Island Press Videos
Scroll down to watch interviews and presentations by our authors or visit our Island Press YouTube channel.
Treehugger Live Chat: City Rules
Emily Talen
February 23, 2012
In City Rules: How Regulations Affect Urban Form, Emily Talen demonstrates that rules like zoning and subdivision regulation are primary determinants of urban form. While many contemporary codes encourage sprawl and even urban blight, that hasn't always been the case—and it shouldn't be in the future. On February 23, 2012, Talen spoke about rules and urban form with a live audience in a Treehugger live chat. Watch the video below.
Treehugger Live Chat: The Case for a Carbon Tax
Shi-Ling Hsu
January 26, 2012
There's a simple, straightforward way to cut carbon emissions—and we're rejecting it because of irrational political fears. That's the central argument of The Case for a Carbon Tax, a clear-eyed, sophisticated analysis of climate change policy. In January 2012, Shi-Ling Hsu, author of The Case for a Carbon Tax, discussed the merits of a carbon tax with a live audience in a Treehugger live chat. Watch the video below.
The Death and Life of Monterey Bay
Stephen Palumbi
October 4, 2011
The California Academy of Sciences
The Most Important Fish in the Sea
H. Bruce Franklin
March 17, 2010
In this brilliant portrait of the oceans' unlikely hero, H. Bruce Franklin shows how menhaden have shaped America's national -- and natural -- history, and why reckless overfishing now threatens their place in both.
Nancy Nichols
October 6, 2009
Nancy Nichols drew on her journalistic expertise while interviewing dozens of scientists, doctors, and environmentalists to determine if pollution could have played a role in her sister's death. While researching Sue's fatal cancer, she discovered her own: a vicious though treatable form of pancreatic cancer. Doctors and even family urged her to forget causes and concentrate on cures, but Nichols knew that it was relentless questioning that had led to her diagnosis. And that it is questioning—by government as well as individuals—that could save other lives.
Lake Effect is the story of her investigation. It reaches back to their childhood in Waukegan, Illinois, an industrial town on Lake Michigan once known for good factory jobs and great fishing. Now Waukegan is famous for its Superfund sites: as one resident put it, asbestos to the north, PCBs to the south.
Gary Paul Nabhan
September 28, 2009
Gary Paul Nabhan weaves together Vavilov's extraordinary story with his own expeditions to Earth's richest agricultural landscapes and the cultures that tend them. Retracing Vavilov's path from Mexico and the Colombian Amazon to the glaciers of the Pamirs in Tajikistan, he draws a vibrant portrait of changes that have occurred since Vavilov's time and why they matter.
In his travels, Nabhan shows how climate change, free trade policies, genetic engineering, and loss of traditional knowledge are threatening our food supply. Through discussions with local farmers, visits to local outdoor markets, and comparison of his own observations in eleven countries to those recorded in Vavilov's journals and photos, Nabhan reveals just how much diversity has already been lost. But he also shows what resilient farmers and scientists in many regions are doing to save the remaining living riches of our world.
Peter Annin
March 20, 2009
The Great Lakes are one of the largest freshwater watersheds in the world, and more than 40 million Americans and Canadians live in their basin. Peter Annin offers a comprehensive look behind the scenes at the conflicts and compromises that are the past-and future-of this unique resource.
Paul Ehrlich
March 12, 2009
Paul Ehrlich, author of the acclaimed book, The Dominant Animal, offers his thoughts on the perils of population growth.
"The whole purpose of The Dominant Animal was to provide an overview of the things that every human being ought to know by the time they are an adult....that is, where we came from--and where we're going."
More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want
Robert Engelman
February 12, 2009
In More, Engelman explores the relationship between population, women’s autonomy, and the natural world, and shows that it is as old as humanity itself. He traces pivotal developments in our history that set population—and society—on its current trajectory, from hominids’ first steps on two feet to the persecution of “witches” in Europe to the creation of modern contraception. Both personal and sweeping, More explores how population growth has shaped modern civilization—and humanity as we know it.
