Library Video of the Week, September 17, 2012.

Vanishing of the Bees, a documentary directed by George Langworthy & Maryam Henein; written by Maryam Henein, George Langworthy & James Erskine. Library Call Number: SF539.V36 2011.

        Beekeepers first sounded the alarm in 2006—otherwise healthy honey bees were for unknown reasons abandoning their hives, never to return. By 2012, an estimated 30% of all hives on the planet had succumbed to what is known now as Colony Collapse Disorder. Some beekeepers have lost their entire inventory of hives and a solution has not yet been found.  Because a full third of the American food supply depends on honeybee pollination, the disorder, if unchecked, could have an extraordinary effect on food production—crops pollinated by the honeybee are worth an estimated $15 billion in the United States alone. 

Library Video of the Week, April 30, 2012.



If a Tree Falls: a story of the Earth Liberation Front, a documentary by Marshall Curry.  Library Call Number: GE197.I3 2011

          From the DVD cover: “On December 7th, 2005, federal agents conducted a nationwide sweep of radical environmentalists involved with the Earth Liberation Front - an organization the FBI has called America's number one domestic terrorism threat. If A Tree Falls: A Story Of The Earth Liberation Front is the remarkable story of the group's rise and fall, told through the transformation and radicalization of one of its members, Daniel McGowan. Part coming-of-age tale, part cops-and-robbers thriller, the film interweaves a chronicle of McGowan facing life in prison with a dramatic investigation of the events that led to his involvement with the ELF. Using never-before-seen archival footage and intimate interviews - with cell members and with the prosecutor and detective who were chasing them - If A Tree Falls asks hard questions about environmentalism, activism, and the way we define terrorism.”

Browsing books for July-American Health

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker. Call Number: RC443.W437 2010.
Getting What We deserve: Health & Medical Care in America by Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS. Call Number: RA445.S66 2009.
Sacrifice Zones: The Front Lines of Toxic Chemical exposure in the United States by Steve Lerner. Call Number: RA1226.L47 2010.
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains by Nicholas Carr. Call Number: QP360.C3667 2010.
          Four controversial books on health make the reading list for July. In Anatomy of an Epidemic, Whitaker looks at the studies which evaluate the long-term use of psychiatric drugs and finds the benefits of use often misstated and patients suffering, while innovative programs are being developed which may offer far more effective alternatives.
          In the slim Getting What We Deserve, Dr. Sommer, a former Dean at Johns Hopkins, uses charts, graphs and innumerable statistics to show what we already should know: we spend more on health care than any other developed country and still aren’t better off than most of them. With sometimes acid humor, Dr. Sommer shows why.
          Sacrifice Zones spotlights an all-too-often ignored outcome of poverty: lower income communities are much more likely to be in proximity to—even surrounded by—toxic zones of industrial pollution. As jobs become critical, towns will gamble their health and the future of their children, in order to earn a living. From Alaska to Florida, from dioxin to PCBs from an old military base, the poor are often living in deadly environments.
          In The Shallows, author Carr expands on a past Atlantic article: that the Internet is making it harder for humans to think deeply and concentrate fully. Blending recent neuroscience and cultural critiques, he makes a strong case for e-moderation.