large-scale failures == Lovins argues that the United States has for decades been running on energy that is "brittle" (easily shattered by accident or malice) and that this poses a grave and growing threat to national security, life, and liberty. Lovins explains that this danger comes not from hostile ideology but from misapplied technology. The size, complexity, pattern, and control structure of the electrical power system makes it inherently vulnerable to large-scale failures. The same is true of the technologies that deliver coal, gas, and oil


id: cadillac-desert-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Desert-0.md
category: reference
title: Cadillac Desert
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Desert
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:48.785481+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: cadillac-desert-20260505-0
summary:
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water is a 1986 American history book by Marc Reisner about land development and water policy in the western United States. The book largely focuses on the history of two federal agencies, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and their struggles to remake the American West in ways to satisfy national settlement and energy generation goals. The book concludes that the development-driven policies, formed when settling the West was the country's main concern, have had serious long-term negative effects on the environment and water quantity. The book was revised and updated in 1993, with a new afterword by the author. The book was again reissued in 2017, with a lengthy Postscript by Lawrie Mott, a former staff scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. == Topics discussed == == Reception == In a review written shortly after publication, The New York Times described the book as "a revealing, absorbing, often amusing and alarming report on where billions of their dollars have gone – and where a lot more are going." In 1986, Cadillac Desert was a finalist for both the National Book Critics' Circle Award and the


id: california-against-the-sea-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Against_the_Sea-0.md
category: reference
title: California Against the Sea
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Against_the_Sea
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:49.936651+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: california-against-the-sea-20260505-0
summary:
California Against the Sea: Visions For Our Vanishing Coastline is a 2023 nonfiction book by American author and Los Angeles Times environmental reporter Rosanna Xia. == Summary == Xia travels along the California coastal communities to interview indigenous leaders, community activists, politicians and environmental scientists on how their communities are responding to rising sea levels. == Publication == The book was published by Heyday on September 26, 2023. The cover art was done by Adrian Montalvo and the design by Frances Baca. == Reception == Peter Fish of the San Francisco Chronicle described the book as "thoughtful, balanced, deeply researched and reported." Publishers Weekly called it "a vivid exploration" and an "unsparing look at California’s contentious battle to cope with a changing climate." == Awards and nominations == The book was the winner of the 2024 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. It was also selected as the Great Read from California for the 2024 Library of Congress National Book Festival. It was included as part of the San Francisco Chronicle's favorite nonfiction books of 2023. The book was featured on The Architect's Newspaper's list of best books of 2023. The book was a recipient of the 2024 American


id: the-california-field-atlas-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_California_Field_Atlas-0.md
category: reference
title: The California Field Atlas
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_California_Field_Atlas
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:51.144541+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-california-field-atlas-20260505-0
summary:
The California Field Atlas is a 2017 book written and illustrated by Obi Kaufmann. It was published by Heyday Books, a Berkeley-based nonprofit small press. Through passages of nature writing and hundreds of watercolor paintings, the book details California's ecology and geography. Kaufmann, an artist and outdoorsman, was born in California and currently resides in Oakland. He prepared the book over the course of a year, drawing from a lifetime of experience hiking thousands of miles of California wilderness. With the California Field Atlas, he intended to foster geological literacy and conservation of the state's natural environment. The book contains ten chapters spanning more than 500 pages in total. The first eight chapters examine California's ecological system, the ninth chapter is an overview of nature throughout the state's 58 counties, and the final chapter covers the topic of rewilding. Rather than focusing on already-famous natural landmarks such as Yosemite, Kaufmann sought to present a comprehensive overview of the state that included detailed surveys of lesser-known regions. The title combines the phrases field guide and atlas, but the book differs in purpose and function from both categories as traditionally conceived. The term "field atlas" was coined by the author to describe


id: the-california-field-atlas-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_California_Field_Atlas-1.md
category: reference
title: The California Field Atlas
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_California_Field_Atlas
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:51.144541+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-california-field-atlas-20260505-0
summary:
=== Artwork === Kaufmann's renderings of animals are mostly realistic but incorporate expressionistic flourishes—particularly in his choices of color palette—and thus do not adhere to the more literalistic standards of accuracy that would be expected from a conventional field guide. His wildlife paintings are meant to capture "the spirit of the subject" above all, and he acknowledged that his approach sometimes resulted in conspicuous differences between his art and an animal's literal appearance. As an example, he has often noted that the book includes a painting of a purple coyote, even though the animal is not actually purple in the wild. However, he explained that "coyotes aren't purple unless you're looking at them in the high desert sagebrush at sunset," and the subjective impression of the animal's appearance that can occur in that rare setting is what he sought to capture in his painting. The book's maps include surveys of a wide variety of subjects, like the habitats of wild pigs, the state's various fir trees, areas prone to wildfire, wildflowers gardens, and many others. Each map is indexed with a unique four-digit number. Kaufmann said much of the book is "data-driven", in that the maps and their data are


id: the-california-field-atlas-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_California_Field_Atlas-2.md
category: reference
title: The California Field Atlas
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_California_Field_Atlas
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:51.144541+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-california-field-atlas-20260505-0
summary:
He saw the Field Atlas as having two main purposes: a scientific agenda to foster geographic literacy, and an artistic agenda to promote the cause of conservation—the latter of which also has political dimensions. He told the website 7x7 that the "whole book—this whole endeavor—is an exercise in how we can continue our human residency in California not only over the next 100 years, for example, but over the next 10,000 years." On the other hand, Kaufmann sought to avoid any overt political argumentation in the book, and he has expressed frustration with partisan approaches to conservation. Mike Sonksen identified the book—particularly its ecological perspective and sense of "geographic literacy"—with the ideas of deep ecology and bioregionalism as articulated by Kaufmann's influence Gary Snyder in such works as Turtle Island (1974) and A Place in Space (1995). The book reflects a deep-time perspective on the state's ecology and landscapes. In the book's introduction, Kaufmann wrote that he was "participating in the wild reimagining of the place, past the scars inflicted over the past two hundred years and revealing a story about what has always been here and what will remain long after our residency is through." In an interview, he


id: the-california-field-atlas-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_California_Field_Atlas-3.md
category: reference
title: The California Field Atlas
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_California_Field_Atlas
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:51.144541+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-california-field-atlas-20260505-0
summary:
=== Critical response === The book received generally positive reviews, primarily from local California publications and outlets. John McMurtrie, the book editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, called the California Field Atlas a "magnificent ode to the natural wonders of [Kaufmann's] home state" and said it "stands as one of the finest books ever published by Heyday". The Chronicle later listed it as one of the 100 best books of 2017. In Diablo Magazine, Linda Lenhoff remarked on its "stunning detail" and "passionate plea" for conservation. Judith M. Gallman at Oakland Magazine wrote "[s]cience and animal lovers will find much to cherish in this unusually lovely and hefty collection." Rachael Myrow, a host of Forum on NPR affiliate KQED, compared the book to Rebecca Solnit's Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas (2010), saying that for both books, the reader is "staring at something you think you know, California, but you're looking at a reading of it that most people don't think of." Kim Wyatt at Lake Tahoe News wrote that the book was "[b]reathtaking and informative and one of a kind" and "will lead to fresh insights about the Golden State, promoting geographic literacy, historical understanding and perhaps, in turn,


id: canada-s-deadly-secret-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada's_Deadly_Secret-0.md
category: reference
title: Canada's Deadly Secret
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada's_Deadly_Secret
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:52.299128+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: canada-s-deadly-secret-20260505-0
summary:
Canada's Deadly Secret: Saskatchewan Uranium and the Global Nuclear System is a 2007 book by Jim Harding which chronicles the struggle over Saskatchewan's uranium mining, and demonstrates the negative impacts on Aboriginal rights and environmental health, and the effect of free trade. Harding argues that nuclear energy cannot mitigate global warming and that the "peaceful nuclear technology" does not exist. Helen Caldicott wrote the foreword to the book. Jim Harding is an emeritus professor of environmental and justice studies and was director of research for Prairie Justice Research at the University of Regina. He is a founding member of the Regina Group for a Non-Nuclear Society and International Uranium Congress. Harding also acted as Prairie Correspondent for Nuclear Free Press and consultant to the award-winning film Uranium, a 1990 documentary about uranium mining in Canada. Several reviews of the book have been published. == See also == List of books about nuclear issues Nuclear disarmament Anti-nuclear movement == References ==


id: carbon-shift-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_Shift-0.md
category: reference
title: Carbon Shift
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_Shift
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:53.469053+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: carbon-shift-20260505-0
summary:
Carbon Shift: How Peak Oil and the Climate Crisis Will Change Canada (and Our Lives) is a 2009 non-fiction book edited by Thomas Homer-Dixon and Nick Garrison that collects six essays that discusses the issues of peak oil and climate change. The book was first published in hardcover by Random House of Canada in 2009 under the title Carbon Shift: How the Twin Crises of Oil Depletion and Climate Change Will Define the Future, and became a national bestseller. In 2010, the paperback was published by Vintage Canada, a division of Random House Canada, the sub-title then changing to How Peak Oil and the Climate Crisis Will Change Canada (and Our Lives). == Synopsis == Carbon Shift encompasses six essays by experts in the fields of economics, geology, politics, and science. The essays argue points such as humanity's potential for exhausting the supply of non-renewable fuels and what could be done to prevent this. == Contributors == Thomas Homer-Dixon - Introduction and Conclusion Nick Garrison - Introduction and Conclusion Ronald Wright - Foreword David Keith - Dangerous Abundance David Hughes - The Energy Issue: a More Urgent Problem than Climate Change Mark Jaccard - Peak Oil and Market Feedbacks: Chicken


id: challenging-the-chip-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenging_the_Chip-0.md
category: reference
title: Challenging the Chip
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenging_the_Chip
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:54.587999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: challenging-the-chip-20260505-0
summary:
Challenging the Chip is a 2006 book on "labor rights and environmental justice in the global electronics industry" edited by Ted Smith, David A. Sonnenfeld, and David Naguib Pellow. It is published by Temple University Press. In three parts, the book looks at global electronics, environmental justice and labor rights, and electronic waste and extended producer responsibility. In four appendices, the book also deals with the principles of environmental justice, the computer take-back campaign, sample shareholder resolutions, and the electronics recycler's pledge of true stewardship. This 357-page book was put together by "scores of people around the world (who) have been involved over the course of several years in the conceptualization, development, editing and production (of it)". == "New wave of technology" == In his foreword to the text, former Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower makes out a case to explain how "technology happens". He writes: "Take cars. After Henry Ford began mass production, it took only a flash in time for these four-wheeled chunks of technology to wholly transform our landscape, environment, economy, culture, psychology, and ... well, pretty much our whole world. For better or worse, cars created freeways, shopping malls, McDonald's, drive-in banking – even the Beach


id: challenging-the-chip-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenging_the_Chip-1.md
category: reference
title: Challenging the Chip
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenging_the_Chip
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:54.587999+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: challenging-the-chip-20260505-0
summary:
== "Downside not addressed" == Says an introduction to its contents: "Of the millions of words written over the past several decades about the electronics industry's incredible transformation of our world, far too few have been addressed (to) the downside of this revolution. Many are surprised to learn that environmental degradation and occupational health hazards are as much a part of high-tech manufacturing as miniaturization and other such marvels". == Third World women's labor, pollute surroundings == The editors also comment: "Although most consumers are eager to enjoy their latest computers, televisions, cellular phones, iPods, and electronic games, few relate the declining prices of these and other electronic technologies to the labor of Third World women, who are paid pennies a day. Fewer still realize that the amazingly powerful microprocessors and superminiaturized, high-capacity memory devices harm the workers who produce them and pollute the surrounding communities' air and water". == Comments on the book == Sandra Steingraber calls this book "essential reading for anyone who owns a cell phone or a computer" and says "our digital possessions connect us not only to global information but also to global contamination and injustice". Nicholas Ashford calls the work "an impressive, comprehensive critique


id: the-chilling-stars-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chilling_Stars-0.md
category: reference
title: The Chilling Stars
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chilling_Stars
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:56.932243+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-chilling-stars-20260505-0
summary:
The Chilling Stars is a non-fiction book about the possible causes and effects of global climate change by Henrik Svensmark and Nigel Calder. The paperback version was published by Totem Books on March 19, 2003. An updated version titled The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change was published in 2007. Svensmark is otherwise known as a Danish physicist and professor, while Calder had worked as a science journalist. The authors argue that cloud cover changes caused by variations in cosmic rays are a major contributor to global temperature increases, and they state that human influences have been exaggerated. == Contents and background == The authors describe a cross-disciplinary theory that takes in elements of cosmology, particle physics, paleo-climatology, and meteorology. They label their concept 'cosmoclimatology', and they attempt to look back through prior climate trends such as the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. They detail what they view as a close correlation between the rate of cosmic rays reaching the Earth, which varies based on electromagnetic fluctuation on the Sun's surface, and the Earth's temperature. They write how the solar magnetic field grew over twice as strong as before over the 20th century, and they


id: cinderella-of-the-new-south-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella_of_the_New_South-0.md
category: reference
title: Cinderella of the New South
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella_of_the_New_South
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:58.106040+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: cinderella-of-the-new-south-20260505-0
summary:
Cinderella of the New South: A History of the Cottonseed Industry, 1855–1955 is a 1995 book by Lynette Boney Wrenn. It is significant as the first scholarly book to examine the history of the cottonseed industry in the southern United States. In Cinderella of the New South, Wrenn argues that the cottonseed industry between 1855 and 1955 was an example of a lack of industrialization in the southern United States. The book covers the antebellum origins of the cottonseed industry and the rapid rise of the industry between 1880 and 1914, which was fuelled by demand for cottonseed products, such as cooking oil, soaps, and candles. Cinderella of the New South addresses the extraction-to-manufacturing process of the cottonseed crop during the 1880–1914 period, during which the southern mills performed the least-profitable step of crushing the cottonseed while largely northern-owned businesses handled the more-lucrative secondary manufacturing and marketing stages. The book ends with the consolidation of the cottonseed industry after World War II and the subsequent end of the hydraulic crushing of the seed in the 1950s. == References ==


id: a-civil-action-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Civil_Action-0.md
category: reference
title: A Civil Action
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Civil_Action
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:37:59.197887+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: a-civil-action-20260505-0
summary:
A Civil Action is a 1995 non-fiction book by Jonathan Harr about a water contamination case in Woburn, Massachusetts, in the 1980s. The book became a best-seller. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction. It is based on the case of Anderson v. Cryovac. The first reported decision in the case is at 96 F.R.D. 431 (denial of defendants' motion to dismiss). A 1998 film of the same name, starring John Travolta as plaintiff's lawyer Jan Schlichtmann and Robert Duvall as Beatrice Foods attorney Jerome Facher, was based on the book. == Plot summary == After finding that her child is diagnosed with leukemia, Anne Anderson notices a high prevalence of leukemia, a relatively rare disease, in her city. Eventually she gathers other families and seeks a lawyer, Jan Schlichtmann, to consider their options. Schlichtmann originally decides not to take the case due to both the lack of evidence and a clear defendant. Later picking up the case, Schlichtmann finds evidence suggesting trichloroethylene (TCE, an industrial solvent that is not known to cause leukemia in humans) contamination of the town's water supply by Riley Tannery, a subsidiary of Beatrice Foods; a chemical company, W. R. Grace; and


id: climate-change-isn-t-everything-liberating-climate-politics-from-alarmism-20260505-0
category: reference
title: Climate Change Isn't Everything: Liberating Climate Politics from Alarmism
tags: science, encyclopedia
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:00.374507+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: climate-change-isn-t-everything-liberating-climate-politics-from-alarmism-20260505-0
file:
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_Change_Isn't_Everything:_Liberating_Climate_Politics_from_Alarmism-0.md

summary:
Climate Change Isn’t Everything: Liberating Climate Politics from Alarmism is a book by Mike Hulme published in 2023 by Polity Press. == Synopsis == Climate Change Isn't Everything: Liberating Climate Politics from Alarmism is a book by Mike Hulme, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Cambridge, where the author introduces the readers to his meaning of the term / neologism 'climatism'. According to a blurb for the book offered by Ted Nordhaus of the Breakthrough Institute climatism reduces the condition of the world to the fate of global temperature or to the atmospheric concentration of Carbon dioxide, to the detriment of tackling serious issues as varied as poverty, liberty, biodiversity loss, inequality and international diplomacy. Hulme notes that the term has been used before, and noticeably in Steve Goreham's Climatism, Science, Common Sense and the 21st Century Hottest Topic, New Lenox Books 2010. While Goreham contest the human origin of climate change, Hulme holds the opposite view, p. 168. == Main == The author opens the book with a discussion of how the Syrian Civil War, started in March 2011 after civil unrest following the torture by President Assad's security agents of young Syrians schoolboys, was blamed on

source_url:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_Change_Isn't_Everything:_Liberating_Climate_Politics_from_Alarmism


id: climate-code-red-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_Code_Red-0.md
category: reference
title: Climate Code Red
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_Code_Red
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:01.515498+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: climate-code-red-20260505-0
summary:
Climate Code Red: The Case for Emergency Action is a 2008 book which presents scientific evidence that the global warming crisis is worse than official reports and national governments have so far indicated. The book argues humanity is facing a sustainability emergency that requires a clear break from business-as-usual politics. The authors explain that emergency action to address climate change is not so much a radical idea as an indispensable course to embark upon. It draws heavily on the work of many climate scientists, including James E. Hansen. == General == The key themes of Climate Code Red are: "Our goal is a safe-climate future – we have no right to bargain away species or human lives." "We are facing rapid warming impacts: the danger is immediate, not just in the future." "For a safe climate future, we must take action now to stop emissions and to cool the earth." "Plan a large-scale transition to a post-carbon economy and society." "Recognise a climate and sustainability emergency, because we need to move at a pace far beyond business and politics as usual". Co-author David Spratt is a Melbourne businessman, climate-policy analyst, and co-founder of the Carbon Equity network, and Research Director


id: climate-of-hope-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Hope-0.md
category: reference
title: Climate of Hope
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Hope
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:13.719298+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: climate-of-hope-20260505-0
summary:
Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens can Save the Planet is an environmental science book by Carl Pope and Michael Bloomberg. == Context == The book is divided into six parts with two chapters each as well as a conclusion. The book switches between Pope and Bloomberg as they draw from their individual experiences within their respective careers as well as historic lessons and scientific evidence as they discuss the inevitable climate crisis of global warming. They examine the problems at hand from a variety of perspectives and also discuss solutions they have implemented and would like to see implemented and the barriers to such. Finally they look at how society has the potential to solve this crisis utilizing innovative technology, policies and nature. == Publication == Climate of Hope was published on April 18, 2017, by St Martin Publication Press and was a New York Times best selling nonfiction book of that year. == References == == External links == Official website Sierra Club


id: the-coal-question-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coal_Question-0.md
category: reference
title: The Coal Question
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coal_Question
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:14.856245+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-coal-question-20260505-0
summary:
The Coal Question; An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal Mines is a book that economist William Stanley Jevons wrote in 1865 to explore the implications of Britain's reliance on coal. Given that coal was a finite, non-renewable energy resource, Jevons raised the question of sustainability. "Are we wise," he asked rhetorically, "in allowing the commerce of this country to rise beyond the point at which we can long maintain it?" His central thesis was that the supremacy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland over global affairs was transitory, given the finite nature of its primary energy resource. In propounding this thesis, Jevons covered a range of issues central to sustainability, including limits to growth, overpopulation, overshoot, energy return on energy input (EROEI), taxation of energy resources, renewable energy alternatives, and resource peaking. == The significance of coal == Jevons introduces the first chapter of The Coal Question with a succinct description of coal's wonders and society's insatiable appetite for it: Coal in truth stands not beside but entirely above all other commodities. It is the material energy of the country — the universal aid — the factor in


id: the-coal-question-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coal_Question-1.md
category: reference
title: The Coal Question
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coal_Question
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:14.856245+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-coal-question-20260505-0
summary:
Now population, when it grows, moves with a certain uniform impetus, like a body in motion; and uniform progress of population, as I have fully explained before, is multiplication in a uniform ratio. But long-continued progress in such a manner is altogether impossible — it must outstrip all physical conditions and bounds; and the longer it continues, the more severely must the ultimate check be felt. I do not hesitate to say, therefore, that the rapid growth of our great towns, gratifying as it is in the present, is a matter of very serious concern as regards the future. In contrast to Malthus's view that resource growth was linear, Jevons took resource growth as being exponential, like population. This modification of Malthus's theory did not alter the conclusion that unrestrained population growth would inevitably surpass the nation's ability to expand its resources. Prosperity, in terms of per capita consumption, would therefore fall. Moreover, because the primary resource was non-renewable, the fall would be more dramatic than Malthus envisioned: A farm, however far pushed, will under proper cultivation continue to yield forever a constant crop. But in a mine there is no reproduction, and the produce once pushed to the utmost


id: the-coal-question-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coal_Question-2.md
category: reference
title: The Coal Question
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coal_Question
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:14.856245+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-coal-question-20260505-0
summary:
The ignorance, improvidence, and brutish drunkenness of our lower working classes must be dispelled by a general system of education, which may effect for a future generation what is hopeless for the present generation. One preparatory and indispensable measure, however, is a far more general restriction on the employment of children in manufacture. At present it may almost be said to be profitable to breed little slaves and put them to labour early, so as to get earnings out of them before they have a will of their own. A worse premium upon improvidence and future wretchedness could not be imagined. == Global developments after Jevons == As Jevons predicted, coal production could not grow exponentially forever. UK production peaked in 1913, and the country lost its global superiority to a new giant of energy production, the United States, a turn of events that was also predicted by Jevons. The UK had by then developed oil resources in the Middle East and increasingly used the fuel for power generation. Although UK production could not continue to grow at the annual rate of 3.5%, the world's fossil fuel consumption did grow at this rate until about 1970. According to Jevons, UK


id: coal-river-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_River_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Coal River (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_River_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:15.949284+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: coal-river-book-20260505-0
summary:
Coal River: How a Few Brave Americans Took on a Powerful Company–and the Federal Government–to Save the Land They Love is a 2008 book by Michael Shnayerson. Coal River is a work of investigative journalism which describes an environmental controversy in southern West Virginia, where coal companies are using mountaintop removal mining. The book argues that towns, communities, and the environment are at risk. Shnayerson is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair. His other books include The Car That Could: GM's Revolutionary Electric Vehicle and The Killers Within: The Deadly Rise of Drug-Resistant Bacteria. == See also == List of books about coal mining == References ==


id: collapse-how-societies-choose-to-fail-or-succeed-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed-0.md
category: reference
title: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:17.130006+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: collapse-how-societies-choose-to-fail-or-succeed-20260505-0
summary:
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (titled Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive for the British edition) is a 2005 book by academic and popular science author Jared Diamond, in which the author first defines collapse: "a drastic decrease in human population size and/or political/economic/social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time." He then reviews the causes of historical and pre-historical instances of societal collapse—particularly those involving significant influences from environmental changes, the effects of climate change, hostile neighbors, trade partners, and the society's response to the foregoing four challenges. It also considers why societies might not perceive a problem, might not decide to attempt a solution, and why an attempted solution might fail. While the bulk of the book is concerned with the demise of these historical civilizations, Diamond also argues that humanity collectively faces, on a much larger scale, many of the same issues, with possibly catastrophic near-future consequences to many of the world's populations. == Synopsis == In the prologue, Jared Diamond summarizes his methodology in one paragraph: This book employs the comparative method to understand societal collapses to which environmental problems contribute. My previous book (Guns, Germs, and Steel: The


id: collapse-how-societies-choose-to-fail-or-succeed-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed-1.md
category: reference
title: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:17.130006+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: collapse-how-societies-choose-to-fail-or-succeed-20260505-0
summary:
The Greenland Norse (cf. Hvalsey Church) (climate change, environmental damage, loss of trading partners, hostile neighbors, irrational reluctance to eat fish, chiefs looking after their short-term interests). Easter Island (a society that, Diamond contends, collapsed entirely due to environmental damage) The Polynesians of Pitcairn Island (environmental damage and loss of trading partners) The Anasazi of southwestern North America (environmental damage and climate change) The Maya of Central America (environmental damage, climate change, and hostile neighbors) Finally, Diamond discusses three past success stories: The tiny egalitarian Pacific island of Tikopia The agricultural success of egalitarian central New Guinea The forest management in stratified Japan of the Tokugawa-era, and in Germany. Part Three examines modern societies, including: The collapse into genocide of Rwanda, caused in part by overpopulation The failure of Haiti compared with the success of its neighbor on Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic The problems facing a developing nation, China The problems facing a First World nation, Australia Part Four concludes the study by considering such subjects as business and globalization, and "extracts practical lessons for us today" (pp. 22–23). Specific attention is given to the polder model as a way Dutch society has addressed its challenges and the "top-down" and


