Sustainability Research, Discussion and Debate

Author: Clive Ponting
Publisher: Vintage Originals
- revised edition (2007)

The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilisations.
Clive Pontings book studies the relationship between the environment and human history. It examines world civilisations from Sumeria to ancient Egypt, from Easter Island to the Roman Empire and it argues that human beings have repeatedly built societies that have grown and prospered by exploiting the Earth's resources, only to expand to the point where those resources could no longer sustain the societies' populations and caused their subsequent collapse.

This new edition of Clive Pontings international bestseller has been revised, expanded and updated. It provides not only a compelling story of how we have damaged the environment for thousands of years but also an up-to-the-minute assessment of the crisis facing the world today - and the problems that have to be addressed in the search for solutions.

Paper Back (new)

Authors: Donella H Medows, Dennis L Medows and Jorgen Randers
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, United States (1992)

The authors of Beyond the Limits, sequel to the international bestseller The Limits to Growth, have revised their landmark population and economic growth scenarios using the World3 computer model, a variety of new policy frameworks, and updated data. They conclude that the global industrial system has already overshot some of the earth's vital ecological limits and could collapse by the middle of the next century - unless we commit ourselves to sweeping systematic changes in the 1990s. While detailing the dimensions of our crisis, Beyond the Limits seeks to show hoe we can support all the world's people and adequately and sustainably long into the future. This is a book of urgent warning and abiding hope.

Softcover, 300 pages (near new)

Author: C George Muller
Publisher: Koru Press, New Zealand (2006)

Ignoring a 20-year moratorium on commercial whaling, Japan continues to send its whaling fleet deep into the Antarctic to kill whales under the guise of 'scientific research'. Thrust into this volatile situation is Richard Major, an unlikely hero sailing from New Zealand with a whale research expedition. On the windswept Southern Ocean he must confront a terrifying adversary ' the ruthless fishing industrialists and massive multi-national conglomerates who would wipe out entire species to satisfy an insatiable lust for money and power. From the wild grandeur of the Southern Ocean to the opulence of corporate Japan, the battle must be fought on many fronts.

An unlikely hero, Richard is already searching for meaning in a corporate life that seems devoid of any. Faced with a life-changing decision, he must reach deep within himself to find the courage and passion to stand up for what he knows is right.

But how can one man possibly make a difference'and what is the price for standing up for what you believe in?

Mirroring a real-life tragedy looming in our own lifetime, this is a haunting exploration of mankind's continual conflict with nature, and the heroism of
those who would risk everything to defend a future threatened forever.

'Very well researched including some extremely insightful observations about the nature of international politicking in the ongoing fight to protect whales.'

Scientific Advisor to International Whaling Commission (IWC)

Edited by: Michael K Stone and Zenobia Barlow
Publisher: Sierra Club Books, United States (2005)

Educating Out Children for a Sustainable World

Preface by Fritjof Capra

Reorienting the way human beings live on the Earth and educating children to their highest capacities have much in common, say the thinkers and educators behind this groundbreaking book. Both endeavors must be viewed and pursued in the context of systems: familial, geographic, ecological, political. And our efforts to build sustainable communities cannot succeed unless future generations learn how to partner with natural systems to their mutual benefit. In other words, they must become "ecologically literate."

The concept of "ecological literacy" advanced by this book's creators, the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, extends beyond the discipline of environmental education. It aims, as David W. Orr writes in his foreword, "toward a deeper transformation of the substance, process, and scope of education at all levels."

The reports and essays gathered here reveal the remarkable work being conducted by the center's extensive network of partners. In one middle school, for example, culinary icon Alice Waters founded a program that not only provides students with healthy meals but teaches them to garden--and thus to study life cycles and energy flows--as part of their curriculum. Other hands-on student projects supported by the center and described in this book range from stream restoration and watershed exploration to confronting environmental justice issues at the neighborhood level.

With contributions from distinguished writers and educators, such as Fritjof Capra, Wendell Berry, and Michael Ableman, "Ecological Literacy "marries theory and practice based on the best thinking about how the world actually works and how learning occurs. Parents and educators everywhere who are engaged in creative efforts to develop new curricula and improve children's ecological understanding will find this book to be an invaluable resource.

Soft cover, 275 pages (new)

Authors: New Zealand Scientists
Publisher: [Christchurch]The NZ Institute of Chemistry (Inc), New Zealand (1974)

New Zealand, because of its geography, low population and relatively small industrial capacity, is often regarded as being far removed from the pollution problems of the rest of the worl. It is not, however free from pollution.

Environment and Industry is a collection of lectures given by eminent New Zealand scientists to meeting of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry. It is a significant contribution to public educationon the problems and possible solutions to local pollution.

