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Environmental Studies

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Documents & Treaties

    Environmental Treaties and Resource Indicators (ENTRI)  Full text, summaries and status of treaties and other international agreements related to global environmental change.  Maintained by Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network.

    European Environmental Law  Full text cases and legislation on European Community Environmental Law as well as conference listings, discussion forums, reviews and links.  Housed at Maastricht University.

    Fletcher Multilaterals Project  Texts of international multilateral conventions and other instruments. Categorized by subject and arranged chronologically. Searchable.

    Global Change Documents and Publications  "...serves as a clearinghouse for documents and publications that pertain to global environmental change research, adaptation/mitigation strategies and technologies, and education. Although GCRIO facilitates access to documents from many different sources, the emphasis is on US Federal Agency and Organization documents."

    Living Planet Report  From the World Wildlife Federation, the Report seeks to present a quantitative picture of the state of the world's natural environment and the human pressures upon it. Specifically, it presents WWF's Living Planet Index (LPI), a measure of the change in the health of the world's natural ecosystems.

International Organizations & Government Entities

    Commission for Environmental Cooperation  An organization created under the auspices of NAFTA to "...address North American regional environmental concerns, help prevent potential trade and environmental conflicts, and promote effective enforcement of environmental law."  Site includes international agreements on the subject of the environment and wildlife.  Free access CEC reports and publications.

    Convention on Biological Diversity  Website of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

    Environment Australia

    Environmental Protection Agency  This U.S. government agency is charged with protecting human health and to safeguard the natural environment. Programs, publications, databases, software, and links here.

    European Environment Agency "EEA aims to support sustainable development and to help achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe's environment through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy making agents and the public."

    Greenpeace International  This international organization offers information on  climate, toxics, nuclear, oceans, genetic engineering, ocean dumping, forests.

    Inter-American Development Bank, Sustainable Development Department  Excellent full-text publications on the following topics:  social development, poverty, education, women, indigenous peoples, environment and infrastructure.

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)  An agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, you will find information here on climate, weather and oceanography.

    North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation  An organization created under the auspices of NAFTA to "...address North American regional environmental concerns, help prevent potential trade and environmental conflicts, and promote effective enforcement of environmental law."  Site includes international agreements on the subject of the environment and wildlife.  Free access CEC reports and publications.

    UN Conference on Trade and Development Focal point of the UN for issues of trade, finance, technology, investment and sustainable development.

    UN Environment Programme  "...provides leadership and encourage partnerships in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and people to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations."  See their State of the Global Environment, country and regional reports and environment law issues.

    World Bank Environment  Describes the World Bank environment agenda and the projects and strategies through which it is implemented. See also the World Bank's New Ideas in Pollution Regulation.

    World Trade Organization Trade and the Environment Examines the effect of trade and WTO rules on the environment.

Internet Resources & Research Tools

    Earthtrends Environmental Information Portal from the World Resources Institute. Sections such as Climate and Atmosphere, Water Resources, Agriculture, etc. contain searchable data, data tables, country profiles, and maps.

    Earthwatch Online Resources  The site compiles information from university-based scientists to offer resources related to the following topics:  endangered ecosystems, oceans, biodiversity, cultural diversity and global change.

    EcoNet  From the Institute for Global Communications, supporting ecological sustainability and environmental justice.

    Electronic Development and Environment Information System (ELDIS)  is a directory and gateway to electronic information resources on development and the environment, providing descriptions and links to a variety of information sources, including WWW and gopher sites, databases, library catalogs, bibliographies, e-mail discussion lists, research project information, maps, and newspaper collections.

    Energy and the Environment  From the University of Oregon.

    EnviroLink  "...a grassroots online community that unites hundreds of organizations and volunteers around the world with millions of people in more than 150 countries. EnviroLink is dedicated to providing you with the most comprehensive, up-to-date environmental resources available."  This site has information on many, many topics related to the environment.

    Environmental Law Links  Hosted by the WWW Virtual Law Library, you will find here an extensive listing of U.S. and international links to Environmental Law sites.  Listed alphabetically and searchable.

