National Wildlife Federation Features Taking Back Eden

Oliver Houck's Taking Back Eden: Eight Environmental Cases that Changed the World was featured on the National Wildlife Federation site, with the NWF proclaiming:

"The American notion of empowering citizens to sue for environmental protection, like empowering them to vote, is out of the bottle, the culture of judicial correction of environmental wrongs is growing, and there is no going back. Nor should there be."

Mercury Discovered in Bay Area Fish

High mercury levels have been found in fish for sale in San Francisco. Concern over mercury poisoning in seafood was raised in 2008 by Dr. Jane Hightower in Diagnosis: Mercury.

Menhaden Overfishing Featured on WTTG

Washington, DC Fox News affiliate WTTG has a two-part video investigation on fish oil and menhaden overfishing that features H. Bruce Franklin, author of The Most Important Fish in the Sea.

From the accompanying article:

With as many as a million fish swimming in the same school, menhaden are easy prey. And easy to spot from airplanes used by industrial fisherman to guide boats around the school, so they can close up a net like a purse string.

Called purse seine fishing, the fishermen then stick a vacuum into the net to suck up the entire school.

“It’s bad enough in the ocean, but when you’re doing it in the Chesapeake Bay, it’s devastating,” says Bruce Franklin, the author of “The Most Important Fish in the Sea,” a book about menhaden. “We’re at a very dangerous stage right now and the question is very, very simple. Will we stop before it’s too late?"

• A Fish Oil Story (New York Times op-ed)
• The Most Important Fish in the Sea by H. Bruce Franklin

Peter Gleick vs. $4 Water

On his City Brights blog, Bottled and Sold author Peter Gleick writes:

In the latest skirmish in the war on tap water, the sports arena that hosts the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team -- with the lovely name of the Quicken Loans Arena concession -- has removed its drinking water fountains. The only way for thirsty fans to get water now is to wait in line at the concessions counter for a free small cup or pay $4 for bottled water or try to drink water from the bathroom faucets.
[...]
This story is doubly ironic. In July 2006, Cleveland was the butt of an abusive advertisement by Fiji Water -- a controversial water bottler that ships water from the South Pacific to markets around the world. The city fought back with water-quality tests and discovered that compared to Fiji Water, the city's tap water was as high, or even higher in quality, won blind taste competitions, and was a thousandth the cost.

Read it all at his SFGate blog.

Despite Debate, "The Sea Still Rises"

Orrin Pilkey and Rob Young, authors of The Rising Sea, have a new piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer that tracks sea level rise around North America:

Polls indicate that an alarming number of Americans have doubts about global warming, even to the point of suspecting that scientists are lying about the data. Meanwhile, much of the bluster about climate change centers on whether it has been colder this year than last.

But instead of relying on short-term thermometer readings, we should be listening to Mother Earth. Let's take a trip around the northern half of the Western Hemisphere to see the real-world evidence that our planet is getting warmer.

Gary Paul Nabhan, Author of Where Our Food Comes From, Honored with Vavilov Medal

Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, scientist at the University of Arizona Southwest Center and founder of the Renewing America's Food Traditions (RAFT) alliance, was honored Thursday in Moscow with the Vavilov Medal for his innovative work on documenting and conserving food biodiversity. The Medal was presented at his Vavilov Memorial Lecture on the Origins, Dispersal and Conservation of Domesticated Plants and Animals that has been hosted by the Vavilov Genetics Institute since 1987. It is the longest-running honor for excellence in documenting and conserving agricultural biodiversity. Nabhan is only the second foreign scientist to receive this honor in Moscow.

H. Bruce Franklin on "The Devastation of the Marine Environment"

The Most Important Fish in the Sea author, H. Bruce Franklin, was interviewed in a January article of TIME Magazine that discusses the overfishing of menhaden populations for oil supplements. Read the full article here.

Peter Gleick Calls for Water to Haiti

I urge people to make donations to whatever organizations they trust to deliver help. I've donated to the American Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, but there are many more.

In any disaster like this, after search, rescue, and immediate medical care, clean and safe water becomes a critical need. Without it, water-related diseases rapidly become a serious health threat for the survivors.
[...]
In previous work I've done on basic human needs, I've identified 50 liters per person per day as a minimum for drinking, sanitation, cooking, and cleaning. In a disaster of this magnitude, even a fraction of that amount would be a blessing. Emergency water supplies can be provided in many ways, but there is no consistent approach or technology.
[...]
I'm sure there are many more good suggestions and ideas out there. Let's hear them. This is one of the things Americans do really well. We step up in whatever ways we can.

Read more at Peter Gleick's SFGate blog.

