Global Issues: an introduction. 5e.
Rating: Kristen A Hite and John L Seitz. 2016. Global Issues: an introduction. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 9781 11896885 7. In an increasingly busy marketplace, it says something that a book makes it into its fifth edition in a 20-year timespan. Clearly, the popularity of the issues has not declined, judging by my reference point, the third edition I reviewed a few years ago! By this edition, climate change has made an entry and the environment section is divided into two […]
Why Ecology Matters
Rating: Charles J Krebs. 2016. Why Ecology Matters. Chicago University Press. ISBN – 978 0 226 31815 8 I’ll start with an admission – I’ve followed Krebs work for many years and find him one of the most persuasive writers in ecology! Not that I’m biased of course, it’s just I have expectations of this slender text! The title should be obvious. Of course it matters (providing you want a healthy planet to live on). I start, suspecting a carefully […]
Saving the Earth as a Career
Rating: Malcolm L Hunter Jr; David B Lindenmayer; Aram JK Calhoun. 2016. Saving the Earth as a Career. 2e. Wiley. ISBN 978 1 119 18479 9 I guess there was just too much optimism when we felt that the 1970s might be a real turning point in conservation and that, after the Stockholm Conference, people might actually see what we were talking about! Clearly, this did not work and so we still need to train people to go out and […]
Conservation Education and Outreach Techniques
Rating: Susan K Jacobson, Mallory D McDuff, Martha C Monroe. (eds). 2015. Conservation Education and Outreach Techniques.2e. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978 0 19 871669 3. I suppose I was lucky. I joined a college in the 1970s where outdoors education was possible and all you needed was a plan. I designed a wildlife conservation course and ran it for almost 25 years, overcoming funding issues (found a sponsor), lack of tools (found a supplier), lack of location (got a […]
Ecological Economics for the Anthropocene: an emerging paradigm
[rating 3.5] Peter G Brown and Peter Timmerman. (eds). 2015. Ecological Economics for the Anthropocene: an emerging paradigm. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978 0 231 17343 8 The idea that the prevailing economic system might not be viable in the long term is something that has been debated for some time. It would seem reasonable to go back to the first UNEP debate in Stockholm in 1972 when the idea of limits was first raised in any public and significant […]
Trophic Ecology
[rating 3.0] Torrance C Hanley and Kimberly J. La Pierre.eds. 2015. Trophic Ecology: Bottom-up and top-down interactions across aquatic and terrestrial systems. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0978 1 107 43432 5. The original idea was that ecosystems were connected by their interactions. We noted that the availability of biomass at the bottom of the pyramid affected the other trophic layers. There was the idea that top predators could impact the herbivores. A simple model that has been around for years, […]
Essentials of Ecology. 4e.
Rating: Michael Begon, Robert W Howarth and Colin R Townsend. 2014. Essential of Ecology. 4e. Wiley. ISBN978 0 470 90913 3. 30 years ago, a text was produced which has become to be seen as the standard in ecological education. I doubt that its authors would have been aware of what they started although some of the key ones remain and new collaborators join in. As part of the pantheon of ecological texts stretching back into the early C20th, this […]
Renewable Energy Resources. 3e.
Rating: John Twidell and Tony Weir. 2015. Renewable Energy Resources. 3e. Routledge. ISBN 978 0 415 58438 8 It is undeniable that renewable energy resources are slowly making inroads into our energy supplies. Housing with solar panels added is now commonplace and the sight of wind generators across large parts of Europe and the North Sea is testimony to the spread of such ideas. Despite this there is still a long way to go, not just in looking at the […]
Urban Geography – A critical introduction
[rating 5.0] Andrew EG Jones, Eugene McCann and Mary Thomas. 2015. Urban Geography: A critical introduction. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 978 1 4051 8979 8. It might fairly be argued as to the place of an urban geography book in a site looking largely, but not exclusively, at books focussed on ecological and environmental science. Maybe there was a time when there was a real divide between ecology and urban geography but, given that most of us are now urban dwellers, […]
Conflicts in Conservation
Rating: Redpath SM., Gutierrez RJ., Wood KA., and Young JC. (eds.). 2015. Conflicts in Conservation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978 1 107 60346 2. Although many might see conservation as the “keeping” of specific plant and animal species, in reality it has always been about conflicts and contested spaces. It’s not about the Pandas per se but about the way in which people consider their landscapes (i.e. both Pandas and people) should be used and perceived. For this reason it was going […]
