How much does a blue whale weigh? How big is big? Using visually dazzling equivalents, How Many Elephants in a Blue Whale makes concepts like size, speed, and mass easy to grasp, and fun as well. Get the scoop on how many Eiffel Towers it takes to reach the top of Mount Everest and how fast a cheetah would have to run to outpace a Ferrarri. An irresistibly entertaining way to get a fix on how things in our world are related, this compendium is perfect for trivia lovers and those fascinated by popular science.

The blue whale is the biggest creature on Earth. But a hollow Mount Everest could hold billions of whales! And though Mount Everest is enormous, it is pretty small compared to the Earth. This book is an innovative exploration of size and proportion.

How big is big? Did you know that a blue whale's tongue weights the same as a single African elephant and that an entire whale weights the equivalent of 25 elephants? Or that a volcano can unleash the energy of 100 hydrogen bombs. Or that that 76 trombones make the same noise as a thunderclap? Journalists have long recognized that it's possible to grasp the magnitude of big things by describing them through visual equivalents or analogies, which is why they describe rainforest, for instance, as being destroyed in areas the size of Wyoming or Wales. In this fascinating and fun reference, you will discover how many times higher than Monsieur Eiffel is the Eiffel Tower, and how many Eiffel Towers there are in a Mount Everest, how many grandfathers take you back to the Jurassic period, and much much more!

Whales and elephants are iconic giants of the marine and terrestrial animal world. Both are conspicuous representatives of wildlife conservation. The issues of whaling and the ivory trade are closely linked, both legally and politically, in many ways; some obvious, and some surprising. The treatment of both whales and elephants will be politically and legally contentious for years to come, and is of great significance to conservation in general. This book examines the current state of international environmental law and wildlife conservation through a comparative analysis of the treatment of whales and elephants. In particular, it describes the separate histories of international governance of both whales and elephants, presenting the various treaties through which conservation has been implemented. It is shown that international environmental law is influenced and shaped by important political actors – many with opposing views on how best conservation, and sustainable development, principles are to be implemented. Modern environmental treaties are changing as weaknesses and loopholes are exposed in older, and possibly outdated, treaties such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW). Such weaknesses can be seen in the efforts made by some states to circumvent or weaken CITES and the International Whaling Commission and to resume commercial whaling, and further in the efforts of countries to resume trade in ivory. The argument is made that the Convention on Biological Diversity could be used to begin reconciling opposed views and to focus conservation efforts. The argument is made that effective conservation of species cannot be achieved through individual treaties, but only through a synergistic approach involving multilateral environmental agreements – 'ecosystems of legal instruments'.

A young reader’s adaptation of The New York Times bestseller Follow researcher Carl Safina as he treks with a herd of elephants across the Kenyan landscape, then travel with him to the Pacific Northwest to track and monitor whales in their ocean home. Along the way, find out more about the interior lives of these giants of land and sea—how they play, how they fight, and how they communicate with one another, and sometimes with us, too. Weaving decades of field research with exciting new discoveries about the brain and featuring astonishing photographs taken by the author, Beyond Words: What Elephants and Whales Think and Feel gives readers an intimate and extraordinary look at what makes these animals different from us, but more important, what makes us all similar.

Find out how the African elephant feeds itself, stays cool, and raises its young.

Describes the development of elephants from infancy to adulthood, as they grow up under the hot African sun.