Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability: Vol. 7: China, India, and East and South East Asia: Assessing Sustainability

These works complete a ten-volume set dedicated to Rachel Carson, which was launched in 2009 as a "project about solutions." (See previous reviews in LJ 3/15/10 and LJ 8/1/12.) In keeping with the set's ethos of contributing to real-world solutions, contributors and editors are scholars and practitioners. The geographic volumes follow the same format as their predecessors—an introductory summary, preceding topical entries of two to eight pages in length each, on, for instance, environmental issues in the Balkans. These end with the outlook for the issue, cross references, and a further-reading list. A combined list of the ten volumes' entries, a list of all contributors, most-cited references, a master index, and a directory of sustainability programs are provided in Volume 10. Although that volume is not a summary of the other material in the encyclopedia, it puts many of the work's ideas and theories in perspective and makes further points about useful action. Some illustrations are decorative only, and the color maps, though of quality, are not numerous enough. Entries are judicious, current, well written and understandable.