Book reviews

Ecology - a bridge - review of Ecology: A Bridge Between Science and Society, by Eugene Odum. Third Edition published by Sennar Associates, Sunderland, Mass, USA, 1997.

Technology - a false religion - a review of Why things bite back by Edward Tenner. "Edward Tenner's book is truly blasphemous. Its thesis is that our technological efforts to manage the world of living things are not working out too well. At first they may seem magically successful, but then comes what Tenner calls their 'revenge effect', which at best transforms acute problems into chronic ones, at worst gives rise to all sorts of new problems, often more serious than whatever problem was targeted in the first place ... ". Published in The Ecologist Vol. 28 No. 5, September / October 1998.

Review of The Way by Stan Rowe, published in Trumpeter 14:1, Winter 1997.

In praise of the "seely spider" (long version) - a review of Nature's web: an exploration of ecological thinking, by Peter Marshall. This is the unpublished extended version.

In praise of the "seely spider" (short version) - a review of Nature's Web: an exploration of ecological thinking, by Peter Marshall. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 23 No. 3, May / June 1993.

The medical-industrial complex - a review of Health and the global environment by Ross Hume Hall, 1990.

Scotland's white revolution - a review of The Highland Clearances by John Prebble. Penguin, London 1969, reprinted 1989. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 19 No. 3, May / June 1989.

The illusion of our time - review of In the Name of Progress: the underside of foreign aid, by Patricia Adams and Lawrence Solomon. Published in The Ecologist Vol 15 No 5/6 1985. "... aid programmes are not designed to help the people of the Third World, they are designed instead to help unrepresentative and usually tyrannical governments, in whose present interest it is to undertake vast agricultural and industrial projects... "

Understanding tropical ecosystems - a review of Ecology of Tropical Plants, by Margaret L. Vickery. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 15 No. 3, 1985.

Colonising the plant world - a review of Insects on Plants: Community Patterns and Mechanisms by D. R. Strong PhD, J. H. Lawton PhD, Sir Richard Southwood PhD, DSc, FRS. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 15 No. 3, 1985. "The authors, keen to accentuate the importance of the individual components of the plant community, as opposed to that of the community itself, are necessarily committed... to accentuate the importance of competition as a determinant of what community structure they accept, and to under-playing co-operation... ".

Agricultural development: changing directions - a review of Environmental Management in Tropical Agriculture, by Robert J. A. Goodland, Catherine Watson and George Ledec. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 5/6 1984. Major changes in agricultural practice "will be politically difficult and cannot be accomplished overnight. However, they appear inevitable if large-scale disaster is to be avoided."

A question of climate - a review of Climate and Development, edited by Asit K Biswas, Natural Resources and the Environment Series. An agronomical analysis of why tropical countries cannot follow the agro-industrial model of the developed North. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 5/6, 1984.

Misguided investment - a review of Developing Electric Power - thirty years of World Bank experience by Hugh Collier. The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1984. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 3, 1984.

Damning dams - a review of Long-Distance Water Transfer - A Chinese Case Study and International Experiences, edited by Asit K. Biswas, Zuo Dakang, James E. Nickum and Liu Changming. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 14 No. 2, 1984. "The academic contributors to this book accentuate the terrible social and ecological disruption which is likely to be caused by China's proposed water transfer scheme. The bureaucrats, on the other hand, grossly exaggerate the benefits to be derived from the project and hardly mention the social and environmental consequences ..."

High technology euphoria - review of The Awakening Earth - our next evolutionary leap, by Peter Russell. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 13 No. 5, 1983. "The author recognises the extent of the ecological problems faced by the world today. He recognises too that something drastic has to be done to prevent massive catastrophes. This is as far as I go along with him. In fact, I disagree with just about every other point he makes ... ".

The unfolding of Darwin's thought - review of The development of Darwin's theory natural history, natural thology and natural selection 1838-1859, by Dov Ospovat, Cambridge University Press 1981. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 12 No. 4, July / August 1982. "The transformation in the biological thinking of the times, in which Darwin played a key role ... transformed a paradigm that was suitable for a land based aristocratic society, into one which very much better satisfied the requirements of our fast developing urban-based industrial world ... "

Man-made famines - a review of The Geography of Famine, by William A. Dando. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 10 No. 10, December 1980.

False perspective - review of A Perspective of Environmental Pollution by Martin W. Holdgate, Cambridge University Press. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 9 No. 8/9, November / December 1979.

Jus Animalium - review of The Best of Friends, by John Aspinall. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 6 No. 10, December 1976.

You can′t get there from here - Edward Goldsmith reviews the Planning and Management of Human Settlements for Environmental Quality report. Published in The Ecologist Vol. 2 No. 6 June 1972.