Scientists Need to Learn to Communicate, Says the Washington Post

From an opinion piece by Chris Mooney:

In a world of blogs, cable news and talk radio, scientists are poorly equipped to communicate their knowledge and, especially, to respond when science comes under attack.
...
If the global-warming battle has any rival in its intensity, its nastiness and its risk to scientists if they do not talk to the public, it is the long-standing conflict over the teaching of evolution. Science's opponents in this fight are highly organized, and they constantly nitpick evolutionary science to cast the field into disrepute.
...
A spate of recent books, from Randy Olson's Don't Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style to Cornelia Dean's Am I Making Myself Clear?: A Scientist's Guide to Talking to the Public, seem like perfect assigned reading.

Related: Don't Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style

The Most Important Fish in the Sea and fish conservation championed by the New York Times

In December 16^th's New York Times, op-ed contributor Paul Greenberg writes:

The entire Atlantic coastal ecosystem relies [on] a big-headed, smelly, foot-long member of the herring family called menhaden, which a recent book identifies in its title as "The Most Important Fish in the Sea."
[...]
Quite simply, menhaden keep the water clean. The muddy brown color of the Long Island Sound and the growing dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay are the direct result of inadequate water filtration — a job that was once carried out by menhaden.
[...]
President Obama and the Congressional leadership have repeatedly stressed their commitment to wresting the wealth of the nation from the hands of a few. A demonstration of this commitment would be to ban the fishing of menhaden in federal waters. The Virginia Legislature could enact a similar moratorium in the Chesapeake Bay (the largest menhaden nursery in the world).

The menhaden is a small fish that in its multitudes plays such a big role in our economy and environment that its fate shouldn’t be effectively controlled by a single company and its bottles of fish oil supplements. If our government is serious about standing up for the little guy, it should start by giving a little, but crucial, fish a fair deal.

Related: H. Bruce Franklin's The Most Important Fish in the Sea

Oliver Houck, author of Taking Back Eden, interviewed

Oliver Houck, Taking Back Eden author, went on WWNO to discuss his book and its impact.

Chasing Molecules Named in Booklist's Top 10 Sci-Tech Books of 2009

Elizabeth Grossman's Chasing Molecules headline's Booklist Online's Top-10 list of "significant and intriguing books" by a "stellar group of science writers."

Read: Top 10 Sci-Tech Books: 2009, Booklist Online

Army Corps of Engineers Responsible for Damage from Katrina

In a groundbreaking decision Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers' mismanagement of an enormous shipping channel was directly responsible for flood damage to homes and businesses in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The decision favored three homeowners and a business owner who now stand to receive $700,000 in damages from the U.S. government. At the heart of the case is the mismanaged shipping channel called the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, or "Mister Go." Called the "hurricane highway" by locals, Mister Go was built by the army corps with the strong support of political and economic interests and against the warnings of scientists and conservationists.

The story of MRGO has been chronicled in the new book Catastrophe in the Making: The Engineering of Katrina and the Disasters of Tomorrow by William Freudenburg, Shirley Laska, Robert Gramling, and Kai Erikson.

Related: Robert Gramling's blog post on the MR-GO.

Doug Bevington Extols the Virtues of Grassroots Environmental Efforts

Doug Bevington, author of The Rebirth of Environmentalism, explains how successful environmental grassroots can succeed.

Jerry Yudelson Explains the Advantages of Green Building

If you missed our green building webinar with Jerry Yudelson, don't worry--you can download the free video replay here.

GreenWorks Book Club

If you're looking for great deals on green building books, this is the place to start. USGBC members get discounts of up to 40% on book club titles, which cover the latest trends in the blossoming field of green building.

Island Press Editor Elinor Ostrom Wins Nobel Prize

Elinor Ostrom, editor of Protecting the Commons, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Science for her research on common spaces. She shares this year's prize with Oliver Williamson.

Read more here.

Why Island Press?

What makes us special? Why support Island Press? Find out here!

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More Island Press News Pacific Institute President Peter Gleick deplores the "War on Rationality" Food historian Gary Nabhan on the benefits of real-world seed cultivation and replanting Unquenchable author Robert Glennon on water shortages and solutions Food Historian Gary Nabhan on NPR's "Morning Edition" Nature's Services Author Gretchen Daily Honored for Saving Biodiversity Robert Glennon on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Earth Island Institute retrospective of Paul Ehrlich's career Earth Island Institute reviews More: Nature, Population and What Women Want Nature reviews Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming Click here to watch the replay of our climate change live chat Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming Author Anthony Barnosky on Wisconsin Public Radio The Washington Post reviews Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming New Scientist review of Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming

Expert Profile: Callum Roberts Roberts is Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of York in England. He is a prolific author and researcher, and has advised the US, British, and Caribbean governments on the creation of marine reserves. He authored The Unnatural History of the Sea for Island Press in 2007. Find more experts. »

Green Building in the Face of the Economic Downturn

Watch Jerry Yudelson, author of The Green Building Revolution, describe how green building may thrive in the face of the economic downturn. Yudelson also recently revealed his “Top Ten” list of green building trends for 2009. He says green building will continue to grow in spite of the global credit crisis and the ongoing economic recession.

Read Yudelson's Top Ten list »