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    Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines
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    Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines
    Unavailable
    Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines
    Audiobook3 hours

    Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines

    Written by Paul Fleischman

    Narrated by Tom Parks

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    What's really going on with the environment-in our own backyards and the wider world? Conflicting information is offered by websites, magazines, and documentaries that blur the line between news and opinion. Not every report is reliable; not every interest group is actually composed of concerned citizens. In this dynamic account, award-winning author Paul Fleischman arms teens with the basic tools to uncover vested interests and falsehoods by vetting sources, following the money, and checking references so that they can make informed decisions about what actions to take in the worldwide battle against climate change, overconsumption, and dwindling resources. Extensive backmatter, including a glossary, bibliography, and index, as well as numerous references to websites, provides further resources.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateSep 23, 2014
    ISBN9781491502815
    Unavailable
    Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines
    Author

    Paul Fleischman

    Paul Fleischman's novels, poetry, picture books, and nonfiction are known for innovation and multiple viewpoints. He received the Newbery Medal for Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices and a Newbery Honor for Graven Images, and he was a National Book Award finalist for Breakout. His books bridging the page and stage include Bull Run, Seek, and Mind's Eye. For the body of his work, he's been the United States nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award. He lives in California. www.paulfleischman.net.

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    Reviews for Eyes Wide Open

    3.5/5

    32 ratings16 reviews

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    • 4/5
      If you want to read a concise summary of global warming and reasons for humanity's lack of prompt, decisive reaction, this is it.
    • 3/5
      I found the narrative tone somewhat strident but beyond that, this is an essential guide and clarion call for young people about thinking critically when it comes to environmental claims. The author describes how perceptions, attitudes, and business and government systems impact our abilities to improve the environment. He suggests resources for further research (listed throughout the book but handily collated in the backmatter). Although his focus is on assessing environmental claims, the techniques are certainly useful for any topical issue.
    • 3/5
      Obviously very well researched but, sadly, not very well written.
    • 5/5
      This is a title I would love to see high schools select as a "one book, one school" read so it can be discussed at length and hopefully spark some organized action. It's one of the most challenging, provocative, and cogently written books about the world's current and coming environmental crises. Fleischman avoids the platitudes and addresses the important matters like living in a culture obsessed with materialism, consumption-based economies, scientific denialism, corporate greed, and political impotence. I particularly love the section, "How to Weigh Information." It offers great advice to young people on how to recognize propaganda and sort through the bullshit in web sites, media reports, and opinion pieces. A book worthy of a wide audience and deep, thoughtful discussion.
    • 4/5
      Easy to read. Loved the page layouts with side commentary and graphs and pictures. Plain language conveys the environmental message loud and clear. A must have for my library shelves. A "want to share" book with friends and colleagues and students. A must for every school library shelf.
    • 5/5
      An excellent introduction to the complexities of climate change: how its veracity is debated, how special interests oppose it, how our natural human tendencies allow us to ignore it and/or disbelieve it. Others have criticized it for not going deeply into issues that it introduces, but it is written for teens who are just learning about the issues surrounding climate change. It is intended for them to learn how to study the subject in greater depth, giving advice on how to avoid being taken in by special interest groups whose goal is to confuse people or plant doubt even when the science is solid. I also think that adults who have not paid attention to the environmental concerns but are becoming interested can find this eye-opening. It isn't for scientists or environmental activists. I highly recommend this book and am appreciative of Paul Fleischman for writing it in this manner.
