This Book Is a Knife
An incendiary anti-capitalist response to climate change rooted in hope for the future, this book is a tool or a weapon, depending on how you use itDespite the naysayers, climate change is a fact. We know that global temperatures are rising, that weather patterns are changing, that forest fires, droughts, flooding, severe storms, and heat waves are the new normal. We know this planet is teetering on the edge of climate collapse, an apocalyptic event that threatens not only the future of human civilization, but also the millions of other unique life forms on Earth. We know it's all our fault--it's the direct result of human beings burning fossil fuels and spewing out carbon emissions at such a fantastic pace that we've changed the fate of the entire planet, and it leaves most of us feeling helpless. What can any of us really do?This Book Is a Knife is a startling essay collection that explores the origins and dangers of climate change through a critique of capitalism and an exploration of the ways in which we might radically reimagine our world before it's too late. Rooted in L.E. Fox's background as a science journalist, This Book Is a Knife is a frank, plain-spoken, and sharply incisive series of missives designed to wake us up to the urgent reality of climate change and the lies we are fed based on the fact that the real issue is neither climate nor the environment--it's capitalism.Fierce and unapologetic, This Book Is a Knife is a passionate and unique dissection of climate change that offers new possibilities for saving the world.
Near the Forest, by the Lake
Near the Forest, By the Lake is a personal exploration of the wonders of the natural world close to home. In this collection of essays, Angela E. Douglas reflects on the lives and habits of the plants, birds, insects, and other creatures inhabiting the landscapes that neighbor her in upstate New York. Some essays focus on individual species, from the salamanders migrating in early spring and the butterflies of summer, to the yellow goldenrods of the fall and the rafts of ducks on the lake in winter. Others provide insight into some of nature's mysteries, including why certain birds sing in fall and how turtles survive the winter in ice-sealed ponds. The inevitable fingerprint of human activities is interwoven into these explorations of the diversity of the living world. In Near the Forest, By the Lake, Douglas shows us that the natural world is closer than we might think and that our local environment, be it city sidewalk or country meadow, can always offer a glimpse of nature's splendor.
Status of Decline and Conservation of Amphibians of the Middle East
Amphibians by virtue of their thin, moist, permeable skins are poorly protected from harsh environments and are especially susceptible to chemical changes, desiccation, and alteration of their habitat. Accordingly, it is not surprising that they manifest exceptionally high rates of extinction and suffer more severe declines than do most other taxa in an environment undergoing unprecedented anthropogenic change. They are especially important to study as they serve as an early-warning system portending changes that are beginning to engulf more resistant species, including our own.The current volume covers the 14 countries of the Middle East, each written by a specialist, and is part of the Amphibian Biology series.
Political Geography
The new and updated eighth edition of Political Geography once again shows itself fit to tackle a frequently and rapidly changing geopolitical landscape. It retains the intellectual clarity, rigour, and vision of previous editions based upon its world-systems approach and is complemented by the perspective of feminist geography. The book successfully integrates the complexity of individuals with the complexity of the world-economy by merging the compatible, but different, research agendas of the co-authors.This edition explores political geography within the context of US-China competition, Russia's war with Ukraine, global climate change, new technologies, and challenges to democracy. It advances the discussion from the previous editions on the dynamics of the capitalist world-economy and the constant tension between the global scale of economic processes and the territorialization of politics in the current context of geopolitical change. The chapters have been updated with new examples - new sections on global climate change, populism, and the growing threat of global war. The book offers a framework to help students make their own judgements of how we got where we are today, and what may or should be done about it.Political Geography remains a core text for students of political geography, geopolitics, international relations, and political science, as well as more broadly across human geography and the social sciences.
Geoecological Modelling of the Landscape of Corinto and Diamantina, MG
Mapping Environmental Risk and Energy Communication
This book explores how citizens impacted by HVHF articulate stories about the environmental, health, and conflict risks they face. It presents case studies from three U.S. communities to analyze how their sociocultural histories affect the framing of these stories and highlights successes in the inclusion of environmental justice in risk analysis.
Creative Responses to Environmental Crises in Nordic Art and Literature
This volume gives a broad perspective on artistic responses to climate change and other environmental crises in the Nordic countries.