    Global Transformations From Polity Press, information about doing research on globalization and a list of globalization links.

    National Library for the Environment Over 1100 Congressional Research Service reports on environmental issues are available and searchable, as well as many other directories and links.

    Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy's mission is to preserve plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. This site has a wide range of domestic and international information including databases and chatrooms.

    WWW Virtual Library on Sustainable Development  Comprehensive list of  sites dealing with sustainable development, including organizations, projects and activities, electronic journals, libraries, documents, databases, directories, and meta databases.

News, Journals & Publications

    CAB International  An applied life science publisher of books, journals and electronic products.  This site offers abstracts from journals covering such topics as Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Biodiversity, Cro Protection, Human Health, plant sciences, natural resources.

    Earth Times  This international newspaper covers issues of Environment, Education, Society, Business, Culture, Media, Nature, Politics, Population, and sustainable development issues.

    Electronic Green Journal  The Electronic Green Journal, published by the University of Idaho Library, is a professional, refereed publication devoted to disseminating information concerning sources on international environmental topics including assessment, conservation, development, disposal, education, hazards, pollution, resources, technology, and treatment.

    Environmental Data Services Ltd.  Environmental intelligence with access to European environmental news service, ENDS Environment Daily, free access to the Environmental Consultants Directory plus listings of environmental jobs, web sites and events.

    Environmental News Network  An excellent site with news from around the world.

    Sustainable Energy News Published by the International Network for Sustainable Energy. Articles are available in pdf format on the website and are archived back to 1996.

Think Tanks/Research Institutes

    Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) A public interest not-for-profit environmental law firm with particular emphasis on environmental law in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

    Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network  CIESIN is a private, nonprofit corporation with members from leading universities and non-government research organizations, to further the interdisciplinary study of global environmental change. Their Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center is very useful with data and links that integrate social and natural science data to improve decision making on environmental issues.

    Environmental Change and Security Project  "...an information clearinghouse on the views, activities and policy initiatives falling under the rubric of 'environment, population and security'."  Housed at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

    Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)  active in analysis and advocacy in a broad range of regional, national, and international environmental issues.

    International Development Research Center  IDRC is a public corporation created by the Canadian government to "help communities in the developing world find solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems through research."  Its publications are available online for free.

    International Institute for Sustainable Development-- IISD's mission is to promote sustainable development in decision-making, internationally and within Canada.

    MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research

    National Center for Environmental Economics

    National Council for Science and the Environment  This top-notch site focuses on "improving the scientific basis for making decisions on environmental issues."  It includes various online reports from the Congressional Research Services of the U.S. House of Representatives.

    Natural Resources Defense Council   This is an interesting site.  Lots of information on "cold hard facts" about the environment and its relationship with humans, plus access to links and publications.

    Public Citizen Global Trade Watch  An independent organization that fights for free trade.  See their "A Citizen's Guide to the World Trade Organization - Everything You Need to Know to Fight for Fair Trade."

    Rainforest Action Network  Works protect tropical rainforests and the human rights of those living in and around those forests with education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action programs.

    Resources for the Future  RFF is a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank located in Washington, DC that conducts independent research – rooted primarily in economics and other social sciences – on environmental and natural resource issues.  Its library contains detailed information on international environmental projects and studies.

    Sierra Club  A member-supported, nonprofit, public interest organization that promotes conservation of the natural environment by influencing public policy decisions. Many reports online.

    World Conservation Monitoring Centre  Based in the UK, the WCMC is internationally recognized as a center of excellence in the location and management of information on the conservation and sustainable use of the world's living resources.  The site provides information on news and information services, databases, and other information services.

    World Resources Institute  An independent, nonprofit organization, WRI's current areas of work include economics, forests, biodiversity, climate change, energy, sustainable agriculture, resource and environmental information, trade, technology, national strategies for environmental and resource management, business liaison, and human health.  See their publications and electronic archive plus topically organized links.

    Worldwatch Institute-- Dedicated to fostering the evolution of an environmentally sustainable society, in which human needs are met in ways that do not threaten the health of the natural environment or the prospects of future generations.

    World Wildlife Fund-- World's largest independent conservation organization.