    • 3/5
      Paul Fleischman covers a wide range of environmental topics with his 2014 book Eyes Wide Open. Although the work was at times frustrating to read due to the barrage of information on every page, overall I enjoyed the book and could see myself using it in the classroom. The book's cover and endpages were very inviting for me, as they seemed to foster the notion that the book would address a range of issues, from physical effects of pollution to human responses. They're both very busy, particularly the cover with its array of colors, much like the structure of the book itself. The table of contents offered a glimpse into the somewhat erratic makeup of the book. It presented six chapters, each with subheadings, that initially don't seem like they would flow well together. I believed this due to how vague everything in the table of contents was worded. Very little seemed concise, and this worried me about the book's ultimate direction before I read the first page. As far as the wording, there's essentially nothing either descriptive or figurative. Ultimately, however, the book flowed with more coherently than I predicted, although there were plenty of rough patches. The primary impediment for me was the amount of visual displays and information that basically induated every page. Photographs, definitions, illustrations, tables, diagrams, charts, graphs, sidebars, inserts, you name it were everywhere. The sheer amount was so overwhelming that I had no choice but to read everything inserted on the pages before I could read the text itself. Most of the information was interesting, relevant, and supplemental to the text; I just don't think there needed to be so much. All of the side info worked to create an effect where the book was easy to skim through for main ideas but was difficult to read word for word. I imagine there's as many words in all of the inserted pieces as there are in the text itself! I'm glad that all of the visual information was in black and white like the text, because if not it would have been just too overwhelming. Of all the visuals, I liked the photographs the most. They encompassed a good range and are graphic enough to press issues but weren't inappropriate for younger readers. I read this book cover to cover, and many times I had to refer back to previous chapters to get a full understanding of a few issues. With everythng so jam-packed, I often referred to the index and found it very organized. It accessed both written and visual text and is very complete. The glossary was useful as well, shedding light on popular terminology as well as newer buzzwords that surround the issues of climate change. I think perhaps the most valuable part of the book was the section on weighing information. This is very critical skill for young readers to develop, and it's something that adults need to often refresh themselves on. If you're a bit older and have been keeping up with the issue of climate change at all over the years, I don't think there's a whole lot of new information that the book offers. However, this book isn't written for 'my' (the about-to-be forty peeps) age group. I think it's a great starting point for younger readers to engage in the many dynamics that encompass climate change. It's so so so important that students understand that although it may be a bitter pill for them to swallow, what's going on around us is real. It's science.
    • 3/5
      There are few books I come in contact with that really challenge me as a reader. Surprisingly enough, this book was one of them. Reading Eyes Wide Open was like discussing environmental conservation with a dilettante activist - someone who is passionate about the subject, but dabbles in all the aspects of it without really going in depth about any one particular topic. Talking to a person like that is exhausting, but at least you can pretend to listen, occasionally nod, and make non-committal noises at the back of your throat. With a text you are reading to critique, though, I found a nice two-finger shot of bourbon did the trick. Fleischman clearly has some desire for organization for his book; at the back is an extensive index and list of suggested resources along with a glossary of unfamiliar terms. It's throughout the text itself that I found the book to be a challenge. There's so much going on for each page that I kept finding myself distracted from the text and focusing more on the sidebars and pictures and "check out this link for more information about what it's like to live in Chindia." I'm almost positive it took me twice as long to read this as it should have because of that fact. If this book is intended for children, I think it's horrible that it sets them up for distraction as if encouraging their short attention spans. While I do believe the layout of the pages is a way to get a child interested in the topic, I don't believe there's enough focus to use this as a primary resource document (meaning using this book to find other more in-depth resources). In all fairness, I liked what this book had to say and, when I finally got around to reading the main body of the book, Fleischman uses clear, concise language that would be easy for a someone as young as middle school to read. I do think it's important to introduce young students to global issues like this, and this book would make a good introductory piece by picking out certain chapters to focus on as a class. What I really liked was that the cover was printed on 100% recycled paper and the paper used in the book was 30% recycled post-consumer fiber. I feel like some environmental books don't practice what they preach, so the fact that Fleischman made sure to be environmentally friendly with the production of his book tends to sway me more towards embracing the book as an acceptable text for my own classroom.
