Book reviews

Green Culture: environmental rhetoric in contemporary America. C. G. Herndl & S. C. Brown (Eds), 1996, Madison, WI, University of Wisconsin Press, 315 pp. ISBN 0 229 14990 0, £35.95 (hbk) ISBN 0 299 14994 3, £17.50 (pbk)

Earthtalk: communication empowerment for environmental action. S. A. Muir & T. L. Veenendall, 1996, Westport, CT, Praeger, Praeger Series in Political Communication, 233 pp. ISBN 0 275 953700 X, £47.95

Environmentalism and Cultural Theory. Kay Milton, 1996 London & New York, Routledge, 266 pp. ISBN 0 415 115529 9, £45.00 (hbk) ISBN 0 415 11530 2, £13.99 (pbk)

Local Environmental Struggles: citizen activism in the treadmill of production. Kenneth A. Gould, Allan Schnaiberg & Adam S. Weinberg, 1996, Cambridge University Press, 239 pp. ISBN 0 521 55519 1, £40.00 (hbk) ISBN 0 521 55521 3, £14.95 (pbk)

The Language of Environment: a new rhetoric. George Myerson & Yvonne Rydin, 1996 London, UCL Press, 264 pp. ISBN 1 85728 330 9, £35.00 (hbk) ISBN 1 85728 331 7, £11.95 (pbk)

Environmental Issues and Business: implications of a changing agenda. Sally Eden, 1996, Chichester, Wiley, ISBN 0 471 94872 1, £25.00

Green Shift: towards a green sensibility in architecture. John Farmer, edited by Kenneth Richardson, 1996, Oxford, Butterworth Architecture, with World-Wide Fund for Nature, ISBN 07506 15303

Lewis Mumford and the Ecological Region: the politics of planning. Mark Luccarelli, 1995, New York, Guilford Press, ISBN 1572300019, £19.95

The Ecology of Hope: communities collaborate for sustainability. Ted Bernard & Jora Young, 1997, East Haven, CT, New Society Publishers, 233 pp. ISBN 0 86571 355 33 (pbk)

Turning the Tide: integrated local area management for Australia's coastal zone. Valerie A. Brown, 1995, Canberra, Australia, Department of the Environment, Sport and Territories

Involving Communities in Forestry through Community Participation. Forestry Practice Guide 10, Forestry Commission

The Scope for Community Participation in Forest Management. A Report for the Forestry Commission and Scottish Office by Bill Slee, Gill Clark & Patrick Snowdon, £10 (£15 non UK)

The Role of Woodlands in Meeting Planning Objectives in Great Britain. A Report for the Forestry Commission by Professor Paul Selman     

Environmental impact assessment for Xiaolangdi Yellow River multi-purpose economic-cumenvironmental improvement project

Summary The Yellow River is renowned for its life-endangering floods, a problem augmented by the continuous heavy siltation of its lower flood plain. Major dam and reservoir projects have both positive and negative environmental impacts, and their construction requires careful environmental consideration. This paper outlines the key findings of environmental impact assessment reports related to the Xiaolangdi Yellow River dam/reservoir project. The authors conclude that the project, as planned, should provide an optimal mix of both economic and environmental benefits.This paper is modified from a presentation given to the 1993 Annual Meeting of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) in Shanghai, China.     

DISTRIBUTIONAL ISSUES IN WESTERN MUNICIPAL AND INDUSTRIAL WATER SUPPLY1

ABSTRACT Financing and repayment provisions of western water projects effect transfers of income among federal taxpayers, electric power users, local water users, and property owners. We use the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project as a case study in the distribution of municipal and industrial water costs. We examine the distribution of costs among taxpayers and water users in different political/geographical jurisdictions, and how this distribution is affected by water law, cost allocation procedures, and the choice of revenue source for local repayment of reimbursable costs. In light of the magnitude of distributional effects of present water policy, we conclude that lack of open debate on water issues is unfortunate. We conclude with speculation on the relationship of western water policy to the motivation of western water leaders who are instrumental in its formulation     

WATER QUALITY OF STORMWATER RUNOFF FROM TEN INDUSTRIAL SITES1

ABSTRACT: This study was to designed to determine concentrations of selected metals, organic compounds, pesticides, and conventional pollutants in stormwater runoff from two North Carolina businesses in each of the following five general industrial groups: auto salvage, metal fabrication, scrap and recycling, vehicle maintenance, and wood preserving facilities. The sampling procedure involved collecting a first flush sample of runoff from a single storm event and both first flush and composite samples of runoff from three consecutive storm events. Analysis of samples collected during the first flush indicated that zinc and copper were the most common of the 13 metals included in the analysis. Additional analysis documented that several volatile organic, semi-volatile organic, or pesticide compounds including acrolein, methylene chloride, xylenes, toluene, tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, pentachlorophenol, and aldrin were also found in the first flush samples. Concentrations of aggregate organics, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment were determined in both first flush and three-hour composite samples. Concentrations of pollutants in first flush samples were similar to those in corresponding composite samples.     

Flexibility,learning, and irreversibility in environmental decisions: A bayesian approach

The Bayes decision is characterized and studied for a two-period decision problem involving a proposed resource development project. It is assumed that development is irreversible and that expectations about benefits and costs during the second period vary with experiences resulting from the first-period action. The amount and types of learning achieved depend upon the particular action taken during the first period. Flexible sequential decision procedures are compared with fixed once-and-for-all decisions. It is shown that under this specification, optimal development decisions are not necessarily more conservative when a sequential procedure is used. The possibility of reneging on a fixed decision is formally specified and studied.     

Flexible seed selection by individual harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex occidentalis

Summary Individual seed harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex) have been shown to specialize on specific seed types. We examined possible mechanisms for seed specialization and tested whether fidelity to food type limits the foraging decisions of individual western harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex occidentalis. The seed selection regimes of individually marked ants foraging at piles of two seed types were described and related to differences in seed quality and colonial dietary history. Individual foraging choices were affected by multiple factors, including seed caloric rewards, the previous seed selected, and the dietary history of the colony. Individual seed choices generally converged on the most energetically profitable species, suggesting that foragers exhibit labile preference. However, for a portion of the foragers, seed specialization was also partially due to constancy, defined as a tendency to select seed species that were previously collected. When colonies were presented with one seed type for 1 h and then were offered a mix of that seed and a novel seed type, individuals showed a strong preference for the novel seeds. Such rapid changes in seed preference argue strongly that individual P. occidentalis ants are highly flexible in seed choice and that resource assessment by these ants is more complex than simple maximization of net energetic return.Offprint requests to: J.H. Fewell at the current address     

Protandry in western cicada killer wasps, (Sphecius grandis,Hymenoptera: Sphecidae): an empirical study of emergence time and mating opportunity

Summary Sphecius grandis is a univoltine, colonial wasp. Females mate once and are sexually receptive when they emerge in July and early August. Males generally emerge earlier in the summer than females. The opportunity for each male to acquire mates is a function of the number of females emerging during his lifetime and the number of competitiors that are active when the females emerge. I determined a mating opportunity index (MOI) for each male in an aggregation of wasps for three separate summers, and correlated the MOI of individual males with their emergence date. The MOI of a male estimates the potential contribution that timing of emergence makes to his reproductive success. In 1984 males emerging near the mean of the male emergence distribution had the highest MOI. These males emerged between one and two weeks prior to the mean female emergence date. However, in 1981 late emerging males had the highest MOI. In 1983 there was no significant difference in MOI among males. As a result of between-year variation in female emergence schedules and in the duration of male lifetime, the selection pressures influencing male emergence time vary between years.