Discover Top 100 Audiobooks in Science & Technology, Environment

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Title: The Human Age

Subtitle: The World Shaped by Us

Author: Diane Ackerman

Narrator: Barbara Caruso

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-15-14

Publisher: Headline Digital

Genres: Science & Technology, Environment

Publisher's Summary:

A beautifully written, insightful and urgent enquiry into man's relationship with nature and our impact on the planet.

Our relationship with nature has changed...radically, irreversibly, but by no means all for the bad. Our new epoch is laced with invention. Our mistakes are legion, but our talent is immeasurable.

In The Human Age, award-winning nature writer Diane Ackerman confronts the fact that the human race is now the single dominant force of change on the planet. Humans have 'subdued 75 percent of the land surface, concocted a wizardry of industrial and medical marvels, strung lights all across the darkness'. We now collect the DNA of vanishing species in a 'frozen ark', equip orangutans with iPads, create wearable technologies and synthetic species that might one day outsmart us. Ackerman takes us on an exciting journey to understand this bewildering new reality, introducing us to many of the people and ideas now creating - perhaps saving - the future.

The Human Age is a surprising, optimistic engagement with the dramatic transformations that have shaped and continue to alter our world, our relationship with nature and our prospects for the future. Diane Ackerman is one of our most lyrical, insightful and compelling writers on the natural world, and The Human Age is a landmark book.

Members Reviews:

The treatment of the roots of humanity's current abilities to change how the world functions was very good. The treatment of fut

"Food for thought" is an understatement. The treatment of the roots of humanity's current abilities to change how the world functions was very good. The treatment of future possibilities was not as interesting to me. I really agreed with the concept that the availability of resources and a peaceful atmosphere can influence not only people who live through peace or chaos, but can influence their children, too. I was teaching Jr. High when the kids whose pregnant mothers lived through the Sputnik scare. Those children were difficult to handle, as are the children who were gestating during 9/11 time and are now in seventh grade.

On the whole, I would recommend this book.

I like Diane Ackerman's other books but this was not very ...

I like Diane Ackerman's other books but this was not very good. The chapters are repetitive and not very interesting the usual lyrical turn of phrases are strained.

easy to read and a keeper

As usual, Diane Ackerman has written a book that is informative, easy to read and a keeper. She offers us hope and gives examples of how people around the world are working to save our planet. Unfortunately, we in North American have to search to find this kind of information, when in fact, it should be a daily news item. We need hope and courage to face and deal with the new age that is certainly here. Well done Ms. Ackerman.

hope & thought provoking

i'm a diane devotee and this book does not disappoint! her imaginative adjectives poetically lead the reader down an adventurous path of learning. Lyrical metaphors paint a brilliant picture of life in the anthropocene era, The Human Age.

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Title: The Greenwash Effect

Subtitle: Corporate Deception, Celebrity Environmentalists, and What Big Business Isn't Telling You About Their Green Products and Brands

Author: Guy Pearse

Narrator: Tom Pile

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 09-02-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Environment

Publisher's Summary:

Going green is the new black for big business. But how real is the climate-friendly revolution thats being advertised? Toyota would like us to think that Mother Nature drives a Prius, Ford wants us to "Join the Green Revolution", and McDonalds has painted its golden arches green. Facebook has even "friended" Greenpeace. All across the globe big corporations are spending big bucks trying to convince us that their policies, actions, and products are Earth friendly. But are big brands and the celebrities endorsing them really as green as they claim?

In The Greenwash Effect, Guy Pearse looks behind the corporate facade in the tradition of Fast Food Nation and No Logo - and what he finds will startle you. Nothing is sacred and no one is safe from scrutiny: not the World Wildlife Fund or Earth Hour, not Apple or Google, not Oprah or Leonardo DiCaprio. The Greenwash Effect is an entertaining and practical book that helps consumers to pick the truly green businesses from the greenwashers and to demand a higher environmental standard from all.

