Book Reviews

Perspectives on Sustainable Resources in America , ( Editor ). RFF Press , 1616 P St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20036-1400. July 2008 . 240 pages. $38 (paper). ISBN 978-1-933115-63-4 . Perspectives on Sustainable Resources in America is positioned as a follow-up to America’s Renewable Resources: Historical Trends and Current Challenges (1990). The earlier work focused on the productivity and renewability of nature’s commodities such as wood from forests and rangelands for raising cattle. This latest Resources for the Future effort maintains a focus on natural resources and commodities but takes a broader, more integrative view through the lens of sustainability. The book is a great resource for those needing an overview of natural resource management or for those who specialize in a particular resource management area seeking a readable, engaging entry into other resource sectors. The text is also useful as supplemental reading in an interdisciplinary resource management course. Water resource and policy specialists will surely appreciate the chapter on water resources and the unique perspective that it offers, but may not find the entire book a compelling purchase. The book is comprised of seven chapters. The first two chapters set the stage for the five chapters that follow, each devoted to a separate resource. The second chapter on resource sustainability is a terrific read even for resource management novices. The authors present a very pragmatic, historical view of resource sustainability from the utilitarian ideal to preservationist to conservation and beyond. They also highlight and explore the challenge of operationalizing sustainability. In practice, managing resource sustainability requires value choices to define objectives and goals to be achieved through management efforts. Once those goals and objectives are defined, the next challenge is to determine appropriate metrics or other measures to ensure that goals are being met. The challenges associated with managing resources for sustainability is addressed in each of the resource specific chapters: forests, cropland soils, water, wildlife, and biodiversity. Each chapter begins with a history of resource management for each topic area. The histories are accessible for the lay audience or for those with expertise in a single area who also have interest in the other resource areas discussed in the text. One of the weaknesses of the text is the unevenness of the discussion around resource sustainability in the five resource specific chapters. Sedjo defines sustainability early in the text, but individual authors offer alternative definitions and treatments. Individual chapters differ in the amount and depth of discussion related to sustainability. The water chapter includes one of the best and most thorough treatments of sustainability of water resources from the unique perspective of conservationists. The chapter on soils also contains a thorough discussion of sustainability. The forests chapter focuses on the history of forest policies and in so doing does not allow for enough of a discussion about sustainability. A second weakness is the lack of integration across resource sectors. We have known about the connection between forests and water resources for decades and of the connection between land and water as well. Those connections mean that to manage one resource effectively, we must consider both. Beyond water, land, and forests, we know soils, wildlife, and ecosystems are all linked. As pressures on resources increase, we have become more keenly aware of the need to better manage our resources. Sustainability and integrated resource management are seen as necessary approaches to achieve better resource management through recognition of the natural connections and interactions between resource sectors. Except for the chapter on biodiversity, the text generally lacks an integrating perspective. Christine Kirchoff School of Natural Resources, University of Michigan, 1591 Long Meadow Trail, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108 CO2 Rising: The World’s Greatest Environmental Challenge , T. Volk . The MIT Press , 55 Hayward St., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 . 2008 . 223 pages. $23. ISBN 978-0-26222-083-5 . This publication provides essential information about CO2, which represents the most globally distributed environmental problem. Chapter 1 introduces carbon zones and their interactions. It also describes the CO2 molecule and the behavior of its shared electrical bonds in providing energy. The role of greenhouse gases in absorbing and re-emitting wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation is detailed. The two most abundant greenhouse gases are water vapor and CO2. Water vapor is not a problem. CO2 becomes the climatic driver. Natural levels of CO2 actually warm the earth and prevent it from becoming a frozen ball in space. Chapter 2 explains the travels of a carbon atom through a number of natural and industrial residences with other atoms and molecules. A key point is that consumption of food, drink, and air by humans does not add to the atmospheric CO2. It is the combustion of fossil fuels that causes the increase. The detention and measurement of CO2 are discussed in Chapter 3. Measurements that employ infrared rays are discussed. Since 1960 the data have been recorded at monitoring stations in both Hawaii and the South Pole. The atmospheric CO2 levels are similar in magnitude at both stations but have been increasing at similar rates, and are both subject to seasonal cycles. Seasonal variation is greater in higher latitudes. Given minor temporary local exceptions, the CO2 concentrations are the same everywhere on the planet because the mixing of the atmosphere spreads the emissions across political and geographical boundaries. Chapter 4 introduces the biosphere and relative dynamics of mixing of carbon in air, oceans, and soils. The carbon behaviors of coal, oil, and natural gas are discussed in detail. These fossil fuels are subject to long periods (often millions of years) of carbon burial before being released into the biosphere. There are no real differences between natural and fossil fuel carbon once they enter the biosphere. Estimation of the total natural release of carbon atoms into the atmosphere is discussed. Chapter 5 points out that not all of the fossil fuel carbon remains in the atmosphere. For comparison purposes units of carbon are a better measure than units of CO2. In 2005, it was estimated that the atmospheric