Random House New Releases - Nature - Natural Resources

Moonlight At Midday by Sally Carrighar

2013-04-17T00:30:00-05:00

Moonlight At Midday
Written by Sally Carrighar

eBook | Knopf | Nature - Natural Resources; Social Science - Anth/Cultural; Social Science - Customs & Traditions | $15.99 | 978-0-307-83133-0 (0-307-83133-7)

This is the real Alaska, the Alaska few outsiders know. It is the human scene, described in intimate and authentic detail. No one except a gift naturalist could have written this book, for Sally Carrighar has eyes that see, trained eyes that see what others pass by.

Icebound Summer was the first book to come from her Alaskan experience, and now she brings her marvelous perceptiveness to a book that deals not only with the flora and fauna and majestic scenery of Alaska, but with its fascinating people and their way of life as well. Much of the book concerns Eskimo settlements well off the tourist track, and other things that casual travelers do not see, such as the winter life of modern pioneers in those two gold-rush cities, Nome and Fairbanks.

Eskimos have enchanted most Arctic explorers with their dancing, ivory-carving, singing, and festivals; but they are really most engaging when known as friends—when one is allowed to glimpse their courtship and marriage customs, family life, racial beliefs; when one learns their fears and hopes as they try to straddle two cultures.

Miss Carrighar came to the remote village of Unalakleet as a naturalist, sharing the Eskimos’ interest in wildlife. One said to her: “You are the first white person who ever stayed here that didn’t come to teach us, or to preach to us, or to sell us things.” As their companion in whaling and trapping, Miss Carrighar had a change to observe them as few even among people born in Alaska have. She is known now throughout the North as a champion of the Eskimos.

Just as far from the itinerary of tourists is the daily life of the white settlers. Of this too Miss Carrighar writes as a participant; she bought and restored a gold-rush house teetering on Nome’s permafrost, and is an authority on the special problems of living in the North.

Northerners, both white and native, weave their lives into a web of mutual helpfulness. When the days are frigidly cold and a midday moon shines on a sunless land, Alaskans draw close in an ancient, instinctive humanity common to all of us, but often obscured in the rush of civilized living. The illumination of Miss Carrighar’s love for Alaska, as well as her scientist’s perceptiveness, make this a remarkable book.

Opportunity, Montana by Brad Tyer

2013-03-26T00:30:00-05:00

Opportunity, Montana Big Copper, Bad Water, and the Burial of an American Landscape
Written by Brad Tyer

Hardcover, 248 pages | Beacon Press | Nature - Environmental Conservation & Protection; Nature - Natural Resources; History - United States - State & Local - West (Ak, Ca, Co, Hi, Id, Mt, Nv, Ut, Wy) | $25.95 | 978-0-8070-0329-9 (0-8070-0329-8)

A memoir-meets-exposé that examines our fraught relationship with the West and our attempts to clean up a toxic environmental legacy

In 2002, Texas journalist Brad Tyer strapped a canoe on his truck and moved to Montana, a state that has long exerted a mythic pull on America’s imagination as an unspoiled landscape. The son of an engineer who reclaimed wastewater, Tyer was looking for a pristine river to call his own. What he found instead was a century’s worth of industrial poison clotting the Clark Fork River, a decades-long engineering project to clean it up, and a forgotten town named Opportunity.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, Montana exploited the richest copper deposits in the world, fueling the electric growth of twentieth-century America and building some of the nation’s most outlandish fortunes. The toxic by-product of those fortunes—what didn’t spill into the river—was dumped in Opportunity.

In the twenty-first century, Montana’s draw is no longer metal but landscape: the blue-ribbon trout streams and unspoiled wilderness of the nation’s “last best place.” To match reality to the myth, affluent exurbanites and well-meaning environmentalists are trying to restore the Clark Fork River to its “natural state.” In the process, millions of tons of toxic soils are being removed and dumped—once again—in Opportunity. As Tyer investigates Opportunity’s history, he wrestles with questions of environmental justice and the ethics of burdening one community with an entire region’s waste.