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Title: Radiation Explained

Author: Alan Hall, PhD

Narrator: Derek W. Shetterly

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-27-14

Publisher: Alan Hall

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Environment

Publisher's Summary:

Radiation? What's that all about then? Where does radiation come from? What does it do? This audiobook takes a look at the many different types of radiation including radioactivity, X-rays, and other forms of emissions such as cell phone radiation. It also examines the nuclear power industry and the effects that different types of radiation have on living cells. The book is backed up by references to other works on this topic, and every term used is explained in a jargon-free, easy-to-understand fashion. This book would be useful to students and laypersons who need to be better informed on radiation.

Members Reviews:

Not so much explained

The narration is not bad, given the. material. The book does not seem directed to a specific audience. It is sort of a chatty discussion about a few radiation related topics. It might be suitable for children, but does not seem aimed so. Very light in the explanation and occasionally wrong or at best fuzzy.

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Title: Chasing Monarchs

Subtitle: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage

Author: Robert Michael Pyle

Narrator: Gary Dikeos

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-09-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 1.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Environment

Publisher's Summary:

From roots to canopy, a lush, verdant history of the making of California.

California now has more trees than at any time since the late Pleistocene. This green landscape, however, is not the work of nature. Its the work of history. In the years after the Gold Rush, American settlers remade the California landscape, harnessing nature to their vision of the good life. Horticulturists, boosters, and civic reformers began to "improve" the bare, brown countryside, planting millions of trees to create groves, wooded suburbs, and landscaped cities. They imported the blue-green eucalypts whose tangy fragrance was thought to cure malaria. They built the lucrative "Orange Empire" on the sweet juice and thick skin of the Washington navel, an industrial fruit. They lined their streets with graceful palms to announce that they were not in the Midwest anymore.

To the north the majestic coastal redwoods inspired awe and invited exploitation. A resource in the state, the durable heartwood of these timeless giants became infrastructure, transformed by the saw teeth of American enterprise. By 1900 timber firms owned the entire redwood forest; by 1950 they had clear-cut almost all of the old-growth trees.

In time Californias new landscape proved to be no paradise: The eucalypts in the Berkeley hills exploded in fire; the orange groves near Riverside froze on cold nights; Los Angeles palms harbored rats and dropped heavy fronds on the streets below. Disease, infestation, and development all spelled decline for these nonnative evergreens. In the north, however, a new forest of second-growth redwood took root, nurtured by protective laws and sustainable harvesting. Today there are more California redwoods than there were a century ago.

Rich in character and story, Trees in Paradise is a dazzling narrative that offers an insightful, new perspective on the history of the Golden State and the American West.

Members Reviews:

Love this book

I raise Monarchs and maintain a Monarch way station in central Oklahoma. This year I was able to release almost 300 butterflies back into the environment. We also raised 10 Queen butterflies and released them. No one could have explained to me the emotional response these little souls inspire to those willing to enter their world. Like the author you find them fascinating at every stage. Larvae, chrysalis and adult, each stage is captivating. Dozens of "citizen scientists" have heard the urgency in conservationist's warnings that we are losing them in mass quantities. Companies like Monsanto and the GMO crisis are causing a cataclysmic change in habitat and no one can predict how devastating the results will be. A whole ecosystem is being threatened by their recklessness. Have we learned nothing over the years? Groups all over the United States are planting milkweed and nectar gardens but will it be enough? This book follows the author through out the Western range of not only Monarchs but other animals and takes you into a magical world that most of us fly by in motorized comfort unaware of the beauty and life and death struggles all around us to our great loss. The book is a poetic, spiritual glimpse into this world and spoke to my heart. I cried through pages and laughed in some, became enraged in others at the reckless abuse of our fellow travelers through this world.