Rewilding Africa
Conservationist Grant Fowlds lives to save and protect Africa's rhinos, elephants and other iconic wildlife, to preserve their habitats, to increase their range and bring back the animals where they have been decimated by decades of war, as in Angola, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This vivid account of his work tells of a fellow conservationist tragically killed by the elephants he was seeking to save and a face-off with poachers, impoverished rural people exploited by rapacious local businessmen. Fowlds describes the impact of the Covid pandemic on conservation efforts, the vital wildlife tourism that sustains these and rural communities; and tells of conservationists' efforts to support people through the crisis. Lockdowns may have brought a welcome lull in rhino and other poaching, but also brought precious tourism to a standstill. He shows how the pandemic has highlighted the danger to the world of the illicit trade in endangered wildlife, some of it sold in 'wet markets', where pathogens incubate and spread. He describes a restoration project of apartheid-era, ex-South African soldiers seeking to make reparations in Angola, engulfed for many years in a profoundly damaging civil war, which drew in outside forces, from Cuba, Russia and South Africa, with a catastophic impact on that country's wildlife. Those who fund conservation, whether in the US, Zambia or South Africa itself, are of vital importance to efforts to conserve and rewild: some supposed angel-investors turn out to be not what they had appeared, some are thwarted in their efforts, but others are open-hearted and generous in the extreme, which makes their sudden, unexpected death an even greater tragedy. A passionate desire to conserve nature has also brought conservationists previously active in far-off Venezuela to southern Africa. Fowlds describes fraught meetings to negotiate the coexistence of wildlife and rural communities. There are vivid accounts of the skilled and dangerous work of using helicopters to keep wildebeest, carrying disease, and cattle apart, and to keep elephants from damaging communal land and eating crops such as sugar cane. He tells of a project to restore Africa's previously vast herds of elephants, particularly the famed 'tuskers', with their unusually large tusks, once prized and hunted almost to extinction. The range expansion that this entails is key to enabling Africa's iconic wildlife to survive, to preserving its wilderness and, in turn, helping humankind to survive. There is a heartening look at conservation efforts in Mozambique, a country scarred by years of war, which are starting to bear fruit, though just as a new ISIS insurgency creates havoc in the north of the country. What will humanity's relationship with nature be post-pandemic? Will we have begun to learn that by conserving iconic wildlife and their habitats we help to preserve and restore precious pockets of wilderness, which are so vital not only the survival of wildlife, but to our own survival on our one precious planet.
High-Precision and High-Reliability Positioning, Navigation, and Timing
This reprint mainly focuses on the latest challenges in PNT, especially in challenging environments for various research investigations and a range of practical applications. Topics cover high-precision and high-reliability PNT with GNSS or multi-source sensors, resilient PNT with GNSS or multi-source sensors in challenging environments, integrated PNT with GNSS and multi-sensor systems, and applications of PNT with GNSS or multi-source sensors.
Climate Injustice
From the "scientist finding climate change's smoking gun" (WIRED) and a Time 100 Most Influential Person comes a bracing investigation into extreme weather's impact on the world's most vulnerable. For fans of Naomi Klein and Greta Thunberg. Climate change does not affect everyone equally. While many scientists focus on studying climate change as a physics problem, Friederike Otto, one of the world's most renowned climate scientists, sees it as a symptom of the global crisis of inequality, not its cause. In this ambitious, fast-paced book, she offers concrete examples of how extreme weather events caused by climate change reveal uncomfortable truths about the failures of political and social infrastructures around the world. Comparing eight extreme weather events--including heat waves in North America, floods in Pakistan, droughts in Madagascar, and wildfires in Australia--Otto reveals how climate change is affecting the world's most vulnerable, whether they are women working on farms in Ghana during heat waves, or elderly people who died during floods in Germany. In particular, Otto examines the Global North's extractionist view of the Global South, a view that ensures elites are protected while others bear the brunt of the climate disaster. Climate Injustice shares the stories of real people, shining a light on the real damage inflicted on real lives. Above all, it shows how racism, colonialism, sexism, and climate change are interconnected, and how positive changes on one level can lead to positive effects on another. Authored by the co-founder of World Weather Attribution, a cutting-edge scientific method that pinpointed the role of climate change in extreme weather events for the first time, Climate Injustice offers a groundbreaking view on the fires, floods, heatwaves, and storms that are wreaking havoc at an alarming pace. Inequality and injustice are at the core of what makes climate change a problem for humanity. Fairness and global justice must therefore be at the core of the solution. Climate justice concerns everyone.
