Environmental and Geographical Science Library Guide: New Books 2012

Climate change impacts are scale and context specific, and cities are likely to bear some of the greatest costs. In recent years cities have begun to craft their own climate change responses against the backdrop of the reluctance displayed by nation-states in committing to emissions reductions and managing the consequences of climate change. Climate Change at the City Scale presents a fresh contribution to climate change literature, which has largely neglected the role of cities in spite of their increasingly important role in the global economy. The book focuses on the impacts of climate change in the rapidly evolving city of Cape Town, and captures the experiences of the Cape Town Climate Change Think Tank, a hybrid knowledge partnership which has produced research on a range of urban governance, impacts, mitigation and adaptation challenges by the City. Cape Town has long been acknowledged as an innovator in the area of urban environmental management, notwithstanding its limited resources to manage the demand for a more resilient and equitable future. By documenting the work and experiences of the City's efforts to define its own climate future, the book provides a provocative case study of the way in which the science-policy interface can be managed to inform urban transformation.
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The links between policy and practice in natural resource management are often depicted as a cyclical and rational process. In reality, policymaking and implementation are often irrational, unpredictable and highly political. Many science and knowledge-based institutions undertake rigorous research with the aim of influencing policy, but often their influence is much less than intended. Understanding who influences policy at different levels, and how, is crucial to ensure that science is deployed most effectively so as to have an influence on conservation and natural resource management.
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The book highlights technical, economic, financial, and institutional challenges and opportunities for realizing climate-smart development in Asia at the national and sub-national levels. How the international climate regime can facilitate appropriate enabling environment in developing Asia is also examined. ... It is hoped that the book will contribute to discussions on the theme of "green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication" in the run-up to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or "Rio +20" and beyond.
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A practical rather than purely theoretical guide to enviromental impact assessments that follows international best practice techniques and universal principles. The title on this topic written specifically for the South African context and applicable to all developing countries.
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Treating such issues as animal sex, species politics, environmental justice, lesbian space and 'gay' ghettos, AIDS literatures, and queer nationalities, this lively collection asks important questions at the intersections of sexuality and environmental studies. Contributors from a wide range of disciplines present a focused engagement with the critical, philosophical, and political dimensions of sex and nature. These discussions are particularly relevant to current debates in many disciplines, including environmental studies, queer theory, critical race theory, philosophy, literary criticism, and politics. As a whole, "Queer Ecologies" stands as a powerful corrective to views that equate 'natural' with 'straight' while 'queer' is held to be against nature.
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Extreme environment promises to provoke fresh - and spirited - debate about the modern environmental movement and the many ways in which environmentalism, media, economics, public policy and the politics of liberty intersect. In order to reduce poverty and continue to raise living standards, a sensible, balanced approach to a healthy, productive environment is required. No country, but especially not those in the developing world, can afford to be manipulated by the self-interested moralising and alarmism perpetrated by some special interest groups. Exaggeration by environmentalists, many journalists and even some scientists causes undue fear and anxiety among those who don't already dismiss the green lobby for crying wolf. Worse, misinformation affects regulation and policymaking in ways that actively harm developing economies. Starting with well-researched work questioning the claims of opponents to shale-gas drilling, or 'fracking', Ivo Vegter argues that public opinion and policy ought to be informed by accurate data and reasoned argument. Using a wide range of examples, from nuclear accidents and oil spills to food additives and agricultural chemicals, he demonstrates why we should be just as sceptical of the emotive rhetoric of environmentalists, which often turns out to be alarmist, or even false, as we are of corporate spin. Globally relevant, but offering a unique perspective from a developing country - South Africa - this book is a must-read for every thinking person who cares about the world we live in.
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This landmark work, first published by Sierra Club Books in 1988, has established itself as a foundational volume in the ecological canon. In it, noted cultural historian Thomas Berry provides nothing less than a new intellectual-ethical framework for the human community by positing planetary well-being as the measure of all human activity.
Drawing on the wisdom of Western philosophy, Asian thought, and Native American traditions, as well as contemporary physics and evolutionary biology, Berry offers a new perspective that recasts our understanding of science, technology, politics, religion, ecology, and education. He shows us why it is important for us to respond to the Earth’s need for planetary renewal, and what we must do to break free of the “technological trance” that drives a misguided dream of progress. Only then, he suggests, can we foster mutually enhancing human-Earth relationships that can heal our traumatized global biosystem.
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This fourth volume in the Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research series deals with the major zoological indicators used in paleolimnology. Other volumes deal with the acquisition and archiving of lake sediment cores, chronological techniques, and large-scale basin analysis methods (Volume 1), physical and geochemical parameters and methods (Volume 2), terrestrial, algal, and siliceous indicators (Volume 3), and statistical and data handling methods (Volume 5). These monographs provide sufficient detail and breadth to be useful handbooks for both seasoned practitioners as well as newcomers to the area of paleolimnology. Although the chapters in these volumes target mainly lacustrine settings, many of the techniques described can also be readily applied to fluvial, glacial, marine, estuarine, and peatland environments.
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Originally published to wide acclaim, this illustrated essay on the use and abuse of maps teaches us how to evaluate maps critically and promotes a healthy skepticism about these easy-to-manipulate models of reality. Monmonier shows that, despite their immense value, maps lie. In fact, they must. The second edition is updated with the addition of two new chapters, 10 color plates, and a new foreword by renowned geographer H. J. de Blij. One new chapter examines the role of national interest and cultural values in national mapping organizations, including the United States Geological Survey, while the other explores the new breed of multimedia, computer-based maps. To show how maps distort, Monmonier introduces basic principles of mapmaking, gives entertaining examples of the misuse of maps in situations from zoning disputes to census reports, and covers all the typical kinds of distortions from deliberate oversimplifications to the misleading use of color.
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v. 1: Geographic Patterns and Relationships
v. 2: Spatial and Measurements
v. 3. Modeling suitability, movement and interaction.

