The
Wild Life in an Island House
By Gail Karlsson, CitNet member
Amusing stories and useful
information about sharing life in paradise with bugs,
bats, lizards, frogs, scorpions and other fascinating
creatures. In 1990, a New York lawyer and her family
took a vacation break in the Virgin Islands and ended
up buying a house there. Over the years they have learned
a lot about the creatures already living in the islands,
as well as some lively lessons about adaptation, evolution,
and the importance of keeping your sense of humor when
you are living in the bush.
The book is available direct
from the author and can be ordered online at Amazon.com.
Guide
to Purchasing Green Power
By U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, the World
Resources Institute, and the Center for Resource Solutions
An excellent reference for
organizations considering the switch to renewable energy,
this 50-page guide is written to help businesses, universities,
government agencies, and others who want to reduce the
impact of their electricity consumption
By explaining concepts and
options of renewable electricity, renewable energy certificates,
and on-site renewable generation, reviewing implementation
steps, and highlighting the benefits and costs of green
power, the EPA hopes to enroll more organizations into
its Green Power Partnership.
Available online as a free
PDF document, the publication also includes an extensive
appendix of other relevant organizations and web resources.
Smart
Consumers: An Educator's Guide to Exploring Consumer
Issues and the Environment
By World Wildlife
Fund and Center for A New American Dream
This comprehensive, interdisciplinary
guide , part of the Be, Live, Buy Different—Make A Difference campaign, helps middle school students learn more about how their consumer choices affect
the environment and how they can make a difference by
buying differently.
The toolkit includes an Educator's
Guide with background information; fourteen hands-on
and creative activities that range from analyzing pop
song lyrics and advertisements to acting out product
life cycles and calculating ecological footprints; an
annotated list of resources for more information; and
more.
Also included is a Community
Action Guide, with 25 consumer-related project ideas
and step-by-step advice on organizing group projects,
and a colorful 2-sided Your Stuff, Your Planet poster.
Excerpts are available at
the website, and copies can be ordered online for $29.95.
Smarter,
Cleaner, Stronger: Secure Jobs, Clean Environment,
and Less Foreign Oil
By
Redefining Progress
Switching to sustainable energy
is good for both jobs and the environment, a series of
reports released in October by Redefining Progress demonstrate.
Both a national report and state-by-state reports were
developed to highlight the specific economic benefits
from policies encouraging development of clean energy
technologies and their potential impact over 20 years.
The 52 reports are available
as PDFs on the website.
Sustainable
Development Principles: Protecting Nature in the
Chicago Wilderness Region and
Conservation
Design Resource Manual
By
Chicago Wilderness
During the last two years
the Chicago Wilderness consortium, a partnership of more
than 170 public and private organizations, prepared a
colorful, easy-to-read 6-page checklist and a 118-page
manual. These aim to guide local governments and developers
in the planning and design of new physical development
and redevelopment projects, so as to protect and enhance
nature as an integral part of the development process.
The checklist presents 8 principles,
developed for the Chicago
area but applicable to the Upper Midwest, largely focused on the
natural resource aspects of sustainable development -- land, water, habitat,
and soils. They recognize that having healthy ecosystems in communities also
creates positive economic and social benefits.
Three to seven conservation
development strategies and techniques are presented under
each of the eight principles, which were developed by
local government officials, developers, engineers, planners,
site designers, conservationists and communication professionals.
The Conservation Design Resource
Manual was written for local governments in the Chicago
area, but applicable to other areas in the Upper Midwest,
interested in modifying local comprehensive plans, zoning
and subdivision ordinances, and other ordinances to
accommodate the principles and practices of conservation design.
Sample ordinance language and implementation benefits are presented for 13
conservation design practices.
The checklist and manual are
available free on Chicago Wilderness' website, along with several other publications, such as an Atlas of Biodiversity, teacher
toolkits, and Protecting Nature in Your Community guidebook.