referencebooks

Endangered Animals: A Reference Guide to Conflicting Issues

Edited by Richard P. Reading and Brian Miller.

Published by Greenwood Press, 2000.

This is a 6" by 9" hardbound book running to 383 pages including the bibliography, index and contributor list, plus an introduction.

The introduction, after discussing the "present extinction spasm" in general terms, says:

Case studies provide in-depth analyses rich with lessons for learning and for improving performance. The 49 case studies presented in this book demonstrate the causes and context of endangerment for a wide variety of animals, mostly vertebrates. A diversity of case material is included from a range of perspectives. Although there is a predominance of U.S. authors and case studies, the book includes contributors from 16 nations and addresses species inhabiting over 20 countries (and several oceans) and a wide variety of ecological systems on every continent except Antarctica.

Each case study begins with a general description of the animal, a discussion of its natural history, a discussion of conflicting issues (debate), and a section discussing its future.

This book is far from a catalog of endangered species and shouldn't be used as one. While the number of case studies included make it potentially useful as a reference book, the real value of it is as a monograph that provides insight into the situation of endangered species.

Careers for Environmental Types & Others Who Respect the Earth

By Jane Kinney and Michael Fasulo

Published by VGM Career Horizons, a division of NTC Publishing Group, 1993.

Like the others in this extensive career guidance series, this is a small paperback, measuring 5.5" by 8.5". This one runs to 152 pages including the appendices, plus a brief foreword.

The chapter headings are:

1. Career Opportunities for the Ecologically Minded
   
2. Environmental Education
   
3. The Greening of Corporate America
   
4. Jobs in the Government: Federal, State, and Local
   
5. Environmental Entrepreneurs
   
6. Career Opportunities in the Nonprofit Sector
   
7. Green Communication
   

The first chapter is really an introduction. The second is about ways of gaining an education suitable for environmental careers and issues to consider, with additional resources listed. The rest of the chapters are about types of jobs, specific organizations where one can work in the field, and issues related to getting a career started.

Opening the book at random, I'm on page 101, in the chapter titled "Career Opportunities in the Nonprofit Sector," looking at the heading, "Direct Action Organizations." Under this heading are Earth First!, The Sea Shepherd Conservancy, and The Rainforest Action Network. Each of these organizations gets a paragraph-long description, including the kind of work a person might find there, and contact information. Greenpeace isn't listed under this heading, but appears earlier in the chapter under the heading "National Environmental Organizations," though they have certainly done a lot of direct action over the years and as far as I know still do. I'm rather impressed that direct action organizations are included in the book; leaving them out would be a real omission but an unsurprising one.

This is a very helpful little book.

Encyclopedia of Global Change: Environmental Change and Human Society

Andrew S. Goudie, Editor in Chief

David J Cuff, Associate Editor

Published by Oxford University Press, 2002.

This is a hefty, two volume work measuring 9" by 11" and running to a total of 1379 pages.

The work is a broad encyclopedia about global change in an environmental, meteorological, biological, and earth-science sense. The list of contributors to this work is 11 pages long, which gives some indication of its depth. It's a very serious work. The contributors come from universities in all parts of the world.

In the second volume there is a "synoptic outline of contents" that lists all of the articles. This outline is organized as follows:

• Concepts of global change
  
• Earth and earth systems
  
  
  
  • Principal articles
    
  • Geologic processes
    
  • Atmosphere
    
  • Ocean
    
  • Biosphere
    
  
  
• Human factors
  
  
  
  • Human populations
    
  • Agriculture and fishing
    
  • Industrial activity
    
  • Social, cultural, and ideological factors
    
  • Hazards to human health
    
  
  
• Resources
  
  
  
  • Principle article
    
  • Water and air
    
  • Land and land use
    
  • Mineral and energy resources
    
  
  
• Responses to global change
  
  
  
  • Scientific and technological tools
    
  • Economic and social policies
    
  
  
• Agreements, Associations and Institutions
  
  
  
  • Agreements
    
  • Associations and Institutions
    
  
  
• Biographies
  
• Case studies
  

There are hundreds of articles in these categories.

The articles are written clearly and efficiently. While they do require some knowledge of science, they aim to cover the basics and do a good job of it.

This is a highly useful and important reference work.

Handbook of Environmental Health, Fourth Edition.

By Herman Koren and Michael Bisesi.

Published by Lewis Publishers, an imprint of CRC Press, 2002.

This is a thick, two volume set. The books measure 6.5" by 9.5", and together run to 1670 pages plus preferatory pages in both volumes.

The two volumes cover different areas of the science of environmental health; the first covering biological, chemical and physical agents of environmentally-related disease and the second covering pollutant interactions in air, water and soil.

This is the fourth edition of what has been the standard handbook in the field for about 25 years now.

