Environment in The Books Store

From award-winning writer and biologist Bernd Heinrich, an intimate, accessible and eloquent illumination of animal survival in Winter.

From flying squirrels to grizzly bears, torpid turtles to insects with antifreeze, the animal kingdom relies on some staggering evolutionary innovations to survive winter. Unlike their human counterparts, who must alter their environment to accommodate our physical limitations, animals are adaptable to an amazing range of conditions--i.e., radical changes in a creature's physiology take place to match the demands of the environment. Winter provides an especially remarkable situation, because of how drastically it affects the most elemental component of all life: water.

Examining everything from food sources in the extremely barren winter landscape to the chemical composition that allows certain creatures to survive, Heinrich's Winter World awakens the largely undiscovered mysteries by which nature sustains herself through the harsh, cruel exigencies of winters

Renewable Energy Policy takes a pragmatic, nuts-and-bolts look at the myriad government efforts to promote renewables, and reports back on what works, what doesn't, and why. In clear, jargon-free language, Renewable Energy Policy shows how and why some policies have achieved impressive results, and others have failed. Skillfully interweaving technology, economics, and politics, Paul Komor reveals how the best of policy ideas often end up with unintended results.

If you want to know how much wind power really costs (Chapter 2), why Germany's renewables laws are "crude but effective" (Chapter 8), or the three reasons why the UK's green energy market is a flop (Chapter 4), then you need to read Renewable Energy Policy.

"Mr. Komor's writing style is both clear and engaging. This book works well as a primer for any energy analyst not already deeply involved in renewable energy policy matters or as a textbook for college courses on energy policy or renewable energy economics."
Blair G. Swezey, Principal Policy Advisor, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO.

Most of the world's population now lives in cities. So if we are to address the problems of environmental deterioration and peak oil adequately, the city has to be a major focus of attention.

Ecocities is about re-building cities and towns based on ecological principles for the long term sustainability, cultural vitality and health of the Earth's biosphere. Unique in the literature is the book's insight that the form of the city really matters and that it is within our ability to change it, and crucial that we do. Further, that the ecocity within its bioregion is comprehensible and do-able, and can produce a healthy and potentially happy future.

Ecocities describes the place of the city in evolution, nature and history. It pays special attention to the key question of accessibility and transportation, and outlines design principles for the ecocity. The reader is encouraged to plunge in to its economics and politics: the kinds of businesses, planning and leadership required. The book then outlines the tools by which a gradual transition to the ecocity could be accomplished. Throughout, this new edition is generously illustrated with the author's own inspired visions of what such rebuilt cities might actually look like.

Richard Register is one of the world's great theorists and authors in ecological city design and planning. The founder of Urban Ecology and Ecocity Builders, he convened the first International Ecocity Conference in 1990, lectures around the world, and has authored two previous books, as well as an earlier edition of Ecocities.

Not a guide about guilt, but about making little choices throughout the day that improve the planet.

Grist is the hottest online magazine covering sustainability and popular culture.

Like Grist, this is a quirky, humorous, entertaining, and sometimes irreverent read. We all have our morning routines, whether it's making coffee, walking the dog, feeding the kids, a shower and a shave, the office commute, or some combination thereof. And at each of these morning moments-in fact, at any given time throughout the day-we're making choices. What to eat, what to wear, how to dispose of dog poop or diapers, how to travel from point A to point B, where to have a post-work cocktail, and on, and on-this compact and resourceful handbook takes a look at how to simplify and "green" our daily choices, from the moment we get up in the morning, until we finally lay our heads down at night.