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Alternative Energy
This three-volume set introduces students to issues surrounding both current energy sources and alternative energy options. While there is significant discussion of the non-renewable resources now used to meet the majority of the world's energy needs (oil, coal and natural gas), the primary focus of the set is on newer options to meet the ever-growing demand. These options include wind and solar energy, fuel cells, hydropower, geothermal power and biomass energy. In addition, more theoretical sources are also explored, including cold fusion, zero point energy and universal forces. Entries discuss the science behind the energy source, notable scientists and scientific discoveries, current examples of use, and the issues, challenges and obstacles to large-scale use. Arranged alphabetically by entry name.
Atlas of Climate Change
This highly acclaimed atlas distills the vast science of climate change, providing a reliable and insightful guide to this rapidly growing field. Since the 2006 publication of the first edition, climate change has climbed even higher up the global agenda. This new edition reflects the latest developments in research and the impact of climate change, and in current efforts to mitigate and adapt to changes in the worlds weather.
Basics of Environmental Science
The new edition of this popular student text offers an engaging introduction to environmental study. It covers the entire breadth of the environmental sciences, providing concise, non-technical explanations of physical processes and systems and the effects of human activities. In this second edition the scientific background to major environmental issues is clearly explained. These include: * global warming * genetically modified foods * desertification * acid rain * deforestation * human population growth * depleting resources * nuclear power generation * descriptions of the 10 major biomes. Special student text features include illustrations and explanatory diagrams, boxed case studies, concepts and definitions.
Biodiversity and Climate Change
An essential, up-to-date look at the critical interactions between biological diversity and climate change that will serve as an immediate call to action The physical and biological impacts of climate change are dramatic and broad‑ranging. People who care about the planet and manage natural resources urgently need a synthesis of our rapidly growing understanding of these issues. In this all‑new sequel to the 2005 volume Climate Change and Biodiversity, leading experts in the field summarize observed changes, assess what the future holds, and offer suggested responses. From extinction risk to ocean acidification, from the future of the Amazon to changes in ecosystem services, and from geoengineering to the power of ecosystem restoration, this book captures the sweep of climate change transformation of the biosphere.
The Business of Water and Sustainable Development : Making Environmental Product Information Systems Effective
A renewed commitment to improved provision of water and sanitation emerged in the 2002 Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development. Although many of the statements in the Declaration were vaguely worded, making it hard to measure progress or success, the Plan of Implementation of the Summit, agreed by the delegates to the conference, clearly stated that: "we agree to halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of people who are unable to reach or to afford safe drinking water and the proportion of people who do not have access to basic sanitation". Given the United Nations'' predicted growth in global population from 6.1 billion in 2000 to 7.2 billion by 2015, this commitment will pose formidable challenges. To meet it, by the end of just a decade and half, approximately 6.6 billion people will need to have access to safe drinking water supplies. This is more than the current population of the world, and involves not only maintaining existing levels of supply but also providing new or upgraded services to 1.7 billion people. The challenge for sanitation is equally daunting: 5.8 billion people will need to be serviced, including new access provision for 2.1 billion. Even if these ambitious targets are met, representing a major achievement for the global community, there will still be approximately 650 million people in the world without access to safe drinking water and 1.4 billion without sanitation. What is clear is the magnitude of the problem facing the international community in terms of water supply and sanitation. Continuation of the status quo and the type of progress made during the 1990s will not permit the Johannesburg targets to be met. Instead it will be necessary to promote a combination of many different, new and innovative approaches, each of which will contribute towards the overall targets. These approaches must include technological advances that identify new sources and improve the quality of those already in use; managerial techniques that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery at both micro and macro scale; and fiscal approaches that tap into additional financial resources to make improvements affordable. In the past each of these aspects was seen as primarily the responsibility of government, which supported research into technology, managed supply and disposal systems and provided the funds to pay for them. This view has changed - beginning in the 1980s and increasing in the 1990s with growing moves towards privatisation of many aspects of the water sector. Underpinning this has been a shift away from seeing water as a public good that is essential for life, with subsidised supply provided as part of an overall welfare system, to a more market-oriented approach where the state, although still responsible for maintaining universal access to water services, uses market forces to meet this aim. The Business of Water and Sustainable Development aims to illustrate the range of approaches that will be necessary if the percentage of the global population having access to adequate and safe water and sanitation is to be increased in line with the brave assertions from Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. Some of approaches will be large-scale "Western-style" improvements involving the creation of new business models, their effectiveness assessed by traditional approaches of fiscal and social analysis. Such schemes may be instigated and partly funded by governments, but are increasingly turning to the private sector for money and expertise. In contrast, many smaller communities would be better served by following another path to improved water supply and sanitation. Because of their size, location or traditions they may achieve better results through the adoption of local small-scale solutions. Non-governmental organisations have been very active in this area, but to extend their operations many are seeking to adopt a more business-like model. All water supply and waste disposal agencies, large or small, need to support and encourage continued research into technological solutions that seek out better, more sustainable ways to use our increasingly scarce supplies of good-quality fresh water.
