Environmental Studies: An Annotated Bibliography, by Diane M. Fortner, is an excellent review of a wide selection of books on human beings and their relationship to the environment. The book is intended as a library resource for high school and undergraduate students interested in knowing more about environmental topics. It includes books from a wide range of subject areas. The organization of the book is topical and chronological. Early publications focus on nature writing and environmental legal history. Books addressing current topics deal with recent environmental issues that appear in popular literature. The last section of the book focuses on the future and predictions of the consequences of our actions. The author includes a wide selection of books that deal explicitly with ecology and environmental science as well as social, political, and economic issues related to environmental degradation.
In her introduction, Diane Fortner expresses her deep concern for the future of the human race and its dependence on the earth. She calls for active engagement of civilization in the care of nature and the best interest of our children's future. Throughout the book, she calls attention to books that can help us educate young people, adults, and ourselves in basic ecological, social, economic, political, ethical, and moral considerations of the human/environmental condition. As the book considers a range of carefully selected books on the subject of humans and their ecosystem, it also conveys the author's values about the future of both the human race and the earth.
The three main sections of this book may simply be referred to as the past, the present, and the future. The first part, the past, includes examples of nature writing (both classic and modern), environmental history, legal history, general ecology, and background materials. The second section focuses on present-day environmental concerns that are frequently reported by popular media. The topics include global warming, ozone depletion, garbage, acid rain, and tropical deforestation. The future is addressed in the last section, where Fortner considers what various authors think must be done to preserve nature, maintain, or improve the human ecological condition, and create a sustainable future. This section includes books on public policy, informed citizenry, steady-state economics and environmental ethics. The book selections are wide-ranging, interesting, and stimulating. The author freely admits that the collection is a selective grouping and that some titles are missing.
The book is intended to point the reader in the right direction, to identify relevant topics for student research, and to provide a starting point for more in-depth investigations. References found in each of the selections will prove useful to the student researcher. This book provides an excellent background and context for upper-level and undergraduate students to view the world. Most of the book selections were published in the USA. The author provides very good geographic distribution of topics throughout the USA, including references to western water issues, northwest logging, everglades preservation, and eastern settlement patterns. However, students may fail to recognize