Our Fragile Planet

As global environmental challenges mount, this book offers a policy blueprint for building a safer, sustainable and more inclusive world.

Humanity is sliding toward a collision between global warming, resource depletion, and population growth. The evidence is daunting but we are hampered by anti-science demagogues who tell us everything’s okay, that we’ll run forever on our current course. The problem we are facing is on a global scale, far beyond any individual. It can be overwhelming and it is difficult to remain cheerful. In Ten Journeys on a Fragile Planet, journalist Rod Taylor interviews ten outstanding Australians who have – and are – doing something to confront the perilous state of the environment. This book tells their stories. Featuring: The Activist: Simon Sheikh The Solar Pioneer: Professor Andrew Blakers The Maggot Farmer: Olympia Yarger The Accidental Activist: Charlie Prell The Thoughtful Salesman: Leonard Cohen The Politician: Susan Jeanes The Climate Game Changer: Inez Harker-Schuch The Advocate: Professor Kate Auty The Lady with a Laser: Monica Oliphant A Question of Hope: Dr Siwan Lovett 'The ten case studies, showing what dedicated people can achieve, give us hope for the future. This is an important book.' - Dr Mark Diesendorf 'With the massive bushfires fresh in our minds, we need a remarkable turnaround in policies and actions. The remarkable people who contributed to this book provide us with a wide range of ideas and actions to get us on the right track toward a sustainable future.' -Professor Will Steffen 'Since Homer the world has needed its heroes – people whose deeds and words inspire us, galvanise us, uplift us, afford us glimpses of a better future. In Ten Journeys and a Fragile Planet, Rod Taylor summons ten heroes for our time, the most perilous time that human beings have ever faced: real people, facing real challenges and setbacks, passionate, driven, courageous, wise, unbowed. If there is hope for humanity, he has distilled its essence.' - Julian Cribb, author of Surviving the 21st Century

A New York Times New & Noteworthy Book One of the Daily Beast’s 5 Essential Books to Read Before the Election A collection of the New Yorker’s groundbreaking reporting from the front lines of climate change—including writing from Bill McKibben, Elizabeth Kolbert, Ian Frazier, Kathryn Schulz, and more Just one year after climatologist James Hansen first came before a Senate committee and testified that the Earth was now warmer than it had ever been in recorded history, thanks to humankind’s heedless consumption of fossil fuels, New Yorker writer Bill McKibben published a deeply reported and considered piece on climate change and what it could mean for the planet. At the time, the piece was to some speculative to the point of alarmist; read now, McKibben’s work is heroically prescient. Since then, the New Yorker has devoted enormous attention to climate change, describing the causes of the crisis, the political and ecological conditions we now find ourselves in, and the scenarios and solutions we face. The Fragile Earth tells the story of climate change—its past, present, and future—taking readers from Greenland to the Great Plains, and into both laboratories and rain forests. It features some of the best writing on global warming from the last three decades, including Bill McKibben’s seminal essay “The End of Nature,” the first piece to popularize both the science and politics of climate change for a general audience, and the Pulitzer Prize–winning work of Elizabeth Kolbert, as well as Kathryn Schulz, Dexter Filkins, Jonathan Franzen, Ian Frazier, Eric Klinenberg, and others. The result, in its range, depth, and passion, promises to bring light, and sometimes heat, to the great emergency of our age.

How the Seasons Came to Be The Hunter and the Swan The Saint and the Blackbird The Tale of the Lion Grey-eye and the Whale A Fishy Tale The Panda's Tale Maha and the Elephant The Shepherd and the Stone The Story of the Tower

Discusses the issue of global warming and what we can do to prevent its rise. This book addresses how people must use energy more efficiently, develop alternative energy sources, and lower emissions technologies.

An ethical approach to dealing with the urgent issues of climate change and taking care of our delicate ecosystems. This Fragile Planet features 80 inspiring quotations from His Holiness the Dalai Lama on environment, matched with 120 eye-catching photos and visuals from a dozen professional photographers - all carefully curated and edited by Tibet expert Michael Buckley. The book lays out the vision of His Holiness concerning secular ethics and environmental protection, great respect for all living beings, the importance of interdependence, and the concept of universal responsibility for protecting Mother Earth. Material in the book is as current as Earth Day 2021. The Dalai Lama's 1989 Nobel Peace Prize was the first ever awarded on the basis of environmental protection. Over the decades since, His Holiness has worked tirelessly as an environmental activist, making this one of his key commitments in life. He is a staunch advocate of the value of education of the heart - the need for compassion and ethics, inspiring the coming generations - and has worked closely with educators to realise this vision.

Details how sustainability is gaining ground with individuals, communities, regions, and even nations, and shows readers how they, too, can become involved.

Earth is the water planet, but only a fraction of the planet's water is usable, and water pollution has become a monumental dilemma as we enter the 21st century. This book explains how society needs to adopt a precautionary principle in water matters by better understanding the consequences of their actions before, not after, those actions occur.

Air pollution obscures vistas, damages ecosystems, and compromises human health. While some pollutants are regulated, as population grows and industries expand, intensive solutions are needed to deal with air pollution and its consequences. This book tackles these issues and shows readers what they can do to help conserve our planet's atmosphere.