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Centre for Environment and SocietyGuide to a Green Planet
Guide to a Green Planet contains 90 contributions from 48 staff across eight of the University's departments and four centres. Currently being sent to A-level students across England and Wales, the book has been geared to provide an easily accessible resource for students, providing a snapshot of the range and depth of scholarship at the University addressing some of our most pressing problems - those of the environment and its importance to our societies, economies and cultures of both today and tomorrow. Dealing with a diverse range of issues, Guide to a Green Planet examines what is being done globally to protect our future as well as what is happening on a local level in Essex. Among the topics covered is the work being undertaken at the University to monitor the otter population of Essex following its sharp decline in the 1950s and 1960s and the decline in farmland birds across the county. On an international level, research at the University into new oil eating bacteria could play a crucial role in the natural cleaning of polluted waters following an oil spill. The book has been edited by Professor Jules Pretty, one of the world's leading authorities on sustainable development. He said: 'Species extinctions have never been faster, soils are lost from farmlands, seas are stripped of fish, and the thin layer of air around the planet is so polluted that the climate is being changed. At the same time, extraordinary inequalities persist, with the wealthy getting richer and the poorest and hungry surviving on pitifully few resources. 'The 90 contributions address the natural world, society and environment, food and land, water, soils, atmosphere and climate change, technology, energy and wastes, international relations, and policies and institutions. We aim to show how much we know - and how much we do not. We aim to tell some important truths, and also to expose some troublesome myths. We hope to show that much can be done, and is being done, to understand, improve and transform our green planet. Sustainability is possible, but only if there is substantial change in our thinking, our actions, our institutions, and our technologies.' Guide to a Green Planet comes from one of the top ten research institutions in the country and is the first time that so many of its researchers have been brought together to collaborate on a single publication with a single central aim. Copies of Guide to a Green Planet are available from the University of Essex priced at £5.99 (including postage and packing). To obtain a copy please contact Kim Watson in External Relations. Email: kwatson; non essex users should add @essex.ac.uk to create a full e-mail address, or telephone: 01206 874096
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How can eating vegetables help decrease the risk of
cancer? Is international trade bad for the environment? What causes acid
rain? Can the wolf be reintroduced to Essex? How can bacteria clean up
polluted groundwater? How important is environmental crime? All these
questions, and more, are examined in a major new publication from the
University of Essex.