Contesting Earth’s Future
Radical ecology typically brings to mind media images of ecological activists standing before loggers' saws, staging anti-nuclear marches, and confronting polluters on the high seas. Yet for more than twenty years, the activities of organizations such as the Greens and Earth First! have been influenced by a diverse, less-publicized group of radical ecological philosophers. It is their work--the philosophical underpinnings of the radical ecological movement--that is the subject of Contesting Earth's Future.The book offers a much-needed, balanced appraisal of radical ecology's principles, goals, and limitations. Michael Zimmerman critically examines the movement's three major branches--deep ecology, social ecology, and ecofeminism. He also situates radical ecology within the complex cultural and political terrain of the late twentieth century, showing its relation to Martin Heidegger's anti-technological thought, 1960s counterculturalism, and contemporary theories of poststructuralism and postmodernity.An early and influential ecological thinker, Zimmerman is uniquely qualified to provide a broad overview of radical environmentalism and delineate its various schools of thought. He clearly describes their defining arguments and internecine disputes, among them the charge that deep ecology is an anti-modern, proto-fascist ideology. Reflecting both the movement's promise and its dangers, this book is essential reading for all those concerned with the worldwide ecological crisis.
Global Climate Change & California
California's extraordinary ecological and economic diversity has brought it prosperity, pollution, and overpopulation. These factors and the state's national and international ties make California an essential test case for the impact of global climate change--temperature increases, water shortages, more ultraviolet radiation. The scientists in this forward-looking volume give their best estimates of what the future holds.Beginning with an overview by Joseph Knox, the book discusses the greenhouse effect, the latest climate modeling capabilities, the implications of climate change for water resources, agriculture, biological ecosystems, human behavior, and energy.The warning inherent in a scenario of unchecked population growth and energy use in California applies to residents of the entire planet. The sobering conclusions related here include recommendations for research that will help us all prepare for potential climate change.
Visions of Paradise
The American Revolution gave birth not just to a new nation, but to a new landscape. America was paradise to its native inhabitants, while to the colonists, it was an unlimited land of opportunity, a moral and physical wilderness from which they could create paradise. Powerful people like Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton struggled to shape it to their opposing visions. Over the ensuing two hundred years, many other visions shaped the American landscape. Today, their imprints form a complex layering of messages-past and present, physical and cultural, public and private, local and national-that tell a story of many interwoven meanings. John Warfield Simpson traces this fascinating story in Visions of Paradise, providing a fresh perspective from which to understand not only our landscape but also the way we steward our environment.Simpson describes the transformation of America from wilderness into an agrarian and suburban landscape as the nation expanded westward after the Revolution. He highlights the role of influential people in this transformation and the critical policies and programs they used to acquire, survey, and dispose of the public domain. He shows how their actions reflected changes in our traditional values that considered land as property and a commodity primarily for functional use.This transformation in values has yielded a landscape of contradictions: It is at once a landscape of freedom and opportunity, order and disorder, permanence and transience. Ours is an egalitarian and litigated landscape shaped by reason and mobility, he argues, one that reflects our historical sense of separation from and superiority over a limitless land of endless abundance and resilience. These perceptions, he shows, have blinded us to the environmental consequences of our actions and created a people who behave as though they are temporary occupants of the land rather than residents who enjoy a deep connection to the land. That connection, he concludes, holds the key to our contemporary environmental debate.
Rangeland Sustainability
Provides an integrated description of the indicators of sustainability across the geography of rangeland in the U.S. that capture ecological, economic, and social dimensions. It takes a fresh look at the information available on the current and emerging issues across rangelands, and presents collaborative research for future progress.
Making Environmental Policy: Two Views
Two prominent economists comment on the bitter, divisive, and passionate debate on the proper direction of environmental policy.
Sustainable Approaches in Textiles and Fashion
This third volume in the set of books is dedicated to various sustainable approaches in textiles and fashion sector with a focus on fibres and raw materials employed. Sustainability is one of the important aspects in today's industrial context, which is followed by every industrial sector with no exception to textiles and fashion. Sustainability and strict adherence to the principles of sustainability has become as one of the essential needs again for any industrial sector including textiles and fashion. There are countless measures in terms of various approaches to make the textiles and fashion sector sustainable. These measures, but not limited to, ranging from innovating and implementing new fibres and raw materials, introducing innovative manufacturing methods, chemicals, processes to focus on all the possible stages of a textile product's life cycle from cradle to grave. These approaches include making the textiles and fashion sector circular and also development of new products from sustainable raw materials/processes or combination of both.