    • 3/5
      I had mixed feelings about this book - primarily because it was incredibly messy. As such, I will present my review as a set of bullet points of good and bad features of the book.The Not so Good1) Chaos: This work was chaos on paper. Every page was lined with side bars and randomly placed pictures and bits of information/sources. Reading it felt like what I imagine an attention deficit individual must go through when trying to focus at times. Though I must admit that this disorganized appearance may, in fact, be appealing to middle or high school age kids who spend so much of their time on social media and such. The in-your-face formatting certainly hearkens to some types of online media.2) Divisions: The book is, furthermore, broken into an obscene number of mini chapter and sub-divisions and concepts and factors. So much of this work could have been condensed into a few chapters covering related concepts. Headings are often unnecessary, and followed by only a paragraph. It almost feels like the author was trying to fill pages for the sake of filling pages as much a possible.3) Possible bias: Let me start by saying that I agree with Fleischman's positions -almost to the letter. However, on the one hand he pushes for critical thinking and lambasts big oil, politicians and lobbyists for uncritically pushing for their position, and on the other he seems to uncritically accept all facets of the clean energy movement as being somehow nobly motivated - as if there isn't corruption building on that front as well. Admittedly, this is my own nitpicking, and I challenge anyone to find a book totally lacking in bias of some form. Furthermore, I'm not sure that this isn't the type of book that could get one in trouble when sending it home with students. I certainly have encountered enough militant, staunch right wingers who would complain to the school that their child's teacher was trying to indoctrinate them with liberal propaganda for less than the contents of this book. I'm not saying that this situation is acceptable, but simply that it may be a possible consequence of including this book in a classroom library in the deep south. I will likely still include this book in my library, but I should prepare myself for possible headaches.The Good1) Writing: The writing is concise and presented in an at least vaguely entertaining manner. 2) Content and Push for Critical Thinking: The content, despite my earlier trepidation, speaks to an incredibly important issue in our current paradigm. Students should know about climate change, and they should be able to speak intelligently about it - rather than simply having their heads filled with media talking points. Fleischmann pushes his readers to check sources and question everything they read, and I can't think of a single idea which is more important to instill in students. 3) Research and Further Reading: There are piles of good sources, and the author continually draws upon real world events and references. He also has a fairly extensive collection of web sites, documentaries, and such to which he points readers seeking more information after his fairly cursory treatment of the various topics discussed.
    • 2/5
      I feel that the best I can say of this book is that its well meaning. I would also add that the author clearly made a concerted effort to be properly informed on the various issues he was writing about. Unfortunately, the very fact that he is writing about so many issues is the problem with this book. I read through and see the makings of 3-5 pretty good books, but the result is a jumble that shifts from one topic to another without ever developing a thesis for any of them. Indeed, many of his 4 to 5 sentence paragraphs function less as introductions to a problem than an observation of something followed by an inference that there may, or may not be a problem with the situation. Even then, the inference is inconsistent. When writing about population (I don't recall him mentioning "overpopulation", simply that there is a growing population and that it might strain resources) he cited (erroneously) Thomas Malthus and presented the scenario of a limit to a population that the species can sustain as being more likely than the assurances of Cornucopians (as he called them) that human ingenuity and advances would mitigate the problems of population growth. However, a few pages later, he reverses his skepticism of technological advances when he comments that such would be the means by which issues with wind and solar energy would be mitigated. While I'm on the topic of Thomas Malthus, that presentation is a very common misconception, but easily remedied by something more than a cursory review. While it is true that Malthus' thesis was that human population was tied the availability and supply of food (primarily derived from agriculture) he did not present this as a apocalyptic prediction so much as an assurance that food supply would serve as a natural barrier to overpopulation. It is similar to David Riccardo's theory on the cost of labor in that under both scenarios, the population would rise in response to available resources and taper off in scarcity to reach a medium of maximum sustainability. Furthermore, if Fleischman truly sought to properly apply Malthus, he would (as Malthus did) only be discussing the Third World. Malthus' observations, befitting a nineteenth century English gentleman, only dealt with poor people. Now, I Have studied parts of the Lotus Sutra, so I understand that sometimes the easiest way to help someone reach Enlightenment is to lie, and (hypothetically speaking) I have no moral qualms with consciously misleading people to serve a noble purpose. Unfortunately, I don't think the author knew he was doing this. Rather than writing several pamphlets stitched together, I felt that the author should have picked a topic, or two, or even three and stuck with them. I honestly feel that he picked a project far larger than he honestly admitted to and let it get away from him.
