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The Air They Breathe: A Pediatrician on the Frontlines of Climate Change
by Debra HendricksonA timely, revelatory first look into the impact climate change has on children—the greatest moral crisis humanity faces today—by a pediatrician in the fastest warming city in America.Wildfires, hurricanes, and heat waves make headlines. But what is happening in Debra Hendrickson&’s clinic tells another story of this strange and unsettling time. Hendrickson is a pediatrician in Reno, Nevada—the fastest warming city in the United States, where ash falls like snow during summer wildfires. In The Air They Breathe, Dr. Hendrickson recounts patients she&’s seen who were harmed by worsening smoke, smog, and pollen; two boys in Arizona, stricken by record-setting heat while hiking; children who fled for their lives from Hurricane Harvey and the Tubbs Fire; and a little girl whose life was forever altered by the Zika virus outbreak in 2016. The climate crisis is a health crisis, and it is a health crisis, first and foremost, for children. Children&’s bodies are interwoven with and shaped by their surroundings. As the planet warms and their environment changes, children&’s health is at risk. The youngest are especially vulnerable because their brain, lungs, and other organs are forming and growing every day, and because their physiology is so different from that of adults. Childhood has always been a risky period of life; throughout history, babies and children have met peril, from polio to famine, from cyclones to war. Yet they have never quite had to face, in quite this way, the potential loss of the future itself. The Air They Breathe is not just about the health impacts of global warming, but something more: a soul-stirring reminder of our moral responsibility to our children, and their profound connections to this unique and irreplaceable world.
Wildlife Crossings of Hope: Connecting Creatures Around the Globe (Books for a Better Earth)
by Teddi Lynn ChichesterWe all need safe places to live and safe paths to travel. Animals, too.Meet the people who are stitching the planet's habitats back together.Let&’s explore together how scientists, engineers, and lots of everyday people are working to make sure that the wildlife so essential to Earth&’s health and beauty continues to freely move through the landscapes, waterways, and skylines of this richly inhabited planet. Combining first-person reporting with research and stunning two-color art from illustrator Jamie Green, Wildlife Crossings of Hope takes a personal, in-depth look at wildlife crossings, corridor projects, and dam removal efforts around the world, from an underpass for elephants in Kenya to the Un-Dam the Klamath movement in the U.S. to the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, which extends from southern Mexico to Panama. Above all, this is a book that invites young people to think of themselves and wildlife as part of one community that urgently needs restoration and protection. Back matter includes actions for kids to take, a complete listing of the scientific names of all creatures discussed, source notes, a bibliography, an index, and more. Books for a Better Earth™ are designed to inspire children to become active, knowledgeable participants in caring for the planet they live on.A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
A Sea Full of Turtles: The Search for Optimism in an Epoch of Extinction
by Bill StreeverAn inspired and impassioned story of adventure that explores the richness of marine life and charts a path of resilience and hope. Everyone alive today is witnessing a mass extinction event caused by the more than eight billion humans who share this planet. At times, it seems there is little hope. Climate change, resource exploitation, agrochemicals, overfishing, plastics, dead zones in our oceans, drought and desertification, conversion of habitat to housing, farming, and industrial infrastructure—the list of impacts and insults goes on and on. We are, it seems, on an unalterable path that will continue to decimate biodiversity. A feeling of hopeless, while not unwarranted, is part of the problem. Without hope, without some belief in the possibility of positive outcomes, the fight for nature is over. Why even try if the battle is already lost? While staring the problems squarely in the face, A Sea Full of Turtles offers hope for those who care about our living world. Delivered as a travel narrative set in Mexico&’s Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez), at one level the book focuses on dramatically underfunded but highly successful efforts to protect sea turtles. But the book goes beyond Mexico and beyond sea turtles to look at how some humans have changed their relationship with nature—and how that change can one day end the extinction crisis. Enchanting, galvanizing, and brimming with joy and wonder, A Sea Full of Turtles will inspire immediate action to face the great challenges that lie ahead. Pessimism is the lazy way out. Optimism, it turns out, is both a reasonable and an essential attitude for us all as we fight for the beautiful diversity of life on our Earth.
