Essential Environment: The Science Behind the Stories [With Access Code]

Thomas M. Kostigen

You Are Here: Exposing the Vital Link Between What We Do and What That Does to Our Planet

"A passionate and heartfelt call to care." --Bruce Feiler, New York Times bestselling author of Walking the Bible and America 's Prophet In You Are Here, Thomas Kostigen, the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Green Book , takes us to the most extreme environmental areas on the planet to show how what we do from the comfort of our own home affects people, places, and things everywhere. A timely, much-needed alarm that recalls Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth combined with a compelling travel narrative reminiscent of Anthony Bourdain with straight ahead Anderson Cooper-like reporting, You Are Here is "an intriguing and insightful account that deserves to be read by everyone" (Mark Plotkin, Time Magazine Hero for the Planet).

Susan Freinkel

Plastic: A Toxic Love Story

Plastic built the modern world. Where would we be without bike helmets, baggies, toothbrushes, and pacemakers? But a century into our love affair with plastic, we're starting to realize it's not such a healthy relationship. Plastics draw on dwindling fossil fuels, leach harmful chemicals, litter landscapes, and destroy marine life. As journalist Susan Freinkel points out in this engaging and eye-opening book, we're nearing a crisis point. We've produced as much plastic in the past decade as we did in the entire twentieth century. We're drowning in the stuff, and we need to start making some hard choices. Freinkel gives us the tools we need with a blend of lively anecdotes and analysis. She combs through scientific studies and economic data, reporting from China and across the United States to assess the real impact of plastic on our lives. She tells her story through eight familiar plastic objects: comb, chair, Frisbee, IV bag, disposable lighter, grocery bag, soda bottle, and credit card. Her conclusion: we cannot stay on our plastic-paved path. And we don't have to. Plastic points the way toward a new creative partnership with the material we love to hate but can't seem to live ...

Edward Humes

Eco Barons: The New Heroes of Environmental Activism

"Well written and compelling, Eco Barons gives the reader a first glimpse of the activists, philanthropists and gadflies who may well turn out to be the J.D. Rockefellers and Rachel Carsons of our time." -- Cleveland Plain Dealer Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Humes offers readers an eye-opening look at the remarkable philanthropists and visionaries who are devoting their lives to saving the earth from overdevelopment and destruction. In Eco Barons, Humes, the bestselling author of Mississippi Mud and Monkey Girl, gives us fascinating portraits of extraordinary men and women who are dedicated to humankind's survival--as important a contribution to the environmental cause as Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. As the New York Times points out, "Humes's urgent message is clear: We must all strive to become 'eco barons' in our own right if we are to save Planet Earth."