Island Press began with a simple idea: knowledge is power—the power to imagine a better future and find ways for getting us there. Founded in 1984, Island Press’ mission is to provide the best ideas and information to those seeking to understand and protect the environment and create solutions to its complex problems.
The World's Water Volume 7
The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources
City Rules
How Regulations Affect Urban Form
City Rules offers a challenge to students and professionals in urban planning, design, and policy to change the rules of city-building, using regulations to reinvigorate, rather than stifle, our communities.
Human Transit
How Clearer Thinking about Public Transit Can Enrich OurCommunities and Our Lives
This book explains the fundamental geometry of transit that shapes successful systems; the process for fitting technology to a particular community; and the local choices that lead to transit-friendly development.
Environmental Land Use Planning and Management, Second Edition
Creating Sustainable Communities, Watersheds, and Ecosystems
State of the World 2012
Creating Sustainable Prosperity
An incisive assessment of environmental successes and failures over the past twenty years—and what we should do next.
Vital Signs 2012
The Trends that are Shaping Our Future
From obesity to ecosystem services, from grain production to nuclear power, this book offers the sometimes-shocking facts that need to guide our stewardship of the Earth’s resources.
Cooler, Smarter
Practical Steps for Low-Carbon Living
This science-based guide shows you the most effective ways to cut your own global warming emissions by twenty percent or more, and explains why your individual contribution is so vital to addressing this global problem.
Green Cities of Europe
Global Lessons on Green Urbanism
With Green Cities of Europe, Beatley offers the North American planning community not only a vision of holistic sustainability, but a clear guide to accomplishing it at home.
Climate and Conservation
Landscape and Seascape Science, Planning, and Action
Climate and Conservation offers readers tangible, place-based examples of projects designed to protect large landscapes as a means of conserving biodiversity in the face of the looming threat of global climate change.
The Shape of Green
Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design
The Shape of Green argues that beauty is inherent to sustainability, for how things look and feel is as important as how they’re made.
Stewardship of the Built Environment
Sustainability, Preservation, and Reuse
Stewardship of the Built Environment shows how rehabilitating and reusing existing structures holds untapped potential for achieving sustainable communities.
Resilience Practice
Building Capacity to Absorb Disturbance and Maintain Function
In this follow-up to Resilience Thinking, Brian Walker and David Salt explore how systems can be managed to promote and sustain resilience.
Planning as if People Matter
Governing for Social Equity
This book goes beyond theory to give real-world examples of how better planning can level inequities.
Tibet Wild
A Naturalist’s Journey on the Roof of the World
Follows Dr. George Schaller’s expeditions to the Tibetan Plateau from 1984 until the present day, including an inside look at Schaller’s current and possibly most ambitious project: the creation of the Pamir International Peace Park at the junction of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and Tajikistan.
Global Farms Race
Land Grabs, Agricultural Investment, and the Scramble for Food Security
The first book to examine the burgeoning trend of buying up huge swaths of farmland abroad in all its complexity, considering the implications for investors, host countries, and the world as a whole.
River Notes
A Natural and Human History of the Colorado
Combining science and adventure with glorious imagery, this book follows environmental advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis on a rafting adventure down the Colorado.
The Kingdom of Rarities
An original and important investigation of rarity and its relationship to conservation.
State of the World 2013
Is Sustainability Still Possible?
Designing Suburban Futures
New Models from Build a Better Burb
Measuring Urban Design
Metrics for Livable Places
Common Ground on Hostile Turf
Stories from an Environmental Mediator
The Hidden Potential of Sustainable Neighborhoods
Lessons from Low-Carbon Communities
Urban Street Design Guide
How to Study Public Life
Methods in Urban Design
State of the World 2014
Governing for Sustainability
Land Use and Society, Third Edition
Geography, Law, and Public Policy
This third edition has been updated with data from the 2010 U.S. Census and revised with the input of academics and professors to address the changing issues in land use, policy, and law today.
Forests in Our Changing World
New Principles for Conservation and Management
An Indomitable Beast
The Remarkable Journey of the Jaguar
Connecting to Change the World
Harnessing the Power of Networks for Social Impact
Nuts-and-bolts advice for organizations on how to build relationships and create networks to enhance their reach and effectiveness, written by experts in the non-profit world.
Smart Power
Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities, Anniversary Edition
This pivotal work offers a clear and accessible vision of how we can transform the electric power industry to adapt to twenty-first century challenges.
Urban Acupuncture
Public Produce
Cultivating Our Parks, Plazas, and Streets for Healthier Cities, Revised Edition
An updated look at the advantages and possibilities of urban agriculture in public spaces.
Unnatural Selection
How We Are Changing Life, Gene by Gene
Monosson reveals that the very code of life is more fluid than once imagined. When our powerful chemicals put the pressure on to evolve or die, beneficial traits can sweep rapidly through a population. Species with explosive population growth—the bugs, bacteria, and weeds—tend to thrive, while bigger, slower-to-reproduce creatures, like ourselves, are more likely to succumb.
Unnatural Selection is eye-opening and more than a little disquieting. But it also suggests how we might lessen our impact: manage pests without creating super bugs; protect individuals from disease without inviting epidemics; and benefit from technology without threatening the health of our children.