Stalled at the intersection of a fading extractive economy and a fledgling restoration boom, Opportunity’s story is a secret history of the American Dream and a key to understanding the country’s—and increasingly the globe’s—demand for modern convenience.

As Tyer explores the degradations of the landscape, he also probes the parallel emotional geography of familial estrangement. Part personal history and part reportorial narrative, Opportunity, Montana is a story of progress and its price: of copper and water, of father and son, and of our attempts to redeem the mistakes of the past.

Opportunity, Montana by Brad Tyer

2013-03-26T00:30:00-05:00

Opportunity, Montana Big Copper, Bad Water, and the Burial of an American Landscape
Written by Brad Tyer

eBook | Beacon Press | Nature - Environmental Conservation & Protection; Nature - Natural Resources; History - United States - State & Local - West (Ak, Ca, Co, Hi, Id, Mt, Nv, Ut, Wy) | $25.95 | 978-0-8070-0330-5 (0-8070-0330-1)

From the Hardcover edition.

Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett

2012-09-04T00:30:00-05:00

Blue Revolution Unmaking America's Water Crisis
Written by Cynthia Barnett

Trade Paperback, 296 pages | Beacon Press | Nature - Natural Resources; Nature - Environmental Conservation & Protection; Political Science - Public Policy | $16.00 | 978-0-8070-0328-2 (0-8070-0328-X)

Americans see water as abundant and cheap: we turn on the faucet and out it gushes, for less than a penny a gallon. We use more water than any other culture in the world, much to quench what’s now our largest crop—the lawn. Yet most Americans cannot name the river or aquifer that flows to our taps, irrigates our food, and produces our electricity. And most don’t realize these freshwater sources are in deep trouble.

Blue Revolution exposes the truth about the water crisis—driven not as much by lawn sprinklers as by a tradition that has encouraged everyone, from homeowners to farmers to utilities, to tap more and more. But the book also offers much reason for hope. Award-winning journalist Cynthia Barnett argues that the best solution is also the simplest and least expensive: a water ethic for America. Just as the green movement helped build awareness about energy and sustainability, so a blue movement will reconnect Americans to their water, helping us value and conserve our most life-giving resource. Avoiding past mistakes, living within our water means, and turning to “local water” as we do local foods are all part of this new, blue revolution.

Reporting from across the country and around the globe, Barnett shows how people, businesses, and governments have come together to dramatically reduce water use and reverse the water crisis. Entire metro areas, such as San Antonio, Texas, have halved per capita water use. Singapore’s “closed water loop” recycles every drop. New technologies can slash agricultural irrigation in half: businesses can save a lot of water—and a lot of money—with designs as simple as recycling air-conditioning condensate.

The first book to call for a national water ethic, Blue Revolution is also a powerful meditation on water and community in America.

Last Chance to See by Mark Carwardine

2011-09-21T00:30:00-05:00

Last Chance to See
Written by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine

eBook, 256 pages | Ballantine Books | Nature - Reference; Nature - Animal Rights; Nature - Natural Resources | $13.99 | 978-0-307-80503-4 (0-307-80503-4)

"Very funny and moving...The glimpses of rare fauna seem to have enlarged [Adams'] thinking, enlivened his world; and so might the animals do for us all, if we were to help them live."
THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
Join bestselling author Douglas Adams and zooligist Mark Carwardine as they take off around the world in search of exotic, endangered creatures. Hilarious and poignant--as only Douglas Adams can be--LAST CHANCE TO SEE is an entertaining and arresting odyssey through the Earth's magnificent wildlife galaxy.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett

2011-09-20T00:30:00-05:00

Blue Revolution Unmaking America's Water Crisis
Written by Cynthia Barnett

eBook | Beacon Press | Nature - Natural Resources; Nature - Environmental Conservation & Protection; Political Science - Public Policy | $26.95 | 978-0-8070-0318-3 (0-8070-0318-2)

Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett

2011-09-20T00:30:00-05:00

Blue Revolution Unmaking America's Water Crisis
Written by Cynthia Barnett

Hardcover, 272 pages | Beacon Press | Nature - Natural Resources; Nature - Environmental Conservation & Protection; Political Science - Public Policy | $26.95 | 978-0-8070-0317-6 (0-8070-0317-4)

The Water Book by Alexandra Cousteau

2011-05-24T00:30:00-05:00

The Water Book A Users Guide to Understanding, Protecting, and Preserving Earth's Most Precious Resource
Written by Elizabeth Pacheco and June Eding
Preface by Alexandra Cousteau
Edited by Anna Krusinski

Trade Paperback, 192 pages | Hatherleigh Press | Nature - Natural Resources; Nature - Environmental Conservation & Protection | $11.00 | 978-1-57826-345-5 (1-57826-345-X)

“All things are water.” – Plutarch

Water surrounds us. Falling from the sky, collecting in lakes and rivers and streams, quenching our thirst, nourishing our food sources—water is the critical building block of life. Known as the “Blue Planet”, about 70% of Earth’s surface is covered with water. With this finite resource being so fundamental to our survival, one must wonder why so many of us don’t even know where our water comes from.

The Water Book provides a comprehensive look at why water is so important, an overview of the dangers our water supplies currently face, and what we can do in our daily lives to help ensure clean, safe water for the future.

The Water Book is simple and easy to read, inspiring and informative. Readers will be guided and empowered to make changes in their own lives to help preserve and protect Earth’s precious water supplies.

—Alexandra Cousteau

Ice by Mariana Gosnell

2011-04-27T00:30:00-05:00

Ice The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance
Written by Mariana Gosnell

eBook, 576 pages | Knopf | Nature - Natural Resources; Science - Geography | $14.99 | 978-0-307-79146-7 (0-307-79146-7)

Like the adventurer who circled an iceberg to see it on all sides, Mariana Gosnell, former Newsweek reporter and author of Zero Three Bravo, a book about flying a small plane around the United States, explores ice in all its complexity, grandeur, and significance.More brittle than glass, at times stronger than steel, at other times flowing like molasses, ice covers 10 percent of the earth’s land and 7 percent of its oceans. In nature it is found in myriad forms, from the delicate needle ice that crunches underfoot in a winter meadow to the massive, centuries-old ice that forms the world’s glaciers. Scientists theorize that icy comets delivered to Earth the molecules needed to get life started, and ice ages have shaped much of the land as we know it.Here is the whole world of ice, from the freezing of Pleasant Lake in New Hampshire to the breakup of a Vermont river at the onset of spring, from the frozen Antarctic landscape that emperor penguins inhabit to the cold, watery route bowhead whales take between Arctic ice floes. Mariana Gosnell writes about frostbite and about the recently discovered 5,000-year-old body of a man preserved in an Alpine glacier. She discusses the work of scientists who extract cylinders of Greenland ice to study the history of the earth’s climate and try to predict its future. She examines ice in plants, icebergs, icicles, and hail; sea ice and permafrost; ice on Mars and in the rings of Saturn; and several new forms of ice developed in labs. She writes of the many uses humans make of ice, including ice-skating, ice fishing, iceboating, and ice climbing; building ice roads and seeding clouds; making ice castles, ice cubes, and iced desserts. Ice is a sparkling illumination of the natural phenomenon whose ebbs and flows over time have helped form the world we live in. It is a pleasure to read, and important to read—for its natural science and revelations about ice’s influence on our everyday lives, and for what it has to tell us about our environment today and in the future.

From the Hardcover edition.