The Keeper's Son (Josh Thurlow #1)
by Homer HickamIn 1941, Killakeet Island of the wind-swept Outer Banks of North Carolina is home to a tiny, peaceful population of fishermen, clam stompers, oyster rakers, and a few lonely sailors of the Coast Guard. Dominating the glorious, raw beauty of the little island is the majestic Killakeet Lighthouse, which for generations has been the responsibility of one family, the Thurlows.However, Josh Thurlow, the Keeper's son, has forsworn his heritage to become the commander of the Maudie Jane, a small Coast Guard patrol boat operating off Killakeet. Josh is still tortured by guilt, seventeen years after losing his baby brother at sea. Then his life is complicated by the arrival of the beautiful Dosie Crossan, who has journeyed to lonely Killakeet to escape the outside world and perhaps find a purpose in life. While Josh's heart is stirred by the often-vexing Dosie, he continues his search for his brother, even after a wolfpack of German U-boats arrives to soak the island's beaches with blood and oil.One of the U-boats is captained by Otto Krebs, a famed and ruthless undersea warrior. Krebs, a man also scarred by lost love, comes to Killakeet, however, with more than torpedoes and plans for war: He may also have the answer to the mystery that haunts Josh Thurlow.The Keeper's Son is a rousing, romantic tale of the power of the human heart forever searching for redemption.
The Names of the Stars: A Life in the Wilds
by Pete FrommWinner of Honor Book for the 2016 Montana Book AwardAt twenty years old, Pete Fromm heard of a job babysitting salmon eggs, seven winter months alone in a tent in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Leaping at this chance to be a mountain man, with no experience in the wilds, he left the world. Thirteen years later, he published his beloved memoir of that winter, Indian Creek Chronicles —Into the Wild with a twist. Twenty five years later, he was asked to return to the wilderness to babysit more fish eggs. But no longer a footloose twenty year old, at forty-five, he was the father of two young sons. He left again, alone, straight into the heart of Montana’s Bob Marshall wilderness, walking a daily ten mile loop to his fish eggs through deer and elk and the highest density of grizzly bears in the lower 48 states. The Names of the Stars is not only a story of wilderness and bears but also a trek through a life lived at its edges, showing how an impulsive kid transformed into a father without losing his love for the wilds. From loon calls echoing across Northwood lakes to the grim realities of life guarding in the Nevada desert, through the isolation of Indian Creek and years spent running the Snake and Rio Grande as a river ranger, Pete seeks out the source of this passion for wildness, as well as explores fatherhood and mortality and all the costs and risks and rewards of life lived on its own terms.
Child of a Hidden Sea (Hidden Sea Tales #1)
by A. M. DellamonicaChild of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica is a rousing tale of adventure and adversity, politics and personal trialsOne minute, twenty-four-year-old Sophie Hansa is in a San Francisco alley trying to save the life of the aunt she has never known. The next, she finds herself flung into the warm and salty waters of an unfamiliar world. Glowing moths fall to the waves around her, and the sleek bodies of unseen fish glide against her submerged ankles. The world is Stormwrack, a series of island nations with a variety of cultures and economies—and a language different from any Sophie has heard. Sophie doesn't know it yet, but she has just stepped into the middle of a political firestorm, and a conspiracy that could destroy a world she has just discovered...her world, where everyone seems to know who she is, and where she is forbidden to stay. But Sophie is stubborn, and smart, and refuses to be cast adrift by people who don't know her and yet wish her gone. With the help of a sister she has never known, and a ship captain who would rather she had never arrived, she must navigate the shoals of the highly charged politics of Stormwrack, and win the right to decide for herself whether she stays in this wondrous world...or is doomed to exile.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Our Angry Earth
by Isaac Asimov Frederik Pohl“A lucid overview of [environmental] problems and a compelling call to action.” —Publishers WeeklyFrom two of science fiction’s most celebrated and brilliant minds—Isaac Asimov and Frederik Pohl—comes the second edition of Our Angry Earth, a comprehensive analysis of today's environmental threats and a guide on how we can heal our planet, with an introduction and afterword from New York Times bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson.Our Angry Earth provides a candid picture of the present and many possibilities for a better, cleaner future. From the greenhouse effect and depletion of our ozone layer to nuclear waste and species extinction, Asimov and Pohl not only present accessible explanations of complex scientific processes but ways we can improve our behavior and relationship with the planet, whether it be involvement in social activism or individual lifestyle changes.Kim Stanley Robinson, author of New York Times bestsellers 2312, New York2140, and the internationally renowned Mars trilogy, brings his decades-spanning expertise in climate change to Our Angry Earth’s introduction and afterword.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Florencewalks
by Anne HollerMuch of Florence's art is not in her world-famous museums but in her streets, and those treasures can only be seen by those who explore this lovely, medieval city on foot. The four intimate walking tours in Florencewalks lead you through centuries of Italian history and architecture--around corners that hide marble gods and goddesses, down hushed alleys pervaded by the aroma of spices and pastas, out onto sun-washed piazzas flanked by churches and palazzos and open-air markets. Easily completed in a morning of afternoon, each walk includes plenty of spots along the way to sit and read, rest, or browse. In addition to maps of each walk, and more than thirty photographs, Florencewalks also contains a detailed section of visitor information and advice, a concise chronology of the city's history, an index, and a list of particularly special trattorias, wine bars, and shops.
