Free summaries
Environmental Issues — page 4
246 public-domain environmental issues books, summarised. Page 4 of 6.
Atoms, Nature, and Man: Man-made Radioactivity in the Environment
Neal O. Hines
This volume explores the dawn of the atomic era, documenting how scientists began tracking the environmental footprint of nuclear energy and what those radioactive traces reveal about our interconnected natural world.
Collectanea de Diversis Rebus: Addresses and Papers
Eade, Peter, Sir
A dedicated physician documents the civic life, natural wonders, and historical legacy of his home city, offering a quiet, observant window into the late Victorian and Edwardian era.
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon (1938)
United States. National Park Service
This administrative guide invites readers to discover a volcanic marvel in the Cascade Range, detailing the natural history, recreational offerings, and logistical requirements of visiting one of the nation’s most storied scenic treasures.
Sanitation of Mofussil Bazaars
G. W. (George William) Disney
A practical guide for municipal officers, this manual offers concise, actionable advice on maintaining hygiene in Indian bazaars. It serves as a technical bridge between administrative theory and the physical realities of public health maintenance.
Travels into North America, Volume 3 (of 3)
Pehr Kalm
An Enlightenment-era field journal, this volume offers a meticulous, firsthand account of life in 18th-century Canada, capturing the rhythms of the land, its colonial governance, and the customs of its diverse inhabitants.
Food in War Time
Graham Lusk
A nation’s strength is measured not just in its armaments, but in the efficiency of the fuel its people consume. This guide offers a scientific blueprint for maintaining health and productivity through mindful, economical wartime nutrition.
Forest Trees and Forest Scenery
G. Frederick (George Frederick) Schwarz
A quiet, contemplative journey through the American wilderness, this work marries the practical science of forestry with a profound appreciation for the structural beauty, light, and atmosphere of native trees.
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
United States. National Park Service
Rising like a hazy shadow against the Virginia sky, this guide invites travelers to explore the Blue Ridge Mountains, offering a detailed portrait of the park’s natural wonders, history, and recreational landscape.
Mammals of Mount McKinley National Park
Adolph Murie
Cold tundra winds sweep across frozen subsoil where wild creatures rule without human interference. Within this subarctic refuge, every animal from giant bear to tiny shrew claims equal standing in a living ecosystem.
Earthquakes
Kaye M. Shedlock
A sudden shift deep within the crust transforms stable ground into rolling destruction, releasing centuries of stored tectonic strain in mere seconds.
Wind and Weather
Alexander McAdie
Rushing gusts of air shape daily life, driving storm fronts across continents and steering human history through atmospheric pressure.
Arbor Day Leaves: A Complete Programme For Arbor Day Observance, Including Readings, Recitations, Music, and General Information
Nathaniel Hillyer Egleston
This guide serves as a practical manual for the turn-of-the-century schoolhouse, offering a structured framework to cultivate civic responsibility and a love for nature through the ritual of planting trees. It transforms a simple act of gardening into a communal, future-oriented celebration.
Ecology of the Opossum on a Natural Area in Northeastern Kansas
Henry S. (Henry Sheldon) Fitch
This study provides a meticulous, ground-level portrait of the opossum in its natural habitat, revealing the complex life cycles and survival strategies of North America’s only marsupial.
Information for the Guidance of Field Men and Cooperators of the Bureau of Biological Survey Engaged in the Control of Injurious Rodents and Predatory Animals
Stanley Paul Young
The expansion of American agriculture into the wild frontier necessitates a rigorous, structured approach to managing the tension between human economic survival and the presence of native predatory species and burrowing rodents.
Montezuma National Forest, Colorado (1939)
United States. Forest Service. Rocky Mountain Region
This administrative record offers a definitive, panoramic portrait of a vast Colorado landscape managed for the public good. It functions as both a historical snapshot and a practical manual for stewardship.
The northern whale-fishery
William Scoresby
The Arctic is a frontier where human resolve meets the crushing indifference of ice and the immense power of the whale. This record captures the stark reality of survival in the high northern latitudes.