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Title: Fevered

Subtitle: Why a Hotter Planet Will Hurt Our Health - and How We Can Save Ourselves

Author: Linda Marsa

Narrator: Julie Eickhoff

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-02-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Environment

Publisher's Summary:

Beyond images of emaciated polar bears and drought-cracked lakes, there remains a major part of climate change's impact that the media has neglected: how our health will suffer from higher temperatures and extreme weather. From spiraling rates of asthma and allergies and spikes in heatstroke-related deaths to swarms of invasive insects carrying diseases like dengue or West Nile and increases in heart and lung disease and cancer, the effect of rising temperatures on human health will be far-reaching, and is more imminent than we think.

Award-winning journalist Linda Marsa blends compelling narrative with cutting-edge science to explore the changes in Earth's increasingly fragile support system and provide a blueprint - a "medical Manhattan Project" - detailing what we need to do to protect ourselves from this imminent medical meltdown. In the tradition of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Marsa sounds the alarm on a subject that has largely been ignored by governments and policy makers, and persuasively argues why preparedness for the health effects of climate change is the most critical issue affecting our survival in the coming century.

Members Reviews:

Coming At Us

This book looks at the present and coming impact of climate change on public health, and offers some examples of effective coping strategies. Clearly written, and chilling but hopeful. Not just recommended-- a must read.

A Call to Action

Meticulously researched, passionately written, FEVERED is a cry meant to awaken us from our torpor regarding the health consequences of climate change--if only we would listen.

GREAT BOOK

GREAT BOOK and would highly recommend to everyone as a good read.. Linda hits it on the head and people should be pro active.

Thanks LInda

Five Stars

Awesome book.

"As the planet grows hotter, we'll get sicker and die younger"

XXXXX

"As I began to research this book and initiated conversations with dozens of climate scientists, geologists, and atmospheric physicists, I learned that the [U.S.] Midwest and the [U.S.] Southern Plains are likely to tip into desert once again as temperatures continue their inexorable climb.

Combing through the gripping and poignant oral histories of the survivors of the 1930s' Dust Bowl, it hit me that the bleak physical, psychological, and emotional assaults on their daily lives might offer a glimpse of what our future could hold. These stories also provide a disturbing preview of the impending deterioration of our physical health amid the growing deprivations, changes in ecosystems, and increasingly harsh weather that result from the careless dumping of billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere."

The above comes from the beginning of the extremely well-written book by Linda Marsa. She is an investigative journalist who has covered medicine, health, and science for more than two decades.

The hallmark of this book is that it depends on interviews with people. These people include scientists and public health doctors from all over the world. Aussies on climate change's front lines. Physicians, nurses, and firefighters in New Orleans who experienced Hurricane Katrina. Green activists in New York (where Super storm Sandy occurred) and Vancouver, Canada.

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Title: The Gulf Stream

Subtitle: Tiny Plankton, Giant Bluefin, and the Amazing Story of the Powerful River in the Atlantic

Author: Stan Ulanski

Narrator: Ray Grover

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-06-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Environment

Publisher's Summary:

Coursing through the Atlantic Ocean is a powerful current with a force 300 times that of the mighty Amazon. Ulanski explores the fascinating science and history of this sea highway known as the Gulf Stream, a watery wilderness that stretches from the Caribbean to the North Atlantic. Spanning both distance and time, Ulanski's investigation reveals how the Gulf Stream affects and is affected by every living thing that encounters it--from tiny planktonic organisms to giant bluefin tuna, from ancient mariners to big-game anglers. He examines the scientific discovery of ocean circulation, the role of ocean currents in the settlement of the New World, and the biological life teeming in the stream.

Members Reviews:

An incredible story of our Oceans !!

A surprisingly easy to read book on the incredible discoveries & mysteries of our oceans!!

Though falling under the heading of the serious science of Physical Oceanography, even an intelligent highschooler

could handle this text. It is chock full of fascinating knowledge gained in recent times, as well as engrossing historical info.

Previously, I had little idea of the complexity of this watery world, & how it fits into the overall ecological picture. The Oceanography I studied long ago in college was very minimal compared to all the relatively new info now available.

