Search

Pesticide Residues Facts investigates the prevalence and impact of pesticide residues in our food, a critical concern for health, fitness, and environmental well-being. The book explores how these chemicals infiltrate the food chain through agricultural practices, impacting our health and the environment. Did you know that chronic exposure to even low levels of pesticide residues has been linked to potential health issues? Furthermore, the book highlights how current regulations may not fully protect us from these long-term risks. The book uniquely adopts a holistic approach, examining not only the direct health effects but also the broader environmental and social implications. It begins by tracing the history of pesticide use and the development of regulatory policies. Progressing through chapters that investigate the chemical properties of common pesticides and analyze their impact on soil, water, and air, the book culminates in exploring alternative, sustainable agricultural practices. The book uses a fact-based style, prioritizing scientific accuracy and clarity while drawing from scientific studies, government reports, and independent research.

David Brower (1912–2000) was a central figure in the modern environmental movement. His leadership, vision, and elegant conception of the wilderness forever changed how we approach nature. In many ways, he was a twentieth-century Thoreau. Brower transformed the Sierra Club into a national force that challenged and stopped federally sponsored projects that would have dammed the Grand Canyon and destroyed hundreds of millions of acres of our nation's wilderness. To admirers, he was tireless, passionate, visionary, and unyielding. To opponents and even some supporters, he was contentious and polarizing.As a young man growing up in Berkeley, California, Brower proved himself a fearless climber of the Sierra Nevada's dangerous peaks. After serving in the Tenth Mountain Division during World War II, he became executive director of the Sierra Club. This uncompromising biography explores Brower's role as steward of the modern environmental movement. His passionate advocacy destroyed lifelong friendships and, at times, threatened his goals. Yet his achievements remain some of the most important triumphs of the conservation movement. What emerges from this unique portrait is a rich and robust profile of a leader who took up the work of John Muir and, along with Rachel Carson, made environmentalism the cause of our time.

“Presto! No More Pests!” proclaimed a 1955 article introducing two new pesticides,'miracle-workers for the housewife and back-yard farmer.'Easy to use, effective, and safe: who wouldn't love synthetic pesticides? Apparently most Americans did—and apparently still do. Why—in the face of dire warnings, rising expense, and declining effectiveness—do we cling to our chemicals? Michelle Mart wondered. Her book, a cultural history of pesticide use in postwar America, offers an answer.America's embrace of synthetic pesticides began when they burst on the scene during World War II and has held steady into the 21st century—for example, more than 90% of soybeans grown in the US in 2008 are Roundup Ready GMOs, dependent upon generous use of the herbicide glyphosate to control weeds. Mart investigates the attraction of pesticides, with their up-to-the-minute promise of modernity, sophisticated technology, and increased productivity—in short, their appeal to human dreams of controlling nature. She also considers how they reinforced Cold War assumptions of Western economic and material superiority.Though the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and the rise of environmentalism might have marked a turning point in Americans'faith in pesticides, statistics tell a different story. Pesticides, a Love Story recounts the campaign against DDT that famously ensued; but the book also shows where our notions of Silent Spring's revolutionary impact falter—where, in spite of a ban on DDT, farm use of pesticides in the United States more than doubled in the thirty years after the book was published. As a cultural survey of popular and political attitudes toward pesticides, Pesticides, a Love Story tries to make sense of this seeming paradox. At heart, it is an exploration of the story we tell ourselves about the costs and benefits of pesticides—and how corporations, government officials, ordinary citizens, and the press shape that story to reflect our ideals, interests, and emotions.

Although many environmental policy issues remain deadlocked for decades with little movement, sometimes breakthroughs occur abruptly. Why do deadlocks persist? Why do major policy shifts occur infrequently? Is it possible to judge when policies are ripe for change?This book presents new empirical evidence that the punctuated equilibrium theory of policy dynamics fits the facts of environmental policy change and can explain how stable policies can suddenly unravel in discontinuous change. The distinguished contributors to the volume apply the theory to a wide range of important environmental and resource issues and assess case histories in water, forestry, fisheries, public lands, energy and climate some of which resulted in breakthroughs, others in stalemate. They offer insights into the political conditions and tactics that are likely to produce these disparate outcomes. Every professional, activist, and student concerned with promoting (or resisting) change in environmental and natural resources policies will find this up-to-date book an invaluable guide.

