* ECOLOGY LIBRARY *
> adele peters >
How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. The book exists for us perchance which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. Henry David Thoreau
As artists, writers, architects, and others interested in environmental thought gather at the Gardenlab show, I would like to share my small collection of books on the environment in the hope of initiating new thoughts and conversations among those who come. These books have been a source of inspiration for me and are all well worth reading. Of course, the list is subjective and is not complete. The selection of literature listed at the end are books I have also enjoyed but do not own; I hope to either borrow these titles or find a source of funding to purchase them.
The Library:
Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness.
"With language as colorful as a Canyonlands sunset and a perspective as
pointed as a prickly pear, Cactus Ed captures the heat, mystery, and surprising
bounty of desert life. Desert Solitaire is a meditation on the stark landscapes
of the red-rock West, a passionate vote for wilderness, and a howling lament
for the commercialization of the American outback." -- the Orion Society
Carson, Rachel.
Silent Spring.
"First published in 1962, this book offered the first shattering look at
widespread ecological degradation, and is believed to be responsible in large
part for sparking the modern environmental movement." -- the Orion Society
Davis, Mike.
Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. 1998.
“Los Angeles has become the nation’s poster child of calamity. But
as Mike Davis brilliantly and devastatingly shows, L.A.’s wounds are largely
self-inflicted. With his breathtaking arsenal of knowledge, Davis demonstrates
how nature has not decimated L.A. as much as L.A.’s developers and power-brokers
have. His genius lies in divining the connections between social injustice and
ecological distress, and in showing how we misperceive and invert them- to our
own everlasting detriment.” Susan Faludi
Dillard, Annie.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
"A personal narrative of one year spent exploring the natural wonders,
curiosities, frights and revelations experienced by naturalist Annie Dillard
in her own backyard." --the Orion Society
Fuad-Luke,
Alastair. Eco Design: The Sourcebook. 2002.
Collection of environmentally-responsible, well-designed products.
Hawken, Paul.
The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability.1993.
“This is, in my view, the first extensive, truly ecological analysis of
business; deeply disturbing and yet full of hope. Essential reading for all
who care about our planet.” Fritjof Capra
Karlinger,
Joshua. The Corporate Planet: Ecology and Politics in the Age of Globalization.
1997.
“The Corporate Planet is a devastating critique of the corporate pillage
of the Earth.” John Cavanaugh.
Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. Says Aldo Leopold, "There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot." In this series of nature essays, Leopold articulates an elegant statement of the appropriate relationship between humans and the land.
Lopez, Barry. Desert Notes: Reflections in the Eye of a Raven. 1981.
McDonough,
William. Cradle to Cradle. 2002.
Wonderful, revolutionary thinking on design. We shouldn’t try to be less
environmentally harmful, but rather beneficial.
Pollan, Michael.
The Botany of Desire. 2001.
“A whimsical, literary romp through man’s perpetually frustrating
and always unpredictable relationship with nature.” Los Angeles Times.
Pollan, Michael.
Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education.
The author considers questions of how humans and nature should ideally interact
as he works on his own garden.
Thoreau, Henry
David. Walden, or, Life in the Woods.
"Thoreau provides a fascinating, detailed account of his sojourn living
off the land, capturing the world of Walden Pond through the prism of his probing,
restless mind." --the Orion Society
Rees, William
et al. Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth.
"Equipped with useful charts and thought-provoking illustrations, this
book introduces a revolutionary new way to determine humanity's impact on the
Earth and presents an exciting and powerful tool for measuring and visualizing
the resources required to sustain households, communities, regions, and nations."--
From the publisher
Steiner, A.L.
One.
An artist’s book exploring the environmental harm involved in the making
of books.
Williams,
Joy. Ill Nature. 2001.
“Rises above the din of dreary environmental writing and smacks us in
the face with the sorry state of our natural affairs.” San Francisco Chronicle.
Books I would like to include:
Cronon, William.
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England.
Cronon examines the record of the relationship between humans and nature in
colonial New England. Interesting especially after reading Pollan’s Second
Nature.
Eldredge,
Niles. Life in the Balance: Humanity and the Biodiversity Crisis.
"In Life in the Balance, Niles Eldredge argues that the Earth is confronting
an ecological disaster in the making. He reviews compelling evidence for this
'biodiversity crisis,' showing that species are dying out at an unnaturally
rapid rate." -- From the publisher
Krakauer,
Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster.
"What started as a childhood dream of climbing became reality for Jon Krakauer
when Outside Magazine hired him to report on the increasing number of commercial
expeditions to the top of Mt. Everest. Krakauer, his guide, and a group of experienced
climbers set out to tackle Mt. Everest, with disastrous results." -- Barnes
& Noble
Lopez, Barry.
Of Wolves and Men.
Lovelock, James. The Ages of GAIA: A Biography of Our Living Earth.
"The Earth, James Lovelock proposes, behaves as if it were a super organism,
made up from all the living things and from their material environment."
-- From the publisher
McKibben,
Bill. The End of Nature.
