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BOOKS AND VIDEOS
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com   Global Warming: Causes, Effects, and the Future by Dr. Mark Maslin, 2007. Planet Earth is warming faster now than at any other time in the past 1,000 years, and global warming may be the greatest threat to ever face humanity. Counteracting it is our greatest challenge. Mark Maslin explains what global warming is and presents incontrovertible evidence that it is really happening. He examines the impact that climate change will have on health, agriculture, water resources, coastal regions, forests, and wildlife. He also looks at the efforts being made to counteract the effects of global warming and the ways in which we can adapt.       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com   Earth under Fire: How Global Warming Is Changing the World by Gary Braasch, 2007. Six years ago, award-winning photojournalist Gary Braasch began an extraordinary journey around the world to observe and document environmental changes resulting from the warming of our climate. In this stunning, eye-opening book, he brings us along to witness firsthand what he saw as he crossed both the Antarctic and Arctic Circles, trekked above 15,000 feet in the Andes, dove on damaged coral reefs, and followed scientists into the field on four continents. In more than one hundred photographs, including dramatic before-and-after comparisons, Braasch records communities, landscapes, and animals at risk because of receding glaciers, eroding coastlines, rising sea levels, and thawing permafrost. In the accompanying text he surveys the science behind climate change and introduces native people, lifelong observers, scientists, and others who are noticing striking changes right now. Alongside Braasch's compelling words and images, essays by eminent scientists discuss the impacts of climate change on the oceans, biodiversity, fresh water, mountain cultures, plants and animals, and our health. More than a warning, Earth under Fire, the most complete illustrated guide to the effects of climate change now available, offers an upbeat and intelligent account of how we can lessen the effects of our near total dependence on fossil fuel using technologies and energy sources already available.       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com   An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It by Al Gore, 2006. Our climate crisis may at times appear to be happening slowly, but in fact it is happening very quickly-and has become a true planetary emergency. The Chinese expression for crisis consists of two characters. The first is a symbol for danger; the second is a symbol for opportunity. In order to face down the danger that is stalking us and move through it, we first have to recognize that we are facing a crisis. So why is it that our leaders seem not to hear such clarion warnings? Are they resisting the truth because they know that the moment they acknowledge it, they will face a moral imperative to act? Is it simply more convenient to ignore the warnings? Perhaps, but inconvenient truths do not go away just because they are not seen. Indeed, when they are responded to, their significance doesnt diminish; it grows.       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com   An Inconvenient Truth (DVD) Starring: Al Gore , Billy West (II), 2006. Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Al Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change in the most talked-about documentary of the year. An audience and critical favorite, An Inconvenient Truth makes the compelling case that global warming is real, man-made, and its effects will be cataclysmic if we don't act now. Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way: often humorous, frequently emotional, always fascinating. In the end, An Inconvenient Truth accomplishes what all great films should: it leaves the viewer shaken, involved and inspired.       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com   Down-to-Earth Guide To Global Warming by Laurie David and Cambria Gordon, 2007. Irreverent and entertaining, DOWN TO EARTH is filled with fact about global warming and its disastrous consequences, loads of photos and illustrations, as well as suggestions for how kids can help combat global warming in their homes, schools, and communities. Engagingly designed, DOWN TO EARTH will educate and empower, leaving readers with the knowledge they need to understand this problem and a sense of hope to inspire them into action.       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com   Priority One: Together We Can Beat Global Warming by Allan J. Yeomans, 2007. We can do better than just slow down global warming. We can fix it. This book shows how. Increasing the organic matter in the world's soils is the only practical and cost-effective way to stop the worldwide catastrophe of global warming. By switching to sustainable energy sources that don't add carbon to the atmosphere, we can keep global warming stopped. Yet these proven solutions are poorly understood, scattered among specialties, and surrounded by confusion and conflict. Priority One shows how to combine these proven solutions so we can stabilize the world's climate, bolster lagging economies, and enhance human health. But we need to act now, before this one-time opportunity is gone.       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com   Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community by Bill McKibben, 2007. Bestselling author Bill McKibben turns activist in the first hands-on guidebook to stopping climate change. The leading scientist at NASA warns that we have only ten years to reverse climate change; the British government's report on global warming estimates that the financial impact will be greater than the Great Depression and both world wars-combined. Bill McKibben warns that it's no longer time to debate global warming, it's time to fight it. Drawing on the experience of Step It Up, a national day of rallies held on April 14, McKibben and the Step It Up team of organizers provide the facts of what must change to save the climate and show how to build the fight in your community, church, or college. They describe how to launch online grassroots campaigns, generate persuasive political pressure, plan high-profile events that will draw media attention, and other effective actions. This essential book offers the blueprint for a mighty new movement against the most urgent challenge facing us today.
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com   Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic by John De Graaf, et al, 2001. The definition of affluenza, according to de Graaf, Wann, and Naylor, is something akin to "a painful, contagious, socially-transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more." It's a powerful virus running rampant in our society, infecting our souls, affecting our wallets and financial well-being, and threatening to destroy not only the environment but also our families and communities. They offer historical, political, and socioeconomic reasons that affluenza has taken such strong root in our society, and in the final section, offer practical ideas for change. These use the intriguing stories of those who have already opted for simpler living and who are creatively combating the disease, from making simple habit alterations to taking more in-depth environmental considerations, and from living lightly to managing wealth responsibly.
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com   Stepping Lightly by Mark Burch, 2000. Burch considers not only the deeper rewards of voluntary simplicity for individuals, but the practice of simple living as a thoughtful approach to solving modern social and environmental problems. Global consumerism is destroying human communities and the natural environment. Burch persuasively argues that the individual practice of voluntary simplicity is an essential part of the solution to the overall problem of sustaining human communities and the planet into the distant future. He asserts that one's personal commitment to voluntary simplicity forms the individual and cultural foundation which liberates time, money, and creative energy, allowing for both individual activism and collective problem solving.
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com   Design Outlaws on the Ecological Frontier edited by Chris Zelov and Phil Cousineau, 2001. This is one of those BIG THINK books...learn from creative minds through the decades..from house designs, and ecosystems to autos and water usage. Buckminster Fuller, Frank Lloyd Wright, Amory & Hunter Lovins, and many more share their genius!! Learn about domes, synergistic systems, organic design,and much more...remember, stay interested in the Future..because someday we all have to live there. In Design Outlaws, Christopher Zelov, Phil Cousineau and Brian Danitz have gathered together the interviews of over twenty of the leading designers and architects from their award winning documentary film: Ecological Design: Inventing the Future. This far reaching collection is lavishly illustrated and will inspire both the professional and the general reader alike. "This book constitutes a collection of the best writings on ecological design I have ever read. It provides the reader with a optimistic, but pragmatic set of ecological design principles and directions, in a conversational manner that makes it easy to read." -- Michael Guerra The Permaculture Magazine. "Revisiting and updating ideas of recent decades that are still ahead of our times." -- Michael Marien Future Survey
The Great Work: Our Way into the Future by Thomas Berry, 2000       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com	Hell and High Water: The Global Warming Solution by Joe Romm, 2008       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com	Global Warming Demystified by Jerry Silver, 2008       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com	200 Ways To Stand Up and Fight Global Warming by Donovan Caine, 2007       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
A Question of Balance: Weighing the Options on Global Warming Policies by William D. Nordhaus, 2008       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com	50 Simple Steps to Save the Earth from Global Warming by Green Patriot Working Group, 2008       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com	Hot House: Global Climate Change and the Human Condition by Robert Strom, 2007         Click on image to buy from Amazon.com	Global Warming and Climate Change (Compact Research Series) by Emma Carlson Berne, 2007       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
21st Century Essential Guide to Carbon Sequestration: Greenhouse Gas and Carbon Dioxide Capture and Pollution Control to Prevent Global Warming, Coal Power Plant Research (CD-ROM) by U.S. Government, 2006       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com	Global Warming (What If We Do Nothing?) by Neil Morris, 2007       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com	Global Warning: The Last Chance for Change by Paul Brown, 2007       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com	Time: Global Warming: The Causes, the Perils, the Politics - and What It Means for You by Editors of Time Magazine, 2007       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
	This Is My Planet: The Kids' Guide to Global Warming by Jan Thornhill, 2007       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com	The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook: 77 Essential Skills To Stop Climate Change by David de Rothschild, 2007       Click on image to buy from Amazon.com

