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Geotourism is tourism surroounding geological attractions and destinations. This unique text uses a wealth of case studies to discuss the issues involved in the management and care of such attractions, covering topics such as sustainability, impacts and environmental issues.

Geotourism: Sustainability, impacts and management leads the reader logically through the process, covering both the theories involved and the practicalities of managing such 'environmentally precious' attractions.

* Looks at the challenges of management strategies and frameworks to address the provision of sustainability in areas of geological attractions, offering practical solutions.
* Uses in-depth examples and global case studies from the UK, Australia, Africa, New Zealand and the US (amongst others) to examine from international, national and local perspectives.
* Considers future directions and challenges. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good intro to a new tourism concept, weak chapter on Geotourism in the U.S.
This release-- along with the book Geodiversity-- will give land preservationists, ecotourism workers, geologists, planners andgeographers a decent international intro to this niche. I did not think the chapter by Gates on the U.S. pointed to the direction States need to go to promote and legislate geotourism in planning and environmental review, especially at the local city and county governmental level. One day I hope to see a book like this for, specifically, American practitioners of geotourism. Unfortunately, I don't think there are many in the U.S. who've discovered the possibilities for protecting landscapes from the perspective of geodiversity. Hopefully this title will help to change that. ... Read more

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This book presents analytical frameworks for examining the concept of sustainability in tourism and recreation within the context of sustainable development. It also includes numerous case studies in a variety of cultural, political and environmental contexts. Contributors include well known authorities from North America, Europe and Australia. ... Read more

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The role of stakeholders is integral to corporate sustainability as society increasingly demands that corporations play a role in achieving environmental objectives in addition to building shareholder wealth. In this, the first book to gather cutting-edge research on the interactions between stakeholders and organizations within the context of corporate sustainability, the contributors provide a diversity of perspectives from North America, Europe, and Oceania. The authors examine the role stakeholders play in influencing regulations on global issues such as climate change and national and regional problems. Stakeholder selection of companies and the sustainability issues they choose to target are explored, as are the ways in which organizations motivate them to participate in the evolution of holistic sustainable solutions. The interactions between stakeholder pressures, organizational characteristics and corporate sustainability practices are also covered. Finally, the volume provides an examination of the dynamic structure of organizational fields in the European automobile industry in order to analyze the factors that foster or hinder ecological modernization.Academics, environmental consultants, sustainability managers, NGOs, and international development institutions will find this timely volume of great value. ... Read more

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Sustainability cannot be achieved without good governance. The Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 stated that governance and sustainable development are intimately tied together and the future role and architecture of institutions, from local to international levels, will be crucial determinants to whether future policies and programmes for sustainable development will succeed. But these are changing times. With growing tensions over both globalisation and regionalisation, traditional systems of regulation are being subjected to growing pressure for reform. While states will continue to play a significant, if changed, role in the future, the importance of players from business and civil society is increasing. Sustainable development requires this change. Such an intra- and intergenerational concept cannot be achieved with a top-down approach, but rather needs the participation of all. In fact, the governance of sustainable development requires the exploration of new forms of both social co-operation and confrontation.By doing so, the different levels (global and local), players (state, company and civil society), control structures (hierarchy, market and public-private) and fields of action need to be taken into consideration. "Governance and Sustainability" examines the possibilities of integrating the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development, within the framework of governance processes and how that might steer societies towards sustainability. It takes a close look at the key actors, their agendas and methods, forms of organisation, problems and limits, as well as real-life examples for governance in different areas of society at the regional, national and international level. It is especially interested in exploring the nature of changes in the context of governance; the role of actors in such processes; and analysing how different forms of societal learning can improve governance processes. It concludes that this is a continuous process, characterised by conflicts and learning processes necessary to heighten both awareness of the complexity of the social and environmental problems faced, and the prospects of implementing successful solutions.Based on a major conference hosted to assess the issue of governance post-Johannesburg, the book includes innovative insights from some of the leading thinkers in both sustainable development and governance from academia, business, multilateral organisations and NGOs. It provides a unique perspective on two of the key societal problems facing the world today. ... Read more

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This volume brings together 18 articles published during the last 20 years, devoted to understanding the concept of sustainable development. The volume analyzes sustainability from three different perspectives and addresses sustainable development from prescriptive, descriptive and operational points of view. Each part begins with an article which functions as a survey. An up- to-date introduction serves to tie the three parts of the volume together.