Hidden Alaska by Dave Atcheson

2011-02-15T00:30:00-05:00

Hidden Alaska Bristol Bay and Beyond
Written by Dave Atcheson
Photographed by Michael Melford

Hardcover, 160 pages | National Geographic | Photography - Nature & Wildlife; Nature - Natural Resources | $24.00 | 978-1-4262-0770-9 (1-4262-0770-0)

A stunning visual story of a place of wonder and mystique for every American, this book features what is legendary and beloved about Alaska, a land of magnificent wilderness and beauty, virtually untouched by human ambition. It also focuses on the key point of interest in the state today: endangered Bristol Bay, which faces potential mining of the world's greatest deposits of copper and gold. Its pristine waters are the worlds' biggest salmon spawning grounds. If the gold is mined, the ecosystem is destroyed —but the impoverished locals have work for the next half-century. After that, the salmon and the mines are gone. Melford, paired with noted environmental storyteller David Atcheson, addresses the dilemma by bowling us over with the beauty and importance of the place for all time. Underwritten by the Renewable Resources Coalition, the book will be distributed among its more than 5,000 members.

Ireland by Michael Viney

2010-07-06T00:30:00-05:00

Ireland A Smithsonian Natural History
Written by Michael Viney

Trade Paperback, 352 pages | Smithsonian Books | Nature - Natural Resources; Science - Life Sciences - Biological Diversity | $24.95 | 978-1-58834-294-2 (1-58834-294-8)

Ireland conjures up images of nature's majesty: sweeping coastlines, rolling green hills, and secluded peat bogs and marshlands. A place of legendary beauty, it is also a land with a rich natural history. Michael Viney invites us to discover the geologic forces that created the island, peer into the famous bone caves that hold unique clues about animals from long ago, and experience the dramatic scenes of the cliff-lined coast and tempestuous seas.

Viney begins deep in the past, when rivers of molten rock and enormous glaciers stripped the land bare. Soon after the glaciers retreated, the island was transformed into a fresh, new landscape, home to an intriguing variety of plants and animals, and an environment that has cultivated a rich human history and inspired countless myths. Infused with the lyricism of Irish prose, Ireland: A Smithsonian Natural History is indispensable for anyone seeking to understand the natural beauty of the Emerald Isle.

Earth Odyssey by Mark Hertsgaard

2009-01-16T00:30:00-05:00

Earth Odyssey Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future
Written by Mark Hertsgaard

eBook, 384 pages | Broadway | Nature - Natural Resources | $14.99 | 978-0-307-48408-6 (0-307-48408-4)

Like many of us, Mark Hertsgaard has long worried about the declining health of our environment. But in 1991, he decided to act on his concern and investigate the escalating crisis for himself. Traveling on his own dime, he embarked on an odyssey lasting most of the decade and spanning nineteen countries. Now, in Earth Odyssey, he reports on our environmental predicament through the eyes of the people who live it.

From the gilded boardrooms of Paris to the traffic-clogged streets of Bangkok, we travel from the deep human past to our still unfolding future. Much of the story revolves around people like Zhenbing, Hertsgaard's charismatic interpreter in China, whose desire to escape poverty leaves him indifferent to his country's horrific air and water pollution. We also meet Garang, a proud Dinka tribesman whose response to Sudan's famine shows the difficulty of building an environmentally sustainable future without bridging the gap between rich and poor. Drawing on interviews with Václav Havel, Al Gore, Jacques Cousteau, and numerous other prominent figures, Hertsgaard offers fresh insight into such complex issues as humanity's growing addiction to the automobile, the insidious spread of nuclear technology, and the inevitable tension between unfettered capitalism and the health of the biosphere.

Earth Odyssey is a vivid, passionate narrative about one man's journey around the world in search of the answer to the most important question of our time: Is the future of the human species at risk? Combining first-rate reportage with irresistible storytelling, Mark Hertsgaard has written an essential--and ultimately hopeful--book about the uncertain fate of humankind.

From the Hardcover edition.

