ENGL 1301 SO Harvey: Planet in peril?

Examines various vantage points on global warming.

The accelerating pace of global warming is provoking anxiety that the Earth is reaching an ominous threshold, a point of no return. Within a decade or two, various feedbacks may take greenhouse warming past any human ability to contain or reverse it.

Six years ago, award-winning photojournalist Gary Braasch began an extraordinary journey around the world to observe and document environmental changes resulting from the warming of our climate. In this stunning, eye-opening book, he brings us along to witness firsthand what he saw as he crossed both the Antarctic and Arctic Circles, trekked above 15,000 feet in the Andes, dove on damaged coral reefs, and followed scientists into the field on four continents. In more than one hundred photographs, including dramatic before-and-after comparisons, Braasch records communities, landscapes, and animals at risk because of receding glaciers, eroding coastlines, rising sea levels, and thawing permafrost. In the accompanying text he surveys the science behind climate change and introduces native people, lifelong observers, scientists, and others who are noticing striking changes right now. Alongside Braasch's compelling words and images, essays by eminent scientists discuss the impacts of climate change on the oceans, biodiversity, fresh water, mountain cultures, plants and animals, and our health.

Students with a basic understanding of the environment and concern for its future know the importance of preserving biological diversity. Biodiversity is the variety of living things on Earth or in a specific area. This definition seems simple enough to understand, yet the concept of biodiversity has deeper meanings that challenge even trained environmental scientists. A region that has a wide variety of species in robust populations is said to possess biodiversity. But not every place on Earth bursts with diverse life. Biodiversity concentrates in certain areas, while other parts of the globe possess a somewhat lesser variety and number of species.

Keeping Bees in Towns and Cities features everything an urbanite needs to know to start keeping bees: how to select the perfect hive, how to buy bees, how to care for a colony, how to harvest honey, and what to do in the winter. Urban beekeeping has particular challenges and needs, and this book highlights the challenges and presents practices that are safe, legal, and neighbor-friendly. The text is rounded out with profiles of urban beekeepers from all over the world, including public hives at the Maryland Center for Horticulture, beekeeping on an office balcony in Melbourne, Australia, and a poolside hive at a hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A searing look at the human face of BP's disaster in the gulf It is the largest oil disaster in American history, and it could happen again. It is more than a story of ruined beaches, dead wildlife, corporate spin, political machinations, and financial fallout. It is a riveting human drama filled with people whose lives will forever be defined as "before" and "after the gulf oil disaster."