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Science faces major challenges in tackling the interlinked problems of poverty and environmental sustainability. This book calls for a restructuring of our present arrangements to achieve integrated natural resource management--integration across scales, system components, disciplines and knowledge types. It advocates the necessity of modelling, multi-scale analysis and action research, institutional and organizational development, and communication enhancement. The book draws on case studies throughout the world. ... Read more

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Unprecedented levels of wealth, technology and institutional capacity can forge a just, peaceful and ecologically resilient future. However, the authors argue, social polarization, geo-political conflict and environmental degredation are threatening the long-term well-being of humanity and the planet. ... Read more

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Much of the global economy depends upon large-scale government intervention in the form of subsidies, both direct and indirect, to support specific industries or economic sectors. Distressingly, many of these subsidies can be characterized as "perverse" - rather than helping society achieve a desired goal, they work in the opposite direction, causing damage to both our economies and our environments. Worldwide subsidies have long been thought to total $2 trillion per year, but until now, no attempt has been made to determine what proportion of that actually subverts the public interest.

In Perverse Subsidies, leading environmental analyst Norman Myers takes a detailed look at the subject, offering a comprehensive view of subsidies worldwide with a particular focus on the extent, causes, and consequences of perverse subsidies. He defines many different kinds of subsidies, from tax incentives to government handouts, and considers their wide-ranging impacts, as he:

• examines the role of subsidies in policymaking
• quantifies the direct costs of perverse subsidies
• examines the major subsidies in agriculture, energy, road transportation, water, fisheries, and forestry
• considers the environmental effects of those subsidies
• offers policy advice and specific recommendations for eliminating harmful subsidies

... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

telling anecdotes
The authors give insightful explanations of many government subsidies that ultimately act to create waste and, often, lobbying for more subsidies to remediate the effects of the first. Nothing in the book is particularly new. But it brings together many details often omitted in shorter explanations.

Apart from the many tables of numerical data, the book also has telling anecdotes. One is how in the California Central Valley, overhead irrigation is often done at midday, when the temperature might be over 30, or even over 40. Likewise, in Cairo during an international conference, the lawns were watered at such times, in similar temperatures. A dreadful waste. Often, half the water is lost to evaporation. Yet in both countries, government subsidised water is so cheap that profligate use is encouraged.

Subsidies Made Interesting then Boring Again
Early in this book, Norman Myers states that the study of subsidies can actually be interesting, and he's right because many (if not most) subsidies are "perverse." This means that taxpayer-funded assistance to politically well-connected constituencies usually ends up costing general society far more than the costs that were initially targeted. Good examples in America include subsidizing farmers to grow so much of a crop that the price of that crop crashes, which creates the need for another subsidy to destroy or store the surplus (American farmers were paid to destroy a billion oranges in the 1990s); subsidizing fishermen to catch so many fish that the populations are decimated, to be replenished by taxpayer-funded restocking schemes; or subsidizing the removal of forests in watershed areas, then having all of society pay for the resulting water pollution and soil erosion.

