Proceedings of a conference that was sponsored by the Institute of Environmental Studies at Ramapo College of New Jersey on May 8, 9, and 10, 1986.

Five years after Three Mile Island awakened Americans to the dread of radioactive release, a new and potentially more consequential radioactive threat was discovered in a Pennsylvania home. Touted as the second major cause of lung cancer, the radon problem was prominent as a leading environmental risk. However, widespread acceptance of this risk has never materialized. In this vibrant account, Edelstein and Makofske unveil the complex mix of social and scientific factors that have led to public and official misunderstanding of the geologic radon issue. The lessons of radon have great relevance in a contaminated world where people are increasingly surrounded by invisible environmental hazards, where uncertainty and controversy shroud a clear understanding of the threat, and where one can choose apathetic acceptance or attempt to discern how to actively protect oneself and one's family.

More people are in psychotherapy than ever before. Yet most of them have no idea of the vast differences between the hundreds of various schools of therapy. "Therapy Breakthrough" is the first book to clearly explain the theories and practices of the two big camps: Psychodynamic or PD therapy and Cognitive-Behavioral or CB therapy. PD therapists believe that emotional problems are caused by hidden forces in our unconscious minds, forces that cannot be observed directly and that resist being uncovered. CB therapists, by contrast, maintain that the roots of people's emotional and behavioral disturbances can be identified by direct questions, and these problems can then be tackled by straightforward techniques. "Therapy Breakthrough" is written from the standpoint of CB therapy. Using psychological research, philosophy, and common sense, it argues that PD therapy is founded on mistaken theories of the mind, and explains how to apply CB methods directly to your own problems.

Disaster by Design: The Aral Sea, Lessons for Sustainability addresses the impacts of the Aral Sea disaster. The virtual disappearance of what was the world's fourth largest inland body of water was neither natural nor accidental. It was the result of deliberate policy decisions. The sea's disappearance is hardly the entire disaster. Instead, we find an accumulation of cascading effects, beginning with the decision to grow cotton, reached remotely in Moscow that altered the farming practices surrounding the Aral Sea. Unsustainable choices resulted in soil salinization, water pollution and toxic blowing sands, impacting the entire bioregion and beyond. A remote island was used to test biological weapons. Uzbekistan, most notably Karakalpakstan, was the autonomous republic at the epicenter of the disaster. Sustainable prospects exist, including renewable energy, permaculture and strengthening the social fabric amidst poverty and ecological collapse. This volume of Research in Social Problems and Public Policy is essential reading for everyone concerned with averting environmental disaster and instead creating livable, sustainable communities. Disaster by Design is a clarion call and an insightful study of Central Asia today.