Encyclopedia of Global Resources provides a wide variety of perspectives on both traditional and more recent views of Earth's resources. The articles in this set are extremely diverse, with articles covering soil, fisheries, forests, aluminum, the Industrial Revolution, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the hydrologic cycle, glass, and placer mineral deposits. Top resources - 119 mineral based, 41 biologically based, and 39 energy related (such as oil and tar sands) - are covered, as well as ecological resources such as Earth's atmosphere and its biodiversity, 40 core nations from Argentina to Zimbabwe, government laws and international conventions, milestone historical events and energy resources from biofuels to coal to hydropower to wind and nuclear power.
Useful reference features include a Complete List of Contents and Common Units of Measure. At the end of volume 4 are several appendixes: an alphabetical table of the elements, the Periodic Table of Elements, a time line, a glossary, a general bibliography, and a new list of Web sites. Two indexes - geographical and subject - round out the set.