concentration of CO2 is about 385 ppm and about 820 billion tons of carbon circulated as CO2. In the past 40 years, humans have released 225 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere, but the amount of atmospheric carbon increased by 130 billion tons. Reasons for this mismatch and seasonal variations are discussed. Nature is not always in balance. Ocean-atmospheric gas exchanges and land use changes make estimating natural fluxes of CO2 that large difficult. The use of ice-core data to estimate CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere for thousands of years is discussed in Chapter 6. The increases in concentration are particularly striking after 1900. Relatively small variations occurred prior to that date. Chapter 7 points out that wealthy nations like the United States (U.S.) use more fossil fuel energy servants and have markedly higher per capita emissions of CO2 than poor nations like Rwanda and Bangladesh. The energy servants are the source of wealth and the ability to have employment in agriculture represent only a small fraction of total employment. As poorer countries become wealthier, their fossil fuel driven emissions will increase. While countries are appropriate units for comparison, it is per capita use in each country that is important. Energy use, Gross Domestic Product, and CO2 emissions are compared for the U.S., Europe and Japan, China, India, and Africa. It concluded that Europe and Japan are more energy efficient at generating wealth. Reasons are given for this difference. Considerable effort is devoted to predicting future energy use and gross world product (GWP). It is concluded that energy use and CO2 emissions will increase at a slower rate than GWP because of energy efficiency in manufacturing and the substitution of nonfossil fuel energy sources. Chapter 8 deals with projecting the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. An airborne fraction was calculated for a 40-year period. A result of 43% was found to be unstable for individual years but very stable when the years were separated into periods of 10 years each. A discussion of one-way fluxes (burning fossil fuel) and two-way fluxes (land use change) is presented. Bi-directional exchange can dilute the amount of atmospheric fossil-fuel CO2 but does not cause removal at today’s 40% increase from pre-industrial levels. Differences in CO2 uptake by plants that lead to changes in vegetation as atmospheric CO2 increases are discussed. The author develops a simple airborne fraction prediction model that produces results similar to that of the Mauna Loa findings and projects these findings to the year 2050. He compares this model to more complicated models. Chapter 9 states that the science community rates CO2 as the largest forcing agent on climate for the next 100 years. Other greenhouse gases and cooling-agent forcing factors should be considered in predicting future climate change. Relatively small changes in temperature can have substantial effects because rainfall, winds, and climate variables are altered. The pros and cons of a number of energy source alternatives are discussed (biomass, wind, solar, nuclear, and hydro-electric). It is pointed out that all current energy technologies have their distinct negative effects on the environment. The status and potential of new technologies (nuclear fission, carbon sequestration, and tidal-power) are discussed. More efficient use of energy is expected. It is likely that multiple solutions to the energy production problem will result. The author develops best-case, central trend, and worst-case scenarios for future CO2 emissions and temperature increases in 2050. The results for each case do not markedly differ from each other. Technical inertia is discussed. Over the next 50 years, the temperature change does not seem critical, but in the next 100 years, tipping points could be reached. Chapter 10 argues that climate change is currently a slow emergency. Motivations for action are caused by anger, fear, and disgust. People fear a bear stock market and reducing their level of living more than climate change. From an international standpoint there will be winners and losers. Canada and Russia stand to gain. Finally, what will happen when events that were considered “acts of God” become “acts of Man” with clearly identifiable perpetrators? A strong science background is not required to understand this book and its many excellent charts and diagrams. I recommend this easily readable book to students, researchers, policy makers, and others interested in the climate change and greenhouse gas problems. Donald E. Agthe 2509 N. Campbell Ave., PMB 133, Tucson, Arizona 85719 Principles of Snow Hydrology , D. DeWalle and A. Rango . Cambridge University Press , 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10013 . 2008 . 410 pages. $150. ISBN 978-0-521-82362-3 . This is the most comprehensive Snow Hydrology textbook that is currently published. It is a good update of Gray and Male’s 1981 Handbook of Snow Hydrology: Principles, Processes, Management, and Use, which together with the 1956 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’Snow Hydrology: Summary Report of the Snow Investigations are often considered the most thorough single snow hydrology references to date. This book is more comprehensive on the topic of snow hydrology than McClung and Schaerer’s The Avalanche Handbook with a few exceptions, such as kinetic metamorphism processes. Overall, the book provides a thorough description of the physics of most snow processes with exception, due in part by a lack of recent references. In most chapters, a limited number of references from this decade are provided. For example, in Chapter 3 on Snowpack Condition, of the 25 citations only one reference is from 2000 and two are from 1999. New findings have been published and various new ideas have been published, even though some of these exist in the grey literature, such as the Proceedings of the International Snow Science Workshop, the Western Snow Conference, and the Eastern Snow Conference. An update of this book with process descriptions from more recent citations will make an excellent snow hydrology textbook. DeWalle and Rango start with an overview of the perception of snow, the historical work on snow hydrology, research basins, and the properties of water, ice, and snow. The relevance of a changing climate, especially in the context of general circulation modeling, should be further highlighted, and the Importance-of-Snow section that begins Chapter 5 on Remote Sensing should