Climatic and Ecological Change in the Americas
This book offers a comparative analysis of the experiences, responses, and adaptations of people to climate variability and environmental change across the Americas. It foregrounds historical ecology as a structural framework for understanding the climate change crisis throughout the region and throughout time. In recent years, Indigenous and local populations in particular have experienced climate change effects such as altered weather patterns, seasonal irregularities, flooding and drought, and difficulties relating to subsistence practices. Understanding and dealing with these challenges has drawn on peoples' longstanding experience with climate variability and in some cases includes models of mitigation and responses that are millennia old. With contributions from specialists across the Americas, this volume will be of interest to scholars from fields including anthropology, archaeology, geography, environmental studies, and Indigenous studies.
Ecological Democracy : Caring for the Earth in the Anthropocene
Ecological Democracy offers an original, thought-provoking, and engaging treatment of why and how democracy should be re-imagined in reaction to today's ecological crisis. The book explains that one need to re-imagine both the view on nature and democratic ideals within the same framework in the Anthropocene, the present geological epoch of human-made instability in the Earth system and its planetary boundaries. This book proposes unique and challenging readings of green political theory and its development of ecological democracy in the last four decades. The book is the first to offer a systematic and detailed interpretation of the role of critical theory vis-à-vis green political theory through an update regarding current non-anthropocentric critical theorists and how they may contribute to the further development of ecological democracy. Ecological Democracy builds further on deep ecology, ecophenomenology, and animism by articulating an ecocentric view on nature which defends an intrinsic moral value of all existence as well as formulating the democratic principle of all ecologically affected parties. This book provides a sophisticated, convincing, and accessible argument for how to re-imagine ecological democracy as ecocentrism in practice: ecological love. To love ecologically means caring for and encountering all existence on the Earth and in the cosmos. This book is multi-disciplinary and w
Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene
Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene presents a currency-based, global synthesis cataloguing the impact of humanity's global ecological footprint. Covering a multitude of aspects related to Climate Change, Biodiversity, Contaminants, Geological, Energy and Ethics, leading scientists provide foundational essays that enable researchers to define and scrutinize information, ideas, relationships, meanings and ideas within the Anthropocene concept. Questions widely debated among scientists, humanists, conservationists, politicians and others are included, providing discussion on when the Anthropocene began, what to call it, whether it should be considered an official geological epoch, whether it can be contained in time, and how it will affect future generations. Although the idea that humanity has driven the planet into a new geological epoch has been around since the dawn of the 20th century, the term 'Anthropocene' was only first used by ecologist Eugene Stoermer in the 1980s, and hence popularized in its current meaning by atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen in 2000. Presents comprehensive and systematic coverage of topics related to the Anthropocene, with a focus on the Geosciences and Environmental scienceIncludes point-counterpoint articles debating key aspects of the Anthropocene, giving users an even-handed navigation of this complex areaProvides historic, seminal papers and essays from leading scientists and philosophers who demonstrate changes in the Anthropocene concept over time
Environmental Geology : Handbook of Field Methods and Case Studies
This illustrated handbook describes a broad spectrum of methods in the fields of remote sensing, geophysics, geology, hydrogeology, geochemistry, and microbiology designed to investigate landfill, mining and industrial sites. The descriptions provide information about the principle of the methods, applications and fundamentals. This handbook also deals with the stepwise procedure for investigating sites and common problems faced in efficient implementation of field operations.