Financing Investment in Water Security
Investing in Water and Growth: Recent Developments and Perspectives addresses this conundrum in a cohesive and practical way. It is a one-stop shop for understanding why the financing of water-related expenditures matters, what is at stake, and the options available to ensure water-related investment needs are properly financed in ways that generate benefits for communities and contribute to sustainable growth. The book combines the perspectives of policymakers, economists and financiers in a unique, multidimensional and multidisciplinary approach. The book is structured into four distinct parts that target a specific set of questions and content development. Each section of the book has a multidisciplinary approach that provides a robust overview of key issues. The book combines different types of knowledge - from theory to practice, providing a full view of the topics discussed.
Creating and Restoring Wetlands
Creating and Restoring Wetlands: From Theory to Practice, Second Edition describes the challenges and opportunities relating to the restoration of freshwater and estuarine wetlands in natural, agricultural, and urban environments in the coming century. This second edition is structured by clearly defined chapters based on specific wetland types (e.g. Peatlands, Mangroves) and with a consistent and coherent organization for ease of discoverability. The table of contents is divided into four main subjects: Foundations, Restoration of Freshwater Wetlands, Restoration of Estuarine Wetlands, and From Theory to Practice, each with multiple chapters. Part 1, Foundations, contains chapters describing definitions of wetlands, ecological theory used to guide restoration, and considerations on where to implement restoration on the landscape. In Parts 2 and 3, restoration of specific freshwater (marshes, forests, peatlands) and estuarine (tidal marshes, mangroves) wetlands are described. Part 4, From Theory to Practice, contains chapters describing performance standards to gauge success of projects and case studies describing small-scale and large-scale restoration projects of various freshwater and estuarine wetlands. Each chapter contains clearly labeled sections which assist the reader to quickly and easily key in on the subject matter that they are seeking. The approach of Creating and Restoring Wetlands is unique in that, in each chapter, it links ecological theory important to ecosystem restoration with practical techniques to undertake and implement successful wetland restoration projects, including recommendations for performance standards to gauge success as well as realistic expectations and timescales for achieving success. Each chapter ends with a summary table describing keys to ensure success for a given wetland ecosystem.
Indigenous Water and Drought Management in a Changing World
Indigenous Water and Drought Management in a Changing World presents a series of global case studies that examine how different Indigenous groups are dealing with various water management challenges and finding creative and culturally specific ways of developing solutions to these challenges. With contributions from Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics, scientists, and water management experts, this volume provides an overview of key water management challenges specific to Indigenous peoples, proposes possible policy solutions both at the international and national levels, and outlines culturally relevant tools for assessing vulnerability and building capacity. In recent decades, global climate change (particularly drought) has brought about additional water management challenges, especially in drought-prone regions where increasing average temperatures and diminishing precipitation are leading to water crises. Because their livelihoods are often dependent on the land and water, Indigenous groups native to those regions have direct insights into the localized impacts of global environmental change, and are increasingly developing their own adaptation and mitigation strategies and solutions based on local Indigenous knowledge (IK). Many Indigenous groups around the globe are also faced with mounting pressure from extractive industries like mining and forestry, which further threaten their water resources. The various cases presented in Indigenous Water and Drought Management in a Changing World provide much-needed insights into the particular issues faced by Indigenous peoples in preserving their water resources, as well as actionable information that can inform future scientific research and policymaking aimed at developing more integrated, region-specific, and culturally relevant solutions to these critical challenges.
Biochar in Agriculture for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals
Biochar in Agriculture for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals introduces the state-of-the-art of biochar for agricultural applications to actualize sustainable development goals and highlight current challenges and the way forward. The book focuses on scientific knowledge and biochar technologies for agricultural soil improvement and plant growth. Sections provide state-of-the-art knowledge on biochar production and characterization, focus on biochar for agricultural application and soil improvement, discuss the roles of biochar for environmental improvement in farmland to relieve water and waste management as well as climate change, highlight biochar used for boosting bioeconomy and clean energy, and discuss future prospects. This book will be important to agricultural engineers and researchers as well as those seeking to improve overall soil and environmental conditions through the use of biochar.
Water - Energy - Food Nexus Narratives and Resource Securities
Water-Energy-Food Nexus Narratives and Resource Securities: A Global South Perspective provides a knowledge synthesis on the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus, focusing primarily on the global south. By presenting concepts, analytical tools, and case studies, the book serves as a practical resource for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in sustainability and functional roles across all three sectors. It addresses key issues related to data availability, tools, indices, metrics, and application across multiple scales, beginning with a summary of existing knowledge. Finally, it examines the WEF nexus, presents global insights, and discusses future considerations and implications. This book presents an overview of existing knowledge on the WEF nexus and examines how such research aligns with emerging global WEF nexus perspectives, making it ideal for professionals, government entities, private industry, and the general public.