    • 4/5
      This book discusses the effects of the environment based on human activities. It is a compelling read as it makes authentic connections between science, history, psychology and economics. The multidisciplinary approach taken in this book allows for a great deal of depth and scope. The introductory chapter does a fine job at outlining the organization of the book and provides important background information. The manner in which this is presented allows the reader to become in-twined with the overall narrative message of the book. The organization of this book ranges from more interpersonal experiences to the greater global experience of climate change. Psychology is heavily utilized during Fleischman's discussion of perception and defense mechanisms. The disciplines of economics and politics is another organizational subtopic. Science is incorporated into the Attitudes and Eyes Abroad and Ahead chapters. China and India are used to describe how human interactions with the environment are causing stress and conflict. In order to lower prices, many manufacturing jobs are being outsourced to India and China. This cheap labor causes a great deal of economic and social strife in the long run. The major reason behind the outsourcing movement is in order to fill the growing demand for goods. Since India and China have a large population, the rates of pollution and other environmental damage is growing rapidly. India and China cannot sustain the modern Western lifestyle with their large populations. The solutions proposed in this book are realistic and ongoing in many parts of the world. Science, Economics and Politics are once again merged in the discussion about fixes to preserve the environment. This is a strong reference book that is useful and appropriate for students, starting from the fifth grade and up. The text is easy to read and overall, the book is quite well organized into different themes. The information is accurate and the arguments presented are sound. The format works well for multiple content areas. Even though the book is aimed at scientists, the connections and evidence presented can work well for a Social Studies or English class. This book can be used in Middle and High school as well to spark discussions about Economics or Psychology. Format and access features are key for this book. The photographs and drawings are realistic. The charts and graphs support the author's assertions and provide valuable information for the reader, They are all clear and well defined. At first, the sheer number of access features may overwhelm some. After reading for a bit, this is not the case. The captions under the pictures provide important and useful information. The layout of the book suggests that this is an important issue and doing little or nothing to improve the environmental issues addressed will affect the overall quality of human life. There are many interludes, or Backstory sections, that allow for appropriate breaks in the text.. The Backstory sections are informative and well organized. They allow for deep critical thinking and the information presented merges well with the text. These sections can be used in the classroom in order to foster debates. The global nature of this book along with strong access features make this an important book to have in the classroom. Students can make authentic connections and feel like global citizens. The source notes, "How to Weigh Information" section and glossary are welcome additions. The "How to Weigh Information" section is especially helpful for students as it sharpens their research skills. It also allows them to strengthen their speaking and presentation skills. With this, students become more conscious of the material they read and view on TV and the Internet. These skills are important and are supported well throughout this book. "Eyes Wide Open" is an important and informative read.
    • 3/5
      A discussion of what is behind the climate change debate and how an environmental crises came to be. Discussed are political, historical, and psychological aspects of climate change action and denial and information on evaluating sources of information about the changing climate.
    • 1/5
      This book is about the damage that humans are doing to the environment. In the contents section the book is broken up into six main sections: Noticing, Perception, Defense Mechanisms, Systems, Attitudes, and Eyes Abroad and Ahead. Each section then has chapters in it, with some containing backstories. The book contains many explanatory pictures and articles about the topic being explored. I like the extra pictures and background information, it makes the topics easier to understand. While this is a very important topic that needs to be explored, I didn’t like the way the book was written. While reading my mind would start to wonder and my interest wasn’t being held even though I enjoyed the topic. I think too much was crammed into the book and it wasn’t very focused. I think if the book was broken up into a series, I would have enjoyed it more. Each book should have been a different topic, historical, psychological, etc. I think each chapter had too much information in it. As an English teacher I would like to incorporate environmental topics and books into my classroom, but certainly not this book. I doubt my students would have the attention span or patients to get through this book. I had a hard time with it, so I wouldn’t want to put them off of reading by having them read an uninteresting tedious book.
    • 5/5
