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On Gandhi's Path: Bob Swann's Work for Peace and Community Economics
by Stephanie MillsThis inspiring biography explores the life and work of the land trust pioneer, peace activist, and father of the relocalization movement.Robert Swann was a self-taught economist and a tireless champion of decentralism, promoting community resilience and food independence. A conscientious war resistor imprisoned for his beliefs, Bob Swann engaged in lifelong nonviolent direct action against war, racism, and economic inequity. His legacy is a vision of a life-affirming, alternative economy based on land and monetary reform.Swann’s story is also the untold history of decentralism in the United States. He forged tools to build productive, resilient local and regional economies. He associated with a constellation of vital, intelligent, independent authors and activists, and ultimately co-founded the Schumacher Society based on the philosophies of Small Is Beautiful author E. F. Schumacher.Now as global industrial civilization flails in the throes of ecological and economic crisis, Swann’s innovations are at the ready to help neighborhoods, local entrepreneurs, and willing communities rebuild at appropriate scales.
On Genetic Interests: Family, Ethnicity and Humanity in an Age of Mass Migration
by Frank SalterFrom an evolutionary perspective, individuals have a vi- tal interest in the reproduction of their genes. Yet this interest is overlooked by social and political theory at a time when we need to steer an adaptive course through the unnatural modern world of uneven population growth and decline, global mobility, and loss of family and communal ties. In modern Darwinian theory, bearing children is only one way to reproduce. Since we share genes with our families, ethnic groups, and the species as a whole, ethnocentrism and humanism can be adaptive. They can also be hazardous when taken to extremes. On Genetic Interests canvasses strategies and ethics for conserving our genetic interests in an environmentally sustainable manner sensitive to the interests of others.
On Looking: A Walker's Guide to the Art of Observation
by Alexandra HorowitzFrom the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Inside of a Dog, this “elegant and entertaining” (The Boston Globe) explanation of how humans perceive their environments “does more than open our eyes...opens our hearts and minds, too, gently awakening us to a world—in fact, many worlds—we’ve been missing” (USA TODAY).Alexandra Horowitz shows us how to see the spectacle of the ordinary—to practice, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it, “the observation of trifles.” Structured around a series of eleven walks the author takes, mostly in her Manhattan neighborhood, On Looking features experts on a diverse range of subjects, including an urban sociologist, the well-known artist Maira Kalman, a geologist, a physician, and a sound designer. Horowitz also walks with a child and a dog to see the world as they perceive it. What they see, how they see it, and why most of us do not see the same things reveal the startling power of human attention and the cognitive aspects of what it means to be an expert observer.Page by page, Horowitz shows how much more there is to see—if only we would really look. Trained as a cognitive scientist, she discovers a feast of fascinating detail, all explained with her generous humor and self-deprecating tone. So turn off the phone and other electronic devices and be in the real world—where strangers communicate by geometry as they walk toward one another, where sounds reveal shadows, where posture can display humility, and the underside of a leaf unveils a Lilliputian universe—where, indeed, there are worlds within worlds within worlds.
