Ruby Sisson Library

Over the last half billion years, there have been five major mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on Earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around the cataclysm is us. In this book the author tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species...

"Do you consider yourself an environmental ally? Maybe you recycle your household goods, ride a bike, and avoid too much air travel. But did you know that the primary driver of climate change isnt plastics, or cars, or airplanes? Did you know that its actually our industrialized food system? In this fascinating new book, authors Nil Zacharias and Gene Stone share new research, intriguing infographics, and compelling arguments that support what scientists...

"As new groundbreaking research suggests that climate change played a major role in the most extreme catastrophes in the planet's history, award-winning science journalist Peter Brannen takes us on a wild ride through the planet's five mass extinctions and, in the process, offers us a glimpse of our increasingly dangerous future"--Publisher's website. "A vivid tour of Earth's Big Five mass extinctions, the past worlds lost with each, and what they...

"The first book about the BP disaster by a world-renowned oceanographer, A SEA IN FLAMES examines the environmental and social consequences of the spill from the perspective of those directly affected by it. It will be published on the one-year anniversary of the spill, in April 2011. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is among the greatest environmental catastrophes in U.S. history. Carl Safina's Blowout provides an extraordinary perspective on it. Consisting...

"Discover the hidden power soil has to reverse climate change, and how a regenerative farming diet not only delivers us better health and wellness, but also rebuilds our most precious resource--the very ground that feeds us. Josh Tickell, one of America's most celebrated documentary filmmakers and director of Fuel, has dedicated most of his life to saving the environment. Now, in Kiss the Ground, he explains an incredible truth: by changing our diets...

Publisher's description: Over the course of a year, in just one national forest in California, raids on illegal marijuana growing operations yielded 19,710 pounds of infrastructure, 138 ounces of restricted poisons, 4,595 pounds of fertilizer, 12 gallons of common pesticides, 5.6 miles of waterlines, and 102 propane bottles. Even as efforts to legalize marijuana accelerate, such "trespass grows" spread exponentially--as does their effect on the environment....

"From a climate activist who has grown up in the decades in which climate change has transformed from abstract threat to urgent crisis, an exploration of how young people live in the shadow of catastrophe. Warmth is a new kind of book about climate change--not a prescription or a polemic, but an intensely personal examination of how it feels to imagine a future under its weight, written from inside the youth-led climate movement itself. It is a critical...

"From the heroic pediatrician who rallied a community and brought the fight for justice to national attention comes a powerful firsthand account of the Flint water crisis--a dramatic story of failed democracy and inspiring citizen advocacy and action. In the heart of the world's wealthiest nation, one hundred thousand people were poisoned by the water supply for two years--with the knowing complicity of their government. Written by the crusading...