Ecology: A Pocket Guide Book

Everyone talks about the weather, the old saw has it, but no one can do anything about it. Similarly, it seems, we all talk about environmental problems, but few of us seem able to propose rational solutions to such matters as global warming and deforestation. Ernest Callenbach, the author of the futuristic novel Ecotopia, aims with this little primer to increase our ecological literacy, and thus our ability to act on pressing environmental problems with a better informed vision. Beginning with his homespun rendering of the principal laws of ecology ("All things are interconnected. Everything goes somewhere. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Nature bats last.") Callenbach shows that all environmental relationships are reciprocal, and that if you tinker with one element of an ecosystem--by, say, removing trees from a rainforest--you are likely to alter other elements as well, more often than not for the worse. His lively entries cover the basic chemistry of air, the usefulness of bacteria (from which, Callenbach reminds us, all life forms descended), the ecosystemic effects of industrial pollution, and the principles of sustainable city design--all in the space of 150 pages. This slender, well-written volume serves as a welcome brush-up course for environmental activists and as an introduction for beginning students of the ways of the physical world. --Gregory McNamee