Environmental Geology : Principles and Practice
Environmental Geology is aimed primarily at upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in departments of earth and environmental sciences, but will also strongly appeal to the professional geologist, geographer, civil engineer and planner. As human activities continue to degrade the Earth, the crucial importance of environmental geology is fast being recognized, and course structures are beginning to exhibit an environmental bias. As a result, this book is designed to cater to this new audience and direction. It provides an assessment and evaluation of environmental hazards (volcanoes, earthquakes, etc) and problems (mining, waste disposal, etc), and suggests methods of dealing with them. In short, it covers the planning, development and management of those aspects of the environment that relate to geology and those that are fundamental to the future health of our planet. Comprehensive coverage, up-to-date, densely illustrated and fully referenced throughout. Varied environmental concerns of different regions are represented by a broad geographical spread of examples. Author is a distinguished engineering geologist with extensive international experience.
Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada
From Flint, Michigan, to Standing Rock, North Dakota, minorities have found themselves losing the battle for clean resources and a healthy environment. This book provides a modern history of such environmental injustices in the United States and Canada. From the 19th-century extermination of the buffalo in the American West to Alaska's Project Chariot (a Cold War initiative that planned to use atomic bombs to blast out a harbor on Eskimo land) to the struggle for recovery and justice in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017, this book provides readers with an enhanced understanding of how poor and minority people are affected by natural and manmade environmental crises. Written for students as well as the general reader with an interest in social justice and environmental issues, this book traces the relationship between environmental discrimination, race, and class through a comprehensive case history of environmental injustices. Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada: Seeking Justice and Sustainability includes 50 such case studies that range from local to national to international crises.
Environmental Science Demystified
PART ONE: ATMOSPHERE Chapter 1. Our Planet Earth Chapter 2. World Ecosystems and Biodiversity Chapter 3. Atmosphere Chapter 4. Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming Test: Part One PART TWO: WATER Chapter 5. Hydrologic Cycle Chapter 6. Oceans and Fisheries Chapter 7. Glaciers Chapter 8.
The Facts on File Dictionary of Environmental Science
Thoroughly revised and updated, ""The Facts On File Dictionary of Environmental Science, Third Edition"" reflects the great diversity of disciplines that have an impact on this field of study. The more than 5,400 extensively cross-referenced entries - including approximately 450 new to this edition - are drawn from agriculture, biology, chemistry, engineering, medicine, microbiology, soil science, geology, meteorology, toxicology, government, law, and more. This updated volume also contains revised backmatter, including Web resources, as well as new line illustrations. Here is the definitive source to help students, teachers, businesspeople, politicians, science and technical writers, and general readers understand every aspect of this fast-growing and sometimes controversial field.
Food Security and Climate Change
This book looks at the current state of food security and climate change, discusses the issues that are affecting them, and the actions required to ensure there will be enough food for the future. By casting a much wider net than most previously published books--to include select novel approaches, techniques, genes from crop diverse genetic resources or relatives--it shows how agriculture may still be able to triumph over the very real threat of climate change. Food Security and Climate Change integrates various challenges posed by changing climate, increasing population, sustainability in crop productivity, demand for food grains to sustain food security, and the anticipated future need for nutritious quality foods. It looks at individual factors resulting from climate change, including rising carbon emission levels, increasing temperature, disruptions in rainfall patterns, drought, and their combined impact on planting environments, crop adaptation, production, and management. The role of plant genetic resources, breeding technologies of crops, biotechnologies, and integrated farm management and agronomic good practices are included, and demonstrate the significance of food grain production in achieving food security during climate change. Food Security and Climate Change is an excellent book for researchers, scientists, students, and policy makers involved in agricultural science and technology, as well as those concerned with the effects of climate change on our environment and the food industry.