This book contains myriad examples of this economic perversity, but the problem is the quantitative (that is, all numbers) methodology. Myers admits early on that data is hard to come by in this discipline, and that's understandable, but the book is still an interminable list of thousands of numbers and figures, which are usually estimated so widely as to be unworkable. As just one example among hundreds, we learn that transportation-related health care costs in America are somewhere between $42 and $182 billion. There are a few higher-level insights about the true social and environmental effects of this madness, but they usually just appear briefly amidst a boring parade of statistical analysis. Watch for the numbers compiled here to be used as references in far more interesting books, that will take a useful qualitative and categorical approach to broad issues that appear occasionally here, but are not dwelled on in any engaging fashion. [~doomsdayer520~]

A Workable Introduction to a Gargantuan, Sisyphean Topic
In their book, Perverse Subsidies, Kent and Myers adequately demonstrate how global tax revenues can at times adversely affect the economy and the environment.The book is an expanded version of a 1998 report on the topic of perverse subsidies, focusing in particular on the OECD nations.Given the magnitude of these pervasive, deleterious subsidies, the authors were genuinely perplexed to find that the subject received scant attention from specialists in economics, public policy and the environment.As such, the book's subject matter would serve as an excellent springboard for hundreds if not thousands of graduate level research projects in the fields of economics, public policy, urban planning and development.

On the organizational front, the authors divided the book into three uneven parts, with the second of the book comprising the majority of the text.Part one of the book consists of two chapters that for the most part are readable and understandable.The first chapter covers basic concepts associated with subsidies in general such as:what subsidies are, the various types of subsidies given, the advantages and disadvantages of subsidies, social equity concerns, scale and externality issues associated with subsidies, and finally an extended discussion of how the authors derived their rough estimate for the size and extent of subsidies globally.The authors astutely note the difficulty of tracking down information regarding subsidies in general, and openly admit that their estimate for global subsidies may not accurately reflect the true value, given the hidden nature of subsidies and the active roles of governments to contain detailed information about payments and transfers.The second chapter tells the reader what constitutes a perverse subsidy (which the authors define as having deleterious and distorting effects on both the economy and the environment), delves heavily into economic and environmental values and costs associated with perverse subsidies, and tersely explains the role of (negative) externalities, focusing almost exclusive on the role perverse subsidies play in exacerbating global warming.

Part two contains individual chapters devoted to the agricultural, energy, transportation, water, fisheries and forestry sectors of the global economy and each chapter outlines the type and magnitude of the subsidies given to each sector, and offers specific policy recommendations for policy intervention, change, and/or overhaul.In each chapter, some countries are emphasized more than others, and this I believe reflects the availability of reliable data more than the political and economic importance, however great or small, of the countries emphasized.Part two also contains a final chapter that discusses the combined effects of perverse subsidies across all sectors presented, as well as their political, economic, and social implications.The last part of the book consists of one chapter, and

For the curious layperson, chapters one, two and nine of the book contain the most useful information, albeit of a general nature.Specialists with an interest in the various sectors emphasized in the book may find one or more of the chapters in Part Two of the book to be of some utility.In addition, researchers in the field may find the book's extensive notes section at the end of the text immensely helpful.

I found the book to be somewhat lacking in three key areas.First, the authors devoted much of their attention to explaining the flaws and holes in their research methodology, data and conclusions.Judicious readers will expect a considerable degree of uncertain in the numbers, data and results, given the magnitude of the challenge before the authors.Because of the breadth of the topic, rigorous statistical analysis may have been difficult to perform, and any attempts to perform such analyses, given the lack of hard data on the topic, may not have been of sufficient utility. However, I felt that too much space was devoted to justifying their numbers in every chapter, and such detailed justification could have been sufficiently presented in the first chapter.Second, graphs and charts would have done much to make the text more readable, and key points presented within the text-rich format would have been better understood in graphical or tabular form.Pie charts, bar graphs and other descriptive, graphical methods would have the reading much more brisk and enjoyable.Third, some key concepts, such as the subsidy, were explained in great detail with skill and precision, but other concepts and issues, such as externalities, costs, values and political dimensions of subsidies, were not very well delineated.Yet, in spite of these moderate criticisms, the authors have managed to write a good introduction to the Hydra-headed, shadowy and amorphous topic of subsidies in the global economy.

