Balance-of

This is a collection of essays from the first ten years of the journal Wild Earth that is unlike anything being published about the environment today. Environmentalists, activists, and leading scientists recognize it as being on the cutting edge of environmental studies and proposals. It has consistently established environmental goals that, in the words of publisher Dave Foreman, "...should be scientifically justifiable, visionary, and idealistic." It is that and much more. The contributors typically look far into the future in an effort to envision a vibrant North America, both culturally and ecologically, and then suggest a game plan that will come into fruition a hundred, or perhaps a thousand years from now. If you are looking for a thoughtful, outside-the-box discussion on the ethical debate on whether we treat the natural world as a commodity or community, this is as good as it gets. But beware, this is not your typical collection of environmental proposals.

The essays range from the proposal to reintroduce free-ranging elephants along the lower Colorado River and the Rio Grande to proposals to preserve 60 percent of the state of Florida as wildlife corridors for panthers and bears. There is an essay by J. Baird Callicott, professor of philosophy at the Univ. of North Texas that argues the Wilderness Act of 1964 is outdated and outmoded and a reply essay by Reed Noss, an international consultant on biodiversity issues, that provides the reader with a concise, succinct summary of the issues involved and is guaranteed to raise your level of awareness to this hotly debated topic.

The essay by Jamie Sayen, a New Hampshire activist, argues there are a number of similarities between nineteenth century slavery in the South and the industrial forestry of the twentieth century. He argues that both proponents have used the central theme of property rights to control and exploit humans and the environment. If this essay doesn't get your juices flowing nothing will. There are essays on the proposal to stabilize and reduce the population growth; the slaughter of Bison in Yellowstone park; the importance of wilderness areas for grizzly habitat; the importance of the sound of silence to our physical and mental well being; and the never ending issue of logging, clear-cutting, and the preservation of jobs.

In all, 38 contributors combine to present as foresighted, controversial, and stimulating discussion on the future of the environment as one can find in one volume. Regardless of your political leanings or environmental philosophy, this book is bound to stimulate, invigorate and perhaps make you a participant in the ongoing debate. An excellent offering by a first rate publisher.

I'm a huge fan of the Wildlands Project, an environmental organization started by Dave Foreman and others in the early 90s, so I was excited to read this new book. The book is more or less a "greatest hits" collection from Wild Earth, the magazine of the Wildlands Project. The book contains about 40 essays from America's best nature and conservation writers, including big names like Bill McKibben, Wendell Barry, and Barry Lopez, but it also has a number of really good pieces by lesser-known conservationists like Louisa Willcox, one of the country's leading experts on grizzly bears. This book is great for those new to nature and conservation writing, as it provides readers with a literary "who's who" of the conservation world. "Wilderness wonks" (like me) will get a lot from it as well, given the eclectic mix of authors represented and the quality of the writing. If you like this kind of writing, you should definitely look for Wild Earth magazine as well--its far and away the best environmental magazine out there. It's hard to find in bookstores, but well worth looking for (your best bet is to just get it from the Wildlands Project online).

I read this book strait through and I couldn't wait for the following three to come out. Turtledove is a master of alternate history.

Harry Turtledove, the master of alternate history, masterfully tells the story of what might have happened had aliens attacked Earth during World War II. Everything, from historical figures to weapons, is very realistic. This book is the first chapter of the World War series and shows the arrival of the aliens and Earth's frantic efforts to unite against the otherworldly enemy. Among strange things that occur (and strange things are legion in this book) is a British bombing raid made against an alien base protected by German aircraft. Read this book.

The simple but elegant and wise premise of this book is that balance comes when you do what you most enjoy doing in the way you enjoy doing it. When you are out of balance, you can get needlessly fearful, anxious, tired, depressed or angry. The numerous examples in the book are convincing case studies showing that remedies don't have to be expensive, exotic or difficult to get you back into balance. It's well-written too. Highly recommended.

in my world history class i was doing a project on the japanese economic miracle after world war ii. this was the main source of information i used. i thought that this book was full of information involving the japanese and their sturggle to gain economic success. this book also taught me a lot about how the americans felt about the japanese. although in war they were enemies, after the war, since the US occupied Japan, due to their help, the japanese were able to get the success they wanted. if you are working on a project or just want to know about the japanese economic miracle, then i strongly suggest this book.

A compassionate physician explains with examples how our healthcare system fails us and proposed alternatives to current structures.