Global Warming : A Very Short Introduction
Global Warming is one of the most controversial scientific issues of the twenty-first century. This is a problem that has serious economic, sociological, geopolitical, political, and personal implications.This Very Short Introduction is an informative, up-to-date, and readable book about the predicted impacts of global warming and the surprises that could be in store for us in the near future. It unpacks the controversies that surround global warming, drawing on material from the recent report ofthe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a huge collaborative study drawing together current thinking on the subject from experts in a range of disciplines, and for the first time presents the findings of the Panel for a general readership. The book also discusses the politics of globalwarming, and looks at what we can do now to adapt to climate change and mitigate its worst effects.
Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences
Scientists have long sought to unravel the fundamental mysteries of the land, life, water, and air that surround us. But as the consequences of humanity (TM)s impact on the planet become increasingly evident, governments are realizing the critical importance of understanding these environmental systems "and investing billions of dollars in research to do so. To identify high-priority environmental science projects, Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences explores the most important areas of research for the next generation. The book (TM)s goal is not to list the world (TM)s biggest environmental problems. Rather it is to determine areas of opportunity that "with a concerted investment "could yield significant new findings. Nominations for environmental science (TM)s oegrand challenges were solicited from thousands of scientists worldwide. Based on their responses, eight major areas of focus were identified "areas that offer the potential for a major scientific breakthrough of practical importance to humankind, and that are feasible if given major new funding. The book further pinpoints four areas for immediate action and investment.
Health of People, Health of Planet and Our Responsibility
This open access book not only describes the challenges of climate disruption, but also presents solutions. The challenges described include air pollution, climate change, extreme weather, and related health impacts that range from heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food and water insecurity and chronic diseases to malnutrition and mental well-being. The influence of humans on climate change has been established through extensive published evidence and reports. However, the connections between climate change, the health of the planet and the impact on human health have not received the same level of attention. Therefore, the global focus on the public health impacts of climate change is a relatively recent area of interest. This focus is timely since scientists have concluded that changes in climate have led to new weather extremes such as floods, storms, heat waves, droughts and fires, in turn leading to more than 600,000 deaths and the displacement of nearly 4 billion people in the last 20 years. Previous work on the health impacts of climate change was limited mostly to epidemiologic approaches and outcomes and focused less on multidisciplinary, multi-faceted collaborations between physical scientists, public health researchers and policy makers. Further, there was little attention paid to faith-based and ethical approaches to the problem. The solutions and actions we explore in this book engage diverse sectors of civil society, faith leadership, and political leadership, all oriented by ethics, advocacy, and policy with a special focus on poor and vulnerable populations. The book highlights areas we think will resonate broadly with the public, faith leaders, researchers and students across disciplines including the humanities, and policy makers.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Environmental Science
Derived from the content of the respected "McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, " 6th Edition, each title provides thousands of definitions of words and phrases encountered in a specific discipline. All include: * A pronunciation guide for every term * Acronyms, cross-references, and abbreviations * Appendices with conversion tables; listings of scientific, technical, and mathematical notation; tables of relevant data; and more * A convenient, quick-find format
A New Coast: Strategies for Responding to Devastating Storms and Rising Seas
"This is a timely book... [It] should be mandatory reading..." -- Minnesota Star Tribune More severe storms and rising seas will inexorably push the American coastline inland with profound impact on communities, infrastructure, and natural systems. In A New Coast, Jeffrey Peterson draws a comprehensive picture of how storms and rising seas will change the coast. Peterson offers a clear-eyed assessment of how governments can work with the private sector and citizens to be better prepared for the coming coastal inundation. Drawing on four decades of experience at the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Senate, Peterson presents the science behind predictions for coastal impacts. He explains how current policies fall short of what is needed to effectively prepare for these changes and how the Trump Administration has significantly weakened these efforts. While describing how and why the current policies exist, he builds a strong case for a bold, new approach, tackling difficult topics including: how to revise flood insurance and disaster assistance programs; when to step back from the coast rather than build protection structures; how to steer new development away from at-risk areas; and how to finance the transition to a new coast. Key challenges, including how to protect critical infrastructure, ecosystems, and disadvantaged populations, are examined. Ultimately, Peterson offers hope in the form of a framework of new national policies and programs to support local and state governments. He calls for engagement from the private sector and local and national leaders in a "campaign for a new coast." A New Coast is a compelling assessment of the dramatic changes that are coming to America's coast. Peterson offers insights and strategies for policymakers, planners, and business leaders preparing for the intensifying impacts of climate change along the coast.