Frankly speaking, expositions on dry economic subjects such as subsidies tend to be more effective at eliciting yawns and putting people to sleep than sleeping pills. Nonetheless, not only did the authors convincingly argue that the problem of perverse subsidies is a gargantuan one indeed, they also made their case using an active writing style that engaged the reader, as opposed to making him or her yawn.One can not expect one small volume to do adequate justice to a topic of such magnitude, and for these reasons, the authors should be applauded for bringing some aspects of this gargantuan topic to the public.

Government Sponsored Perversity
Norman Myers and Jennifer Kent have written a comprehensive and engaging book about what turns out to be one of the biggest impediments to environmental quality and sustainablity - perverse subsidies.The book does a splendid job of documenting and quantifying perverse subsidies in six main sectors globally. One thing it lacks, however, is a really concise definition of what perverse subsidies are.Here is what is meant:A subsidy is a payment by a government to an individual or firm.In theory, the intent of this payment should be to decrease the divergence between private and social costs/benefits - to internalize externalities.A perverse subsidy is therefore a payment by a government to an individual or firm which, instead, increases the divergence between private and social costs/benefits.This can include both direct and indirect perverse subsidies. Direct subsidies are direct government payments to agriculture, fossil fuel and nuclear energy,road construction, water, fisheries, and forestry (the six major sectors documented in Myers' book). Some part of these subsidies are, of course, not perverse. They serve the intended purpose of reducing the divergence between private and social costs/benefits.But a large proportion of current direct subsidies are perverse.Myers and Kent estimate that globally 60% of conventional subsidies are perverse.This amounts to $860 Billion annually. Indirect subsidies are the failure of government to internalize externalities (especially environmental externalities) - leaving an unaddressed divergence between private and social costs/benefits. All of these indirect subsidies are (by definition) perverseand Myers and Kent estimate their total at $1,090 Billion annually.The total direct and indirect perverse subsidies worldwide are therefore estimated to be almost $2 trillion annually.As Myers and Kent point out, this is almost three times global military spending, larger than the annual sales of the twenty largest corporations, and four times the annual incomes of the 1.3 billion poorest people on earth.In other words, perverse subsidies are a huge problem, but an inherently "solvable" one whose solution would yield a "double dividend."Eliminating perverse subsidies would first help to reduce the divergence between private and social costs/benefits, thus making the economy function more efficiently.Second, it would free up funds to help solve other pressing problems. Critics will, of course, ague that these estimates are far too uncertain and "mushy" to have any meaning.Myers and Kent acknowledge the huge difficulties, but point out that "As long as the issue of perverse subsidies remains untackled, there tends to be an implicit presumption that their total must effectively be zero: there is the asymmetry of evaluation at distortional work.Of course, this is not what is intended.But as long as a problem is not accorded adequate attention, it is implicitly viewed as if it is not a problem at all." (pp. 21).Myers and Kent "resist the temptation to say we simply cannot appraise perverse subsidies in quantified fashion at all." (pp. 21) Instead they take on the challenge and ask the reader to accept the well documented qualifications that must always accompany any difficult analysis such as this. They also point out that their estimates are almost certainly conservative - further analysis and better data would reveal even larger numbers. Why do perverse subsidies persist?The answer is obvious, given the way our political systems work.One example is enough to demonstrate the magnitude and recalcitrance of the problem.Between 1993 and mid 1996, the American oil and gas industry gave $10.3 Million to political campaigns and received $4 Billion in tax breaks.This represents a benefit/cost ratio of about 400 to 1.Few investments in our economy are anywhere near as lucrative as this!Given these kinds of returns, it is little wonder that perverse subsidies exist and that they will be very difficult to eliminate.But they can be eliminated if they are exposed to the light of day and the substantial public benefits of their removal are brought into the political debate.Campaign finance reform is finally beginning to be seriously considered in the US and removal of perverse subsidies could be the next in line. ... Read more

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This book presents interdisciplinary advances in theory and practice pertaining to rural sustainability and sets forth an action research agenda and policy prescriptions to support rural sustainability with special emphasis on the Accession Countries to the EU. The book will address four themes. The first theme describes recent developments in tools and approaches to linking science, policy and management for biodiversity conservation improvement and their role in the transition to rural sustainability. The second is on challenges for biodiversity conservation in rural areas in Europe and North America as EU enlargement comes to be a reality. The third covers comparing and contrasting case study applications in biodiversity conservation from NATO and NATO partner countries. The last identifies new opportunities for re-structuring science, policy and management to improve biodiversity conservation in rural areas in the context of an enlarged European Union.