Initially intrigued by popular books about rogue waves, etc., I was led to explore further into this realm. "Gulf Stream" is one of several texts which came my way. This is one of the best. The author does an excellent job of reducing technical, scientific data to a readable, understandable, exciting story.

I also Highly recommend: "The Power of the Sea" by Bruce Parker

Five Stars

Joy of reading on interesting but important topics, ocean current, natural resource, and people involvement in the ocean.

Great read Clearly explains one of the great wonders the ...

Great read Clearly explains one of the great wonders the Atlantic ocean whether captain, seaman of a land lover it's worth reading.

Fascinating.

The author presents very interesting, scientific data in a readable way. I have really enjoyed reading and learning about this part of the ocean.

Now I understand

Having actually sailed in the gulf, this informative book sheaf light on what we encountered and why. I am better prepared for planning our next crossing.

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Title: Climate and Culture Change in North America AD 900-1600

Subtitle: Clifton and Shirley Caldwell Texas Heritage Series

Author: William C. Foster

Narrator: Michael Lenz

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-03-14

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Environment

Publisher's Summary:

Climate change is today's news, but it isn't a new phenomenon. Centuries-long cycles of heating and cooling are well documented for Europe and the North Atlantic. These variations in climate, including the Medieval Warm Period (MWP), AD 900 to 1300, and the early centuries of the Little Ice Age (LIA), AD 1300 to 1600, had a substantial impact on the cultural history of Europe. In this pathfinding volume, William C. Foster marshals extensive evidence that the heating and cooling of the MWP and LIA also occurred in North America and significantly affected the cultural history of Native peoples of the American Southwest, Southern Plains, and Southeast.

Correlating climate change data with studies of archaeological sites across the Southwest, Southern Plains, and Southeast, Foster presents the first comprehensive overview of how Native American societies responded to climate variations over seven centuries. He describes how, as in Europe, the MWP ushered in a cultural renaissance, during which population levels surged and Native peoples substantially intensified agriculture, constructed monumental architecture, and produced sophisticated works of art. Foster follows the rise of three dominant cultural centers-Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, Cahokia on the middle Mississippi River, and Casas Grandes in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico-that reached population levels comparable to those of London and Paris. Then he shows how the LIA reversed the gains of the MWP as population levels and agricultural production sharply declined; Chaco Canyon, Cahokia, and Casas Grandes collapsed; and dozens of smaller villages also collapsed or became fortresses.

Members Reviews:

Provide easily understood description of the effect of climate on Native American societies

Anthropologists in the United States have a tendency to focus on specific Native American cultures and periods without looking at the "big picture" of what was happening in North America as a whole. They also tend to only communicate within their own circles of colleagues. Foster's book is a very useful effort to present a "big picture" of the culture and climatic changes in North America.

My only negative comment would be that Foster fell into the trap of geocentric thinking that we see in American anthropologists. The book provides detailed information about the Four Corners area of the Southwest, but only sketchy info about the Southeast, where there were vastly more Native Americans living. He completely left out major town sites and cultural centers in order to present a simplistic image that would seem to conform to events in the Four Corners region. There were large mounds and permanent agricultural villages & towns in Georgia & Florida before agriculture even arrived in the Southwest. The mounds and Mississippian cultural traits of the massive 12 mile long Ocmulgee Conurbation in central Georgia appeared 150 years before they appeared at Cahokia.

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Title: The ABC's of Oklahoma Plants

Subtitle: The ABC's of America's Plants

Author: Sara Barnard

Narrator: Charlotte Elle Hanna

Format: Unabridged

Length: 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-23-14

Publisher: Sara Barnard

Genres: Science & Technology, Environment

Publisher's Summary:

Amazon #1 best-selling nature book!!

Farkleberry. Chrysothamnus nauseosus. Old Man's Beard. Zanthoxylum clava-herculis. What do all of these farkling, nauseating, hairy clubs of Hercules have in common? They are all easily-identifiable plants found in Oklahoma, that's what!