Getting Gold A Practical Treatise For Prospectors, Miners, And Students
Drought Country
Droughts have lurked behind Australia's major nation-shaping moments from European settlement at Port Jackson to Federation. They have caused catastrophic damage to Aboriginal, colonial and modern societies and, of course, to the very land itself. Indeed, by depriving humans and animals of water, that element most fundamental to life, droughts cut to the very essence of living in Australia. Weaving historical accounts with scientific theory, Robert Godfree will take you on a journey through the most brutal Australian droughts of the past three centuries, encountering mythmaking, colonialism, smallpox, economic depression, a "dust bowl," heatwaves, ecosystem collapse and the coming of the second "age of coal." With analysis and insights informed by his childhood in rural Australia and career in research science, he reflects on the choices made during each of these crises and looks to the future of what is becoming a more volatile and human-dominated continent. Drought Country is a timely exploration of this continent's harsh climate, providing useful insights for land managers, the scientific community, environmentalists and general readers. Features: Takes an in-depth look at the history of Australian droughts from European settlement to present day.Identifies the worst droughts that have occurred over the past three centuries and the ways they affected agriculture, natural ecosystems and people.Explores significant droughts, including the great Settlement, early- and mid-1800s, Millennium and Black Summer droughts, and the Federation to World War II "dust bowl."Discusses how we can learn from our past to help our future on an increasingly water-scarce continent.
The World’s Oceans
Discover the science, cultural history, and environmental importance of our planet's oceans.The second edition of this award-winning encyclopedia has been updated throughout and includes more than 20 additional entries and highlights timely concerns, including overfishing and microplastics, while also providing expanded coverage of the role oceans play in modern society, from cruise ships to the America's Cup competition. Part I of the book features a collection of 10 thematic essays, covering the five oceans of the world and broad areas of study such as the shipping industry and the changing nature of ocean boundaries. Part II includes more than 115 encyclopedia entries exploring topics ranging from the Bermuda Triangle to maritime law, from tsunamis to ocean acidification. Sidebars throughout offer fascinating facts that complement the main text.The oceans of the world are the lifeblood of our planet. They act as a climate regulator, absorbing heat and influencing weather patterns. The oceans teem with a vast and mostly unexplored diversity of life, providing us with food and medicine. Historically, oceans have been the highways of exploration and trade, connecting continents and fostering cultural exchange. From ancient Polynesian voyagers to modern shipping lanes, societies have relied on the oceans for transportation and resources. Yet, despite their vastness and importance, the world's oceans face numerous threats, including the effects of climate change, pollution, and exploitation of their bounty.
Urban Narratives about Nature
This book invokes the relationship between nature and urban contexts as powerful storytellers through a timely contribution to the historical understanding of our mechanisms of production of narratives about nature, therefore breaking new ground for current and future research for locally situated and globally shared environmental concerns.
The Whispers of Rock
A geologist's revelatory account of how our planet's seemingly inert bones pulse with unexpected vitality "Poetic and heartfelt."--Robert Macfarlane, author of Is a River Alive? A New Scientist Best Book of the Year If you listen, can you hear the stones speak? The question seems absurd. After all, rocks are lifeless, inert, and silent. In The Whispers of Rock, earth scientist Anjana Khatwa asks us to think again and listen to their stories. Boldly alternating between modern science and ancient wisdom, Khatwa takes us on an exhilarating journey through deep time, from origins of the green pounamu that courses down New Zealand rivers to the wonder of the bluestone megaliths of Stonehenge, from the tuff-hewn churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia, to Manhattan's bedrock of schist. In unearthing those stories and more, Khatwa shows how rocks have always spoken to us, and we humans to them. She delicately intertwines Indigenous stories of Earth's creation with our scientific understanding of its development, deftly showing how our lives are intimately connected to time's ancient storytellers. Through tales of planetary change, ancient wisdom, and contemporary creativity, The Whispers of Rock offers the hope of reconnection with Earth. With Khatwa as your guide, you won't simply hear rocks speak--you, too, will feel the magic of deep time seep into your bones.
In the Name of the Goddess
In the Name of the Goddess: A Biophilic Ethic explores a dynamic, holistic ethic of interconnections, ecological sustainability, and eco-justice through goddess worship and eco-feminism.
Lies of the Land
Lies of the Land examines the often-overlooked artistic roots of mapmaking practice in early modern France, offering an original perspective on discourses of accuracy and their relationship to the pictorial origins of modern mapmaking.Until the seventeenth century, most mapmakers in France were painters. Schooled in techniques of drawing and perspective--and in the careful study of nature that we associate with early modernity--they also learned the more expressive and imaginative Mannerist forms that dominated French painting in this period. Their maps draw on conventions of both painting and mapmaking to create beautiful, informative, and persuasive images for a wide variety of contexts and purposes. In this book, Camille Serchuk explores the strategies these cartographers deployed to weave together accuracy, ornament, and artifice in maps at all scales. Looking beyond the techniques of measurement and perspective, Serchuk shows how painterly interventions framed and manipulated the appearance and reception of cartographic objects. Lies of the Land is an important new assessment of the character and status of early modern cartography that challenges binary distinctions between art and science and between decorative and epistemic images. It will appeal especially to art historians and historians of sixteenth-century France as well as scholars of map history.
