Island Press began with a simple idea: knowledge is power—the power to imagine a better future and find ways for getting us there. Founded in 1984, Island Press’ mission is to provide the best ideas and information to those seeking to understand and protect the environment and create solutions to its complex problems.
We elevate voices of change, shine a spotlight on crucial issues, and focus attention on sustainable solutions.
Our network of authors includes E.O. Wilson, Paul Ehrlich, Sylvia Earle, Gretchen Daily, Jan Gehl, Daniel Pauly, and many others. By working closely with experts like these, Island Press has developed a comprehensive and growing body of knowledge—vital resources for all those working to protect the environment and create healthy communities.
Sustaining Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Soils and Sediments brings together the world's leading ecologists, systematists, and evolutionary biologists to present scientific information that integrates soil and sediment disciplines across terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems. It offers a framework for a new discipline, one ......
How can you make a real difference in the world and make a good living at the same time? The ECO Guide to Careers That Make a Difference: Environmental Work for a Sustainable World provides the answer.
Developed by The Environmental Careers Organization (ECO, the creators of the popular Complete Guide to Environmental ......
Portland, Oregon, is often cited as one of the most livable cities in the United States and a model for ""smart growth."" At the same time, critics deride it as a victim of heavy-handed planning and point to its skyrocketing housing costs as a clear sign of good intentions gone awry. Which side is right? Does Portland deserve the accolades it has ......
The Hidden Luddite Tradition in Literature, Art, and Individual Lives
""Against the Machine is timely, compelling, and important. Its intellectual sweep extends from the transcendental to the transistor, covering much unfamiliar ground and reviving a long-neglected tradition of dissent."" -ERIC SCHLOSSER, AUTHOR OF FAST FOOD NATION ""Against the Machine is luminous, lyrical, impassioned, profound. I had to put ......
The Murder of Chico Mendes and the Fight for the Amazon Rain Forest
""In the rain forests of the western Amazon,"" writes author Andrew Revkin, ""the threat of violent death hangs in the air like mist after a tropical rain. It is simply a part of the ecosystem, just like the scorpions and snakes cached in the leafy canopy that floats over the forest floor like a seamless green circus tent.""
Assessing the Impacts of Fertilizer Use on Food Production and the Environment
Nitrogen is an essential element for plant growth and development and a key agricultural input-but in excess it can lead to a host of problems for human and ecological health. Across the globe, distribution of fertilizer nitrogen is very uneven, with some areas subject to nitrogen pollution and others suffering from reduced soil fertility, ......
In Earth in Mind, noted environmental educator David W. Orr focuses not on problems in education, but on the problem of education.
Much of what has gone wrong with the world, he argues, is the result of inadequate and misdirected education that: alienates us from life in the name of human domination; causes students to worry about ......
Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities
In Urban Sprawl and Public Health, Howard Frumkin, Lawrence Frank, and Richard Jackson, three of the nation's leading public health and urban planning experts explore an intriguing question: How does the physical environment in which we live affect our health? For decades, growth and development in our communities has been of the low-density, ......
Dave Foreman is one of North America's most creative and effective conservation leaders, an outspoken proponent of protecting and restoring the earth's wildness, and a visionary thinker. Over the past 30 years, he has helped set direction for some of our most influential conservation organizations, served as editor and publisher of key ......