id: collapse-how-societies-choose-to-fail-or-succeed-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed-2.md
category: reference
title: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:17.130006+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: collapse-how-societies-choose-to-fail-or-succeed-20260505-0
summary:
=== Criticisms === Jared Diamond's thesis that Easter Island society collapsed in isolation entirely due to environmental damage and cultural inflexibility is contested by some ethnographers and archaeologists, who argue that the introduction of diseases carried by European colonizers and slave raiding, which devastated the population in the 19th century, had a much greater social impact than environmental decline, and that introduced animals—first rats and then sheep—were greatly responsible for the island's loss of native flora, which came closest to deforestation as late as 1930–1960. Diamond's account of the Easter Island collapse is strongly refuted in a chapter of the book Humankind: A Hopeful History (2019) by Dutch historian Rutger Bregman. The book Questioning Collapse (Cambridge University Press, 2010) is a collection of essays by fifteen archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, and historians criticizing various aspects of Diamond's books Collapse and Guns, Germs and Steel. The book was a result of 2006 meeting of the American Anthropological Association in response to the misinformation that Diamond's popular science publications were causing and the association decided to combine experts from multiple fields of research to cover the claims made in Diamond's and debunk them. The book includes research from indigenous peoples of the societies


id: a-collective-bargain-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Collective_Bargain-0.md
category: reference
title: A Collective Bargain
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Collective_Bargain
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:18.265772+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: a-collective-bargain-20260505-0
summary:
A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy is a 2020 non-fiction book by union organizer Jane McAlevey. The book makes the case that unions are the only institution capable of confronting the corporate class. A German edition was published by VSA: Verlag, a division of Springer Science+Business Media, on May 1, 2021, with the title "Macht.Gemeinsame Sache." == Overview == Chapters include "Workers Can Still Win Big", "Who Killed the Unions", "Everything You Thought You Knew About Unions was (Mostly) Wrong", "Are Unions Still Relevant?", "How Do Workers Get a Union?", "How To Rebuild A Union", and "As Go Unions, So Goes The Republic". == Critical response == In the New Yorker, Eleni Shermer wrote, "Her latest book argues that systematic grassroots organizing is the key to repairing today’s ravaged democracy. It is a glossier, more generalized account than her previous works, but its publication marks the arrival of her core ideas into the liberal mainstream." In Jacobin, Sam Gindin wrote, "Her new book offers concrete tactics and practices for how workers can win more battles — and prepare for the larger wars to come. ... Where McAlevey has shortcomings, they are generally the collective shortcomings of


id: the-colors-of-nature-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colors_of_Nature-0.md
category: reference
title: The Colors of Nature
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colors_of_Nature
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:19.429953+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-colors-of-nature-20260505-0
summary:
The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World is a 2011 book edited by Alison H. Deming and Lauret E. Savoy. The book is a collection of essays from authors representing diverse backgrounds, including Japanese American, Mestizo, African American, Hawaiian, Arab American, Chicano and Native American. Collectively, the editors use these essays as a backdrop for exploring a deeper issue: the seeming paucity of nature writing by people of color, while writing about their own personal connections to (and disconnections from) nature. == References ==


id: comprehensive-assessment-of-water-management-in-agriculture-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Assessment_of_Water_Management_in_Agriculture-0.md
category: reference
title: Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Assessment_of_Water_Management_in_Agriculture
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:21.743332+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: comprehensive-assessment-of-water-management-in-agriculture-20260505-0
summary:
The report A Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture was published in 2007 by International Water Management Institute and Earthscan in an attempt to answer the question: how can water in agriculture be developed and managed to help end poverty and hunger, ensure environmentally sustainable practices, and find the right balance between food and environmental security? == History == Compiled after consultation with more than 700 individuals, numerous organisations and networks, it was the first critical evaluation of: the benefits, costs and impacts of the past 50 years of water development water management challenges facing communities today successful methods of managing water in farming around the world. The assessment confirmed that agriculture consumes more water resources than any other sector. A key finding was that a third of the world's population lives in water-scarce areas. More than 1.2 billion live in areas of physical water scarcity, lacking water resources. Parts of Australia and the United States suffer in this way. A further 1.6 billion people live in areas of economic water scarcity, where there is insufficient human capacity or financial resources for people to effectively make use of the water that is available. Here, sub-Saharan Africa is a good


id: confessions-of-an-eco-warrior-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Eco-Warrior-0.md
category: reference
title: Confessions of an Eco-Warrior
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Eco-Warrior
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:22.905554+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: confessions-of-an-eco-warrior-20260505-0
summary:
Confessions of an Eco-Warrior is a book written in 1991 by Dave Foreman. == About == Dave Foreman was the New Mexico lobbyist for The Wilderness Society in the 1970s. Disillusioned by the lack of progress in safeguarding the environment in the United States, particularly after a wilderness inventory by the United States Forest Service known as RARE II (Roadless Area Review and Evaluation), he was a co-founder of the environmental organization known as Earth First! (EF) in the 1980s. EF originally mixed innovative publicity, such as rolling a plastic "crack" down Glen Canyon Dam, with far-reaching wilderness proposals that went far beyond what the mainstream environmental groups were willing to advocate, and with conservation biology research from a biocentric perspective. Later however, after about 1987, EF became primarily associated with non-violent direct action activities. Foreman took his inspiration for Earth First! from Edward Abbey's book The Monkey Wrench Gang which is a fictional account of a gang of four individuals who take on a pointless yet deeply symbolic effort to destroy and thus halt the machines of human expansion and putative "progress" in the American Southwest. In 1989 Foreman was implicated in the FBI conspiracy known as THERMCON wherein


id: the-consumer-s-guide-to-effective-environmental-choices-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Consumer's_Guide_to_Effective_Environmental_Choices-0.md
category: reference
title: The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Consumer's_Guide_to_Effective_Environmental_Choices
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:24.135113+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-consumer-s-guide-to-effective-environmental-choices-20260505-0
summary:
The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists is a handbook printed by the nonprofit environmental group Union of Concerned Scientists. In accordance with UCS's pledge to provide scientifically sound and nonbiased solutions to environmental problems, this book's main goal is to debunk myths associated with the environmental movement and reinforce realistic ways in which the average citizen can do his or her part in conservation. The back cover of the book reads: "Paper or plastic? Bus or car? Old house or new? Cloth diapers or disposables? Some choices have a huge impact on the environment; others are of negligible importance. To those of us who care about our quality of life and what is happening to the earth, this is a vastly important issue. In these pages, the Union of Concerned Scientists help inform consumers about everyday decisions that significantly affect the environment. For example, a few major decisions such as the choice of a house or vehicle have such a disproportionately large effect on the environment that minor environmental infractions shrink by comparison. This book identifies the 4 Most Significant Consumer Related Environmental Problems, 7 Most Damaging Categories, 11 Priority Actions,


id: a-contract-with-the-earth-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Contract_with_the_Earth-0.md
category: reference
title: A Contract with the Earth
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Contract_with_the_Earth
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:25.283791+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: a-contract-with-the-earth-20260505-0
summary:
A Contract with the Earth is a book by Newt Gingrich and Terry L. Maple, with a foreword by E. O. Wilson. Its title is derived from a 10-point "contract" the authors put forward in the book. == Synopsis == A Contract with the Earth is, broadly, a manifesto that challenges those on the right to provide a strategy for repairing the planet and calls on the government to embrace the concept that a healthy environment is required for a healthy democracy and economy. This approach, alternately branded mainstream and entrepreneurial environmentalism by the authors, requires that companies should lead the way in environmental issues while governments provide them with incentives to reduce their carbon footprint. With its 10 "commandments", A Contract with the Earth calls for politicians to abandon adversarial politics and for business and conservationists to form compatible partnerships. In one of the book's themes, Gingrich and Maple argue that environmental efforts shouldn't be exclusive to one political philosophy and reject the idea that free enterprise and a cleaner world are opposing forces. The book generated a storm of media attention in late 2007 and early 2008 as the U.S. presidential campaign began to heat up. Gingrich in


id: the-control-of-nature-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Control_of_Nature-0.md
category: reference
title: The Control of Nature
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Control_of_Nature
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:26.482917+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-control-of-nature-20260505-0
summary:
The Control of Nature is a 1989 nonfiction book by John McPhee that chronicles three attempts to control natural processes that had varying success. The book combines three long essays previously published in The New Yorker: "Atchafalaya", "Cooling the Lava", and "Los Angeles Against the Mountains". These respectively describe the Old River Control Structure regulating inflow to the Atchafalaya River; the Eldfell volcanic eruption of 1973; and debris flow from the San Gabriel Mountains. == Background == In 1980, McPhee traveled with his daughter on a canoe trip on the Atchafalaya River due to her fascination with the novelist Walker Percy. He had conversations with natives about the efforts made by the Army Corps of Engineers in monitoring riverflow in the area. In Vicksburg, Mississippi, a man recommended to McPhee that he research the efforts being undergone to control the debris sliding down from mountains into Los Angeles. When he visited California, a geologist informed him about lava in Iceland. The book's title is derived from a sign on the engineering building at the University of Wyoming. Though he believes nature will win, "my book is not an editorial," McPhee said. "It is a description of people defying nature. They


id: cool-it-the-skeptical-environmentalist-s-guide-to-global-warming-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_It:_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist's_Guide_to_Global_Warming-0.md
category: reference
title: Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_It:_The_Skeptical_Environmentalist's_Guide_to_Global_Warming
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:27.609470+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: cool-it-the-skeptical-environmentalist-s-guide-to-global-warming-20260505-0
summary:
Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming is a book by Danish statistician Bjørn Lomborg. It is a sequel to The Skeptical Environmentalist (first published in Danish in 1998), which in English translation brought the author to international attention. In Cool It, Lomborg argues his view that many negative impacts of climate change are overstated, and mitigation approaches are expensive and have poor return on investment; he instead proposes alternative solutions. The book was adapted into a 2010 documentary film of the same name. Released amid a period of public debate over global warming, reception for the book was mixed. Howard Friel wrote a book-length response called The Lomborg Deception which challenges its veracity. == Content == In Cool It, Lomborg argues his view that many of the elaborate and expensive actions being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars without the same return on investment, often are based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions, and may have very little impact on the world's temperature for centuries. He attempts to dispel what he views as climate change "myths", arguing that it is too soon to say if Greenland's ice is melting, and


id: cradle-to-cradle-remaking-the-way-we-make-things-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_to_Cradle:_Remaking_the_Way_We_Make_Things-0.md
category: reference
title: Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_to_Cradle:_Remaking_the_Way_We_Make_Things
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:28.768651+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: cradle-to-cradle-remaking-the-way-we-make-things-20260505-0
summary:
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things is a 2002 non-fiction book by German chemist Michael Braungart and US architect William McDonough. It is a manifesto detailing how to achieve their Cradle to Cradle Design model. It calls for a radical change in industry: a switch from a cradle-to-grave pattern to a cradle-to-cradle pattern. It suggests that the "reduce reuse recycle" methods perpetuate this cradle-to-grave strategy, and that more changes need to be made. The book discourages downcycling, but rather encourages the manufacture of products with the goal of upcycling in mind. This vision of upcycling is based on a system of "lifecycle development" initiated by Braungart and colleagues at the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency in the 1990s: after products have reached the end of their useful life, they become either "biological nutrients" or "technical nutrients". Biological nutrients are materials that can re-enter the environment. Technical nutrients are materials that remain within closed-loop industrial cycles. The book uses historical examples such as the Industrial Revolution along with commentary on science, nature, and society. == Background == William McDonough and Michael Braungart met at an Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency reception in New York City. They began discussing toxicity and


id: dammed-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dammed-0.md
category: reference
title: Dammed
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dammed
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:31.084227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dammed-20260505-0
summary:
Dammed: The Politics of Loss and Survival in Anishinaabe Territory is a 2020 book by Brittany Luby, associate professor of history at the University of Guelph. The book charts the impacts of the damming of the Winnipeg River in the Lake of the Woods region on the local Anishinaabe population, focusing in particular on the Dalles 38C reserve located downstream from Kenora, Ontario. == Contents == Luby, drawing on both archival and oral sources, presents the history of the local Anishinaabe population at the Dalles 38C from the second half of the twentieth century, when the Winnipeg River was first dammed at Kenora to power a paper and pulp mill, through to the 1960s, when the construction of the Whitedog Falls hydroelectric generating station further upstream was completed. Luby argues that even after settler-colonial encroachment the Anishinaabe were socially and economically sustainable at Dalles 38C; however, the damming of the Winnipeg River, seen as key to the modernization of Kenora and Ontario, degraded the local environment and undermined the local Anishinaabe society. The book first charts the ways in which colonial authorities undermined Anishinaabe riparian rights, which appear to have been enshrined in Treaty 3, in order to proceed with


id: the-death-of-nature-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Nature-0.md
category: reference
title: The Death of Nature
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Nature
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:32.189774+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-death-of-nature-20260505-0
summary:
The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution is a 1980 book by historian Carolyn Merchant. It is one of the first books to explore the Scientific Revolution through the lenses of feminism and ecology. It can be seen as an example of feminist utopian literature of the late 1970s. The author investigates how a historic shift away from seeing Earth as a living organism, and towards seeing it as a machine, was consequently used to justify the domination of both nature and women. Through the exploration of images and metaphors directly linking nature and women, and changing attitudes towards science and technology, the book purports that what was once a need to exercise constraint transformed into a permission for control and exploitation. The Death of Nature contributed to the development of ecofeminism in the United States in the 1980s, alongside works by authors such as Margot Adler, Mary Daly, Susan Griffin, Charlene Spretnak and Starhawk. It has had a noted impact in the fields of environmental history, philosophy, and feminism for its "unprecedented scholarly attention" to the historical linkages between the feminization of nature and the naturalization of women. == References ==


id: the-deniers-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deniers-0.md
category: reference
title: The Deniers
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deniers
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:33.361574+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-deniers-20260505-0
summary:
The Deniers is a 2008 book by Lawrence Solomon. Subtitled "The world-renowned scientists who stood up against global warming hysteria, political persecution, and fraud," the book draws attention to a number of scientists and others who, according to Solomon, have advanced arguments against what he calls the "alarmist" view of global warming, as presented by Al Gore, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the mainstream media, and others. The book is based on a series of columns Solomon wrote for Canada's National Post. It has been criticized for misquoting the scientists it featured. == Background == Solomon states that, as an environmentalist and active member of the Canadian environmental, anti-nuclear, activist organization Energy Probe, he did not originally question the mainstream opinion on global warming or views that climate change deniers who reject the scientific consensus were paid shills of the Energy Lobby. Solomon, however, states that he was aware, based on his experiences opposing nuclear power during the 1970s that it was possible, "that scientists with integrity can hold unconventional and unpopular views," by dissenting with the conventional wisdom of the day. Solomon states that at a dinner in 2004, his friend and fellow environmentalist Norm Rubin remarked


id: desert-solitaire-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Solitaire-0.md
category: reference
title: Desert Solitaire
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Solitaire
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:34.549236+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: desert-solitaire-20260505-0
summary:
Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness is an autobiographical work by American writer Edward Abbey, originally published in 1968. It is his fourth book and his first book-length non-fiction work. The book follows three fiction books: Jonathan Troy (1954), The Brave Cowboy (1956), and Fire on the Mountain (1962). Although it initially garnered little attention, Desert Solitaire was eventually recognized as an iconic work of nature writing and a staple of early environmentalist writing, bringing Abbey critical acclaim and popularity as a writer of environmental, political, and philosophical issues. Based on Abbey's activities as a park ranger at Arches National Monument (now Arches National Park) in the late 1950s, the book is often compared to Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac. It is written as a series of vignettes about Abbey's experiences in the Colorado Plateau region of the desert Southwestern United States, ranging from vivid descriptions of the fauna, flora, geology, and human inhabitants of the area, to firsthand accounts of wilderness exploration and river running, to a polemic against development and excessive tourism in the national parks, to stories of the author's work with a search and rescue team to pull a


id: desert-solitaire-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Solitaire-1.md
category: reference
title: Desert Solitaire
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Solitaire
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:34.549236+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: desert-solitaire-20260505-0
summary:
Desert Solitaire is a collection of treatises and autobiographical excerpts describing Abbey's experiences as a park ranger and wilderness enthusiast in 1956 and 1957. The opening chapters, First Morning and Solitaire, focus on the author's experiences arriving at and creating a life within Arches National Monument. In this early period the park is relatively undeveloped: road access and camping facilities are basic, and there is a low volume of tourist traffic. Many of the book's chapters are studies of the animals, plants, geography, and climate of the region around Arches National Monument. Cliffrose and Bayonets and Serpents of Paradise focus on Abbey's descriptions of the fauna and flora of the Arches area, respectively, and his observations of the already deteriorating balance of biodiversity in the desert due to the pressures of human settlement in the region. Abbey provides detailed inventories and observations of the life of desert plants, and their unique adaptations to their harsh surroundings, including the cliffrose, juniper, pinyon pine, and sand sage. He comments on the decline of the large desert predators, particularly bobcats, coyotes, mountain lions, and wildcats, and criticizes the roles ranchers and the policies of the Department of Agriculture have had in the elimination


id: desert-solitaire-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Solitaire-2.md
category: reference
title: Desert Solitaire
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Solitaire
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:34.549236+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: desert-solitaire-20260505-0
summary:
== Themes and style == Desert Solitaire depicts Abbey's preoccupation with the deserts of the American Southwest. He describes how the desert affects society and more specifically the individual on a multifaceted, sensory level. Many of the ideas and themes drawn out in the book are contradictory. For example: Abbey is dogmatically opposed in various sections to modernity that alienates man from their natural environment and spoils the desert landscapes, and yet at various points relies completely on modern contrivances to explore and live in the desert. Additionally, he expresses his deep and abiding respect for all forms of life in his philosophy, but describes unflinchingly his contempt for the cattle he herds in the canyons, and in another scene he remorselessly stones a rabbit, angry about rabbits' overabundance in the desert. Similarly, he remarks that he hates ants and plunges his walking stick into an ant hill for no reason other than to make the ants mad. However, Abbey deliberately highlights many of the paradoxes and comments on them in his final chapter, particularly in regard to his conception of the desert landscape itself. He introduces the desert as "the flaming globe, blazing on the pinnacles and minarets and


id: desert-solitaire-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Solitaire-3.md
category: reference
title: Desert Solitaire
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Solitaire
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:34.549236+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: desert-solitaire-20260505-0
summary:
There may be some among the readers of this book, like the earnest engineer, who believe without question that any and all forms of construction and development are intrinsic goods, in the national parks as well as anywhere else, who virtually identify quantity with quality and therefore assume that the greater the quantity of traffic, the higher the value received. There are some who frankly and boldly advocate the eradication of the last remnants of wilderness and the complete subjugation of nature to the requirements of – not man – but industry. This is a courageous view, admirable in its simplicity and power, and with the weight of all modern history behind it. It is also quite insane. I cannot attempt to deal with it here. Another example of this for Abbey is the tragedy of the commons: A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself. If industrial man continues to multiply its numbers and expand his operations he will succeed in his apparent intention, to seal himself off from the natural and isolate himself within a synthetic prison of


id: desert-solitaire-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Solitaire-4.md
category: reference
title: Desert Solitaire
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_Solitaire
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:34.549236+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: desert-solitaire-20260505-0
summary:
A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, power lines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to go there. I may never in my life go to Alaska, for example, but I am grateful that it is there. We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope; without it the life of the cities would drive all men into crime or drugs or psychoanalysis. The wilderness is equal to freedom for Abbey, it is what separates him from others and allows him to have his connection with the planet. But he wants others to have the same freedom. His only request is that they cut their strings first. When Abbey is lounging in his chair in 110-degree heat at Arches and observes that the mountains are snow-capped and crystal clear, it shows what nature provides: one extreme is able to counter another. That a median can be found, and that pleasure and comfort can be found between the rocks and hard places: "The knowledge that


id: diet-for-a-new-america-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_for_a_New_America-0.md
category: reference
title: Diet for a New America
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_for_a_New_America
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:35.817127+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: diet-for-a-new-america-20260505-0
summary:
Diet for a New America is a 1987 book by John Robbins. The book links the impacts of factory farming on human health, animal welfare and the environment, in an "animal-rights, pro-environment, vegetarian message." In 1991, KCET produced it as the documentary, Diet for a New America: Your Health, Your Planet. == Critical reception == Colman McCarthy and Cleveland Amory compared Diet for a New America to Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring. In an editorial for The Washington Post and Finger Lakes Times McCarthy writes: "Robbins has written a book that is the pioneering match of Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac, John Rawls' A Theory of Justice, and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring." Marian Burros of The New York Times writes: "Much of what Mr. Robbins has to say about diet in this country is unremarkable: we eat too much meat and dairy products. Much of what Mr. Robbins has to say about the inhumane treatment of animals on factory farms is correct. But Mr. Robbins undermines his case by exaggerating; facts mix with factoids and anecdotes." In 1990, the Phil Donahue Show featured celebrities and John Robbins talking about vegetarianism and Diet for a New America. == Influence ==


id: the-dirty-energy-dilemma-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dirty_Energy_Dilemma-0.md
category: reference
title: The Dirty Energy Dilemma
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dirty_Energy_Dilemma
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:36.950087+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-dirty-energy-dilemma-20260505-0
summary:
The Dirty Energy Dilemma: What’s Blocking Clean Power in the United States is a 2008 book by academic Benjamin K. Sovacool, published by Praeger. In the book, Sovacool explores problems with the current U.S. electricity system and ways to overcome them. == Synopsis == In the first part of the book, Sovacool explores the problems with the current system of large-scale electricity generation being used in the United States, powered by fossil fuels and nuclear power reactors. He identifies "The Big Four Energy Challenges" as rising fossil fuel costs, increasing pollution, inefficient and brittle transmission networks, as well as widespread system vulnerability to natural disasters, sabotage, and financial manipulations. "The Big Four Clean Solutions" of renewable energy, efficient energy use, distributed generation, and combined heat and power will do a better job of providing needed energy while protecting consumers and the planet. Sovacool suggests that the barriers to clean energy adoption are institutional, not technological, and he sees no role for nuclear power in a clean energy transition. == Award == The Dirty Energy Dilemma won a 2009 Nautilus Silver Award for Best Book in the "Ecology/Environment/Sustainability/Green Values" category. == See also == Alternative Energy: Political, Economic, and Social Feasibility


id: do-glaciers-listen-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Glaciers_Listen-0.md
category: reference
title: Do Glaciers Listen?
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Glaciers_Listen?
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:38.114081+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: do-glaciers-listen-20260505-0
summary:
Do Glaciers Listen? Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination is a 2005 book by Canadian anthropologist Julie Cruikshank. Focusing on the Mount Saint Elias region where Alaska, the Yukon, and British Columbia meet, Cruikshank highlights the physical and cultural changes of the region by examining glaciers. The late stages of the Little Ice Age brought about significant physical changes to glaciers in the region, and Cruikshank examines the cosmologies and interpretations of both local Indigenous populations - in particular the Tlingit and Athapaskan peoples - and European explorers who began entering the region at that time. == Awards == Do Glaciers Listen won the 2006 Vic Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology; the 2006 Clio Prize (North) from the Canadian Historical Association; and the 2006 Julian Steward Award from the American Anthropological Association. == References ==


id: driving-the-future-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_the_Future-0.md
category: reference
title: Driving the Future
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_the_Future
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:39.274041+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: driving-the-future-20260505-0
summary:
Driving the Future: Combating Climate Change with Cleaner, Smarter Cars is the first book of Margo T. Oge, who served as the director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Transportation and Air Quality from 1994 to 2012. The book covers climate science, politics, regulations, auto technology and proposes how to meet greenhouse gas reduction goals. The book combines primary source research, Oge's first-hand knowledge of events and dozens of interviews with technical, environmental, regulatory, policy and legal experts. It is organized into three sections. == Section 1 == In the first, Oge reviews the origins of climate change theory dating back to the 1800s and the politicization of climate change-related issues beginning in the 1980s. == Section 2 == The second section details an ultimately successful effort to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles. This effort resulted in changes to both Corporate Average Fuel Economy and, under the authority of the EPA, established the first ever federal greenhouse gas standards. As a result of these rules, manufacturers' fleets must average 54.5 mpg by 2025. The Economist magazine ranked them as the sixth most effective international action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. == Section 3 == The third section


id: eaarth-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eaarth-0.md
category: reference
title: Eaarth
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eaarth
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:40.604359+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: eaarth-20260505-0
summary:
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet is a book written by Bill McKibben, published by Henry Holt and Company in 2010. In the opening chapter, McKibben presents an array of facts and statistics about climate change that are already visible, supported by extensive footnotes. In the second and third chapters, McKibben lays out his analysis of how we have arrived at the current situation, and conveys genuine sorrow as he explains how the drive for economic growth based on hydrocarbons since the 1970s has led the planet to the point of breakdown. In a review of the book, British economist Nicholas Stern suggests that there is no doubting McKibben’s sincerity and his ability to communicate the significant risks which humanity faces. According to Stern, his "overall thesis that we are already seeing widespread effects of climate change is sound and supported by much robust scientific evidence". Stern says McKibben is too pessimistic when it comes to the recent advances in avoiding even bigger changes to the climate by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. == References ==


id: earth-from-the-air-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_from_the_Air-0.md
category: reference
title: Earth from the Air
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_from_the_Air
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:42.952637+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: earth-from-the-air-20260505-0
summary:
Earth from the Air is a popular collection of environmental photographs taken from the air by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. They have been published in a number of books together with text describing environmental concerns related to the photographs. Large format versions of many of the photographs have also been exhibited in various cities. In London they were on display outside the Natural History Museum; and were subsequently exhibited outside City Hall for most of 2005, together with a giant world map on the ground showing where each photograph was taken. == References == == External links == Earth from the Air "Earth from the Air displayed in Sofia, Bulgaria". Radio Bulgaria. 20 September 2007. Archived from the original on 6 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-03.


