This little Junco walked right up to my back door. He seems happy to be digging in the snow for seeds!
More Wordless Wednesday.
How The Government Got In Your Backyard
Superweeds, Frankenfoods, Lawn Wars, and the (Nonpartisan) Truth About Environmental Policies
by Jeff Gillman and Eric Heberlig
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Timber Press
Publish Date: February 9, 2011
Format: Hardcover | 256 pages
There is no escaping government control. At times it seems as if the government has stepped into all aspects of our lives. Environmental issues have become a hot topic on how much or how little the government should be involved.
The shear number of rules and regulations plus propaganda issuing from both the left and the right is enough to confuse most people. Public opinion has become polarized on environmental issues with contradicting information coming from each side. How The Government Got In Your Backyard sifts through the politics to get to the facts about these issues. It is a book without a political agenda. If you are seeking information from both points of view, you have come to the right place.
The authors, Jeff Gillman, an associate professor of horticultural science, and Eric Heberlig, an associate professor of political science have thoroughly researched a multitude of important issues facing our environment today. Is organic food safer? Is it healthier? What about pesticides? Are they dangerous or is there a safe amount? How about fertilizer? Is it helping our farmers or polluting our water? Is genetic engineering safe? 60% of US foods have some type of genetic engineering and most people are unaware. They also delve into plant patents, local restrictions on plants and the hot button topic of global warming, is it man-made or natural.
Arguments for each position, liberal and conservative, have been researched and presented in separate chapters. Opposing positions are presented as government ‘Policy Options’ with a discussion for more or less regulation followed by a summary for ‘The Bottom Line’. The authors are not going to give you answers, they are not going to tell you what to do, what is right or what is wrong. Instead they will give you information so that you can come to your own informed opinion.
As a gardener I found the chapters on plant engineering, plant patents and invasive plants very informative. I had no idea that 99% of US crops are not native to America or that Dandelion and Crabgrass were imported as ‘crops’. They escaped cultivation to become the weeds they are today, as are Kudzu, Thistle and Buckthorn.
This book is timely, relevant and well researched. It reads more like a text book than a narrative and individual chapters can be read in any order. I would recommend this to anyone interested in learning more about the environment.
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Source: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review.
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I participate in Book Review Party Wednesday. Click the link to read more great reviews.
[Contest Closed]
Kathy at I Am A Reader Not A Writer is hosting the Follower Love Giveaway Hop. It will run through midnight February 13th.
Over 200 blogs are participating and each will be giving away books or book related items to their followers. Click HERE for a list of the other blogs participating in the hop.
I am offering a hardcover copy of The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise by Julia Stuart to one of my followers.
Filled with the humor and heart that calls to mind the delightful novels of Alexander McCall Smith, and the charm and beauty of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise is a magical, wholly original novel whose irresistible characters will stay with you long after you turn the stunning last page.
Entry is easy:
- Be a follower or become a new follower.
- Fill out the entry form, tell me how you follow
- US and Canada addresses only.
I’ll use random.org to choose a winner on February 14th. Comments are welcome but you must fill out the form to win. That’s it!
Mailbox Monday was created by The Printed Page. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their home last week.
Mailbox Monday is currently on tour, hosted by a different blog each month. This month’s host is Laura @ Library of Clean Reads.
Last week’s new books were:
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, a win from So Many Precious Books, So Little Time.
Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits-from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth-and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting. Marked by Foer’s profound moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the vibrant style and creativity that made his previous books, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, widely loved, Eating Animals is a celebration and a reckoning, a story about the stories we’ve told-and the stories we now need to tell.
The Story of Stuff: The Impact of Overconsumption on the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health-And How We Can Make It Better by Annie Leonard from Simon & Schuster for a
Free Press blog tour. Tour date is February 22nd.
We have a problem with Stuff. With just 5 percent of the world’s population, we’re consuming 30 percent of the world’s resources and creating 30 percent of the world’s waste. … In her sweeping, groundbreaking book, Leonard tracks the life of the Stuff we use every day—where our cotton T-shirts, laptop computers, and aluminum cans come from, how they are produced, distributed, and consumed, and where they go when we throw them out. Like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, The Story of Stuff is a landmark book that will change the way people think—and the way they live.
In a desperate attempt to keep the squirrels distracted and off the bird feeders I put some bread out for them to eat. There are two browns and four grays that hang out in my yard. This brown female is the worst of the bunch. She can occasionally jump over four feet straight up to the feeder and will spend all day trying.
The squirrel is standing on a table built into the deck about 3½ feet high. The snow was over the top of it by another foot before I shoveled it off. This picture was taken through the window so it’s not as sharp as it could be, but it was too cold to leave the door open while waiting for the perfect shot.
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Saturday Snapshots is hosted by Alyce. Head on over to At Home With Books to see more great photos or add your own.
Even in cold weather birds need fresh water for drinking and bathing. A clean bird is a warm and healthy bird. Bathing and preening helps remove dirt and parasites from their feathers. Clean feathers provide a layer of insulation as protection from the cold.
I always feel bad when I put the bird bath away in December. Chicago winters are freezing cold and it would crack if I left it out. The birds would still come looking for it though.
A few years ago I bought a heated bath. It mounts on the deck railing outside my door so it’s easy to keep filled and clean. On really cold mornings you can see the steam. It looks like a little spa for the birds. They seem very appreciative and often show up in groups to drink and preen.
The picture on the right is a Pine Siskin Yellow-rumped Warbler, who took a quick drink and then flew off. (Update: it was only after reviewing my photos months later that I noticed this was a warbler, very unusual for a suburban Chicago backyard in February.)
After the blizzard stopped Wednesday morning a starling stopped by for a drink. Then two more showed up and the next thing I knew they were having a pool party! When they finished splashing they flew over to a sunny spot in the apple tree to finish preening.
The birds were my snow day entertainment since I couldn’t get out of my driveway, the streets were a mess and there was nowhere to go.
Chicago is having a snowday. Third largest storm since the city has been keeping records.
This is normally a 4-lane county road. The traffic lights are working but there are very few vehicles.
This is my front yard. Those orange sticks mark the edge of the driveway. That drift on the left is over four feet high (1.2 meters for the rest of the planet), the driveway slopes down.
It’s even worse in the back yard.
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Not quite wordless this week but close enough.
More Wordless Wednesday.
Under My Apple Tree 