Mycorrhizal Dynamics in Ecological Systems
Mycorrhizae are mutualisms between plants and fungi that evolved over 400 million years ago. This symbiotic relationship commenced with land invasion, and as new groups evolved, new organisms developed with varying adaptations to changing conditions. Based on the author's 50 years of knowledge and research, this book characterizes mycorrhizae through the most rapid global environmental changes in human history. It applies that knowledge in many different scenarios, from restoring strip mines in Wyoming and shifting agriculture in the Yucat獺n, to integrating mutualisms into science policy in California and Washington, D.C. Toggling between ecological theory and natural history of a widespread and long-lived symbiotic relationship, this interdisciplinary volume scales from structure-function and biochemistry to ecosystem dynamics and global change. This remarkable study is of interest to a wide range of students, researchers, and land-use managers.
Viruses: A Very Short Introduction
bVery Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring /b Viruses are everywhere, and as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, cannot be ignored. From their discovery to the unravelling of their intricate structures, this Very Short Introduction provides a rounded and concise account of the nature of viruses, how they attack their hosts, and the efforts to control them. In this new edition, Dorothy H. Crawford examines the recent rise in emerging virus infections, especially coronaviruses, including the viruses behind SARS and MERS, and SARS CoV-2 responsible for COVID-19. Crawford explores why the SARS-CoV-2 was able to spread rapidly to form a pandemic while others have produced more localized epidemics, as well as looking at the revolution in vaccine production that this has caused. Looking to the future, this Very Short Introduction considers the preventative measures and management of future dangerous viruses that are expected to emerge. 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, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Climate Change Governance in Asia
Covering the diversity of climate change governance in Asia, this book presents cosmopolitan governance from the perspective of urban and rural communities, local and central governments, state-society relations and international relations.
Bioremediation
This book entitled "Bioremediation: Green Approaches for a Clean and Sustainable Environment" showcases the latest information on the different bioremediation approaches used for the different types of industrial pollutants and dedicated for the environmental safety.
The Beginning of the Path to Human Extinction, and HOW TO GET OFF IT - Notes on a Paradigm Shift
This is a story involving you, me, everyone else in the world, all nonhuman life, our environment, science, and ecoethics. As a species, we are beset by a Crisis which was decades in the making. We don't have decades to correct the unprecedented mess we've made for ourselves. Plus, some of the negative effects of that Crisis often are not readily visible. With a lot of dedication and a bit of good luck, though, we'll pull through. Or, perhaps better stated: we'll survive and thrive if we undergo a paradigm shift in values and actions. The need for and the specifics of that shift are the subject of this book. Solutions to our Socio-Eco-Econ-Ethical Crisis are known and/or are being researched. This book will show you how to help implement some of those solutions.
Disaster by Choice
An earthquake shatters Haiti and a hurricane slices through Texas. We hear that nature runs rampant, seeking to destroy us through these 'natural disasters'. Science recounts a different story, however: disasters are not the consequence of natural causes; they are the consequence of human choices and decisions. We put ourselves in harm's way; we fail to take measures which we know would prevent disasters, no matter what the environment does. This can be both hard to accept, and hard to unravel. A complex of factors shape disasters. They arise from the political processes dictating where and what we build, and from social circumstances which create and perpetuate poverty and discrimination. They develop from the social preference to blame nature for the damage wrought, when in fact events such as earthquakes and storms are entirely commonplace environmental processes. We feel the need to fight natural forces, to reclaim what we assume is ours, and to protect ourselves from what we perceive to be wrath from outside our communities. This attitude distracts us from the real causes of disasters: humanity's decisions, as societies and as individuals. It stops us accepting the real solutions to disasters: making better decisions. This book explores stories of some of our worst disasters to show how we can and should act to stop people dying when nature unleashes its energies. The disaster is not the tornado, the volcanic eruption, or climate change, but the deaths and injuries, the loss of irreplaceable property, and the lack and even denial of support to affected people, so that a short-term interruption becomes a long-term recovery nightmare. But we can combat this, as Kelman shows, describing inspiring examples of effective human action that limits damage, such as managing flooding in Toronto and villages in Bangladesh, or wildfires in Colorado. Throughout, his message is clear: there is no such thing as a natural disaster. The disaster lies in our inability to deal with the environment and with ourselves.
Worlds of Gray and Green
The Anthropocene has arrived riding a wave of pollution. From "forever chemicals" to oceanic garbage patches, human-made chemical compounds are seemingly everywhere. Concerned about how these compounds disrupt multiple lives and ecologies, environmental scholars, activists, and affected communities have sought to curb the causes of pollution, focusing especially on the extractive industries. In Worlds of Gray and Green, authors Sebasti獺n Ureta and Patricio Flores challenge us to rethink extraction as ecological practice. Adopting an environmental humanities analytic lens, Ureta and Flores offer a rich ethnographic exploration of the waste produced by Chile's El Teniente, the world's largest underground mine. Deposited in a massive dam, the waste--known as tailings--engages with human and non-human entities in multiple ways through a process the authors call geosymbiosis. Some of these geosymbioses result in toxicity and damage, while others become the basis of lively novel ecologies. A particular kind of power emerges in the process, one that is radically indifferent to human beings but that affects them in many ways. Learning to live with geosymbioses offers a tentative path forward amid ongoing environmental devastation.
