Environmental Engineering

Internationally renowned financial expert and best-selling author David Bach has always urged listeners to put their financial lives in line with their values. But what if your values are a cleaner and greener earth? Most people think that "going green" is an expensive choice they can't afford. Bach is here to say that you can have both: a life in line with your green values and a million dollars in the bank.

Fulfilling a deathbed request, Nancy Nichols writes about the connection between the industrial pollution in their hometown and the rare cancer that was killing her sister, Sue.

Conventional wisdom has North America entering a new era of energy abundance thanks to shale gas. But has industry been honest? Cold, Hungry and in the Dark argues that declining productivity combined with increasing demand will trigger a crisis that will cause prices to skyrocket, damage the economy, and have a profound impact on the lives of nearly every North American.

In the Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality, the beloved pope exhorts the world to combat environmental degradation and its impact on the poor. In a stirring, clarion call that is not merely aimed at Catholic listeners but rather at a wide, lay audience, the pope cites the overwhelming scientific evidence of climate change and does not hesitate to detail how it is the result of a historic level of unequal distribution of wealth.

Here is the truth that the powerful Dirty Energy public relations machine doesn't want you to know: the ascent of solar energy is upon us. The production of solar-generated electricity has risen exponentially in the last few years, and employment in the solar industry has doubled since 2009. Meanwhile, electricity from coal has declined to pre-World War II levels as the fossil fuel industry continues to shed jobs.

A groundbreaking review of China's historic urbanization and an analysis of the opportunities and hazards ahead for the world's most populous nation. China's accelerating urbanisation is approaching a critical stage, and how this is managed will have wide ramifications for the outcomes of many of China's present development challenges, according to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in China's 2013 National Human Development Report (NHDR).

In Nature’s Fortune, Mark Tercek, CEO of The Nature Conservancy and former investment banker, and science writer Jonathan Adams argue that nature is not only the foundation of human well-being, but also the smartest commercial investment any business or government can make. The forests, floodplains, and oyster reefs often seen simply as raw materials or as obstacles to be cleared in the name of progress are, in fact as important to our future prosperity as technology or law or business innovation.

Story: A little wind turbine is separated from his family, develops a squeak, and is vandalized. But when a nasty storm plunges the nearby town into blackout, he saves the day and wins lots of new friends. A tale of triumph over adversity, eco-tainment for a young family.

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.

The environment, and the movement that grew up to protect it, is under attack, concerted and purposeful. Yet the need for solutions to pressing environmental problems grows more urgent each day. Teresa Heinz Kerry and Senator John Kerry traveled across the country in a national campaign to see at first hand how these issues unite people across party and ideological lines.

Where fresh water appears to be abundant and generally accessible, chronic pollution may be relatively ignored as a public issue. Yet there are those whose lives, livelihoods, and traditions are touched directly by the destructive albeit essential relationship between humans and water.

The sixth "mass extinction event" in the history of planet Earth is currently under way, with over two hundred species dying off every day. The cause of this seismic event is also the source of the single biggest threat to human life: our own inventions. But for all our talk about sea levels and biotechnology, do we really know what our future will actually look like? Will our immune systems be attacked by so-called super bugs, always evolving, and more easily spread than ever? Will the disappearance of numerous species cripple the biosphere?

In this dramatic and shocking account, Rodney Barker tells the full and terrifying story of a microorganism propping up along the Eastern seaboard -- far closer to home than the Ebola virus and equally frightening.

Have you worried that all that we can seem to do so far is to debate whether climate change exists, whether it's mankind's fault, and whether anything should be done about it? Have you felt despair because while all of this debate continues, you or your family or your friends are standing waist deep in flood waters? This book isn't a debate about climate change. The facts described in nearly all of the global warming books takes care of doing that. This book is about realistic solutions that can be implemented globally to treat the symptoms of climate change!

An eco-friendly home has a beneficial impact on your budget, health, and overall happiness. With the use of properly insulated windows and updated home appliances, you will save hundreds throughout the year. While saving money, your family's health will be greatly improved when you're not breathing in chemicals

In the spring of 2010, as we watched oil gushing unstoppably into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, many Americans turned their focus to the region for the first time, wondering how this could happen and demanding corporate and government accountability. Yet Rowan Jacobsen brings a surprising perspective to the tragedy: as bad as the spill was, it is only the latest chapter in a century-long story of destruction.

Strategically situated at the gateway to the Mississippi River yet standing atop a former swamp, New Orleans was from the first what geographer Peirce Lewis called an "impossible but inevitable city". How New Orleans came to be, taking shape between the mutual and often contradictory forces of nature and urban development, is the subject of An Unnatural Metropolis.

Today, there are over 100 nuclear reactors operating in our backyards, from Indian Point in New York to Diablo Canyon in California. Proponents claim that nuclear power is the only viable alternative to fossil fuels, and due to rising energy consumption and the looming threat of global warming, they are pushing for an even greater investment.

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.

Most people know Ted Danson as the affable bartender Sam Malone in the long-running television series Cheers. But fewer realize that over the course of the past two and a half decades, Danson has tirelessly devoted himself to the cause of heading off a looming global catastrophe---the massive destruction of our planet's oceanic biosystems and the complete collapse of the world's major commercial fisheries.