Island Press Field Notes

Back in November of 2013, President Obama issued an executive order on climate preparedness. Because executive orders circumvent Congress within certain limits, they allow the president to implement action to address climate change and other issues. A few weeks ago I asked some of our authors to create their own executive orders to improve our handling of the environment, and I'll be sharing their responses over the next two weeks.

Continual growth and consumption is unsustainable. We've published many books on why the idea of "sustainable consumption" is impossible, but this post by Alison Singer at Worldwatch breaks it down simply and effectively.

The 1992 Rio Earth Summit was supposed to be a turning point for the World Bank. What's happened since then? How have the Bank's efforts fallen short? Called a “detailed and thought-provoking look at an important subject” by The New York Times, Mortgaging the Earth analyzes the twenty year period leading up the Rio Summit. Rich offers not only an important history but critical insights about economic development that are ever-more relevant today.

The concept of “no net loss” of wetlands, first officially endorsed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1990, continues to spread across the globe. The latest example is Taiwan’s national Wetland Conservation Act, enacted in July 2013 after five years of discussions. The new law adopts the objective of “no net loss” of area and function for wetlands designated as locally, nationally, or internationally important.