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Island Home: A Landscape Memoir
by Tim WintonThe writer explores his beloved Australia in a memoir that is “a delight to read [and] a call to arms . . . It beseeches us to revere the land that sustains us” (Guardian).From boyhood, Tim Winton’s relationship with the world around him?rock pools, sea caves, scrub, and swamp?has been as vital as any other connection. Camping in hidden inlets, walking in high rocky desert, diving in reefs, bobbing in the sea between surfing sets, Winton has felt the place seep into him, and learned to see landscape as a living process. In Island Home, Winton brings this landscape?and its influence on the island nation’s identity and art?vividly to life through personal accounts and environmental history.Wise, rhapsodic, exalted?in language as unexpected and wild as the landscape it describes?Island Home is a brilliant, moving portrait of Australia from one of its finest writers, the prize-winning author of Breath, Eyrie, and The Shepherd’s Hut, among other acclaimed titles.
Island of Grass
by Ellen E. WohlIsland of Grass tells the story of the Cathy Fromme Prairie Natural Area, a 240-acre preserve surrounded by housing developments in Fort Collins, Colorado. This small grassland is a remnant of the once-vast prairies of the West that early European explorers and settlers described as seas of grass.Agricultural land use and urban expansion during the past two centuries have fragmented and altered these prairies. All that remains today are small islands. These remnants cannot support some of the larger animals that once roamed the prairie, but they continue to support a diverse array of plants and animals and can still teach us much about grassland ecology. Through her examinations of daily changes during walks across the Fromme Prairie over the course of a year, Ellen Wohl explores one of the more neglected ecosystems in North America, describing the geology, soils, climate, ecology, and natural history of the area, as well as providing glimpses into the lives of the plants, animals, and microbes inhabiting this landscape. Although small in size, pieces of preserved shortgrass prairie like the Cathy Fromme Prairie Natural Area are rich, diverse, and accessible natural environments deserving of awareness, appreciation, and protection. Anyone concerned with the ecology and conservation of grasslands in general, the ecology and conservation of open space in urban areas, or the natural history of Colorado will be interested in this book.
Island of Grass
by Ellen E. WohlIsland of Grass tells the story of the Cathy Fromme Prairie Natural Area, a 240-acre preserve surrounded by housing developments in Fort Collins, Colorado. This small grassland is a remnant of the once-vast prairies of the West that early European explorers and settlers described as seas of grass. Agricultural land use and urban expansion during the past two centuries have fragmented and altered these prairies. All that remains today are small islands. These remnants cannot support some of the larger animals that once roamed the prairie, but they continue to support a diverse array of plants and animals and can still teach us much about grassland ecology. Through her examinations of daily changes during walks across the Fromme Prairie over the course of a year, Ellen Wohl explores one of the more neglected ecosystems in North America, describing the geology, soils, climate, ecology, and natural history of the area, as well as providing glimpses into the lives of the plants, animals, and microbes inhabiting this landscape. Although small in size, pieces of preserved shortgrass prairie like the Cathy Fromme Prairie Natural Area are rich, diverse, and accessible natural environments deserving of awareness, appreciation, and protection. Anyone concerned with the ecology and conservation of grasslands in general, the ecology and conservation of open space in urban areas, or the natural history of Colorado will be interested in this book.
The Island of Last Truth
by Flavia CompanyA novel of adventure, survival, and psychological suspense with “a surprise ending worthy of Hitchcock” (Publishers Weekly).Legend in the academic world has it that Dr. Matthew Prendel, an expert sailor, had been shipwrecked years ago. His boat was attacked by pirates. He survived thanks to an incredible stroke of luck while his entire crew perished, but then found himself embroiled in a ferocious fight for survival between two castaways on a desert island. There, too, he was lucky and came out the victor.But perhaps luck played no part in it. Perhaps something darker was at play, something bigger at stake. The only sure thing is that Matthew Prendel disappeared for five whole years. He has been back in New York now for a while, or so they say. One should never rely entirely on hearsay . . .A blend of adventure story and noir mystery, The Island of Last Truth is a riveting tale filled with both suspense and incisive psychological observation.
An Island of My Own
by Andrea SpaldingShort-listed for the 1999 Silver Birch Award and for the 2001 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award Fifteen-year-old Rowan, the daughter of foreign correspondents in Africa, finds herself beached for a summer with her cousins near Tofino, British Columbia. Desperate for a summer project, she camps on a neighbouring island to monitor the progress of an endangered group of sea otters, further threatened by the development plans of a real estate agent trying to sell the property for tourism.
Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on the World's Greatest Scientific Expedition (A Merloyd Lawrence Book)
by Stephen R. BownThe story of the world's largest, longest, and best financed scientific expedition of all time, triumphantly successful, gruesomely tragic, and never before fully told The immense 18th-century scientific journey, variously known as the Second Kamchatka Expedition or the Great Northern Expedition, from St. Petersburg across Siberia to the coast of North America, involved over 3,000 people and cost Peter the Great over one-sixth of his empire's annual revenue. Until now recorded only in academic works, this 10-year venture, led by the legendary Danish captain Vitus Bering and including scientists, artists, mariners, soldiers, and laborers, discovered Alaska, opened the Pacific fur trade, and led to fame, shipwreck, and "one of the most tragic and ghastly trials of suffering in the annals of maritime and arctic history."
Island of the Sun
by Matthew J. KirbyPerfect for fans of the Percy Jackson and Seven Wonders series, Island of the Sun is the second book in an epic, fast-paced middle grade adventure trilogy by acclaimed author Matthew J. Kirby.Eleanor and her friends have shut down the mysterious Concentrator in the Arctic, but their mission is far from over. The earth is still spinning out of its orbit and growing colder by the day. Their only chance is to find the other Concentrators embedded around the world and deactivate them before it's too late.But doing so won't be easy. The Global Energy Trust has branded Eleanor, her mother, and their friends international terrorists and is tracking their every move. The G.E.T. will stop at nothing to harness the power of the Concentrators in order to preserve the select few people its leaders deem worthy, and Eleanor is soon forced to ask herself whether it's worth risking the lives of the entire human race for a slim chance to save it.
Island Zombie: Iceland Writings
by Roni HornAn evocative chronicle of the power of solitude in the natural worldI’m often asked, but have no idea why I chose Iceland, why I first started going, why I still go. In truth I believe Iceland chose me.—from the introductionContemporary artist Roni Horn first visited Iceland in 1975 at the age of nineteen, and since then, the island’s treeless expanse has had an enduring hold on Horn’s creative work. Through a series of remarkable and poetic reflections, vignettes, episodes, and illustrated essays, Island Zombie distills the artist’s lifelong experience of Iceland’s natural environment. Together, these pieces offer an unforgettable exploration of the indefinable and inescapable force of remote, elemental places, and provide a sustained look at how an island and its atmosphere can take possession of the innermost self.Island Zombie is a meditation on being present. It vividly conveys Horn’s experiences, from the deeply profound to the joyful and absurd. Through powerful evocations of the changing weather and other natural phenomena—the violence of the wind, the often aggressive birds, the imposing influence of glaciers, and the ubiquitous presence of water in all its variety—we come to understand the author’s abiding need for Iceland, a place uniquely essential to Horn’s creative and spiritual life. The dramatic surroundings provoke examinations of self-sufficiency and isolation, and these ruminations summon a range of cultural companions, including El Greco, Emily Dickinson, Judy Garland, Wallace Stevens, Edgar Allan Poe, William Morris, and Rachel Carson. While brilliantly portraying nature’s sublime energy, Horn also confronts issues of consumption, destruction, and loss, as the industrial and man-made encroach on Icelandic wilderness.Filled with musings on a secluded region that perpetually encourages a sense of discovery, Island Zombie illuminates a wild and beautiful Iceland that remains essential and new.
The Islanders (The Islanders #1)
by Mary Alice MonroeAn instant New York Times bestseller! &“Storytelling for young readers at its finest—equal parts summer adventure and environmental suspense…[a] love letter to family, friendship, and the natural world.&” —Kwame Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The Crossover From New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe comes a beautiful story of friendship, loss, and the healing power of nature in her first book for middle grade readers.Eleven-year-old Jake&’s life has just turned upside-down. His father was wounded in Afghanistan, and his mother is going to leave to care for him. That means Jake&’s spending the summer on tiny Dewees Island with his grandmother. The island is a nature sanctuary—no cars or paved roads, no stores or restaurants. To make matters worse, Jake&’s grandmother doesn&’t believe in cable or the internet. Which means Jake has no cell phone, no video games...and no friends. This is going to be the worst summer ever! He&’s barely on the island before he befriends two other kids—Macon, another &“summer kid,&” and Lovie, a know-it-all who lives there and shows both Jake and Macon the ropes of life on the island. All three are struggling with their own family issues and they quickly bond, going on adventures all over Dewees Island. Until one misadventure on an abandoned boat leads to community service. Their punishment? Mandatory duty on the Island Turtle Team. The kids must do a daily dawn patrol of the beach on the hunt for loggerhead sea turtle tracks. When a turtle nest is threatened by coyotes, the three friends must find a way to protect it. Can they save the turtle nest from predators? Can Jake&’s growing love for the island and its inhabitants (be they two-legged, four-legged, feathered, or finned) help to heal his father?