Planning Research: A Concise Guide for the Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences
This concise yet comprehensive guide describes in detail a successful method for planning and writing about proposed research and management projects. Intended for use by a wide variety of individuals in life sciences, environmental sciences, and management, the volume offers indispensable, step-by-step advice for any student or professional undertaking a research project. John C. Gordon focuses first on the importance of thinking carefully and writing down a research plan, describing each component of such a plan and explaining why it is important. In subsequent chapters he shows how to describe research or management problems, how to write clear objectives, the importance of the hypothesis, how to deal with schedules and budgets, how to communicate completed plans, and how to prepare grant applications. Gordon concludes with an insightful chapter on the social significance of scientific research.
Toxic Truths : Environmental Justice and Citizen Science in a Post-truth Age
This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. Debates over science, facts, and values are pivotal in the struggle for environmental justice. For decades, environmental justice activists have campaigned against the misuse of science, engaging in community-led citizen science that champions knowledge produced by and for ordinary people living with environmental risks and hazards. However, post-truth politics have threatened science itself. Toxic truths examines the relationship between environmental justice and citizen science, focusing on enduring issues and new challenges in a post-truth age. The volume features a range of community-based participatory environmental health and justice research projects that seek to establish different ways of sensing, witnessing, and interpreting environmental injustice. From struggles in American hog country and contaminated indigenous communities, to local environmental controversies in Spain and China, this volume examines political strategies for seeking environmental justice. With international, interdisciplinary contributions from distinguished authors, emerging scholars and community activists, Toxic truths is essential reading for those seeking to understand the cutting edge of citizen science and activism around the world.
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "The Uninhabitable Earth hits you like a comet, with an overflow of insanely lyrical prose about our pending Armageddon."--Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker * The New York Times Book Review * Time * NPR * The Economist * The Paris Review * Toronto Star * GQ * The Times Literary Supplement * The New York Public Library * Kirkus Reviews It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible--food shortages, refugee emergencies, climate wars and economic devastation. An "epoch-defining book" (The Guardian) and "this generation's Silent Spring" (The Washington Post), The Uninhabitable Earth is both a travelogue of the near future and a meditation on how that future will look to those living through it--the ways that warming promises to transform global politics, the meaning of technology and nature in the modern world, the sustainability of capitalism and the trajectory of human progress. The Uninhabitable Earth is also an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation--today's. LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD "The Uninhabitable Earth is the most terrifying book I have ever read. Its subject is climate change, and its method is scientific, but its mode is Old Testament. The book is a meticulously documented, white-knuckled tour through the cascading catastrophes that will soon engulf our warming planet."--Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times "Riveting. . . . Some readers will find Mr. Wallace-Wells's outline of possible futures alarmist. He is indeed alarmed. You should be, too."--The Economist "Potent and evocative. . . . Wallace-Wells has resolved to offer something other than the standard narrative of climate change. . . . He avoids the 'eerily banal language of climatology' in favor of lush, rolling prose."--Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times "The book has potential to be this generation's Silent Spring."--The Washington Post "The Uninhabitable Earth, which has become a best seller, taps into the underlying emotion of the day: fear. . . . I encourage people to read this book."--Alan Weisman, The New York Review of Books
US Land & Natural Resources Policy: A Public Issues Handbook US Land & Natural Resources Policy: A Public Issues Handbook
A comprehensive overview of the policy debates surrounding U.S. public lands and the natural resources they contain. This greatly expanded sencond edition traces the origin and evolution of policy, the current debate and future direction of land and natural resources policy.
