Reference Reviews

Reference for Students

Environmental Issues: Essential Primary Sources. Edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. Detroit, Mich.: Thomson Gale, 2006. 1 vol. 515 p. $115.00. ISBN 1-4144-0625-8.

Visiting in Belarus two years ago, this reviewer learned the fallout from Chernobyl was greater on Belarus than on Ukraine. My hostess for that trip has since died of cancer. To research environmental disasters and to launch a debate concerning whether or not we have global warming and, if we do, whose fault it is, students need to find information that they can use to clarify, accept, or deny other sources. It is our current students who will face the consequences if these issues are not addressed as soon as possible. Sections in this book include "Roots of Environmental and Ecological Thought," "The Physical Earth," "The Biosphere," "Exploration," "Environmental Legislation," "Energy Use and Perils," "Environmental Disasters," and "Conservation and Activism," The articles cover trips (Mark Twain) and expeditions (Robert E. Peary). This will be very useful in science classes.