Central Skagit Library District

Thirty years ago Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about climate change. Now he broadens the warning: the entire human game, he suggests, has begun to play itself out. Bill McKibben's groundbreaking book The End of Nature -- issued in dozens of languages and long regarded as a classic -- was the first book to alert us to global warming. But the danger is broader than that: even as climate change shrinks the space where our civilization...

"On the Tibetan Plateau, there are wild yaks with blood cells thinner than those of horses' by half, enabling the endangered yaks to survive at 40 below zero and in the lowest oxygen levels of the mountaintops. But climate change is causing the snow patterns here to shift, and with the snows, the entire ecosystem. Food and water are vaporizing in this warming environment, and these beasts of ice and thin air are extraordinarily ill-equipped for the...

Narrated by Liam Neeson, Love Thy Nature points to how deeply we've lost touch with nature - and takes us on a mesmerizing cinematic journey through the beauty and intimacy of our relationship with the natural world. Neeson is the voice of "Sapiens" (our collective humankind) who, in the past few thousand years, has come to believe that we have transcended nature. Yet, experts uncover how a new era of nature-connection might just be dawning: "Biomimicry"...

Discover the impact of the human footprint in The World Without Us. Take us off the Earth and what traces of us would linger? And which would disappear? Alan Weisman writes about which objects from today would vanish without us; how our pipes, wires, and cables would be pulverized into an unusual (but mere) line of red rock; why some museums and churches might be the last human creations standing; how rats and roaches would struggle without

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Presents a riveting account of the dramatic changes now occurring around the world due to climate change. Leonardo DiCaprio travels to five continents and the Arctic to witness climate change firsthand, going on expeditiions with scientists and meeting with political leaders. Also presents steps individuals and society can take to prevent the disruption of life on our planet.

"As if Annie Dillard walked into THE WORLD WITHOUT US: a beautiful, lyrical exploration of the places where nature is flourishing in our absence. Some of the only truly feral cattle in the world wander a long-abandoned island off the northernmost tip of Scotland. A variety of wildlife not seen in many lifetimes has rebounded on the irradiated grounds of Chernobyl. A lush forest supports thousands of species that are extinct or endangered everywhere...

Significant beyond tragic oil spills and hurricanes, the Gulf has historically been one of the world's most bounteous marine environments, supporitng human life for millennia. Based on the premise that nature lies at the center of human existence, Davis takes readers on a compelling and, at times, wrenching journey from the Florida Keys to the Texas Rio Grande, along marshy shorelines and majestic estuarine bays, both beautiful and life-giving, though...

Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams explore through intimate and thought-provoking dialogue one of the most sought after and least understood elements of human nature: hope. Drawing on decades of work that has helped expand our understanding of what it means to be human and what we all need to do to help build a better world, the book touches on vital questions, including: How do we stay hopeful when everything seems hopeless? How do we cultivate hope...

"Learn how climate change impacts the temperatures here on Earth in this engaging and informative read."--