Worlds of Gray and Green
The Anthropocene has arrived riding a wave of pollution. From "forever chemicals" to oceanic garbage patches, human-made chemical compounds are seemingly everywhere. Concerned about how these compounds disrupt multiple lives and ecologies, environmental scholars, activists, and affected communities have sought to curb the causes of pollution, focusing especially on the extractive industries. In Worlds of Gray and Green, authors Sebasti獺n Ureta and Patricio Flores challenge us to rethink extraction as ecological practice. Adopting an environmental humanities analytic lens, Ureta and Flores offer a rich ethnographic exploration of the waste produced by Chile's El Teniente, the world's largest underground mine. Deposited in a massive dam, the waste--known as tailings--engages with human and non-human entities in multiple ways through a process the authors call geosymbiosis. Some of these geosymbioses result in toxicity and damage, while others become the basis of lively novel ecologies. A particular kind of power emerges in the process, one that is radically indifferent to human beings but that affects them in many ways. Learning to live with geosymbioses offers a tentative path forward amid ongoing environmental devastation.
Hot House
This book provides a complete, easy-to-read explanation of past and present global climate change, causes and possible solutions to the problem, including the politics and reasons why this is such a politically charged issue. Global warming is addressed by almost all sciences including many aspects of geosciences, atmospheric, the biological sciences, and even astronomy. It has recently become the concern of other diverse disciplines such as economics, agriculture, demographics and population statistics, medicine, engineering, and political science. This book attempts to address these complex interactions, integrate them, and derive meaningful conclusions and possible solutions. It presents the latest research results from a variety of disciplines and points to the accountability of the human race in global warming.
Protein-Ligand Interactions
This third edition provides new and updated chapters detailing a complete introduction to common and emerging procedures for characterizing the interactions of individual proteins with their natural ligands, drugs or other binding partners. Chapters detail natural substrates, potential drug leads, quantitative understanding of the mechanism of interaction, and different techniques. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and accessible, Protein Ligand Interactions: Methods and Applications, Third Edition serves as an ideal guide for researchers new to the field of biophysical characterization of protein interactions.
Trends of the Agricultural Sector in Era 4.0
This book describes the impact of Era 4.0 on the agricultural sector worldwide. It highlights the relationships between agriculture, food and industry (4.0). The main topics discussed are those associated with IoT in various sectors of the economy and its impact on farming sustainability. this book provides insights for policy makers, students, researchers and economic stakeholders.
Catchment Hydrological Modelling
Catchment Hydrological Modelling: The Science and Art covers various methods (and equations) for modeling all components of a CHM. Readers are presented with multiple methods and approaches to modeling the same component, allowing them to distinguish the differences between methods. The books also provides a clear understanding of what makes some commonly used hydrological models similar or different and what their strengths and weaknesses may be. This comprehensive guide contains questions and answers in each chapter, along with concepts and detailed equations that are fundamental to understanding CHM. This book is useful to students and professionals in the fields of catchment and hydrology, as well as environmental and civil engineers.
The Spoils of Progress
An analysis of the forces that have been brought about the abuses of water, air, land and raw material in Russia, examining both the drawbacks and advantages of state control and conservation.Because industrialism had its beginnings in capitalist countries, the existence of environmental disruption in socialist and communist societies has been largely ignored. The truth is that pollution of natural resources plagues the planned economy and free enterprise system alike. Rapid industrial growth rather than form of government is the prime agent causing environmental havoc, and where socialist reality diverges from socialist theory, the ecological balance of nature suffers as in any major industrial country.Marshall I. Goldman, whose articles on the subject have appeared in Science, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, brings this point home as she describes abuses of water, air, land, and raw materials in Russia, analyzing the forces that have been brought about the current situation and describing both the drawbacks and advantages of state control and conservation. He devotes chapters to the pollution of Lake Baikal in Siberia, remarking that Baikal is a unique lake in the world and all mankind will suffer from its desecration, and to the Aral and Caspian seas which is literally in danger of drying up as a result and the construction of hydroelectric stations. Proposals to restore the seas by building dams and reversing the flow of major rivers from north to south (Reshaping the Earth) may have equally profound and undesirable results.The book concludes by pointing out that the Soviet state is both manufacturer and polluter and its priorities lie with the increased production rather than conservation; with progress rather than restraint. Yet, hopefully, Goldman points to a number of beneficial state controls which if enlarged in the direction of restoring and protecting natural resources could have made Russia the most powerful and efficient of conservationists.Appendixes contain selected laws on the environment, the Conservation Law of the Russian Republic 1960, and the Water Law 1970.