Romewalks
by Anya M. ShetterlyThe secret of all cities is to be found in their streets and neighborhoods. This is especially true of Rome. What distinguishes this guidebook to Rome from so many others is that it explores neighborhoods instead of merely describing monuments. By taking the reader on walks through the streets around the Campo dei Fiori, the Piazza Noavona, the Jewish Ghetto, and Trastevere, and by paying close attention to architecture, local history and people, art, religion, archeology, and, of course, cuisine, Romewalks by Anya M. Shetterly offers a remarkably intimate and comprehensive look at the city and its history. Also included in this guidebook are maps of each of the four walks, photographs, a concise section of information and advice, a list of specially selected restaurants and shops, and an index.
Deep Water: A Story of Survival
by Watt KeyFrom Watt Key, the author of the acclaimed Alabama Moon, comes a thrilling middle grade survival story about a scuba dive gone wrong and two enemies who must unite to survive.It's the most important rule of scuba diving: If you don't feel right, don't go down.So after her father falls ill, twelve-year-old Julie Sims must take over and lead two of his clients on a dive miles off the coast of Alabama while her father stays behind in the boat. When the clients, a reckless boy Julie's age and his equally foolhardy father, disregard Julie's instructions during the dive, she quickly realizes she's in over her head. And once she surfaces, things only get worse: One of the clients is in serious condition, and their dive boat has vanished—along with Julie's father, the only person who knows their whereabouts. It's only a matter of time before they die of hypothermia, unless they become shark bait first. Though Julie may not like her clients, it's up to her to save them all.
A Reenchanted World: The Quest for a New Kinship with Nature
by James William GibsonA surprising and enlightening investigation of how modern society is making nature sacred once againFor more than two centuries, Western cultures, as they became ever more industrialized, increasingly regarded the natural world as little more than a collection of useful raw resources. The folklore of powerful forest spirits and mountain demons was displaced by the practicalities of logging and strip-mining; the traditional rituals of hunting ceremonies gave way to the indiscriminate butchering of animals for meat markets. In the famous lament of Max Weber, our surroundings became "disenchanted," with nature's magic swept away by secularization and rationalization.But now, as acclaimed sociologist James William Gibson reveals in this insightful study, the culture of enchantment is making an astonishing comeback. From Greenpeace eco-warriors to evangelical Christians preaching "creation care" and geneticists who speak of human-animal kinship, Gibson finds a remarkably broad yearning for a spiritual reconnection to nature. As we grapple with increasingly dire environmental disasters, he points to this cultural shift as the last utopian dream—the final hope for protecting the world that all of us must live in.
Lili's Seasons (On the Fingertips #2)
by Lucie AlbonLili Mouse discovers the seasons in this second book of the On the Fingertips seriesDelightful fingerprint illustrations help build vocabulary and highlight animals and objects from each seasonA bonus four-page finger paint workshop encourages cognitive development, improves fine motor skills, and stimulates imagination and creativity
Leather Art: Molding, Shaping, and Color Techniques to Take Your Work Beyond the Ordinary
by Cathy WigginsA popular designer teaches 18 projects to help turn your basic leather creations into head-turning artistic statementsFor leather crafters who don't need more patterns but instead want to add artistic impact to their workWiggins's leather art is found in high-end homes, museums, and even Las Vegas hotel casinos
Create Naturally: Go Outside and Rediscover Nature with 15 Artists
by Marcia Young15 makers present personal stories of how nature inspires and enhances their creativityFor artists and crafters of all levels who look for inspiration in natureStories and projects help you find ways to connect to nature with your own works
Spalting 101: The Ultimate Guide to Coloring Wood with Fungi
by Dr. Seri RobinsonA step-by-step guide to DIY spalting—harnessing fungi to create spectacular colors and lines in woodLeads beginners to success and offers spalting veterans fascinating info to improve their workWhether spalting wood in your yard, your bathroom, or a lab, save time and frustration
The Real James Bond: A True Story of Identity Theft, Avian Intrigue, & Ian Fleming
by Jim WrightFirst book to research the intriguing backstory of the real James Bond, a Philadelphia ornithologist An adventure story for armchair travelers, fans of 007, and birdwatchersDiscover how naturalists named new species after Bond, leveraging his fame to build awareness
Survival Guide for the Mariner
by Robert J. MeurnSeafarers must be prepared to cope with the worst situations that the sea can offer. In this new edition, Meurn gives seamen the most up-to-date information in avoiding and dealing with dangers at sea. Topics include abandon ship procedures, crew overboard, search and rescue techniques, and survival methods. Since this book can be used as a text for those preparing to be Coast Guard certified lifeboatmen, the appendices contain lifeboat, rescue boat, and rigid life raft equipment descriptions, inspection guidelines, and sample Coast Guard examination questions and answers.
Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose—Doing Business by Respecting the Earth
by Robin White Ray C. AndersonIn 1994, Interface founder and chairman Ray Anderson set an audacious goal for his commercial carpet company: to take nothing from the earth that can't be replaced by the earth. Now, in the most inspiring business book of our time, Anderson leads the way forward and challenges all of industry to share that goal. The Interface story is a compelling one: In 1994, making carpets was a toxic, petroleum-based process, releasing immense amounts of air and water pollution and creating tons of waste. Fifteen years after Anderson's "spear in the chest" revelation, Interface has:-Cut greenhouse gas emissions by 82%-Cut fossil fuel consumption by 60%-Cut waste by 66%-Cut water use by 75%-Invented and patented new machines, materials, and manufacturing processes-Increased sales by 66%, doubled earnings, and raised profit marginsWith practical ideas and measurable outcomes that every business can use, Anderson shows that profit and sustainability are not mutually exclusive; businesses can improve their bottom lines and do right by the earth.
The Lotus Quest: In Search of the Sacred Flower
by Mark GriffithsA captivating history of one of the world's most iconic and mysterious flowers Bewitched by a lotus which flowered from three-thousandyear- old seeds in his English garden, Mark Griffiths set out to track the origins and significance of this sublime plant in this beautifully-illustrated book. The Lotus Quest takes Griffiths from the headquarters of the Linnaean Society in London to a mountain top in northern Japan. As he travels in search of this ancient flower, Griffiths looks at the lotus's significance in ancient Egypt and India, the plant's medicinal uses and the inspiration it has provided to Western artists. As he tracks the plant, its story unveils a stunning vision of Japan's feudal era with visits to shrines, ruins, gardens and wild landscapes as well as meetings with priests and archaeologists, philosophers and anthropologists, gardeners and botanists, poets and artists. He even dines on the lotus in a Tokyo cafe. By the end of Griffiths' journey, when he reaches the hauntingly beautiful Japanese temple of Chuson-ji, readers will finally understand why the lotus has obsessed people throughout the ages.
Greenpeace Captain: My Adventures in Protecting the Future of Our Planet
by Peter Willcox Ronald B. WeissA Man. A Mission. GREENPEACE CAPTAIN PETER WILLCOX has been a Captain for Greenpeace for over 30 years. He would never call himself a hero, but he is recognized on every ocean and continent for devoting his entire life to saving the planet. He has led the most compelling and dangerous Greenpeace actions to bring international attention to the destruction of our environment. From the globally televised imprisonment of his crew, the "Arctic 30," by Russian Commandos to international conspiracies involving diamond smuggling, gun-trading and Al-Qaeda, Willcox has braved the unimaginable and triumphed. This is his story--which begins when he was a young man sailing with Pete Seeger and continues right up to his becoming the iconic environmentalist he is today. His daring adventures and courageous determination will inspire readers everywhere.
100 Family Adventures
by Tim Meek Kerry Meek Amy Meek Ella MeekFrom “the adventure ambassadors our current generation of cotton-wood kids urgently need,” an outdoor activity guide to keep kids happy and healthy (Daily Telegraph).Adventure is out there—you just have to go and find it!Childhood obesity is increasing year on year. Happiness and well-being levels in children are on the decline too. Children spend less time outside and more time in front of screens: computers, phones, games, television.100 Family Adventures provides a valuable resource bank of tried and tested outdoor activities to enjoy with children, swapping “screen time” for “green time.” Particularly inspiring for people who want to get started, but don’t know how, the book shows how any family can enjoy time together outdoors.Activities are grouped into themes: Woodland, Water, Close to Home, Hills and Mountains, Exploring, By the Sea, Extreme Weather. Within each section is a range in difficulty, from making a rope swing to scrambling up a stream, from spending a day without electricity to going on a charity bike ride, from exploring a rockpool to camping on an uninhabited island.Packed with inspiring photos, sensible but enthusiastic instructions from parents Tim and Kerry combine with remarks and advice (and jokes!) from children Amy and Ella.