Water, Energy, and Environment - a Primer
Access to clean water and energy are critical to economic growth and sustainable development. Providing water and energy services has important environmental impacts. Understanding the inextricable linkages among water, energy, and environment - the water-energy-environment nexus - will be a priority for all levels of government in the decades ahead as they develop and implement policies to enhance human welfare.We are also experiencing the beginning of an energy revolution in these early years of the 21st Century. Understanding the nature of this revolution is important, and this book provides an introduction to and explanation of this revolution. Specific topics to be discussed, in addition to explaining the nexus, include the global contexts for water and energy issues, associated environmental impacts, traditional and emerging energy options (fossil fuels, nuclear power, renewable energies), new approaches to providing clean water, the emerging role of energy storage, and policy issues associated with water, energy, and environment, as well as recommendations.There are a number of books on pieces of the nexus, most at a technical level. The purpose of this book is to explain the nexus and each of its components in a university-level, highly-readable 'primer' for those entering the water and energy fields. It will also serve as an introduction to these topics for a global, multidisciplinary audience that includes academic scholars in related technical and non-technical fields, government officials at national, state, and local levels, economists and others in the financial/investment communities, and those in the development community responsible for planning and delivering water and energy services to undeserved populations.
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The Big Ones : How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)
By the world-renowned seismologist, a riveting history of natural disasters, their impact on our culture, and new ways of thinking about the ones to come Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanoes--they stem from the same forces that give our planet life. Earthquakes give us natural springs; volcanoes produce fertile soil. It is only when these forces exceed our ability to withstand them that they become disasters. Together they have shaped our cities and their architecture; elevated leaders and toppled governments; influenced the way we think, feel, fight, unite, and pray. The history of natural disasters is a history of ourselves. In The Big Ones, leading seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones offers a bracing look at some of the world's greatest natural disasters, whose reverberations we continue to feel today. At Pompeii, Jones explores how a volcanic eruption in the first century AD challenged prevailing views of religion. She examines the California floods of 1862 and the limits of human memory. And she probes more recent events--such as the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and the American hurricanes of 2017--to illustrate the potential for globalization to humanize and heal. With population in hazardous regions growing and temperatures around the world rising, the impacts of natural disasters are greater than ever before. The Big Ones is more than just a work of history or science; it is a call to action. Natural hazards are inevitable; human catastrophes are not. With this energizing and exhaustively researched book, Dr. Jones offers a look at our past, readying us to face down the Big Ones in our future.
Earth : The Operators' Manual
Since the discovery of fire, humans have been energy users and always will be. And this is a good thing-our mastery of energy is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom and has allowed us to be the dominant species on the planet. However, this mastery comes with a price: we are changing our environment in a profoundly negative way by heating it up.Using one engaging story after another, coupled with accessible scientific facts, world authority Richard B. Alley explores the fascinating history of energy use by humans over the centuries, gives a doubt-destroying proof that already-high levels of carbon dioxide are causing damaging global warming, and surveys the alternative energy options that are available to exploit right now. These new energy sources might well be the engines for economic growth in the twenty-first century.
Earth Environments : Past, Present and Future
This book provides a comprehensive coverage of the major topics within undergraduate study programmes in geosciences, environmental science, physical geography, natural hazards and ecology. This text introduces students to the Earth′s four key interdependent systems: the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere, focussing on their key components, interactions between them and environmental change. Topics covered include: An earth systems model; components systems and processes: atmospheric systems; oceanography, endogenic geological systems and exogenic geological systems, biogeography and, aspects of the Earth′s Record. The impact of climate and environmental change is discussed in a final chapter which draws together Earth′s systems and their evolution and looks ahead to future earth changes and environments and various time periods in the geological record. Throughout the book geological case studies are used in addition to the modern processes.