On Looking: Essays
by Lia Purpura"Purpura is the real deal, and so is every successive sentence in this collection. A cornucopiac vocabulary is married to a strict economy of expression; an offbeat curiosity is married to the courage of difficult witnessing. . . ."--Albert Goldbarth"Purpura's prose is a system of delicate shocks--leaps and connections and syncopated revelations, all in the service of the spirit negotiating the truth of its experience."--Sven BirkertsLia Purpura's daring new book of lyric essays, On Looking, is concerned with the aesthetics and ethics of seeing. In these elegantly wrought meditations, patterns and meanings emerge from confusion, the commonplace grows strange and complex, beauty reveals its flaws, and even the most repulsive object turns gorgeous. Purpura's hand is clearly guided by poetry and behaves unpredictably, weaving together, in one lit instance, sugar eggs, binoculars, and Emerson's words: "I like the silent church before the sermon begins."In "Autopsy Report," Purpura takes an intimate look at the ruin of our bodies after death, examining the "dripping fruits" of organs and the spine in its "wet, red earth." A similar reverence is held for the alien jellyfish in "On Form," where she notes that "in order to see their particular beauty...we have to suspend our fear, we have to love contradiction." Her essays question art and its responses as well as its responsibilities, challenge familiar and familial relationships, and alter the borders between the violent and the luminous, the harrowing and the sensual. Above all, Purpura's essays are a call to notice. She is writer-as-telescope, kaleidoscope, microscope, and mirror. As she says: "By seeing I called to things, and in turn, things called me, applied me to their sight and we became each as treasure, startling to one another, and rare." This is, indeed, a rare and startling treasure of a book.Lia Purpura is the author of Increase (essays), Stone Sky Lifting (poems), The Brighter the Veil (poems), and Poems of Grzegorz Musial: Berliner Tagebuch and Taste of Ash (translations). Her awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Prose, a Pushcart Prize, a Fulbright Fellowship, the Associated Writing Programs Award in Creative Nonfiction, and the Ohio State University Press/The Journal Award in Poetry. Her poems and essays have appeared in Agni, DoubleTake, The Georgia Review, The Iowa Review, Parnassus: Poetry in Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She is Writer-in-Residence at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland, and teaches at the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA Program in Tacoma, Washington.
On Migration: Dangerous Journeys and the Living World
by Ruth Padel"Life began with migration." In a magnificent tapestry of life on the move, Ruth Padel weaves poems and prose, science and religion, wild nature and human history, to conjure a world created and sustained by migration.'We're all from somewhere else,' she begins. "Migration builds civilization but also causes displacement." From the Holy Family's Flight into Egypt, the Lost Colony on Roanoke and the famous photograph 'Migrant Mother', she turns to John James Audubon's journey from Haiti and France, heirlooms carried through Ellis Island, Kennedy's "society of immigrants" and Casa del Migrante on the Mexican border.But she reaches the human story through the millennia-old journeys of cells in our bodies, trees in the Ice Age, Monarch butterflies travelling from Alaska to Mexico. As warblers battle hurricanes over the Caribbean and wildebeest brave a river filled with the largest crocodiles in Africa, she shows that the purpose of migration for both humans and animals is survival.
On Mount Hood: A Biography of Oregon's Perilous Peak
by Jon BellOn Mount Hood is a contemporary, first-person narrative biography of Oregon's greatest mountain, featuring stories full of adventure and tragedy, history and geology, people and places, trivia and lore. The mountain itself helps create the notorious Oregon rains and deep alpine snows, and paved the way for snowboarding in the mid 1980s. Its forests provide some of the purest drinking water in the world, and its snowy peak captures the attention of the nation almost every time it wreaks fatal havoc on climbers seeking the summit. On Mount Hood builds a compelling story of a legendary mountain and its impact on the people who live in its shadow, and includes interviews with a forest activist, a volcanologist, and a para-rescue jumper. Jon Bell has been writing from his home base in Oregon since the late 1990s. His work has appeared in Backpacker, The Oregonian, The Rowing News, Oregon Coast, and many other publications. He lives in Lake Oswego, OR.
On Our Watch: The Race To Save Australia's Environment
by Nicola MarkusOur stewardship of this country's natural assets over the past two hundred years has been appalling, and on the current trajectory of careless environmental pillaging, further massive decline would be a certainty . The future of the environment is being decided on our watch . Australia faces unique conservation challenges that most Australians do not know enough about. On Our Watch is an attempt to remedy this situation. Respected conservationist Nicola Markus believes that it is time people realised that our environmental issues are not being solved by those tasked with their solution, and that the support and involvement of the public is essential if we are to make a difference in environmental conservation. In this thoroughly researched and passionately written book, Markus explains the very real and immediate threats to Australia's natural environment and cuts through the spin to show how you can become involved in conserving our environmental heritage.