Coyotes in Their Economic Relations
David E. (David Ernest) Lantz
The American West once faced a persistent economic challenge: a clever, adaptable predator that seemed to thrive despite every human effort to eradicate it. This technical report details the struggle to protect a vulnerable sheep industry from the relentless ingenuity of the coyote.
Sanctuary: A Bird Masque
Percy MacKaye
A call for the preservation of wild birds, this performance piece weaves myth and naturalism into a plea for human empathy toward the natural world.
Trees of the Forest: Their Beauty and Use
Anonymous
Trees define the American landscape, acting as both a silent witness to history and a vital, renewable engine for the nation’s survival, industry, and recreation.
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon (1958)
United States. National Park Service
A testament to the enduring majesty of Oregon’s deepest natural wonder, this guide reveals the violent volcanic origins and serene, protected beauty of an iconic American landmark.
Our Atomic World: The Story of Atomic Energy
C. Jackson (Claude Jackson) Craven
Atomic energy is a fundamental force shaping the modern world, and understanding its history and mechanics is essential for every citizen to grasp their role in a nuclear age.
The Past Condition of Organic Nature: Lecture II. (of VI.), "Lectures to Working Men", at the Museum of Practical Geology, 1863, on Darwin's Work: "Origin of Species"
Thomas Henry Huxley
Nature’s history is written in mud, yet our record of the past remains profoundly fragmented, forcing us to piece together the story of life from mere scraps of a lost world.
Street Trees
Furman Lloyd Mulford
Urban living demands more than concrete and utility lines; it requires a deliberate, long-term commitment to the living infrastructure of shade. This guide serves as a foundational blueprint for integrating resilient, healthy trees into the challenging environment of the modern city.
Glaciers of the Rockies and Selkirks, 2nd. ed.: With Notes on Five Great Glaciers of the Canadian National Parks
A. P. (Arthur Philemon) Coleman
The mountain rail passenger who steps out into the cool air of the western ranges encounters a landscape alive with perpetual motion. High above the forest line, vast fields of ice quietly reshape the continent, carving valleys and feeding rivers that flow to distant oceans.
Our Common Land (and Other Short Essays)
Octavia Hill
A passionate appeal for urban green spaces and thoughtful social reform, this collection reveals how shared land and human connection can transform crowded city lives.
An Essay on the Encroachments of the German Ocean Along the Norfolk Coast: With a Design to Arrest Its Further Depredations
William Hewitt
This work serves as a technical proposal and regional survey, documenting the relentless erosion of the Norfolk coastline by the North Sea. It combines maritime observation, geological detail, and a practical engineering plan intended to preserve land and human life from the encroaching tides.
Birds and Nature, Vol. 08, No. 5, December 1900: Illustrated by Color Photography
Various
This collection serves as a Victorian-era bridge between scientific inquiry and poetic observation, inviting the reader to find wonder in the familiar rhythms of the natural world. It captures a moment when the study of nature was a shared, optimistic public pursuit.
Report on the Migration of Birds in the Spring and Autumn of 1885. Seventh Report: (Vol. II No. 2)
J. A. (John Alexander) Harvie-Brown
The rhythm of the seasons is written in the flight of wings across the lighthouses of Great Britain and Ireland. This meticulous collection of field observations captures the immense, shifting patterns of avian migration during a single pivotal year.
The Survey, Volume 30, Number 1, April 5, 1913
Various
This edition of a progressive social-reform periodical captures the urgent, shifting landscape of early twentieth-century American life, documenting the collision between industrial power and humanitarian concern.
Mammals of Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
Sydney Anderson
The rugged canyons and sloping plateaus of southwestern Colorado shelter a surprising diversity of life, from the smallest shrew to the wandering black bear. This detailed survey catalogs the mammalian inhabitants of a landscape defined by both its ancient human history and its enduring natural wilderness.
Psychological Aspects of the Problem of Atmospheric Smoke Pollution
J. E. Wallace (John Edward Wallace) Wallin
A city choked by industrial fumes suffers more than just physical decay; its very citizens may be losing their mental clarity, their aesthetic spirit, and their capacity for joy.
Sewage Disposal on the Farm, and Protection of Drinking Water
Theobald Smith
Clean water and the responsible management of household waste are the fundamental pillars of rural health. This practical guide outlines how farmers can protect their families and their neighbors from waterborne disease.