      This book's time has come. When I was growing up in the '90s, climate change was still a fringe topic in most literature. Today, we are finally seeing the alarming data about accelerating levels of carbon and methane in the atmosphere, and we are slowly coming to recognize the vested political forces in the media that work hard to keep our perspectives narrow on these matters. Fleischman's book has the virtue of outlining these various taboo topics on a social and global-historical scale. Every page of this book is a collage of documents, diagrams, and photographs, showing the various aspects of climate denial and potential solutions. Fleischman wants his readers to be exposed to clear information and to learn how to take a critical approach to messages that meet the eye through official media sources.The pleasure I experienced reading this book comes from the author's enthusiasm and hope for an altered course of events, a bright green future, instead of the green-washing “clean energy” promoted by vested interests (he still acknowledges the necessity of playing a political role to effect these changes). This is a relatively new trend in theory from the recent doomsday predictions that suggest that feedback loops in Arctic methane will plunge us all into extinction in a few decades no matter what preventative measures we choose. Fleischman admits that he began writing this book with this hopeless despair in mind. He suggests that through collaboration, through technology, through U.N. intervention, and through the pressures of democracy (people pressured by mass-self-inflicted weather), we will eventually work together to promote stable ideals of “progress”. He sees no real doomsday scenario in the event of climate catastrophe, as it will only force a compromise between the three big players at the climate summits: China, India, and the U.S. The nuclear hostility of the Cold War will be superseded by the boomerang hostility of climate change, forcing an end to these historical hostilities, and a retreat to reliance on nuclear power. In the psychological environment that Fleischman is at pains to portray, real climate change appears as a Freudian, “return of the repressed”, forcing us to use our technology and rationality to adapt to increasing scarcity of resources. Another virtue of this book is the way it presents all of the major terms associated with modern environmentalism in a convenient glossary found at the back. This book's purpose, acknowledged by the author, is to present the major issues, much like an extended journalism article would, without exposing the author's bias. I learned a lot through this exposition, including information about climate hostilities, fracking, taxes on carbon, and clean coal. However, it is not without a grain of bias. A recent way of classifying the spectrum of emergent environmentalism is by the support found for continuing or discontinuing present capitalist efforts at reform. The “bright green” environmentalists usually believe we can find a common-ground in the capitalist market, the public sector, the international community, and the third-world, to overcome the difficulties we face during an event of global climate disaster. It is simply a matter of curbing our excesses by inverting the demographics of town and countryside, relying on nuclear power and renewables, accepting genetic engineering as a benefit, opening the mind to geoengineering, etc... Fleischman's bias comes out here, when he directs us to the works and projects of Stewart Brand, Paul Hawken, and Kevin Kelly a few times throughout these pages. These authors represent the “bright green” point of view. Fleischman, from this perspective of prosperous hope, looks back at the prompt global response to the depletion of the ozone layer, and theorizes that when climate disaster strikes close to home, we can put up a similar unified front to the attack. This involves miracle alternative energy sources and possibly revolution (or revolutionary reform in policy). The problem with this view is that the two problems of ozone depletion and climate change are both more different and more similar than he imagines. The problem of ozone depletion never stopped, it was diverted after a less-harmful substitute replaced CFC's. Global warming, however, threatens to create polar stratospheric clouds, which accelerate the destruction of the ozone layer. The ozone problem was never solved by us, only postponed to a more dire time and place. Fleischman regards this as a natural proclivity of human behavior: to wait until the very last minute to act. He suggests that when action is necessary, however, we are usually up to the task. Another problem with his eventual conclusions, is that he does not include the attitudes of environmentalists in his chapter on typical "Attitudes". This chapter describes the attitudes of the first-world masses and their first-world problems. He later claims that we will no doubt see a change in attitude of those in the green movements, towards a greater tolerance for capitalist technologies. We need historical context here to understand this change. In the "Attitudes" chapter he could have included a section dealing with the attitudes of the radical ecology movements of the '70s (deep ecology, social ecology, eco-feminism). These groups usually offered a greater spiritual interaction with the Earth as a positive solution to the problems cited here. I can understand, though, why this was not included, since this is a text intended for a public school science or social studies classroom, where spiritualism is kept at a distance from science. Still, if Fleischman includes room for the concept of "sin" in the beliefs of the non-religious, spiritualism should likewise be included as a positive solution for the non-religious. Instead, Fleischman warns against viewpoints of apathy that see the eventual environmental disaster as an apocalyptic scenario, driven by the wrath of an angry God. Religion enters this argument finally in a negative way. He ends by saying that in the absence of doubt, certain things will continue to happen in the media driven by environmental issues. He tells us what to expect with certainty. Then he warns us never to accept an attitude of certainty (in the appendix section entitled, “How to Weigh Information”). While these contradictions call into question the author's underlying intentions, this book nevertheless makes for a great informative introduction to environmental issues in today's world. I wish it directly acknowledged the spectrum of environmentalism, and included the spiritualist dimension afforded by deep ecology (or of the political tensions between ecological theories).