Man’s Impact On The Global Environment
This Report of the Study of Critical Environmental Problems (SCEP) presents the results of a one-month interdisciplinary examination of the global climatic and ecological effects of man's activities.This Report of the Study of Critical Environmental Problems (SCEP) presents the results of a one-month, interdisciplinary examination of the global climatic and ecological effects of man's activities. The disciplines represented by the fifty full-time participants include meteorology, oceanography, ecology, engineering, economics, social sciences, and law. The Study, which was sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was conducted during the month of July 1970 at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.The focus was on those environmental problems whose cumulative effects on ecological systems are so large and prevalent that they have worldwide significance. Thus the Study was primarily concerned with the effects of pollution on man through changes in climate, ocean ecology, and large terrestrial ecosystems.Some of the following subjects were investigated by the Work Groups: Climatic Effects: Increasing carbon dioxide content of the atmosphereParticle load of the atmosphereContamination of the troposphere and stratosphere by subsonic and supersonic aircraftEcological Effects: DDT and other pesticidesMercury and other toxic heavy metalsOil in the oceansNutrients in estuariesOn these topics several general questions were addressed, such as, What can we say? Where are the gaps in our knowledge? What action programs are needed?
Natural Background Levels in Groundwater
The need for establishing a formal limit between the concentration of potentially toxic inorganic compounds in groundwater due to natural processes or to anthropogenic pollution has prompted researchers to develop methods to derive this boundary and define the "Natural Background Level" (NBL). NBLs can be used as screening levels to define the good chemical status of groundwater bodies, as well as to fix the remediation target in polluted sites.The book "Natural Background Levels in Groundwater" brings together a set of case studies across Europe and worldwide where the assessments and identification of this boundary are performed with different methodologies. It provides an overview of the approaches and protocols applied and tested in different states for NBL assessment, ranging from well-known methods, such as component separation or cumulative probability plot methods, to new computer-aided protocols. The main objective of this book is to bring together and discuss different methodological approaches and tools to improve the assessment of groundwater NBLs. The overview, discussion and comparison of different approaches and case histories for NBL calculation can be useful for scientists, water managers and practitioners.
Flood Early Warning and Risk Modelling
Extreme hydrological phenomena are one of the most common causes of human life loss and material damage as a result of the manifestation of natural hazards around human communities. Climatic changes have directly impacted the temporal distribution of previously known flood events, inducing significantly increased frequency rates as well as manifestation intensities. Understanding the occurrence and manifestation behavior of flood risk as well as identifying the most common time intervals during which there is a greater probability of flood occurrence should be a subject of social priority, given the potential casualties and damage involved. However, considering the numerous flood analysis models that have been currently developed, this phenomenon has not yet been fully comprehended due to the numerous technical challenges that have arisen. These challenges can range from lack of measured field data to difficulties in integrating spatial layers of different scales as well as other potential digital restrictions.The aim of the current book is to promote publications that address flood analysis and apply some of the most novel inundation prediction models, as well as various hydrological risk simulations related to floods, that will enhance the current state of knowledge in the field as well as lead toward a better understanding of flood risk modeling. Furthermore, in the current book, the temporal aspect of flood propagation, including alert times, warning systems, flood time distribution cartographic material, and the numerous parameters involved in flood risk modeling, are discussed.
Integrating Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development
This book is a truly interdisciplinary publication, useful to scholars, social movements, practitioners and members of governmental agencies and private companies, undertaking research and/or executing projects focusing on social responsibility and sustainability from across the world.Sustainable development has become a matter of central concern to both public institutions and enterprises. Indeed, for many companies, a due emphasis to environmental issues is not only positive from the point of view of environmental gains, but also to the image of the business. Often, but not always, this is reflected in the preparation of formal strategies and programmes, which entail their institutional strategies and visions. The wide area of social responsibility, often known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), entails elements of social equality and environmental accountability, and eco-efficiency. Due to their complexity, the interrelations between social responsibility and sustainable development need to be better understood. There is also a real need to showcase successful examples of how public institutions and companies are handling their sustainability challenges. It is against this background that this book has been produced.
The Population Ecology of White-Headed Langur
This book offers a rare and detailed insight into 20 years' of in-depth field research and conservation of the white-headed langur. It focuses on the white-headed langur's natural refuge, territory and home range, diets and foraging strategies, behavior modes, reproductive strategies, population, possible future viabilities, and their interaction with human society. From 1996 through 2016, a small research team led by Prof.Wenshi Pan from Peking University conducted studies and conservation efforts on the white-headed langur, one of the most endangered endemic species of China, in Guangxi and saved the species from extinction. With the help of conservationists' efforts, the white-headed langur population in Nongguan Mountains, Guangxi, gradually increased from 105 to approximately 820.This book shares the success story of the unification of human development and wildlife conservation.
