On the bicentennial of Malthus' legendary essay on the tendency of population to grow more rapidly than the food supply, this book examines the impacts of population growth on 19 global resources and services, including food, fresh water, fisheries, jobs, education, income and health. Despite current hype of a 'birth dearth' in parts of Europe and Japan, the fact remains that human numbers are projected to increase by over 3 billion by 2050. Populations in rapidly growing nations are in da...

This ninth annual edition of Vital Signs takes the world's pulse by compiling a wide-ranging collection of trends that identify both problems and progress in the quest for a sustainable society. It highlights both alarming situations and encouraging developments. Part One is a comprehensive presentation of the key indicators in areas such as food, agriculture, energy, atmosphere, economics, transport and the military. Part Two provides in-depth special feature articles on: environmental fe...

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Point, bestselling author and activist Maude Barlow lays bare the issues facing Canada’s water reserves, including long-outdated water laws, unmapped and unprotected groundwater reserves, agricult...

“[Brown’s] ability to make a complicated subject accessible to the general reader is remarkable.”—Katherine Salant, Washington PostAs fossil fuel prices rise, oil insecurity deepens, and concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging. Wind, solar, and geothermal energy are replacing oil, coal, and natural gas, at a pace and on a scale we could not have imagined even a year ago. For the first time since the Industrial R...

For millennia, we lived in harmony with the Earth, taking only what we required to survive. But in just the past few centuries, we have used our powers to satisfy our obsession with consumption and new technology, without regard for the consequences. And in doing so, we have exploited our surroundings on an unprecedented scale. In this revised and updated edition of From Naked Ape to Superspecies, David Suzuki and Holly Dressel lucidly describe how we have evolved beyond our needs, trampli...

"How to build a more just world and save the planet....We should all heed Brown's advice."—Bill ClintonIn this updated edition of the landmark Plan B, Lester Brown outlines a survival strategy for our early twenty-first-century civilization. The world faces many environmental trends of disruption and decline, including rising temperatures and spreading water shortage. In addition to these looming threats, we face the peaking of oil, annual population growth of 70 million, a widenin...

"Probably the most eloquent call to arms we're likely to hear about the politics of water" ( The Globe and Mail , Toronto).In this "chilling, in-depth examination of a rapidly emerging global crisis," Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, two of the most active opponents to the privatization of water show how, contrary to received wisdom, water mainly flows uphill to the wealthy ( In These Times). Our most basic...

In Boiling Point, Ross Gelbspan argues that, unchecked, climate change will swamp every other issue facing us today. Indeed, what began as an initial response of many institutions -- denial and delay -- has now grown into a crime against humanity. The fossil fuel industry is directing the Bush administration's energy and climate policies-payback for helping Bush get elected. But they're not the only ones to blame: the media and environmental activists are unwittingly worsening the...

In 1543, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus challenged the view that the sun revolved around the earth, arguing instead that the earth revolved around the sun. His paper led to a revolution in thinking.In Lester Brown's brilliant and invigorating account of the industrial economy, he shows how a rethink of its fossil fuel-based, throwaway ethos is necessary to ensure that it works with, not against, the natural environment.The issue now is whether the environment is part...

This timely volume presents the key concepts, issues, and debates surrounding environmental security, illustrating through a range of examples and cases how global environmental matters and international security are closely linked.Issues of climate change, dwindling resources, natural disaster, and disease that comprise environmental security are at the forefront of global politics and the media today. Environmental Security: A Guide to the Issues is a primer for anyone a...

The EPA was established to enforce the environmental laws Congress enacted during the 1970s. Yet today lethal toxins still permeate our environment, causing widespread illness and even death. Toxic Loopholes investigates these laws, and the agency charged with their enforcement, to explain why they have failed to arrest the nation's rising environmental crime wave and clean up the country's land, air and water. This book illustrates how weak laws, legal loopholes and regulatory negligence ...

Millions go hungry every year in both poor and rich nations, yet hundreds of thousands of peasants and farmers continue to be pushed off the land. Applied in increasing volumes, chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers deplete the soil, pollute our food and water, and leave crops more vulnerable to pest outbreaks. The new and expanding use of genetically engineered seeds threatens species diversity. This penetrating set of essays explains why corporate agribusiness is a ...