id: earth-in-the-balance-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_in_the_Balance-0.md
category: reference
title: Earth in the Balance
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_in_the_Balance
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:44.124819+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: earth-in-the-balance-20260505-0
summary:
Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (ISBN 0-452-26935-0, paperback ISBN 1-85383-743-1) is a 1992 book written by Al Gore, published in June 1992, shortly before he was elected Vice President in the 1992 presidential election. Known by the short title Earth in the Balance, the book explains the world's ecological predicament and describes a range of policies to deal with the most pressing problems. It includes a proposed "Global Marshall Plan" to address current ecological issues. Written while his son was recovering from a serious accident, Earth in the Balance became the first book written by a sitting U.S. Senator to make the New York Times bestseller list since John F. Kennedy's 1956 Profiles in Courage. In 1993, Earth in the Balance was released in paperback and audiobook format on audio cassette tape. It received the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights 1993 Book award given annually to a book that "most faithfully and forcefully reflects Robert Kennedy's purposes - his concern for the poor and the powerless, his struggle for honest and even-handed justice, his conviction that a decent society must assure all young people a fair chance, and his faith that a


id: the-earth-transformed-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Earth_Transformed-0.md
category: reference
title: The Earth Transformed
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Earth_Transformed
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:45.240323+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-earth-transformed-20260505-0
summary:
The Earth Transformed: An Untold History is a 2023 non-fiction book by English historian Peter Frankopan. It discusses the interactions between human societies and the environment throughout history. Frankopan argues that droughts, volcanic eruptions, the Little Ice Age, Medieval Warm Period and contemporary climate change impacted and coincided with societal change, such as the Classic Maya collapse and expansion of the Mongol Empire. Walter Scheidel gave the book a positive review in Financial Times. The Times and Geographical also published positive reviews. Felipe Fernández-Armesto wrote a balanced review, while Geoff Mann critically reviewed the book. == References ==


id: ecodefense-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecodefense-0.md
category: reference
title: Ecodefense
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecodefense
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:46.410271+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: ecodefense-20260505-0
summary:
Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching is a book edited by Dave Foreman (and Bill Haywood in later editions), with a foreword by Edward Abbey. == Background == Much of the inspiration for the book, as well as the term "monkeywrenching", came from Edward Abbey's 1975 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang. Other inspiration for the book likely came from the 1972 book Ecotage!, which was published by the group Environmental Action and was in turn inspired by the actions of an activist in the Chicago, Illinois area who called himself "The Fox", and engaged in such vigilante actions to protect the environment as plugging smokestacks. The Fox named after the Fox River northwest of Chicago was an avid historical boater who educated and demonstrated Native American and early trapper fishing and boating techniques. The Fox was radicalized and became a founding mentor of the Earth Liberation Front movement after witnessing toxic dumping into the Fox River over decades which polluted the river to near-death. The Fox became infamous after dumping a bucket of said toxic waste upon the desk of a Stone Container Corporation executive in Chicago. The Fox was rumored also to plug drainage pipes from toxic industrial plants


id: ecological-imperialism-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_Imperialism_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Ecological Imperialism (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_Imperialism_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:47.595302+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: ecological-imperialism-book-20260505-0
summary:
Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 is a 1986 book by environmental historian Alfred W. Crosby. The book builds on Crosby's earlier study, The Columbian Exchange, in which he described the complex global transfer of organisms that accompanied European colonial endeavors. In Ecological Imperialism, Crosby seeks to explain why European colonialists were successful in establishing settler societies in temperate regions around the globe. He argues that this was due principally to the "portmanteau biota" – disease microbes, weeds, domesticated plants, and animals – that accompanied Europeans, devastating local populations and significantly re-making local landscapes. The book advanced understandings of the environmental impacts of global colonialism and re-shaped understandings of the colonial experience itself, placing environmental factors at its center. Crosby introduced "ecological imperialism" as an explanatory concept that points out the contribution of European biological species such as animals, plants and pathogens in the success of European colonists. The book is considered a foundational text in the field of environmental history and has been influential in many other fields, including postcolonial studies. It was awarded the 1987 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award. == Contents == Crosby begins by pointing out that the populations of what he calls the "Neo-Europes"


id: ecological-imperialism-book-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_Imperialism_(book)-1.md
category: reference
title: Ecological Imperialism (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_Imperialism_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:47.595302+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: ecological-imperialism-book-20260505-0
summary:
By 3,000 years ago, give or take a millennium or so, "superman,* the human of Old World civilization, had appeared on earth. He was not a figure with bulging muscles, nor necessarily with bulging forehead. He knew how to raise surpluses of food and fiber; he knew how to tame and exploit several species of animals; he knew how to use the wheel to spin out a thread or make a pot or move cumbersome weights; his fields were plagued with thistles and his granaries with rodents; he had sinuses that throbbed in wet weather, a recurring problem with dysentery, and enervating burden of worms, an impressive assortment of genetic and acquired adaptations to diseases anciently endemic to Old World civilizations, and an immune system of such experience and sophistication as to make him the template for all the humans who would be tempted or obliged to follow the path he pioneered some 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. == Legacy == Ecological Imperialism built directly on Crosby's earlier work on the Columbian exchange, with Crosby remarking that Ecological Imperialism "took The Columbian Exchange up another notch in scope and abstraction." It is part of a long scholarly legacy that helped


id: the-ecology-of-freedom-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ecology_of_Freedom-0.md
category: reference
title: The Ecology of Freedom
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ecology_of_Freedom
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:48.806600+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-ecology-of-freedom-20260505-0
summary:
The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy is a 1982 book by the American libertarian socialist and ecologist Murray Bookchin, in which the author describes his concept of social ecology, the idea that human social problems cause ecological problems and can be solved only by reorganizing society along ecological and ethical lines. The book is considered Bookchin's magnum opus, but it has also been criticized as utopian. == Summary == Bookchin is critical of the class-centered analysis of Marxism and simplistic anti-state forms of libertarianism and liberalism and wishes to present a more complex view of societies. Bookchin writes that, "My use of the word hierarchy in the subtitle of this work is meant to be provocative. There is a strong theoretical need to contrast hierarchy with the more widespread use of the words class and State; careless use of these terms can produce a dangerous simplification of social reality. To use the words hierarchy, class, and State interchangeably, as many social theorists do, is insidious and obscurantist. This practice, in the name of a "classless" or "libertarian" society, could easily conceal the existence of hierarchical relationships and a hierarchical sensibility, both of which – even in


id: the-ecology-of-freedom-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ecology_of_Freedom-1.md
category: reference
title: The Ecology of Freedom
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ecology_of_Freedom
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:48.806600+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-ecology-of-freedom-20260505-0
summary:
=== Other evaluations === The anarchist author Ulrike Heider described The Ecology of Freedom as "a utopian work" in which the "social and political reality of the past, present, and future are pretty much faded out and capitalism is neither mentioned nor criticized". Bookchin responded in The Raven: Anarchist Quarterly, calling Heider's criticism unethical and distorting his views. He described Heider's assertion that he does not criticize capitalism as a fabrication. The philosopher Steven Best described The Ecology of Freedom as a classic, writing in Organization & Environment that, of Bookchin's books, it is the one that best captures the themes of his work as a whole. He credited Bookchin with making an influential critique of "Marxist historical narratives"; he noted that the book also influenced feminism. He complimented Bookchin for his interpretation of history. However, writing in 1998, he noted that some of Bookchin's claims were controversial, and that "Bookchin has evolved beyond certain positions" taken in the book. Brian Tokar wrote in Capitalism Nature Socialism that while The Ecology of Freedom "received high praise", it was also considered a "utopian social criticism". The philosopher Andrew Light wrote that The Ecology of Freedom was "widely read by both theorists


id: ecology-can-we-survive-under-capitalism-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology:_Can_We_Survive_Under_Capitalism-0.md
category: reference
title: Ecology: Can We Survive Under Capitalism?
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology:_Can_We_Survive_Under_Capitalism?
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:49.948702+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: ecology-can-we-survive-under-capitalism-20260505-0
summary:
Ecology: Can We Survive Under Capitalism? is a book by Gus Hall, published in 1972 by International Publishers. == Reception == The book received reviews from publications including Ecology Law Quarterly and Labour Monthly. A review from Labour Monthly written by John Moss stated that "A book on ecology written by the general secretary of a political party is an event in itself, and I cannot recall another, not in this country anyway… At a time when there are so many books about the effects of pollution, this one that explains so clearly its causes, and the root and branch cure of socialism is refreshingly welcome." == Book Description == "Pollution and environmental deterioration are often ascribed to the negative effects of science and technology, and remedies are seen only in that area. The Communist leader ascribes these new dangers of extinction basically to the unplanned, anarchic system of capitalism and to the profit motive of monopoly. He gives the discussion a class dimension, showing that workers suffer the most, both at the place of work and at home. While urging immediate remedies, he holds that socialism provides the solution, as show in the countries which have made the turn


id: the-economical-environmentalist-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economical_Environmentalist-0.md
category: reference
title: The Economical Environmentalist
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economical_Environmentalist
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:51.855399+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-economical-environmentalist-20260505-0
summary:
The Economical Environmentalist is a book by Prashant Vaze about the effects of climate change and what practical measures can be taken to reduce the amount of energy one consumes. It covers how best to save energy and points out contradictions such as "The one that particularly exasperates me is the “food miles” obsession, whereby we eschew tomatoes from Spain and roses flown in from Kenya, in favour of local products grown in a heated greenhouse with a far greater carbon footprint." In the book he compares the savings available for several real-world examples of people so one can see what changes are possible to make. == References ==


id: ecotage-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotage!-0.md
category: reference
title: Ecotage!
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotage!
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:53.662887+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: ecotage-20260505-0
summary:
Ecotage! was a 1972 paperback book edited by Sam Love and David Obst and published by Pocket Books. The book was a collection of ideas that had been solicited by the group Environmental Action over the previous year in preparation for the publication of the book, for using sabotage, attention-grabbing stunts, and other ideas to draw attention to environmental issues. "Ecotage" is a contraction of ecological (or economic) and sabotage. The cover of Ecotage! features a photograph of a hippie throwing a pie in the face of a business executive. The book is credited as one of the early inspirations for radical environmental activism, along with similar works such as Edward Abbey's 1975 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang. The book was inspired by the actions of an individual who operated in the Chicago, Illinois area. Calling himself "The Fox", he engaged in such activities as plugging smokestacks and entering the offices of corporate executives to dump sewage on their desks. In turn, some of the actions suggested in Ecotage! actually began to be carried out, particularly billboarding, when small groups in the early 1970s such as the one calling themselves the "Eco-Raiders" in Tucson, Arizona, began cutting down billboards. The


id: the-edge-of-the-sea-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Edge_of_the_Sea-0.md
category: reference
title: The Edge of the Sea
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Edge_of_the_Sea
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:54.797244+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-edge-of-the-sea-20260505-0
summary:
The Edge of the Sea is a best-selling book by the American marine biologist Rachel Carson, first published as a whole by Houghton Mifflin in 1955. The third and final volume of her sea trilogy, The Edge of the Sea, is a scientifically accurate exploration of the ecology of the Eastern Seaboard. == Description == The Edge of the Sea was a passion project for Carson. While working for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, she had the idea of creating a field guide of the Atlantic seashore. The editor-in-chief of Houghton Mifflin, Paul Brooks, had a similar idea following the literary fame achieved by The Sea Around Us, and The Edge of the Sea was released on October 26, 1955. A scientifically accurate exploration of the ecology of Atlantic seashore, The Edge of the Sea is an account of what one could find at the literal edge of the sea. Within The Edge of the Sea, Carson details her explorations with accounts of a tide pool, an inaccessible cave, and the instance of a lone crab on the shore at midnight. Each is a memorable encounter and works to explore life on the edge of the sea. Aided


id: encounters-with-the-archdruid-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encounters_with_the_Archdruid-0.md
category: reference
title: Encounters with the Archdruid
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encounters_with_the_Archdruid
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:56.001549+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: encounters-with-the-archdruid-20260505-0
summary:
Encounters with the Archdruid (1971) is a narrative nonfiction book by author John McPhee. Encounters is split into three parts, each covering environmentalist David Brower's confrontations with his ideological enemies. The book chronicles his struggles against miners, developers and finally the United States Bureau of Reclamation. McPhee blends traditional journalism – the reporting of facts and accounting of events – with thematic elements more common to fiction. The book was generally well received in the popular press and became an enduring part of the portrait of David Brower. == Synopsis == While notionally a profile of Brower, Encounters is broken into three sections. The first chronicles Brower's conflict with Charles Park, a mineral engineer hoping to find and exploit mineral reserves in Glacier Peak Wilderness. Charles Park is portrayed as calculating and pragmatic, unwilling to foreclose real economic value from current generations in order to leave the environment pristine for future generations. This pragmatic view is starkly contrasted with Brower's insistence that "I believe in wilderness for itself alone". McPhee facilitates or observes the dialogue between these two contrasted figures as he does for the other two sections in the book. The second section introduces Charles Fraser, a real estate


id: the-end-of-nature-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Nature-0.md
category: reference
title: The End of Nature
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Nature
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:38:58.354647+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-end-of-nature-20260505-0
summary:
The End of Nature is a book written by Bill McKibben, published by Random House in 1989. It has been called the first book on global warming written for a general audience. McKibben had thought that simply stating the problem would provoke people to action. == Premise == He describes nature as a force previously independent of human beings but now directly affected by the actions of people. "If the waves crash up against the beach, eroding dunes and destroying homes, it is not the awesome power of Mother Nature. It is the awesome power of Mother Nature as altered by the awesome power of man, who has overpowered in a century the processes that have been slowly evolving and changing of their own accord since the earth was born." He offers two paths forward: "The Defiant Reflex" or a "more humble" way of living. == References ==


id: the-end-of-the-line-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_Line_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: The End of the Line (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_Line_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:00.725578+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-end-of-the-line-book-20260505-0
summary:
The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat is a book by journalist Charles Clover about overfishing. It was made into a movie released in 2009 and was re-released with updates in 2017. Clover, a former environment editor of the Daily Telegraph and now a columnist on the Sunday Times, describes how modern fishing is destroying ocean ecosystems. He concludes that current worldwide fish consumption is unsustainable. The book provides details about overfishing in many of the world's critical ocean habitats, such as the New England fishing grounds, west African coastlines, the European North Atlantic fishing grounds, and the ocean around Japan. The book concludes with suggestions on how the nations of the world could engage in sustainable ocean fishing. == Synopsis ==


id: the-end-of-the-line-book-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_Line_(book)-1.md
category: reference
title: The End of the Line (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_Line_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:00.725578+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-end-of-the-line-book-20260505-0
summary:
Fishing is occurring at an unsustainable rate. Technological advances, political indecisiveness, and commercial interests in the fishing industry have produced a culture where fish stocks are being exploited beyond their capacity to regenerate. Commercial fish may become extinct within our lifetimes. Official figures of global fish stocks have been wrong for several years. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that the quantity of wild fish caught had increased from 44 million tons in 1950, to 88 million tons in 1990 and 104 million tons in 2000. These figures were official even though the FAO knew they were false, that the catch was actually decreasing. In 1997, the Grand Banks cod fisheries of Newfoundland, Canada, had collapsed. Seventy-five percent of all fisheries were either fully exploited or overfished. Critically endangered species of fish are still allowed to be fished. For example, the bluefin tuna stock is equivalent to the black rhino. However, it is still being illegally caught and sold. Furthermore, there is even an oversupply problem in the current market as technological innovations have allowed entire schools of bluefin tuna to be caught at the same time. In Spain, the catch of bluefish tuna has exponentially decreased:


id: the-end-of-the-line-book-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_Line_(book)-2.md
category: reference
title: The End of the Line (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_Line_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:00.725578+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-end-of-the-line-book-20260505-0
summary:
In order for intensive fishing to occur, 50% of the ocean must be protected so that marine life can be sustained. However, marine reserves are not only an environmental solution, they are cultural treasures that can also generate revenue. In the Great Island Marine Reserve of New Zealand, 1370 acres of water are protected. The largest snappers there are eight times larger than those outside the reserve and 14 times more numerous. Recreational fishing must be better managed along with industrial fishing. The contemporary angler is equipped with technology such as sonar, fish finders, and global positioning systems. As a consequence, they are taking more fish. Although anglers are more cautious than industrial fisherman, the amount of fish they take is growing. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an agency that gives an independent certification of sustainability to fisheries. It has three stringent criteria: the fishery must not be overfishing, the fishery must maintain the ecosystem of the fish, the fishery must operate in accordance with local, national, and international law. All fish filets served by McDonald's are MSC certified, with more large stores to follow. Fish farming is the process of growing fish in an artificial environment. The traditional


id: the-end-of-the-line-book-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_Line_(book)-3.md
category: reference
title: The End of the Line (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_Line_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:00.725578+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-end-of-the-line-book-20260505-0
summary:
== Reviews == University of British Columbia Professor of Fisheries Daniel Pauly, reviewing the book for the Times Higher Education Supplement, praised the book: "It is entertaining, outrageous and a must-read for anyone who cares about the sea and its denizens, or even about our supply of seafood." The British newspaper The Independent called it "persuasive and desperately disturbing," "the maritime equivalent of Silent Spring". Although widely reviewed in the United Kingdom, the book received little attention in the United States. However, it was featured on the cover of National Geographic. == Film adaptation == The book was made into a documentary film of the same name in 2009. The film examines the threatening extinction of the bluefin tuna, caused by increasing demand for sushi; the impact on populations, marine life and climate resulting from an imbalance in marine populations; and the starvation and hunger in coastal populations, caused by the possible extinction of fish in some waters, the possible loss of livelihoods as experienced in Newfoundland and Labrador following the collapse of the cod population, along with the potential remedies. The film was shot over two years at locations in England, Alaska, Senegal, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Nova Scotia, Malta


id: endemic-bird-areas-of-the-world-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endemic_Bird_Areas_of_the_World-0.md
category: reference
title: Endemic Bird Areas of the World
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endemic_Bird_Areas_of_the_World
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:01.887207+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: endemic-bird-areas-of-the-world-20260505-0
summary:
Endemic Bird Areas of the World: Priorities for Biodiversity Conservation represents an effort to document in detail the endemic biodiversity conservation importance of the world's Endemic Bird Areas. The authors are Alison J. Stattersfield, Michael J. Crosby, Adrian J. Long, and David C. Wege, with a foreword by Queen Noor of Jordan. Endemic Bird Areas of the World: Priorities for Biodiversity Conservation contains 846 pages, and is a 1998 publication by Birdlife International, No. 7 in their Birdlife Conservation Series. == Six Introductory Sections == The book has six introductory sections: "Biodiversity and Priority setting" "Identifying Endemic Bird Areas" "Global Analyses" "The Prioritization of Endemic Bird Areas" "The Conservation Relevance of Endemic Bird Areas" "Endemic Bird Areas as Targets for Conservation Action" == Six Regional Introductions == These are then followed by six Regional Introductions, in which Endemic Bird Areas are grouped into six major regions: North and Central America South America Africa, Europe, and the Middle East Continental Asia South-east Asian Islands, New Guinea and Australia Pacific Islands == Endemic Bird Areas == The bulk of the book consists of accounts of each of the 218 Endemic Bird Areas. Each account contains the following information: summary statistics about the


id: energy-and-american-society-thirteen-myths-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_and_American_Society:_Thirteen_Myths-0.md
category: reference
title: Energy and American Society: Thirteen Myths
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_and_American_Society:_Thirteen_Myths
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:03.024288+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: energy-and-american-society-thirteen-myths-20260505-0
summary:
Energy and American Society: Thirteen Myths is a 2007 book about energy security and climate change, edited by Benjamin K. Sovacool and Marilyn A. Brown. The book is suitable for both technical and non-technical audiences since it is written in plain English and is "easily digested by anyone with a rudimentary background or interest in energy economics". == Thirteen myths == The book discusses and presents counter-arguments to thirteen propositions concerning American culture, energy, the environment, and society: Myth One – Today's Energy Crisis is "Hype" Myth Two – The Public is Well Informed About Energy Myth Three – High Land Requirements and an Unfavorable Energy Balance Preclude Biomass Ethanol from Playing a Large Role in Providing Energy Services Myth Four – The Hydrogen Economy is a Panacea to the Nation's Energy Problems Myth Five – Price Signals are Insufficient to Induce Efficient Energy Investments Myth Six – The Barriers to New and Innovative Energy Technologies are Primarily Technical: The Case of Distributed Generation Myth Seven – Renewable Energy Systems Could Never Meet Growing Electricity Demand in America Myth Eight – Worldwide Power Systems are Economically and Environmentally Optimal Myth Nine – Energy Efficiency Improvements have Already Reached their Potential


id: energy-victory-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Victory-0.md
category: reference
title: Energy Victory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Victory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:04.238137+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: energy-victory-20260505-0
summary:
Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil is a 2007 book by Robert Zubrin. Zubrin's central argument is that the decisive front in the war on terror is America's struggle for energy independence. He outlines the manner in which Islamic extremism has been financed by oil revenues, the technological feasibility of ethanol-fueled vehicles as well as the economic and agricultural imperatives for ethanol production, and the environmental implications of his plan. == Synopsis == === Problem === Zubrin contends that OPEC nations, particularly Saudi Arabia, have used their enormous oil wealth to fund Islamic extremism; in effect, the US is financing both sides of the war on terror. They have been able to do this through colluding to keep oil prices high. Due to its dependence on their oil, the United States (and the rest of the world) is powerless to do anything about this. === Flex-fuel mandate === The key to winning the war on terror, therefore, is to create a substitute for oil. Zubrin argues that a mandate that all new cars sold in the United States be flex-fueled (FFV, for Flex-Fuel Vehicle, able to run on gasoline, ethanol or methanol, or any


id: entropy-a-new-world-view-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy:_A_New_World_View-0.md
category: reference
title: Entropy: A New World View
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy:_A_New_World_View
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:05.403625+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: entropy-a-new-world-view-20260505-0
summary:
Entropy: A New World View is a non-fiction book by Jeremy Rifkin and Ted Howard, with an Afterword by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen. It was first published by Viking Press, New York in 1980 (ISBN 0-670-29717-8). A paperback edition was published by Bantam in 1981, in a paperback revised edition, by Bantam Books, in 1989 (ISBN 0-553-34717-9). The 1989 revised edition was titled: Entropy: Into the Greenhouse World (ISBN 978-0-553-34717-3). == Contents == In the book the authors analyze the world's economic and social structures by using the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The first and second law of thermodynamics — the second of which is known as the law of entropy — both deal with energy. The authors argue that technological nations are wasting resources such as fossil fuels and minerals at an increasing rate, which if unchecked will lead to the destruction of civilization, which has happened before on a smaller scale to past societies. The authors also argue that the societies wasting resources are exploiting the "Third World", now called "developing nations". The wasting of resources is a parallel to wasting energy in the laws of thermodynamics. The Book promotes the use of sustainable energy sources and slow


id: enviro-capitalists-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enviro-Capitalists-0.md
category: reference
title: Enviro-Capitalists
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enviro-Capitalists
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:06.583537+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: enviro-capitalists-20260505-0
summary:
Enviro-Capitalists: Doing Good While Doing Well is a 1997 book written by economists Terry L. Anderson and Donald R. Leal. In this book, Anderson and Leal further developed the concept of free-market environmentalism, which they first described in their 1992 book Free Market Environmentalism. The book argues that privatization of sectors like wildlife conservation, aquatic habitat development and environment-friendly housing is beneficial and environmental protection should be done by private entrepreneurs, not by the federal government. Enviro-Capitalists received the 1997 Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award. == Contents == The book is divided into nine chapters: Nature's Entrepreneurs Barons of Preservation Mavericks of Conservation The Business of Bambi Buy That Fish a Drink Eco-Developers Going Global Community Spirit The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly === Criticism of traditional environmentalism === Enviro-Capitalists claims that traditional environmentalists are driven by political opportunism. According to the book, major environmentalist organizations, most of them headquartered in Washington, DC, focus on politics, lobbying and fundraising, and people involved in these organizations spend their time in the United States Congress, not in the "wilds of nature". The book is critical of organizations like the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the World Wide Fund


