This is one of those books that every now and then someone mentions and you make a mental note to read it someday. Well 'someday' just arrived and now I'm left wondering what direction my life might have taken if I'd read it before.

In an except from Steven Solomon's 'WATER: The Epic Struggle For Wealth, Power, and Civilization,' Mesopotamia is the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which largely corresponds to modern day Iraq and surrounding lands. The violent floods from those two rivers gave rise to the earliest flood myths. The word Mesopotamia literally means "between the rivers," and it was the land of the great early civilizations of Sumer, Assyria, Akkadia and Babylon - in fact it is known as the cradle of civilizations. Though now a desert, in those ancient times Mesopotamia was filled with luxurious forests and vast farms of wheat and barley. Then the population dwindled and the land lost its fertility. Why?:

Sustainable development in a city where everything is moving and changing at a tremendous pace is not a challenge for the faint-hearted. The harsh reality is that Cape Town is going through an extraordinarily rapid urban growth and transformation process which will have far-reaching consequences if not managed properly.

Conservationist Tony Fitzjohn's story of the 18 years he spent working with wildlife icon George Adamson and his struggle to rescue and rehabilitate Mkomazi, a 1 500 square mile wasteland in Tanzania, comes at a time when South Africa's conservationists are facing one of their biggest challenges, namely, the poaching of hundreds of rhino. For the many who are depressed at the prospect of never beating human greed and cruelty, this book is a wonderful example of how tackling the odds one step at a time can deliver incredible results.

If you are concerned about the health of our planet then turn your attention to what lies under your feet. In the soil below are creatures that are responsible for producing the food we eat. Earthworms have been described by Darwin as the most important species on our planet and by Aristotle as 'the intestines of the earth'.

The first coffee-table book ' one that is a pleasure both to read and to look at ' on the history, beauty and conservation of South Africa's southernmost territories, Marion Island and Prince Edward Island, has been compiled by experienced researchers who have spent decades studying sub-Antarctic islands.

In one of the continent's largest collaborative conservation projects to date, South Africa has become the first of the world's mega-diverse countries to fully assess the status of its entire flora ' a staggering 20 456 species. The assessment has been published in a book entitled the Red List of South African Plants. It was appropriately launched by SANBI in Cape Town on Earth Day ' 22 April 2010.

"Scorched" is a vivid journey through southern Africa's mesmerising landscapes as climate change sets in. It wanders through the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands to capture the last faltering calls of a rain frog that was named after the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. The author pauses for thought following an elephant stampede to consider how savannahs might shift in an altered climate. She trails the wading birds of the West Coast into the high Arctic tundra for their annual breeding season before returning to a Cape which is crisping over as drought continues to grip the province. Another world exists somewhere beyond the global politicking of super powers and petrostates. This is the place where a solitary bee continues to pollinate the pale, demure flower of an orchid near Darling, or where the limey coral skeleton hosts its colourful algae on a Sodwana reef.

The science is indisputable ' climate change is a reality. Our lives will change irreversibly as we begin to adapt to these changes and as government, business and individuals begin to dramatically cut emissions to avoid catastrophic climate shifts. While these changes might create uncertainty and some anxiety, they herald a tremendously exciting era of transition, where our generation gets to redesign how we do everything.