Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2019 - Science & Technology — Chemistry — Environmental Studies

Cook (Columbia Univ., NASA) highlights a fundamental reality far beyond "water is life." Droughts are slow-moving disasters overtaking both ecosystem processes and the services they provide. They may have a rapid or gradual onset, cover small to large regions, and be short or prolonged. However, this work is not just about specific droughts in history. As a climatologist, Cook offers an extensive study of how global climate change affects drought development, and explores how they affect several other "ologies": climatology, meteorology, hydrology, ecology, and sociology, as well as agriculture, economics, and demography. Although Cook uses extensive data available from the 48 contiguous states, this effort details a global perspective; the examination of two case studies (the Dust bowl and the Sahel) are particularly illustrative. Drought would serve as an excellent textbook for students and professionals of conservation and environmental disciplines, as well as those in parallel fields. The book's impact is enhanced by more than 20 pages of references, liberal use of maps and figures (most in color), and by the inclusion of a glossary and an index. Cook's commendable use of the metric system enhances the book's international relevance.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

Rich is a writer at large for such respected national publications as The New York Review of Books and The Atlantic. In the opening to this provocative book, he writes that "nearly everything we understand about global warming was understood in 1979. It was, if anything, better understood." In the chapters that follow Rich argues that scientists, the fossil fuel industry, activists, and politicians all understood the threat posed by climate change before the emergence of sharp political divisions and the onset of lobbying to spread disinformation. Focusing on a group of key protagonists and political actors, Rich makes debates over climate policy come alive. This powerful corrective history dispels the myth that knowledge of the climate crisis is recent; Rich documents the collapse of a potential consensus for action during the 1980s, a collapse that culminated in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. Rich shows the influence of Bush's chief of staff, John Sununu, who expressed skepticism about climate science and advised Secretary of State James Baker to (as quoted by Rich) "stay clear of this greenhouse effect nonsense." Looked at broadly, Rich's book reveals the failure of leaders of advanced industrial countries to act when they could have prevented much of the damage Earth now faces.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

With half of all plastic having been produced in the last 13 years, and the bulk of it now lying as waste all over the planet, the premise of this book is that the world is approaching "peak plastic"--a tipping point, most likely reached around 2030, when the benefit of plastic will be exceeded by its cost to the environment and society. This text calls attention to some of the lesser-known sources of plastic pollution, including additives used as stabilizers. In this slim, excellent volume, Buffington, a supply chain management professor with extensive experience in industry, examines the materials supply chain and debunks the idea that recycling alone can solve the problem. Buffington does not propose eliminating plastic, but rather changing the supply chain to link the natural world to the synthetic one. Solutions range from open-source capitalism to a closed loop system, and Buffington discusses them carefully, offering clear explanations of technical matters. Each chapter has an extensive list of references, and there is a thorough bibliography. Given the crucial importance of this topic and the author's insightful approach, this well-written volume has much to offer students and specialists at all levels.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels.

The polar regions regulate Earth's climate and show the influences of anthropogenic climate change (caused by accumulating atmospheric greenhouse gases) more clearly than temperate or tropical regions because of the phenomenon of polar amplification. Barry and Hall-McKim (both, Univ. of Colorado Boulder) provide an exhaustive but highly readable description of polar land, sea, air, and ice, delving into past, current, and projected future conditions. The nine chapters cover the subject comprehensively, discussing such topics as the climatic role of the cryosphere, paleoclimatic history, impacts of climate shifts on terrestrial and marine environments and on ice sheets and shelves, and future environments as they are expected to be modified by climate change. Each chapter comes with a summary, an extensive list of references cited in the text, and probing questions about the material covered. The many figures and sidebars on various topics add to the narrative. There is little question that this is the most comprehensive and best documented treatment available. It could be used as a textbook but should also be accessible to non-expert readers interested in the subject.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

Some of the world's leading physical science and humanities scholars contributed to The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History, documenting, in comprehensive detail, the historical importance of climate for human civilization. Following introductory chapters focused on global climate as well as the nature of historical archives related to both society and climate, much of the first half of the text deals with the analysis and interpretation of information from these archives. The second half addresses historical climate change across diverse regions and time periods, ranging from 2,000 years of climate history in China to the extreme events of the past few decades and a number of case studies. The book finishes with a series of chapters that explore the history of climate science and its emergence as a major area of inquiry in the last half century. The individual chapters are generally short (less than 20 pages), are well researched and cited, and offer detailed insights on individual topics. Taken together, they provide the most comprehensive treatment to date of historical climate and society interactions and should serve as an excellent source for a range of readers interested in this emerging topic.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

With this book Thompson (history, Bucknell Univ.) reminds readers of the current condition of the environment. To the detriment of the planet, humans have managed to destroy the Earth, the wild, nature, and all living things through uncaringunthinking policies about dumping toxic materials in soil, water, and the atmosphere. Starting with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962), environmentalism has been complicated by efforts to turn back the tide of indifference, on the one hand, and activism on the other, as planet saving has evolved. Thompson untangles the various strands of these efforts by looking at individual health and the health of the "wild." The book comprises three chapters, the most enlightening of which offers an overview of Love Canal, a neighborhood near Niagara Falls where the Hooker Chemical Company dumped thousands of tons of toxins in the 1940s. Eventually the land was sold and contractors built houses and a school over the poison beneath; seepage occurred. When this began to jeopardize residents' health, many heroic activists arose. Thompson details all this and also looks at attempts by organizations, e.g., Earth First, to fight for planet-saving measures. This valuable book is a good companion to Dorceta Taylor's The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection (CH, Mar'17, 54-3222).Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

In reading Timefulness, one encounters a clear, engaging text grounded in years of teaching, thinking, and conversations about the struggles of humans to relate themselves to geologic time. With this goal in mind, Bjornerud (geology, Lawrence Univ.) has crafted a masterful work filled with rich analogues spanning topics from music references to bell bottoms to folding paper; her engaging approach helps readers of all levels see Earth history through fresh eyes. A central argument is that we must not think of rocks as simple objects (nouns) but as the embodiment of Earth's change (verbs). Bjornerud also stresses that our evolutionary roots link us to all of biological time--not just human history--and therefore we must take a longer view of our future and past together. The instructor of introductory geology may be tempted to jettison the boring, clinical geology textbook chapter on geologic time and instead assign this book. Topical chapters give the reader a fresh perspective on various aspects of earth science, including tectonics, climate change, and extinctions. The book as a whole functions as a blueprint for how to have conversations with anyone about the sensitive state of our planet.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels.

In Vanishing Ice, Gornitz (emer., Columbia Univ.) documents the recent rapid and ongoing changes in the cryosphere--the climate system component made of frozen water, which includes the large ice sheets, mountain glaciers, sea ice, seasonal snow cover, and permafrost. Observations of changes in the cryosphere have come from a wide variety of sources. Gornitz provides an excellent account of historical cryospheric data collection, including the relatively new focus on satellite remote sensing, and includes valuable geologic evidence from environmental proxies used to explore changes during the period preceding instrument-based collection. This long-term view effectively contextualizes the recent changes and provides strong evidence regarding the role of humans in contemporary climate change. Considering the wide range of time scales considered, the physical processes associated with changes in the cryosphere are presented in a remarkably clear manner. The text also provides insight into what continued changes in Earth's cryosphere might portend for current and future inhabitants of the planet. For example, future inhabitants may face substantial increases in sea level from ice loss, and additional warming may be caused by the thawing of permafrost and subsequent release of methane.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. General readers.