Islands
by Marta RandallNebula Award Finalist. She will never be one of them. When the immortality treatments failed, she knew her destiny would not be as glorious and carefree as the immortals. The immortals rebuilt the Earth after the great floods, but she is not one of them, and she doesn't seem fit to live anywhere amongst them. When she finds refuge aboard the ship Ilium and begins ocean floor navigation, an adventure immortals would envy, she discovers a secret place. But she knows if she can unlock the power that the immortals lost on an island buried far beneath the land, the world and the immortals' future will never be the same again.
Islands: Great Lakes Stories
by Gerry VolgenauMost people are stunned to learn that there are some 35,000 islands in the Great Lakes, ranging from a large stone with its top above water level to the world's largest freshwater island, Manitoulin. Islands: Great Lakes' Stories focuses on 18 of these islands with their histories and personalities.
Islands and Cultures: How Pacific Islands Provide Paths toward Sustainability
by Kamanamaikalani Beamer Te Maire Tau Peter M. VitousekA uniquely collaborative analysis of human adaptation to the Polynesian islands, told through oral histories, biophysical evidence, and historical records Humans began to settle the area we know as Polynesia between 3,000 and 800 years ago, bringing with them material culture, including plants and animals, and ideas about societal organization, and then adapting to the specific biophysical features of the islands they discovered. The authors of this book analyze the formation of their human-environment systems using oral histories, biophysical evidence, and historical records, arguing that the Polynesian islands can serve as useful models for how human societies in general interact with their environments. The islands&’ clearly defined (and relatively isolated) environments, comparatively recent discovery by humans, and innovative and dynamic societies allow for insights not available when studying other cultures. Kamana Beamer, Te Maire Tau, and Peter Vitousek have collaborated with a dozen other scholars, many of them Polynesian, to show how these cultures adapted to novel environments in the past and how we can draw insights for global sustainability today.
Islands Apart: A Year on the Edge of Civilization
by Ken McalpineAuthor Ken McAlpine stands in his front yard one night in Ventura, California, trying to see the stars. His view is diminished by light pollution, making it hard to see much of anything in the sky. Our fast-paced, technologically advanced society, he concludes, is not conducive to stargazing or soul-searching. Taking a page from Thoreau's Walden, he decides to get away from the clamor of everyday life, journeying alone through California's Channel Islands National Park. There, he imagines, he might be able to "breathe slowly and think clearly, to examine how we live and what we live for."In between his week-long solo trips through these pristine islands, McAlpine reaches out to try to better understand his fellow man: he eats lunch with the homeless in Beverly Hills, sits in the desert with a 98-year-old Benedictine monk, and befriends a sidewalk celebrity impersonator in Hollywood. What he discovers about himself and the world we live in will inspire anyone who wishes they had the time to slow down and notice the wonders of nature and humanity.To learn more about the author, visit his website at www.kenmcalpine.com.
Islands at the Edge of Time: A Journey To America's Barrier Islands
by Gunnar HansenIslands at the Edge of Time is the story of one man's captivating journey along America's barrier islands from Boca Chica, Texas, to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Weaving in and out along the coastlines of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and North Carolina, poet and naturalist Gunnar Hansen perceives barrier islands not as sand but as expressions in time of the processes that make them. Along the way he treats the reader to absorbing accounts of those who call these islands home -- their lives often lived in isolation and at the extreme edges of existence -- and examines how the culture and history of these people are shaped by the physical character of their surroundings.