The author argues that nature as we have known it is already dead. Our choice,
he says, boils down to working toward synthetic Eden or limiting further environmental
change. This book is a prime example of current "popular" environmental
thought.
McPhee, John.
Encounters with the Archdruid.
The nuances of differences in environmental perspectives are explored in McPhee's
accounts of separate "managed confrontations" between environmentalist
David Brower and three noted natural resource developers: mineral engineer Charles
Park, resort designer Charles Fraser, and dam builder Floyd Dominy.
McPhee, John.
The Control of Nature.
Just how effectively can humans control nature? McPhee describes some successes,
but notes that final victory is at best elusive, and possibly unattainable.
McPhee, John.
Basin and Range.
The land from eastern Utah to eastern California is the setting and sample for
a lyrical evocation of the science of geology, in this book of journeys through
ancient terrains. -- Barnes & Noble
Meadows, Donella,
et al. Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament
of Mankind. New York: Universe Books, 1972.
In this study, a group of MIT researchers used a computer model to analyze trends
in population growth, agriculture, industry, and other factors and predicted
that environmental disasters would result. This study is often referred to as
the Club of Rome report, because it was sponsored by the Club, an organization
that was created by a wealthy Italian businessman to study global problems.
Myers, Norman.
Primary Source: Tropical Forests and Our Future.
Ophuls, William. Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity Revisited: The Unraveling
of the American Dream.
Orlean, Susan. The Orchid Thief.
Orlean combines an account of a true story about a south Florida plant dealer
who was arrested for stealing endangered orchids from a state preserve, with
a fascinating history of the obsession with this beautiful and fragile epiphyte.
Orr, David.
Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect.
Orr discusses the problems of environmental education and presents teaching
principles for solving environmental problems from the ground up.
Quinn, Daniel.
Ishmael.
"Ishmael is the winner of the Turner Tomorrow Award--a prize for fiction
that offers solutions to global problems. When a man in search of truth answers
an ad in a local newspaper from a teacher looking for serious students, he finds
himself alone in an abandoned office with a gorilla named Ishmael." --
Barnes & Noble
Reisner, Marc.
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water (revised and updated).
A provocative, opinionated, and interesting history of how California, the Bureau
of Reclamation, and the Corps of Engineers remade the West by damming its rivers.
The author explores the early history of Western settlement and the mistaken
belief of the time that "rain follows the plough."
Sagan, Carl.
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (unabridged).
" Are we on the brink of a new Dark Age of irrationality and superstition?
In this stirring, brilliantly argued book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author
of The Dragons of Eden and Cosmos shows how scientific thinking can cut through
prejudice and hysteria and uncover the truth, and how it is necessary to safeguard
our democratic institutions and our technical civilization." -- Barnes
& Noble
Schumacher,
E. Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered.
" The classic of common-sense economics." -- Barnes & Noble
Wilkinson,
Charles. Crossing the Next Meridian: Land, Water, and the Future of the West.
"This book 'focuses on the laws and practices that have evolved over the
past century and a half in five . . . areas: mining, timber, grazing, dams and
other development along the rivers of the Pacific Northwest, and the storage
and diversion of water . . . {in} the rest of the West.'" -- Christian
Science Monitor
Willis, Delta.
The Sand Dollar and the Slide Rule: Drawing Blueprints from Nature. Island Press,
1996.
"In The Sand Dollar and the Slide Rule, Delta Willis explores the relationship
between natural forms and human design. In so doing she brings to life a fascinating
group of architects, physicists, and biologists devoted to a new science of
form called Construction Morphology." -- From the publisher
Wilson, Edward
O. The Diversity of Life.
With fascinating stories and rich detail, biologist Edward O. Wilson surveys
the origin and role of species diversity and discusses areas of ongoing research
in this field.
Wilson, Edward
O. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (25th Anniversary Edition).
When this classic work was first published in 1975, it created a new discipline
and started a tumultuous round in the age-old nature versus nurture debate.
Human sociobiology, now often called evolutionary psychology, has in the last
quarter of a century emerged as its own field of study, drawing on theory and
data from both biology and the social sciences.
Wolfe, David.
Tales from the Underground: A natural history of subterranean life. Perseus
Publishing. May 2001.
"There are over one billion organisms in a pinch of soil, and many of them
perform functions essential to all life on the planet. Yet we know much more
about deep space than about the universe below... Cornell ecologist David W.
Wolfe takes us on a spectacular tour of this unfamiliar subterranean world,
introducing us to the bizarre creatures that live there, as well as the devoted
scientists who study them." --from the publisher
The World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common Future: World
Commission on Environment and Development.
[AKA the Brundtland Report]. A text on sustainable development.
Wright, Robert.
Three Scientists and Their Gods: Looking for Meaning in and Age of Information.
1988.
"This is the story of three extraordinary people: Ed Fredkin, who developed
the startling theory that the universe itself is a computer; sociobiologist
E.O. Wilson, who searches for a link between human genes and culture; and economist
Kenneth Boulding, who explores the impact of technology on social change."
-- Library Journal