On Russian Soil: Myth and Materiality (NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies)
by Mieka ErleyBlending close readings of literature, films, and other artworks with analysis of texts of political philosophy, science, and social theory, Mieka Erley offers an interdisciplinary perspective on attitudes to soil in Russia and the Soviet Union from the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. As Erley shows in On Russian Soil, the earth has inspired utopian dreams, reactionary ideologies, social theories, and durable myths about the relationship between nation and nature.In this period of modernization, soil was understood as the collective body of the nation, sitting at the crux of all economic and social problems. The "soil question" was debated by nationalists and radical materialists, Slavophiles and Westernizers, poets and scientists.On Russian Soil highlights a selection of key myths at the intersection of cultural and material history that show how soil served as a natural, national, and symbolic resource from Fedor Dostoevsky's native soil movement to Nikita Khrushchev's Virgin Lands campaign at the Soviet periphery in the 1960s. Providing an original contribution to ecocriticism and environmental humanities, Erley expands our understanding of how cultural processes write nature and how nature inspires culture.On Russian Soil brings Slavic studies into new conversations in the environmental humanities, generating fresh interpretations of literary and cultural movements and innovative readings of major writers.
On Sea Turtle Patrol
by Nancy DawsonCallie is volunteering to track sea turtles on the beach, where they come to lay their eggs.
On The Edge (Fountas & Pinnell Classroom, Guided Reading Grade 6)
by Sean Petrie Judit TondoraA DANGEROUS EXAGGERATION? Micah wants to impress Melody. So when she gets a chance to join Melody climbing the Jagged Giant, she eagerly joins, hiding the fact that she's never been rock climbing before. What if she goes too far—and fails? NIMAC-sourced textbook
On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear
by Richard EllisPolar bears-fierce and majestic-have captivated us for centuries. Feared by explorers, revered by the Inuit, and beloved by zoo goers everywhere, they are a symbol for the harsh beauty and muscular grace of the Arctic. But as global warming threatens the ice caps' integrity, the polar bear has also come to symbolize the environmental peril that has arisen due to harmful human practices. In the past twenty years alone, the world population of polar bears has shrunk by half. Today they number just 22,000. Urgent and stirring,On Thin Iceis both a celebration and a rallying cry on behalf of one of earth's greatest natural treasures.
On Trails: An Exploration
by Robert MoorFrom a brilliant new literary voice comes a groundbreaking exploration of how trails help us understand the world--from tiny ant trails to hiking paths that span continents, from interstate highways to the Internet.In 2009, while thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, Robert Moor began to wonder about the paths that lie beneath our feet: How do they form? Why do some improve over time while others devolve? What makes us follow or strike off on our own? Over the course of the next seven years, Moor traveled the globe, exploring trails of all kinds, from the miniscule to the massive. He learned the tricks of master trail-builders, hunted down long-lost Cherokee trails, and traced the origins of our road networks and the Internet. In each chapter, Moor interweaves his adventures with findings from science, history, philosophy, and nature writing--combining the nomadic joys of Peter Matthiessen with the eclectic wisdom of Lewis Hyde's The Gift. Throughout, Moor reveals how this single topic--the oft-overlooked trail--sheds new light on a wealth of age-old questions: How does order emerge out of chaos? How did animals first crawl forth from the seas and spread across continents? How has humanity's relationship with nature and technology shaped world around us? And, ultimately, how does each of us pick a path through life? Moor has the essayist's gift for making new connections, the adventurer's love for paths untaken, and the philosopher's knack for asking big questions. With a breathtaking arc that spans from the dawn of animal life to the digital era, On Trails is a book that makes us see our world, our history, our species, and our ways of life anew.
