This volume brings together primary source selections of enduring intellectual value--classic articles, book excerpts, and research studies--that have shaped environmental studies and our contemporary understanding of it. The book includes carefully edited selections for the works of the most distinguished environmental observers, past and present. Selections are organized topically around the following major areas of study: energy, environmental degradation, population issues and the environment, human health and the environment, and environment and society.

Table of Contents:
Part 1. An Overview of Environmental StudiesCHAPTER 1. Preservation vs. Conservation1.1. John Muir, from The Mountains of California1.2. Gifford Pinchot, from The Fight for Conservation1.3. Aldo Leopold, from A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and ThereCHAPTER 2. Fundamental Causes of Environmental Problems2.1. Lynn White, Jr., from "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis," Science2.2. Barry Commoner, from The Closing Circle: Nature, Man and Technology2.3. Paul R. Ehrlich, from The Population Bomb2.4. Garrett Hardin, from "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science2.5. Donella H. Meadows et al., from The Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind2.6. Peter M. Vitousek et al., from "Human Domination of Earth's Ecosystems," ScienceCHAPTER 3. Ecology and Ecosystems3.1. G. Evelyn Hutchinson, from "Homage to Santa Rosalia, or Why Are There So Many Kinds of Animals?" The American Naturalist3.2. Eugene P. Odum, from "Great Ideas in Ecology for the 1990s," BioscienceCHAPTER 4. The Hydrosphere and the Geosphere4.1. John Teal and Mildred Teal, from Life and Death of the Salt Marsh4.2. Orrin H. Pilkey, from "Geologists, Engineers, and a Rising Sea Level," Northeastern GeologyPart 2. EnergyCHAPTER 5. Energy and Ecosystems5.1. Chancey Juday, from "The Annual Energy Budget of an Inland Lake," Ecology5.2. John M. Fowler, from Energy and the EnvironmentCHAPTER 6. Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy6.1. Amory B. Lovins, from Soft Energy Paths: Toward a Durable Peace6.2. Christopher Flavin and Seth Dunn, from "Reinventing the Energy System," in Lester R. Brown et al., State of the World 1999: A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable SocietyPart 3. Environmental DegradationCHAPTER 7. Forests, Wilderness, and Wildlife7.1. William O. Douglas, from Sierra Club v. Morton7.2. William Cronon, from Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature7.3. John Vandermeer and Ivette Perfecto, from "Rethinking Rain Forests: Biodiversity and Social Justice," Food First BackgrounderCHAPTER 8. Pollution8.1. John Evelyn, from Fumifugium: Or the Inconvenience of the Aer and Smoake of London Dissipated8.2. Beverly Paigen, from "Controversy at Love Canal," Hastings Center Report8.3. J. W. Maurits la Rivière, from "Threats to the World's Water," Scientific AmericanCHAPTER 9. Global Warming and Ozone Depletion9.1. Mario J. Molina and F. S. Rowland, from "Stratospheric Sink for Chlorofluoromethanes: Chlorine Atomc-atalysed Destruction of Ozone," Nature9.2. Richard Elliot Benedick, from Ozone Diplomacy: New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet9.3. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), from Climate Change 1995: IPCC Second Assessment Report, Part 4. Population Issues and the EnvironmentCHAPTER 10. Species Extinction and the Loss of Biodiversity10.1. E. O. Wilson, from "The Current State of Biological Diversity," in E. O. Wilson, ed., Biodiversity10.2. Stephen Jay Gould, from Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural HistoryCHAPTER 11. Population Control Controversies11.1. Betsy Hartmann, from Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control, rev. ed.11.2. Julian L. Simon, from The Ultimate Resource11.3. Joel E. Cohen, from How Many People Can the Earth Support?Part 5. Human Health and the EnvironmentCHAPTER 12. Food12.1. Wendell Berry, from The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture12.2. Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins, from Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity12.3. Lester Brown, from "Food Scarcity: An Environmental Wakeup Call," The FuturistCHAPTER 13. Pest Control13.1. Rachel Carson, from Silent Spring13.2. Robert van den Bosch, from The Pesticide ConspiracyCHAPTER 14. Environmental Carcinogens and Hormone Mimics14.1. Sandra Steingraber, from Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment14.2. Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, and John Peterson Myers, from Our Stolen FuturePart 6. Environment and SocietyCHAPTER 15. Political and Economic Issues15.1. Mark Sagoff, from "At the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima or Why Political Questions Are Not All Economic," Arizona Law Review15.2. Robert D. Bullard, from Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality15.3. Janet N. Abramovitz, from "Valuing Nature's Services," in Lester R. Brown et al., State of the World 1997CHAPTER 16. Environmental Ethics and Worldviews16.1. World Commission on Environment and Development, from Our Common Future16.2. Paul W. Taylor, from "The Ethics of Respect for Nature," Environmental Ethics16.3. Dave Foreman, from Confessions of an Eco-Warrior16.4. Vandana Shiva, from "Women's Indigenous Knowledge and Biodiversity Conservation," in Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, Ecofeminism16.5. Mark Hertsgaard, from Earth Odyssey: Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future