"The dramatic story of the signature environmental disaster of our time and an inspiring tale of scientific resistance by a relentless physician who stood up to power. Flint was already a troubled city in 2014 when the state of Michigan--in the name of austerity--shifted the source of its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Soon after, citizens began complaining about the water that flowed from their taps--but officials rebuffed them,...

"In [this book], [the authors] consider the major dimensions of the Arctic region and the linkages beyond--from the geopolitical to the environmental. They examine the causes, drivers, and effects of cultural, physical, political, and economic change, and ponder the future of the Arctic"--Provided by publisher.

The Everglades was America's last frontier, a wild country long after the West was won. In this book, Michael Grunwald chronicles how a series of visionaries tried to drain and "reclaim" it, and how Mother Nature refused to bend to their will; in the most harrowing tale, a 1928 hurricane drowned 2,500 people in the Everglades. But the Army Corps of Engineers finally tamed the beast with levees and canals, converting half the Everglades into sprawling...

The Great Lakes--Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior--hold 20 percent of the world's supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work and recreation for tens of millions of Americans. But they are under threat as never before, and their problems are spreading across the continent. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is prize-winning reporter Dan Egan's compulsively readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right...

"The Everglades is an incredibly unique ecosystem. It's so unique, there's no other place on Earth called an 'everglade!' It's the breeding ground for wading birds, filters and supplies water to the people that live around it, and is so important to the survival of species in south Florida that much of it has been protected as a national park. Readers travel through the 'river of grass' in this accessible volume, introducing the natural wonder that...

"In the mid-1800s seventy-five million buffalo roamed in North America. In little more than fifty years, there would be almost none." The death of the buffalo and the settlers' farming and ranching practices endangered the prairie, as drought made the farmland crumble to dust. To help repair the land, the buffalo had to be saved.

An environmental History of California during the Gold Rush. Between 1849 and 1874, almost $1 billion in gold was mined in California. With little available capital or labor, here's how: high-pressure water cannons washed hillsides into sluices that used mercury to trap gold but let the soil wash away; eventually more than three times the amount of earth moved to make way for the Panama Canal entered California's rivers, leaving behind twenty tons...

The smog beast wafted into downtown Los Angeles on July 26, 1943. Nobody knew what it was. Secretaries rubbed their eyes. Traffic cops seemed to disappear in the mysterious haze. Were Japanese saboteurs responsible? A reckless factory? The truth was much worse--it came from within, from Southern California's burgeoning car-addicted, suburban lifestyle. Smog town is the story of pollution, progress, and how an optimistic people confronted the epic...

Recounts the decades-long saga of the New Jersey seaside town plagued by childhood cancers caused by air and water pollution due to the indiscriminate dumping of toxic chemicals.

Significant beyond tragic oil spills and hurricanes, the Gulf has historically been one of the world's most bounteous marine environments, supporting human life for millennia. Based on the premise that nature lies at the center of human existence, Davis takes readers on a compelling and, at times, wrenching journey from the Florida Keys to the Texas Rio Grande, along marshy shorelines and majestic estuarine bays, both beautiful and life-giving, though...