IOS Press is an international science, technical and medical publisher of high-quality books for academics, scientists, and professionals in all fields.

Some of the areas we publish in:

-Biomedicine
-Oncology
-Artificial intelligence
-Databases and information systems
-Maritime engineering
-Nanotechnology
-Geoengineering
-All aspects of physics
-E-governance
-E-commerce
-The knowledge economy
-Urban studies
-Arms control
-Understanding and responding to terrorism
-Medical informatics
-Computer Sciences ... Read more

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A beautifully written memoir making a distinctive contribution to Australian literature concerning the immigrant experience.

Purita Echevarria de Gonzalez was born in Manila in the 1920s and describes an enchanted world, forever lost, with great poignancy and compelling immediacy. The reader suffers with her as this world is savagely destroyed by the outbreak of war, the Japanese occupation and the annihilation of the city by American saturation bombardment. The author is equally adept at describing without sentimentality, the halcyon pre-war time of her childhood and teens, and without sensationalism, the horrors of starvation and disease, brutality and massacre.

Manila: A Memoir of Love and Loss makes the past come alive, with its skilful blending of the personal, including a love story which runs through the narrative, and the historical (we briefly glimpse Marcos as a youthful partisan). Finely written, and inspiring in its portrayal of courage and compassion in the face of suffering, this memoir has a haunting quality which makes it impossible to put down. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Charming and touching account
Purita de Gonzalez's account of prewar and WWII Manila will tug at the heartstrings of anyone with some knowledge of what a gracious city Manila was before the Japanese destroyed it in the last months of WWII. One's mind boggles to learn that the Basque community in Manila regularly performed Basque folk dances, or that there was tension between Francoist and pro-Republic Spaniards in Manila. (The Basques, despite generally conservative cultural leanings, were for the secular, even atheistic, Republic, because it guaranteed the political autonomy of the Basque region, whereas Franco was centralist and hostile to regional identities.) These aspects of prewar life in Manila (albeit, of the Hispanic community), from the viewpoint of a current reader, seem quaint and alien, but also touching. My heart broke when she described the sufferings of her female relatives at the hands of the Japanese. I wonder whatever happened to the young man she loved, and whose name she never mentions in the book?

Lovely gem of a book
I bought this book while on vacation in Sydney in 2000. I read the book in 2 days as it was engaging and very hard to put down. I've always loved hearing about prewar Manila from my grandparents and their friends - it was a gracious, happy time where the city truly was 'the pearl of the orient'. The book starts off with Purita's childhood memories - her school life, everyday activities with friends and family. As someone who lives in Manila now, these mundane activities were fascinating as most of the places she described no longer exist.Through Purita's memoirs, you get a glimpse into the life of a family living through this golden age. Which makes the coming of war and the atrocities committed during the war (and documented very honestly and graphically) all the more heartbreaking. As it hints in the title, this is a story of love and loss -- the loss of Purita's innocence, her first love and the permanent loss of the city that Manila once was. I have to add that the photos in this book are also worth seeing.I have purchased 2 more copies of this book which I have lent to many friends and family members. They all loved it as well. Purita, thank you for sharing your memories.

A must read for Filipinos
This book has been an excellent, excellent read. I particularly enjoyed the way in which the author (Purita) painted a picture of Manila before, during and after the war.

A friend of mine lent me a book and I am now buying it for my parents.