id: environmental-principles-and-policies-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Principles_and_Policies-0.md
category: reference
title: Environmental Principles and Policies
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Principles_and_Policies
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:07.758804+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: environmental-principles-and-policies-20260505-0
summary:
Environmental Principles and Policies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction is a textbook written by Professor Sharon Beder. The book examines six environmental and social principles that have been used at the international and national level. It uses them to evaluate the new wave of market-based policy instruments that have been introduced in many countries. == Six principles == The six principles discussed in the book are: the sustainability principle the polluter pays principle the precautionary principle the equity principle the human rights principles the participation principle == Interdisciplinary approach == This book on environmental policy-making takes a critical and interdisciplinary approach. Rather than merely setting out policy options in a descriptive way, it evaluates policies from different perspectives. This enables readers to gain a thorough understanding of important principles and current policies, and also to be able to apply the various principles and critically evaluate them. == The author == Professor Beder was included in a list of "Australia's most influential engineers", published by Engineers Australia in 2004. She was also included in Bulletin Magazine's "Smart 100" in 2003. == See also == Sustainable development Environmental policy List of Australian environmental books == References == == External links == Review: Principled environmental


id: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population-0.md
category: reference
title: An Essay on the Principle of Population
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:08.939862+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-0
summary:
The book An Essay on the Principle of Population was first published anonymously in 1798, but the author was soon identified as Thomas Robert Malthus. The book warned of future difficulties, on an interpretation of the population increasing in geometric progression (so as to double every 25 years) while food production increased in an arithmetic progression, which would leave a difference resulting in the want of food and famine, unless birth rates decreased. While it was not the first book on population, Malthus's book fuelled debate about the size of the population in Britain and contributed to the passing of the Census Act 1800. This Act enabled the holding of a national census in England, Wales and Scotland, starting in 1801 and continuing every ten years to the present. The book's 6th edition (1826) was independently cited as a key influence by both Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in developing the theory of natural selection. A key portion of the book was dedicated to what is now known as the Malthusian Law of Population. The theory claims that growing population rates contribute to a rising supply of labour and inevitably lowers wages. In essence, Malthus feared that continued population


id: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population-1.md
category: reference
title: An Essay on the Principle of Population
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:08.939862+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-0
summary:
=== Proposed solutions === Malthus argued that two types of checks hold population within resource limits: The first, or preventive check to lower birth rates and The second, or positive check to permit higher mortality rates. This second check "represses an increase which is already begun" but by being "confined chiefly, though not perhaps solely, to the lowest orders of society". The preventive checks could involve birth control, postponement of marriage, and celibacy while the positive checks could involve hunger, disease and war. Malthus highlighted the difference between governmentally instituted welfare and privately supported benevolence and proposed a gradual abolition of poor laws which he thought would be accompanied by a mitigation of the circumstances within which people would need relief and by privately supported benevolence supporting those in distress. He reasoned that poor relief acted against the longer-term interests of the poor by raising the price of commodities and undermining the independence and resilience of the peasant. In other words, the poor laws tended to "create the poor which they maintain." It offended Malthus that critics claimed he lacked a caring attitude toward the situation of the poor. In the 1798 edition his concern for the poor shows in


id: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population-2.md
category: reference
title: An Essay on the Principle of Population
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:08.939862+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-0
summary:
The first great awakeners of the mind seem to be the wants of the body [...] They are the first stimulants that rouse the brain of infant man into sentient activity, and such seems to be the sluggishness of original matter that unless by a peculiar course of excitements other wants, equally powerful, are generated, these stimulants seem, even afterwards, to be necessary to continue that activity which they first awakened. Malthus's theory of mind, therefore, posited that "matter is formed into mind by the impressions and stimulations of nature upon the body and the ensuing perpetual struggle to avoid pain and pleasure". This naturalized conception of mind was omitted from all subsequent editions which was most likely due to the fact that Malthus's theory of mind was singled out for critique. === Demographics, wages, and inflation === Malthus wrote of the relationship between population, real wages, and inflation. When the population of laborers grows faster than the production of food, real wages fall because the growing population causes the cost of living (i.e., the cost of food) to go up. Difficulties of raising a family eventually reduce the rate of population growth, until the falling population again leads to


id: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population-3.md
category: reference
title: An Essay on the Principle of Population
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:08.939862+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-0
summary:
The only authors from whose writings I had deduced the principle, which formed the main argument of the Essay, were Hume, Wallace, Adam Smith, and Dr. Price... Chapters 1 and 2 outline Malthus' Principle of Population, and the unequal nature of food supply to population growth. The exponential nature of population growth is today known as the Malthusian growth model. This aspect of Malthus' Principle of Population, together with his assertion that food supply was subject to a linear growth model, would remain unchanged in future editions of his essay. Note that Malthus actually used the terms geometric and arithmetic, respectively. Chapter 3 examines the overrun of the Roman empire by barbarians, due to population pressure. War as a check on population is examined. Chapter 4 examines the current state of populousness of civilized nations (particularly Europe). Malthus criticises David Hume for a "probable error" in his "criteria that he proposes as assisting in an estimate of population." Chapter 5 examines The Poor Laws of Pitt the Younger. Chapter 6 examines the rapid growth of new colonies such as the former Thirteen Colonies of the United States of America. Chapter 7 examines checks on population such as pestilence and famine.


id: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population-4.md
category: reference
title: An Essay on the Principle of Population
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:08.939862+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-0
summary:
A man who is born into a world already possessed, if he cannot get subsistence from his parents on whom he has a just demand, and if the society do not want his labour, has no claim of right to the smallest portion of food, and, in fact, has no business to be where he is. At nature's mighty feast there is no vacant cover for him. She tells him to be gone, and will quickly execute her own orders, if he does not work upon the compassion of some of her guests. If these guests get up and make room for him, other intruders immediately appear demanding the same favour. The report of a provision for all that come, fills the hall with numerous claimants. The order and harmony of the feast is disturbed, the plenty that before reigned is changed into scarcity; and the happiness of the guests is destroyed by the spectacle of misery and dependence in every part of the hall, and by the clamorous importunity of those, who are justly enraged at not finding the provision which they had been taught to expect. The guests learn too late their error, in counter-acting those strict orders


id: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population-5.md
category: reference
title: An Essay on the Principle of Population
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:08.939862+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-0
summary:
=== Early responses in the Malthusian controversy === In Ireland, where (writing to Ricardo in 1817) Malthus proposed that "to give full effect to the natural resources of the country a great part of the population should be swept from the soil", an early "refutation" of the Essay on Population was offered by George Ensor. In his Inquiry Concerning the Population of Nations (1818), he professed "astonishment" at Malthus's "general indemnity" of the rich and powerful: Mr Malthus considers that attributing in any way the distress of the poor to the higher classes of society is a vulgar error [...] and that it depends on the conduct of the poor themselves. Does slavery depend on the slaves themselves? [...] Does it depend on the Irish peasantry that the proprietors are absentees? or, on the Catholics of Ireland that they pay tithes to the protestant clergy? Does it depend on the poor of England that they pay for salt a tax thirty times the original cost of the article? Seizing upon Malthus's proposition that "manufacturing is at once the consequence of a better distribution of property and the cause of further improvement", Ensor was later to press the argument that poverty


id: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population-6.md
category: reference
title: An Essay on the Principle of Population
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:08.939862+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-0
summary:
=== Later responses === In the 20th century, those who regarded Malthus as a failed prophet of doom included an editor of Nature, John Maddox. Economist Julian Lincoln Simon has criticised Malthus's conclusions. He notes that despite the predictions of Malthus and of the neo-Malthusians, massive geometric population growth in the 20th century did not result in a Malthusian catastrophe. Many factors have been identified as having contributed: general improvements in farming methods (industrial agriculture), mechanization of work (tractors), the introduction of high-yield varieties of wheat and other plants (Green Revolution), the use of pesticides to control crop pests. Each played a role. The enviro-sceptic Bjørn Lomborg presented data to argue the case that the environment had actually improved, and that calories produced per day per capita globally went up 23% between 1960 and 2000, despite the doubling of the world population in that period. From the opposite angle, Romanian American economist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, a progenitor in economics and a paradigm founder of ecological economics, has argued that Malthus was too optimistic, as he failed to recognize any upper limit to the growth of population—only, the geometric increase in human numbers is occasionally slowed down (checked) by the arithmetic increase


id: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population-7.md
category: reference
title: An Essay on the Principle of Population
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:08.939862+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population-20260505-0
summary:
Writers who have presented ideas that have paralleled various of those of Malthus include: Paul R. Ehrlich who has written several books predicting famine as a result of population increase: The Population Bomb (1968); Population, resources, environment: issues in human ecology (1970, with Anne Ehrlich); The end of affluence (1974, with Anne Ehrlich); The population explosion (1990, with Anne Ehrlich). In the late 1960s Ehrlich predicted that hundreds of millions would die from a coming overpopulation-crisis in the 1970s. Other examples of work that has been accused of "Malthusianism" include the 1972 book The Limits to Growth (published by the Club of Rome) and the Global 2000 report to the then President of the United States Jimmy Carter. Isaac Asimov also produced many essays on topics related to overpopulation. Ecological economist Herman Daly has recognized the influence of Malthus on his own work on steady-state economics. Other scholars have more recently linked population and economics to a third variable, political change and political violence, and to show how the variables interact. In the early 1980s, Jack Goldstone linked population variables to the English Revolution of 1640–1660 and David Lempert devised a model of demographics, economics, and political change in the


id: the-everglades-river-of-grass-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Everglades:_River_of_Grass-0.md
category: reference
title: The Everglades: River of Grass
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Everglades:_River_of_Grass
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:10.121519+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-everglades-river-of-grass-20260505-0
summary:
The Everglades: River of Grass is a non-fiction book written by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1947. Published the same year as the formal opening of Everglades National Park, the book was a call to attention about the degrading quality of life in the Everglades and remains an influential book on nature conservation as well as a reference for information on South Florida. It was used as recently as 2007 by The New York Times. == Background == Douglas was a freelance writer who submitted stories to magazines throughout the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Her friend Hervey Allen was an editor at Rinehart, responsible for the Rivers of America Series. Allen asked her to write a story about the Miami River, but Douglas did not find it very interesting, calling it only "an inch long". She began learning more about the Miami River though, and in her research, she instead suggested to her editor to write a story about the Everglades. Douglas spent five years researching the Everglades, consulting with Garald Parker of the US Geological Survey, who was studying the Everglades hydrology systems, and eventually wrote nearly 40 papers on the ecosystems in the Everglades. == Reception == The Quarterly


id: the-evolution-of-the-conservation-movement-1850-1920-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evolution_of_the_Conservation_Movement,_1850–1920-0.md
category: reference
title: The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850–1920
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evolution_of_the_Conservation_Movement,_1850–1920
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:11.259960+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-evolution-of-the-conservation-movement-1850-1920-20260505-0
summary:
The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850–1920 is an online exhibition from the Library of Congress' American Memory series. It documents the historical formation and cultural foundations of the movement to conserve and protect America's natural heritage, through books, pamphlets, government documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, and motion picture footage drawn from the collections of the Library of Congress. The collection consists of 62 books and pamphlets, 140 Federal statutes and Congressional resolutions, 34 additional legislative documents, excerpts from the Congressional Globe and the Congressional Record, 360 Presidential proclamations, 170 prints and photographs, 2 historic manuscripts, and 2 motion pictures. == See also == Conservation in the United States == References == == External links == The Library of Congress - The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920


id: eyes-wide-open-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyes_Wide_Open_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Eyes Wide Open (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyes_Wide_Open_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:12.397488+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: eyes-wide-open-book-20260505-0
summary:
Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines is a young-adult nonfiction book written by Paul Fleischman and published by Candlewick Press in September 2014. The book was published in Australia by Walker Books on January 1, 2015. Eyes Wide Open looks at five key issues: population, consumption, energy, food, and climate, drawing on history, psychology, sociology, and the role of money to explain both environmental issues and the human reaction to such issues, with a particular focus on "defense mechanisms," such as denialism, projection, and regression. The book was an early catalyst in the creation of #globaltl hashtag and the Google+ Community of teacher-librarians interested in connecting students and schools through online collaborative projects. The book includes a brief essay on "How to Weigh Information" in the back matter. The essay describes ways that readers can become active investigators, reading critically with an eye on the source. Photos, headlines, and references to related books, documentaries, articles, and websites appear throughout. == Reception == The book received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and School Library Journal. It has been named a finalist for one of the 2015 AAAS/Subaru Science Book and Film Prizes offered by the American


id: fallout-an-american-nuclear-tragedy-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout:_An_American_Nuclear_Tragedy-0.md
category: reference
title: Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout:_An_American_Nuclear_Tragedy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:13.546831+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fallout-an-american-nuclear-tragedy-20260505-0
summary:
Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy is a 1989 book by Philip L. Fradkin which was republished in a second edition in 2004. The book is about the radiation exposure of people and their livestock living downwind from the nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950s. The case of Irene Allen et al. vs. the United States is used as a framework for the narrative. The court case "resulted in an award of $2.66 million in damages to eight persons with leukemia, one with thyroid cancer, and another with breast cancer". Philip Fradkin is an American environmentalist historian and journalist. Fradkin shared a Pulitzer Prize awarded to the metropolitan staff of the Los Angeles Times for coverage of the Watts riots in 1965. == See also == Alvin C. Graves List of books about nuclear issues Nuclear fallout == References == == External links == NY Times review of Fallout Exposure of the American Population to Radioactive Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Tests


id: falter-has-the-human-game-begun-to-play-itself-out-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falter:_Has_the_Human_Game_Begun_to_Play_Itself_Out-0.md
category: reference
title: Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falter:_Has_the_Human_Game_Begun_to_Play_Itself_Out?
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:14.694831+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: falter-has-the-human-game-begun-to-play-itself-out-20260505-0
summary:
Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? is a 2019 book by American author Bill McKibben. He argues that the human game is risking playing itself out because of "leverage", or the scale of change to the planet that humans are causing. The book is largely about climate change, but also includes some discussion of unregulated artificial intelligence and bioengineering, two other modern developments that in the author's view pose significant risks to humanity. The book received mostly positive reviews. == Background == In a 2019 interview with Murtaza Hussain of The Intercept, McKibben claimed that at merely one degree Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels, "[it] is already becoming difficult to live in large parts of the planet. On our current trajectory, we are headed for 3 or 4 degrees of warming. At that level, we simply won't have a civilization like we do now." With regards to the solutions, McKibben argued in 2019, "We have already made efforts at fossil fuel divestment and halting the construction of pipelines, but the next crucial area is finance: focusing on the banks and asset managers that give [those in the fossil fuel industry] the money to do what


id: famine-1975-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_1975!-0.md
category: reference
title: Famine 1975!
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_1975!
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:15.836769+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: famine-1975-20260505-0
summary:
Famine 1975! America's Decision: Who Will Survive? is a best-selling 1967 book by William and Paul Paddock. The brothers describe the rapidly growing population of the world, and a situation in which they believe it would be impossible to feed the entire global population within the short-term future. They believed that widespread famine would be the inevitable result, by 1975. The basic argument of the book is summarized in a 1969 review by Bruce Trumbo: The underdeveloped nations have exploding populations and static agricultures. The "Time of Famines" will be seriously in evidence by 1975, when food crises will have been reached in several of these nations. The "stricken peoples will not be able to pay for all their needed food imports. Therefore the hunger in these regions can be alleviated only through the charity of other nations" (p. 205) The only important food in famine relief will be wheat, and only the United States, Canada, Australia, and Argentina grow significant amounts of wheat. The United States, the only one of these four countries that has historically given wheat to hungry nations, is the "sole hope of the hungry nations" in the future (p. 206) "Yet the United States, even


id: farmageddon-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmageddon_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Farmageddon (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmageddon_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:16.994377+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: farmageddon-book-20260505-0
summary:
Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat is a 2014 non-fiction book by Philip Lymbery and Isabel Oakeshott. It surveys the effects of industrial livestock production and industrial fish farming around the world. The book is the result of Lymbery's investigations for which he travelled the world over three years. Isabel Oakeshott is the political editor of The Sunday Times, Lymbery is CEO of Compassion in World Farming. The book was published by Bloomsbury. == Synopsis == The thesis examined in the book is that globalised production chains of industrialised agricultural systems negatively affect farmed animals, human health, the countryside, rivers and oceans, biodiversity in rainforests and many of the world's poorest people. The authors seek to shed light on the conditions in intensive agriculture which, according to them, often differ from the image that the industry wants to sell to the public. Intensification in animal farming goes along with a growing demand of cropland to grow animal feed – factory farming is thus not a means to save space. They argue consequently that to feed the world population factory farming is not the solution but a threat, not least since more than a third of the world's arable harvests


id: fateful-harvest-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fateful_Harvest-0.md
category: reference
title: Fateful Harvest
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fateful_Harvest
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:18.176447+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fateful-harvest-20260505-0
summary:
Fateful Harvest: The True Story of a Small Town, a Global Industry, and a Toxic Secret is a nonfiction book written by Duff Wilson, who was a reporter for the Seattle Times. The book began as a series of newspaper reports, which made the issue a "national focus". Fateful Harvest focuses on Quincy, Washington. It was awarded Book of the Year from the press group Investigative Reports and Editors. It details Wilson's investigation into the recycling of fly ash, tire ash, flue dust, tailings, phosphoric acid from car factories, baghouse dust from recycling plants, zinc skimmings from galvanizing industries, and assorted other industrial byproducts with heavy metals and other chemicals into plant fertilizer based on the agronomic benefits of their alkalinity (sold as lime) or their micronutrients—zinc and manganese. It was reasoned that plants growing in alkaline soils do not uptake the metals as easily. The problem was brought to Wilson's attention in 1996 by Patty Martin, the mayor of Quincy, Washington, and Wilson and a small group of farmers conducted the investigation. The issue of heavy metals in fertilizer is sometimes mistakenly confused with biosolids, though there may be some crossover. == Synopsis == === Cenex and the rinsate


id: fateful-harvest-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fateful_Harvest-1.md
category: reference
title: Fateful Harvest
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fateful_Harvest
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:18.176447+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fateful-harvest-20260505-0
summary:
=== Investigation === Alarmed by this issue, Martin ran for mayor of Quincy. She and her bankrupt farmer friends researched the mysterious origin of metals in the fertilizer. They discovered that the ubiquitous practice of mixing tailings and other industrial waste with fertilizer was accepted and even encouraged as a way to recycle waste with some zinc or iron, and increasing landfill costs exacerbated the trend. Martin discovered, for example, a proposed state rule for disposing of cement kiln dust by using it as agricultural lime. She also discovered that Alcoa sold waste product as a fertilizer or road deicer through L-Bar, a smaller company. The product was sued twice in Oregon, where farmers settled out of court. Martin also believed that cancer rates were higher in Quincy, but the state toxicologist dismissed her claims, though the state tracked deaths, not illnesses, by place of death when many of the victims' traveled out of the county and died in advanced hospitals. Later, five people in Quincy came down with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Ganesh Raghu told author Duff Wilson that this phenomenon strongly suggests environmental factors, as the disease is extremely rare. ==== Heavy Metal Task Force ==== The group contacted


id: fateful-harvest-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fateful_Harvest-2.md
category: reference
title: Fateful Harvest
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fateful_Harvest
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:18.176447+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fateful-harvest-20260505-0
summary:
==== Publication ==== Wilson was forced to publish the story when he heard that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was working on it. He said that the New York Times ignored it, and most of the other newspapers relegated it to the last pages, but the story resonated with many people, including experts like an immunologist, several EPA officials, Congress members, and assorted other people. It also drew the attention of industry largely opposed to labeling. Some fertilizer companies, such as IMC Global, became aware of the problem of using the waste products and stopped the practice. Governor Gary Locke of Washington initially seemed willing to tackle the problem, but the state ended up with an industry-written bill that required no labeling requirements (toxicity information would be put on websites) and looser standards than Canada. Washington state's new regulations led to 56 stop-sale orders, 45 denied license applications, and 10 companies with cleaned up materials; one of these stop-sale orders went against Siemens AG, which previously sold nuclear fuel processing waste as fertilizer. No other state passed a law as strong as Washington. Chaney remarked that keeping the regulations at the state level was the most effective way to block effective regulation.


id: feral-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Feral (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:19.323953+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: feral-book-20260505-0
summary:
Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding (also published as Feral: rewilding the land, sea and human life) is a 2013 book by the British activist George Monbiot. In it, Monbiot discusses rewilding, particularly in the United Kingdom. It was first published by Allen Lane, a hardback imprint of the Penguin Group. The book received positive critical reviews, and won several awards. It inspired the founding of Rewilding Britain. == Background == By Monbiot's own account, rewilding was a fringe interest at the time he published the book. However, there had been attempts at rewilding in Britain such as "Wild Ennerdale" at Ennerdale, Cumbria, a project which Monbiot finds limited in scope. The word ‘rewilding’ entered the dictionary in 2011, with its definition greatly contested from the start. Initially, it was defined as releasing captive animals into the wild, but the definition was soon expanded to describe the reintroduction of animal and plant species to habitats from which they had been excised. In other circles, the term is used to indicate the rehabilitation of entire ecosystems, instead of particular species only. The definitions preferred by the author differ slightly from these, as they entail permitting ecological processes to


id: field-notes-from-a-catastrophe-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_Notes_from_a_Catastrophe-0.md
category: reference
title: Field Notes from a Catastrophe
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_Notes_from_a_Catastrophe
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:20.489683+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: field-notes-from-a-catastrophe-20260505-0
summary:
Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change is a non-fiction environmental science book by Elizabeth Kolbert that was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in 2006. The book documents a series of scientific observations and political processes, bringing attention to the causes and effects of global climate change. In this book, Kolbert is able to make scientific developments accessible to a very wide audience. == Synopsis == Kolbert travels around the world where climate change is affecting the environment in significant ways. These locations include Alaska, Greenland, the Netherlands, and Iceland. The environmental effects that are apparent consist of rising sea levels, thawing permafrost, diminishing ice shelves, changes in migratory patterns, and increasingly devastating forest fires due to loss of precipitation. She also speaks with many leading scientists about their individual research and findings. Kolbert brings to attention the attempts of large corporations such as ExxonMobil and General Motors to influence politicians and discredit scientists. She also writes about America’s reluctance in the global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Leading this resistance, she explained, was the Bush administration, which was opposed to the Kyoto Protocol since it was ratified in 2005. Kolbert concludes the book by examining the events


id: flammable-environmental-suffering-in-an-argentine-shantytown-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammable:_Environmental_Suffering_in_an_Argentine_Shantytown-0.md
category: reference
title: Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammable:_Environmental_Suffering_in_an_Argentine_Shantytown
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:21.656280+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: flammable-environmental-suffering-in-an-argentine-shantytown-20260505-0
summary:
Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown is a 2008 book by sociologist Javier Auyero and anthropologist Débora Swistun. Its subject is the impact of pollution and toxicity on the residents of Flammable, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The book is a contribution to the field of collective action and mobilization regarding environmental suffering. It was first published in Spanish as Inflamable. Estudio de sufrimiento ambiental and translated to English in 2009. It won the Charles Tilly Award for Best Book in 2010. == Contents == Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown examines the effect of pollution and toxicity on the lives of the residents in the neighborhood Flammable (Villa Inflamable) at Dock Sud on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Flammable is surrounded by one of the largest petrochemical compounds in Argentina and sits on the highly polluted river basin Matanza-Riachuelo that brings the toxic waste from different industries, a hazardous and largely unsupervised waste incinerator, and an unmonitored landfill. Both private and public health agencies diagnosed toxic levels of lead poisoning amongst Flammable's residents, particularly among children, but beyond lead, the soil, air, water and inhabitants of Flammable are contaminated with chromium, benzene, and


id: floating-coast-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_Coast-0.md
category: reference
title: Floating Coast
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_Coast
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:22.807197+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: floating-coast-20260505-0
summary:
Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait is a 2019 book by Brown University historian Bathsheba Demuth, published by W. W. Norton & Company. The book examines environmental and social change in the Beringia region surrounding the Bering Strait from the mid-nineteenth to the late-twentieth centuries, focusing on the pursuits of American and Russian interests and their interactions with local Chukchi, Iñupiat, and Yupik peoples. Those interests were largely focused on fauna such as bowhead whales, walruses, and reindeer, along with minerals, especially gold. == Content == Floating Coast is organized into five sections - Sea, Shore, Land, Underground, and Ocean - each overlapping in time and offering a non-linear journey exploring interactions between people, wildlife, and natural resources. The book touches on a range of subjects such as coastal villages, whaling boats, Gulags, and American mining camps. Energy transformations and exchanges between different species are a significant unifying theme throughout the sections as Demuth explores the ecology of energy in a precarious landscape with little agricultural potential. Despite the dearth of agriculture, the book highlights an abundance of life and energy. The author writes:In their liquid seasons, the Bering, Beaufort, and Chukchi are some of the most