The author makes a convincing case that the development of large trading blocks actually hinders World trade. As an example, he mentions how the European Community (EC) is a trading block that consists in a protectionist fortress that hinders free trade with trading partners outside the EC.

The advent of the EC, and the growing trade U.S. deficit has lead government officials to respond by developing a large trading block of its own to compete with the EC. This entails an expansion of NAFTA to eventually include all Central and South American countries.

The author states that such a U.S. trade policy is misguided on several counts, because:

First, the U.S. already accounts for over 40% of trade with the Americas. This share is far higher than either Japan or the EC share with the Americas. Thus, the U.S. has nothing to gain from spending much energy on expanding NAFTA; it already has achieved the end goal of being by far the dominant trading partner within this region.

Second, the trade volume with Central and South America is minuscule compared to U.S. trade with Asia.

Third, it is triggering a response in kind from both Japan and China who are now both working on developing and expanding a large and competing Asian trading block. The U.S. would loose a lot more market share of World Trade by this development (Asian trading block), than it would by expanding NAFTA. The author states that the impetus of developing an Asian trading block is a direct reaction to the U.S. effort in expanding NAFTA.

Instead, the author suggests that the U.S. trade policy should be redirected along the following lines:

First, the U.S. should abandon its pursuit of forming protectionist trading blocks.
Second, it should promote free trade by giving its full support to the current round of the World Trade Organization (WTO). This is a far better option to promote free trade then working on bilateral free trade agreements (FTA) that are really protectionist in nature towards all trading partners excluded from the FTAs.
Third, it should reduce or eliminate the tariffs it imposed on steel and textile. These domestic industries do not need to be protected anymore.
Fourth, the U.S. should reduce its volume of agricultural subsidies. By doing so, it will be in a position to pressure the EC, and specifically France, to reduce its own huge agricultural subsidies.

The author maintains that the U.S. misguided trade policy emanates from a misperception from the public and Congress regarding the U.S. trade performance. The perception is that U.S. is performing poorly in international trade as it incurs large trade deficits, and is getting routinely beaten by Japan, China, and the EC who routinely achieve large trade surpluses, especially with the U.S. This view is based on an outdated Mercantilist perspective that states that exports and trade surpluses are good and imports and trade deficits are bad. Nothing could be further from the truth. What really matters is the productivity of the labor force which is the engine behind a country's economic growth and rising living standard. Focusing on these more meaningful economic metrics (labor productivity, living standards, economic growth), the U.S. has beaten the socks out of its major trading partners, specifically Japan and the EC.

The author brings two other interesting points. The first one is that the U.S. share of World trade has remained remarkably steady at around 12% to 13% over the past century. This negates the perception that the U.S. performance in international trade is weaker now than it used to. It clearly is not. The other point is that the U.S. trade mix is almost evenly distributed between the EC, Asia, and North America (Canada and Mexico). In other words, the U.S. has the most diversified and optimal mix of trading partners. As mentioned above, its pursuit of expanding trading blocks with the Americas will cause the U.S. to be increasingly locked out of trades with the other two major regions (Asia and EC). This would cause a decline in the U.S. diversification of trading partners. This is clearly not a favorable development as demonstrated by the author.

In conclusion, this book is one of the most eloquent defense of true free trade. It can also be viewed as an equally eloquent attack on the formation of trading blocks including NAFTA, and the EC.

Dylana Accolla and Peter Yates simplify chinese medicine and herbology for handling physical and emotional problems. Shows how to easily prepare chinese herbal remedies and also includes special exercises for special needs. This book is very easy to read and follow. A great book for anyone who wants to understand chinese medicine, but has been confused reading other books on the subject. I have personally used the treatments in this book and they work. I'm glad they wrote it!

Bill Hubert's "Bal-A-Vis-X" finally gave me answers to many of the questions I've had over the years concerning those students who just can't seem to learn. I now have "hands-on" remedies for all my students. The kids love the exercises and they provide me with information about the kids I couldn't have gotten any other way.

Like my professor said, "excellent diplomatic history," and about the comprehensive treatment of the topic, "case closed!"

Mr. Lensen's books are always excellent but this one, his last before he passed away, is fantastic. The detail that he has gone into describing the situation in Choson (Korea) just prior to the Russo-Japanese War is very indepth and gives the reader the background of the events leading upto the war between these two countries. With his vast knowledge of the Russians and their expansion towards Korea and Japan, and his access to the Russian files he has made his book invaluable to all who would study and understand Korea.