Environment

• Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development

  Site has links to online government and other publications, a database of development resources that contains information on local, national, and international organizations and government agencies, a geographical and topic search engine, a list of annotated links to related Web sites, and a large bibliography on sustainable development, divided into books, articles, online bibliographies, and online publications. Site might be too focused on community or local U.S. activities and issues for most IR researchers.

  
  

• Centre for Environmental Research and Conservation

  Site maintained by the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation at Columbia University. Most useful resource is lengthy list of environmental links. Links are not annotated, but the organization is clear and detailed, with categories such as environmental ethics, politics and the environment, economics and environment, species conservation and sustaining ecosystems, food resources, solid and hazardous wastes, minerals and soil, water pollution, water resources, and air and air pollution. Potentially good jumping-off point because of comprehensiveness of the links.

  
  

• Centre for International Environmental Law

  Maintained by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). Site includes links to online treaties, organizations, and full-text articles in a variety of environmental-related areas. Links are embedded within a narrative, making quick reference difficult. Site has discussion papers and news updates, written by centre staff, on various topics. Has a good set of organized unannotated links to environmental law-related sites. There is also a link to a database on North American Environmental Law, which is quite detailed. A potentially good resource base.

  
  

• Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network

  Web site of the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). An outstanding and comprehensive resource base and jumping-off point for environmental-related information. CIESIN's mission is to build a technical infrastructure that will serve global environmental change research scientists and the broader community of policy analysts, resource managers, educators, and the general public. Site's homepage has the following major categories, all well developed: metadata resources, data resources, information systems and resources, information cooperative, education and training, services, programs, and job opportunities. The database links are particularly strong, with detailed annotations and access instructions. For example, one of the databases is a full-text treaty archive of over 140 environmental-related treaties. The thematic guide is also detailed, with major subcategories, including agriculture, human health, land use, ozone depletion, political institutions, remote sensing, environmental treaties, and resource indicators. Comprehensive and extremely useful resource base and jumping- off point for environmental and other data.

  
  

• EnviroLink

  Billed as the largest online Environmental information resource on the planet, EnviroLink certainly comes close to meeting its bill. Maintained by a nonprofit organization, this attractive, "earthy" looking site (with both a high and low graphics interface) has links to the following major categories: earth, air, fire, water, and flora, and fauna. Although categories may appear somewhat unusual, they cover an extensive and comprehensive set of links and resources in a wide range of environmental-related issue areas. Links to organizations, NGOs, governments, publications, and research institutions are astounding in their comprehensiveness. Good source for newswires. Site contains a calendar of events, a site search engine, and an archive of major environmental mailing listservs. Site's best aspect may be the "sustainable earth electronic library," which is enormous, well annotated, and clearly organized. This first-rate site is both an incredible resource base and a major jumping-off point.

  
  

• Galaxy Environment Links

  Site maintains a lengthy list of environmental links without annotations. Links are categorized into organizations, governments, lists, periodicals, nonprofit organizations, guides, government organizations, events, and directories. Since the site has a low graphic load, it might offer a good jumping-off point for general environmental links. The lack of annotations and the advertisements are limiting factors, however.

  
  

• Environmental Ethics

  Organized by the Center for Environmental Philosophy at the University of North Texas, this site offers information about environmental ethics as a field of study. There are embedded links within pages of text, as well as lists of related links that are diverse and unique. Site would be particularly useful to those interested in the more philosophical/epistemological issues surrounding environmentalism.

  
  

• A Guide to Environmental Resources on the Internet

  Maintained by Carol Briggs-Erikson and Toni Murphy. Site promises to be a guide to environmental resources on the Internet for researchers and others but is not as comprehensive as some of the better sites in the area, nor is the organization as clear. Provides links to major environmental organizations and networks, resources by subject, regulations and standards, libraries, and bibliographies, some of which are annotated. Not yet comprehensive enough to be a major resource guide.

  
  

• Environmental Law Around the World

  Maintained by the Environmental Law Alliance, this useful, well-organized site provides links to worldwide sites relating to environmental law. Good jumping-off point to environmental treaties in particular.

  
  

• General Environmental Resources from Eldis

  Site offers a lengthy list of environmental resources under the ELDIS system from the University of Sussex. Extremely useful jumping-off point to organizations, directories, governments sites, and listservs. Designed with an intermediate page for each link that provides detailed annotated descriptions. Overall, this is an excellent resource base and jumping-off point for environmental links.

  
  

• Environmental Organization Web Directory

  Mmegadirectory of annotated links to environmental organizations and other environmental-related sites. Comprehensive and well organized with especially good annotations. Useful resource for finding organizations having anything to do with environmental issues.

  
  

• Professor Ronald Mitchell's Environmental Research Resources

  Maintained by Professor Ronald Mitchell of the University of Oregon, this site provides a good jumping-off point and resource base for environmental research resources. Site has a very basic organizational structure without annotations, but includes most of the useful jumping-off points and major sites for environmental resources. Links to treaties, general environmental sites, news and facts sites, specific issue sites, governmental environmental sites, nongovernmental sites. One of the site's best resource features is a massive bibliography on international environment by Professor Mark Zacher.

  
  

• A Guide to Environmental Resources on the Web

  Maintained from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Site has comprehensive links to general environmental sites and environmental journals (although finding The Economist among them suggested that it might have been a bit too lengthy!). Some of the journals and newsletters have minor annotations, but the links in the general environmental categories do not. Good jumping-off point.

