The Environment - Valparaiso

The Control of Nature is John McPhee's bestselling account of places where people are locked in combat with nature. Taking us deep into these contested territories, McPhee details the strageties and tactics through which people attempt to control nature. Most striking is his depiction of the main contestants: nature in complex and awesome guises, and those attempting to wrest control from her - stubborn, sometimes foolhardy, more often ingenious, and always arresting characters.

Earth is made up of four basic parts: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the lithosphere, and the biosphere. The atmosphere is made up of the gases that surround the planet. The hydrosphere consists of the water in the oceans, lakes, rivers, and air. The lithosphere is the rocky surface of Earth both on land and under the oceans. The biosphere encompasses all living things on Earth. The actions and interactions between these components are what make the Earth a constantly changing entity. Weather changes, rain falls, soil washes away, and plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, all through the properties of solids, liquids, and gases. Clear and concise, ""Earth Chemistry"" explains these chemical or physical changes on Earth, exploring how the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere relate to and interact with one another.

For more than a hundred years, environmental policy has taken many different approaches, from conservation to cleanup of polluted areas. Debates over how the environment can best be protected often become heated.

Documentary.
In 2009, Delaware River Basin native Josh Fox was presented with an interesting proposal: lease his family lands to a natural gas company for a new method of drilling called hydraulic fracturing, and get a check for $100,000. He wouldn't have to do anything but sit back and collect the money. Curious about the process, Fox embarks on an exploration of other areas where natural gas drilling was already in progress, to observe firsthand any potential downsides. In Dimock, Pennsylvania, a town surrounded by fracking activity, he hears stories of wells exploding, black water, flammable drinking water, headaches, pains, long-term sickness. Fox goes on to tour 25 states, cataloging an endless string of frustrated and sick Americans whose land has become toxic and explaining the legislation pushed through by former vice president Dick Cheney, exempting energy companies from key environmental acts--exemptions that make fracking invisible to any regulation or monitoring.
Winner, 2010 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize: Documentary--Josh Fox; 2010 Environmental Media Awards, USA EMA Award: Documentary--Josh Fox ; 2010 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Artistic Vision Award
*DVD can only be viewed in the library*

An Inconvenient Truth--Gore's groundbreaking, battle cry of a follow-up to the bestselling Earth in the Balance--is being published to tie in with a documentary film of the same name. Both the book and film were inspired by a series of multimedia presentations on global warming that Gore created and delivers to groups around the world. With this book, Gore, who is one of our environmental heroes--and a leading expert--brings together leading-edge research from top scientists around the world; photographs, charts, and other illustrations; and personal anecdotes and observations to document the fast pace and wide scope of global warming. He presents, with alarming clarity and conclusiveness--and with humor, too--that the fact of global warming is not in question and that its consequences for the world we live in will be disastrous if left unchecked. This riveting new book--written in an accessible, entertaining style--will open the eyes of even the most skeptical.

Former Vice President Al Gore explains the facts of global warming, presents arguments that the dangers of global warning have reached the level of crisis, and addresses the efforts of certain interests to discredit the anti-global warming cause. Between lecture segments, Gore discusses his personal commitment to the environment, sharing anecdotes from his experiences.

*DVD can only be viewed in the library*

What were the landscapes of the past like? What will landscapes look like in the future?Landscapes are all around us, but most of us know very little about how they have developed, what goes on in them, and how they react to changing climates, tectonics and human activities. Examining what landscape is, and how we use a range of ideas and techniques to study it, Andrew Goudie andHeather Viles demonstrate how geomorphologists have built on classic methods pioneered by some great 19th century scientists to examine our Earth.Using examples from around the world, including New Zealand, the Tibetan Plateau, and the deserts of the Middle East, they examine some of the key controls on landscape today such as tectonics and climate, as well as humans and the living world. They also discuss some key 'landscape detectives' fromthe past, including Charles Darwin who did some important, but often overlooked, research on landscape.Concluding with the cultural importance of landscape, and exploring how this has led to the conservation of much 'earth heritage', they delve into the future and look at how we can predict the response of landscapes to climate change in the future.

Even as environmental consciousness and green habits become increasingly embedded with numerous individuals, many of the planets natural resources and species remain in danger. On a global scale, effectively protecting the environment requires top-down solutions from political and economic structures and the incorporation of environmentalist initiatives into legislative and legal action. This intuitive volume examines the emergence of the environmental movement and the basic principles of environmental law. It also takes a close look at the causes of and governmental responses to species endangerment. Maps, annotated illustrations, and sidebars support the riveting narrative.