Environmental Engineering

The once denuded Northeastern United States is now a region of trees. Nature Next Door argues that the growth of cities, the construction of parks, the transformation of farming, the boom in tourism, and changes in the timber industry have together brought about a return of Northeastern forests. Although historians and historical actors alike have seen urban and rural areas as distinct, they are in fact intertwined, and the dichotomies of farm and forest, agriculture and industry, and nature and culture break down when the focus is on the history of Northeastern woods.

Best-selling author Chris Turner brings listeners onto the streets of Fort McMurray, showing the myriad ways the oil sands of Alberta impact our lives and demanding that we ask the question: To both fuel the world and to save it, what do we do about the Patch? This is no conventional story about the oil business. Rather, it is a portrait of the life cycle of the Patch, showing just how deeply it continues to impact the lives of everyone around the world.

Part memoir, part critique, and paean to the value of national parks, American Covenant distills the experience and insights from two long careers in conservation. Soukup and Machlis show how the national parks are essential to maintaining the essence of our national heritage, and key to America's future in a changing climate and political landscape. Sharing real-world examples of both victories and defeats in protecting national parks, this candid, thoughtful book reminds us that the national parks are a promise - a covenant - within and between generations of Americans.

When biologist Hanna Bjørgaas spots a fairy cup lichen in Antarctica, she is surprised to recognize it from her own backyard in Oslo. When she returns home, she embarks on a journey into urban nature, visiting city parks, cemeteries, and concrete rooftops to investigate the species that live in urban spaces. Along the way, she meets corvids, songbirds, ants, pigeons, bats, sparrows, fungi, and linden trees—and the experts who study their surprising abilities to survive, and thrive, in the city.

Wie wir Klimarettung und Demokratie neu denken müssen. Klimaschutz und Demokratie, das passt für viele Menschen nicht zusammen. Den einen geht der Kampf gegen die Klimakrise zu langsam voran, während die anderen sich von einer angeblichen Ökodiktatur bedroht sehen. SPIEGEL-Journalist Jonas Schaible räumt in diesem Debatten(hör-)buch mit solchen falschen Widersprüchen auf. Er zeigt, dass Klima und Demokratie sich sogar gegenseitig bedingen: Demokratie gibt es nur auf einem bewohnbaren Planten – und das Klima wird sich nur mit demokratischen Mitteln retten lassen.

Eminent ecologist Jeremy B. C. Jackson and award-winning journalist Steve Chapple traveled the length of the Mississippi River interviewing farmers, fishermen, scientists, and policymakers to better understand the mounting environmental problems ravaging the United States. Along their journey, which quickly expanded to California, Florida, and New York, the pair uncovered surprising and profound connections between ecological systems and environmental crises across the country.

America's Nuclear Wastelands presents an expert, yet straightforward overview of this complex topic, including nuclear weapons history and contamination issues. The author, a government consultant with a long career in Pacific Northwest nuclear waste issues, also explores the current institutional and political environment, demonstrating the critical role of public participation for past and future generations.

In Americans at Risk, Dr. Irwin Redlener draws on his broad experience as a pediatrician working with mobile emergency units both for children and adults, his time making recommendations to legislators about the vulnerabilities of children to biological and chemical agents and his regular meetings with Tom Ridge of the office of Homeland Security over a period of four years to write this urging a plan for a coordinated plan between government and the private sector.

In Vegan Revolution: Saving Our World, Revitalizing Judaism, Schwartz shows how now, perhaps more than ever, veganism offers a pathway for all of us of whatever faith (or no faith) to reduce hunger, conserve the environment, save water, reinstitute justice, and care for animals and the Earth. It is no coincidence, as Schwartz demonstrates, that many of these ideas are mandates in Jewish scripture, and that reincorporating a care for the world (tikkun olam) can itself reinvigorate the spirit of a faith and galvanize its practitioners to act.

When houses are flattened, towns submerged, and people stranded without electricity or even food, we attribute the suffering to "natural disasters" or "acts of God." But what if they're neither? What if we, as a society, are bringing these catastrophes on ourselves? That's the provocative theory of Catastrophe in the Making, the first audiobook to recognize Hurricane Katrina not as a "perfect storm," but a tragedy of our own making - and one that could become commonplace.