The World Without Us
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A Time #1 Nonfiction Book* An Entertainment Weekly #1 Nonfiction Book *A Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and Salon Book Awards* A Kansas City Star's Top 100 Book of the Year *A Mother Jones' Favorite Book* The 15th Anniversary edition of the worldwide bestseller that answers the ultimate question: what happens to the Earth when human beings disappear? Now with a new afterword from the author. The World Without Us is a penetrating, page-turning tour of a post-human Earth. Drawing on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, oil refiners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, religious leaders from rabbis to the Dalai Lama, and paleontologists, Alan Weisman deftly illustrates what the planet might be like today, if not for us. In this revelatory account, Alan Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; which everyday items may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, and radio waves may be our most lasting gifts to the universe. As he shows which human devastations are indelible, and which examples of our highest art and culture would endure longest, Weisman draws on every field of science to present an environmental assessment like no other. This is narrative nonfiction at its finest--one of the most affecting portraits yet of humankind's place on this planet.
Sustainable Approaches in Textiles and Fashion
This fourth volume in the series presents various sustainable approaches in the textile and fashion sector with a focus on manufacturing processes and chemicals. Sustainability is one of the important aspects in today's industrial context, which is followed by every industrial sector with no exception to textiles and fashion. Sustainability and strict adherence to the principles of sustainability has become as one of the essential needs again for any industrial sector including textiles and fashion. There are countless measures in terms of various approaches to make the textiles and fashion sector sustainable. These measures, but not limited to, ranging from innovating and implementing new fibres and raw materials, introducing innovative manufacturing methods, chemicals, processes to focus on all the possible stages of a textile product's life cycle from cradle to grave. These approaches include making the textiles and fashion sector circular and also development of new products from sustainable raw materials/processes or combination of both.
Plant-Microbes-Engineered Nano-Particles (Pm-Enps) Nexus in Agro-Ecosystems
Deals with nanoparticles in the agro-ecosystems with special emphasis on the nature of nanoparticles Explores the fate and transport of nanoparticles in the plant systems mediated by microbial communitiesFocuses on microbial immobilization and degradation of nanoparticles in agro-ecosystems​
Microplastic Pollution
Microplastics pollution in aquatic systems: Ecotoxicological effects on biota Current State of Microplastic Research in SAARC Countries- A Review Microplastic pollution in sediments: occurence, fate and effects (with a specific focus on biogeochemical carbon and nitrogen cycles) A Review of Microplastics in Dentistry Domestic laundry and microfiber shedding of synthetic textiles Effect of textile parameters on microfiber shedding properties of apparels ​
Wildfire Hazard and Risk Assessment
Wildfire risk can be perceived as the combination of wildfire hazards (often described by likelihood and intensity) with the susceptibility of people, property, or other valued resources to that hazard. Reflecting the seriousness of wildfire risk to communities around the world, substantial resources are devoted to assessing wildfire hazards and risks. Wildfire hazard and risk assessments are conducted at a wide range of scales, from localized to nationwide, and are often intended to communicate and support decision making about risks, including the prioritization of scarce resources. Improvements in the underlying science of wildfire hazard and risk assessment and in the development, communication, and application of these assessments support effective decisions made on all aspects of societal adaptations to wildfire, including decisions about the prevention, mitigation, and suppression of wildfire risks. To support such efforts, this Special Issue of the journal Fire compiles articles on the understanding, modeling, and addressing of wildfire risks to homes, water resources, firefighters, and landscapes.
Atmospheric Aerosol Chemistry
Atmospheric aerosols are an important and a highly complex component of the Earth's atmosphere that alter the radiative forcing and the chemical composition of the gas phase. These effects have impacts on local air quality and the global climate. Atmospheric Aerosol Chemistry outlines research findings to date in aerosol chemistry and advances in analytical tools used in laboratory settings for studying their surface and bulk reactivity.