The Yellow Admiral (Aubrey/Maturin Novels #18)
by Patrick O'Brian"There are those already planning this afternoon's trip to the bookstore. Their only reaction is: Thank god, Patrick O'Brian is still writing. To you, I say, not a moment to lose."—John Balzar, Los Angeles Times Life ashore may once again be the undoing of Jack Aubrey in The Yellow Admiral, Patrick O'Brian's best-selling novel and eighteenth volume in the Aubrey/Maturin series. Aubrey, now a considerable though impoverished landowner, has dimmed his prospects at the Admiralty by his erratic voting as a Member of Parliament; he is feuding with his neighbor, a man with strong Navy connections who wants to enclose the common land between their estates; he is on even worse terms with his wife, Sophie, whose mother has ferreted out a most damaging trove of old personal letters. Even Jack's exploits at sea turn sour: in the storm waters off Brest he captures a French privateer laden with gold and ivory, but this at the expense of missing a signal and deserting his post. Worst of all, in the spring of 1814, peace breaks out, and this feeds into Jack's private fears for his career. Fortunately, Jack is not left to his own devices. Stephen Maturin returns from a mission in France with the news that the Chileans, to secure their independence, require a navy, and the service of English officers. Jack is savoring this apparent reprieve for his career, as well as Sophie's forgiveness, when he receives an urgent dispatch ordering him to Gibraltar: Napoleon has escaped from Elba.
Digital Communication for Agricultural and Rural Development: Participatory Practices in a Post-COVID Age (Earthscan Food and Agriculture)
by Gordon A. GowThis volume presents insights on the challenges of digital communication and participation in agricultural and rural development. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that digital technology and mediated participation is more important and essential in managing ongoing communication for development projects than ever before. However, it has also underscored the various challenges and gaps in knowledge with digital participatory practices, including the further exclusion of marginalized groups and those with limited access to digital technology. The book considers how the concept of participation has been transformed by the realities of the pandemic, reflecting on essential principles and practical considerations of communication for development and social change, particularly in the context of global agriculture and food security, the well-being of rural communities, and evolving environmental challenges, such as climate change. In gathering these insights, this volume highlights lessons for the future of participatory development in communication for development and social change processes. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of agricultural and rural development, communication for development, digital communication, and sustainable development more broadly.
Transforming Food Systems: Narratives of Power (Routledge Studies in Food, Society and the Environment)
by Molly D. AndersonThis book focuses on the contested nature and competing narratives of food system transformations, despite it being widely acknowledged that changes are essential for the safeguarding of human and planetary health and well-being.The book approaches food system transformation through narratives, or the stories we tell ourselves and others about how things work. Narratives are closely connected with theories of change, although food system actors frequently lack explicit theories of change. Using political economy and systems approaches to analyze food system transformation, the author focuses on how power in food systems manifests, and how this affects whom can obtain healthy and culturally appropriate food on a reliable basis. Among the narratives covered are agroecology, food sovereignty and technological innovation. The book draws on interviews and recorded speeches by a broad range of stakeholders, including international policymakers, philanthropists, academics and researchers, workers in the food and agricultural industries and activists working for NGOs and social movements. In doing so, it presents contrasting narratives and their implicit or explicit theories of change. This approach is vitally important as decisions made by policymakers over the next few years, based on competing narratives, will have a major influence on who will eat what, how food will be produced, and who will have a voice is shaping food systems. The overarching contribution of this book is to point toward the most promising pathways for achieving sustainable food systems and refute pathways that show little hope of achieving a more sustainable future.This book will be of great interest to students, scholars and policymakers interested in creating a sustainable food system which will ensure a food secure, socially just and environmentally sustainable future.
Plant Collectors in Angola: Botany, Exploration, and History in South-Tropical Africa (Regnum Vegetabile)
by Estrela Figueiredo Gideon F. SmithAn authoritative treatise on the history of botanical studies and exploration in Angola. For any region, cataloging, interpreting, and understanding the history of botanical exploration and plant collecting, and the preserved specimens that were amassed as a result, are critically important for research and conservation. In this book, published in cooperation with the International Association for Plant Taxonomy, Estrela Figueiredo and Gideon F. Smith, both botanists with expertise in the taxonomy of African plants, provide the first comprehensive, contextualized account of plant collecting in Angola, a large country in south-tropical Africa. An essential book for anyone concerned with the biodiversity and history of Africa, this authoritative work offers insights into the lives, times, and endeavors of 358 collectors. In addition, the authors present analyses of the records that accompanied the collectors’ preserved specimens. Illustrated in color throughout, the book fills a large gap in the current knowledge of the botanical and exploration history of Africa.