    • 4/5
      Paul Fleischman’s “Eyes Wide Open: Going Behind the Environmental Headlines," focuses on the important topic of how humans have depleted the earths resources and even though we are now aware of the harm done, we have done little to make the necessary changes in order to protect the earth and us. Fleischman states, “What you won’t find here: a list of Fifty Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth. Instead, the book is a briefing that will launch you on your own list. Notice. Gather information. Reflect. Refine. Act” (p.7). Fleischman offers his reader a lot of important information in order for them to “launch their own list”. He uses a vast variety of supplement resources and he encourages his reader to do more research and provides them with websites or sources he feels are worth looking at. The table of contents is very easy to understand. The book is broken out into six main sections, each section is then broken out further. Three of the sections also provide a “Backstory” at the end. This provides the reader with a more in-depth look at a topic discussed in the previous chapter. At the end of the book, a bibliography is included alone with a “Suggested Resources” section broken out into categories (i.e., Climate, data, etc.) Fleischman utilizes many access features in his book. Almost every page has a sidebar of more information, from websites to visit for more information to definitions of terms used are also noted, he provides many pictures rand graphs relating to the information presented. As a reader, this abundance of additional information became overwhelming. I found myself more focused on the additional information and pictures then the topic being presented. Unlined terms are defined at the end of the book in the glossary section. The definitions for these terms are very straight forward. Fleischman also defines some of these terms in the sidebars throughout the book; I feel this was not needed with having the glossary provided. I really liked the section at the end of the book entitled “How to Weigh Information," this section informs readers to do their research and not to take all information for truth. He encourages reader to question who is providing this information and do they have an agenda, if so, what is it? I think this book would be great for a wide variety of classes. The topics that Fleischman discusses are ones that not only affect us and our students but also the generations that will follow.
    • 4/5
      This provocative book by award winning children’s book author Paul Fleichman, deals with the environmental crisis that the world faces today. It is a book that showcases the detrimental effect of human actions on climate. The book starts by showing how population increase leads to more consumption of energy and food. “All of these issues intersect at climate, altering it and being altered in return.” (p.19) The author then discusses the political, historical and psychological roles that individuals and nations play in degrading our environment. Although climate change is a real threat to our survival, vested interest of trade group, lobbyists and oil companies as well as the fact that most of us are not directly being affected by it, has given us a false sense of security. “Who would guess that Citizens for Recycling First is a coal industry front group promoting the use of coal ash in the industry? The Greening Earth Society sounds green, but is in favor of CO2 emissions.” (p.31) The book contains numerous such facts. The book ends by discussing ways in which individuals and nations are taking actions to rectify the problem. “India has placed a carbon tax on coal…. China is also leading the way in more efficient, less polluting designs” (p.134)Although it is a short book with only 200 pages, it discusses different topics pertaining to the subject of environmental problems. The book is a strong dose of reality check. There are no cartoons showing, how children should recycle to save our planet. This is giving hard facts about what we are doing to our planet and what are its repercussions. It brought clarity to many issues and misconceptions. Most of the chapters have interesting backstories like the oil embargo, ozone depletion and the Kyoto treaty. These backstories relate to the chapters preceding them. Apart from these, there is extensive information given on each page in the form of online/text connections, side commentary and lots of pictures. Although the book focuses on the topic of climate change, it doesn’t go in-depth into any one topic. It mainly skims the surface of one topic before moving on to the next. The book follows a linear format throughout. The cover of the book is attractive and clearly indicates what the book is about. It is a colored picture of a woman holding a sign against fracking. It is an attractive cover that will interest the target audience. The interior illustrations are black and white, which complement the narrative. In fact they enhance the presentation. The book covers a variety of topics. There is discussion on fracking, carrying capacity, free market and loads of other topics. All the headings are relevant and appropriate. Each chapter has a main heading and then sub-headings. This makes it easy to follow the author’s thoughts. Important vocabulary words are in bold or underlined. The text is of adequate size. It is easy to read. The pictures are placed correctly and support the text. Each picture has a caption or a label to identify it. The style and size is pleasant, uniform and easy to read. The book has extensive back pages. There is information on how to weight different resources, source notes, bibliography, suggested resources for further information, glossary, index as well as image credits. Although a great book with lots of information, there are some negative aspects too. The layout of the book makes it a bit confusing at times. The overly busy, and sometimes distracting geometric patterns kept my eyes wandering through the entire time that I was reading the book. I actually went back and forth between reading the book and pursuing the online resources that the book suggested. I am not sure if the intended audience, especially the 10-12 year olds who have short attention span can keep track of the book. The amount of information given in every page felt overwhelming sometimes. The book had a wide scope, which covered a number of different topics. This might be confusing to the students. There are no practical suggestions given on how students can get actively involved.I would use this book as a foundation or supplemental text. It can easily be used in a science, social studies or even an English reading class. These topics affect us all. Our students especially the 10-15 year old should be knowledgeable about environmental issues. In my class I would read it to my students and then assign them different topics to research. Some topics that can be assigned could be front groups and lobbyists, the Exxon XL pipeline and the oil embargo