Conservation Books

The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems

Van Jones, Ariane Conrad

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Provocative, personal, and inspirational, The Green Collar Economy is not a dire warning but rather a substantive and viable plan for solving the biggest issues facing the country—the failing economy and our devastated environment. From a distance, it appears that these two problems are separate, but when we look closer, the connection becomes unmistakable.

In The Green Collar Economy, acclaimed activist and political advisor Van Jones delivers a real solution that both rescues our economy and saves the environment. The economy is built on and powered almost exclusively by oil, natural gas, and coal—all fast-diminishing nonrenewable resources. As supplies disappear, the price of energy climbs and nearly everything becomes more expensive. With costs and unemployment soaring, the economy stalls. Not only that, when we burn these fuels, the greenhouse gases they create overheat the atmosphere. As the headlines make clear, total climate chaos looms over us. The bottom line: we cannot continue with business as usual. We cannot drill and burn our way out of these dual dilemmas.

Instead, Van Jones illustrates how we can invent and invest our way out of the pollution-based grey economy and into the healthy new green economy. Built by a broad coalition deeply rooted in the lives and struggles of ordinary people, this path has the practical benefit of both cutting energy prices and generating enough work to pull the U.S. economy out of its present death spiral.

Rachel Carson's 1963 landmark book Silent Spring was the pivotal ecological examination of the last century. Now, rising above the impenetrable debate over the environment and the economy, Van Jones's The Green Collar Economy delivers a timely and essential call to action for this new century.

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

William McDonough, Michael Braungart

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 148 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Paper or plastic? Neither, say William McDonough and Michael Braungart. Why settle for the least harmful alternative when we could have something that is better--say, edible grocery bags! In Cradle to Cradle, the authors present a manifesto calling for a new industrial revolution, one that would render both traditional manufacturing and traditional environmentalism obsolete. Recycling, for instance, is actually "downcycling," creating hybrids of biological and technical "nutrients" which are then unrecoverable and unusable. The authors, an architect and a chemist, want to eliminate the concept of waste altogether, while preserving commerce and allowing for human nature. They offer several compelling examples of corporations that are not just doing less harm--they're actually doing some good for the environment and their neighborhoods, and making more money in the process. Cradle to Cradle is a refreshing change from the intractable environmental conflicts that dominate headlines. It's a handbook for 21st-century innovation and should be required reading for business hotshots and environmental activists. --Therese Littleton

The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters

Rose George

Amazon Price: $17.16 List Price: $26.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Metropolitan Books Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $15.85

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An utterly original exploration of the world of human waste that will surprise, outrage—and entertain

Produced behind closed doors, disposed of discreetly, and hidden by euphemism, bodily waste is something common to all and as natural as breathing, yet we prefer not to talk about it. But we should—even those of us who take care of our business in pristine, sanitary conditions. For it’s not only in developing countries that human waste is a major public health threat: population growth is taxing even the most advanced sewage systems, and the disease spread by waste kills more people worldwide every year than any other single cause of death. Even in America, 1.95 million people have no access to an indoor toilet. Yet the subject remains unmentionable.

The Big Necessity takes aim at the taboo, revealing everything that matters about how people do—and don’t—deal with their own waste. Moving from the deep underground sewers of Paris, London, and New York—an infrastructure disaster waiting to happen—to an Indian slum where ten toilets are shared by 60,000 people, Rose George stops along the way to explore the potential saviors: China’s five million biogas digesters, which produce energy from waste; the heroes of third world sanitation movements; the inventor of the humble Car Loo; and the U.S. Army’s personal lasers used by soldiers to zap their feces in the field.

With razor-sharp wit and crusading urgency, mixing levity with gravity, Rose George has turned the subject we like to avoid into a cause with the most serious of consequences.

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 71 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Some good information, but unfocused (details) 3 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This illustrated book has been published chiefly for those who are new to country living, and/or who have an interest in self-sufficiency and in retrieving some of the "lost arts" which are appurtenant to traditional country life. The information is mostly introductory and rudimentary... a good start for most folks new to these areas of interest.

I have lived in the foothills of rural Appalachia for 55 years and have been involved in carrying out nearly all the construction, activities, arts, and crafts found within this text. Some of the text, (along with the accompanying drawings and photos), is quite good. The information is solid and one can get started along the right track; however, the work goes astray (the publishers sort of "threw in the kitchen sink"), into areas which are not particularly relevant to traditional country living. The editors simply went too far afield when they got into topics such as "Winter Sports," "Kayaking and Rafting," "Foraging for Flour and Emergency Rations," and so on. Most of these subjects are tagged on at the end, I felt just to make the book longer, (it's plenty long enough at 456 pages!)