... Read more

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Latin America, even before its official "discovery", was looked upon by Europeans as the gateway to the Indies; it came to represent an apparently inexhaustible supply of everything that Europeans needed. Locked up within its jungles and mountain ranges was a store of natural resources that could be translated into wealth. It required ingenuity, and the hard labour of (largely) unwilling hands, to convert these treasures into tangible material benefits. The image of Latin America in European art, as Baddeley and Fraser (1989) demonstrate, is bound up with the "otherness" of the continent. This distance, usually portrayed as the distance between primitive and civilized values, justified the Spaniards and the Portuguese in their conquest of the Americas, and enabled them to put a seal on their conquest by destroying those whose lives were lived closest to Nature, the indigenous population of the continent. The development of Latin America was seldom "sustainable" and much of what was sustainable was destroyed, or degraded during the Colonial period. If the question is asked, "What is unsustainable about development in Latin America today?", it becomes clear that the lessons of history have not been learned, for Latin America's development in the 1990s makes few concessions to future generations, to intergenerational equity and at the same time traps millions of poor people within a cycle of deprivation and missed opportunities. This raises a further question, namely, "Why has sustainability received so little attention in Latin America?". Between them, these question elicit a set of responses, which get to the heart of Latin America's ambivalent relationship with the developed world, and which form the central concern of this book. ... Read more

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Today there are over a billion vehicles in the world, and within twenty years, the number will double, largely a consequence of China's and India's explosive growth.Given that greenhouse gases are already creating havoc with our climate and that violent conflict in unstable oil-rich nations is on the rise, will matters only get worse? Or are there hopeful signs that effective, realistic solutions can be found?
Blending a concise history of cars and their impact on the world, leading transportation experts Daniel Sperling and Deborah Gordon explain how we arrived at this state, and what we can do about it.Sperling and Gordon assign blame squarely where it belongs-on the auto-industry, short-sighted government policies, and consumers.They explore such solutions as getting beyond the gas-guzzler monoculture, re-inventing cars, searching for low-carbon fuels, and more. Promising advances in both transportation technology and fuel efficiency together with shifts in traveler behavior, they suggest, offer us a way out of our predicament.
The authors conclude that the two places that have the most troublesome emissions problems--California and China--are the most likely to become world leaders on these issues. Arnold Schwarzenegger's enlightened embrace of eco-friendly fuel policies, which he discusses in the foreword, and China's forthright recognition that it needs far-reaching environmental and energy policies, suggest that if they can tackle the issue effectively and honestly, then there really is reason for hope.Updated with a new afterword that sheds light on the profound changes in the global economy in the last year, Two Billion Cars makes the case for why and how we need to transform transportation now more than ever.


"Authoritatively prescriptive."
--Tom Vanderbilt, Wilson Quarterly

"Provocative and pleasurable, far-seeing and refreshing, fact-based and yet a page-turner, global in scope but rooted in real places. The authors make a convincing case that smart consumers driving smart electric-drive cars can find the critical path to a safer planet."
--Robert Socolow, Princeton University

"In this insightful and persuasive book, Sperling and Gordon highlight one of the biggest environmental challenges of this century: two billion cars. They rightly contend that we cannot avert the worst of global warming without making our cars cleaner and petroleum-free. Luckily the authors also offer a roadmap for navigating this problem that is both visionary and achievable."
--Frances Beinecke, President, Natural Resources Defense Council ... Read more

Customer Reviews (47)

Chapters expose auto industry issues, problems in oil markets and distribution, and how to reform American dependence on cars
TWO BILLION CARS: DRIVING TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY offers a fine history of cars and the global oil and car industries, with special focus on emissions and car cultures. Chapters expose auto industry issues, problems in oil markets and distribution, and how to reform American dependence on cars, creating a powerful survey for any library strong in environmental and cultural issues.

