If we want a world of good social-environmental quality to live in, we must change our materialistic values and the endless, economic competition they engender—and be persistent in that change. We must reach beyond where we feel safe and dare to move ahead, despite the fact that perfect knowledge will always elude us. There are no biological short cuts, technological quick fixes, or political hype embodied in our current symptomatic thinking that can mend what is broken. Dramatic, fundamental change in the form of systemic thinking is necessary if we are really concerned with bettering our quality of life—today, tomorrow, and beyond for all generations. Social-Environmental Sustainability is a series of books designed to examine our human-caused, global problems in terms of nature’s biophysical support systems and propose sustainable solutions to move society toward an ecologically sound environment and a socially just culture. As such, each book in this series is thoughtfully selected to add a new dimension in the resolution of our problems—not just repackage old ideas.
By Chris Maser, Holly V. Campbell
July 31, 2023
This book is about building and maintaining involved, sustainable, and inclusive communities from the ground up during a period of unprecedented growth and global change. It explains the concepts and principles of community and sustainability and provides students with a framework of sustainable ...
Edited
By Lynette de Silva, Chris Maser
December 14, 2021
This book works to build trust, consensus, and capacity to enhance understanding through a water conflict management framework designed to bolster collaborative skills. Built on case-studies analysis and hands-on real-life applications, it addresses issues of water insecurity of marginalized ...
Edited
By Cameron La Follette, Chris Maser
October 28, 2019
Sustainability and the Rights of Nature in Practice is the much-needed complementary volume to Sustainability and the Rights of Nature: An Introduction (CRC Press, May 2017). The first book laid out the international precursors for the Rights of Nature doctrine and described the changes required to...
By Chris Maser, Lynette de Silva
May 21, 2019
Resolving a conflict is based on the art of helping people, with disparate points of view, find enough common ground to ease their fears, sheath their weapons, and listen to one another for their common good, which ultimately translates into social-environmental sustainability for all generations. ...
By Cameron La Follette, Chris Maser
May 23, 2017
Sustainability and the Rights of Nature: An Introduction is a much-needed guide that addresses the exciting and significant paradigm shift to the Rights of Nature, as it is occurring both in the United States and internationally in the fields of environmental law and environmental sustainability. ...
By Charles R. Beaton, Chris Maser
May 31, 2017
The earth, our home, is in crisis. There are two sides to this crisis—our global economy, and its effect on the ecology of our home planet. Despite conventional thinking that typical monetary and fiscal manipulations will put us back on the path of economic growth, the reality is not that simple. ...
By Mark B. Weldon
May 31, 2017
Environmental decisions present themselves every day in forms large and small. Should I walk to work today? What about global warming—should I write my congressperson and demand that the government do something? Should I put solar panels on my roof? Should I get a different car or turn up the ...
By Jane Silberstein, M.A., Chris Maser
October 25, 2013
Thirteen years ago, the first edition of Land-Use Planning for Sustainable Development examined the question: is the environmental doomsday scenario inevitable? It then presented the underlying concepts of sustainable land-use planning and an array of alternatives for modifying conventional ...
By Timothy D. Schowalter
May 23, 2013
With few exceptions, insects are perceived in industrialized countries as undesirable pests. In reality, relatively few insects interfere with us or our resources. Most have benign or positive effects on ecosystem services, and many represent useful resources in non-industrialized countries. ...
By Wayne A. White
October 18, 2012
Increased throughput of carbon-based fossil energy, the destruction of Earth’s forests, and other land use changes have resulted in ever higher levels of waste in the form of greenhouse gases—as well as a diminished capacity of the planet to absorb and store those wastes. This means that to avoid ...
By Chris Maser
July 26, 2012
Increasingly, environmental decision making is like playing a multidimensional game of chess. With interactions between the atmosphere, the litho-hydrosphere, and the biosphere, the game is at once a measure of complexity, uncertainty, interdisciplinary acuity, social-environmental sustainability, ...
By Chris Maser
September 22, 2009
With the environment, climate change, and global warming taking center stage in the national debate, the issues seem insurmountable and certainly unsolvable at the local level. Written by Chris Maser, international consultant on forest ecology, sustainable forestry practices, and sustainable ...