Additionally, on topics such as "Emergency First Aid," "Fly Fishing" (and fish identification), and "Recipes," there are obligatory sections, none of which are all that useful since these are subjects, any one of which could fill volumes. Had these areas of specific interest been omitted, the more appropriate topics could have been somewhat expanded, such as "Barn Building" or "Preserving Meat and Fish".

There is a far superior (albeit, much older) version of this sort of book which was published by Reader's Digest some years ago: READER'S DIGEST BACK TO BASICS. I can highly recommend it and I've referred to my worn copy time after time.

While there is quite a great deal of quality information in this Skyhorse Publishing Third Edition (2008) for those seeking a new or improved life in the rural countryside, I still feel that the editors strayed off-base to the point that I cannot heartily recommend the work.

Editorial Review:

"Voluntary simplicity" has become a catch phrase for what seems to be a yearning for a simpler, more self-sufficient and economical way of living in the late 20th century. This book, first published in 1981 and recently updated, was probably many folks' first in-depth exposure to the idea of a simpler life, making things by hand, and enjoying a stronger sense of control over personal budgets, home projects, and lifestyles. Hundreds of projects are listed, illustrated in step-by-step diagrams and instructions: growing and preserving your own food, converting trees to lumber and building a home from it, traditional crafts and homesteading skills, and having fun with recreational activities like camping, fishing, and folk dancing without spending a lot of money. This book will have you dreaming and planning from the first page! -- Mark A. Hetts

Greenpeace: Standing up for the Earth Calendar 2009 (Wall Calendars)

Greenpeace

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Little step to help the world 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Our world needs help in so many ways! This is a simple and beautiful way to spread the message. I give them every year for the holidays and Amazon.com is the only place I can count on to have them! Thank you!

Greenpeace calendar 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Every year I buy the Greenpeace calendars and I use them as per Christmas present. I use it by agenda and the pictures are fantastics! (sorry for my english...)

Editorial Review:

Greenpeace is the calendar with a conscience, bringing to us in its evocative, oversized format images from the still pristine wildernessand instilling in us an enduring sense of awe. These are the faces of nature, captured in full color and extraordinary detail by the worlds foremost nature and wildlife photographers. Its the drama and beauty of Planet Earth, up close. All royalties from the sale of the Greenpeace calendar go to support the work of Greenpeace. Size Closed: 15" w x 12" h. Size Opened: 15" w x 24" h.

Silent Spring (Edition 001)

Rachel Carson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 138 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Excellent! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The book was delivered in good condition and in a timely fashion. I am very pleased with your services.

Ahead of its time. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is more than I expected it to be. It is way ahead of its time and makes an important contribution to the environmental movement.

Of Silent Springs and Loudly Prophecies 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

With this comedy masterpiece, Rachel Carson launched a thorough and successful assault on pesticides commonly used in agriculture. After nearly 45 years, DDT is no longer used. Every organism on the planet has what was once considered a lethal quantity of it in its cells and the human ones are still alive to whine about the worms in their raspberries.

Should you read this book? Yes. It's a thought-provoking indictment, and, like The Jungle 60 years before it, helped shape the world in which we now live. I only wish that all you young, unshaven tree-huggers would understand that panic-peddling is a business just like everything else. Some want to sell you books, others "organic" fruit and others still want to ride panic where politics failed them like a certain secretary of vice presidency or whatever it was Gore did in the 90s.

Editorial Review:

Silent Spring, released in 1962, offered the first shattering look at widespread ecological degradation and touched off an environmental awareness that still exists. Rachel Carson's book focused on the poisons from insecticides, weed killers, and other common products as well as the use of sprays in agriculture, a practice that led to dangerous chemicals to the food source. Carson argued that those chemicals were more dangerous than radiation and that for the first time in history, humans were exposed to chemicals that stayed in their systems from birth to death. Presented with thorough documentation, the book opened more than a few eyes about the dangers of the modern world and stands today as a landmark work.

The Renewable Energy Handbook: A Guide to Rural Energy Independence, Off-Grid and Sustainable Living

William H. Kemp

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

As oil prices continue to rise, many people are starting to think about how to unhook from the electricity grid. The Renewable Energy Handbook focuses completely on off-grid, sustainable living and rural energy independence.