An urgent wake-up call
As indicated in several other books (Hot, Flat and Crowded by Mr. Friedmann and Traffic by Mr. Vanderbilt) traffic of today is mainly car-centric which as we all know is disastrous to environment, climate change and of course to the future oil supplies.
In this book the trouble excavating for the unconventional oil are examined and so are the problems of the conservative American car industry being second to the Japanese when it comes to the electric and the hybrid car - all ready to go but lacking the sufficient political support.
And that is the main problem- the lack of support from both governments as well as fromindividuals: Parents are still driving their kids to school well aware that this is no good for neither the kids nor the environment. An efficient public transportation might do a great deal but each one of us will have to change our concept of transportation.
Besides from an all too familiar image of the difficulties the world is facing the book presents a number of solutions of both transportation and environment problems.
The authors suggest that the American people might lead the way and the governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, does not hesitate to call the book an urgent wake-up call. Not the first but hopefully one to be heard.

Californian enviro-politicking done right
I dig this book. I grew up in the heart of Los Angeles and remember days when I could not run outside because the smog level was so bad that 10 minutes of running would do the lung damage of a pack of cigarettes. I deal with environmental law issues on a near daily basis so reading treatises and studies such as these pose no problems to me, and if you can handle reading the WSJ, the Economist, or even the Atlantic, this should be easily to digest. Even if you aren't an enviro-nerd.

Sperling and Gordon manage to make a relatively dense topic - car emissions and environmental topic - and keep it easy to read. I have read hundreds of studies and analysis of varieties of issues but few are as easy to sell and understand as the work of Sperling and Gordon. It hits the issue head on: the problems of a car-based transportation system and the pros and cons of the solutions. For either work, inspiration, or pleasure, if you have any interest in this topic, this is the place to start.

This book is subtle, but I think I figured it out
I didn't read the whole book, I kind of skimmed until I got to chapter five, which looked more interesting, a history of the oil age.But the inconsistencies and glaring omissions started to add up.The Iraq War was omitted, the praise of the energy companies alternative energy research just didn't jibe with my long term memory.Omitted Congress closing the Enron loophole (very odd, since one of their theses is that the oil market is broke).The decades long (and intentional) closing of refineries.Then I noticed that a lot of events were scrubbed of their political context, American politics seems devoid of Republicans or Democrats.

I still wasn't getting it at this point, so I flipped to the recommendations chapter..pretty bland stuff.Then my eyes lit on "Restructure Taxes, Fees..." which is good, I consider that important...but it was all tax changes for the little people.

I skim the table of contents, and what do I see in a new light?The title of chapter 3 "Breaking Detroit's Stranglehold on Energy and Climate Policy",Jiminy Christmas, now the title of the book makes sense too, "Two Billion Cars."

This book is a propaganda piece commissioned by the oil companies to shift the blame for, everything basically, onto the auto industry.Probably part of a continuing PR campaign, now that they have climbed down from denying climate change isn't happening.Of course they
don't blame the politicians of either party, they will have to bribe, er, co-operate with whoever is in office.

I would read this book with a skeptical eye.If you want a good book about the history of oil, try "The Prize".If you want a good book about alcohol fuel, try "Alcohol can be a Gas".If you want to pay out of your own pocket to read advertising, this is the book for you.Maybe the rest of the book is outstanding, but I'll never know.

Informative and Insightful Discussion on Transporation and the Environment
Two Billion Cars is a very informative book on transportation and sustainability issues.The premise of the book is that currently we have one billion cars, but in twenty years, the planet will have about two billion cars.If there are no changes, this growth in cars will be disastrous in terms of energy usage, congestion, and global warming. The first two chapters are fairly dry, but the book gets more interesting in chapter 3, "Breaking Detroit's Hold on Energy and Climate Policy", which is a terrific short history on how America got to be so car-centric.

The book will appeal most to people interested in sustainability issues as they relate to transportation and climate change.

