Books on Environmental Degradation and Conservation

Suggest and discuss books to read (all languages welcome!)
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DivMS
Posts: 788
Joined: June 14th, 2013, 11:15 pm

Post by DivMS »

Considering the renewed interest in climate change and environmental crisis, it would be great to have some audiobooks that focus on environmental issues.
Here are some suggestions with links. Although, I am not sure if all are PD.

1) The Coal Question: An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal Mines
Author: William Stanley Jevons
Year: 1865
Link: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000958706
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.214397 (1906 edition)

Description: “The Coal Question; An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal Mines is a book that economist William Stanley Jevons wrote in 1865 to explore the implications of Britain's reliance on coal. Given that coal was a finite, non-renewable energy resource, Jevons raised the question of sustainability. "Are we wise," he asked rhetorically, "in allowing the commerce of this country to rise beyond the point at which we can long maintain it?" His central thesis was that the supremacy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland over global affairs was transitory, given the finite nature of its primary energy resource. In propounding this thesis, Jevons covered a range of issues central to sustainability, including limits to growth, overpopulation, overshoot, energy return on energy input (EROEI), taxation of energy resources, renewable energy alternatives, and resource peaking—a subject widely discussed today under the rubric of peak oil.” [Wikipedia]


2) The Everglades: River of Grass [PD?]
Author: Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Year: 1947
Link: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001264078

Description: “The Everglades: River of Grass is a non-fiction book written by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1947. Published the same year as the formal opening of Everglades National Park, the book was a call to attention about the degrading quality of life in the Everglades and remains an influential book on nature conservation as well as a reference for information on South Florida. It was used as recently as 2007 by The New York Times” [Wikipedia]


3) Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action
Author: George Marsh
Year: 1867
Link: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37957

Description: "Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, first published in 1864, was written by American polymath scholar and diplomat George Perkins Marsh. Marsh intended it to show that "whereas [others] think the earth made man, man in fact made the earth". As a result, he warned that man could destroy himself and the Earth if we don't restore and sustain global resources and raise awareness about our actions. It is one of the first works to document the effects of human action on the environment and it helped to launch the modern conservation movement.

The book challenges the myth of the inexhaustibility of the earth and the belief that human impact on the environment is negligible by drawing similarities to the ancient civilization of the Mediterranean. Marsh argued that ancient Mediterranean civilizations collapsed through environmental degradation. Deforestation led to eroded soils that led to decreased soil productivity. Additionally, the same trends could be found occurring in the United States. The book was one of the most influential books of its time, next to Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, inspiring conservation and reform in the USA since it forebode what happened to an ancient civilisation when it depleted and exhausted its natural resources." [Wikipedia]


4) Influences Of Geographic Environment On The Basis Of Ratzel's System Of Anthropo-Geography
Author: Ellen Churchill Semple
Year: 1911
Link: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15293

Description: “The place of geographic influences in the history of a people or of a state has received a clearer statement and more exact definition by this latest work of Miss Semple's. Although originally planned as a presentation of Ratzel's studies and conclusions in condensed form, it has been developed into an excellent piece of research, carried out with scholarly precision and comprehensive grasp of details. Especially to be commended is the constant emphasis laid on the complexity of the subject under consideration. Man is no longer merely the conqueror of natural environment, nor is he considered the passive creature of physiographic influences. The political, social, and industrial evolution of a community is shown to be a resultant of forces acting upon man in every conceivable proportion and degree.” [The American Historical Review, Jan. 1912]


5) Protection of the environment during armed conflict [PD?]
Edited by: Richard J. Grunawalt, John E. King and Ronald S. McClain.
Year: 1996
Link: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100889707
https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/ils/vol69/iss1/
https://archive.org/details/protectionofenvi69grun

Description: Sheds light on the detrimental impact of armed conflicts on the environment, and the adoption of instruments and conventions for the protection of the environment.
Divya
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