Originally published in 1984, Stoves and Trees asks whether better stoves really help the two billion people in the developing world who rely on wood and charcoal for cooking and heating their homes. It also asks if improved stoves actually save fuel and if they can help slow down tropical deforestation. The book not only examines newer stoves but also ascertains how people buy, collect and use wood in the developing world. It finds that most forests are cleared for timber or farm...

Originally published in 1984 Natural Disasters shows how misleading the term “natural disaster” can be. Forces of nature such as earthquakes, cyclones and extreme variations in weather can trigger disasters, but in many Third World countries it is environmental degradation, poverty and rapid population growth which turn a natural hazard into major disaster. This book questions whether the rich nations’ usual response to disaster – fast, short-lived emergency assistance – is any lo...

Such a huge number of books, journals and papers have been devoted to defining, assessing and implementing 'sustainable development' that students and other readers face information overload. Earthscan alone has published hundreds of essays and books on the subject. Now, though, the most authoritative writings have been carefully assessed and collected together in the Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Development.The contributions included span five years of the debate, and cover all...

Originally published in 1987, this book showcases global examples of people and communities who are learning to use the world’s resources without despoiling them for future generations. It includes chapters on nomadic life in Kenya, food supply in a Peruvian shantytown and a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka who advises about tree planting and watersheds. Amidst climate change and environmental destruction this book looks at the world through the eyes of the people who tend it and finds hope in t...

The first edition of this incisive text on the problems of drought and famine facing Africa won worldwide critical acclaim. Revised with a new introduction, Lloyd Timberlake's bestselling study is invaluable reading for anyone interested in Africa.

TO ACCOMPANY A MAJOR ITV DOCUMENTARY We are poisoning our planet and destroying the lives of our children. In the west arguments rage over how much nuclear radiation and toxic dumping is safe, while children continue to breath filthy air and eat food full of pesticides. In the third World, over four million children die each year from drinking unclean water. Adults make the decisions but children pay the highest price. They are physically vulnerable and politically powerless. When the Boug...

Tar Sands critically examines the frenzied development in the Canadian tar sands and the far-reaching implications for all of North America. Bitumen, the sticky stuff that ancients used to glue the Tower of Babel together, is the world’s most expensive hydrocarbon. This difficult-to-find resource has made Canada the number-one supplier of oil to the United States, and every major oil company now owns a lease in the Alberta tar sands. The region has become a global...

Passionate and cogent, this could be the most important book of the year for CanadiansWe are complacent. We bask in the idea that Canada holds 20% of the world’s fresh water — water crises face other countries, but not ours. We could not be more wrong. In Boiling Point, bestselling author and activist Maude Barlow lays bare the issues facing Canada’s water reserves, including long-outdated water laws, unmapped and unprotected groundwater reserves, agricult...

In this international bestseller, currently available in more than a dozen countries, Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke describe the real and worsening global water crisis, and reveal the plans of transnational corporations to profit from it. The authors present both a compelling case and a practical plan for fighting back against the corporate takeover of this most precious natural resource.

The definitive environmental history of the twentieth-century world, now updated for the twenty-first.Humans have long transformed the planet, scratching its surface for stones and ores, planting and harvesting crops, sparking fires for light and heat. But since the dawn of industrialization and especially since 1950, our impact has accelerated sharply. Economic, technological, and demographic changes have driven rapid and ongoing shifts in patterns of pollution, h...

In this edition of their bestseller, the sequel to the best-selling Good News for a Change, authors David Suzuki and Holly Dressel provide the latest inspiring stories about individuals, groups, and businesses that are making real change in the world. More Good News features the most up-to-date information about critical subjects, such as energy and the economy, not covered in the previous edition. These stories offer compelling proof from the front lines that sustainable...

This book is about Tanzania and its development prospects. Within ten short chapters, each with well-chosen sub-titles, the text covers a wide range of subjects.Each subject highlights a specific theme or themes that are of topical interest in the current development debate. Under each theme the author, without trying to delve deeply into the subject, raises a number of pertinent questions, enough to whet the readers appetite and to cause him to think twice about the contemporary d...