Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, (2006. revised edition). Large octavo, colour photographs, text illustrations, maps, fine copy in dustwrapper.

Offering a comprehensive environmental history of Hawai'i, this edition provides an account of the geological formation and shaping of the Islands, their colonization by plants and animals, and the patterns of ecology and evolution that unfolded in nurturing seas and landscapes. This book tells the story of human interaction with Hawai'i's native landscapes and rich biological heritage. The author's accessible language allows readers to grasp basic geological and biological principles and to understand the perhaps surprising vulnerability of Hawaiian ecosystems - which have coevolved with volcanoes - to human impact. Islands in a far sea includes many well-documented historical examples of such impacts, featuring growth and greed, fears and foibles as humans confronted endemic nature in Hawai'i. Citing a large array of sources, the author makes it possible for interested readers to probe more deeply the changes in natural systems that have ensued on all of the Hawaiian Islands. To date the result has been the tragic reduction of a unique and benign biota.