Urban Ecology and Global Climate Change
Urban Ecology and Global Climate Change Urban Ecology and Global Climate Change contains the latest practical and theoretical concepts of the emerging issues in urban ecological studies. The authors highlight some of the major challenges currently impeding ecological restoration goals in urbanized regions across the globe. It is sobering that the majority of sustainable development projects are being defeated by the increasing pace of two particular phenomena - namely climate change and urbanization. This book includes coverage of the major threats to biodiversity conservation and the most significant contributors to the deterioration of urban ecosystems. In addition, various case studies that reflect the anthropogenic interventions on ecological restoration are included. The book looks at evolving growth and urbanization concepts, monitoring of urbanization trends, land-use land cover (LULC) changes in urban and non-urban cities based on the use of open access data, urbanization affecting rural ecology, soil carbon emissions, urban development, human well-being and case studies of sustainable smart cities. Urban Ecology and Global Climate Change will find an appreciative audience amongst students of urban ecology and environmental policy, as well as policymakers, scientists and industrialists. The book provides an excellent introduction to the principles of smart city planning and urban sustainability with a view to maintaining ecological and conservation status of urban environments.
Ecology and Biodiversity of Benthos
Ecology and Biodiversity of Benthos provides insights into the characteristic features of marine and estuarine benthos that play an important role in coastal ecosystem functioning, a primary level in the food chain. The book provides the latest information on multidisciplinary reflections by various researchers studying the benthic community. Through the chapters, ecosystem services are explored as a way to share approaches and scientific methods to achieve knowledge-based sustainable planning and management of benthic ecosystems. This is a helpful guide for anyone working on marine and estuarine environments, and for those who need an introduction to benthic ecology. The book has a wide range of scientific coverage since it caters primarily to the requirement of marine ecologists, marine benthologists, EIA experts, aquatic researchers, scientists, teachers and research scholars. In addition to this, it also serves as a reference for postgraduate/undergraduate students studying aquatic ecosystems.
Under a White Sky
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction returns to humanity's transformative impact on the environment, now asking: After doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it? RECOMMENDED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA AND BILL GATES - SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING - ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post - ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, Esquire, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews - "Beautifully and insistently, Kolbert shows us that it is time to think radically about the ways we manage the environment."--Helen Macdonald, The New York Times With a new afterword by the author That man should have dominion "over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" is a prophecy that has hardened into fact. So pervasive are human impacts on the planet that it's said we live in a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. In Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. Along the way, she meets biologists who are trying to preserve the world's rarest fish, which lives in a single tiny pool in the middle of the Mojave; engineers who are turning carbon emissions to stone in Iceland; Australian researchers who are trying to develop a "super coral" that can survive on a hotter globe; and physicists who are contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere to cool the earth. One way to look at human civilization, says Kolbert, is as a ten-thousand-year exercise in defying nature. In The Sixth Extinction, she explored the ways in which our capacity for destruction has reshaped the natural world. Now she examines how the very sorts of interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the only hope for its salvation. By turns inspiring, terrifying, and darkly comic, Under a White Sky is an utterly original examination of the challenges we face.
Urban Biodiversity and Ecological Design for Sustainable Cities
This book highlights various designs for urban green spaces and their functions. It provides an interesting meeting point between Asian, European and North America specialists (researchers, planners, landscape architects) studying urban biodiversity; urban biodiversity and green space; relations between people and biodiversity. The most important feature of this book is the unique point of view from each contributor towards "the relationship between nature and people in urban areas", in the context of the ecosystem and biodiversity in urban areas and how to manage them. All chapters explore and consider the relationship between humans and nature in cities, a subject which is taking on increasing importance as new cities are conceptualized and planned. These discussion and examples would be useful for urban ecology researchers, biologists, city planners, government staff working in city planning, architects, landscape architects, and university instructors. This book canalso be used as a textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate city planning, architecture or landscape architecture courses.
Fundamental Principles of Environmental Physics
This book is an interdisciplinary and accessible guide to environmental physics. It allows readers to gain a more complete understanding of physical process and their interaction with ecological ones underpin important environmental issues.The book covers a wide range of topics within environmental physics, including: - natural and anthropogenic canopies, including forests, urban or wavy terrains;- the fundamentals of heat transfer;- atmospheric flow dynamics;- global carbon budget;- climate change; and- the relevance of biochar as a global carbon sink.Including solved exercises, numerous illustrations and tables, as well as an entire chapter focused on applications, book is of interest to researchers, students and industrial engineers alike.
The Economics of Climate Change in Argentina
In this volume, the contributors discuss some of the most remarkable global warming effects in Argentina and examine policies that Latin American countries could follow to achieve their individual climate goals. Climate change is one of the most pressing issues today. However, after many years of climate negotiations, the world has failed to introduce a common global policy. Differences in countries' climate agendas have led to unsuccessful efforts. Countries willing to pursue a climate policy have sought alternative strategies to mitigate and adapt to global warming's consequences within their jurisdiction. In this context, Latin American countries' role in shaping the regional climate agenda is yet to be explored. The book covers some papers from the well-received "First Workshop on Environmental Economics and Energy" in Argentina. Using data from Argentina, the contributors analyze the effects of global warming on agricultural yields and the impact of extreme weather on human health. From a global perspective, the contributors also describe the interactions between a reduction in carbon emissions, carbon emissions intensity, and economic growth; the role that trade policies can play to reduce carbon emissions; and the paradoxes that arise from promoting renewable energies in the region. The contributors also address the relationship between sustainability and economic growth; the private sector's role in shaping policies and providing sustainable solutions; and the Latin American challenges for the next generation. The book will be of interest to policy-makers, academics, researchers, and professionals worldwide working in climate change impacts and policy. It will also appeal to a general audience interested in climate change economics, its consequences, and the steps that countries in Latin America can take to move forward.