Adventures on America's Public Lands by Bibi Booth

2003-10-17T00:30:00-05:00

Adventures on America's Public Lands
Written by Mary E. Tisdale and Bibi Booth

Trade Paperback, 544 pages | Smithsonian Books | Travel - Parks & Campgrounds; Nature - Natural Resources | $22.95 | 978-1-58834-081-8 (1-58834-081-3)

This is a beautiful, full-color guide to recreation on the “Public Lands,” those areas under the control of the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These lands comprise some 265,000,000 acres across 27 states. Detailed listings provide information on a full range of outdoor activities: biking, fishing, rafting, camping, horse riding, swimming, rock climbing—even dog sledding. Full-color photos and detailed maps explain where the areas are, what to see and do once there, what types of camping are allowed, how to contact the BLM office in charge of that site, and much, much more.

Beyond Growth by Herman E. Daly

2001-01-29T00:30:00-05:00

Beyond Growth The Economics of Sustainable Development
Written by Herman E. Daly

eBook | Beacon Press | Business & Economics - Environmental Economics; Business & Economics - Sustainable Development; Nature - Natural Resources | $27.50 | 978-0-8070-4706-4 (0-8070-4706-6)

Earth Odyssey by Mark Hertsgaard

1999-12-28T00:30:00-05:00

Earth Odyssey Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future
Written by Mark Hertsgaard

Trade Paperback, 384 pages | Broadway | Nature - Natural Resources | $16.95 | 978-0-7679-0059-1 (0-7679-0059-6)

Like many of us, Mark Hertsgaard has long worried about the declining health of our environment. But in 1991, he decided to act on his own concern and investigate the escalating crisis for himself. Traveling on his own dime, he embarked on an odyssey lasting most of the decade and spanning nineteen countries. Now, in Earth Odyssey he reports on our environmental predicament through the eyes of the people who live it.

Earth Odyssey is a vivid, passionate narrative about one man's journey around the world in search of the answer to the essential question of our time: Is the future of the human species at risk? Combining first-rate reportage with irresistible storytelling, Mark Hertsgaard has written an essential--and ultimately hopeful--book about the uncertain fate of humankind.

Beyond Growth by Herman E. Daly

1997-08-14T00:30:00-05:00

Beyond Growth The Economics of Sustainable Development
Written by Herman E. Daly

Trade Paperback, 264 pages | Beacon Press | Business & Economics - Environmental Economics; Business & Economics - Sustainable Development; Nature - Natural Resources | $23.00 | 978-0-8070-4709-5 (0-8070-4709-0)

Last Chance to See by Mark Carwardine

1992-10-13T00:30:00-05:00

Last Chance to See
Written by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine

Trade Paperback, 256 pages | Ballantine Books | Nature - Reference; Nature - Animal Rights; Nature - Natural Resources | $16.00 | 978-0-345-37198-0 (0-345-37198-4)

Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

1986-12-12T00:30:00-05:00

Sand County Almanac
Written by Aldo Leopold

Paperback, 320 pages | Ballantine Books | Nature - Natural Resources; Nature - Environmental Conservation & Protection; Nature - Ecology | $7.99 | 978-0-345-34505-9 (0-345-34505-3)

"We can place this book on the shelf that holds the writings of Thoreau and John Muir." San Francisco Chronicle

These astonishing portraits of the natural world explore the breathtaking diversity of the unspoiled American landscape -- the mountains and the prairies, the deserts and the coastlines. A stunning tribute to our land and a bold challenge to protect the world we love.

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

1985-01-12T00:30:00-05:00

Desert Solitaire
Written by Edward Abbey

Paperback, 352 pages | Ballantine Books | Nature - Natural Resources; Nature - Environmental Conservation & Protection; Nature - Ecology | $7.99 | 978-0-345-32649-2 (0-345-32649-0)

"A passionately felt, deeply poetic book. It has philosophy. It has humor. It has its share of nerve-tingling adventures...set down in a lean, racing prose, in a close-knit style of power and beauty."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOKREVIEW
Edward Abbey lived for three seasons in the desert at Moab, Utah, and what he discovered about the land before him, the world around him, and the heart that beat within, is a fascinating, sometimes raucous, always personal account of a place that has already disappeared, but is worth remembering and living through again and again.