On Your Own in the Wilderness (Stackpole Classics)
by Bradford AngierThe classic guide to living amid wild, unspoiled nature by a legendary outdoorsman and an experienced survivalist. A longtime Army colonel, Townsend Whelen later became renowned for his passion for wilderness exploration and his skills as a rifleman. Bradford Angier, inspired by Henry David Thoreau and possessing the same adventurous spirit, advocated for back-to-the-land living and wrote extensively on outdoor survival skills. In this book, they collaborate to offer a guide to discovering the inexpressible thrill of primitive country, the workshop of nature, and the appreciation of wilderness technique. Unspoiled regions possess a quiet beauty and peace—no artificiality, no crowds, all woods uncut. There is unbounded satisfaction and pleasure in successfully meeting the challenge of the wilderness. Colonel Townsend Whelen and Bradford Angier have combined their vast experiences camping and bivouacking to produce the perfect guide to peace and utter freedom. If the wilderness calls you, they invite you to join them and talk about how to live in it. They explain what from their experience they found to be the best ways of entering wild and unspoiled country, of finding their way through it with the right knowledge and equipment, and of living there in comfort and safety. On Your Own in the Wilderness is their explicit direction on how to escape to an earthly paradise.
On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape
by Jared FarmerShrouded in the lore of legendary Indians, Mt. Timpanogos beckons the urban populace of Utah. And yet, no “Indian” legend graced the mount until Mormon settlers conjured it—once they had displaced the local Indians, the Utes, from their actual landmark, Utah Lake. On Zion’s Mount tells the story of this curious shift. It is a quintessentially American story about the fraught process of making oneself “native” in a strange land. But it is also a complex tale of how cultures confer meaning on the environment—how they create homelands. Only in Utah did Euro-American settlers conceive of having a homeland in the Native American sense—an endemic spiritual geography. They called it “Zion.” Mormonism, a religion indigenous to the United States, originally embraced Indians as “Lamanites,” or spiritual kin. On Zion’s Mount shows how, paradoxically, the Mormons created their homeland at the expense of the local Indians—and how they expressed their sense of belonging by investing Timpanogos with “Indian” meaning. This same pattern was repeated across the United States. Jared Farmer reveals how settlers and their descendants (the new natives) bestowed “Indian” place names and recited pseudo-Indian legends about those places—cultural acts that still affect the way we think about American Indians and American landscapes.
On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson
by William SouderPublished on the fiftieth anniversary of her seminal book, Silent Spring, here is an indelible new portrait of Rachel Carson, founder of the environmental movement. She loved the ocean and wrote three books about its mysteries, including the international bestseller The Sea Around Us. But it was with her fourth book, Silent Spring, that this unassuming biologist transformed our relationship with the natural world. Rachel Carson began work on Silent Spring in the late 1950s, when a dizzying array of synthetic pesticides had come into use. Leading this chemical onslaught was the insecticide DDT, whose inventor had won a Nobel Prize for its discovery. Effective against crop pests as well as insects that transmitted human diseases such as typhus and malaria, DDT had at first appeared safe. But as its use expanded, alarming reports surfaced of collateral damage to fish, birds, and other wildlife. Silent Spring was a chilling indictment of DDT and its effects, which were lasting, widespread, and lethal.Published in 1962, Silent Spring shocked the public and forced the government to take action-despite a withering attack on Carson from the chemicals industry. The book awakened the world to the heedless contamination of the environment and eventually led to the establishment of the EPA and to the banning of DDT and a host of related pesticides. By drawing frightening parallels between dangerous chemicals and the then-pervasive fallout from nuclear testing, Carson opened a fault line between the gentle ideal of conservation and the more urgent new concept of environmentalism.Elegantly written and meticulously researched, On a Farther Shore reveals a shy yet passionate woman more at home in the natural world than in the literary one that embraced her. William Souder also writes sensitively of Carson's romantic friendship with Dorothy Freeman, and of her death from cancer in 1964. This extraordinary new biography captures the essence of one of the great reformers of the twentieth century.
On a Rainy Day
by Sarah LuAnn PerkinsA sweet story of a father and daughter's cozy day together as they wait for a storm to pass When rain interrupts their outdoor play, a girl and her father retreat indoors to wait out the storm. As lightning cracks and thunder booms, they each have their own ideas of things they can do together on a rainy day.Told through spare text and bold sound effects, Sarah LuAnn Perkins' unique linocut-like textured illustrations create a fun read-aloud experience for both reader and listener.
