Environment Chronicles

This unique collection of stories from across India, South Asia, and the world brings to you personal accounts of struggle, survival, trust, and hope for a better tomorrow. From the pollution-choked rivers in our cities, contamination in our food, to the carbon footprint of the US elections; from the promise of smokeless chulhas to the scenario in which we run out of oil; from the slow death of our historical heritage to the plight of the magnificent big cats, this thorough, complete, and meaningful anthology takes a broad sweep over the past few years to highlight and present the best and the biggest stories.

This book covers, in a panoramic sweep, all the formidable environmental challenges that we face. It is a grim reminder of our disquieting environmental reality; yet the stories here inspire hope and provide examples of the building blocks for a sustainable world. Environment Chronicles II is the go-to resource for readers who want to know, in holistic terms, about what's ailing the environment as well as the solutions for a greener future. Backing up its claims with several unassailable facts, this book reinforces the urgency for sustainable development, particularly for conservation, resource-use efficiency, and waste minimization—all ideas that are now picking up the much-needed momentum.

Chronicles from the Environmental Justice Frontline, first published in 1991, provides a rare glimpse of the environmental justice movement as it plays out in four landmark struggles at the end of the twentieth century. The book describes the stories of everyday people who have decided to take to the streets to battle what they perceive as injustice: the unequal exposure of minorities and the poor to the 'bads' produced by our industrial society. In these struggles residents and local, state, and national environmental and social justice groups are on one side pitted against local and state government representatives and industry on the other. By employing historical and theoretical lenses in viewing these struggles, the book reveals how situations of environmental injustice are created and how they are resolved. These cases bear great similarity to battles occurring across the nation, and are setting precedents for national and state agencies as they handle these cases.

In a time of uncertainty about our environmental future—an eye-opening global tour of some of the most wounded places on earth, and stories of how a passionate group of eco-restorers is leading the way to their revitalization. Award-winning science journalist Judith D. Schwartz takes us first to China’s Loess Plateau, where a landmark project has successfully restored a blighted region the size of Belgium, lifting millions of people out of poverty. She journeys on to Norway, where a young indigenous reindeer herder challenges the most powerful orthodoxies of conservation—and his own government. And in the Middle East, she follows the visionary work of an ambitious young American as he attempts to re-engineer the desert ecosystem, using plants as his most sophisticated technology. Schwartz explores regenerative solutions across a range of landscapes: deserts, grasslands, tropics, tundra, Mediterranean. She also highlights various human landscapes, the legacy of colonialism and industrial agriculture, and the endurance of indigenous knowledge. The Reindeer Chronicles demonstrates how solutions to seemingly intractable problems can come from the unlikeliest of places, and how the restoration of local water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles can play a dramatic role in stabilizing the global climate. Ultimately, it reveals how much is in our hands if we can find a way to work together and follow nature’s lead.

An exciting account of revolutionary new discoveries for understanding the earth's climate, and their implications for future scientific research and global environmental policy.