Natives Preferred
There have been books on wild flowers for the garden, but this one is different. The author lists trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, and tells where they can be grown. What is just as important, she tells where they can not be grown successfully. There are many warnings to save the would-be grower from pitfalls and heartaches. In separate chapters, she describes type localities and suggests plants for each. Flowers and trees for the different seasons are recommended.
Editorial Board Members' Collection Series
Organic pollutants are increasingly recognized as a critical threat to both ecosystems and human health. Amidst the growing demand for environmental measures, such as sustainable development goals and carbon neutrality, the need for highly efficient wastewater treatment technologies has never been more critical. This Reprint compiles studies on advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for the removal of organic pollutants, including ozone combined with biological oxidation, photocatalysis, peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation, and discharge plasma. Contributing authors Yu Li, Zijian Zhang, Xiaoping Wang, Jingyu Sun, and Zongli Huo have developed novel PMS activators to enhance the degradation efficiency of antibiotics and antioxidants, as well as to analyze and detect the toxicity of transformation products. Isaac Chairez has integrated ozone with biodegradation technology for the treatment of paper mill wastewater. Se Wang has employed DFT/TDDFT calculation methods to elucidate the direct and indirect photolysis of pollutants. He Guo and Xian Cheng have utilized plasma coupling technology to treat dye and emergency wastewater. This Reprint provides foundational data for the research and development of wastewater treatment technologies, offering relevant researchers access to cutting-edge advancements and inspirational research in the field of organic pollutants.
Tropical Cyclones and Associated Impacts
Tropical Cyclones and Associated Impacts: A Global Perspective provides a one-stop-shop for readers interested in the impacts of tropical cyclones, capturing the convergence of knowledge across disciplines and fields. Chapters in this book provide a coherent structure that reflects the hazards associated with these storms (e.g., storm surge, inland flooding and heavy rainfall, damaging winds) and their impacts on many spheres of our lives (e.g., energy, public health). This book is geared towards readers who have an interest in tropical cyclones, with a broad appeal to different audiences ranging from academia to federal and state agencies dealing with these storms.
Artificial Intelligence in Future Mining
Artificial Intelligence in Future Mining explores the latest developments in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in mining and how it will impact the industry's future. The application of data science and artificial intelligence in future mining involves using advanced technologies to optimize operations, improve decision-making, and enhance safety and sustainability in the industry. After a brief history of AI in mining, the book's editors look closely at different AI techniques used. Chapters explore ocean mining, brine mining, and urban mining. With an eye towards sustainability, the editors then review the future of wastewater mining and green mining. The book wraps up with chapters on safety and risk, resource planning, and a larger discussion of the opportunities and challenges of mining with AI in the future. This book is a must-have for researchers and professionals who find themselves at the intersection of mining, engineering, and data science.
Roam
"Deeply reported and persuasively told, Roam is a gorgeous testament to the habitats that sustain life on earth--and the power and promise of protecting them. An inspiring and necessary read." -- Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of ExtinctionWhat if saving our home planet starts with giving other species space to roam? How can we re-shape our human-built landscapes to serve both people and wildlife?These are the questions that Hillary Rosner attempts to answer in Roam, an urgent quest to figure out how to stitch our fragmented planet back together. It's about the people trying to reconstruct landscapes where animals can once again move freely, as they did for millennia. It's about reconnecting Earth so that wild species and natural systems have room to adapt and thrive. It's about seeing wildlife as the guides we need to lead us to adapt to climate change.Humans have always altered the landscapes around us; in some ways it's part of what defines us as a species. But since the middle of the last century, we've changed the Earth on an overwhelming scale. Our infrastructure, our hunger for resources, our methods of farming and traveling and living--all these have rendered our planet inhospitable for the other species that live here. As a result, all over the globe, animals are stranded--by roads, fences, drainage systems, industrial farms, cities. They simply cannot move around to access their daily needs. Yet as climate change reshapes the planet in its own ways, many creatures will, increasingly, have to move in order to survive.This book illustrates a massive and underreported problem: how a completely human-centered view of the world has impacted the ability of other species to move around. But it's also about solutions, and hope: How we can forge new links between landscapes that have become isolated pieces. How we can stitch ecosystems back together, so that the processes still work, and the systems can evolve as they need to. How we can build a world in which humans recognize their interconnectedness with the rest of the planet, and view other species with empathy and compassion.
