Books
5000 Days to Save the Planet
We live in a fragile and beautiful world which we are busy destroying and polluting. If radical action is not taken now, then the future of our planet hangs in the balance.
5000 Days to Save the Planet has been written by the editors of The Ecologist magazine, one of the oldest and most respected international environmental journals. Illustrated with 250 stunning photographs, it is a plea on behalf of the plane, an explanation of what humanity is doing to the planet and a manifesto of what needs to be done to save the planet.
Barely fifty years ago the world’s environment was still largely in balance. The assault on the rain forests had barely begun, there were no holes in the ozone layer and global warming was an academic theory. The world was a vast, beautiful and powerful place; how could we possibly damage it?
Today we are told that our planet is in crisis, that we are destroying and polluting our way to a global catastrophe. Modern man has lost respect for the earth in his greed for comfort, speed and commercial gain. Now everyone knows about the ozone hole, the destruction of the rain forests is a global issue, atmospheric warming has arrived, and every day there are more warnings of the dire consequences of not taking action to address these problems. But despite the rhetoric of concern, governments around the world are doing little or nothing to remedy the problems. We may have as little as fifteen years, perhaps as short a time as 5000 days to save the planet…
The Story of Earth and Life
‘It is inordinately difficult for most people to relate past events described by earth scientists to the world we see around us today. Reason and logic are strained when they describe mountains that were once seas, or seas where there were once mountains. It is hoped that this book will go some way to alleviating this kind of difficulty.’– from the Introduction Southern Africa is without equal in terms of geology, a treasure trove of valuable minerals with a geological history dating back some 3 600 million years. In addition, the evolution of plants and animals, especially mammals and dinosaurs, is well preserved in the region, which also has among the best records of the origin of modern man.
The Story of Earth and Life provides a fascinating insight into this remarkable history – how southern Africa’s mineral deposits were formed, how its life evolved and how its landscape was shaped. Along the way readers will be enthralled by accounts of the Big Bang that marked the beginning of time and matter, by drifting and colliding continents, folding and fracturing rocks, meteors colliding with the Earth, volcanic eruptions, and the start of life. Other topics include why South Africa is so rich in minerals, how glacial deposits came to be found in the Karoo, why dinosaurs became extinct, how mammals developed from reptiles, and how closely humans are related to the apes. The answers to many such questions can be found here. The book is comprehensively illustrated with explanatory diagrams and full color photographs.
You on a Diet
For the first time in our history, scientists are uncovering astounding medical evidence about dieting. Now Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz translate this cutting-edge information to help you shave inches off your waist, by giving you the best weapon against fat: Knowledge. Through their signature entertaining style, Drs Roizen and Oz teach you about your body — how and why it stores calories, burns fat, and reacts to the foods you test your body with. Ultimately, they give you the Plan and formulas that will help you lose up to two inches from your waist in two weeks on your way to your ideal size.
By following the YOU diet and YOU activity plan, you will…
- Challenge your beliefs about diets
- Learn to rule the elegant systems controlling your body fat
- Never feel hungry
- Never yo-yo again
- Feel better, look better, and live healthier
Equal parts information, motivation, and change-your-life action, YOU: On a Diet will revolutionize the way you think about yourself and the food you consume, so that you’ll diet smart, not hard. Welcome to your body on a diet.
A New Green History of the World
Like Jared Diamond’s COLLAPSE, Clive Ponting’s book studies the relationship between the environment and human history. It examines world civilizations from Sumeria to ancient Egypt, from Easter Island to the Roman Empire and it argues that human beings have repeatedly built societies that have grown and prospered by exploiting the Earth’s resources, only to expand to the point where those resources could no longer sustain the societies’ populations and subsequently collapsed. He shows, for example, how the fall of Rome has particular and vital importance for our modern global civilization. Destructive environmental behaviour today takes place on a much larger scale than ever before and the consequences will be correspondingly greater. Ponting argues for a higher sensitivity to the finite nature of our resources and the catastrophic impact on our modern world, should we continue to squander those resources. This new edition of Clive Ponting’s international bestseller has been revised, expanded and updated. It provides not only a compelling story of how we have damaged the environment for thousands of years but also an up-to-the-minute assessment of the crisis facing the world today – and the problems that have to be faced in the search for solutions.