Social Ecology

American engineers have done astounding things to bend the Mississippi River to their will: forcing one of its tributaries to flow uphill, transforming over 1000 miles of roiling currents into a placid staircase of water, and wresting the lower half of the river apart from its floodplain. American law has aided and abetted these feats. But despite our best efforts, so-called "natural disasters" continue to strike the Mississippi basin as raging floodwaters decimate waterfront communities and abandoned towns literally crumble into the Gulf of Mexico.

Many people think wild tigers are on the road to recovery, but they are in greater danger than ever - from a menace few experts saw coming. There may be only three thousand wild tigers left in the entire world. More shocking is the fact that twice that many - some six thousand - have been bred on farms, not for traditional medicine but to supply a luxury-goods industry that secretly sells tiger-bone wine, tiger-skin decor, and exotic cuisine enjoyed by China's elite.

The Digital Age was expected to usher in an era of clean production, an alternative to smokestack industries and their pollutants. But as environmental journalist Elizabeth Grossman reveals in this penetrating analysis of high tech manufacture and disposal, digital may be sleek, but it's anything but clean. Deep within every electronic device lie toxic materials that make up the bits and bytes, a complex thicket of lead, mercury, cadmium, plastics, and a host of other often harmful ingredients.

人類は今、新たな進化の段階に突入している。産業革命は社会を変えたが、IT革命は人間の心を変えようとしているのだ。

Over the past 100 years, gulls have been brought ashore by modernity. They now live not only on the coasts, but in our slipstream following trawlers, barges, and garbage trucks. They are more our contemporaries than most birds, living their wild lives among us in towns and cities. In many ways, they live as we do, walking the built-up world and grabbing a bite where they can. Yet this disturbs us. We’ve started fearing gulls for getting good at being among us. We see them as scavengers, not entrepreneurs; oceangoing aliens, not refugees.

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.

Humans take more than their geological share of water, but they do not benefit from it equally. This imbalance has created an era of intense water scarcity that affects the security of individuals, states, and the global economy. For many, this brazen water grab and the social inequalities it produces reflect the lack of a coherent philosophy connecting people to the planet. Challenging this view, Jeremy Schmidt shows how water was made a “resource” that linked geology, politics, and culture to American institutions.

"Our Choice gathers in one place all of the most effective solutions that are available now and that, together, will solve this crisis. It is meant to depoliticize the issue as much as possible and inspire readers to take action - not only on an individual basis but as participants in the political processes by which every country, and the world as a whole, makes the choice that now confronts us." (Al Gore, from the Introduction)

Why spend countless hours indoors in front of screens when being in nature feels so good? In learning why and how to nurture our emotional connection with nature, we can also regenerate the ecosystems on which we depend for our survival. Renewal explores the science behind why being in nature makes us feel alive and helps us thrive.

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.

In this dynamic account, award-winning author Paul Fleischman arms teens with the basic tools to uncover vested interests and falsehoods by vetting sources, following the money, and checking references so that they can make informed decisions about what actions to take in the worldwide battle against climate change, overconsumption, and dwindling resources.

In brave and unforgettable terms, Al Gore, the passionate and lifelong defender of the environment, describes how human actions and decisions can endanger or safeguard the vulnerable ecosystem that sustains us.

Somos um país urbano: 84% da população brasileira concentra-se em cidades e ao menos metade vive em municípios com mais de 100 mil habitantes. Mas a vida urbana não traz apenas novas oportunidades. Ela propicia doenças provocadas por falta de saneamento, picadas de mosquitos, poluição, violência, ritmo frenético... E tudo isso não ocorre mais apenas nas grandes cidades, mas também nas médias e mesmo pequenas, quase sempre negligenciadas pelo poder público e pelos próprios cidadãos.

This book revisits some simple scientific research data which could be considered as the equivalent to Chicken Little's alarm call that the sky is falling. Based on materials widely distributed in the press, the author examines how the superstitions gain a place in the scientific research work, debunking some of them with simple arguments that can be taken from most high school manuals.

With information on problems both large and small, Chelsea Clinton breaks down the concepts of health, hunger, climate change, endangered species, and bullying so that readers can understand the world around them and how they can make a difference in their own lives, as well as in their communities and the world at large.

Sei ein Held, rette die Welt! Wie das geht? Greta Thunberg macht es vor. In diesem Hörbuch erfährst du, was Greta alles tut, um das Klima zu schützen. Außerdem bekommst du viele tolle Tipps, wie auch du dich für unseren Planeten stark machen kannst. Greta ist mittlerweile eine richtige Klimaaktivistin, aber als sie anfing, für das Klima zu kämpfen, war sie ganz alleine. Ihre Geschichte zeigt, dass alle etwas bewirken können. Auch du kannst etwas tun! Mach mit und kämpfe wie Greta fürs Klima.

Grandpa says circles are all around us. He points to the rainbow that rises high in the sky after a thundercloud has come. Can you see? That's only half of the circle. That rest of it is down below, in the earth. He and his granddaughter meditate on gardens and seeds, on circles seen and unseen, inside and outside us, on where our bodies come from and where they return to. They share and create family traditions in this stunning video adaptation of the Pura Belpre award-winning exploration of the cycles of life and nature.