Record Display for the EPA National Library Catalog

RECORD NUMBER: 7 OF 223

Main Title America's environmental report card : are we making the grade? /
Author Blatt, Harvey,
Publisher MIT Press,
Year Published 2005
OCLC Number 54852587
ISBN 0262025728; 9780262025720; 0262524678; 9780262524674
Subjects United States--Environmental conditions ; Pollution--United States ; Ecology ; Environmental policy ; Luftverschmutzung ; Umweltschutz ; USA
Internet Access
Description Access URL
ebrary http://site.ebrary.com/id/10225296
Holdings
Library Call Number Additional Info Location Last
Modified
Checkout
Status
ERAM  GE150.B58 3005 Region 9 Library/San Francisco,CA 01/14/2005
Collation xiv, 277 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Notes
Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-270) and index.
Contents Notes
Water : is there enough and is it drinkable? -- Floods : too much water -- Garbage : the smelly mountain -- Soil, crops, and food -- Energy supplies -- Global warming : the climate is changing -- Air pollution and your lungs -- Skin cancer and the ozone hole -- Nuclear-waste disposal : not in my backyard. Americans today are increasingly concerned about the state of the environment. Polls show that a remarkable 63 percent would roll back recent tax cuts to finance environmental protection and that fully 95 percent want environmental education included in the public school curriculum. 'America's Environmental Report Card' offers answers to some of our most pressing environmental questions, providing a timely reminder of what we need to accomplish to achieve a sustainable environment. It lays out the scientific facts about water and air pollution, energy, global warming, and the ozone layer in a lively, conversational style, enhanced by illustrations, and charts a course of action for protecting the environment. 'America's Environmental Report Card' focuses on the environmental issues that polls show are most important to Americans today. It looks at water pollution and the safety of the water supply (20 percent of Americans refuse to drink tap water, at least partly because they doubt its safety), the dangers of floods (increased by the clearing of forests for farms and timber), the leaching of garbage buried in landfills, and pesticide runoff in irrigation waters from agriculture. It examines the ways we generate energy and the resulting global warming, air pollution (much of the 2,500 gallons of air we inhale each day contains exhaust fumes, lead, and asbestos), and ozone depletion and its relationship to skin cancer, and offers a detailed account of nuclear energy production and the radioactive waste it generates. Most important, it outlines ways to deal with these problems -- workable and reasonable solutions that individuals, industry, and government can effect without unreasonable hardship, solutions that map the course to a sustainable future. A timely analysis of the state of America's environmental health addresses some of our most pressing environmental concerns, including air and water pollution, energy consumption, global warming, the ozone layer, climate change, and species depletion, and outlines workable and reasonable solutions that can map a course to a sustainable future.