2 comments about Environmental Economics.

1. This book holds an excewllent treatment of the range and focus of topics which fall under the environmental resource economics realm. The author addresses both the fundamentals and advanced social concepts mixed with excellent examples of the economic principles which resource managers must make during the policy process and the inherent problems these policies present. A must read for anyone interested in working in the public sector.



2. Learn how our environmental regulations really impact our economy and what the true cost of clean up is.

5 comments about The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World?, Second Edition.

1. Anyone who considers themselves an environmentalist should read this book. Kovel makes the case the environmental destruction is inherent to the capitalist system and for the most part, reforms are little more than band-aids for a system that is, by its very nature, out of control.

   Kovel focuses less on the environmental problems we face today (which you can find in any other book); and focuses more of the book lies in describing how the nuts and bolts of the capitalist economy works (which is what sets this book apart from all others).

   He makes the case that actions like voluntarism, isolated cooperatives, bioregionalism, and so forth will eventually get rolled over by the immense power that capital has and are not long-term solutions.

   My only problem with the book is that, while Kovel accurately describes the underlying environmental problem as having its root in capitalism itself, he doesn't present a coherent solution except an extremely vague "eco-socialism" (that's why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5). You can tell by this last chapter that he is groping for some sort of answer - going off in many directions.

   If you want a cutting analysis of the problem human beings face today, get this book! If you want a revolutionary solution, this book is only a start.




2. I completely agree with the political agenda of this book. I am glad it was written. Kovel is RIGHT ON TARGET.
   But the book was dreadful to plow/bore through. Talk about OBTUSE VERBIAGE. There is still this awful tradition out there that if you wor dsomething so that it "sounds" brilliant -- it must be. I hate that tradition. We need plain language and simple articulation. This book is just the opposite. Here are but a couple of random examples to give you some idea: "Capital's invasion takes place across an ecosystemic manifold encompassing both culture and nature, with points of commodity formation arising everywhere" (p.55) -- got that? or "If 'entropy' is a logarithmic measure of the probabilistic disorder of a given physical system, the Second Law states that for such a system, whether it be the air in a room, a living body, or the earth as a whole, so long as neither energy nor matter is added to said system -- that is, so long as the system is 'closed' -- then its entropy will rise with time" (p.93) -- got that?
   Look, there were many times in this book where I wrote "right on!" in the margins. There were also many times whene I wrote "blah blah blah"...I was going to assign this to my students of social theory -- I teach at a small liberal arts college. No way. Very few people can plow through this dense stuff.



3. Joel is driven my his heart but he has the power to convince through his logical argumentation. He is on point and will make you laugh, cry, riot,de-materialize and rethink capitalism every step of the way. If you need a pressing reminder as to why Marx's critique of capital is so critical this book is it.



4. As a socialist with relatively unfocused environmental concerns, I had long looked forward to reading Joel Kovel's 'ecosocialist manifesto' "The Enemy of Nature". I had hoped that the book would help me clarify and organize my ecological thinking and its relation to socialism.
   
   Although I very much wanted to appreciate "The Enemy of Nature", I was largely, though not completely, disappointed. For the most part, I found the writing overly abstract, weighed down by unnecessarily abstruse academese and excessive Marxian verbiage. I got little out of it, and feel there is little to get out of it in the first place.
   
   "The Enemy of Nature" is divided into three parts: "The Culprit", on capital and capitalism; "The Domination of Nature", on the relationships between capitalism and nature; and "Towards Ecosocialism", on green politics and where to go from here. Of the three, I found only the last worthwhile, in part because it had to touch on the "real world" in its discussions of current political issues, in part because Kovel was able to at least partially articulate some inspiring conclusions and visions for the future.
   
   The first part, "The Culprit", presents a pretty standard modern Marxist discussion of capital and capitalism, with emphasis on the "early Marx" and Marx's relatively few remarks on ecology and the environment. Although decent at times, these chapters include quite a bit of phrase-dropping of notions like "ecosystemic manifolds", "the prime desideratum of the capitalist" and the "First Contradiction" and "Second Contradiction of Capital" (complete with the capital letters), that did little but aggravate me.
   
   This pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo only worsens in the second part, "The Domination of Nature". Far too much of the discussion of "The Domination of Nature" is dominated by an extended, unclear, and so far as I can tell utterly irrelevant expostulation of the second law of thermodynamics, and its supposed relationships with Hobbes, "Social-Darwinism", "God", evolution, the "Gaia principle", and the meaning of life itself. All of this fully activated my bull detector, and I remain highly skeptical of whatever it is exactly that Kovel is arguing in this section of the book.
   
   In the end, after reading "The Enemy of Nature", I remain a socialist with relatively unfocused environmental concerns. I still hope someday to find a clear, powerful, inspiring ecosocialist manifesto that will help synthesize my conceptions of socialism and ecology, but after this decidedly mixed bag, I'm far less eager to search it out.



