Battleground: Environment (Two Volumes)

The environment inflames passions in people on all points of the political spectrum. Controversies over such issues as the rise of cancer in industrialized countries, climate change, and urban sprawl have skyrocketed as we recognize the impact that humans have on the environment. Many people become immersed in these controversies at a local level before they know much about the topic - the nuances of many environmental conflicts are often overlooked as the media focuses on the adversarial nature of the conflict. This reference resource provides students, teachers, librarians, and citizens as a whole with the necessary first step in understanding these hot-button issues. Each entry identifies the issue involved, who was holding various points of view or positions, where and when the conflict occurred, and explains the cultural, social, and political context and dimensions of the conflict.

Battleground: Environment provides in-depth analysis of over 100 of the most controversial topics involving the environment, including childhood asthma, the Kyoto Summit and Treaty, smart growth, the Three Gorges Dam in China, and genetically modified food.

Entries include descriptions of public policies and discussions of the future of the controversy. Each entry concludes with cross references and a short, relevant bibliography suitable for student research. The resource includes numerous sidebars that discuss in detail particular local controversies that illuminate the complexity of the topics discussed.

The environment inflames passions in people on all points of the political spectrum. Controversies over such issues as the rise of cancer in industrialized countries, climate change, and urban sprawl have skyrocketed as we recognize the impact that humans have on the environment. Many people become immersed in these controversies at a local level before they know much about the topic—the nuances of many environmental conflicts are often overlooked as the media focuses on the adversarial nature of the conflict. This reference resource provides students, teachers, librarians, and citizens as a whole with the necessary first step in understanding these hot-button issues. Each entry identifies the issue involved, who was holding various points of view or positions, where and when the conflict occurred, and explains the cultural, social, and political context and dimensions of the conflict.

Battleground: Environment provides in-depth analysis of over 100 of the most controversial topics involving the environment, including childhood asthma, the Kyoto Summit and Treaty, smart growth, the Three Gorges Dam in China, and genetically modified food.

Entries include descriptions of public policies and discussions of the future of the controversy. Each entry concludes with cross references and a short, relevant bibliography suitable for student research. The resource includes numerous sidebars that discuss in detail particular local controversies that illuminate the complexity of the topics discussed.

Samantha Schmehl Hines - Library Journal

Collin, a scholar in law, urban planning, and social work and an instructor of environmental studies at several institutions, previously wrote The Environmental Protection Agency(Greenwood, 2005). Now, in the latest set in the publisher's "Battleground" series, he offers more than 100 A-to-Z entries on various controversial environmental topics, with a table of contents and a guide to related topics to aid discovery. The entries are concise, between two to four pages long, but they are informative, offering contextual and historical overviews, legal background, examples of local incidents and events, and projections. Also included at the end of each entry is a list of web resources, suggestions for further reading, and other suggested entries of interest. Examples of entry titles include "acid rain," "indigenous people and the environment," and "sprawl." Appendixes offer further online environmental resources, a description of index chemicals, and a glossary of environmental terms.

ROBERT WILLIAM COLLIN is a scholar in law, urban planning, and social work. He is currently the Senior Research Scholar at Willamette University and adjunct Professor of Law there, and at Lewis and Clark Law School. He has taught Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon, the University of Virginia, Cambridge University in England, and Auckland University in New Zealand. He is the author of The Environmental Protection Agency (Greenwood, 2005).