"A landmark collection of Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Kolbert's most important pieces about climate change and the natural world "To be a well-informed citizen of Planet Earth," Rolling Stone has advised, "you need to read Elizabeth Kolbert." From her National Magazine Award-winning series The Climate of Man to her Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert's work has shaped the way we think about the environment in the twenty-first century. Collected in Life on a Little-Known Planet are her most influential and thought-provoking essays. An intrepid reporter and a skillful translator of scientific idees, Kolbert expertly captures the wonders of nature and paints vivid portraits of the researchers and concerned citizens working to preserve them. She takes readers all around the globe, from an island in Denmark that's succeeded in going carbon neutral, to a community in Florida that voted to give rights to waterways, to the Greenland ice sheet, which is melting in a way that has implications for everyone. We meet a biologist who believes we can talk to whales, an entomologist racing to find rare caterpillars before they disappear, and a climatologist who's considered the "father of global warming," amongst other scientists at the forefront of environmental protection. The threats to our planet that Kolbert has devoted so much of her career to exposing have only grown more serious. Now is the time to deepen our understanding of the world we are in danger of losing"-- Provided by publisher.

The social cost of carbon: The most important number you've never heard of—and what it means. If you’re injuring someone, you should stop—and pay for the damage you’ve caused. Why does this simple proposition, generally accepted, not apply to climate change? In Climate Justice , a bracing challenge to status quo thinking on the ethics of climate change, renowned author and legal scholar Cass Sunstein clearly frames what’s at stake and lays out the moral imperative: When it comes to climate change, everyone must be counted equally, regardless of when they live or where they live—which means that wealthy nations, which have disproportionately benefited from greenhouse gas emissions, are obliged to help future generations and people in poor nations that are particularly vulnerable.

The jaguar is one of the most mysterious and least-known big cats of the world. The largest cat in the Americas, it has survived an onslaught of environmental and human threats partly because of an evolutionary history unique among wild felines, but also because of a power and indomitable spirit so strong, the jaguar has shaped indigenous cultures and the beliefs of early civilizations on two continents. In An Indomitable Beast: The Remarkable Journey of the Jaguar, big-cat expert Alan Rabinowitz shares his own personal journey to conserve a species that, despite its past resilience, is now on a slide toward extinction if something is not done to preserve the pathways it prowls through an ever-changing, ever-shifting landscape dominated by humans. Rabinowitz reveals how he learned from newly available genetic data that the jaguar was a single species connected genetically throughout its entire range from Mexico to Argentina, making it unique among all other large carnivores in the world. In a mix of personal discovery and scientific inquiry, he sweeps his readers deep into the realm of the jaguar, offering fascinating accounts from the field. Enhanced with maps, tables, and color plates, An Indomitable Beast brings important new research to life for scientists, anthropologists, and animal lovers alike. This book is not only about jaguars, but also about tenacity and survival. From the jaguar we can learn better strategies for saving other species and also how to save ourselves when faced with immediate and long-term catastrophic changes to our environment. --

This is the first comprehensive survey of the critical connections between religion, nature and the environment. It includes writings from sacred texts and a broad spectrum of new eco-theological selections. Historical and contemporary selections from key authors and a multicultural range of sources make This Sacred Earth an invaluable teaching resource and a unique introduction to the theory and practice of religious environmentalism.

Current tactics can't solve today's complex global crises. The "bad boys of environmentalism" call for a bold and empowering new vision Environmental insiders Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus triggered a firestorm of controversy with their self-published essay "The Death of Environmentalism," which argued that environmentalism cannot deal with global warming and should die so that a new politics can be born. Global warming is far more complex than past pollution problems, and American values have changed dramatically since the movement's greatest victories in the 1960s, but environmentalists keep fighting the same old battles. Seeing a connection between the failures of environmentalism and the failures of the entire left-leaning political agenda, the authors point the way toward an aspirational politics that will resonate with modern American values and be capable of tackling our most pressing challenges. In this eagerly awaited follow-up to the original essay, the authors give us an expansive and eloquent manifesto for political change. What Americans really want, and what could serve as the basis for a new politics, is a vision capable of inspiring us to greatness. Making the case for abandoning old categories (nature/market, left/right), the authors articulate a pragmatism fit for our times that has already found champions in such prominent figures as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. This book will hit the same nerve as What's the Matter with Kansas and Don't Think of an Elephant . But its analysis will reshape American politics for decades to come.

Abundant fish along North America's West Coast Coast have nurtured rich and diverse cultures for centuries. But today millions of sockeye salmon routinely seem to disappear from the Fraser River, chinook salmon populations are collapsing, the abalone fishery is one of several that has been shut down and oolichan populations are in dramatic decline. At the same time, biodiversity is being lost as the remaining stocks are concentrated into fewer populations. Will the Pacific fishery go the way of the Atlantic fishery? How can it be better managed? And what can be done to ensure its long-term sustainability? In Dead Reckoning, award-winning journalist Terry Glavin attempts to answer these troublesome questions. He begins at Byrne Creek, a local stream that shaped his boyhood world, then takes us up the Fraser River, where Coyote once assigned fishing rights and techniques, and out onto the high seas. It is later than we think - but not too late, says Glavin. In precise, highly visual and moving prose, he presents concrete alternatives for fishing communities on the West Coast and around the globe, and introduces us to some of the fishers, biologists and average citizens who are working to conserve and restore the world's great fisheries today.

Virtually undeveloped one hundred years ago, Israel, the promised "land of milk and honey," is in ecological disarray. In this gripping book, Alon Tal provides--for the first time ever--a history of environmentalism in Israel, interviewing hundreds of experts and activists who have made it their mission to keep the country's remarkable development sustainable amid a century of political and cultural turmoil.The modern Zionist vision began as a quest to redeem a land that bore the cumulative effects of two thousand years of foreign domination and neglect. Since then, Israel has suffered from its success. A tenfold increase in population and standard of living has polluted the air. The deserts have bloomed but groundwater has become contaminated. Urban sprawl threatens to pave over much of the country's breathtaking landscape. Yet there is hope. Tal's account considers the ecological and tactical lessons that emerge from dozens of cases of environmental mishaps, from habitat loss to river reclamation. Pollution in a Promised Land argues that the priorities and strategies of Israeli environmental advocates must address issues beyond traditional green agendas.

Chocolate Soup deals with the challenges of being a tween when feelings about who you are and what you believe in can be on shaky ground. Mia has her great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother's ancient family recipe for Aztec Chocolate Soup. Her popular friends, the Excessives, scheme to alter the soup for their big party, making it more "extreme." The not-so-popular Extras, who are mistreated by the Excessives, channel their desire for acceptance into saving the polar bears as Justin, Mia's self-confident neighbor whose dad heads up his company's new Eco-Imagination campaign, shakes up everyone's ideas about what really matters. Their food for thought becomes such serious issues as global warming, world hunger and human rights. Justin persuades Mia that protesting at the mall is cooler than going to the Excessives' blowout party. Justin and Mia bottle and sell the original Chocolate Soup to raise money for the polar bear cause, later partner in a charitable foundation, and convince Ben & Jerry's to create and sell Chocolate Soup ice cream to raise money for the polar bears. The audience is left with inspiring and thought-provoking messages about life choices and kids' ability to make a difference in the world.