The decision by multinational Shell not to dispose of the Brent Spar oil facility in the North Atlantic was taken after several occupations of the structure by Greenpeace, and as a result of large scale pro-Greenpeace protest in the UK, Germany and other continental countries. This case is often cited as showing the power of single issue pressure groups and is presented as leading to a pivotal reconsideration by big business of the importance of environmental dimensions. However, detailed research proves that Shell changed its mind on the Brent Spar issue because of the corporate structure of the company which meant that some parts were reluctant to bear the bad publicity. Using this case study, Grant Jordan considers the role of scientific advice in shaping governmental decisions on matters such as BSE, GM foods, global warming - and the consequences of a divided scientific view. He looks at the use of the media by groups and companies attempting to control the political agenda.

As the need to confront unplanned growth increases, planners, policymakers, and citizens are scrambling for practical tools and examples of successful and workable approaches. Growth management initiatives are underway in the U.S. at all levels, but many American'success stories'provide only one piece of the puzzle. To find examples of a holistic approach to dealing with sprawl, one must turn to models outside of the United States. In Green Urbanism, Timothy Beatley explains what planners and local officials in the United States can learn from the sustainable city movement in Europe. The book draws from the extensive European experience, examining the progress and policies of twenty-five of the most innovative cities in eleven European countries, which Beatley researched and observed in depth during a year-long stay in the Netherlands. Chapters examine: the sustainable cities movement in Europe examples and ideas of different housing and living options transit systems and policies for promoting transit use, increasing bicycle use, and minimizing the role of the automobile creative ways of incorporating greenness into cities ways of readjusting'urban metabolism'so that waste flows become circular programs to promote more sustainable forms of economic development sustainable building and sustainable design measures and features renewable energy initiatives and local efforts to promote solar energy ways of greening the many decisions of local government including ecological budgeting, green accounting, and other city management tools. Throughout, Beatley focuses on the key lessons from these cities -- including Vienna, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Zurich, Amsterdam, London, and Berlin -- and what their experience can teach us about effectively and creatively promoting sustainable development in the United States. Green Urbanism is the first full-length book to describe urban sustainability in European cities, and provides concrete examples and detailed discussions of innovative and practical sustainable planning ideas. It will be a useful reference and source of ideas for urban and regional planners, state and local officials, policymakers, students of planning and geography, and anyone concerned with how cities can become more livable.

Greening the College Curriculum provides the tools college and university faculty need to meet personal and institutional goals for integrating environmental issues into the curriculum. Leading educators from a wide range of fields, including anthropology, biology, economics, geography, history, literature, journalism, philosophy, political science, and religion, describe their experience introducing environmental issues into their teaching. The book provides: a rationale for including material on the environment in the teaching of the basic concepts of each discipline guidelines for constructing a unit or a full course at the introductory level that makes use of environmental subjects sample plans for upper-level courses a compendium of annotated resources, both print and nonprint Contributors to the volume include David Orr, David G. Campbell, Lisa Naughton, Emily Young, John Opie, Holmes Rolston III, Michael E. Kraft, Steven Rockefeller, and others.

Since the need to protect ground water from pollution was recognized, researchers have made progress in understanding the vulnerability of ground water to contamination. Yet, there are substantial uncertainties in the vulnerability assessment methods now available. With a wealth of detailed information and practical advice, this volume will help decision-makers derive the most benefit from available assessment techniques. It offers: Three laws of ground water vulnerability. Six case studies of vulnerability assessment. Guidance for selecting vulnerability assessments and using the results. Reviews of the strengths and limitations of assessment methods. Information on available data bases, primarily at the federal level. This book will be indispensable to policymakers and resource managers, environmental professionals, researchers, faculty, and students involved in ground water issues, as well as investigators developing new assessment methods.

Who speaks for the trees, the water, the soil, and the air in American government today? Which agencies confront environmental problems, and how do they set priorities? How are the opposing claims of interest groups evaluated? Why do certain issues capture the public's attention?In Making Environmental Policy, Daniel Fiorino combines the hands-on experience of an insider with the analytic rigor of a scholar to provide the fullest, most readable introduction to federal environmental policymaking yet published. A committed environmental advocate, he takes readers from theory to practice, demonstrating how laws and institutions address environmental needs and balance them against other political pressures.Drawing on the academic literature and his own familiarity with current trends and controversies, Fiorino offers a lucid view of the institutional and analytic aspects of environmental policymaking. A chapter on analytic methods describes policymakers'attempts to apply objective standards to complex environmental decisions. The book also examines how the law, the courts, political tensions, and international environmental agencies have shaped environmental issues. Fiorino grounds his discussion with references to numerous specific cases, including radon, global warming, lead, and hazardous wastes. Timely and necessary, this is an invaluable handbook for students, activists, and anyone wanting to unravel contemporary American environmental politics.Who speaks for the trees, the water, the soil, and the air in American government today? Which agencies confront environmental problems, and how do they set priorities? How are the opposing claims of interest groups evaluated? Why do certain issues captur