How to Live a Low-Carbon Life

Global warming is one of the greatest challenges facing us today--certainly the most significant threat to our planet. Scientists and environmentalists assert that we must change our behavior to stop or possibly even reverse this trend. Goodall states that each individual must change their behavior to accomplish this. He shows numerous simple ways to reduce your carbon consumption as well as ways to calculate your carbon footprint. Although this book focuses on British and other European appliances, transportation, and other daily conveniences, the ideas discussed here apply regardless of where you are living.

This book can be found in HECSA Library:

How to Live a Low-Carbon Life: The Individual's Guide to Stopping Climate Change
Chris Goodall
QC 879.8 .G62 2007

Rewilding the World

Scientists warn us that half of the plants and animals on our planet may disappear by the end of the century. This would leave the earth unable to support human life. Fraser advocates an innovative way of combating this loss of species and our environment--rewilding. This ambitious approach to conservation attempts to save species by restoring their habitats, recreating animal migratory pathways, and teaching humans how to coexist with their animal neighbors. She describes how rewilding efforts are currently underway on nearly every continent and illustrates how the creation of animal sanctuaries has had measurable effect preserving some endangered species.

This book can be found in HECSA Library:

Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution
Caroline Fraser
QH 75 .F738 2009

Whole Earth Discipline

Brand points out three trends that he believes will impact the future of the earth: global warming, urbanization, and biotechnology becoming the dominant engineering tool. Unless environmentalists radially rethink the way they go about bringing environmental change, he predicts that the earth will deteriorate. In the process, Brand shatters a number of myths about current behaviors that are believed to harm our environment--cities, nuclear power, and genetic engineering--but that he asserts are really green practices. He emphasizes that our environmental challenges really lie in policies, social factors, and design trends, and offers inventive solutions for reshaping society toward a sustainable future.

This book can be found in HECSA Library:

Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto
Stewart Brand
GF 41 .B77 2009

The World is Blue

Marine scientist Earle highlights a global ecosystem that is in danger of irreversible change. She asserts that the effects of pollution and climate change are most clearly visible in the seas, an ecosystem that covers three-quarters of the planet's surface. She weaves together years of ocean research with the latest findings about the state of the oceans. She concludes that this once seemingly inexhaustible resource is overexploited, polluted to toxic levels, and changed so that it is riddled with "dead zones." The good news, she believes, is that we have not yet passed the point of no return, and argues that we take immediate action to reverse the damage before it is too late.

This book can be found in HECSA Library:

The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One
Sylvia A. Earle
GC 21 .E28 2009

Building to Endure

Evidence increases to show that the climate on the earth is changing. At the same time, natural resources such as water, energy-producing fossil fuels, and other resources are decreasing in supply. We must examine what we can do to appropriately limit our demand for these dwindling resources, knowing that the changes that we make will likely have an effect on patterns of human settlement as well as the way that we live our lives. This book looks at the history of the American Southwest and climatically similar areas to propose new--and sometimes very old--solutions to the challenges that we face. Some of these solutions can be found in designs that are used. Other solutions can be found in the way that people interact with the built and natural environment, forming communities, choosing where to build on land, and how to marshal water and energy resources. Among these proposed solutions are practical guidelines for creating affordable, evergy efficient, and environmentally sustainable living spaces.

This book can be found in HECSA Library:

Building to Endure: Design Lessons of Arid Lands
ed by Paul Lusk and Alf Simon
NA 2542 .A73 L87 2009

Now or Never

Flannery, an ecologist, has helped to bring the topic of climate change and global warming to the attention of the international public. Now, his call to action is a practical roadmap toward a sustainable future. He surveys the history of environmental change and the potential solutions that have been proposed. He offers that combinations of small changes--including replacing the carbon that is removed in the form of fossil fuels, reducing energy usage, and developing alternative energy and food sources--may be the most viable solution for everyone. He also explores the developing carbon-trading schemes and the impact of large populations on the environment. Finally, this book includes responses to his ideas by numerous other environmental thinkers and writers.

This book can be found in HECSA Library:

Now or Never: Why We Must Act Now to End Climate Change and Create a Sustainable Future
Tim Flannery
HC 79 .E5 F53 2009

A World Without Ice

This book explains why ice matters to our climate and how humans are dramatically changing this component of our environment. Pollack explains the delicate balance between the earth and its ice--how it has shaped our planet, defined the limits of human settlement, regulates temperatures and affects ocean currents. He demonstrates that during the last three centuries, rapid population growth, the rise of industrial economies, and accelerated pollution rates have shifted the balance between the earth and the ice to a tipping point. Soon, he asserts, we may be living on a planet without ice. To avert this crisis, he lays out actions that we must take to avoid this irreversible change in our planet.

This book can be found in HECSA Library:

A World Without Ice
Henry Pollack
GB 2405 .P55 2009

2009 State of the World

Scientists have predicted that we have only a few years to reverse the rise of greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid a catastrophic global warming. 2009 is a momentus year because nations throughout the world have finally agreed to negotiate a new climate agreement in Copenhagen late in the year. This book is intended to energize the national and international discussions by conveying the profound long-term consequences, both for people and for our planet, of our current behavior. The book includes six chapters that discuss the policies surrounding the global warming debate and 22 "Climate Connections" focus stories that show how many of the issues discussed are related to greenhouse gas emissions.

This book can be found in HECSA Library:

2009 State of the World: Into a Warming World
The Worldwatch Institute
HC 59 .S734 2009

Hot Topic

This is not just another book about global warming. It is the first concise guide to the problems that combine to cause global warming along with specific solutions that can slow or stop these problems. Both Walker and King are scientists, not politicians or activists, and they do not write this book intending it to be a wake-up-call. Instead, they propose very specific, often cutting-edge technological solutions, to fix a specific problem. Along the way, they discuss some of the national and international politics that are likely to affect efforts toward progress.

This book can be found in HECSA Library:

The Hot Topic: What We Can Do About Global Warming
Gabrielle Walker and Sir David King
QC 981.8 .G56 W35 2008

Plan B 3.0

Brown asserts that the current environmental trends are threatening civilization itself. Society must change. Brown's book investigates a variety of issues ranging from global warming to social instability, all of which have an effect on society. He identifies ecological problems that he believes are the central cause to the global warming currently affecting our planet and proposes changes that individuals and governments can make to alter this course. Brown's primary concern is the interaction between global environmental trends and the world economy. In his proposed solutions is the need to raise energy efficiency and to harness alternative energy sources on a large scale.

This book can be found in HECSA Library:

Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
Rev. and Expanded
Lester R. Brown
HC 79 .E5 B7595 2008

Natural Climate Variability and Global Warming

An ever increasing body of scientific data points to the role of greenhouse gasses in causing global warming. However, it is also true that our planet's climate system has inherent variation. In order for scientists to accurately predict the timelines and effects of global warming, both of these factors must be taken into account. This is the first scientific study that discusses both greenhouse gasses and natural climate variation's contribution to global warming. It uses models of the past, particularly those of the later part of the Holocene era. It is hoped that these new models will enable researchers to better explain the current changes being observed in ecosystems and to predict what may happen as a result of global warming.

This book can be found in HECSA Library:

Natural Climate Variablity and Global Warming: A Holocene Perspective
ed by Richard W. Battarbee and Heather A. Binney
QC 884.2 .C5 N38 2008