5. I bought and read this book several years ago.
   I recall that it was horribly written, even though I am entirely sympathetic with the author's message. The book appeared to be written by a professor who does not know how to express himself simply or clearly.
   
   I give it one star because it is written so poorly. I would like to give it zero stars, but I believe that isn't an option in the Amazon ranking system.
   
   If ecosocialists can't write better than this, we're certainly doomed.

No comments about Call Center Operation: Design, Operation and Maintenance.

No comments about Paradigm Wars: Indigenous Peoples' Resistance to Globalization.

1 comments about Retaking Rationality: How Cost Benefit Analysis Can Better Protect the Environment and Our Health.

1. This book is a great guide for environmentalists who want to make cost-benefit analysis more fair. The authors get into the nitty-gritty of why cost-benefit analysis tends to favor industry and give a blueprint for how it can be reformed. An important book for anyone working within or with the government to better protect the environment.

1 comments about Designing the Green Economy: The Postindustrial Alternative to Corporate Globalization.

1. As an environmental economist, I find Milani's treatment of much the same territory as Hawken/Lovins/Lovins to have a much broader vision. The key concept Milani introduces is regenerative economics, in contrast to the increasingly conventional notion of sustainability. As the name suggests, Milani's approach is about designing economic activity so as to improve, not simply maintain natural systems. While Hawken/Lovins/Lovins are awash with technical detail and appeals to the business ethics, Milani asks us to consider community organizing as a key element to green economics.

No comments about Conservation and Biodiversity Banking: A Guide to Setting Up and Running Biodiversity Credit Trading Systems (Environmental Markets Insight Series).

5 comments about Life's Matrix: A Biography of Water.

1. We live on the planet called Earth. That just shows our chauvinism and inability to see the larger picture. The planet ought to be called Water. As Philip Ball points out in _Life's Matrix: A Biography of Water_ (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), water covers two thirds of the globe, and seen from space, water in its three different states is what determines what Earth looks like. It also determines that every other heavenly body we have been able to see looks to us like a lifeless orb. It is water that defines life for us, and when we go poking our noses into other planets, one of the first things we try to find is water. So no wonder that Ball has called this a biography.

   And like a good biography, the book covers all the aspects of his subject. He goes into the origins of water back to the big bang. He shows how we found it on the moon and Mars, and of all places, our Sun. Since he is a doctor of physics, it is not really surprising that he looks at the chemistry and physics of his subject, detailing why ice expands, and why you can ski on solid water but not on asphalt. He tells how its currents run the oceans, and how we don't completely understand the molecular happenings in water flow, or in the formation of snowflakes. He tells us about the dire problems we could have if we don't start handling this most precious and most taken-for-granted resource with more wisdom. He reports at length on the foolishness of cold fusion of heavy water, or of polywater.

   In short, this book wonderfully covers every aspect of water you could think of. Ball writes with humor and excellent analogies, and even when the science gets complicated, he is an excellent guide.




2. We live on the planet called Earth. That just shows our chauvinism and inability to see the larger picture. The planet ought to be called Water. As Philip Ball points out in _Life's Matrix: A Biography of Water_ (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), water covers two thirds of the globe, and seen from space, water in its three different states is what determines what Earth looks like. It also determines that every other heavenly body we have been able to see looks to us like a lifeless orb. It is water that defines life for us, and when we go poking our noses into other planets, one of the first things we try to find is water. So no wonder that Ball has called this a biography.

   And like a good biography, the book covers all the aspects of his subject. He goes into the origins of water back to the big bang. He shows how we found it on the moon and Mars, and of all places, our Sun. Since he is a doctor of physics, it is not really surprising that he looks at the chemistry and physics of his subject, detailing why ice expands, and why you can ski on solid water but not on asphalt. He tells how its currents run the oceans, and how we don't completely understand the molecular happenings in water flow, or in the formation of snowflakes. He tells us about the dire problems we could have if we don't start handling this most precious and most taken-for-granted resource with more wisdom. He reports at length on the foolishness of cold fusion of heavy water, or of polywater.

   In short, this book wonderfully covers every aspect of water you could think of. Ball writes with humor and excellent analogies, and even when the science gets complicated, he is an excellent guide.




3. Wow. At first having noted the author's vita on the cover, I wasn't certain that an individual trained "only" in chemistry and physics could adequately write a book that was "obviously" about geology. As I read on, however, I realized that Phillip Ball's intention really was to write a "biography of water" as the subtitle suggested. The book in fact contains information about water from almost every perspective: from the origins of its constituent elements oxygen and hydrogen in cosmological processes to it's social and political effects in the modern world. The book covers it all. Because I have almost a complete degree in geology, I enjoyed most particularly the geological effects of water including its effects on geomorphology, its impact on glacial formation, its effect on climate and ocean physics, etc. The author lost me a little in his discussion of the chemistry and physics of the substance, but I still found what I understood of it very instructive. Water's function in the evolution of life and in the biochemistry of cellular metabolism was also interesting to me since I enjoy studying evolution-paleontolgoy and earth history were my major focus in studying geology--and I also am a nurse caring for patients whose fluid and electrolyte status arises from the cellular effects of water.