On a Reef (Into Reading, Level B)
by Maureen Mecozzi<p>NIMAC-sourced textbook <p>Do you know what a reef is? Read this book to find out what animals and plants live on it!</p>
On a Summer Night
by Deborah HopkinsonStep into the quiet magic of this celebration of summer nighttime and the mystery of a world lit differently by the moon.On a summer night, the world is still. Even the crickets think it’s too hot to sing. But all at once, a girl wakes. In the kitchen, the cat rolls onto its soft paws. A neighbor’s small white dog yaps, a brown rabbit peeks from a hedge, and the leaves of a cherry tree begin to stir in the breeze. Readers witness and wonder: Who has woken them all? In this soothing bedtime story, the quiet of a warm summer night is brought to vivid, magical life with the soft steps of bare feet, the padding of paws, and the bright, golden light of the moon. One by one, each creature is roused and then gently returned to sleep in a lovely and lyrical exploration of wakefulness, restfulness, and the mysterious calm of the night.PERFECT FOR BEDTIME . . . OR ANYTIME: This beautifully illustrated children's book is ideal for soothing young readers to sleep—or encouraging a contemplative break in an energetic day. The story’s engagement with the wonders of nighttime will help children feel comforted by the dark and the prospect of going to sleep rather than afraid of them.READ-ALOUD READINESS: With its lyricism and short refrains, this gentle story is just right for sharing.CONNECTION TO NATURE: This magical book gradually reveals the moon as a character as it wakes girl, cat, dog, rabbit, tree, air, and cloud in turn—and connects them to one another through the welcoming quiet and wonder of a world gilded by moonlight.THE POWER OF SLOWING DOWN: Picture books are often wonderful excuses to slow down and share a moment of gentleness in kids' (and parents') busy lives; this book feels like a deep breath and offers a chance to wonder and reflect.Perfect for:Kids who can't sleep on hot summer nightsParents, grandparents, and caregivers seeking a sweet bedtime bookLibrarians and storytime leaders looking for a summer read-aloudGift givers who want to share a beautiful, lyrical book with someone specialReaders of such classic bedtime stories for kids as Goodnight Moon and The Going to Bed Book
On a Sustainable Future of the Earth's Natural Resources
by Mu. RamkumarOn a Sustainable Future of the Earth's Natural Resources is divided into three sections, with individual chapters contributed by experts on diff erent facets of the earth sciences, natural resources management and related issues. The first section focuses on the status of Earth's resources; land, water, biota and atmosphere. Reviews on the rate of exploitation and the need to conserve these resources for future sustenance are also covered in this section. Th e following section includes chapters elucidating environmental, ecological, climatological and anthropological pressures on sustained nourishment with the Earth's resources. The last section describes management practices, issues and perspectives on sociological, legal, administrative, ICT and strategic efforts that need to be implemented in order to sustain our natural resources. This book covers a broad spectrum of the Earth's resources and sustenance, offering a comprehensive perspective on their past, present and future.
