Books like Environmental Values in American Culture by Willett M. Kempton

Explore the scientific facts about water and air pollution, energy, global warming, and the ozone layer and learn what actions are needed to protect the United States’ environment.

Dan Egan reveals how the Great Lakes, holding 20% of the world's surface fresh water, face invasive species, toxic algae, climate change, and water diversion threats, urging urgent protection strategies.

In many areas of the world, environmental degradation in and around human settlements is undermining prospects for both socioeconomic justice and ecological sustainability. To explore the issues involved in this worldwide problem, Keith Pezzoli focuses on a dramatic instance of conflict that grew out of the unauthorized penetration of human settlements into the Ajusco greenbelt zone, a vital part of Mexico City's ecological reserve. The Mexican government's initial response to these "irregular" human settlements was contradictory and reactive. Social unrest, ecological deterioration, and violence have all been part of the continuing crisis. The heart of the book is the story of what happened when residents of Los Belvederes, a group of Ajusco settlements, fought relocation by proposing that Los Belvederes be transformed into Colonias Ecologicas Productivas, or productive ecology settlements. Through innovative organized resistance, their grassroots movement generated environmental and social action that eventually won crucial state support. Pezzoli draws upon urban and regional planning theory and practice to examine biophysical as well as ethical and social sides of the story, and he uses the Mexican experience to identify planning strategies to link economy, ecology, and community in sustainable development.