Agro-Climatology
The chapters in this book cover crop -weather interaction and agro-met observatory, agro-climatic analysis, weather codes and their management etc. Note: T&F does not sell or distribute the hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This title is co-published with NIPA.
The Post-Pandemic World
The Covid-19 pandemic is a repeating biophysical shock yet one for which our current socio-economic structure was not prepared. Climate change, scarcity, depletion of natural resources, and the inevitable transition to renewable energy are one time events. Taken together, they present an existential threat to human society. This book is a guide to navigating these megatrends, which confront us now but whose consequences will unfold over decades. By presenting clear options on the path to a renewable energy future, this book gives readers a broad perspective as well as detailed, well-illustrated examples to weigh in making decisions which will secure stability and prosperity for their families, their communities and their nations.
Biotic Borders
A rich and eye-opening history of the mutual constitution of race and species in modern America. In the late nineteenth century, increasing traffic of transpacific plants, insects, and peoples raised fears of a "biological yellow peril" when nursery stock and other agricultural products shipped from Japan to meet the growing demand for exotics in the United States. Over the next fifty years, these crossings transformed conceptions of race and migration, played a central role in the establishment of the US empire and its government agencies, and shaped the fields of horticulture, invasion biology, entomology, and plant pathology. In Biotic Borders, Jeannie N. Shinozuka uncovers the emergence of biological nativism that fueled American imperialism and spurred anti-Asian racism that remains with us today. Shinozuka provides an eye-opening look at biotic exchanges that not only altered the lives of Japanese in America but transformed American society more broadly. She shows how the modern fixation on panic about foreign species created a linguistic and conceptual arsenal for anti-immigration movements that flourished in the early twentieth century. Xenophobia inspired concerns about biodiversity, prompting new categories of "native" and "invasive" species that defined groups as bio-invasions to be regulated--or annihilated. By highlighting these connections, Shinozuka shows us that this story cannot be told about humans alone--the plants and animals that crossed with them were central to Japanese American and Asian American history. The rise of economic entomology and plant pathology in concert with public health and anti-immigration movements demonstrate these entangled histories of xenophobia, racism, and species invasions.
Climate Change in the Anthropocene
Climate Change in the Anthropocene reviews current science on anthropogenic sources and projections for climatic change. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book covers this rapidly changing field, including the drivers of climate change, the physics and chemistry behind the science of climate change, paleoclimates, climate variables, a comparison of global warning of 1.5簞 vs 2簞C and the impacts of these climatic changes both at a global and a U.S. regional level. Infographics throughout help to explain concepts in a visual way, providing users with a better understanding of climate change. In addition, the book is ideal for advanced researchers who need to explain the underpinning science of climate change for grant applications and working with policy experts, etc. This is an essential book for anyone whose work is impacted by climate change in the earth and environmental sciences.
Characterizing Groundwater Flow Dynamics and Storage Capacity in an Active Rock Glacier
Alpine aquifers play a critical role in the hydrology of mountainous areas by sustaining base flow in downstream rivers during dry periods and retarding flood propagation after heavy precipitation events. Progressing climate change alters climatic and meteorological boundary conditions as well as the hydraulic response of alpine catchments by ablating glaciers and thawing permafrost. Rock glaciers exert a controlling influence on the catchment response due to their prominent groundwater storage and complex drainage characteristics. This thesis investigates the hydrogeology and internal structure of the active rock glacier Innere ?lgrube (?tztal Alps), which governs catchment runoff and is affected by permafrost degradation. A 3D geometrical model of its internal structure is obtained by combining geophysical data and permafrost creep modelling. Available data and new results are integrated into a conceptual hydrogeological model providing a sound basis for the implementation of a prospective numerical groundwater flow model. Hydraulic properties of the hydrostratigraphic units constituting the rock glacier are estimated and groundwater recharge fluxes quantified. Fundamental properties of the heterogeneous groundwater flow system within the rock glacier are discussed and compared to existing rock glacier studies.
Climate Change and Biodiversity Governance in the Amazon
This book provides an analysis of the recent governance of the Amazon in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia with a particular focus on deforestation processes, demonstrating that current policies and political and socioeconomic dynamics in the four countries are risking the forest's resilience.