id: food-inc-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food,_Inc._(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Food, Inc. (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food,_Inc._(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:23.973638+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: food-inc-book-20260505-0
summary:
Food, Inc.: How Industrial Food Is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer — And What You Can Do About It is a 2009 companion book to the documentary film of the same name about the industrialization of food production and about the negative results to human health and to the natural environment. Edited by Karl Weber, the book is co-published by Participant Media and PublicAffairs Books. == See also == Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America's Favorite Food (book) A Delicate Balance — The Truth (film) The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth about Food and Flavor (book) Food Fight: The Inside Story of the Food Industry (book) == External links == A film that will make you think before you eat Archived 2009-06-23 at the Wayback Machine Participant Media Adds Book Arm - 6/15/2009 - Publishers Weekly Daily Green : Food Inc. Movie: Dishing Dirt on the Food Industry


id: free-market-environmentalism-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Market_Environmentalism-0.md
category: reference
title: Free Market Environmentalism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Market_Environmentalism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:25.125996+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: free-market-environmentalism-20260505-0
summary:
Free Market Environmentalism is a book by Terry L. Anderson and Donald R. Leal that was of great importance to the free market environmentalist movement. == Summary == The book focuses on a method of environmental protection with minimal bureaucratic intervention. Anderson and Leal argue that free markets have been making the environment cleaner for centuries and that private innovations, such as the energy consumption of cars, are more effective than government intervention. The book contains a number of case studies where juries recognize that a company is harming an individual and grant appropriate reparations. The central argument is that property rights, which are resolved through a direct transfer of payments between parties, are more effective as a form of environmental protection than government intervention through taxes. == Reception == The book was intended as an ideological tract and a call to action, rather than as an empirical study. Glenn Fox of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics lauded the book for its readability and described its reference list as "one of the most comprehensive offerings currently available in this area." John A. Douglass of Forest & Conservation History praised the book for presenting the possibility of replacing zero-sum contests


id: fundamentals-of-stack-gas-dispersion-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentals_of_Stack_Gas_Dispersion-0.md
category: reference
title: Fundamentals of Stack Gas Dispersion
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentals_of_Stack_Gas_Dispersion
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:26.754564+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: fundamentals-of-stack-gas-dispersion-20260505-0
summary:
Fundamentals of Stack Gas Dispersion is a book devoted to the fundamentals of air pollution dispersion modeling of continuous, buoyant pollution plumes from stationary point sources. The first edition was published in 1979. The current fourth edition was published in 2005. The subjects covered in the book include atmospheric turbulence and stability classes, buoyant plume rise, Gaussian dispersion calculations and modeling, time-averaged concentrations, wind velocity profiles, fumigations, trapped plumes and gas flare stack plumes. The constraints and assumptions involved in the basic equations are fully explained. The book has received favorable reviews, including a description of its "simple straightforward explanations" for a "full course in single-source dispersive modeling". The book has been purchased in 84 countries and As of 2015 is available in 233 libraries worldwide. It has been referenced or cited as an educational resource more than 880 times in the technical literature and on the Internet, including 34 regulatory publications of state or national governmental agencies worldwide. It has also been used as recommended reading or a textbook in 61 university courses. The book is now available only as a downloadable version in PDF format. == Book contents == == See also == Accidental release source terms ADMS


id: the-future-eaters-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Future_Eaters-0.md
category: reference
title: The Future Eaters
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Future_Eaters
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:27.875834+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-future-eaters-20260505-0
summary:
The Future Eaters is a 1994 non-fiction book by Australian author Tim Flannery. The book is an ecological history of Australia entailing how humans consume the resources they need for their future, and looking at the journey of the Aboriginal Australian people from Africa to the Australian mainland. Flannery's thesis has both been applauded and disagreed with. == References ==


id: the-gene-revolution-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gene_Revolution-0.md
category: reference
title: The Gene Revolution
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gene_Revolution
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:29.059112+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-gene-revolution-20260505-0
summary:
The Gene Revolution: GM Crops and Unequal Development is a 2006 book by Professor Sakiko Fukuda-Parr. While some people do not supportgenetic manipulation (GM), others view it as an important technological solution to limited agricultural output, increasing populations, and climate change. The book provides a detailed analysis of debate about GM adoption in developing countries, which are dealing with poverty and trying to better compete in the global economy. Per the introduction, the book focuses on five countries' use of GM technology, Argentina, Brazil, China, India, and South Africa. The Gene Revolution refers to a phase following the Green Revolution during which agricultural biotechnology was heavily implemented. == See also == Genetically modified food controversies Gene Revolution == References ==


id: a-geography-of-blood-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Geography_of_Blood-0.md
category: reference
title: A Geography of Blood
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Geography_of_Blood
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:30.196570+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: a-geography-of-blood-20260505-0
summary:
A Geography of Blood: Unearthing Memory from a Prairie Landscape is a 2012 book by Canadian author Candace Savage. The book combines natural and human history to reconstruct the past of Southwest Saskatchewan, and in particular the settlement of the region by Canadians, which relied on the forceful removal of the region's Indigenous peoples. Savage explores the colonial history of the area, including the slaughter of the Plains bison, which was an integral part of Indigenous prairie life. The author was inspired initially by a stay in the town of Eastend at the childhood home of American author Wallace Stegner, who also wrote about the region in his autobiography Wolf Willow. == Awards == A Geography of Blood was awarded the 2012 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. The book also won three separate Saskatchewan Book Awards, including the Non-Fiction Award and the Book of the Year Award. == References == == External links == Page at Greystone Books


id: the-global-2000-report-to-the-president-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Global_2000_Report_to_the_President-0.md
category: reference
title: The Global 2000 Report to the President
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Global_2000_Report_to_the_President
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:31.349978+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-global-2000-report-to-the-president-20260505-0
summary:
The Global 2000 Report to the President was a 1980 report commissioned by President Jimmy Carter. It warned that world population growth, pollution and resource depletion would have dramatic consequences by the year 2000 if no changes in public policy were made. Physicist Gerald O. Barney was the study director. The press referred to these volumes as "The Doomsday Report". It was a historical first in trying to analyze the effects of population growth, pollution, and other factors on the worldwide environment and possible political crises. Volume Two reviewed the potential for global warming and climate change. According to one reviewer: "What emerges is a set of global problems of fairly alarming proportions. Serious stresses by the year 2000 are clearly visible in a world more crowded (6.35 billion as compared to 4 billion population in 1975), far more polluted, less stable ecologically, and more vulnerable to disruption. The progressive impoverishment of the world's natural-resource base raises concerns about the earth's capacity to continue to provide for human needs." However, the report's impact was limited because Carter lost the 1980 United States presidential election. Ronald Reagan succeeded Carter as president in January 1981 and did not pursue the report's recommendations.


id: the-global-interior-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Global_Interior-0.md
category: reference
title: The Global Interior
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Global_Interior
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:32.525977+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-global-interior-20260505-0
summary:
The Global Interior: Mineral Frontiers and American Power is a 2018 book by Megan Black, Associate Professor of History at MIT. The book documents the history of the U.S. Department of the Interior and its role in American imperialism. == Contents == The Global Interior examines the Department of the Interior from its role in settling the American west to its operation of the Landsat satellite for mineral surveying from space. Black argues that the Department has been key to the expansion and exercise of American power, widening the scope of what is considered “interior” to the nation state through the guise of scientific and resource management. In the process, Black demonstrates that the Department has played a key role in reconceptualizing the Earth as a mineral repository and thus as a potential mining site. Moreover, Black draws key connections between American environmental history and foreign relations, highlighting the ways in which facilitating the exploitation of resources abroad enabled greater conservation of domestic resources. The Department was founded in 1849 and Black highlights its role from its inception until the 1980s in numerous episodes of American expansionism from settler colonialism and Manifest Destiny through to the Cold War and international


id: global-spin-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Spin-0.md
category: reference
title: Global Spin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Spin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:33.742338+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: global-spin-20260505-0
summary:
Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism is a book by Professor Sharon Beder. It was first published in 1997 and there have been subsequent updated editions in 2000 and 2002. The book uses many detailed case studies to build up a "bigger picture" of how large corporations attempt to manipulate environmental issues for their own ends. In the first edition most of the material was from the United States, where the corporate environmental impact has been greatest. == See also == List of Australian environmental books Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights == References ==


id: the-great-barrier-reef-biology-environment-and-management-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Barrier_Reef:_Biology,_Environment_and_Management-0.md
category: reference
title: The Great Barrier Reef: Biology, Environment and Management
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Barrier_Reef:_Biology,_Environment_and_Management
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:34.919312+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-great-barrier-reef-biology-environment-and-management-20260505-0
summary:
The Great Barrier Reef: Biology, Environment and Management is a 2008 book by Pat Hutchings, Mike Kingsford and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. It describes the organisms and ecosystems of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, and the biological, chemical and physical processes that influence them. Issues discussed include climate change, coral bleaching, coral disease and coral reef fishing. The book includes a field guide to help people identify the common animals and plants on the reef. The book has illustrations and contributions from 33 international experts. Pat Hutchings is a senior principal research scientist at the Australian Museum. Michael Kingsford is the head of school of Marine Biology and Aquaculture at James Cook University. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg is the director of the Centre for Marine Studies at the University of Queensland. == References ==


id: the-green-bible-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Bible-0.md
category: reference
title: The Green Bible
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Bible
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:36.053526+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-green-bible-20260505-0
summary:
The Green Bible is an English version of the New Revised Standard Version Bible with a focus on environmental issues and teachings. It was originally published by Harper Bibles on October 7, 2008. It is a study Bible featuring a foreword by Desmond Tutu and essays by Matthew Sleeth, Calvin B. DeWitt, Pope John Paul II, Brian McLaren, Ellen Bernstein, Ellen F. Davis, James Jones, N.T. Wright, Barbara Brown Taylor, and Gordon Aeschliman. == Background == The Green Bible is meant to "equip and encourage [readers] to see God's vision for creation and help [them] engage in the work of healing and sustaining it". Emphasizing what the publishers see as the Bible’s message on the environment, all passages mentioning the environment are printed in green ink to draw the reader’s attention. == Inspiration == Mark Tauber, senior vice-president of HarperOne, has stated that the Green Bible was developed with the intention of being "the first ever specialty bible that takes the issues of sustainability, stewardship of the earth, what many in the religious community call 'creation care' very seriously". He went further, exposing on the Green Bible’s purpose: "That the Bible has a profound message of sustainability—some might argue, the


id: green-to-gold-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_to_Gold_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Green to Gold (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_to_Gold_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:38.322484+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: green-to-gold-book-20260505-0
summary:
Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage is a 2006 book on sustainability by Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S. Winston and published by Yale University Press. The book argues that pollution control and natural resource management have become critical elements of marketplace success and explains how leading-edge companies have folded environmental thinking into their core business strategies. == References ==


id: growth-fetish-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_Fetish-0.md
category: reference
title: Growth Fetish
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_Fetish
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:39.501361+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: growth-fetish-20260505-0
summary:
Growth Fetish is a book about economics and politics by the Australian progressive political theorist Clive Hamilton. Published in 2003 it became a best-seller in Australia. The book argues that the policies of unfettered capitalism pursued by the west for the last 50 years has largely failed, since the underlying purpose of the creation of wealth is happiness, and Hamilton claims that people in general are no happier now than 50 years ago, despite the huge increase in personal wealth. Hamilton goes on to claim that the pursuit of growth has become a fetish, pursued at a tremendous cost in terms of the environment, erosion of democracy, and the values of society as a whole. == Background == Clive Hamilton is the former executive director of The Australia Institute, an independent think-tank which has been cited as playing a significant role in debate over social and environmental policies. Hamilton resigned from the Australia Institute in 2007. Growth Fetish itself reflects many of the findings from TAI's report Overconsumption in Australia, which found that 62 per cent of Australians believe they cannot afford everything they need, even though in real terms their incomes have never been higher. == Synopsis == Hamilton's


id: guns-germs-and-steel-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel-0.md
category: reference
title: Guns, Germs, and Steel
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:40.618408+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: guns-germs-and-steel-20260505-0
summary:
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (subtitled A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years in Britain) is a 1997 transdisciplinary nonfiction book by the American author Jared Diamond. The book attempts to explain why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered others, while arguing against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral, or inherent genetic superiority. Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate primarily in environmental differences, which are amplified by various positive feedback loops. When cultural or genetic differences have favoured Eurasians (for example, written language or the development among Eurasians of resistance to endemic diseases), he asserts that these advantages occurred because of the influence of geography on societies and cultures (for example, by facilitating commerce and trade between different cultures) and were not inherent in the Eurasian genomes. The book proposes that the environmental and geographical conditions of Eurasia and North Africa provided significant advantages, such as access to a greater variety of domesticable plants and animals, as well as an east–west continental axis that allowed for easier transfer of crops, livestock, and technologies. These conditions


id: guns-germs-and-steel-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel-1.md
category: reference
title: Guns, Germs, and Steel
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:40.618408+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: guns-germs-and-steel-20260505-0
summary:
=== Summary === Diamond argues that Eurasian civilization is not so much a product of ingenuity, but of opportunity and necessity. That is, civilization is not created out of superior intelligence, but is the result of a chain of developments, each made possible by certain preconditions. The first step towards civilization is the move from nomadic hunter-gatherer to rooted agrarian society. Several conditions are necessary for this transition to occur: access to high-carbohydrate vegetation that endures storage; a climate dry enough to allow storage; and access to animals docile enough for domestication and versatile enough to survive captivity. Control of crops and livestock leads to food surpluses. Surpluses free people to specialize in activities other than sustenance and support population growth. The combination of specialization and population growth leads to the accumulation of social and technological innovations which build on each other. Large societies develop ruling classes and supporting bureaucracies, which in turn lead to the organization of nation-states and empires. Although agriculture arose in several parts of the world, Eurasia gained an early advantage due to the greater availability of suitable plant and animal species for domestication. In particular, Eurasia has barley, two varieties of wheat, and three protein-rich


id: guns-germs-and-steel-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel-2.md
category: reference
title: Guns, Germs, and Steel
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:40.618408+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: guns-germs-and-steel-20260505-0
summary:
Eurasia's large landmass and long east–west distance increased these advantages. Its large area provided more plant and animal species suitable for domestication. Equally important, its east–west orientation has allowed groups of people to wander and empires to conquer from one end of the continent to the other while staying at the same latitude. This was important because similar climate and cycle of seasons let them keep the same "food production system" – they could keep growing the same crops and raising the same animals all the way from Scotland to Siberia. Doing this throughout history, they spread innovations, languages and diseases everywhere. By contrast, the north–south orientation of the Americas and Africa created countless difficulties adapting crops domesticated at one latitude for use at other latitudes (and, in North America, adapting crops from one side of the Rocky Mountains to the other). Similarly, Africa was fragmented by its extreme variations in climate from north to south: crops and animals that flourished in one area never reached other areas where they could have flourished, because they could not survive the intervening environment. Europe was the ultimate beneficiary of Eurasia's east–west orientation: in the first millennium BCE, the Mediterranean areas of Europe


id: guns-germs-and-steel-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel-3.md
category: reference
title: Guns, Germs, and Steel
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:40.618408+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: guns-germs-and-steel-20260505-0
summary:
Guns, Germs, and Steel argues that cities require an ample supply of food, and thus are dependent on agriculture. As farmers do the work of providing food, division of labor allows others freedom to pursue other functions, such as mining and literacy. The crucial trap for the development of agriculture is the availability of wild edible plant species suitable for domestication. Farming arose early in the Fertile Crescent since the area had an abundance of wild wheat and pulse, species that were nutritious and easy to domesticate. In contrast, American farmers had to struggle to develop corn as a useful food from its probable wild ancestor, teosinte. Also important to the transition from hunter-gatherer to city-dwelling agrarian societies was the presence of "large" domesticable animals, raised for meat, work, and long-distance communication. Diamond identifies a mere 14 domesticated large mammal species worldwide. The five most useful (cow, horse, sheep, goat, and pig) are all descendants of species endemic to Eurasia. Of the remaining nine, only two (the llama and alpaca both of South America) are indigenous to a land outside the temperate region of Eurasia. Due to the Anna Karenina principle, surprisingly few animals are suitable for domestication. Diamond identifies


id: guns-germs-and-steel-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel-4.md
category: reference
title: Guns, Germs, and Steel
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:40.618408+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: guns-germs-and-steel-20260505-0
summary:
=== Praise === Many noted that the large scope of the work makes some oversimplification inevitable while still praising the book as a very erudite and generally effective synthesis of multiple different subjects. Paul R. Ehrlich and E. O. Wilson both praised the book. Northwestern University economic historian Joel Mokyr interpreted Diamond as a geographical determinist but added that the thinker could never be described as "crude" like many determinists. For Mokyr, Diamond's view that Eurasia succeeded largely because of a uniquely large stock of domesticable plants is flawed because of the possibility of crop manipulation and selection in the plants of other regions: the drawbacks of an indigenous North American plant such as sumpweed could have been bred out, Mokyr wrote, since "all domesticated plants had originally undesirable characteristics" eliminated via "deliberate and lucky selection mechanisms". Mokyr dismissed as unpersuasive Diamond's theory that breeding specimens failing to fix characteristics controlled by multiple genes "lay at the heart of the geographically challenged societies". Mokyr also states that in seeing economic history as centered on successful manipulation of environments, Diamond downplays the role of "the option to move to a more generous and flexible area", and speculated that non-generous environments were


id: guns-germs-and-steel-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel-5.md
category: reference
title: Guns, Germs, and Steel
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:40.618408+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: guns-germs-and-steel-20260505-0
summary:
=== Criticism === The anthropologist Jason Antrosio described Guns, Germs, and Steel as a form of "academic porn", writing, "Diamond's account makes all the factors of European domination a product of a distant and accidental history" and "has almost no role for human agency—the ability people have to make decisions and influence outcomes. Europeans become inadvertent, accidental conquerors. Natives succumb passively to their fate." He added, "Jared Diamond has done a huge disservice to the telling of human history. He has tremendously distorted the role of domestication and agriculture in that history. Unfortunately his story-telling abilities are so compelling that he has seduced a generation of college-educated readers." In his last book, published in 2000, the anthropologist and geographer James Morris Blaut criticized Guns, Germs, and Steel, among other reasons, for reviving the theory of environmental determinism, and described Diamond as an example of a modern Eurocentric historian. Blaut criticizes Diamond's loose use of the terms "Eurasia" and "innovative", which he believes misleads the reader into presuming that Western Europe is responsible for technological inventions that arose in the Middle East and Asia. Anthropologist Kerim Friedman wrote, "While it is interesting and important to ask why technologies developed in some


id: harmony-a-new-way-of-looking-at-our-world-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony:_A_New_Way_of_Looking_at_Our_World-0.md
category: reference
title: Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony:_A_New_Way_of_Looking_at_Our_World
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:52.422788+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: harmony-a-new-way-of-looking-at-our-world-20260505-0
summary:
Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World is a 2010 book written by Charles, Prince of Wales (later King Charles III), with Tony Juniper and Ian Skelly. The book focuses on the world's environment which includes climate change, architecture and agriculture. The book has been translated into many different languages. There is also a children's edition of Harmony. == Reception == In a review in The Guardian, Rowan Moore said that Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World contained a number of "amateurish" mistakes, and was also inconsistent in its use of science—embracing scientific evidence when it supported a belief in climate change, but ignored scientific evidence that cast doubt on alternative medicine. He added "he can employ people to do his reading for him. Two such loyal readers-cum-scribes, Tony Juniper and Ian Skelly, presumably wrote the hard bits of this book". In 2018, Edzard Ernst wrote that "Harmony is full of praise for even the most absurd forms of alternative therapies and bogus diagnostic tests." In Ernst's book More Good Than Harm? The Moral Maze of Complementary and Alternative Medicine he and ethicist Kevin Smith call Charles "foolish and immoral" and "conclude that it is


id: hell-and-high-water-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_and_High_Water_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Hell and High Water (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_and_High_Water_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:53.984226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hell-and-high-water-book-20260505-0
summary:
Hell and High Water: Global Warming – the Solution and the Politics – and What We Should Do is a book by author, scientist, and former U.S. Department of Energy official Joseph J. Romm, published December 26, 2006. The author is "one of the world's leading experts on clean energy, advanced vehicles, energy security, and greenhouse gas mitigation." The book warned of dire consequences to the U.S. and the world if wide-scale environmental changes are not enacted by the U.S. government. It reviewed the evidence that the initial global warming changes would lead to feedbacks and accelerated warming. According to Romm, the oceans, soils, Arctic permafrost, and rainforests could become sources of greenhouse gas emissions. The book claimed that, without serious government action, sea levels would rise high enough to submerge numerous coastal communities and inland areas on both U.S. coasts and around the world by the year 2100. In 2008, Time magazine wrote that "On [Romm's] blog and in his most recent book, Hell and High Water, you can find some of the most cogent, memorable, and deployable arguments for immediate and overwhelming action to confront global warming." Romm was interviewed on Fox News on January 31, 2007, about


id: hell-and-high-water-book-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_and_High_Water_(book)-1.md
category: reference
title: Hell and High Water (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_and_High_Water_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:53.984226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hell-and-high-water-book-20260505-0
summary:
melting ice at the poles that means less reflection of sunlight by white ice and more absorption of the sun's heat by ocean water and dark land; an increasing amount of water vapor in the atmosphere (water vapor is a greenhouse gas); melting permafrost in the Arctic, where more carbon is locked in Arctic permafrost than in all of the Earth's atmosphere and where methane, which is about 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide (CO2) as a greenhouse gas, is being released by permafrost in the Arctic faster than scientists previously thought it would; the death of algae and phytoplankton from heat and acidity in the oceans, reducing the CO2 being absorbed by them; and the reduced ability of tropical forests to absorb CO2 as they are destroyed. Romm proposes an eight-point program, based on existing technologies, to counter and then reverse the trend toward catastrophic global warming: performance-based efficiency programs; energy efficiency gains from industry and power generation through cogeneration of heat and power; building wind farms; capturing carbon dioxide from proposed coal plants; building nuclear plants; greatly improving the fuel economy of our vehicles using PHEVs; increasing production of high-yield energy crops; and stopping tropical deforestation while


id: hell-and-high-water-book-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_and_High_Water_(book)-2.md
category: reference
title: Hell and High Water (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_and_High_Water_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:53.984226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hell-and-high-water-book-20260505-0
summary:
== Challenges and solutions identified by the book == The book claims that U.S. politicians who deny the science and have failed to take genuine action on conservation and alternative energy initiatives are following a disastrous course by delaying serious changes that he says are imminently needed. Romm also criticizes the media for what he says is sloppy reporting and an unwillingness to probe behind political rhetoric, which he says are lulling Americans into accepting continuing delays on implementing emission-cutting technologies. The book argues that there is a limited window of opportunity to head off the most catastrophic effects of global warming, and it calls upon Americans to demand that our government "embrace an aggressive multi-decade, government-led effort to use existing and near-term clean energy technologies." (p. 230) Romm writes that strategies to combat climate change with current technologies can significantly slow global warming and buy more time for the world to develop new technologies and take even stronger action. The book lays out a number of proposed solutions to avoiding a climate catastrophe, including: launching massive energy efficiency programs for homes, office buildings, and heavy industry; increasing the fuel efficiency of cars and light trucks to 60 miles per


id: hell-and-high-water-book-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_and_High_Water_(book)-3.md
category: reference
title: Hell and High Water (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_and_High_Water_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:53.984226+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hell-and-high-water-book-20260505-0
summary:
== Critical response == The Toronto Star's January 1, 2007 review of the book says that Romm "convincingly shoots down the arguments of those who claim global warming is a hoax or some kind of natural cycle not associated with human activities." The review laments that the "'Denyers and Delayers' are winning the political battle in the United States, the world's highest emitter of greenhouse gases and a saboteur of Kyoto talks" and that the media's policy of "giving 'equal time' to Denyers gives the public the wrong impression about our understanding and level of certainty around global warming science." The review concludes, "The book itself is a short and easy read, not as intimidating as some other works, and it hits all the main points on the science and politics behind global warming, and the policy and technological solutions to minimize damage to the planet, economy and humanity." A review in the Detroit Free Press's Freep.com stated, "Joseph Romm's Hell and High Water is a great book for people who want to understand the complexities of global warming and, perhaps more important, what we could be doing about it other than wringing our hands or sticking our collective head


id: human-ecology-human-economy-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Ecology,_Human_Economy-0.md
category: reference
title: Human Ecology, Human Economy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Ecology,_Human_Economy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:55.169070+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: human-ecology-human-economy-20260505-0
summary:
Human Ecology, Human Economy: Ideas for an Ecologically Sustainable Future is a 1997 book edited by Mark Diesendorf and Clive Hamilton. The authors' intent is to "develop some of the basic ideas, concepts and tools that are needed to create a set of preferred futures for the Earth". According to the editors, the book provides equal measures of human ecology and ecological economics, in order to assist the process of working towards a better future. Human Ecology, Human Economy has been reviewed in Ecological Economics and The Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. == See also == List of Australian environmental books Sustainability Ecologically sustainable development == References ==