Islands in Deep Time: Ancient Landscapes Lost and Found
by Markes E. JohnsonHilltops surrounded by farmland in southern Wisconsin turn out to be the eroded remnants of an ancient archipelago. An island in the Yellow Sea where Korean tourists flock is the peak of a flooded mountain rising from a drowned continental shelf. From a mountaintop shrine to Genghis Khan in Inner Mongolia, the silhouette of a Silurian seascape can be spotted. On the shores of Hudson Bay, where polar bears patrol the Arctic tundra, a close look unveils what was a tropical coastline encrusted with corals nearly 450 million years ago.The geologist Markes E. Johnson invites readers on a journey through deep time to find the traces of ancient islands. He visits a dozen sites around the globe, looking above and below today’s waterlines to uncover how landscapes of the past are preserved in the present. Going back 500 million years to the Cambrian through the Pleistocene 125,000 years ago, this book reconstructs how “paleoislands” appeared under different climatic conditions and environmental constraints. Finding vestiges of prehistoric ecologies, Johnson emphasizes the complexity of island ecosystems and the importance of preserving these significant sites.Inviting and accessible, this book is a travelogue that takes readers through time as well as space. Islands in Deep Time shares the adventure of exploring striking locations across geologic eras and issues a passionate call for their conservation.
Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape
by Cal FlynA beautiful, lyrical exploration of the places where nature is flourishing in our absenceSome of the only truly feral cattle in the world wander a long-abandoned island off the northernmost tip of Scotland. A variety of wildlife not seen in many lifetimes has rebounded on the irradiated grounds of Chernobyl. A lush forest supports thousands of species that are extinct or endangered everywhere else on earth in the Korean peninsula's narrow DMZ.Cal Flyn, an investigative journalist, exceptional nature writer, and promising new literary voice visits the eeriest and most desolate places on Earth that due to war, disaster, disease, or economic decay, have been abandoned by humans. What she finds every time is an "island" of teeming new life: nature has rushed in to fill the void faster and more thoroughly than even the most hopeful projections of scientists.Islands of Abandonment is a tour through these new ecosystems, in all their glory, as sites of unexpected environmental significance, where the natural world has reasserted its wild power and promise. And while it doesn't let us off the hook for addressing environmental degradation and climate change, it is a case that hope is far from lost, and it is ultimately a story of redemption: the most polluted spots on Earth can be rehabilitated through ecological processes and, in fact, they already are.
The Islands of Unwisdom
by Robert GravesSwashbuckling historical fiction from the author of I, Claudius. &“A cleverly balanced mixture of spice, fact, humor and adventure on and off the high seas&” (Kirkus Reviews). Set in the Age of Exploration, The Islands of Unwisdom tells the story of the ill-fated Don Álvaro de Mendaña y Neyra, a Spanish explorer set on finding the Solomon Islands, the mythical source of King Solomon&’s vast wealth. Driven by greed, ambition, and lust, Don Alvaro and his wife, the beautiful and dangerous Ysabel, lead a crew of adventurers beyond the horizon in search of the wealth of their wildest dreams. However, that&’s not exactly what they find. In the hands of master historical novelist, classicist, and poet Robert Graves, this tale offers a fascinating look at a brutal and bloody era, and insights into the reasons for Spain&’s failure to ultimately dominate world exploration during this time.
Islands, the Universe, Home
by Gretel EhrlichA collection of deeply personal essays that illuminate the relationship between the human and the natural worlds by the acclaimed author of "The Solace of Open Spaces".
Islands, the Universe, Home: Essays
by Gretel EhrlichTen essays on nature, ritual, and philosophy &“that are so point-blank vital you nearly need to put the book down to settle yourself&” (San Francisco Chronicle). Gretel Ehrlich&’s world is one of solitude and wonder, pain and beauty, and these elements give life to her stunning prose. Ever since her acclaimed debut, The Solace of Open Spaces, she has illuminated the particular qualities of nature and the self with graceful precision. In Islands, the Universe, Home, Ehrlich expands her explorations, traveling to the remote reaches of the earth and deep into her soul. She tells of a voyage of discovery in northern Japan, where she finds her &“bridge to heaven.&” She captures a &“light moving down a mountain slope.&” She sees a ruined city in the face of a fire-scarred mountain. Above all, she recalls what a painter once told her about art when she was twelve years old, as she sat for her portrait: &“You have to mix death into everything. Then you have to mix life into that.&” In this unforgettable collection, Ehrlich mixes life and death, real and sacred, to offer a stunning vision of our world that is both achingly familiar and miraculously strange. According to National Book Award–winning author Andrea Barrett, these essays are &“as spare and beautiful as the landscape from which they&’ve grown. . . . Each one is a pilgrimage into the secrets of the heart.&”
The ISO 14000 EMS Audit Handbook
by Greg JohnsonThe ISO 14000 EMS Audit Handbook is an innovative and cost-effective approach for the Environmental Management System (EMS) audit to ISO 14001. The Handbook presents comprehensive strategies for conducting all phases of the EMS audit, including effective assessment processes for determining improved environmental performance.