be incorporated into the beginning. The latter section of the Introduction chapter should be incorporated with snow crystal characteristics in a separate chapter or at the beginning of the chapter on Snow Climatology. In the context of Snow Climatology (Chapter 2), snowfall processes, blowing snow, and interception by vegetation are discussed. Forest canopy effects are discussed in Chapter 7 in the context of energy exchange. The second chapter also addresses snow distribution. However, a partial discussion of factors that are used to distribute snow for snowmelt modeling is provided as Section 4 of Chapter 10 (Modelling Snowmelt Runoff). Much work on this topic is avaiable, starting with the 1956 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report. Chapter 3 includes thorough sections on heat conduction, temperature, and liquid water in the snowpack. More specifics on kinetic metamorphism (3.1.2 Formation of faceted grains in dry snow) are necessary. A previous version of McClung and Schaerer is cited that gives a more thorough explanation of kinetic metamorphism, rather than what is presented in Figure 3.3. The vapor gradient that forms facetted crystals is induced by temperature gradients at different locations within the snowpack, in particular, depth hoar at the base of the snowpack, surface hoar due to atmospheric deposition, and near surface recrystallation due to small scale sun warming. This would be an appropriate chapter for discussing the density of fresh snow and existing snowpack densification models. The measurement of snowfall is a difficult task due to wind processes and this book provides a good overview of different methods to reduce undercatch. However, methods have been developed to correct precipitation estimation for undercatch. The operational measurement of snow on the ground is adequate, but more information exists on ultrasonic depth sensors and light attenuation. The snow-crystal imaging section is quite thorough. The Remote Sensing chapter summarizes all operational applications. Recent research efforts could be presented, including Doppler weather radar applications using different wavelengths and bi-polarization, use of LiDAR for fine resolution snow depth estimation over small watersheds, and moving ground penetrating radar across a snowpack to identify depth and snowpack layers. The basic theory of snowpack energy exchange is provided in detail in Chapter 6. This is complemented by photographs of instrumentation and Appendix B on Solar Radiation Estimation. This is continued in Chapter 7, which considers topographic and forest efforts on energy exchange. The topographic component could be included in Chapter 6 while the forest efforts could be in a separate canopy interception chapter with material from Chapter 2. The presentation of snow chemistry is evenly presented, with a summary of measurement and analytical techniques. Anions, cations, the use of isotopes, and meltwater fractionation are all presented. The process of snowmelt is appropriately discussed in Chapter 9. The discussions are quite adequate and include rain on snow melt, which is important in various locations. This leads into the modeling chapter (10). A good overview is provided, considering that numerous books exist on the topic. The focus on the SRM model in Chapter 11 is understandable given one of the author’s many years of involvement with the model. However, the 58 pages dedicated to it could be condensed to highlight process representation and the nature of application. The final chapter is a good overview on management and closes with some comments on climate change. More detail on climate change implications in snow hydrology would provide a better conclusion. This book, written appropriately, is designed to be a text at the upper undergraduate level. It can be recommended for undergraduate students but should be supplemented with more current literature for graduate students. It will be useful for practitioners working in the field, especially those who will use the SRM model. However, at the price, users who solely want a SRM reference can find appropriate materials online for free. I personally will keep this text as a reference, but will also go to other literature to supplement it. Steven R. Fassnacht Watershed Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1472 Water and Disasters , C. Gopalakrishnan and N. Okada ( Editors ). Taylor & Francis , 6000 NW Broken Sound Pkwy., Ste. 300, Boca Raton, Florida 33487 . 2007 . 136 pages. ISBN 978-0-415-46207-5 . This book is interesting to read and worthy of acquiring. However, some of the articles might be more useful than others for floodplain managers and decision makers. The book has eight comprehensive technical articles with the first article being the jewel of the crown. The articles cover a good spectrum of issues related to disasters attributed to water. First, water-related disasters, whether due to excess or shortage of water, are discussed. River, estuary, and sea water flooding are all considered. The book also discusses how other non-water disasters (e.g., tsunamis), could be the direct cause of water disasters. Second, natural disaster economics, including costs that involve the loss of properties and infrastructure, in addition to repair costs, are presented. Flood and drought insurance policies are highlighted. Third, disaster risk assessment and mitigation are reviewed. The book discusses how water-related disasters around the world and their associated risks are assessed, and the steps that local and international agencies could take to mitigate the effects. Fourth, public measures are presented. in the book the measures that local and water users take to when they have water to about the that they use to effects is provided. disaster including international to manage resources in of water-related disasters and to a and of action in case of a are policies and decision as as the can be used to the process of decision are considered. factors that should be considered in in to or of are discussed. drought water and of resources and users are presented. a good discussion of various and modeling methods for floodplain is presented. to in of zones are This book will be of more to floodplain managers and decision than to a interest to the book are graduate students. The most interested would be decision makers, water resources and management The book is appropriate for the audience and may be of interest to other who with the magnitude and of water-related disasters. 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