Its publication is timely [1974], for New Zealand still offers an excellent opportunity to limit pollution to acceptable levels. In this the success of scientists and technologists, coupled with public and political awareness, will be paramount in determining the quality of future life in these islands.

Softcover, 98 pages (Used - name on cover and inside page)

Doug McKenzie-Mohr and William Smith
Publisher: New Society Publishers, Canada

An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing

As consumption patterns threaten to outstrip the Earth's ability to support humanity and other species, one thing becomes clear: that we cannot continue to live in the same old ways. In North America, initiatives on the road to sustainability include programs to increase energy efficiency, reduce waste and water consumption, and alter transportation patterns. But changing our lifestyles to create a sustainable future will require yet more sweeping changes in public behavior.

While conventional marketing can help create public awareness, social marketing identifies and overcomes barriers to long-lasting behavior change. Fostering Sustainable Behavior details how to uncover the barriers that prevent people from engaging in sustainable behaviors, and provides a set of tools that help to foster behavior change. It also describes how to design and evaluate effective programs.

This ground-breaking book collects together the strategies and methods which collectively form the basis of community-based social marketing - a proven breakthrough in the field. It was written for all those who are involved in designing, implementing and evaluating public education programs with the goal of promoting sustainable behavior.

Soft cover, 161 pages (new)

Authors: David Suzuki and Holly Dressel
Publisher: Allen & Unwin, Australia (2002)

We all know the bad news. The natural systems that support our lives are in trouble. They are threatened by the population explosion around the globe, the unfettered escalation of technology and the seemingly insatiable hunger for consumption that is fuelling the destruction of our natural environment.

But authors David Suzuki and Holly Dressel say there is hope yet for this troubled planet. The good news is that thousands of individuals, groups and businesses are already changing their ways. A growing number of organisations, corporations and individuals around the world are taking up a spontaneous global quest for sustainability. We are starting to base economic development strategies on our collective dependency on nature, while decreasing large-scale interference in our eco-systems. And we are finally learning to mimic the way natural systems function rather than attempting to conquer and control them.

Suzuki and Dressel have uncovered hundreds of working solutions that offer us all some much-needed hope. There really are things that can be done to help our environment before it's too late and, more than ever, we are learning to talk about solutions - and apply them. And what's more, many of the technologies we need to realise our goals - to save species, to conserve soil, to right social wrongs - are already within our grasp. If we change our ways now, there is a hope yet that we might leave a living and viable planet for our children.

Softcover, 398 pages (used)

Authors: Jack Anderson with James Boyd
Publisher: Sidgwick & Jackson, United Kingdom (1983)

The economic crisis of the early 1980s threatened the basic cohesion of the West. It was largely caused by the thirty-fold leap in oil prices during the 1970s.

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Jack Anderson tells for the first time the behoind-the-scenes story of the energy crisis - a crisis that should never have occurred. He exposes in fascinating detail the deals within deals in the biggest transfer of wealth in history.

Anderson has drawn on sources that only he could tap, from Texas board-rooms, the White House, Congress, to exclusive interviews with Muammar al-Qaddafi in the Libyan desert with the Saudi royal family in Riyadh. He tells a shocking and dramatic story of greed, betrayal, appeasement of economic aggression and, above all, self-serving politics which at every turn subordinated the world's long term oil security to the political advantage of the moment.

Hardcover, 386 pages (used)

Authors: Environmentalists and biologists, commentators and natural philosophers in conversation with Fergus Beeley, Mary Colwill, and Joanne Stevens
Publisher: BBC, United Kingdom (2006)

Planet Earth is the most spectacular television series about the natural world that has ever been broadcast. It showed us places and species we had never seen before and made us marvel at the amazing diversity, beauty and wonderous natur of life.

Planet Earth - The Future revisits many of those places and species and, through the thoughts and opinions of more than 40 international experts and leaders, reveals what the future is likely to hold for them and, ultimately, for humankind.

This book presents the words of those leaders adn experts in a series of though-provoking answers to hugely important questions.

Read Planet Earth - The Future to fin out about how climate change is affecting the Earth, why biodiversity is of value to us and what most threatens it today, why it matters if species die out, and how we can prevent extinctions, why we need wilderness and why the sheer beauty and fascinating nature of life on Earth is vital for our well-being.

Contributors include: Archbishop of Canterbury, David Attenborough, Tony Juniper, James Leape, Thomas Lovejoy, James Locklock, Jeff McNeely, Richard Mabey, tony Martin, Wangari Mathaai, Robert May, Russell Mittermeier, Craig Packer, Martin Palmer, Roger Payne, Sandra Postel, M A Sanjayan, Clare Short, Mark Stanley Price, E O Wilson.

Soft cover, 256 pages (used)