ISO 14001: Case Studies and Practical Experiences
by Ruth HillaryISO 14001 is the star standard among the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 14000 series of environmental management standards. It has seen spectacular growth since its launch in September 1996. Worldwide registrations are set to pass the 20,000 mark in 2000 with 20 times that number reportedly waiting in the wings.In 30 explicit but concise chapters, ISO 14001: Case Studies and Practical Experiences seeks to unravel the truth behind what can and cannot be achieved by ISO 14001 and aims to provide readers with enough knowledge to make choices about its relevance and importance not only to their worlds but also to society. Written by leading practitioners, certifiers, consultants, government and academics, the book examines both the real benefits and the shortcomings organizations have experienced with ISO 14001. We learn from both.Far more ambitious than an implementation guide, the book will provide those readers struggling with the standard first-hand experiences of the real issues they will face in implementing their EMS and, just as importantly, what certifiers look for when they visit firms. ISO 14001: Case Studies and Practical Experiences is a warts-and-all expose of ISO 14001: the issues tackled; the problems faced and overcome; and, above all, the astonishing flexibility of its uses and the diversity of its users.This important book is a must for businesses, researchers, consultants, government officials, students, NGOs and support organisations who want more than just another how-to-do-it manual; but rather the truth about how ISO 14001 is really working on the ground.
Isolation Shepherd
by Iain R. ThomsonIn this classic memoir of rural life in the Scottish Highlands, a shepherd chronicles his years in a remote glen before the introduction of electricity. In August 1956, Iain Thomson and his wife Betty, along with their two-year-old daughter and ten-day-old son, sat huddled in a small boat on Loch Monar in Ross-shire as a storm raged around them. They were bound for a tiny, remote cottage at the western end of the loch which was to be their home for the next four years. Isolation Shepherd is the moving story of those years. Set against the awesome splendor of some of Scotland's most spectacular scenery, Thomson's classic memoir provides a sensitive, richly detailed account of the shepherd's life through the seasons. In vivid, poetic prose, he recreates the events that shaped his family's life in Glen Strathfarrar before the area was flooded as part of a huge hydro-electric project.
Issues and Concepts in Historical Ecology
by Carole L. Crumley Tommy Lennartsson Anna WestinHistorical ecology is a research framework which draws upon diverse evidence to trace complex, long-term relationships between humanity and Earth. With roots in anthropology, archaeology, ecology and paleoecology, geography, and landscape and heritage management, historical ecology applies a practical and holistic perspective to the study of change. Furthermore, it plays an important role in both fundamental research and in developing future strategies for integrated, equitable landscape management. The framework presented in this volume covers critical issues, including: practicing transdisciplinarity, the need for understanding interactions between human societies and ecosystem processes, the future of regions and the role of history and memory in a changing world. Including many examples of co-developed research, Issues and Concepts in Historical Ecology provides a platform for collaboration across disciplines and aims to equip researchers, policy-makers, funders, and communities to make decisions that can help to construct an inclusive and resilient future for humanity.
Issues and Life Science: Ecology
by University of California at Berkeley Lawrence Hall of ScienceNIMAC-sourced textbook
Issues in Teaching and Learning of Education for Sustainability: Theory into Practice (Routledge Research in Education)
by Chang Chew Hung Gillian Kidman Andy WiIn a fast-changing, globalising world, the teaching and implementation of a curriculum for Education for Sustainability (EfS) has been a challenge for many teachers. Issues in Teaching and Learning of Education for Sustainability highlights the issues and challenges educators and academics face in implementing EfS and gives examples of what an EfS curriculum may look like and how some institutions translate the theory into practice. Organised into three parts, the volume looks at: the who (EfS for whom), the what (EfS curriculum) and the how (translating from theory to practice). The concluding chapter provides ideas and directions on where the world can proceed regarding sustainability education and how it can help in the teaching and learning of sustainability. Considering social issues such as poverty, education, health, culture and the use of natural resources, this book proposes a different path towards Education for Sustainability. Providing concrete data on the realisation of sustainable development, Issues in Teaching and Learning of Education for Sustainability will be of interest to geographers, geography educators and professionals concerned with Education for Sustainability.