Points made in the book:
1.Almost all the growth in vehicles will come from India and China, with annual growth rates in vehicles about 7-8 percent annually.The United States has a current growth rate in vehicles of less than 1 percent annually, so we are less affected by local pollution and congestion, although global warming issues would still be a concern.Whatever India and China do (or fail to do) will have the biggest effect on greenhouse gas emissions.

2.Nothing will get people out of their cars and using mass-transit in the foreseeable future, not even much higher fuel prices.Therefore, making the personal passenger vehicle more environmentally-friendly is the key.

3.We are nowhere near peak oil.The amount of unconventional oil such as tar sands is quite large.

4.The best way to promote energy independence and reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to impose very high fuel mileage standards.Government should never "bet on a technology winner", but should instead make performance-based goals the only measure of success, both for fuel mileage standards, and greenhouse gas tailpipe standards (both standards are linked).

5.Ethanol from corn probably is less environmentally beneficial than just using imported oil.

6.California is in a unique position to influence national policy on sustainable transportation, and therefore can influence policy globally.

7.American car manufacturers used perverse incentives to create gas-guzzling vehicles (be sure to read about how the "chicken tax" and truck-exemption for fuel mileage led to the dominance of the truck, mini-van, and SUV in American car sales).The only way to end these perverse incentives is to remove the negative incentive and pass fuel efficiency rules.

8.One of the best hopes to increase fuel efficiency is to use plug-in hybrids.Hydrogen-powered fuel cells remain an elusive dream.

Quotes from last chapter of book "Driving Towards Sustainability":

"The world is still in denial about the staggering challenges it faces and the radical transformation it must undertake.Achieving a 50 to 80 percent net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions isn't something that businesses, consumers, and politicians can fully imagine."

"Policymakers must overcome the temptation to prescribe and mandate any one particular solution.Similarly, they must the temptation to pick winners.There's an unfortunate tendency for technological experts and politicians alike to embrace "silver bullets" and pick winners.Innovation and technological changes are too dynamic and too difficult to predict."

"The most effective and least costly way to reduce transportation oil use and greenhouse gas emissions is to improve the energy efficiency of vehicles." ... Read more

Product Description
To-day's neglected decisions become tomorrow's crisis. This well known expression sums up in a few words the fact that environmentalists, scientists, farmers and mankind as w whole have been warning governments throughout the owrld for the past fifty years about the need to give thought to the environment as a consequence of the problems involved with too many factories bellowing smoke, too many cars, trucks and buses polluting the air with the use of fossil fuels (petrol and diesel), too much urbanization and a population growth which has got out of control. The Internatonal Conference on Biodiversity, Environment and Sustainability Challenges for Future to be held at Delhi University,India on Sept. 4-6, promises to provide answers to most of the world's current problems. It can now be written that To-day's crisisi are the result of neglected decisions which have failed the biodiversity of the planet which in turn have destroyed all branches of the Environment which has left no room for a Sustainable Development, be it on land, in the seas or in the air. We are a planet in crisis. This book is a tool to return the planet to the Sustainable Development it can have only by resuming an understanding of the balance between Biodiversity and the Environment. The Challenge is there. This book promises solutions. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from World Watch, published by Worldwatch Institute on July 1, 2008. The length of the article is 745 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Environmentalists Take On The Economy.("The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability" and "Earth: The Sequel")(Book review)
Author: Christopher Flavin
Publication: World Watch (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2008
Publisher: Worldwatch Institute
Volume: 21Issue: 4Page: 33(1)

Article Type: Book review

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Product Description
This digital document is a journal article from Building and Environment, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Environmental footprint analysis is used to examine the sustainability of cities by placing them in their broader geographic context. The 18th century (Georgian) city of Bath in the South West of England is adopted as a case study to illustrate the urban development process. It is found to exhibit an environmental footprint that is greater than its surrounding bioregion and some 20 times larger than its own land area. Cities only survive because of human, material, and communications networks with their hinterlands or bioregions. It is therefore argued that sustainability assessment can only be realistically applied for the purpose of land-use planning in this wider geophysical perspective. ... Read more