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.
Global Atlas of Marine Fisheries
A Critical Appraisal of Catches and Ecosystem Impacts
The Past and Future City
How Historic Preservation is Reviving America's Communities
This book is for anyone who cares about cities, places, and saving America’s diverse stories in a way that will bring us together and help us better understand our past, present, and future.
Biting the Hands that Feed Us
How Fewer, Smarter Laws Would Make Our Food System More Sustainable
Today in the United States, laws exist at all levels of government that exacerbate problems such as food waste, hunger, inhumane livestock conditions, and disappearing fish stocks. Baylen Linnekin argues that government rules often handcuff America’s most sustainable farmers, producers, sellers, and consumers, while rewarding those whose practices are anything but sustainable. Biting the Hands that Feed Us introduces readers to the perverse consequences of many food rules, from crippling organic farms to subsidizing monocrops. Linnekin also explores what makes for a good law—often, he explains, these emphasize good outcomes over rigid processes. But he urges readers to reconsider efforts to regulate our way to a greener food system, calling instead for empowerment of those working to feed us—and themselves—sustainably.
What Makes a Great City
What makes a great city? City planner and architect Alexander Garvin set out to answer this question by observing cities, largely in North America and Europe, with special attention to Paris, London, New York, and Vienna.
For Garvin, greatness is about what people who shape cities can do to make a city great. A great city is a dynamic, constantly changing place that residents and their leaders can reshape to satisfy their demands. Most importantly, it is about the interplay between people and public realm, and how they have interacted throughout history to create great cities.
What Makes a Great City will help readers understand that any city can be changed for the better and inspire entrepreneurs, public officials, and city residents to do it themselves.
Restoring Neighborhood Streams
Planning, Design, and Construction
What has been missing, however, is detailed guidance for restoration practitioners wanting to undertake similar urban stream restoration projects that worked with, rather than against, nature. This book presents the author’s thirty years of practical experience managing long-term stream and river restoration projects in heavily degraded urban environments. Although the case studies are local, the principles, methods, and tools are universal, and can be applied in almost any city in the world.
Climate Change in Wildlands
Pioneering Approaches to Science and Management
Climate Change in Wildlands proposes a new kind of collaboration between scientists and managers—a science-derived framework and common-sense approaches for keeping parks and protected areas healthy on a rapidly changing planet.
Our Renewable Future
Laying the Path for One Hundred Percent Clean Energy
The next few decades will see a profound energy transformation throughout the world, as we shift from fossil fuels to rely primarily on renewable sources like solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal power. What might a 100% renewable future look like, and what challenges might we face in the transition? In Our Renewable Future, energy expert Richard Heinberg and scientist David Fridley explore the challenges and opportunities presented by the shift to renewable energy. Beginning with a comprehensive overview of our current system, the authors survey issues of energy supply and demand in key components of society, including electricity generation, transportation, buildings, and manufacturing. The book concludes with a discussion of energy and equity and a summary of key lessons and steps forward at the individual, community, and national level. Our Renewable Future is a clear-eyed and urgent guide to the renewable energy transformation that will be a crucial resource for policymakers and energy activists.