Random House New Releases - Nature - Natural Resources

Moonlight At Midday by Sally Carrighar

Moonlight At Midday Written by Sally Carrighar

Opportunity, Montana by Brad Tyer

Opportunity, Montana Big Copper, Bad Water, and the Burial of an American LandscapeWritten by Brad Tyer

Opportunity, Montana by Brad Tyer

Opportunity, Montana Big Copper, Bad Water, and the Burial of an American LandscapeWritten by Brad Tyer

Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett

Blue Revolution Unmaking America's Water CrisisWritten by Cynthia Barnett

Last Chance to See by Mark Carwardine

Last Chance to See Written by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine

Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett

Blue Revolution Unmaking America's Water CrisisWritten by Cynthia Barnett

Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett

Blue Revolution Unmaking America's Water CrisisWritten by Cynthia Barnett

The Water Book by Alexandra Cousteau

The Water Book A Users Guide to Understanding, Protecting, and Preserving Earth's Most Precious ResourceWritten by Elizabeth Pacheco and June Eding Preface by Alexandra Cousteau Edited by Anna Krusinski

Ice by Mariana Gosnell

Ice The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing SubstanceWritten by Mariana Gosnell

Hidden Alaska by Dave Atcheson

Hidden Alaska Bristol Bay and BeyondWritten by Dave Atcheson Photographed by Michael Melford

Ireland by Michael Viney

Ireland A Smithsonian Natural HistoryWritten by Michael Viney

Earth Odyssey by Mark Hertsgaard

Earth Odyssey Around the World in Search of Our Environmental FutureWritten by Mark Hertsgaard

Adventures on America's Public Lands by Bibi Booth

Adventures on America's Public Lands Written by Mary E. Tisdale and Bibi Booth

Beyond Growth by Herman E. Daly

Beyond Growth The Economics of Sustainable DevelopmentWritten by Herman E. Daly

Earth Odyssey by Mark Hertsgaard

Earth Odyssey Around the World in Search of Our Environmental FutureWritten by Mark Hertsgaard

Beyond Growth by Herman E. Daly

Beyond Growth The Economics of Sustainable DevelopmentWritten by Herman E. Daly

Last Chance to See by Mark Carwardine

Last Chance to See Written by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine

Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

Sand County Almanac Written by Aldo Leopold

Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey

Desert Solitaire Written by Edward Abbey

Moonlight At Midday
Written by Sally Carrighar

Opportunity, Montana Big Copper, Bad Water, and the Burial of an American Landscape
Written by Brad Tyer

Opportunity, Montana Big Copper, Bad Water, and the Burial of an American Landscape
Written by Brad Tyer

Blue Revolution Unmaking America's Water Crisis
Written by Cynthia Barnett

Last Chance to See
Written by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine

Blue Revolution Unmaking America's Water Crisis
Written by Cynthia Barnett

Blue Revolution Unmaking America's Water Crisis
Written by Cynthia Barnett

The Water Book A Users Guide to Understanding, Protecting, and Preserving Earth's Most Precious Resource
Written by Elizabeth Pacheco and June Eding
Preface by Alexandra Cousteau
Edited by Anna Krusinski

Ice The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance
Written by Mariana Gosnell

Hidden Alaska Bristol Bay and Beyond
Written by Dave Atcheson
Photographed by Michael Melford

Ireland A Smithsonian Natural History
Written by Michael Viney

Earth Odyssey Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future
Written by Mark Hertsgaard

Adventures on America's Public Lands
Written by Mary E. Tisdale and Bibi Booth

Beyond Growth The Economics of Sustainable Development
Written by Herman E. Daly

Earth Odyssey Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future
Written by Mark Hertsgaard

Beyond Growth The Economics of Sustainable Development
Written by Herman E. Daly

Last Chance to See
Written by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine

Sand County Almanac
Written by Aldo Leopold

Desert Solitaire
Written by Edward Abbey