 

ASK THE EXPERT ADVICE Links to the Ask the Experts page

Sim Van der Ryn is a recognized pioneer and expert in sustainable architecture and planning practices. Through his varied experience as principal of several design firms, Professor of Architecture at the University of California Berkeley and California State Architect, he has provided countless examples of state-of-the art ecological design and has been a catalyst toward the current ground swell of interest and support for these practices. As President and Chief Designer at Van der Ryn Architects in Sausalito, he is currently designing a new generation of environmentally friendly buildings. The American Institute of Architecture designated his Real Goods Solar Living Center in Hopland, California as one of the nation’s top 10 projects for Earth Day 1999. His current design for the West End Golden Gate Park Pavilion Community Center is the pilot project for the City of San Francisco’s Green Building Program. Van der Ryn is author of several seminal books in the fast growing field of “green architecture” including Sustainable Communities (Sierra Club, 1986), Ecological Design (with Stuart Cowan, Island Press, 1996) and Geometry of Hope (manuscript, 2002).

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q: What is improved environmental quality and why is the environment so important for building houses? A: (Kelly) The environment is important because this refers to the air that we breathe, the water we drink, and the eco-systems that all living organisms must live in, including us people. If the environment is not safeguarded (and improved from its current status) then we are all in big trouble as a species. The choices that we make regarding our housing can affect the quality of our environment. Q: I would like to know how green building and environmental planning are related to each other, I mean how they can be effectively used to help save the environment, and if its not much of a hassle is it possible to supply me with a few examples. A: (Kelly) Sustainable architecture has got to be part any any environmental planning because the built environment has such a huge impact on the natural environment. It is only through careful design and materials use can we expect to reverse trends of environmental degradation. A lot of this has to do with how we obtain and use energy, and since it is possible to create a net zero energy home, this should be our goal.

Disclaimer Of Liability And Warranty I specifically disclaim any warranty, either expressed or implied, concerning the information on these pages. Neither I nor any of the advisor/consultants associated with this site will have liability for loss, damage, or injury, resulting from the use of any information found on this, or any other page at this site. Kelly Hart, Hartworks, Inc.   Home       Site Map        STORE For Email contact go to About Us We are interested in exchanging links with other informative sites on closely related topics   Web www.greenhomebuilding.com VISIT OUR OTHER WEBSITES:   [Solar Car]      [Which Hobbit Lives Here?]     [Dream Green Homes]