This updated and enhanced sixth edition of ESSENTIALS OF METEOROLOGY is written by the widely read and authoritative author in introductory meteorology--Donald Ahrens. Ahrens's ability to explain relatively complicated ideas in a student-friendly, manageable fashion will allow you to easily visualize the principles of meteorology. ESSENTIALS OF METEOROLOGY is completely updated with over 250 new images and figures and the latest research and coverage.
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"Interdisciplinarity and Climate Change" is a major new book addressing one of the most challenging questions of our time. Its unique standpoint is based on the recognition that effective and coherent interdisciplinarity is necessary to deal with the issue of climate change, and the multitude of linked phenomena which both constitute and connect to it. In the opening chapter, Roy Bhaskar makes use of the extensive resources of critical realism to articulate a comprehensive framework for multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and cross-disciplinary understanding, one which duly takes account of ontological as well as epistemological considerations. Many of the subsequent chapters seek to show how this general approach can be used to make intellectual sense of the complex phenomena in and around the issue of climate change, including our response to it. Among the issues discussed, in a number of graphic and compelling studies, by a range of distinguished contributors, both activists and scholars, are: the dangers of reducing all environmental, energy and climate gas issues to questions of carbon dioxide emissions; the problems of integrating natural and social scientific work and the perils of monodisciplinary tunnel vision; the consequences of the neglect of issues of consumption in climate policy; the desirability of a care-based ethics and of the integration of cultural considerations into climate policy; and, the problem of relating theoretical knowledge to practical action in contemporary democratic societies. "Interdisciplinarity and Climate Change" is essential reading for all serious students of the fight against climate change, the interactions between governmental bodies, and critical realism.
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There is sufficient evidence to support the fact that climate change is occurring and that this is set to accelerate. While some scholars argue that climate change is largely due to natural changes, others postulate that anthropogenic factors are the major cause. Climate change associated with increasing levels of carbon dioxide is likely to affect developed and developing countries differentially, with major vulnerabilities occurring in low-latitude regions. This book presents research findings and case studies with the endeavour to inform policies geared towards addressing problems emanating from these changes. Climate variability raises concerns over the future of agriculture, conditions of land and water availability. Therefore, climate change amplifies many economic and social risks, as well as deterioration of the environment. At the same time, non-climatic risk factors such as economic instability, trade liberalization, conflicts and poor governance all inflict upon vulnerable communities. Key discussions in this title rest on: Climate Change in Africa: its impact on rural communities, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change, financial requirements of reducing green house gases, technological transfer and natural resources; Case Studies of Vulnerability to Climate Change and Variability in Eastern and Southern Africa: experiences of impacts and adaptation to extreme events, concrete experiences from farmers and crop production adaptation; and Challenges and Opportunities to Climate Change Adaptation: factors that influence choice of response strategies, challenges and opportunities for ecosystem-based approaches; and challenges and opportunities from the use of bio-fuels as a mitigation measure to climate change.
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Throughout much of human history, changes to forest ecosystems have come about through natural climatic changes occurring over long periods of time. But scientists now find changes in forest cover dramatically accelerated by such human activities as large-scale agriculture, the building of dams and roads, and the growth of cities with vast areas of asphalt. Changes that once took centuries now take only decades. Seeing the Forest and the Trees examines changes in land cover and land use in forested regions as major contributors to global environmental change. It investigates why some forested areas thrive even in the presence of high human densities and activity while others decline and disappear.The book brings together findings from an ongoing, large-scale, multidisciplinary research project undertaken by anthropologists, geographers, economists, sociologists, political scientists, environmental scientists, and biologists in more than twelve countries at over eighty locations. After addressing theory and methodology, including chapters on satellite remote sensing, geographic information systems, and modeling of land-cover change, the book presents case studies that compare data across sites and across temporal and spatial scales. It contributes to Human Dimensions in Global Change research and proposes new directions for this area of study.
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The Story of Life & the Environment – An African Perspective is about the fragile miracle of life on our planet. It’s a celebration of life’s rich and wonderful diversity, and it unpacks the three major ecosystems: fresh water, the ocean and land.
It discusses evolution, how systems work, how populations expand and contract, and how all the elements of life interact. And it tells the story of humans: where we come from, and how we have evolved to become modern people.
The book also sounds a signal warning about our human impact on the planet. We can no longer ignore the realities: our climate is changing and we are depleting the planet's resources and destroying life at a rate equivalent to a mass extinction event. We have become the first species to threaten the destruction of our own habitat.
It is also about responsible planning and management of our environment and natural resources, of how we should respond to our planet’s distress, and of recent efforts to redress damage and ensure sustainability.
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With over half of the world's human population now living in cities, human-carnivore interaction in urban areas is a growing area of concern and research for wildlife managers, conservationists, urban planners, and the public at large. This volume brings together leading international carnivore researchers to explore the unique biological and ecological issues associated with mammalian carnivores in urban landscapes. Carnivores in urban areas are fascinating from an ecological standpoint. They elicit great passions-positive and negative-among humans and present difficult challenges for wildlife conservationists and managers. The first section of the book discusses the field of urban ecology and the many potential roles of carnivores in urban ecosystems, details the general behavior and ecology of this group of mammals, and addresses the human side of potential conflicts between people and carnivores in cities. The second section provides species accounts of the most common urban carnivores, including raccoons, coyotes, foxes, skunks, and mountain lions. A separate chapter examines the very specialized place of domesticated cats and dogs. The last section compares how various carnivore species fare in cities, looks at the utility of existing conservation and conflict management efforts, and suggests directions for further research and future management initiatives. This thorough examination of the conflicts and complications surrounding urban wildlife is the first to focus specifically on carnivores. It includes an extensive bibliography and is an essential reference for wildlife biologists, mammalogists, and urban planners.
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This work outlines the importance of local knowledge for understanding environmental change.
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Published to accompany a BBC1 television series presented by David Attenborough, this is an illustrated natural history of the Antarctic. Season by season, it traces the lives of the fish, birds, mammals and plants of an extraordinary continent. Spring finds whales, seals and birds feeding in the richest ocean in the world, and summer sees a frenzy of activity as the Antarctic inhabitants race to breed before the onset of winter. In autumn their young face many hazards - leopard seals snatch fledgling penguins from their parents and killer whales overturn ice-floes to attack the seals. In winter, when the frozen sea literally doubles the size of their home, only the remarkable emperor penguins and a few brave humans remain. Meanwhile, below the ice, underwater cameras capture pictures of abundant life - giant spiders, soft corals and countless varieties of fish.
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One of the world’s most important scientists, Edward O. Wilson is also an abundantly talented writer who has twice won the Pulitzer Prize. In this, his most personal and timely book to date, he assesses the precarious state of our environment, examining the mass extinctions occurring in our time and the natural treasures we are about to lose forever. Yet, rather than eschewing doomsday prophesies, he spells out a specific plan to save our world while there is still time. His vision is a hopeful one, as economically sound as it is environmentally necessary. Eloquent, practical and wise, this book should be read and studied by anyone concerned with the fate of the natural world.
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How do high mountain ranges form on the face of the Earth? This question has intrigued some of the greatest philosophers and scientists, going back as far as the ancient Greeks. Devil in the Mountain is the story of one scientist, author Simon Lamb, and his quest for the key to this great geological mystery.