Members Reviews:

Great book

The book is great. I like to look around OKlahoma fields just for fun to see if I can recognize names of plants. This book is lots of help.

This is a simple book with simple advice but its a good start for the beginner

Wish there were more info and more plants. This is a simple book with simple advice but its a good start for the beginner.

Five Stars

It is nice to know your states resources

The ABC' s of Oklahoma Plants

Good detail, good pictures of each plant, very informative. I'm very satisfied with my purchase and will recommend this book to others.

You might get hungry but you wont starve. Providing it isn't winter.

Yep as you would expect from an Okie. This book shows me the wild edibles in my Oklahoma environment, as well as some of areas around OK. Easy to read and informative.

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Title: A Slow Passion

Subtitle: Snails, My Garden and Me

Author: Ruth Brooks

Narrator: Kelly Birch

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-10-14

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Environment

Publisher's Summary:

When BBC Radio 4's Material World programme announced a search for the UK's top amateur scientist, little did anyone expect that the winning experiment would comprise one of our humblest garden pests. Ruth Brooks posed this question: Do snails have a homing instinct?

The nation was gripped by the unexpected thesis and by Ruth's online diaries, which catalogued her trials and tribulations as she got to grips with these slimy little gastropods.

A Slow Passion is Ruth's story, with anecdotes and misadventures galore. What starts out as a ruthless vendetta against the snails that are decimating her hostas becomes a journey of discovery into the whys and wherefores of snail life. When Ruth dumps a group of the worst offending snails in a far-off wood, she decides to paint their shells with nail varnish, just to see what happens. And guess what, they come back home.

This is the beginning of an obsession that sees the grandmother-turned-scientist prowling about and pouncing on the snails in her garden, sneaking off on night-time missions to repatriate bucket loads of painted snails, reading up on the sex-life of snails (which turns out to be unexpectedly romantic) and, eventually, sending off the application to a national competition for home science.

With charming illustrations, A Slow Passion is a sweet, funny and surprising investigation into the hidden life of snails, which will change the way you look at the smaller (and slower) things in life.

Members Reviews:

"In The Garden, Nothing Had Changed - Except Me."

Written with an eloquence that rivals Ruth Brook's vast scientific curiosity, this little book proved to be a deeply inspirational account of how one woman made her peace with the molluscs invading her garden, and in so doing, found peace within herself as well. It begins as a nostalgic memoir of her childhood in the 1940s-50s, within the context of her enduring love of nature. Along the way, snails play a role in her memories, but it is not until she begins to wonder how to rid her flowerbeds of these "pests" without killing them that she takes a long-shot and enters the BBC Amateur Scientist competition.

From here on, the book becomes heavy on science. The author has a marvelous style of writing, a rare blend of entertaining and educational. She is quite enthusiastic about her subject, while her recounting of the trials, tribulations and successes of her homing instinct experiment, were, for this snail enthusiast, thrilling to read. Incidentally, Ruth Brooks has gone no little way in proving what most snail owners would already swear to - that they are far more intelligent than modern science would suggest, and in particular, snails have a memory.

Throughout the experiment, she is beset with challenges, which she overcomes with a positive outlook, and it becomes amazing, even to those few of us who are so fond of our gastropods, that such a tiny, seemingly unimportant creature as the snail could be the catalyst that so profoundly changed her outlook on herself, and her place in Nature. That all lives are of significance.

For mollusc lovers, this book is the Holy Grail of Snail Tomes. It was also very much uplifting, the sort of thing that restores one's faith in humanity.

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Title: Florida Bird Songs

Author: Donald J. Borror, Maurice L. Glitz

Narrator: uncredited

Format: Unabridged

Length: 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-26-13

Publisher: Dover Publications

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Science & Technology, Environment

Publisher's Summary:

A noted ornithologists outstanding field recordings of songs and calls, this audiobook covers 60 birds with several recordings for each.