human ecology

Examines how unprecedented overpopulation is substantially contributing to problems such as African famine, global warming, acid rain, air and water pollution, and the garbage crisis.

Contains essays that examine Jain theories about the nature of the universe, discuss the possibility of developing an ecofriendly Jain ethic, and consider the adaptation of ecological ideas in the Jain community; and includes selections from practitioners in which they argue that the religion's nonviolent focus makes it responsive to environmental needs.

Surveys world resources in energy, food, and raw materials, and examines alternative solutions to problems surrounding resources and population.

This novel interweaves the perspectives of Jeremy, an engineer who leaves small-town Maine in 1899 to oversee the construction of a railroad across East Africa, and finds himself the reluctant hunter of two lions killing his men in nightly attacks; and Max, an American ethnobotanist who travels to Rwanda in 2000 in search of an obscure vine that could become a lifesaving pharmaceutical, but finds herself shadowing a family of gorillas whose survival is threatened by a violent rebel group from nearby Congo.

John Bierhorst uses native testimony and native texts to show how "animal masters" and natural gardening protect the land from overuse, how living space is patterned, how human reproduction is controlled, and how the sun is viewed as the overlord of a closed energy system from which nothing may be removed without "payment".