There are a total of 21 chapters in the two volumes, as follows:

First Volume:

1. Environment and Humans
   
2. Environmental Problems and Human Health
   
3. Food Protection
   
4. Food Technology
   
5. Insect Control
   
6. Rodent Control
   
7. Pesticides
   
8. Indoor Environment
   
9. Institutional Environment
   
10. Recreational Environment
    
11. Occupational Environment
    
12. Major Instrumentation for Environmental Evaluation of Occupational, Residential and Public Indoor Settings
    

Second Volume:

1. Air Quality Management
   
2. Solid and Hazardous Waste Management
   
3. Private and Public Water Supplies
   
4. Swimming Areas
   
5. Plumbing
   
6. Private and Public Sewage Disposal and Soils
   
7. Water Pollution and Water Quality Controls
   
8. Terrorism and Environmental Health Emergencies
   
9. Major Instrumentation for Environmental Evaluation of Ambient Air, Water, and Soil
   

Each volume ends with an extensive bibliography and an index to both volumes.

The standard chapter outline includes:

1. Background and status
   
2. Scientific, technological, and general information
   
3. Problem (subdivided)
   
4. Potential for intervention (subdivided)
   
5. Resources (subdivided)
   
6. Standards, practices, and techniques
   
7. Modes of surveillance and evaluation (subdivided)
   
8. Control (subdivided)
   
9. Summary
   
10. Research needs
    

One of the major strengths of this reference work is that each chapter explains some of the science and other details underlying the area of environmental health that it is addressing, whether that's the principles of hydraulics or detailed discussion of relevant Federal laws.

This book is comprehensive and very deep in terms of the amount of detailed information provided. It is rather technical, and many sections do require a basic background knowledge of chemistry.

Encyclopedia of Gardens: History and Design

Published by Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001

Edited by Candice A. Shoemaker.

This is a three volume set, hardbound, measuring 8.5" X 11" and running a total of 1545 pages. It has numerous black and white photographs of the gardens featured within the entries and a section of full-page color plates in each volume.

Entries are mostly for individual famous gardens, landscape architects and botanists, with additional entries for other individuals, for countries and for aspects of garden history and design (such as "Botanic Garden," "Amphitheater/Theater," "Herbs, Medicinal," "Grass," "Color," "Modernism," "Sculpture in the Garden"). All the entries are in a single alphabetic sequence.

Opening the first volume at random, I find myself in the middle of the entry for Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England. This entry is about four (large) pages long and has two half-page photographs of the fountains and pools of this majestic garden, with Blenheim Palace in the background. The entry consists of a rather detailed physical description of the park intermixed with a discussion of its development through history (what parts were added when by whom). It ends with a brief chronological synopsis of the park's development and then a bibliography of six items for further reading about the park.

The introduction acknowledges that the Encyclopedia is Eurocentric, giving the excuse that not much research has been done into gardens in other parts of the world. This may be true, or it may be that such literature is less accessible to the chosen advisers and contributors, and that a fair number of Asian, South American and African contributors could have been, but weren't, sought out. It seems to me that it is rather late in history for a new work on a topic of such global reach to be as Eurocentric as this. There is an entry on China, running eight pages in length, that contains sections on a number of Chinese gardens, but there is no reason that these gardens shouldn't have been given the full treatment with entries of their own in the Encyclopedia's regular alphabetic sequence. Gardens, as manifestations of a civilization's particular relationship with nature, can provide insight into a culture at the time of the garden's creation. This would make a more multicultural and comparative work especially useful.

That said, I have to acknowledge what a nice collection of information about the world of gardens this work represents, and that it would be useful for many purposes.

Just browsing through it can give you the feeling of visiting a relaxing, leafy garden.

E for Environment (TM): An Annotated Bibliography of Children's Books with Environmental Themes

By Patti K. Sinclair

Published by R. R. Bowker, 1992

This is a 5" X 8" hardcover book of 292 pages including the Author, Title and Subject indices.

What it is is a bibliography of children's books for parents or teachers wanting books to help create an environmental awareness in children.

The bibliographical entries are under five major sections with subjections under each.

The sections are:

1. Planting the seeds of environmental awareness: Introducing young children to nature
2. The web of life [principles of ecology and ecological niches]
3. At issue [specific environmental issues and issue areas]
4. People and nature [environmental philosophy]
5. It's your turn: Activities, explorations, and activism
Appendix - Environmental classics: Suggestions for further reading

517 titles are included all together, published approximately between 1982 and 1992, making it a little moldy at this point as bibliographies go, and Bowker has not published an update. Neveretheless, it's a very useful resource for teaching kids about the environment.

International Handbook of National Parks and Nature Reserves

Edited by Craig W. Allin

Published by Greenwood Press, 1990.

This is a clothbound book of 6.5" X 9.5" and 539 pages including the index, plus some preferatory material.

The information in this book is truly useful and very difficult to find elsewhere.

It provides information on national parks an nature reserves in 26 countries (including the United States).

The book is organized into separate chapters for each country discussed, with each written by a different authority. As you can tell from the length of the book and the number of countries in it, each chapter has some length to it.

The chapter on Chile is one of the shorter ones, at 21 pages. It begins with a discussion of Chile's physical geography, then the history of its national park system, then a listing of its parks, then a discussion of those parks by region and climate zone, and finally a discussion of the park system's administration. Other chapters are arranged similarly.

Besides being a useful resource for those studying national parks, browsing the book really awakens the travel bug and the desire to see the planet's natural places while they are still healthy.