Let peace flow like water..

THIS is a carefully researched study of the extent of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the Jordan river waters. The subject has been examined in a non-partisan manner not only in the context of its historical'setting, but also of the dimensions of problems in water sharing between all countries situated in the Jordan river basin - including Lebanon, Syria and Jordan - in terms of quantity as well as quality.

Bear truths

THIS is a delightful portrait of the now' extinct Ursus spelaues, largest of the bear family. Known to have coexisted with the Neanderthal human and later, with humans of our own spe Icies during the later part of the Ice Age, the cave bear survived to, or even beyond the end of that age. Although dead and extinct now for thousands of years, fossilised remains of this fascinating species have been found in Europe, Russia and Britain, which palaeontologists have studied over the years.

The 20th century Nostradamus

WITH the advent of the modern era, people had long began conjecturing about the future, maintains Barry Minkin. Which way will the wind of change blow? This is the focus of the book in which business consultant, speaker and futurist Minkin has enlisted 100 trends that will most influence business and global economy beyond AD 2000.

Talking green

THERE is a growing demand for food, fibre, fodder and fuel as population pressure is skyrocketing. This has been furthered by the problems already existing in the agriculture sector. The marginal and small farmers find themselves caught helplessly in the web of modern, capital-intensive farming which they find difficult to adopt.

How to become a natural being

INTERCONNECTED, compassionate, vulnerable: these are some of the words that convey people's feelings about their relationship with the earth. Environmentalism is not just a set of beliefs, concepts and practices; it is a way of being a 'being' enriched with feelings, memones and life experiences. This concept-feeiing interface is what Mitchell Thomashow sets out to explore in Ecological Identity: Becoming a Reflective Environmentalist.

Development pangs

AMONG the wide variety of contemporary critical theorists, environmentalists have, in various ways, questioned the continued viability of the human-nature relationship over the last 400 years. We are concerned that the exploitative practices, characteristic of modernity, have led us to a crisis of such global proportions, that the earth can simply not meet all the demands made upon it by humans.

For a new world order

IT'S still the age of ideas despite the failure and death of ideologies and dearth of seminal ideas to rescue the collapsing fundamentals of social order and societies. Development and Environmental Economics: The Relevance of Gandhi, written by K Rajaratnam, an eminent economist and Gandhian activist, is an expanded monograph from public lectures in this context.

Living with floods

THE book Rivers of life is a result of an exhaustive study based on assessments of existing flood control works in Bangladesh, of related documents, interviews with flood-affected people and Bangladeshi experts, and interactions with donor agencies for a Flood Action Programme (FAP).

Down the dirt track

FROM the miasma of late 18th century Manchester to the Earth Summit at Rio, Markham's 'tourist guide to pollution', turns out to be much more than that. Beyond the travelling roadshow of international environmental negotiations and airport biologists, Markham successfully conveys the magnitude of today's environmental crisis and the impending consequences of unregulated pollution.

By God, it's Tipler!

"GOD is dead", had asserted Nietzsche, proclaiming the arrival of the age of rationality. It is true that for most people, "God" is the antidote to the fear of the unknown, a concept that accounts for all that is unexplainable. Therefore, it seems but natural that as science expands its frontiers and demonstrates its ability to explain what was incomprehensible, the need for God decreases.