Earth System Science: a Very Short Introduction
When humanity first glimpsed planet Earth from space, the unity of the system that supports humankind entered the popular consciousness. The concept of the Earth's atmosphere, biosphere, oceans, soil, and rocks operating as a closely interacting system has rapidly gained ground in science.This new field, involving geographers, geologists, biologists, oceanographers, and atmospheric physicists, is known as Earth System Science. In this Very Short Introduction, Tim Lenton considers how a world in which humans could evolve was created; how, as a species, we are now reshaping that world; and what a sustainable future for humanity within the Earth System might look like. Drawing on elements of geology, biology, chemistry,physics, and mathematics, Lenton asks whether Earth System Science can help guide us onto a sustainable course before we alter the Earth system to the point where we destroy ourselves and our current civilisation.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, andenthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Eco-Hustle!
How many of our efforts to save the environment are effective? Learn how our system is simply masking the symptoms of global warming. Explains global warming science in terms that laypeople and scholars can understand Examines "greenwashing" practices employed by today's society and describes the negative impact they will have Asks truly compelling questions about what will really protect the environment from future damage Proposes changes to today's system that truly recognize the need for sustainable practices and a move away from production and consumption
Environmental Geology : Facing the Challenges of Our Changing Earth
This text aims to help readers understand the hopes and hazards facing humankind by learning more about the causes and consequences of environmental change through looking at the relationship between people and their geological environment.
Handbook of Natural Hazards and Disasters
A natural phenomenon which can have a negative impact on the environment or humans is known as a natural hazard. Such events are categorized into two types, namely, geophysical and biological. Geological and meteorological phenomenon such as wildfires, earthquakes and droughts fall under the category of geophysical hazards. A wide variety of diseases, infections and infestations come under the umbrella of biological hazards. Natural disaster refers to a natural hazard which has already occurred. It refers to a particular event, which occurs over a relatively shorter period of time. Identification of different types of hazards is known as hazard analysis. It plays a vital role in reducing the risk posed by a disaster or a hazard. The topics included in this book on natural hazards and disasters are of utmost significance and bound to provide incredible insights to readers. It is appropriate for students seeking detailed information in this area as well as for experts. Those in search of information to further their knowledge will be greatly assisted by this book.
How to Cool the Planet : Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth's Climate
Right now, a group of scientists is working on ways to minimize the catastrophic impact of global warming. But they’re not designing hybrids or fuel cells or wind turbines. They’re trying to lower the temperature of the entire planet. And they’re doing it with huge contraptions that suck CO2 from the air, machines that brighten clouds and deflect sunlight away from the earth, even artificial volcanoes that spray heat-reflecting particles into the atmosphere. This is the radical and controversial world of geoengineering, which only five years ago was considered to be "fringe." But as Jeff Goodell points out, the economic crisis, combined with global political realities, is making these ideas look sane, even inspired. Goodell himself started out as a skeptic, concerned about tinkering with the planet’s thermostat. We can’t even predict next week’s weather, so how are we going to change the temperature of whole regions? What if a wealthy entrepreneur shoots particles into the stratosphere on his own? Who gets blamed if something goes terribly wrong? And perhaps most disturbing, what about wars waged with climate control as the primary weapon? There are certainly risks, but Goodell believes the alternatives could be worse. In the end, he persuades us that geoengineering may just be our last best hope—a Plan B for the environment. His compelling tale of scientific hubris and technical daring is sure to jump-start the next big debate about the future of life on earth.
Over the Coasts
Geology comes alive as Michael Collier flies over North America's coasts. Geology usually takes its time -- about a few million years, generally. Yet there is one place where the geological processes often occur right before our eyes: along the coastline of a great body of water. The latest book in this acclaimed series takes the reader on aerial tours over the coastlines of the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf, Great Lakes and Alaska. Along these coasts the earth is in perpetual motion, for example: Barrier islands are constantly torn apart and reshaped by violent storms Powerful waves jackhammer rocks into smithereens, carving coastal cliffs Deltas, marshes, beaches, dunes, bays, lagoons, estuaries and fjords are created and recreated by the action of water against land. Over the Coasts combines beautiful images with natural history and makes geological science readily accessible to the general reader. Science that is most apparent in these spectacular aerial portraits of our restless coasts.