id: the-improving-state-of-the-world-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Improving_State_of_the_World-0.md
category: reference
title: The Improving State of the World
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Improving_State_of_the_World
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:56.305170+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-improving-state-of-the-world-20260505-0
summary:
The Improving State of the World: Why We're Living Longer, Healthier, More Comfortable Lives On a Cleaner Planet (ISBN 1930865988) is a 2007 book by Indur M. Goklany, published by the Cato Institute. As per the title, it argues that the state of the world and humanity is rapidly improving. == Contents == The book lists many supporting statistics: The average person has never been better fed than today. Between 1961 and 2002, the world average daily food supply per person increased by 24% (38% in developing nations). Chronic undernourishment in developing nations declined from 37 to 17 percent of their population between 1969–71 and 2000–02. Greater agricultural productivity and international trade has caused inflation-adjusted prices of food commodities to decline by 75 percent since 1950. Access to safe water and sanitation has increased. Before industrialization, at least one out of every five children died before reaching his or her first birthday, equivalent to more than 20%. In 2003 the worldwide rate was 5.7% which is approximately the same as the developed nations had in 1950. The progress is illustrated by that many developing nations, such as India, Peru, and Ghana, in 1998 had a lower infant mortality than the


id: an-inconvenient-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Book-0.md
category: reference
title: An Inconvenient Book
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Book
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:57.427791+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: an-inconvenient-book-20260505-0
summary:
An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems is a 2007 political narrative written and edited by conservative commentator Glenn Beck. == Explanation of the book's title == The title of An Inconvenient Book is a parody of the title of Al Gore's 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth. One section of the book provides a critical response to Gore's views on global warming. == Issues discussed == Beck discusses his political views on a number of subjects. Issues include Beck’s claims that the free market provides the best way to fight global warming, divorce rates, Beck's perceptions of liberal bias on school campuses, the income gap, perceived anti-Americanism of the United Nations, and illegal immigration. == Reception == Publishers Weekly described An Inconvenient Book as "a good read for conservatives," referring to Beck's often lighthearted tone, "at his best when most absurd, and funniest when he's his own target." On the content, the reviewer says "While often informative, as in his chapter on global warming, Beck is sometimes tedious, particularly when dealing with Islam and education (France is literally teetering on the edge, and our biggest ally, England, is about to be turned inside out as well)." An


id: an-introduction-to-sustainable-development-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Introduction_to_Sustainable_Development-0.md
category: reference
title: An Introduction to Sustainable Development
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Introduction_to_Sustainable_Development
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:58.610884+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: an-introduction-to-sustainable-development-20260505-0
summary:
An Introduction to Sustainable Development is a 2007 Earthscan book which presents sustainable development as a process that "meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". This textbook examines the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainable development by exploring changing patterns of consumption, production, and distribution of resources. Case studies include coastal wetlands; community-based water supply and sanitation systems; and sustainable energy, forest, and industrial development. Author Peter P. Rogers is a Professor of Environmental Engineering at Harvard University, USA. Co-authors Kazi F. Jalal and John A. Boyd are lecturers at Harvard's Extension School. == References ==


id: it-s-a-matter-of-survival-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_a_Matter_of_Survival-0.md
category: reference
title: It's a Matter of Survival
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_a_Matter_of_Survival
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:39:59.844866+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: it-s-a-matter-of-survival-20260505-0
summary:
It's a Matter of Survival is a 1990 book by Anita Gordon and David Suzuki. Written for the general reader, the book looks ahead 50 years and explores the condition of human society and the environment. Suggestions are given about how to improve the future. The book originated as a radio series aired in 1989 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. == Overview == In the series and the book, described how the "first global scientific consensus" that the world was "entering an era of unprecedented climate change" had emerged in the June 1988 international Toronto Conference on the Changing Atmosphere chaired by Stephen Lewis, and with 300 scientists from around the world in attendance. On the webpage of the David Suzuki Foundation—a non-profit organization environmental organization headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, that he co-founded in 1991, Suzuki said that the response to the CBC radio show was the catalyst for the establishment of the Foundation. == See also == List of books by David Suzuki == References ==


id: killer-company-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_Company-0.md
category: reference
title: Killer Company
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_Company
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:00.949596+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: killer-company-20260505-0
summary:
Killer Company: James Hardie Exposed is a 2009 Australian book by journalist Matt Peacock. == Overview == The book documents how the use of harmful asbestos fibre in building materials produced by James Hardie Industries "led to the deaths of thousands of workers and customers, who were never informed of the dangers". Working with asbestos products, such as "fibro", resulted in medical abnormalities, such as asbestosis. The book opens with the story of Bernie Banton, former James Hardie employee, who suffered from asbestos-induced fibrosis and later died. According to Peacock, James Hardie Industries circumvented the rules and regulations designed to protect the community from serious health hazards. Peacock states that "Hardie embarked on a cold, calculated strategy to maximise profits, minimise compensation and conceal the culprits". == Awards and legacy == Killer Company was a finalist for the Walkley non-fiction book of the year in 2009. Devil's Dust, a docudrama based on Killer Company, was released in 2012, with Ewen Leslie portraying Peacock. == References ==


id: last-chance-to-see-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Chance_to_See-0.md
category: reference
title: Last Chance to See
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Chance_to_See
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:02.112529+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: last-chance-to-see-20260505-0
summary:
Last Chance to See is a 1989 BBC radio documentary series and its accompanying book, written and presented by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine. In the series, Adams and Carwardine travel to various locations in the hope of encountering species on the brink of extinction. The book was published in 1990. In 2009, the BBC broadcast a television follow-up series of the same name, with Stephen Fry replacing the late Adams. In 1985, Douglas Adams went to Madagascar in search of the (possibly extinct) lemur the aye-aye. The trip was part of a project by the World Wide Fund for Nature and British Sunday newspaper The Observer, sending well-known authors to remote places to seek endangered species and write articles for The Observer Magazine, to help raise awareness of ecological issues. Adams was met in Madagascar by zoologist Mark Carwardine (who was working for the WWF at the time). The Observer project was successful, and Adams and Carwardine developed a radio series around the same concept for BBC Radio 4. Carwardine later said: "We put a big map of the world on a wall, Douglas stuck a pin in everywhere he fancied going, I stuck a pin in where all


id: last-child-in-the-woods-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Child_in_the_Woods-0.md
category: reference
title: Last Child in the Woods
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Child_in_the_Woods
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:03.271621+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: last-child-in-the-woods-20260505-0
summary:
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder is a 2005 book by author Richard Louv that documents decreased exposure of children to nature in American society and how this "nature-deficit disorder" harms children and society. The author also suggests solutions to the problems he describes. A revised and expanded edition was published in 2008. == Synopsis == In the book, Louv argues that modern children are increasingly separated from nature compared to previous generations and that direct outdoor experience is essential for healthy development. He draws on research suggesting that reduced exposure to natural environments contributes to behavioral and emotional problems in children and that exposure can be therapeutic for children and adults suffering from traumatic stress, depression, obesity and many other disorders. Louv introduces the term "nature-deficit disorder" to describe the growing disconnection and writes that it affects "health, spiritual well-being, and many other areas, including [people's] ability to feel ultimately alive." Louv argues imaginative outdoor play have been displaced by organized activities such as sports, electronic media, and parental fears about safety. He attributes these shifts to cultural anxieties, media sensationalism, and restrictions that limit children's access to natural spaces. Louv notes that these


id: the-legacy-of-luna-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legacy_of_Luna-0.md
category: reference
title: The Legacy of Luna
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legacy_of_Luna
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:04.444711+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-legacy-of-luna-20260505-0
summary:
The Legacy of Luna is a book written by Julia Butterfly Hill about her experiences while treesitting in a tree named Luna in the late 1990s. == Book == The book is based on true events and written like a diary of the two years Julia Butterfly Hill spent squatting in an ancient redwood in order to protect it. The tree had been named Luna by activists. Hill began treesitting in December 1997 and stopped when she made a deal with the Pacific Lumber Company. In a first person narrative, Hill relates how she appealed to the universal spirit and spoke to the tree. All profits went to the Circle of Life Foundation. The book was published by HarperCollins in 2000. == Reception == Publishers Weekly found her book a "a remarkable inspirational document" whilst also disparaging her "mushy New Age ruminations". Other reviews also enjoyed the first person account of events and praised Hill's activism. == Film adaptation == Rachel Weisz was set to star as Hill in a film adaptation of The Legacy of Luna called Luna, directed by Deepa Mehta. She worked to get the project off the ground, but was unable to do so. She said


id: livestock-s-long-shadow-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livestock's_Long_Shadow-0.md
category: reference
title: Livestock's Long Shadow
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livestock's_Long_Shadow
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:06.734046+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: livestock-s-long-shadow-20260505-0
summary:
Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options is a United Nations report, released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations on 29 November 2006, that "aims to assess the full impact of the livestock sector on environmental problems, along with potential technical and policy approaches to mitigation". It stated that livestock accounts for 18% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, a figure which FAO changed to 14.5% in its 2013 study Tackling climate change through livestock. The report was a source of controversy at the time of its publication: both because some scholars thought that the report underestimated the impact of livestock on climate change, while Meat industry stakeholders both publicly critiqued the report and influenced meat producing countries to complain to FAO. == Report == Livestock's Long Shadow is an assessment of research, taking into account direct impacts of livestock production, along with the impacts of feed crop cultivation. The report states that the livestock sector is one of the top two or three most significant contributors to serious environmental problems. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air


id: living-in-the-hothouse-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_in_the_Hothouse-0.md
category: reference
title: Living in the Hothouse
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_in_the_Hothouse
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:07.884081+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: living-in-the-hothouse-20260505-0
summary:
Living in the Hothouse: How Global Warming Affects Australia is a 2005 book by Professor Ian Lowe which is a sequel to his Living in the Greenhouse (1989). The book presents a detailed analysis of climate change science and the likely impact of climate change in Australia. Living in the Hothouse also offers a critical overview of the Howard government's policy response to climate change in Australia. Ian Lowe, AO, is a scientist, environmental policy analyst, and president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, who has served on many federal, state and local government committees. Other books by Ian Lowe include Reaction Time and A Big Fix. == See also == List of Australian environmental books Climate change in Australia == References ==


id: the-living-soil-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Soil-0.md
category: reference
title: The Living Soil
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Soil
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:08.993698+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-living-soil-20260505-0
summary:
The Living Soil (1943) by Lady Eve Balfour is considered a seminal classic in organic agriculture and the organic movement. The book is based on the initial findings of the first three years of the Haughley Experiment, the first formal, side-by-side farm trial to compare organic and chemical-based farming, started in 1939 by Balfour (with Alice Debenham), on two adjoining farms in Haughley Green, Suffolk, England. The Living Soil was also published as The Living Soil and the Haughley Experiment. == References == == External links == Soil And Health Library - full text repository for The Living Soil


id: the-machine-in-neptune-s-garden-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_in_Neptune's_Garden-0.md
category: reference
title: The Machine in Neptune's Garden
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_in_Neptune's_Garden
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:10.183636+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-machine-in-neptune-s-garden-20260505-0
summary:
The Machine in Neptune's Garden: Historical Perspectives on Technology and the Marine Environment is a 2004 book edited by Helen M. Rozwadowski and David K. van Keuren. The book takes its name from Leo Marx's influential book The Machine in the Garden. It is a product of the Maury III conference on the history of oceanography held in Monterey, California in 2001. It argues the centrality of technology to the acquisition of knowledge of the oceans and contains ten thematically linked essays on the indispensable role of technology in the history of ocean science. It "demonstrate[s] that historians of science and technology should pay more attention to the history and historiography of oceanography." It is the most prominent work combining the history of technology, environmental history, and history of ocean sciences, and it is considered a foundational work in history of technology of the oceans and in the history of the marine environment. == Contents == The book contains an introduction by Keith R. Benson and editors Helen M. Rozwadowski and David K. van Keuren, and ten chapters by historians of science and technology. The volume is dedicated to historian of science Philip F. Rehbock, who had died in 2002.


id: the-machine-in-the-garden-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_in_the_Garden-0.md
category: reference
title: The Machine in the Garden
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_in_the_Garden
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:11.357187+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-machine-in-the-garden-20260505-0
summary:
The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America is a 1964 work of literary criticism written by Leo Marx and published by Oxford University Press. The title of the book refers to a trope in American literature representing the interruption of pastoral scenery by technology due to the industrialization of America during the 19th and 20th century. For example, the trope notably appears in Henry David Thoreau's Walden (1854) when the whistling sound of a steam locomotive disrupts the natural landscape of Walden Pond. Marx uses this literary metaphor to illustrate the relationship between culture and technology in the United States as depicted in the work of American authors such as Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Mark Twain, Frank Norris, Henry Adams, Henry James, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. == Synopsis == Marx identifies a major theme in literature of the nineteenth century—the dialectical tension between the pastoral ideal in America and the rapid and sweeping transformations wrought by machine technology. This tension is expressed "everywhere" in literature by the recurring image of the machine in the garden—that is, the sudden and shocking intrusion of technology into a pastoral scene. "Within the


id: making-peace-with-the-planet-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_Peace_with_the_Planet-0.md
category: reference
title: Making Peace with the Planet
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_Peace_with_the_Planet
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:12.522174+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: making-peace-with-the-planet-20260505-0
summary:
Making Peace With the Planet is a 1990 book by Barry Commoner. Commoner argues that, despite billions of dollars spent to save the environment, America is still in a deep environmental crisis. The book argues that environmental pollution can be prevented only through fundamental redesign of the way we produce goods. == References ==


id: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago-0.md
category: reference
title: The Malay Archipelago
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:13.787700+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-0
summary:
The Malay Archipelago is a book by the English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace which chronicles his scientific exploration, during the eight-year period 1854 to 1862, of the southern portion of the Malay Archipelago including Malaysia, Singapore, the islands of Indonesia, then known as the Dutch East Indies, and the island of New Guinea. It was published in two volumes in 1869, delayed by Wallace's ill health and the work needed to describe the many specimens he brought home. The book went through ten editions in the nineteenth century; it has been reprinted many times since, and has been translated into at least twelve languages. The book describes each island that he visited in turn, giving a detailed account of its physical and human geography, its volcanoes, and the variety of animals and plants that he found and collected. At the same time, he describes his experiences, the difficulties of travel, and the help he received from the different peoples that he met. The preface notes that he travelled over 14,000 miles and collected 125,660 natural history specimens, mostly of insects though also thousands of molluscs, birds, mammals and reptiles. The work was illustrated with engravings, based on Wallace's observations and


id: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago-1.md
category: reference
title: The Malay Archipelago
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:13.787700+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-0
summary:
The Malay Archipelago was largely written at Treeps, Wallace's wife's family home in Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex. It was first published in Spring 1869 in two volumes by Macmillan (London), with a reprint (also in two volumes) marked 'second edition' the same year. The first US edition year by Harper & Brothers (New York) appeared in 1869 in a single volume. Wallace returned to England in 1862, but explains in the Preface that given the large quantity of specimens and his poor health after his stay in the tropics, it took a long time. He noted that he could at once have printed his notes and journals, but felt that doing that would have been disappointing and unhelpful. Instead, therefore, he waited until he had published papers on his discoveries, and other scientists had described and named as new species some 2,000 of his beetles (Coleoptera), and over 900 Hymenoptera including 200 new species of ant. The book went through 10 editions, with the last published in 1890. It has been translated into at least twelve languages. == Illustrations == The illustrations are, according to the Preface, made from Wallace's own sketches, photographs, or specimens. Wallace thanks Walter and Henry Woodbury


id: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago-2.md
category: reference
title: The Malay Archipelago
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:13.787700+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-0
summary:
10 Bali And Lombock Wallace is grateful for an involuntary stop in Bali, which he finds one of the most interesting places of his trip, as Hindu customs and religion are still practised, while on Lombok he finds Australian birds such as cockatoos, observing that this is the most westerly point of that family's range. 11 Lombock—Manners And Customs On Lombok, Wallace observes how guns are made, witnessing the boring of gun barrels by two men rotating a pole which is weighted down by a basket of stones. He describes the Sasak people of the island, and the custom of running amok. 12 Lombock—How The Rajah Took The Census The whole chapter is taken up with a legend, which Wallace calls an anecdote, about the rajah (king) of Lombok. It involves taxation, needles and sacred krisses. 13 Timor Wallace describes the island of Timor, its abundance of fan-palms, its people who are like Papuans, and the Portuguese government which he considers extremely poor. On some hills he finds Eucalyptus (gum) trees, a genus from Australia; he finds the vegetation monotonous also. 14 Natural History of the Timor Group He finds the mixture of bird species intermediate between those of Java


id: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago-3.md
category: reference
title: The Malay Archipelago
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:13.787700+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-0
summary:
24 Batchian He is lent a house by the Sultan, who offers him tea and cakes but asks him to teach him to make maps and to give him a gun and a milking goat, "all of which requests I evaded as skilfully as I was able". His servant Ali shoots a new bird of paradise, Wallace's standardwing, "a great prize" and a "striking novelty". He is a little disappointed in the range of insects and birds, but discovers new species of roller, sunbird and is happy to see the racquet-tailed kingfisher. His house is burgled twice; a blacksmith manages to pick his locks and make him a new set of keys; and he discovers a new species of birdwing butterfly. 25 Ceram, Goram, and the Matabello Islands He travels to Ceram, where he enjoys the company of a multilingual Flemish plantation owner. He finds few birds despite constant searching and wading through rivers; the water and the rough ground destroy both his pairs of shoes, and he returns home on the last day lame from walking "in my stockings very painfully". Sailing in the Matabello Islands, he is blown ten miles off course, his men fearing being swept on


id: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago-4.md
category: reference
title: The Malay Archipelago
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:13.787700+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-0
summary:
31 The Aru Islands—Journey and Residence in the Interior He is brought a king bird-of-paradise, amusing the islanders with his excitement; it had been one of his goals for travelling to the archipelago. He reflects on how their beauty is wasted in the "dark and gloomy woods, with no intelligent eye to gaze upon their loveliness", but that when "civilized man" reaches the islands he will certainly upset the balance of nature and make the birds extinct. He finds the men the most beautiful of all the peoples he has stayed among, the women less handsome "except in extreme youth". 32 The Aru Islands—Second Residence in Dobbo He sees a cock-fight in the street, but is more interested in a game of football, played with a hollow ball of rattan, and remarks the "excessive cheapness" of all goods including those made in Europe or America, which he believes causes idleness and drunkenness because there is no need to work hard to obtain goods. He admires a crimson-flowered tree surrounded with flocks of blue and orange lories. He is given some birds' nest soup, which he found almost tasteless. 33 The Aru Islands—Physical Geography and Aspects of Nature The islands are


id: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago-5.md
category: reference
title: The Malay Archipelago
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:13.787700+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-0
summary:
40 The Races of Man in the Malay Archipelago Wallace ends the book by describing his views on the peoples of the archipelago. He finds the Malays, such as the Javanese, the most civilised, though he describes the Dyaks of Borneo and the Bataks of Sumatra, among others, as "the savage Malays". He quotes the traveller Nicolo Conti's 1430 account of them, with other early descriptions. He thinks the Papuan the opposite of the Malay, impulsive and demonstrative where the Malay is impassive and taciturn. He speculates about their origins, and in a note at the end, criticises English society. ==== Appendix ==== On Crania And Languages Wallace mentions Huxley's theory, and Dr. Joseph Barnard Davis's book Thesaurus Craniorum, which supposed that human races could be distinguished by the shape of the cranium, the dome of the skull, of which theory Wallace is sceptical. However he lists measurements he had taken of the crania of "Malays" and "Papuans", noting that within the Malay group there was enormous variation. He had few skulls in the Papuan group and there were no definite differences between the two groups. The language appendix lists 9 words (black, white, fire, water, large, small, nose, tongue,


id: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago-6.md
category: reference
title: The Malay Archipelago
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:13.787700+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-0
summary:
a highly valuable and intensely interesting contribution to our knowledge of a part of the world but little known in Europe or America. But few of our tourists ever visit it, and scarcely any have ever gone to explore it. Mr. Wallace is not an amateur traveler, making a hasty visit, to return and write a hasty and almost useless book. He is an enthusiastic naturalist, a geographer, and geologist, a student of man and nature. The reviewer notes the region is "of terrific grandeur, parts of it being perpetually illuminated by discharging volcanoes, and all of it frequently shaken with earthquakes." The review summarises the book's geographical reach and style in a paragraph. ==== The Popular Science Review ==== The Popular Science Review began by writing that "We never remember to have taken up a book which gave us more pleasure". It was quite unlike the dull journey logs of most travel books; it was "a romance, which is, nevertheless, plain matter of fact". The review especially admires the way that Wallace "has generalised on the facts" rather than just shooting "a multitude of birds" and interminably describing them. The account notes that Wallace was the joint originator of


id: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago-7.md
category: reference
title: The Malay Archipelago
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:13.787700+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-0
summary:
==== Revue des Deux Mondes ==== The book's fame spread beyond the English-speaking world. R. Radau wrote a lengthy review of Un naturaliste dans l'Archipel Malais in the French Revue des Deux Mondes. Radau notes the many deaths from volcanic eruptions in the archipelago, before explaining the similarity of the fauna of Java and Sumatra with that of central Asia, while that of the Celebes carries the mark of Australia, seeming to be the last representatives of another age. Radau describes Wallace's experiences in Singapore, where goods were far cheaper than in Europe – wire, knives, corkscrews, gunpowder, writing-paper, and he remarks on the spread of the Jesuits into the interior, though the missionaries had to live on just 750 francs a year. Singapore was covered in wooded hills, and the sawn wood and rotten trunks supported innumerable beetles for the naturalist to study. The only disagreeable element was that the tigers that roared in the forest devoured on average one Chinese per day, especially in the ginger plantations. Radau summarises one passage from the book after another: the orang utans of Borneo wrestling open the jaws of a crocodile, or killing a python; the Timorese walking up tall trees,


id: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago-8.md
category: reference
title: The Malay Archipelago
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malay_Archipelago
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:13.787700+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-malay-archipelago-20260505-0
summary:
== Influence on other works == The Malay Archipelago influenced many works starting with those of Wallace's contemporaries. The novelist Joseph Conrad used it as source material for some of his novels, including Almayer's Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, and The Rescue. Commentators have suggested it had a particularly profound influence on Lord Jim, crediting it with among other things the inspiration for the character Stein the entomologist. Conrad's assistant Richard Curle wrote that The Malay Archipelago was Conrad's favourite bedside book; Conrad refers directly to what he calls Alfred Wallace's famous book on the Malay Archipelago in The Secret Agent. In his short story, Neil MacAdam, W. Somerset Maugham has the title character read The Malay Archipelago while travelling to Borneo, and its influence can be felt in the story's description of that island. More recently, the book has influenced a number of non-fiction books including The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen (1997), which discussed Wallace's contributions to the field of island biogeography; The Spice Islands Voyage by Tim Severin (1997) that retraced Wallace's travels; and Archipelago: The Islands of Indonesia, by Gavan Daws (1999), which compared the environment described by Wallace with the modern state


id: man-and-nature-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_and_Nature-0.md
category: reference
title: Man and Nature
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_and_Nature
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:14.993059+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: man-and-nature-20260505-0
summary:
Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, first published in 1864, was written by American polymath scholar and diplomat George Perkins Marsh (1801–1882). Marsh intended his text to show that "whereas [others] think the earth made man, man in fact made the earth." He warned that humans could destroy both themselves and the Earth if they failed to restore and sustain global resources and to raise awareness about their actions. The book is one of the earliest works to document the effects of human action on the environment, and it helped to launch the modern conservation movement. Marsh is remembered by scholars as a profound and observant student of men, books, and nature, with a wide range of interests ranging from history to poetry and literature. His wide array of knowledge and outstanding natural powers of mind gave him the ability to speak and write about every topic of inquiry with the assertive authority of a genuine investigator. He initially got the idea for "Man and Nature" from his observations in his New England home and his foreign travels devoted to similar inquiries. Marsh wrote the book with the view that human life and action are


id: man-eaters-of-kumaon-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-Eaters_of_Kumaon-0.md
category: reference
title: Man-Eaters of Kumaon
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-Eaters_of_Kumaon
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:16.139383+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: man-eaters-of-kumaon-20260505-0
summary:
Man-Eaters of Kumaon is a 1944 book written by hunter-naturalist Jim Corbett. It details the experiences that Corbett had in the Kumaon region of India from the 1900s to the 1930s, while hunting man-eating Bengal tigers and Indian leopards. One tiger, for example, was responsible for over 400 human deaths. Man-Eaters of Kumaon is the best known of Corbett's books, and contains 10 stories of tracking and shooting man-eaters in the Indian Himalayas during the early years of the twentieth century. The text also contains incidental information on flora, fauna and village life. Seven of the stories were first published privately as Jungle Stories. == Book contents == Introduction by Sir Maurice Hallett Preface by Lord Linlithgow Authors Note: Causes of Man-eating in Tigers and Leopards Champawat Man-eater: The story of the first man-eating tiger shot by Corbett in 1907. Reportedly the man-eater claimed 436 human victims in Nepal and India Robin: Stories of Corbett's hunting companion Robin, his faithful spaniel. The Chowgarh tigers: The first of three man-eaters Corbett was to shoot on government request at a 1929 district conference. It turned out to be a pair of two tigers, a mother and its grown cub, which had together


id: maralinga-australia-s-nuclear-waste-cover-up-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maralinga:_Australia's_Nuclear_Waste_Cover-up-0.md
category: reference
title: Maralinga: Australia's Nuclear Waste Cover-up
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maralinga:_Australia's_Nuclear_Waste_Cover-up
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:17.285997+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: maralinga-australia-s-nuclear-waste-cover-up-20260505-0
summary:
Maralinga: Australia's Nuclear Waste Cover-up is a book by Alan Parkinson about the clean-up of the British atomic bomb test site at Maralinga in South Australia, published in 2007. == Overview == Parkinson, a nuclear engineer and former Government Representative to oversee the Maralinga Rehabilitation Project, explains that the clean-up of Maralinga in the late 1990s was compromised by cost-cutting and simply involved dumping hazardous radioactive debris in shallow holes in the ground. Parkinson states that "What was done at Maralinga was a cheap and nasty solution that wouldn't be adopted on white-fellas land." == Reviews == Australian Book Review Medicine, Conflict and Survival == See also == Britain, Australia and the Bomb Downwinders List of books about nuclear issues Maralinga McClelland Royal Commission Montebello Islands Silent Storm (film) == References == == External links == Maralinga 'clean up' exposed Do atomic test victims deserve compensation?