An urgent and definitive collection of essays from leaders and experts championing the Green New Deal - and a detailed playbook for how we can win it - including contributions by leading activists and progressive writers like Varshini Prakash, Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Bill McKibben, Rev William Barber II, and more.

Deepwater Horizon, das Abschmelzen des Polareises oder Fracking - der Mensch betreibt Raubbau an seiner Lebensgrundlage: der Erde. Die bekannte Umweltaktivistin Naomi Klein hat mit "Green New Deal" ihr bislang wichtigstes Buch geschrieben: Angesichts der unverminderten Zerstörung unserer Umwelt und laxen Gesetzen zeigt sie, warum die Vision einer grünen Zukunft nicht nur nötig, sondern absolut unumgänglich ist. Wir leben bereits mitten in der Klima-Katastrophe.

"Die Milch macht's" hieß es früher in der Werbung und ganz ähnliche Slogans warben auch für Fleisch. Heute undenkbar. Wir wissen schließlich, wie schädlich Milch und Fleisch sind - für uns und für das Klima. Wir wissen doch, dass die Kuh mit ihrem Methanausstoß das Weltklima zerrülpst. Aber wissen wir das wirklich? Sind diese Narrative über unsere Landwirtschaft und Ernährung von Fakten gestützt und wissenschaftlich nachweisbar? Nein, das sind sie nicht, sagt Florian Schwinn. Im Gegenteil: Die viel geschmähte Kuh kann unsere Retterin sein.

Barcellona, Manchester o Salonicco, Torino, Bari o Genova: cosa hanno in comune queste città? Il fatto che possono essere considerate smart, misurandole con diversi parametri che vanno dai trasporti all'istruzione, dalla sanità alla sostenibilità ambientale all'innovazione tecnologica. Smart city è dunque una definizione complessa cha allude ad una trasformazione delle nostre attuali città con l'obiettivo non solo del superamento delle emergenze energetiche ed ambientali, ma anche della qualità del vivere per il cittadino e per la comunità, sul piano sociale ed economico.

Giant redwoods are American icons, paragons of grandeur, exceptionalism, and endurance. They are also symbols of conflict and negotiation, remnants of environmental battles over the limits of industrialization, profiteering, and globalization. Since the middle of the 19th century, logging operations have eaten away at the redwood forest, particularly areas covered by ancient giant redwoods. Today, such trees occupy a mere 120,000 acres. Their existence is testimony to the efforts of activists to rescue some of these giants from destruction.

In 2015, a group of young people sued the federal government for violating their constitutional rights by promoting the climate catastrophe, depriving them of life, liberty, and property without due process of law. They Knew offers evidence for their claims, presenting a devastating account of the federal government's role in bringing about today's climate crisis. James Speth, tapped by the plaintiffs as an expert on climate, documents how administrations from Carter to Trump continued aggressive support of a fossil fuel-based energy system.

The Slightly Greener Method gives you small, actionable changes you can easily make in your pantry, medicine cabinet, and under your kitchen sink - without breaking the bank or upending your life. By focusing on mico-habits you can build over time and the gradual introduction of safer products, Harris guides you along a roadmap to a greener, more environmentally-friendly lifestyle that can help protect you and your families' health long-term.

Saving the world won't happen on the silver screen. In our fragile ecosystem, climate change is swiftly becoming the defining issue of how to prepare - and protect - the earth for the future. The climate change debate raged on in America in 2015, but the facts and the science now show irrefutably that our world is rapidly changing, and that irreparable damage has already begun.

To listen to most pundits and political writers, evolution, stem cells, and climate change are the only scientific issues worth mentioning and the only people who are anti-science are conservatives. Now for the first time, science writers Dr. Alex B. Berezow and Hank Campbell have drawn open the curtain on the left’s fear of science. As Science Left Behind reveals, vague inclinations about the wholesomeness of all things natural, the unhealthiness of the unnatural, and many other seductive fallacies have led to an epidemic of misinformation.

China is setting an example for the US - and the world - to follow. We should all take note. China has been able to manage the difficult task of reducing pollution without slowing down economic growth. What can the US take away from China’s unique experience? Although the world often pits the US against China, when it comes to saving the planet, any progress by any country in reducing emissions is good for everyone. China has presided over the fastest industrialization and the fastest cleanup in history - it is worth taking a closer look to see how we can do better.