On the Backs of Tortoises: Darwin, the Galapagos, and the Fate of an Evolutionary Eden
by Elizabeth HennessyAn insightful exploration of the iconic Galápagos tortoises, and how their fate is inextricably linked to our own in a rapidly changing world. Finalist for the 2020 E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, sponsored by PEN America Literary Awards The Galápagos archipelago is often viewed as a last foothold of pristine nature. For sixty years, conservationists have worked to restore this evolutionary Eden after centuries of exploitation at the hands of pirates, whalers, and island settlers. This book tells the story of the islands&’ namesakes—the giant tortoises—as coveted food sources, objects of natural history, and famous icons of conservation and tourism. By doing so, it brings into stark relief the paradoxical, and impossible, goal of conserving species by trying to restore a past state of prehistoric evolution. The tortoises, Elizabeth Hennessy demonstrates, are not prehistoric, but rather microcosms whose stories show how deeply human and nonhuman life are entangled. In a world where evolution is thoroughly shaped by global history, Hennessy puts forward a vision for conservation based on reckoning with the past, rather than trying to erase it. &“Fresh, insightful . . . Hennessy&’s melding of human and natural history makes for thought-provoking reading.&” —Booklist (starred review) &“Gripping . . . well-researched and thought-provoking . . . whether you&’re well-versed in the intricacies of conservation or have only just begun to long for a look at the tortoises yourself. On the Backs of Tortoises is a natural history that asks important questions, and challenges us to think about how best to answer them.&” —Genevieve Valentine, NPR &“Wonderfully interesting, informative, and engaging, as well as scholarly.&” —Janet Browne, author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place
On the Burning Edge: A Fateful Fire and the Men Who Fought It
by Kyle DickmanIn the tradition of Sebastian Junger's The Perfect Storm and Robert Kurson's Shadow Divers comes a true and heartbreaking tale of courage, difficult decisions, and ultimate sacrifice. On the Burning Edge, by award-winning journalist and former wildland firefighter Kyle Dickman, is the definitive account of the Yarnell Hill Fire. On June 28, 2013, a single bolt of lightning sparked an inferno that devoured more than eight thousand acres in northern Arizona. Twenty elite firefighters--the Granite Mountain Hotshots--walked together into the blaze, tools in their hands and emergency fire shelters on their hips. Only one of them walked out. Dickman brings to the story a professional firefighter's understanding of how wildfires ignite, how they spread, and how they are fought. He understands hotshots and their culture: the pain and glory of a rough and vital job, the brotherly bonds born of dangerous work. Drawing on dozens of interviews with officials, families of the fallen, and the lone survivor, he describes in vivid detail what it's like to stand inside a raging fire--and shows how the increased population and decreased water supply of the American West guarantee that many more young men will step into harm's way in the coming years.
On the Clean Road Again
by Willie NelsonFor more than 40 years, Willie Nelson has been a national treasure, contributing many memorable songs to our musical canon. His impact, however, extends far beyond the scope of his music. A champion of family farms, Nelson has helped mobilize support for the American farmer, both as a founder of Farm Aid and more recently as one of the nation's most knowledgeable and recognized advocates of the use of biodiesel-a clean-burning, renewable fuel made from vegetable oils or animal fats. In this funny and inspirational book, Nelson confronts our dependency on foreign oil as a source of energy. Through facts, stories, and interviews with everyday Americans, he explains the benefits of biodiesel as an alternative fuel that not only drastically reduces carbon dioxide emissions, but also may help save our family farms.
On the Edge
by Char MillerOn the Edge grew out of a lifetime spent living and traveling across the American Southwest, from San Antonio to Los Angeles. Char Miller examines this borderland region through a native's eyes and contemplates its considerable conflicts. Internal to the various US states and Mexico's northern tier, there are struggles over water, debates over undocumented immigrants, the criminalizing of the border, and the region's evolution into a no-man's land.The book investigates how we live on this contested land --how we make our place in its oft-arid terrain; an ecosystem that burns easily and floods often and defies our efforts to nestle in its foothills, canyons, and washes.Exploring the challenges in the Southwest of learning how to live within this complex natural system while grasping its historical and environmental frameworks. Understanding these framing devices is critical to reaching the political accommodations necessary to build a more generous society, a more habitable landscape, and a more just community, whatever our documented status or species.
On the Edge
by Char MillerOn the Edge grew out of a lifetime spent living and traveling across the American Southwest, from San Antonio to Los Angeles. Char Miller examines this borderland region through a native's eyes and contemplates its considerable conflicts. Internal to the various US states and Mexico's northern tier, there are struggles over water, debates over undocumented immigrants, the criminalizing of the border, and the region's evolution into a no-man's land.The book investigates how we live on this contested land --how we make our place in its oft-arid terrain; an ecosystem that burns easily and floods often and defies our efforts to nestle in its foothills, canyons, and washes.Exploring the challenges in the Southwest of learning how to live within this complex natural system while grasping its historical and environmental frameworks. Understanding these framing devices is critical to reaching the political accommodations necessary to build a more generous society, a more habitable landscape, and a more just community, whatever our documented status or species.