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#ForewordFriday: Chico Vive Edition

By Meghan Bartels / On April 4th, 2014
Island Press is pleased to be co-sponsoring the 2104 Chico Vive conference at American University in DC this weekend. The conference brings together grassroots activists, NGOs, students, engaged scholars, applied scientists, policymakers, journalists, and others to discuss the development of the global grassroots environmental movement in the 25 years since environmental martyr Chico Mendes' death.
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Unlocking the IPCC Assessment Process

By Admin / On September 27th, 2013
Today, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its fifth big report, bringing with it a flurry of news coverage and strong reactions from both industry and environmental advocates. Does the assessment overstate or understate the dangers of global warming? Can the skepticism about whether humans are driving climate change finally be put to rest? As journalists, scientists, and citizens parse the findings, it’s worth pausing to consider just what the IPCC is and how it reaches its conclusions.
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Why Forests Need to Be Enlisted in Climate Change Actions

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On September 26th, 2013
"Forests have a vital role to play in overcoming this challenge.  Rainforests store vast amounts of carbon. That's true across the planet, and in America, too. Our Tongass National Forest, a temperate Alaskan rainforest comprises only 2% of America's forest land base, but may hold as much as 8% of all the carbon contained in the forests of the United States."—Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack Forests and Carbon Cycles
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Why Biodiversity is Important to Solving Climate Chaos: Top 10 Reasons

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On September 13th, 2013
Having jump-started my career as a conservation biologist riding the 1980s explosion of scientific and public interest in biodiversity, I have progressively witnessed how biophilia has given way to climate change concerns with the public, decision makers, scientists, and philanthropists (who have increasingly moved funding out of biodiversity and into climate change). In the meantime, we have lost sight of why biodiversity is critical to solving climate chaos.
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#ForewordFriday: The Heat Is On

By Admin / On July 12th, 2013
While you're soaking up some sun this weekend, relax with this selection from Anthony Barnosky's  important book, Heatstroke. No one knows exactly what nature will come to look like in this new age of global warming. But Heatstroke gives us a haunting portrait of what we stand to lose and the vitality of what can be saved.
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Nature's Economy and Climate Change

By Cristina Eisenberg / On July 2nd, 2013
On June 25, 2013, President Obama gave what may be his most important speech thus far. In it, he acknowledged the impacts of climate change on our society. These impacts include heightened atmospheric carbon pollution due to fossil fuel consumption, melting Arctic and Antarctic ice, temperature and sea level rise, and increased severe climatic events. Our president expounded on the high economic costs of climate change and our need to work as a nation and global power to be part of the solution.
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Share the Pain: On the President's Climate Change Speech

By Lucy Moore / On June 28th, 2013
As an environmental mediator working on intractable conflicts over natural resource use and policy, I am committed to being neutral on the issues before me. We mediators like to say we are advocates for the process – a good, inclusive, fair process – but with no bias when it comes to the substance of the conflict. Does this mean we are robots, with no preferences, no passion, no deeply held beliefs? Of course not. I have a variety of membership cards in my wallet, and I keep them to myself when I’m working.

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