Conservation Environment

As humankind moves deeper into the Anthropocene, a period marked by climate disruption, species extinction, and profound challenges to human and animal welfare, what and how we teach our children has never been of greater importance. In this passionate, incisive, and diverse collection of 13 interconnected essays, educators at every level of education and from four continents call for a re-imagined pedagogy that embeds respect for the other-than-human world, encourages imagination and resilience, and fosters open inquiry based on principles of justice, fairness, and equity.

Learn about America's founding conservationists: Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, Stephen T. Mather, Hugh Hammond Bennett.

Here's how a few pioneers forged their own unique paths in the conservation movement.

Yellowstone is America's premier national park. Today Yellowstone is often a byword for conservation, natural beauty, and a way for everyone to enjoy the great outdoors. But it was not always this way. Wonderlandscape presents a new perspective on Yellowstone, the emotions that various natural wonders and attractions evoke, and how this explains the park's relationship to America as a whole.

The Paris Accords, widely accepted as the key to solving today's climate crisis, set a goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2050. But that's not good enough. The only way to guarantee a livable future is climate restoration, which can reduce greenhouse gases to historic levels. Scientist and entrepreneur Peter Fiekowsky explains the technology and maps a practical path that will let humankind survive and thrive.

In this "immersive, densely reported, and altogether remarkable first book [with] the texture and color of a first-rate novel" (New York Times), journalist Doug Bock Clark tells the epic story of the world's last subsistence whalers and the threats posed to a tribe on the brink. Deeply empathetic and richly reported, The Last Whalers is a riveting, powerful chronicle of the collision between one of the planet's dwindling indigenous peoples and the irresistible enticements and upheavals of a rapidly transforming world.

A turkey is the centerpiece of countless Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Yet most of us know almost nothing about today's specially bred, commercially produced birds. In this brief book, bestselling author Peter Singer tells their story—and, unfortunately, it's not a happy one. Along the way, he also offers a brief history of the turkey and its consumption, ridicules the annual US presidential "pardon" of a Thanksgiving turkey, and introduces us to "a tremendously handsome, outgoing, and intelligent turkey" named Cornelius. Above all, Singer explains how we can improve our holiday tables.

What happens when the trash you throw out is picked up by the garbage truck? Where does it go? Once the garbage truck picks up the trash in your neighborhood, it goes on a journey to be broken down. A recycling truck might pick it up and make new things or it may be used for a compost heap, or maybe it goes to a landfill where it’s covered with dirt. Find out what happens when a landfill is full!

Travel through Rumpke’s recycling center to find a plastic jug? Trash that can be recycled takes a ride on the conveyor belt to become something new! Try to find the milk jug on the conveyor belt! Trash at the factory goes through many machines to make sure it can be recycled. Can you guess what the milk jug will help make once it leaves the factory? What other types of trash go on the conveyor belt?

What happens to trash after the garbage truck picks it up? Where does it go? The problem of too much trash is hurting the planet. Recycling, reusing, composting and creating new ways to make less trash is a start! Learn to recycle old furniture, and how safer materials are being developed that can easily decompose. People are working hard every day on new ways to have a trash-free future! Are you?

Making a compost pile is a simple way to dispose of waste—like leaves, grass clippings, fruit, and vegetable peels—and turns them into healthy food for plants! Cece notices how nice Jane’s flowers are and wants to make a compost pile, too! Jane and Click show their friends how to make compost and you can learn too! What else is needed to help the compost decompose?

Yo helps his father recycle garbage and learns what types of trash go into the recycling bin. Yo learns his fleece vest is made of plastic and that special factories recycle the plastic and melt it down into new things like toys and his favorite fleece vest! Can you guess which trash goes into the blue bins? Yo wants to surprise his mother with a special present–knowing how to recycle!

Got a pair of old tights, an empty can or a plastic bottle that you plan to throw away? You can upcycle those old things and turn them into new items you can use! Upcycling is recycling in a better way! Learn how to make a decorative pencil holder, a draft dodger to keep the cold out, or turn plastic bottles into bowling pins. What things can you create to reduce the use of plastic and metal?

Did you know about 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean each year? Learn about the Washed Ashore project that helps to clean up beaches through re-use of collected plastic—and then is recycled into art! Which sculpture in the project is your favorite?

Reusing your trash to make toys can be lots of fun–and decrease pollution and waste! Things we use around the house get old and we throw them away. What if you use them to make toys or gadgets that make life better? Experts think reusing things may be better than recycling! Learn how to make a piggy bank from a plastic can or a train with egg cartons. What things can you create by reusing?

Fights over the Green River's water, and what's going to happen to it in the future, are longstanding, intractable, and only getting worse as the West gets hotter and drier, and more people depend on the river with each passing year. As a former raft guide and an environmental reporter, Heather Hansman knew these fights were happening, but she felt driven to see them from a different perspective - from the river itself.

David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth present 100 home projects designed to inspire and empower anyone who wants to help save our native flora and fauna in the face of habitat loss and climate change. This book focuses on saving creatures and plants that are especially vulnerable but that can be successfully helped by our efforts, such as bees, frogs, butterflies, birds, trees, and wildflowers.

Every 15 seconds, a child dies from waterborne disease. Three times an hour, another species becomes extinct. Each day, we consume 85 million barrels of oil and pump 23 million tons of carbon dioxide into an already warming atmosphere. But against this bleak backdrop, beacons of hope shine from thousands of large and small initiatives. Thriving Beyond Sustainability draws a collective map of individuals, organizations, and communities that are committed to building an alternative future.

The insect world is a fascinating place. You may not think so. You may think insects are gross. Or scary. Or dangerous. But there’s so much more to insects than what meets the eye. Told through hilarious prose and packed full of jaw-dropping facts, Brenna Maloney’s first-person narrative presents the big picture on bugs. Insects play a critical role on our planet—as pollinators, garbage collectors, artistic muses, research partners, and even as “dinner.”

Soil is the unlikely story of our most maligned resource as swashbuckling hero. A saga of bombs, ice ages and civilisations falling. Of ancient hunger, modern sicknesses and gastronomic delight. It features poison gas, climate collapse and a mind-blowing explanation of how rain is formed. For too long, we've not only neglected the land beneath us, we've squandered and debased it, by over-clearing, over-grazing and over-ploughing.