Waste Management and Sustainable Consumption
The accelerated pace of global consumption over the past decades has meant that governments across the world are now faced with significant challenges in dealing with the dramatically increased volume of waste. While research on waste management has previously focused on finding technological solutions to the problem, this book uniquely examines the social and cultural views of waste, shedding new light on the topic by emphasising the consumer perspective throughout. Drawing on a wide variety of disciplines including environmental, economic, social and cultural theories, the book presents philosophical reflections, practical examples and potential solutions to the problem of increasing waste. It analyses and compares case studies from countries such as Sweden, Japan, the USA, India, Nigeria and Qatar, bringing out valuable insights for the international community and generating a critical discussion on how we can move towards a more sustainable society. This book will be of great interest to post-graduate students and researchers in environmental policy, waste management, social marketing and consumer behaviour, as well as policymakers and practitioners in consumer issues and business.
Water Always Wins by
A hopeful journey around the world and across time, illuminating better ways to live with water. Nearly every human endeavor on the planet was conceived and constructed with a relatively stable climate in mind. But as new climate disasters remind us every day, our world is not stable--and it is changing in ways that expose the deep dysfunction of our relationship with water. Increasingly severe and frequent floods and droughts inevitably spur calls for higher levees, bigger drains, and longer aqueducts. But as we grapple with extreme weather, a hard truth is emerging: our development, including concrete infrastructure designed to control water, is actually exacerbating our problems. Because sooner or later, water always wins. In this quietly radical book, science journalist Erica Gies introduces us to innovators in what she calls the Slow Water movement who start by asking a revolutionary question: What does water want? Using close observation, historical research, and cutting-edge science, these experts in hydrology, restoration ecology, engineering, and urban planning are already transforming our relationship with water. Modern civilizations tend to speed water away, erasing its slow phases on the land. Gies reminds us that water's true nature is to flex with the rhythms of the earth: the slow phases absorb floods, store water for droughts, and feed natural systems. Figuring out what water wants--and accommodating its desires within our human landscapes--is now a crucial survival strategy. By putting these new approaches to the test, innovators in the Slow Water movement are reshaping the future.
Welcome to Your World : How the Built Environment Shapes our Lives
One of the nation's chief architecture critics reveals how the environments we build profoundly shape our feelings, memories, and well-being, and argues that we must harness this knowledge to construct a world better suited to human experience. Taking us on a fascinating journey through some of the world's best and worst landscapes, buildings, and cityscapes, Sarah Williams Goldhagen draws from recent research in cognitive neuroscience and psychology to demonstrate how people's experiences of the places they build are central to their well-being, their physical health, their communal and social lives, and even their very sense of themselves. From this foundation, Goldhagen presents a powerful case that societies must use this knowledge to rethink what and how they build: the world needs better-designed, healthier environments that address the complex range of human individual and social needs. By 2050 America's population is projected to increase by nearly seventy million people. This will necessitate a vast amount of new construction--almost all in urban areas--that will dramatically transform our existing landscapes, infrastructure, and urban areas. Going forward, we must do everything we can to prevent the construction of exhausting, overstimulating environments and enervating, understimulating ones. Buildings, landscapes, and cities must both contain and spark associations of natural light, greenery, and other ways of being in landscapes that humans have evolved to need and expect. Fancy exteriors and dramatic forms are never enough, and may not even be necessary; authentic textures and surfaces, and careful, well-executed construction details are just as important. Erudite, wise, lucidly written, and beautifully illustrated with more than one hundred color photographs, Welcome to Your World is a vital, eye-opening guide to the spaces we inhabit, physically and mentally, and a clarion call to design for human experience.
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