id: memory-lands-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_Lands-0.md
category: reference
title: Memory Lands
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_Lands
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:18.401128+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: memory-lands-20260505-0
summary:
Memory Lands: King Philip's War and the Place of Violence is a 2018 book by Williams College history professor Christine DeLucia. The book was published by Yale University Press's Henry Roe Cloud Series on American Indians and Modernity. It looks at over three hundred years of Indigenous history from King Philip's War to the present day, mostly in the North American Northeast, as well as in Bermuda. The book focuses on the role of place and details the continued presence of Indigenous peoples and memory in Bastoniak (Boston), Narragansett (roughly overlapping with Rhode Island), along the middle of the Kwinitekw (Connecticut River) Valley, and Bermuda. == Reception == Memory Lands has won numerous awards, including the 2019 Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize, the 2019 Peter J. Gomes Memorial Book Prize from the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the 2020 Lois P. Rudnick Prize from the New England American Studies Association. It also won an honorable mention from the National Council on Public History in 2019. The book has been discussed and reviewed widely, including with DeLucia in conversation with WBUR's Meghna Chakrabarti and by a group of scholars for H-Environment Roundtable Reviews. == References == == Further reading ==


id: natural-capitalism-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Capitalism-0.md
category: reference
title: Natural Capitalism
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Capitalism
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:20.771108+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: natural-capitalism-20260505-0
summary:
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution is a 1999 book on environmental economics co-authored by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins. It has been translated into a dozen languages and was the subject of a Harvard Business Review summary. == Content == In Natural Capitalism the authors describe the global economy as being dependent on natural resources and ecosystem services that nature provides. Natural Capitalism is a critique of traditional "Industrial Capitalism", saying that the traditional system of capitalism "does not fully conform to its own accounting principles. It liquidates its capital and calls it income. It neglects to assign any value to the largest stocks of capital it employs – the natural resources and living systems, as well as the social and cultural systems that are the basis of human capital." Natural capitalism recognizes the critical interdependency between the production and use of human-made capital and the maintenance and supply of natural capital. The authors argue that only through recognizing this essential relationship with the Earth's valuable resources can businesses, and the people they support, continue to exist. Their fundamental questions concern the theoretical properties of an economy that, among other tenets, organizes around a more realistic


id: a-nature-conservation-review-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nature_Conservation_Review-0.md
category: reference
title: A Nature Conservation Review
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nature_Conservation_Review
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:23.117562+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: a-nature-conservation-review-20260505-0
summary:
A Nature Conservation Review is a two-volume work by Derek Ratcliffe, published by Cambridge University Press in 1977. It set out to identify the most important places for nature conservation in Great Britain. It is often known by the initials NCR, and sites listed in it are termed "NCR sites". The approach adopted by Ratcliffe was adapted and applied to the selection of sites important for geological conservation in the Geological Conservation Review. A Marine Nature Conservation Review has also been published. Volume 1 set out the rationale and methods used, and gave descriptions of the major habitat types. Volume 2 consisted entirely of a site inventory. Sites were grouped into six major habitat types: Coastal sites - 135 sites Woodlands - 234 sites Lowland grasslands, heaths and scrub - 159 sites Open waters - 99 sites Peatlands - 116 sites Upland grasslands and heaths - 101 sites == See also == List of NCR sites == References ==


id: the-new-green-consumer-guide-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Green_Consumer_Guide-0.md
category: reference
title: The New Green Consumer Guide
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Green_Consumer_Guide
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:24.275573+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-new-green-consumer-guide-20260505-0
summary:
The New Green Consumer Guide is a book written by Julia Hailes on green consumerism. The guide explores how one can consume goods and services in an environmentally friendly manner. Topics discussed include travel, transport, food and drink, home and garden, fashion and cosmetics. The New Green Consumer Guide was published in 2007 as a successor to The Green Consumer Guide, which Hailes co-authored. First published in 1988, The Green Consumer Guide, in its various editions, has sold in excess of one million copies globally. In the first few weeks after it had been published, there were eleven print runs for The Green Consumer Guide. == References == == External links == Can green consumers save the world? – debate with author at The Daily Telegraph


id: nuclear-nebraska-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Nebraska-0.md
category: reference
title: Nuclear Nebraska
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Nebraska
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:25.434525+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: nuclear-nebraska-20260505-0
summary:
Nuclear Nebraska: The Remarkable Story of the Little County That Couldn't Be Bought is a 2007 book by Susan Cragin which follows the controversy about a proposed low level nuclear waste dump, which was planned for Boyd County, Nebraska. In 1989, two multinational corporations and several government agencies proposed a waste dump and offered payment of $3 million per year for 40 years. The residents of the Boyd County farming community resisted the offer and controversy followed for almost two decades. During this time, the community was transformed "from a small group of isolated farmers to a defiant band of environmentalists". The opposition of the community eventually succeeded, and the license to build the dump was denied. Several governors became embroiled in the controversy, as well as legislators, bureaucrats and the community. One central figure went to jail and others were dismissed from their jobs. For many years, there was extensive coverage of the event by the news media. U.S. Senator Ben Nelson wrote the foreword to the book. == See also == List of books about nuclear issues Central Interstate Low Level Radioactive Waste Compact == References == "Nuclear Nebraska: The Remarkable Story of the Little County That Couldn't


id: nuclear-or-not-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_or_Not-0.md
category: reference
title: Nuclear or Not?
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_or_Not?
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:26.596618+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: nuclear-or-not-20260505-0
summary:
Nuclear or Not? Does Nuclear Power Have a Place in a Sustainable Energy Future? is a 2007 book edited by Professor David Elliott. The book offers various views and perspectives on nuclear power. Authors include: Paul Allen from the Centre for Alternative Technology Dr Ian Fairlie, who served on the Committee Examining Radiation Risks of Internal Emitters (CERRIE) Stephen Kidd of the World Nuclear Association Professor Elliott calls for continued debate on the nuclear power issue. He has worked with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority before moving to the Open University where he is Professor of Technology Policy and has developed courses on technological innovation, focusing in particular on renewable energy technology. == See also == List of books about nuclear issues Nuclear Power and the Environment Reaction Time Contesting the Future of Nuclear Power Non-Nuclear Futures == References == == External links == Non-nuclear sustainable energy futures for Germany and the UK


id: nuclear-power-and-the-environment-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Power_and_the_Environment-0.md
category: reference
title: Nuclear Power and the Environment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Power_and_the_Environment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:27.770135+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: nuclear-power-and-the-environment-20260505-0
summary:
Nuclear Power and the Environment, sometimes simply called the Flowers Report, was released in September 1976 and is the sixth report of the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, chaired by Sir Brian Flowers. The report was dedicated to "the Queen's most excellent Majesty." "He was appointed "to advise on matters, both national and international, concerning the pollution of the environment; on the adequacy of research in this field; and the future possibilities of danger to the environment." One of the recommendations of the report was that: "There should be no commitment to a large programme of nuclear fission power until it has been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that a method exists to ensure the safe containment of longlived, highly radioactive waste for the indefinite future." The "Flowers Report" was prompted by a proposal in 1975 to set up an international nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Windscale. Windscale is a large nuclear facility on the coast of Cumbria in Northwest England that was built after World War II to produce plutonium for England's nuclear weapons program. The facility suffered a leak in 1973, which put it out of commission until the plans for the international nuclear fuel reprocessing plant were


id: nuclear-power-and-the-environment-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Power_and_the_Environment-1.md
category: reference
title: Nuclear Power and the Environment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Power_and_the_Environment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:27.770135+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: nuclear-power-and-the-environment-20260505-0
summary:
== Chapter Four: Major Issues Raised by Nuclear Power == Chapter Four emphasizes on major issues raised by nuclear power. The reason why chapter two and chapter three are so detailed in the effects of radioactivity and the principles of nuclear power along with the nuclear fuel cycle is so that there could be a better understanding on the problems that could cause environmental effects. Concerns about nuclear development, which is considered in detail in other chapters, centers on a few major issues. This chapter focuses on issues as a whole to ensure that they can be seen in the perspective that allows people to understand the underlying social and ethical questions that they raise. It begins with the world energy demand, the problem scale of nuclear development, and nuclear hazards that stem from other technological developments. The advantages must be weighed against the fears and risks attached to nuclear power, which can lead to many people disregarding nuclear power as an acceptable means of energy, also referred to as "the Faustian bargain." Certainly these fears must be taken seriously and can not be disregarded. This chapter concludes with the concerns of the future and the fact that the world


id: the-nutmeg-s-curse-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nutmeg's_Curse-0.md
category: reference
title: The Nutmeg's Curse
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nutmeg's_Curse
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:28.936683+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-nutmeg-s-curse-20260505-0
summary:
The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis is a 2021 non-fiction book by Amitav Ghosh. It discusses colonialism and environmental issues with particular focus on the Banda Islands. European powers took control of land, people, and natural resources for profit. It uses the history of the nutmeg trade as the main example to learn how this has continued to shape the modern world. It is Ghosh's second non-fiction work to discuss climate change, after The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016). == Background == Ghosh had begun writing The Nutmeg's Curse in March 2020. At the time, Ghosh was staying in his Brooklyn home during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. This book builds on his earlier work on climate change, mainly The Great Derangement. The Nutmeg's Curse was inspired by Ghosh's trip to the Banda Islands and his discovery of an online PDF copy of an obscure book that recounted the massacre of the Bandanese. The text was entitled De vestiging van het Nederlandsche gezag over de Banda-eilanden (1599-1621) (English: The Establishment of Dutch Rule Over the Banda Islands), and its author was J.A. van der Chijs. What particularly struck Ghosh was an aspect


id: the-omnivore-s-dilemma-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Omnivore's_Dilemma-0.md
category: reference
title: The Omnivore's Dilemma
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Omnivore's_Dilemma
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:30.039379+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-omnivore-s-dilemma-20260505-0
summary:
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is a nonfiction book written by American author Michael Pollan published in 2006. As omnivores, humans have a variety of food choices. In the book, Pollan investigates the environmental and animal welfare effects of various food choices. He suggests that, prior to modern food preservation and transportation technologies, the dilemmas caused by these options were resolved primarily by cultural influences. Technology has made previously seasonal or regional foods available year-round and in all regions. Culture, which once moderated the relationship between food and society, has now created confusion. To teach more about those choices, Pollan describes various food chains that end in human food: industrial food, organic food, and food we forage ourselves, from the source to a final meal, and in the process writes a critique of the American method of eating. == Contents == Michael Pollan informs us about how corn, the U.S.'s main food source, is "taking over the world" due to its pervasiveness in many of the foods we eat, including beverages made with cornstarch and meat and dairy products from animals fed with corn. Pollan hopes that his book will change the diets in the U.S.


id: only-planet-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_Planet-0.md
category: reference
title: Only Planet
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_Planet
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:31.172561+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: only-planet-20260505-0
summary:
Only Planet is a book by environment entrepreneur Ed Gillespie about his flight-free adventure around the world. Published in June 2014 by Wild Things Publishing, the book embraces environmentally-sustainable slow travel. == Plot summary == Gillespie and his then-girlfriend Fiona set out on a year-long global circumnavigation of the world without flying, eliminating flying-associated carbon emissions while rediscovering the joys of travelling through the world and not just over it in a plane. Their journey covers over 40,000 miles in 31 countries. Throughout his journey, Gillespie gains different perspectives on climate change, globalisation, and society's role in shaping the future, while also gaining first-hand insight into the way our planet is changing. Each chapter explores a different topic relevant to that part of the journey. For example, while in Japan overfishing is focused upon. == Reviews == Only Planet has been well received by reviewers. The Independent described the book as both "witty" and "thought-provoking", with the essence of the book showing how "slow travel allows time for the flaws, degradation and struggles of the world, as well as its breathtaking beauty and indefatigable human spirit, to seep into the soul." TreeHugger recounts the way in which the book's "humorous


id: operating-manual-for-spaceship-earth-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_Manual_for_Spaceship_Earth-0.md
category: reference
title: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_Manual_for_Spaceship_Earth
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:32.398461+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: operating-manual-for-spaceship-earth-20260505-0
summary:
Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth is a short book by R. Buckminster Fuller, first published in 1969, following an address with a similar title given to the 50th annual convention of the American Planners Association in the Shoreham Hotel, Washington D.C., on 16 October 1967. The book relates Earth to a spaceship flying through space. Noting the lack of any user manual to help Earthians steward this ship, Fuller offers some reflections, prognostications, and guidance, based on contemporary concepts of linked relationships, that may help in the understanding, management, sustainment, and creation of a plan to preserve spaceship earth for the future of humanity. The spaceship has a finite amount of resources and cannot be resupplied. == Chapters == Comprehensive propensities Origins of specialization Comprehensively commanded automation Spaceship Earth General systems theory Synergy Integral functions The regenerative landscape == Main themes == === History === Fuller describes two epochs within modern and contemporary history. The first epoch was one run by "Great Pirates" or "great outlaws." The source of their power is that they are the only masters of global information in a time where people are focused locally. They were aware that resources weren't evenly distributed around the world,


id: operating-manual-for-spaceship-earth-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_Manual_for_Spaceship_Earth-1.md
category: reference
title: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_Manual_for_Spaceship_Earth
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:32.398461+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: operating-manual-for-spaceship-earth-20260505-0
summary:
==== Life fellowship ==== Since many jobs will be replaced by automation, and the sustainability of human life would no longer be dictated by labor, humans could be free to engage in other pursuits. To realize potential wealth each person who is or becomes unemployed should be provided with a life fellowship in research and development, or just simply have the freedom to experience and experiment. Fuller states that for every 100,000 fellowships given out one person will come up with something so valuable that it will pay for the remaining 99,999 fellowships. === Economics === The economic accounting systems that are most widely in use only measure physical matter, which is only actually one quality of wealth. ==== Access to vital resources ==== Fuller critiques the prevalence of poverty throughout the entire publication. He states that one of the qualities that make humans unique is their inventiveness. Human inventiveness is driven by curiosity, desire to communicate, adaptability, resourcefulness, and intellectual capabilities. Poverty injures all of Earth's population, by limiting a large percentage of the population's ability to realize their potential and engage in the furthering and betterment of the world's population. So far many of the solutions activated have


id: our-angry-earth-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Angry_Earth-0.md
category: reference
title: Our Angry Earth
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Angry_Earth
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:33.566698+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: our-angry-earth-20260505-0
summary:
Our Angry Earth: A Ticking Ecological Bomb (1991) is a non-fiction book and polemic against the effects of humankind on the environment by the science fiction writers Isaac Asimov and Frederik Pohl. In his last non-fiction book, Asimov co-writes with his long-time friend science fiction author Frederik Pohl, and deals with elements of the environmental crisis such as overpopulation, oil dependence, war, global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer. It suggests monumental disasters are threatening to destroy humankind and argues that "it is too late to save our planet from harm". The book has four sections: "The Background", "The Problems", "The Technocures" and "The Way to Go". The coming of doom is because of deeds that do not seem evil on the face of it. Because we are concerned with the improving of the health of mankind and its security, our population has increased markedly, especially in the last hundred years, to the point where the Earth cannot support us all. Because we have industrialised ourselves in order to lift the curse of physical labour from our backs we have poured the poisons produced by the internal combustion engine into our atmosphere and dirtied it to the point


id: our-common-future-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Common_Future-0.md
category: reference
title: Our Common Future
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Common_Future
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:34.737719+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: our-common-future-20260505-0
summary:
Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report, was published in October 1987 by the United Nations through the Oxford University Press. This publication was in recognition of Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Norwegian Prime Minister and Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). Its targets were multilateralism and interdependence of nations in the search for a sustainable development path. The report sought to recapture the spirit of the Stockholm Conference of 1972, which had introduced environmental concerns to the formal political development sphere. Our Common Future placed environmental issues firmly on the political agenda: it aimed to discuss the environment and development as one single issue. The document was the culmination of a "900-day" international exercise which catalogued, analysed, and synthesised written submissions and expert testimony from "senior government representatives, scientists and experts, research institutes, industrialists, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and the general public" held at public hearings throughout the world. The report's definition of "sustainable development" is possibly the best-known definition of this concept:Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. == Content == The Brundtland Commission's mandate, officially adopted at its inaugural


id: our-plundered-planet-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Plundered_Planet-0.md
category: reference
title: Our Plundered Planet
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Plundered_Planet
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:35.936199+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: our-plundered-planet-20260505-0
summary:
Our Plundered Planet is a book published in 1948 by American conservationist Fairfield Osborn about environmental destruction by humankind. With a focus on soil, the book is a critique of humankind's poor stewardship of Earth. It typifies the earliest apocalyptic environmental literature, in which human beings are seen as destroyers of the natural world. Our Plundered Planet, along with William Vogt's Road to Survival, also published in 1948, launched a Malthusian revival in the post-WWII era, and would inspire Anne Howland Ehrlich and her colleague and husband Paul R. Ehrlich, authors of The Population Bomb, The Dominant Animal and more than 30 other books on overpopulation and ecology. == Influences == In writing this book, Osborn was influenced by Guy I. Burch and Elmer Pendell's overpopulation tract Population Roads to Peace or War (1945) and Paul Sears' analysis of dust bowls in Deserts on the March (1935). He had also been influenced by various "New Deal" initiatives in the public planning of land use and restoration, such as the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Civilian Conservation Corps and various policies to address the "Dust Bowls" of the time. Osborn, as well as his famous father, Henry Fairfield Osborn,


id: the-outlaw-ocean-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outlaw_Ocean-0.md
category: reference
title: The Outlaw Ocean
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outlaw_Ocean
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:37.115586+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-outlaw-ocean-20260505-0
summary:
The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier (also published as The Outlaw Ocean: Crime and Survival in the Last Untamed Frontier) is a 2019 book by Ian Urbina about crime and extralegal activity in international waters. The book was based on an investigate journalism series Urbina wrote for The New York Times. Topics covered include illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, modern slavery and violent crime committed at sea, as well of the work of organisations, governments and companies in international waters. The book was critically acclaimed. == Synopsis == The Outlaw Ocean is structured as a series of essays about lawlessness at sea with each chapter covering a different aspect and case studies. Urbina describes his experiences of their reporting. These include: The Thunder, an illegal fishing vessel that was part of the Bandit 6, and its pursuit by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Maritime law enforcement against illegal fishing in Palau and Indonesia The Principality of Sealand, an unrecognised micronation and former pirate radio station off the coast of Suffolk Women on Waves, an NGO that provides abortions in international waters for women in countries where they are illegal Stowaways in international shipping A Greenpeace and academic


id: the-oyster-question-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oyster_Question-0.md
category: reference
title: The Oyster Question
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oyster_Question
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:39.539569+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-oyster-question-20260505-0
summary:
The Oyster Question: Scientists, Watermen, and the Maryland Chesapeake Bay since 1880 is a 2009 book by Christine Keiner. It examines the conflict between oystermen and scientists in the Chesapeake Bay from the end of the nineteenth century to the present, which includes the period of the so-called "Oyster Wars" and the precipitous decline of the oyster industry at the end of the twentieth century. The book engages the myth of the "Tragedy of the Commons" by examining the often fraught relationship between local politics and conservation science, arguing that for most of the period Maryland's state political system gave rural oystermen more political clout than politicians and the scientists they appointed and allowing oystermen to effectively manage the oyster bed commons. Only towards the end of the twentieth century did reapportionment bring suburban and urban interests more political power, by which time they had latched on to oystermen as elements of the area's heritage and incorporated them and the oysters into broader conservation efforts. An important theme is the "intersection[] of scientific knowledge with experiential knowledge in the context of use," in that Keiner "treats the knowledge of the Chesapeake Bay’s oystermen alongside that of biologists." "Through her analysis,


id: palmetto-leaves-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves-0.md
category: reference
title: Palmetto Leaves
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:40.760325+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: palmetto-leaves-20260505-0
summary:
Palmetto Leaves is a memoir and travel guide written by Harriet Beecher Stowe about her winters in the town of Mandarin, Florida, published in 1873. Already famous for having written Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Stowe came to Florida after the U.S. Civil War (1861–1865). She purchased a plantation near Jacksonville as a place for her son to recover from the injuries he had received as a Union soldier and to make a new start in life. After visiting him, she became so enamored with the region she purchased a cottage and orange grove for herself and wintered there until 1884, even though the plantation failed within its first year. Parts of Palmetto Leaves appeared in a newspaper published by Stowe's brother, as a series of letters and essays about life in northeast Florida. Scion of New England clergy, Stowe keenly felt a sense of Christian responsibility that was expressed in her letters. She considered it her duty to help improve the lives of newly emancipated blacks and detailed her efforts to establish a school and church in Mandarin toward these ends. Parts of the book relate the lives of local African-Americans and the customs of their society. Stowe described the


id: palmetto-leaves-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves-1.md
category: reference
title: Palmetto Leaves
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:40.760325+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: palmetto-leaves-20260505-0
summary:
=== Transformation and failure === In the late winter of 1867, Stowe followed her son to Florida, finding that the warmer weather allowed her to spend more time on two novels she was writing. Her first weeks in Orange Park utterly transformed her and she became enchanted with Florida at once, writing that she felt she had sprouted wings and become "young & frisky". She accompanied her son one day to collect the mail, which was deposited in Mandarin, about 3 miles (4.8 km) across the St. Johns River. They rowed to the eastern shore and Stowe fell in love with a cottage in Mandarin, attached to an orange grove. Stowe's transformation in Florida was rooted in her identification and familiarity with Puritan New England: industry and thrift in a climate where cold sharpened one's senses and values. The laid-back attitude of the people and warmth of the Southern climate were seductive. She at first attempted to persuade her brother Charles to purchase the land in Mandarin, writing to him and asking "How do you think New England theology would have fared had been landed here instead of Plymouth Rock?" She wrote about the land and climate intoxicating her and


id: palmetto-leaves-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves-2.md
category: reference
title: Palmetto Leaves
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:40.760325+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: palmetto-leaves-20260505-0
summary:
Palmetto Leaves was not Stowe's first travel memoir. In 1854 she published Sunny Memoirs of Foreign Lands about her first trip to Europe, a book unique as an American woman's view of Europe. She followed this with Agnes of Sorrento that appeared as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly from 1861 to 1862. Source material for Agnes of Sorrento was culled from her observations of and experiences in Italy, collected during her third trip to Europe, which she took with her family. Olav Thulesius, author of Harriet Beecher Stowe in Florida, recognizes Stowe's tendency to spin everything she saw into something selectively positive. Stowe addressed this in the foreword to Sunny Memoirs of Foreign Lands, writing: If the criticism be made that every thing is given couleur de rose, the answer is, Why not? If there be characters and scenes that seem drawn with too bright a pencil, the reader will consider that, after all, there are many worse sins than disposition to think and speak well of one's neighbors. The object of publishing these letters is, therefore, to give to those who are true-hearted and honest the same agreeable picture of life and manners which met the writer's own


id: palmetto-leaves-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves-3.md
category: reference
title: Palmetto Leaves
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:40.760325+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: palmetto-leaves-20260505-0
summary:
From her first sight of Florida, Stowe was greatly impressed. In Palmetto Leaves, she sings the praises of Florida in January as a beautiful land capable of producing superior citrus and flowers. In several letters Stowe describes the abundant plant life in the area, dedicating a chapter to yellow jessamines (Gelsemium sempervirens) and another to magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) flowers. She details watching sugarcane pressed into sugar crystals, going visiting with her elderly and obstinate mule named Fly, and discovering the myriad things to find in the woods and what can be made of them. She also keeps a cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) in a cage and four cats, but sadly reports later in the year that all four cats have died, to the relief and joy of Phœbus the cardinal. Stowe attempts to disabuse readers of the notion that the region is perfect. She writes, "In New England Nature is an up-and-down smart, decisive, housemother that has her times and seasons and brings up her ends of life with a positive jerk" and contrasts that characterization with Nature in Florida, an "indulgent old grandmother, who has no particular time for any thing and does every thing when she happens to feel