Author/engineer William H. Kemp, who is a leading expert in small- and mid-scale renewable energy technologies, designed and built his own off-grid home. The result is a house that has all the standard “middle-class” creature comforts while using less than five times the total fossil-fuel energy of the average North American house.

The Renewable Energy Handbook focuses on the unique requirements of off-grid living and contains chapters on energy conservation; heating and cooling; backup power; domestic water heating; wireless communications; photovoltaic, wind, and microhydro energy generation; battery selection; and inverters.

Since its release in 2003, The Renewable Energy Handbook has been a top-selling technology book and is recognized as the best book in its field.

The book is augmented with hundreds of illustrations, line drawings, photographs, and appendices.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism)

Christopher C. Horner

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Regnery Publishing, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 73 new & used starting at $3.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 264 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Politicaly Incorrect Guide to Global Warming 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Finest book published on the subject and a must read for anyone voteing this November!!!!!!

Bogus "science" paid for by oil companies 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 25 people found this review helpful.

Let's see, should we believe the 95% of climate scientists and the IPCC reports on global warming? Or should we believe a man who works for the "Competitive Enterprise Institute", a conservative think tank funded by oil companies like Amoco and Texaco?

Wake up people--global warming naysayers paid by oil companies are hardly credible sources of information.

If thousands of astronomers from around the world said that an asteroid would hit Earth in 30 years, would you believe them? Or would you believe a handful of pseudo-astronomers (paid for by special interests) who claim otherwise?

Shrill diatribe 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 21 people found this review helpful.

This is a shrill and near-libelous diatribe against greens, environmentalists, the media in general, and Al Gore in particular.
Its only redeeming feature is the last two chapters that actually give some reasoned information about why the Kyoto Protocol might be counterproductive.

If you can get that far without going postal, I salute you. These two chapters are the only reason I give this book two stars instead of one.

Charles Madden

Editorial Review:

This latest installment in the P.I.G. series provides a provocative, entertaining, and well-documented expose of some of the most shamelessly politicized pseudo-science we are likely to see in our relatively cool lifetimes.

Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition

Lester R. Brown

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

exhaustive and detail oriented 3 out of 5 stars.
7 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This is a difficult book to get wrapped around. Which is good news, and then again it is bad news.

The good news is that this is an excellent and wide-sweeping run-up to the current health of our Earth.

Such topics as Our Socially Divided World, Eradicating Poverty, Designing Cities For People, and The Great Mobilization are spread over 287 pages of dense statistics and research, backed up by nearly another 100 pages of footnotes.

The bad news? There is far more content than is of interest to me - the motivated renewable energy reader. Some day I will wade through the less interesting parts, and then leave the remainder as a source reference.

The book cover heralds "REVISED AND EXPANDED". Actually, I would have preferred the less-is-more previous edition.

Editorial Review:

"How to build a more just world and save the planet....We should all heed Brown's advice."—Bill Clinton

In this updated edition of the landmark Plan B, Lester Brown outlines a survival strategy for our early twenty-first-century civilization. The world faces many environmental trends of disruption and decline, including rising temperatures and spreading water shortage. In addition to these looming threats, we face the peaking of oil, annual population growth of 70 million, a widening global economic divide, and a growing list of failing states. The scale and complexity of issues facing our fast-forward world have no precedent

With Plan A, business as usual, we have neglected these issues overly long. In Plan B 3.0, Lester R. Brown warns that the only effective response now is a World War II-type mobilization like that in the United States after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time

Elizabeth Rogers, Thomas M. Kostigen

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Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Ellen DeGeneres, Robert Redford, Will Ferrell, Jennifer Aniston, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Martha Stewart, Tyra Banks, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Tiki Barber, Owen Wilson, and Justin Timberlake tell you how they make a difference to the environment.

Inside The Green Book, find out how you can too:

- Don’t ask for ATM receipts. If everyone in the United States refused their receipts, it would save a roll of paper more than two billion feet long, or enough to circle the equator fifteen times!

- Turn off the tap while you brush your teeth. You’ll conserve up to five gallons of water per day. Throughout the entire United States, the daily savings could add up to more water than is consumed every day in all of New York City.

- Get a voice-mail service for your home phone. If all answering machines in U.S. homes were replaced by voice-mail services, the annual energy savings would total nearly two billion kilowatt hours. The resulting reduction in air pollution would be equivalent to removing 250,000 cars from the road for a year!

With wit and authority, authors Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen provide hundreds of solutions for all areas of your life, pinpointing the smallest changes that have the biggest impact on the health of our precious planet.