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Introduction

This site was constructed for learners in n0n-formal settings - in community classess, those doing home schooling, people who want to learn to feel better informed.

The health of ecosystems and integrity of biodiversity is a critical issue for the maintenance of a habitable planet. So much information to absorb and so little time. You have to hunt down the information from multiple sources, download it if possible and then file it; and finally actually read it. It isn't easy and many people would just rather ignore it. But not everyone- some people are keen to know more and are justifiably skeptical of what the mainstream media tells us.

 

This web site records documents I have read and my assessment of  it.  Each review post also provides metadata about the document including a link to download the publication. All publications were available at the time of writing and could be downloaded free of charge from their various web site sources.

My criteria for selecting publications to review

  • recent - 2020 onwards
  • reputable source
  • understandable with a high school level of education (and maybe a bit of background study)
  • well written and referenced
  • text supported by visual information
  • substantial (8 or more .pdf pages)
  • accessible to the general public without the need for institutional membership
  • my personal interests (principles of ecology, species diversity, invasive species)

I have a model in my head about what is worth reading, best described by the following diagram.

and I try very hard to avoid works which fall outside the above model i.e. anything like


For each publication reviewed here, the following information is recorded

Review

Geographical scope:

Synopsis

Brief description of the contents

My favourite quote

A quote from the document containing information that I found particularly interesting and/or useful

Overall

Summary of my assessment of the publication. Observations about the usefulness and quality of the publication

Details

  • Source
  • Publisher/Authority
  • Date of Publication
  • Download size
  • File format
  • Number of pages
  • Frequency of publication
  • Summaries provided
  • Alternative media
  • Glossary of technical terms