   Probably the most important messages in the book, however, are those regarding conservation and utilization of water resources. Certainly the information about the disparity of water availability and quality between the western and 3rd world countries, between urban and rural use, and between countries and states that have competing interests in a particular watershed were very enlightening. It was surprising to learn that part of the problems of the Middle East revolve around water availability and use. These issues certainly provide previews to future problems that will almost certainly arise globally in the not too distant future!

   A very thorough, interesting and multifaceted book.




4. Full of quotations of classics and poetry, written as literature with wonderful similes and metaphors, this "Biography of Water" roams from ancient civilizations to outer planets. The middle third was the most satisfactory, with details of the various forms of ice, how organisms cope with freezing, and what makes water so unusual. Explanations of its hydrogen bonding patterns and how they might change to make ice less dense than liquid water, and the funny shrinkage of water above its melting point and are all interesting. The many functions of water in biological systems, right down to the molecular level are given, and there are a number of cleverly done diagrams.
   Ball's major blunder in this middle part was his complete failure to explain what holds normal liquids together, that is, what are the van der Waals forces (p165)? This leads to an absurd reason for the cohesion cell membranes, where the hydrocarbon tails of lipid bilayers are said to be held together merely by their repulsion of water (p253). Most college chemistry texts do better on both counts (including Linus Pauling, "General Chemistry", 3rd ed., 1965). The UV light from the sun is presented as detrimental only (p235). Ball seems unaware that vitamin D is formed from the action of UVB on cholesterol in the skin, and that there is less cancer the closer humans live to the equator. In recounting all the effects on the development of life (atmospheric composition, heat, cold, nutrients), Ball ignores the contribution of 10 times the radioactivity the Earth now has in promoting chemical reactions and mutations long ago (see T. D. Luckey, "Radiation Hormesis", 1991).
   More minor problems are speaking of a vacuum "sucking" (p240), the pH of stomach acid as 1 rather than 1-3 (p247), missing the true function of the Glomar Challenger as a submarine salvage vessel (p47), a confusion of the effect of pressure on a melting point by comparing with the effect of pressure on the the boiling point of water (p51), implying that the reaction of sulfur dioxide with water gives sulfuric acid (p101) rather than sulfurous acid, and that paraffin wax has a viscosity anywhere near as low as 15 centipoises (p282).
   It is when Ball enters the realm of politicized science that serious misinformation flows. Water vapor is by far the most important greenhouse gas and human activities add plenty of it to the atmosphere by irrigation, burning methane which puts 2 molecules of water into the air with just 1 of carbon dioxide, of burning gasoline, jet and diesel fuel, unlike p66. See "Hot Talk, Cold Science" by S. Fred Singer. Cold fusion has been replicated in half a dozen laboratories; the reality of the effect cannot be dismissed by ignoring the publications and merely listing ones that do not show the effect) (p307). See "Excess Heat" by Charles G. Beaudette, 2001. Memory effects in water at really high dilutions are real (see Lionel Milgrom, New Scientist, 11 Jun 03). Homeopathy effects were demonstrated against placebo in trials (BMJ 1991;302:316-323), all contrary to p334.
   Read this "chocolate and cherry syrup coated" book at your own risk.

   --Joel M. Kauffman 20 May 04




5. It's amazing what you can find on the internet. In contrast to what an earlier review suggests this is a very interesting, well written and scientifically accurate book. If you want to read a book about the importance and uniqueness of water then this is the one for you.
   
   I stressed its accuracy as despite the claims nuclear fusion at room temperature is not a reality (why don't we all have palladium teacups powering our laptops) and the memory of water is far from proven (primarily because the proponents can't work out how it forgets)! The New Scientist is not a peer-reviewed journal (and nor should it be as speculation and opinion are important parts of what it does) so quoting an article is no proof at all.
   
   The only query I have is why this book was renamed "Life's matrix" for the American audience. Has no one heard of H20 (its UK title) over there?

No comments about Clean Car Wars: How Honda and Toyota are Winning the Battle of the Eco-Friendly Autos.

1 comments about Go Green: How to Build an Earth-Friendly Community.

1. It seems that "green" is the buzz word in today's culture and "go green" is a popular slogan. This book by Nancy Taylor will help the novice environmentalist get their feet wet. If you are at all interested in helping to "save the planet", Go Green will help you to find out ways you can move forward and do your part.
   
   Some of the topics that are covered are:
   
   ~Remodeling an existing home to be healthier and more energy-efficient
   
   ~Choosing the right transportation to influence the future
   
   ~Buying local, organic, sustainable food
   
   ~Conserving water at home and at the office
   
   You will also learn what a carbon footprint is...something that I didn't know!
   
   It is easy to read and very helpful. If you want to explore the topic of living "green" than this is a great book to start with.