Sustainability @ FMCC

In this engaging and eye-opening read, forager-journalist Becky Lerner sets out on a quest to find her inner hunter-gatherer in the city of Portland, Oregon. After a disheartening week trying to live off wild plants from the streets and parks near her home, she learns the ways of the first people who lived there and, along with a quirky cast of characters, discovers an array of useful wild plants hiding in plain sight. As she harvests them for food, medicine, and just-in-case apocalypse insurance, Lerner delves into anthropology, urban ecology and sustainability, and finds herself looking at Nature in a very different way.

From the beloved host of PBS Kids' Dinosaur Train, an easy-to-use guide for parents, teachers, and others looking to foster a strong connection between children and nature, complete with engaging activities, troubleshooting advice, and much more American children spend four to seven minutes a day playing outdoors--90 percent less time than their parents did. Yet recent research indicates that experiences in nature are essential for healthy growth. Regular exposure to nature can help relieve stress, depression, and attention deficits. It can reduce bullying, combat illness, and boost academic scores. Most critical of all, abundant time in nature seems to yield long-term benefits in kids' cognitive, emotional, and social development. Yet teachers, parents, and other caregivers lack a basic understanding of how to engender a meaningful, lasting connection between children and the natural world.

A man and a great ape conduct a series of philosophical conversations in a work that presents a new vision of evolution and humankind and asks the question: does the Earth belong to humans, or do humans belong to the Earth?

Many people feel the need to change their own lifestyles as a tangible way of transforming our unsustainable culture. Radical Simplicity is the first book to guide you toward a personal sustainability goal, and then offer a way to lower your footprint to be more equitable among all people, species, and generations. Using three tools - including steps from Your Money or Your Life and techniques from Our Ecological Footprint - it enables you to customize your own journey to sustainability.

The Teeth of the Lion tells the story of the common dandelion, that remarkably widespread plant that is known, for better or worse, by just about everybody. Through a series of short essays, written in accessible language and a thoroughly engaging style, Anita Sanchez takes the reader on a journey through the natural history of the dandelion and its long association with humans. Joan Jobson's illustrations add important details and subtle accents that enhance this journey. Well adapted ecologically to spread into and thrive within disturbed sites - such as the lawns, playgrounds, roadsides, and parking lots in which they are most often encountered today, and viewed as weeds - dandelions also have had a lengthy, welcomed association with humans as medicine, food, and objects of ritual, magic, and folklore.