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.
Integrating Humans, Climate, and the Natural World
While a number of gases are implicated in global warming, carbon dioxide is the most important contributor, and in one sense the entire phenomena can be seen as a human-induced perturbation of the carbon cycle. The Global Carbon Cycle offers a scientific assessment of the state of current knowledge of the carbon cycle by the world's ......
A Commodity-By-Commodity Guide To Impacts And Practices
World Agriculture and the Environment presents a unique assessment of agricultural commodity production and the environmental problems it causes, along with prescriptions for increasing efficiency and reducing damage to natural systems. Drawing on his extensive travel and research in agricultural regions around the world, and employing statistics ......
""When we grasp fully that the best expressions of our humanity were not invented by civilization but by cultures that preceded it, that the natural world is not only a set of constraints but of contexts within which we can more fully realize our dreams, we will be on the way to a long overdue reconciliation between opposites which are of our own ......
Established by the USDA Forest Service in 1993, the Great Basin Ecosystem Management Project for Restoring and Maintaining Sustainable Riparian Ecosystems is a large-scale research study that uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine the effects of climate change and human disturbance on riparian areas. Structured as a collaborative effort ......
Faced with widespread and devastating loss of biodiversity in wild habitats, scientists have developed innovative strategies for studying and protecting targeted plant and animal species in ""off-site"" facilities such as botanic gardens and zoos. Such ex situ work is an increasingly important component of conservation and restoration ......
""...an absorbing, well-researched, and illuminating life of an American leader who now receives the full attention he deserves."" -MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, EDITOR OF AMERICAN HERITAGE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE PRESIDENTS ""Char Miller's lively, insightful account of the life and world of American forester Gifford Pinchot fills a vitally ......
John Wesley Powell was an American original. He was the last of the nation's great continental explorers and the first of a new breed of public servant: part scientist, part social reformer, part institution builder. His work and life reveal an enduringly valuable way of thinking about land, water, and society as parts of an ......
Faced with widespread and devastating loss of biodiversity in wild habitats, scientists have developed innovative strategies for studying and protecting targeted plant and animal species in ""off-site"" facilities such as botanic gardens and zoos. Such ex situ work is an increasingly important component of conservation and restoration ......
Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America's Fresh Waters
""...a book as rich in detail as it is devastating in its argument."" -SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ""Water Follies deserves a place alongside the late Marc Reisner's classic Cadillac Desert."" -ENVIRONMENT ""a lively account of hydrology"" -NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS ""if you want to scare yourself silly, read Water Follies, by Robert ......
