Book Review

by Paul Ganderton

O'Riordan T. (ed). 2000. Environmental Science for Environmental Management. 2nd e. Prentice Hall. pp xviii + 521. ISBN 0 582 35633 4. £22.99.

Coming just 5 years after the first edition, this new version ( 150 pages longer and considerably re-written) is an interesting mix of science and society. At the heart of the text is the call for interdisciplinarity (an unusual one coming from a university setting where such matters are generally frowned upon). The text itself shows numerous changes. Leaving aside the revisions for all chapters, there are additions (politics, population and resilience and GIS), contractions (the two economics chapters becomes one) and losses (energy - which is to be regretted). This means that the 19 chapters can be divided roughly as follows. The introduction deals with the changing nature of environmental science with a major call for the support of interdisciplinary study. This is followed by analyses of sustainability, politics, economics and ethics. Next, there is a useful debate on the nature of population and its ability to feed itself. The remaining chapters could be grouped under the heading of management. There are chapters dealing with water - oceans and coast/river management; pollution - air, groundwater, marine and climate change; degradation of land; disease and waste. In addition, two chapters look at the more theoretical side of management - GIS and risk assessment. In a final chapter, the notion of the global commons is re-visited.

There is always a temptation to use a second edition for a few new references and diagrams but the authors have firmly resisted this. We are presented with a far better book than the first edition in all respects. The text is as well written as before but the illustrations are better (and greater in number), the examples right up to date and the whole tenor of the text puts it more firmly in the applied science camp. This is not a book on how to do environmental science but a book telling us what can be done with it and what impact it can have. It is first rate in every respect - one of the few "must-buys" of this year.