id: palmetto-leaves-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves-4.md
category: reference
title: Palmetto Leaves
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:40.760325+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: palmetto-leaves-20260505-0
summary:
The final two letters in Palmetto Leaves address the newly freed slaves in Florida. Two strong women who are less docile than Stowe is accustomed are included. One, a field hand turned domestic named Minnah, whom Stowe has tried in vain to teach how to do household chores, is so forthright in her speech that Stowe writes, "Democracy never assumes a more rampant form than in some of these old negresses, who would say their screed to the king on his throne if they died for it the next minute. Accordingly, Minnah's back was marked and scored with the tyrant's answers to free speech." Minnah eventually returns happily to the fields. Another, Judy, is complacent and enjoys taking mornings and afternoons off to see to her husband. Stowe attributes their work ethic to poor training and "the negligent habits inducted by slavery"; the truly talented and hard-working black laborers had moved on from homesteads to industry, able to demand their own price for their labors. Although Stowe describes Minnah and Judy with some tempered exasperation, she praises a riverboat stewardess named Commodore Rose. Once a slave owned by the captain, Rose had since been freed for saving his life during


id: palmetto-leaves-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves-5.md
category: reference
title: Palmetto Leaves
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:40.760325+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: palmetto-leaves-20260505-0
summary:
Stowe was among several authors who wrote about Florida following the Civil War. By far, the majority were men who concentrated on hunting prospects, but the women who wrote about the region often used an adolescent narrator who was usually male as a device to describe their encounters with the novelty of what they saw. Stowe wrote simply as herself, something that may have been allowed because of her celebrity. Gene Burnett, author of Florida's Past: People and Events That Shaped the State writes: Harriet was probably never fully aware of how great had been her influence in advertising Florida to the country, turning it from an obscure down under tip on the map into a beckoning, lush, tropical paradise, to which tens of thousands would flock to help build a state over the following decades. She herself would doubtless have viewed it as a fitting Christian act to help restore a prostrate, defeated brotherland to its feet; Florida's first promoter was merely a Good Samaritan. Uncle Tom's Cabin was clearly Stowe's magnum opus (although she considered Old Town Folks, which was written while she was in Mandarin, to have that designation), as Stowe family history recalls that Abraham Lincoln


id: palmetto-leaves-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves-6.md
category: reference
title: Palmetto Leaves
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetto_Leaves
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:40.760325+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: palmetto-leaves-20260505-0
summary:
A frost in 1886 killed much of the orange industry in Mandarin and the town saw an economic decline. In 1916, an ornate stained glass window constructed by Louis Comfort Tiffany was installed in the Church of Our Saviour, depicting a large oak tree overlooking the river. The church and Mandarin residents offered no more than $500 for the window; for three years ten cent subscriptions were raised around Mandarin, and notices were placed in New York magazines to solicit finances for it. Although scholars have stated that Stowe's efforts to educate local blacks were ultimately unsuccessful, the woman who spearheaded the fundraising effort for the memorial window noted that the project was enthusiastically supported by local black churches and residents, who gave what they could out of affection for Stowe, remembering that she taught some of them to read. The window probably cost Tiffany $850 ($18,206 in 2009), and though there is no record of exactly how much Tiffany was paid, he took the project on because he liked the design: the tree, the moss, the Southern motif, and because it was to memorialize the Stowes. He probably made no profit from it. Beneath it read "In that hour,


id: the-path-to-degrowth-in-overdeveloped-countries-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Path_to_Degrowth_in_Overdeveloped_Countries-0.md
category: reference
title: The Path to Degrowth in Overdeveloped Countries
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Path_to_Degrowth_in_Overdeveloped_Countries
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:41.930710+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-path-to-degrowth-in-overdeveloped-countries-20260505-0
summary:
"The Path to Degrowth in Overdeveloped Countries", written by Erik Assadourian, is the second chapter of the Worldwatch Institute's State of the World (2012), available for free online. In his chapter of the report, Assadourian defines degrowth as an "essential and urgent" economic strategy to pursue in countries entrenched in overdevelopment (such as the United States) in order for those countries to be truly sustainable and adapt to "The rapidly warming Earth and the collapse of ecosystem services." Furthermore, he hopes to dispel "the myth that perpetual pursuit of growth is good for economies or the societies of which they are a part" for the well-being of the planet, of underdeveloped populations, and of the sick, stressed, and overweight populations of overdeveloped countries. Assadourian argues via the principle of plenitude that degrowth will inevitably occur whether we want it to or not because—on a planet of finite resources—economies and populations cannot grow infinitely, and overdeveloped countries are still pursuing more economic growth and overconsuming resources. Assadourian outlines four policies overdeveloped nations could employ to sufficiently facilitate a planned and controlled contraction of the economy so as to get back in line with planetary boundaries. Each of these, in unison, will


id: the-pesticide-question-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pesticide_Question-0.md
category: reference
title: The Pesticide Question
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pesticide_Question
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:43.062712+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-pesticide-question-20260505-0
summary:
The Pesticide Question: Environment, Economics and Ethics is a 1993 book edited by David Pimentel and Hugh Lehman. Use of pesticides has improved agricultural productivity, but there are also concerns about safety, health and the environment. This book is the result of research by leading scientists and policy experts into the non-technical and social issues of pesticides. In examining the social policies related to pesticides use, they consider the costs as well as the benefits. The book says that Intensive farming cannot completely do without synthetic chemicals, but that it is technologically possible to reduce the amount of pesticides used in the United States by 35-50 per cent without reducing crop yields. The researchers show that to regain public trust, those who regulate and use pesticides must examine fair ethical questions and take appropriate action to protect public welfare, health, and the environment. Anyone concerned with reducing our reliance on chemical pesticides and how human activities can remain both productive and environmentally sound will find this volume a stimulating contribution to a troubling debate. The Pesticide Question builds on the 1962 best seller book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Carson did not reject the use of pesticides, but argued that


id: the-petroleum-papers-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Petroleum_Papers-0.md
category: reference
title: The Petroleum Papers
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Petroleum_Papers
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:44.226707+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-petroleum-papers-20260505-0
summary:
The Petroleum Papers is a 2022 non-fiction book by journalist Geoff Dembicki on climate change and the fossil fuel industry. The book documents that specific oil companies had an early awareness of the relationship between climate change and fossil fuels but then deliberately made efforts to discredit the climate science and prevent government regulation. Heather Mallick described the book as "the biggest true crime story ever told." The book was one of The Washington Post's 10 best books of 2022 and was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction the same year. == Publication == The 256 page book was published in 2022 by Greystone Books. It was written by Canadian investigative journalist Geoff Dembicki. == Synopsis == The Petroleum Papers documents the history of the oil and gas industry in Canada. The books documents the warning given to political leaders and oil company executives in 1959 by Edward Teller. It reports on the climate science undertaken by Exxon in the 1970's, when the company measured ocean carbon dioxide levels. Dembicki states that Exxon's scientist James Black warned Exxon's leadership of the dangers to humans posed by fossil fuel and recommended quick action. The author also notes


id: planet-on-fire-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_on_Fire-0.md
category: reference
title: Planet on Fire
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_on_Fire
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:45.375670+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: planet-on-fire-20260505-0
summary:
Planet on Fire: A Manifesto for the Age of Environmental Breakdown is a book authored by Mathew Lawrence and Laurie Laybourn-Langton. It was published in 2021 by Verso Books and focuses on the climate crisis and the economy, advocating in favor of ecosocialism. == Background == At the time of the book's publication, both authors worked for think tanks, with Mathew Lawrence at Common Wealth and Laurie Laybourn-Langton at the Institute for Public Policy Research. == Summary == Planet on Fire advocates for environmentalist movements to move toward ecosocialist politics. A self-described "radical manifesto for how to deal with environmental breakdown," Planet on Fire offers challenges to the political status quo in the face of the "devastating and inequitably distributed consequences of the climate emergency." It offers a roadmap for a "democratic and sustainable future." Laurie Laybourn-Langton and Mathew Lawrence argue that it is necessary to restructure the economy to create a way of life that can produces a healthy and flourishing environment for all. == Reception == Writing in the New Statesman, senior online editor George Eaton described Planet on Fire as offering "an urgent alternative" to the "broken model" driving a rapid rise in carbon emissions. A review


id: plows-plagues-and-petroleum-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plows,_Plagues_and_Petroleum-0.md
category: reference
title: Plows, Plagues and Petroleum
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plows,_Plagues_and_Petroleum
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:46.518591+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: plows-plagues-and-petroleum-20260505-0
summary:
Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate is a 2005 book published by Princeton University Press and written by William Ruddiman, a paleoclimatologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia. He has authored and co-authored several books and academic papers on the subject of climate change. Scientists often refer to this period as the "Anthropocene" and define it as the era in which humans first began to alter the Earth's climate and ecosystems. Ruddiman contends that human induced climate change began as a result of the advent of agriculture thousands of years ago and resulted in warmer temperatures that could have possibly averted another ice age; this is the early anthropocene hypothesis. == Synopsis == Ruddiman begins the book with a brief introduction to the science of climate change and the various individuals who have been key in influencing the field over the years. He also notes that the Earth's climate has been drifting toward cooler temperatures for the last 55 million years. The dominant hypothesis for this trend is that large volcanic eruptions have subsided while increasing amounts of carbon dioxide have been absorbed out of the atmosphere due to interactions between monsoon rains and


id: plows-plagues-and-petroleum-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plows,_Plagues_and_Petroleum-1.md
category: reference
title: Plows, Plagues and Petroleum
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plows,_Plagues_and_Petroleum
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:46.518591+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: plows-plagues-and-petroleum-20260505-0
summary:
== Critical assessment == Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, described Ruddiman's ideas as intriguing, but the conclusions largely depended on a comparison of methane changes in the current warm period with those in the Vostok ice core which correlated with orbital changes, and more recent research indicated that these might not be applicable to present changes. The newer EPICA core showed only a small increase in methane during the last 5,000 years, which was generally attributed to the development of the boreal wetlands and major river deltas after the ice from the previous ice age melted and caused the sea level to rise to its current location. It was very uncertain that the relatively small human populations and cultivated areas could have made a significant difference. More research was needed to quantify relevant factors. == See also == Milankovitch cycles An Inconvenient Truth Deforestation Holocene Environmental security Ice caps Effects of global warming Carbon cycle Carbon Disclosure Project Guns, Germs and Steel == Notes == == References == Ruddiman, W. F. (2005). Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum : how humans took control of climate. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. ISBN


id: political-animals-and-animal-politics-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Animals_and_Animal_Politics-0.md
category: reference
title: Political Animals and Animal Politics
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Animals_and_Animal_Politics
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:47.722065+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: political-animals-and-animal-politics-20260505-0
summary:
Political Animals and Animal Politics is a 2014 edited collection published by Palgrave Macmillan and edited by the green political theorists Marcel Wissenburg and David Schlosberg. The work addresses the emergence of academic animal ethics informed by political philosophy as opposed to moral philosophy. It was the first edited collection to be published on the topic, and the first book-length attempt to explore the breadth and boundaries of the literature. As well as a substantial introduction by the editors, it features ten sole-authored chapters split over three parts, respectively concerning institutional change for animals, the relationship between animal ethics and ecologism, and real-world laws made for the benefit of animals. The book's contributors were Wissenburg, Schlosberg, Manuel Arias-Maldonado, Chad Flanders, Christie Smith, Clemens Driessen, Simon Otjes, Kurtis Boyer, Per-Anders Svärd, and Mihnea Tanasescu. The focus of their individual chapters varies, but recurring features include discussions of human exceptionalism, exploration of ways that animal issues are or could be present in political discourse, and reflections on the relationship between theory and practice in politics. In part, Political Animals and Animal Politics arose from a workshop that Wissenburg and Schlosberg organised at the 2012 European Consortium for Political Research Joint Sessions conference,


id: political-animals-and-animal-politics-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Animals_and_Animal_Politics-1.md
category: reference
title: Political Animals and Animal Politics
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Animals_and_Animal_Politics
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:47.722065+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: political-animals-and-animal-politics-20260505-0
summary:
The workshop featured a lecture by Michel Vandenbosch, of the Belgian organisation Global Action in the Interest of Animals. On the second day, those involved were joined by Niko Koffeman of the Dutch Party for the Animals and Karen Soeters of that party's Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation think tank. Footage from that day of the workshop, shot by Joost de Haas, was included in the documentary film De Haas in de Marathon (The Pacer in the Marathon, 2012). The film was created by de Haas, who was commissioned by the Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation. It focuses on the Party for the Animals's first ten years, including interviews with people associated with the party and explorations of the party's public reception. The film premiered on 28 October 2012, during a gathering to celebrate the party's 10th anniversary. It has since been made available in numerous languages. Wissenburg and Schlosberg's workshop formed the basis of Political Animals and Animal Politics, a collection edited by Wissenburg and Schlosberg, earlier versions of many of the volume's chapters having been presented at that time. Originally, the editors had intended to have discussion of political theory, of movements for animals and of real-world politics, but the


id: political-animals-and-animal-politics-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Animals_and_Animal_Politics-2.md
category: reference
title: Political Animals and Animal Politics
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Animals_and_Animal_Politics
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:47.722065+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: political-animals-and-animal-politics-20260505-0
summary:
"Public Reason and Animal Rights", Chad Flanders Flanders argues that nonhuman animals could be "below" politics, in that they do not have politically considerable interests, or "above" politics, in that they have rights that trump political decision-making processes. Flanders argues that if animals are excluded from basic justice, as John Rawls held, they can be defended on metaphysical grounds (what Rawls refers to as on the basis of comprehensive doctrines, as opposed to the public reasons which must be used for arguments in the political realm). This is potentially liberating for animal advocates. Nonetheless, Flanders argues, animal issues may be matters of basic justice insofar as they affect humans or that animals themselves have rights. Alternatively, the wrongness of animal cruelty may be a "fixed point" in our political reasoning. Flanders concludes that Rawlsianism provides a good starting point for the inclusion of animals in political decision-making. "Articulating Ecological Injustices of Recognition", Christie Smith Smith draws on Val Plumwood to argue that rather than solely think about resituating animals in ethical terms, what is needed is the resituation of humans in ecological terms; both are needed, she argues, as the two tasks are linked. Smith rejects the culture/nature dichotomy, and


id: political-animals-and-animal-politics-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Animals_and_Animal_Politics-3.md
category: reference
title: Political Animals and Animal Politics
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Animals_and_Animal_Politics
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:47.722065+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: political-animals-and-animal-politics-20260505-0
summary:
"The Rights of Nature: Theory and Practice", Mihnea Tanasescu Tanasescu explores the idea of rights for nature, an idea that, though unorthodox, has seen success in implementation. He introduces the concept, with a focus on the differences between moral and legal rights, before examining the particular case of Ecuador's entrenchment of rights for nature in its 2008 constitution, which is compared with other real-world cases. He finally addresses what can be learnt from these theoretical and practical considerations. He concludes that much work on the topic is left to be done, but the key lesson to be learnt is the significance of innovation; environmental politics, he claims, should remain both inventive and optimistic. == Academic reception == Political Animals and Animal Politics was reviewed by Garner for Environmental Values, and the philosophers Jeremy David Bendik-Keymer, Josh Milburn, and Dan Hooley for Environmental Ethics, the Political Studies Review and the Journal of Animal Ethics respectively. Garner lamented the absence of many of the key voices in the political theory literature on animal ethics—such as Cochrane, Donaldson and Kymlicka, O'Sullivan, Tony Milligan, Kimberly Smith or Garner himself—in the book, meaning that Political Animals and Animal Politics "takes on the role of an


id: the-population-bomb-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb-0.md
category: reference
title: The Population Bomb
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:48.969534+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-population-bomb-20260505-0
summary:
The Population Bomb is a 1968 book co-authored by former Stanford University professor Paul R. Ehrlich and former Stanford senior researcher in conservation biology Anne H. Ehrlich. From the opening page, it predicted worldwide famines due to overpopulation, as well as other major societal upheavals, and advocated immediate action to limit population growth. Fears of a "population explosion" existed in the mid-20th century baby boom years, but the book and its authors brought the idea to an even wider audience. The book has been criticized since its publication for an alarmist tone, and over the subsequent decades, for inaccurate assertions and failed predictions. For instance, regional famines have occurred since the publication of the book, but not world famines. The Ehrlichs themselves continued to stand by the book despite the flaws identified by its critics, with Paul stating in 2009 that "perhaps the most serious flaw in The Bomb was that it was much too optimistic about the future," despite having predicted catastrophic global famines that never came to pass. They believe that it achieved their goals because "it alerted people to the importance of environmental issues and brought human numbers into the debate on the human future." Others have


id: the-population-bomb-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb-1.md
category: reference
title: The Population Bomb
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:48.969534+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-population-bomb-20260505-0
summary:
=== Possible solutions === Paul and Anne Ehrlich described a number of "ideas on how these goals might be reached." They believed that the United States should take a leading role in population control, both because it was already consuming much more than the rest of the world, and therefore had a moral duty to reduce its impact, and because the US would have to lead international efforts due to its prominence in the world, in order to avoid charges of hypocrisy or racism it would have to take the lead in population reduction efforts. The Ehrlichs float the idea of adding "temporary sterilants" to the water supply or staple foods. However, they reject the idea as unpractical due to "criminal inadequacy of biomedical research in this area." They suggest a tax scheme in which additional children would add to a family's tax burden at increasing rates for more children, as well as luxury taxes on childcare goods. They suggest incentives for men who agree to permanent sterilization before they have two children, as well as a variety of other monetary incentives. They propose a powerful Department of Population and Environment which "should be set up with the power to


id: the-population-bomb-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb-2.md
category: reference
title: The Population Bomb
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:48.969534+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-population-bomb-20260505-0
summary:
=== Restatement of Malthusian theory === The Population Bomb has been characterized by critics as primarily a repetition of the Malthusian catastrophe argument that population growth will outpace agricultural growth unless controlled. Ehrlich observed that since about 1930 the population of the world had doubled within a single generation, from 2 billion to nearly 4 billion, and was on track to do so again. He assumed that available resources on the other hand, and in particular food, were nearly at their limits. Some critics compare Ehrlich unfavorably to Malthus, saying that although Thomas Malthus did not make a firm prediction of imminent catastrophe, Ehrlich warned of a potential massive disaster within the next decade or two. In addition, critics state that unlike Malthus, Ehrlich did not see any means of avoiding the disaster entirely (although some mitigation was possible), and proposed solutions that were much more radical than those discussed by Malthus, such as starving whole countries that refused to implement population control measures. Ehrlich was certainly not unique in his neo-Malthusian predictions, and there was a widespread belief in the 1960s and 70s that increasingly catastrophic famines were on their way. === Predictions === The Ehrlichs made a number


id: the-population-bomb-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb-3.md
category: reference
title: The Population Bomb
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:48.969534+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-population-bomb-20260505-0
summary:
=== Persistence of trends === Economist Julian Simon and medical statistician Hans Rosling pointed out that the failed prediction of 70s famines were based exclusively on the assumption that exponential population growth will continue indefinitely and no technological or social progress will be made. In The Ultimate Resource Simon argued that resources, such as metals, which Ehrlichs extensively discuss in their books as examples of non-sustainable resources, are valued exclusively for the function they provide, and technological progress frequently replaces these: for example, copper was largely replaced by fiber optic in communications, and carbon fiber replaced a wide range of alloys and steel in construction (see Simon-Ehrlich wager and The Ultimate Resource). Simon also argued that technological progress tends to happen in large steps rather than linear growth, as happened with the Green Revolution. Hans Rosling in his book Factfulness demonstrated that fertility rate has significantly decreased worldwide and, more importantly, high fertility is a natural response to high mortality in low-income countries and once they enter higher income group, fertility drops quickly. According to environmentalist Stewart Brand, himself a student and friend of Ehrlich, the assumption made by the latter and by authors of The Limits to Growth has


id: the-population-bomb-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb-4.md
category: reference
title: The Population Bomb
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:48.969534+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-population-bomb-20260505-0
summary:
the biggest tactical error in The Bomb was the use of scenarios, stories designed to help one think about the future. Although we clearly stated that they were not predictions and that “we can be sure that none of them will come true as stated,’ (p. 72)—their failure to occur is often cited as a failure of prediction. In honesty, the scenarios were way off, especially in their timing (we underestimated the resilience of the world system). But they did deal with future issues that people in 1968 should have been thinking about – famines, plagues, water shortages, armed international interventions by the United States, and nuclear winter (e.g., Ehrlich et al. 1983, Toon et al. 2007)—all events that have occurred or now still threatenIn a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Ehrlich, while still proud of The Population Bomb for starting a worldwide debate on the issues of population, acknowledged weaknesses of the book including not placing enough emphasis on climate change, overconsumption and inequality, and countering accusations of racism. He argues "too many rich people in the world is a major threat to the human future, and cultural and genetic diversity are great human resources." He advocated for an


id: power-justice-and-the-environment-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power,_Justice,_and_the_Environment-0.md
category: reference
title: Power, Justice, and the Environment
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power,_Justice,_and_the_Environment
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:50.154728+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: power-justice-and-the-environment-20260505-0
summary:
Power, Justice, and the Environment: A Critical Appraisal of the Environmental Justice Movement is a book edited by David Pellow and Robert Brulle. The impetus for the book came from presentations at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in Chicago. Divided into three parts, (Environmental Equity and Justice, New Strategies for Achieving Environmental Justice, and Environmental Justice and the Challenges of Globalization), the editors curate a collection of essays by academics, environmental practitioners, and advocates that critique strategies, tactics, organizational structures, and governance in the environmental justice movement, and pose questions about where the movement has been and where it may go. == References ==


id: power-profit-and-protest-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power,_Profit_and_Protest-0.md
category: reference
title: Power, Profit and Protest
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power,_Profit_and_Protest
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:51.291452+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: power-profit-and-protest-20260505-0
summary:
Power, Profit and Protest: Australian Social Movements and Globalisation is a 2003 book by Verity Burgmann. The book was originally published in 1993, and the 2003 edition is substantially expanded. It contains a new chapter on "social movements and social change", and another on the "anti-corporate globalisation movement". There is a new concluding chapter on globalisation as the "cancer stage of capitalism". Cathie Jensen-Lee writes "This book provides an interesting and thoughtful analysis of several movements for change in Australian society; namely the Aboriginal movement, the women's movement, the green movement and the anti-capitalist/anti-corporate globalisation movements." == See also == Tasmania's Wilderness Battles == References == == External links == Power, profit and protest : Australian social movements and globalisation / Verity Burgmann - Details - Trove Informit - Labour History - Verity Burgmann, Power, Profit and Protest : Australian Social Movements and Globalisation [Book Review] (Business Collection) O'Hara on Burgmann Power, profit and protest Fighting for the Forests. Ron Chapman (PhD) 2008, p18. (in research) The workers' flag is deepest green. Jeff Sparrow. Seminar, Australian National University, October 2004. (in teaching) David Sprigg (in social policy research)


id: prosperity-without-growth-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_Without_Growth-0.md
category: reference
title: Prosperity Without Growth
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_Without_Growth
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:52.454462+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: prosperity-without-growth-20260505-0
summary:
Prosperity Without Growth is a book by author and economist Tim Jackson. It was originally released as a report by the Sustainable Development Commission. The study rapidly became the most downloaded report in the Commission's nine-year history when published in 2009. Later that year, the report was reworked and published as a book by Earthscan. A revised and expanded edition (Prosperity Without Growth: Foundations for the Economy of Tomorrow) was published in January 2017. == Description == By arguing that "prosperity – in any meaningful sense of the word – transcends material concerns," the book summarizes the evidence showing that, beyond a certain point, growth does not increase human well-being. Prosperity without Growth analyses the complex relationships between economic growth, environmental crises, and social recession. It proposes a route to a sustainable economy and argues for a redefinition of "prosperity" in light of the evidence on what contributes to people’s well-being. The second edition expands on these ideas and sets out the framework for what he calls "the economy of tomorrow." By attending to the nature of enterprise as a form of social organisation, the meaning of work as participation in society, the function of investment as a commitment to


id: pumpkin-the-curious-history-of-an-american-icon-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin:_The_Curious_History_of_an_American_Icon-0.md
category: reference
title: Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin:_The_Curious_History_of_an_American_Icon
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:40:53.636215+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: pumpkin-the-curious-history-of-an-american-icon-20260505-0
summary:
Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon is a 2012 book by Cindy Ott. The author follows the history of the pumpkin, from Native American diet staple, to food for peasants, feed for livestock, and now as the symbol of autumn and a multi-million dollar industry. Once considered a desperate substitute to use in beer and bread, only in the absence of barley and wheat, the pumpkin's popularity grew out the romantic nostalgia of rural residents turned city-dwellers, and its commercialization has now reached unprecedented heights. Ott traces the shifting status of the pumpkin in American culture. The author goes as far as to paint the pumpkin as a cultural icon that helped forge a uniquely American identity. == References == == External links == Pumpkin history online exhibition


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-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


