Ecology

The Menstuff® library lists pertinent books concerning ecology.

• Anderson, William, Green Man: The archetype of our oneness with the earth. The authors have produced a work of art. Beautifully photographed, it tells the whole story of the Green Man, from its European background back in the Gothic period, to the meaning it holds today. Harper Collins, 1991 ISBN 0-0625-007-59 Buy This Book!
• Andrews, Valerie, Passion for this Earth: Exploring a new partnership of man, woman and nature, Harper, 1990
• Basford, Kathleen, The Green Man. The medieval churches and cathedrals of Western Europe are full of fantastic images. This is the story of one of them - the foliate head, a face or mask with leaves sprouting from it which we, in Britain, nowadays call the Green Man. The Green Man is probably the most common decorative motif of medieval sculpture that has been left to us. It can be found on roof bosses, capitals, corbels, fonts, tombs, tympana, screens, bench ends, poppy heads, misericords and arm rests. It was a remarkably adaptable motif: it could be manipulated to fit any space or position where ornament was required. It could be introduced to enrich, enliven and bring variety into a scheme of leaf decoration and there provide, like a fantastic flower, a focal point of interest, or it could be made to blend into its leafy surroundings so inconspicuously that only the most perceptive eye could distinguish it from pure foliage. Many of these carvings are sinister. Some of them are powerful fantasiers of the eerie and macabre. There are very few benevolent or serenely smiling faces: more typically they frown. The eyes glare balefully or stare, unfocused, into space, full of dark foreboding. But, whatever the expression, he displays at least one characteristic, namely, his power of revival and regeneration. A remarkable collection of dozens of photographs and some drawings accompany this detailed look back on the history of Jack of the Green or The Green Man. Boydell & Brewer, 1998, Hardbound ISBN 0-85991-024-5 Buy This Book! and paperback ISBN 0-85991-497-6 Buy This Book!
• Hansen, James, Storms of my Grandchildren: The truth about the coking climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity. The author, the nation's leading scientist on climate issues, speaks out for the first time with the full truth about global warming: The planet is hurtling even more rapidly than previously acknowledged to a climatic point of no return. Although the threat of human-caused climate change is now widely recognized, politicians have failed to connect policy with the science, responding instead with ineffectual remedies distracted by special interests., He shows why President Obama's solution, cap-and-trade, which Al Gore has signed on to, won't work; why we must phase out all coal; and why 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a goal we musth achieve if our children and grandchildren are to avoid global meltdown and the horrific storms of the book's title. This urgent manifesto bucks conventional wisdom (including the Kyoto Protocol) and is sure to stir controversy, but he - whose climate predictions have come to pass again and again, beginning the the 1980s when he first warned Congress about global warming - is the single most credible voice on the subject worldwide. He paints a devastating, all-too-realistic picture of what will happen in the near future, mere years and decades from now, if we follow the course we're on. But he is also an optimist, showing that there is still time to do what we need to save the planet. Urgent, strong action is needed, and this book will be key in setting the agenda going forward to create a groundswell, a tipping point, to save humanity - and our grandchildren - from a dire fate more imminent than we had supposed. Bloomsbury, www.bloomsburyusa.com, 2009, ISBN 978-1-60819-200-7
• Houston, James, The Men in My Life, Graywolf, 1987
• Kittredge, William, Owning it All, Graywolf, 1987
• Kittredge, William, We Are Not in This Together, Grayworld, 1984
• Lockyear, Frank, Trees for Tomorrow: The most passionate tree planter since Johnny Appleseed teaches us all how we can green up the land, WRS, 1993
• McKibben, Bill, eaarth: Making a life on a tough new planet. Twenty years ago, the author offered one of the earliest warnings about global warming. Those warnings went mostly unheeded; now, he insists, we need to acknowledge that we've waited too long, and that massive change is not only unavoidable but already under way. Our old familiar globe is suddenly melting, drying, acidifying, flooding and burning in ways that no human has even seen. We've created, in very short order, a new planet, still recognizable but fundamentally different. We may was well call it Eaarth. That new planet is filled with new binds and traps. A changing world costs large sums to defend - think of the money that went to repair New Orleans, or the trillions of dollars it will take to transform our energy systems. But the endless economic growth that could underwrite such largesse depends on the stable planet we've managed to damage and degrade. We can't rely on old habits any longer. Our hope depends, the author argues, on scaling back - on building the kind of societies and economies that can hunker down, concentrate on essentials, and create the type of community (in the neighborhood, but also on the Internet) that will allow us to weather trouble on an unprecedented scale. Change - fundamental change - is our best hope on a planet suddenly and violently out of balance. Times Books, www.henryholt.com, 2010 ISBN 978-0-8050-9056-7
• Rees, Martin, Our Final Hour: A scientist's warning, A scientist known for unraveling the complexities of the universe, the author now warns that humankind is potentially the maker of its own demise - and the demise of the cosmos. With clarity and prevision, he maps out the ways technology could destroy our species and thereby foreclose the potential of a living universe whose evolution has just begun. He forecasts that the odds are no better than fifty-fifty that humankind will survive to the end of the twenty-first century. Science is advancing at an exhilarating rate, but with a dark side: Our increasingly interconnected world is vulnerable to new risks, "bio" or "cyber," terror or error. The dangers from twenty-first century technology could be graver and more intractable than the threat of nuclear devastation that we faced for decades. And human-induced pressures on the global environment may engender higher risks than the age-old hazards of earthquakes, eruptions and asteroid impacts. At the heart of his book is his vision of the infinite future that we have put at risk - a cosmos more vast and diverse than any of us has ever imagined. If we are the only sentient beings in the universe, our world's fate takes on a truly cosmos significance. The wider cosmos has a potential future that could even be infinite. But will these vast expanses of time be filled with life, or as empty as the Earth's first sterile seas? The choice may depend on us, in this century. This is a humanistic clarion call on behalf of the future of life. Basic Books, www/basicbooks.com, 2003 ISBN: 0-465-06862-6 Buy This Book!
• Walker, Scott, The Graywolf Annual Four: Short Stories by Men, Graywolf, 1988
• The Worldwatch Institute, 2010 State of the World: Transforming cultures from consumerism to sustainability. Like a tsunami, consumerism has engulfed human cultures and Earth's ecosystems. Left unaddressed, we risk global disaster. But if we channel this wave, intentionally transforming our cultures to center on sustainability, we will not only prevent catastrophe but may user in an era of sustainability - one that allows all people to thrice while protecting, even restoring, Earth. In this year's report, 50+ renowned researchers and practitioners describe how we can harness the world's leading institutions - education, the media, business, governments, traditions and social movements - to reorient cultures toward sustainability. W. W. Norton, www.worldwatch.org, 2010, ISBN 978-0-393-33726-6