There are many impressive qualities of this text in terms of its comprehensiveness (discussed below). Reviewed by Jane Rice, Teaching Specialist, Michigan State University on 11/22/19 The online text and downloaded pdfs should match seamlessly. The online text includes the forward and preface as numbered chapters, which caused problems for my students accessing the text with their phones, using the chapter numbers only (not matching the assigned chapter titles) to guide their reading. With such a long textbook, the table of contents could use hyperlinking to each chapter. This textbook has nice questions embedded into each chapter to help guide students learning. The richer countries are compared to less economically developed countries, but even those comparisons could be improved. The text largely ignores systemic racism and environmental justice, which are very important parts of triple bottom line that continue to be ignored.
Many of the photographs seem irrelevant (cherry blossoms are pretty, but not so necessary and a CFL?), yet the photos are very clear compared to the mostly pixelated figures and graphs. One of my frustrations was trying to find OER figures and graphs to fill in some of these gaps. Many of the graphs are very difficult to figure out, such as Figure 11.18 and many are blurry. The history chapter seems out of place to me and could be placed earlier in the text. Two science chapters are together, but I would put the action chapters (problem solving and metrics and sustainable infrastructure) together. For me having the economics and policy together would make more sense. The organization is different from my logic, but I do like ending with sustainable infrastructure. I have typically used 4-5 chapters in a one quarter term and jumping from chapter to chapter has not caused comprehension confusion for my students. I like the chapter divisions and the subdivisions within chapters. Yes, the terminology and framework is consistent throughout this text. The terminology is explained, but often could use more examples, especially recent examples. The author uses vague nouns (it, this, there) often, so sometimes clarity is lost and overuses concluding terms, such as hence, therefore, and thus. The writing is a tad wordy, but clear enough. The content could use updating regarding food systems, disease, climate change, and some other recent topics (even systemic racism), but the text provides a good basis for discussion and bringing in these topics to delve further. I have not encountered any errors, biases, or inaccuracies. The book could have more on agriculture, disease (wow even more relevant now), population dynamics, forestry, fisheries, conservation, and climate change (updates). The book is fairly light on much of the science science side of sustainability. Reviewed by April Ann Fong, Biology and Environmental Studies Instructor, Portland Community College on 6/24/20