  
  

• Outbreak

  This unique site gives the latest news on active disease outbreaks around the world. Site is particularly strong for immediate information, but it also provides in-depth information on various emerging diseases. A free registration service provides registered users with access to more in- depth information and other minor features. There is a good glossary of emerging diseases. The site's most attractive and useful feature is its "active outbreak" section for up-to-the-minute information on disease outbreaks.

  
  

• Argus Clearinghouse Environment Links

  Part of the Argus Clearinghouse, this site offers an eclectic set of links to megadirectories in a number of diverse environmental-related areas. Like other Argus sites, this one has an intermediate page with a rating system, which improves the site as a jumping-off point. Most links are to sites with comprehensive directories to environmental resources in various areas. The sustainable development link, for example, is to a comprehensive megadirectory. A good jumping-off point.

  
  

• Resources for Teaching Northwest Environmental History

  Prepared in conjunction with the Northwest Environmental History Symposium, held in Washington state in 1996. Site contains links to bibliographies and Internet resources on such topics as environmental history, environmental ethics, and other environmental topics. Although the site is not comprehensive enough to be a general environmental jumping-off point, it might offer a useful resource for those particularly interested in North American (and particularly Northwest) environmental topics. The aboriginal bibliography is also impressive.

  
  

• International Society for Environment Ethics' Selected Books

  Site has links to large bibliographies in areas such as environmental ethics and ecotheology. The ecotheology book list is particularly massive and worth the admission alone. A good resource base for those working on the more philosophical aspects of environmentalism.

  
  

• EcoJustice Network

  Site offers extensive, annotated links to a relatively specialized area: environmental justice. Major focus of the site is on environmental issues facing "communities of color in the United States," but there are other, more general interest links that would be of interest to those working in the environmental justice area.

  
  

• The National Research Center for Coal and Energy Guide to Internet Resources for Energy and the Environment

  Maintained at West Virginia University, this site has a long list of unannotated links to categories such as U.S. government agencies (state and local), international government agencies centered on the environment, UN agencies, academic institutions (both U.S. and international), and environmental organizations. Site is useful, though not entirely comprehensive, for U.S. and some international agencies and organizations involved in environmental politics that might be difficult to find elsewhere. For example, U.S. state-level agencies that are linked at this site are extensive and would be difficult to find collected together at any other site.

  
  

• The Population Council

  Good resource base and jumping-off point for population-related information. Links are not annotated, but the site is well organized, with detailed categories and subcategories in such areas as university population centers, population and demographic publications, sources of data, U.S. government agencies, research foundations, country/regional studies, international banks, international intergovernmental organizations, and nongovernmental organizations. The publication section is particularly useful.

  
  

• The WWW Virtual Library: Environment

  As with other parts of the WWW Virtual Library, this site is an excellent megadirectory to sites and information on the environment. There are symbolic guides for each of the links, plus some minor annotations to some links. From this site one could probably find any online environmental-related information. A well-organized, essential jumping-off point.

  
  

• The Information Highway to the Global Environment

  Site provides lists of activities, program profiles, and contact information for international organizations involved in environmental monitoring. Curiously, however, site does not provide links for those with Web presences. Good resource base, but one that could be vastly improved with corresponding links to each organization covered. Site does have some links to other databases in the environmental area.

  
  

• The Earth Network for Sustainable Development

  Created as a result of the Earth Summit in 1992, the Earth Council maintains this site, which contains Earth Summit documents, links to other sustainable development organizations, and Earth Council papers and speeches. One useful part of this site is its detailed overviews and links to environmental organizations.

  
  

• Environmental Atlas

  Although this site has not yet reached its full potential, the map-based click-and-point interface offers an intuitively appealing access to country information on various environmental issues. If the site is maintained well and continues to grow, it could be a useful resource base for comparative environmental policies around the world.

  
  

• World Resources Institute

  Site is a good resource base for online information on various environmental-related topics. Extremely well-organized and easy to navigate, with both subject and geographical access points as well as an index to the entire site. It also has a good set of links to other Web environmental resources. The best part of this site is its online version of the World Resources, published simultaneously in book form and on the Internet. The entire book can be downloaded or viewed online. As a printed book, it runs to 384 pages, including 162 pages of data tables covering 150 countries. The World Resources guide also features a useful Web-based query form to access the data using various cross-variables. Excellent resource base.

  
  

• Best Environmental Resources Directories

  This massive directory of environmental sites on the Web has a useful and unique set of criteria to help distinguish sites in terms of their substantive depth and utility as jumping-off points. Site is well organized, with low graphics and helpful annotations. Links include megadirectories, encyclopedias, selected lists, and comprehensive lists. The directory exists in French, Dutch, Italian, and German, and is purportedly updated monthly. An extremely useful jumping-off point for environmental resources and sites.

  
  

• University of Waterloo's Environmental Data Sources from Around the World

  Operated out of the University of Waterloo, Canada, this well-maintained site offers a lengthy list of links to Canadian, U.S., and environmental databases on a wide variety of environmental topics. The best links are rated by quantity and quality of information and organization and accessibility, making it another good jumping-off point for general environmental resources.

  
  

• Peace and Conflict Studies Program/University of Toronto

  Site contains links to major environmental security projects currently overseen by Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon of the University of Toronto. Contains several articles and working papers from the various projects online, plus a useful, searchable library and database of environmental/security scholarship. A good reference site and resource base for topics in environmental security.