The Rural Magazine, and Literary Evening Fire-Side, Vol. 1 No. 09 (1820)
Various
This nineteenth-century American periodical gathers practical agricultural advice, moral essays, global economic data, and literary curiosities into a single monthly miscellany for rural households.
Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador: An Address Presented by Lt.-Colonel William Wood, F.R.S.C. before the Second Annual Meeting of the Commission of Conservation at Quebec, January, 1911
William Wood
HOOK This urgent 1911 plea argues that Labrador’s vast, untamed wilderness serves as a vital global sanctuary, demanding immediate protection from the reckless, systemic slaughter of its animal life.
Ecological Observations on the Woodrat, Neotoma floridana
Dennis G. Rainey
This meticulous study documents the survival, habits, and community role of the eastern woodrat within the shifting landscape of a Kansas nature reserve. It offers a rare glimpse into the life of a rodent often overshadowed by its smaller, more elusive counterparts.
The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. I., No. 4, October, 1889
Various
This collection of reports documents the late nineteenth-century push to master the natural landscape, from California’s arid basins to the dense, formidable jungles of Central America.
The Kingdom of Man
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
Humanity must abandon its retrospective obsession with the past and instead embrace its destiny as the active, scientific master of the natural world.
Mammoth Hot Springs Area: Yellowstone National Park
Anonymous
This guide invites visitors to explore the geological volatility of Mammoth Hot Springs, where mineral-rich waters constantly reshape the landscape into a living, shifting gallery of natural travertine formations.
Studies of Birds Killed in Nocturnal Migration
Harrison Bruce Tordoff
A sudden, tragic collision of thousands of birds with a television tower offers a somber window into the hidden mechanics of nocturnal migration. This study treats a catastrophic event as a rigorous scientific data set.
The Mentor: Game Animals of America, Vol. 4, Num. 13, Serial No. 113, August 15, 1916
William T. (William Temple) Hornaday
Once numbering in the millions across vast North American landscapes, the continent's magnificent big game now faces a stark and accelerating crisis of extinction.
A Full Description of the Great Tornado in Chester County, Pa
Richard Darlington
A rare, violent funnel cloud tears through late nineteenth-century rural Pennsylvania, uprooting trees, shattering homes, and leaving an indelible path of localized destruction in its wake.
Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Twelfth Annual Meeting: Lancaster, Pennsylvania, October 6 and 7, 1921
Unknown
This assembly of enthusiasts seeks to transform the American landscape, advocating for nut trees as sources of sustenance, beauty, and national pride. It captures a pivotal, optimistic moment in the early twentieth-century movement toward diversified, permanent agriculture.
Buxton and its Medicinal Waters
Robert Ottiwell Gifford-Bennet
Buxton’s thermal springs offer a historic path to relief for those plagued by the persistent, painful grip of gout and rheumatism.
Sketches in Duneland
Earl H. (Earl Howell) Reed
This evocative collection of observations captures a vanishing world of solitude and wild beauty along the shifting sands of the Lake Michigan shoreline. It serves as both a tender portrait of coastal outcasts and a meditation on the relentless intrusion of the modern age.
Cholera and the Water Supply in the South Districts of London in 1854
John Snow
A detective story of medical science, this account traces the deadly path of a London cholera epidemic to a single, polluted water supply.
Forestry for Farmers
B. E. (Bernhard Eduard) Fernow
Cultivating a forest is not merely an exercise in patience; it is an act of sophisticated land management that transforms a neglected wood lot into a permanent, self-sustaining asset for the modern farm.
Report on the Migration of Birds in the Spring and Autumn of 1881. Third Report
J. A. (John Alexander) Harvie-Brown
This chronicle captures the rigorous, collaborative effort of Victorian naturalists to map the hidden aerial highways of the British Isles. It documents a year of migration through the eyes of the lighthouse keepers who stood watch at the edge of the sea.
Big Bend National Park: Land of Dramatic Contrasts and Scenic Grandeur
W. Ray Scott
This guide offers a vivid, mid-century portrait of Big Bend National Park, detailing the geological wonders, rugged landscapes, and historical echoes of one of America’s most remote desert frontiers.