BookShelf

The BookShelf features monthly reviews of the latest environmental and energy books of interest to journalists, as well as an occasional question-and-answer in which published authors offer insight into the motivations behind their work and provide advice to environmental reporters and writers.

For questions and comments, or to suggest future BookShelf reviews, or to offer to review a book, email the SEJournal BookShelf Editor Tom Henry at thenry@theblade.com.

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November 17, 2021

Hayhoe Makes Case for Healing Over Climate Change

A new volume by renowned climate communicator Katharine Hayhoe argues for a new way of talking about climate change that seeks common ground, greater respect and an effort to show how nearly everyone is affected. BookShelf editor Tom Henry reviews Hayhoe’s “Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World” and its hopeful message.

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October 13, 2021

How ‘The Swamp Peddlers’ Scammed Their Way to Florida’s Eco-Destruction

How did Florida go from an uncrowded home of pine forests, wetlands and ranches to today’s sprawling subdivisions spawning environmental disaster? A new volume gains praise from BookShelf reviewer Nano Riley for its well-researched look at the unscrupulous developers who in a matter of decades carved the state’s ecosystems into lots for sale, trading its pristine beauty for an easy buck.

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September 15, 2021

“Saving America’s Amazon: The Threat to Our Nation’s Most Biodiverse River System”

A slender new volume makes a substantial case for recognizing (and better protecting) one of America’s most diverse ecosystems — Alabama’s Mobile River Basin. BookShelf Editor Tom Henry reviews Ben Raines’ text, full of fascinating info, images and insights, and which serves as a reminder that some of our nation’s most precious, yet little-noted environments, can be found nearest home.

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July 28, 2021

A Look Back at the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement

The origins of the struggle to protect animal welfare began with preventing the brutal mistreatment of carriage horses. And a new volume explores how one man did much to extend those protections to many species with the founding of the ASPCA. Our BookShelf has a review of “A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement.”

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June 16, 2021

Boom and Bust — Two Books Explore Working-Class Communities in the Clean Energy Transition

For a clean energy transition to succeed, it almost certainly will have to bring along displaced workers and communities. To help journalists understand the challenges underlying that shift, BookShelf’s Jenny Weeks reviews two volumes. The first is a new memoir of working in North Dakota’s booming Bakken oil fields, the second an earlier account of decline in a working-class community in Oregon.

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May 19, 2021

“Routledge Handbook of Environmental Journalism”

While a “Handbook of Environmental Journalism” might initially sound like a scholarly work on environmental journalism, our BookShelf reviewer finds that the volume reads more like an engaging assembly of accessible accounts on the profession from colleagues across the planet. That makes it a rich resource for working journalists ... and anyone else with a passing interest in environmental issues and how they’re covered.

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April 21, 2021

“Eating Wild Japan: Tracking the Culture of Foraged Foods, With a Guide to Plants and Recipes”

A world of unique, foraged foods is at the heart of a new book, “Eating Wild Japan: Tracking the Culture of Foraged Foods, With a Guide to Plants and Recipes,” that also delves into what is being lost with large-scale farming. Our BookShelf reviewer Melody Kemp shares the joys and the worries recounted by the author, long-time SEJer Winifred Bird.

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March 24, 2021

“What Bears Teach Us”

Bears are incredibly complex animals with much to teach humans, writes the author of a new volume on grizzlies, black and polar bears. Our BookShelf review calls the text, which also integrates striking photographs, highly scientific yet accessible, and suggests it might go a long way to helping not just to understand bears, but improve their odds of survival.

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February 24, 2021

“The Last Lions of Africa: Stories From the Frontline in the Battle To Save a Species”

A straightforward but passionate new book explores efforts to save the big cat from extinction in “The Last Lions of Africa.” Our BookShelf review lauds the author for making clear the species’ complexity and the damage done by “sustainable” practices such as trophy hunting. And the loss ends not just with the lions. Read our review for the bigger picture.

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January 27, 2021

“Environment, Social Justice, and the Media in the Age of the Anthropocene”

A case study in how journalists can center environmental news around social justice is at the heart of a new volume of scholarly essays reviewed in the latest BookShelf. While its tale of rural residents poisoned by contaminants is decades old, its lesson of what happens when power players bank on media acquiescence holds for stories of today.

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BookShelf

November 17, 2021

Hayhoe Makes Case for Healing Over Climate Change

October 13, 2021

How ‘The Swamp Peddlers’ Scammed Their Way to Florida’s Eco-Destruction

September 15, 2021

“Saving America’s Amazon: The Threat to Our Nation’s Most Biodiverse River System”

July 28, 2021

A Look Back at the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement

June 16, 2021

Boom and Bust — Two Books Explore Working-Class Communities in the Clean Energy Transition

May 19, 2021

“Routledge Handbook of Environmental Journalism”

April 21, 2021

“Eating Wild Japan: Tracking the Culture of Foraged Foods, With a Guide to Plants and Recipes”

March 24, 2021

“What Bears Teach Us”

February 24, 2021

“The Last Lions of Africa: Stories From the Frontline in the Battle To Save a Species”

January 27, 2021

“Environment, Social Justice, and the Media in the Age of the Anthropocene”

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