Public Lands

One woman's enlightening trek through the natural histories, cultural stories, and present perils of thirteen national monuments.

Wir leben in Deutschland in der scheinbar besten aller Welten, doch schon bald werden wir feststellen, dass wir nicht das reiche Land sind, das uns Medien und Politik glauben machen wollen. Denn der Boom der hiesigen Wirtschaft ist nicht unser Verdienst, sondern in erster Linie eine Folge der tiefen Zinsen, des schwachen Euro und des Verschuldungsexzesses im Rest der Welt. Um unseren Wohlstand zu sichern, müssten die regierenden Politiker den aktuellen Aufschwung nutzen, um in Infrastruktur, Bildung und Digitalisierung und somit in die Zukunft des Landes zu investieren.

Finally, a practical, realistic plan to rescue, preserve and enhance nature. This is an economist's approach to environmentalism, including a summary of Britain's green assets, a look towards possible futures and an achievable 25-year plan to a green and prosperous world. News about Britain’s wildlife and ecosystems tends to be grim. In Green and Prosperous Land, Dieter Helm, a member of the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and advisor to the government, shares a radical but tangible plan for positive change.

The number of legal immigrants allowed into the United States in the 1960s was 300,000 a year. This increased reasonably to 600,000 by the 1980s. But in the 1990s, the rate accelerated to an average of more than a million a year. When the number of illegal immigrants is added to this, the total inflow during the 1990s was approximately twelve million.

Today, we are at a turning point as we face ecological and political crises that are rooted in conflicts over the land itself. But these problems can be solved if we draw on elements of our tradition that move us toward a new commonwealth - a community founded on the well-being of all people and the natural world.

Deep in the heart of the Amazon, the city of Rondon do Pará, Brazil, lived for decades in the shadow of land barons, or fazendeiros, who maintained control of the region through unscrupulous land grabs and egregious human rights violations. They razed and burned the jungle, expelled small-scale farmers and Indigenous tribes from their lands, and treated their farmhands as slaves—all with impunity.

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 this gripping historical memoir, journalist and famed redwood activist Greg King examines how investors and a growing U.S. economy drove the timber industry to cut down all but 4 percent of the original two-million-acre redwood ecosystem. King first examined redwood logging in the 1980s—as an award-winning reporter. What he found in the woods convinced him to leap the line of neutrality and become an activist dedicated to saving the very last ancient redwood groves remaining in private hands.

Abrechnung und Perspektive zugleich. Ob Asyl-Chaos, Bildungsnotstand, Abschiebe-Irrsinn oder unsere kaputten Brücken und Straßen. Ob im Bund, auf Länderebene oder vor der eigenen Haustüre - in den vergangenen Jahren sorgten viele politische Entscheidungen beim Wahlvolk für Erstaunen, Kopfschütteln, ja sogar Wut. Immer mehr Menschen stellen sich die Frage: "Geht's noch?" Mit dieser bewusst zugespitzten Formulierung greift Claus Strunz die aktuelle Stimmung in Deutschland auf.