Lamb and a small team of geologists have spent much of the last decade exploring the rugged Bolivian Andes, the second highest mountain range on Earth--a region rocked by earthquakes and violent volcanic eruptions. The author's account is both travelogue and detective story, describing how he and his colleagues have pursued a trail of clues in the mountains, hidden beneath the rocky landscape. Here, the local silver miners strive to appease the spirit they call Tio-the devil in the mountain.

Traveling through Bolivia's back roads, the team has to cope with the extremes of the environment, and survive in a country on the verge of civil war. But the backdrop to all these adventures is the bigger story of the Earth and how geologists have gone about uncovering its secrets. We follow the tracks of the dinosaurs, who never saw the Andes but left their mark on the shores of a vast inland sea that covered this part of South America more than sixty-five million years ago, long before the mountains existed. And we learn how to find long lost rivers that once flowed through the landscape, how continents are twisted and torn apart, and where volcanoes come from.

By the end of their journey, Lamb and his team turn up extraordinary evidence pointing not only to the fundamental instability of the Earth's surface, but also to unexpected and profound links in the workings of our planet.
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Late Quaternary Environmental Change addresses the interaction between human agency and other environmental factors in the landscapes, particularly of the temperate zone. Taking an ecological approach, the authors cover the last 20,000 years during which the climate has shifted from arctic severity to the conditions of the present interglacial environment.
Book description from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com e present interglacial environment.

This comprehensive book presents a thorough analysis of the wind turbine technology that is suitable for use on a small scale and presents an overview of the process of installation. Covering both small-scale on- and off-grid installations, Small-Scale Wind Power Generation is essential reading for all those wanting to use wind power to produce clean energy: it will help them to understand the nature of the wind in their area, to appraise potential sites, and to assess the likely capacity of any wind power turbines that are installed. The authors also discuss the computer software that is suitable for predicting the likely financial benefits and provide valuable information about how to assess the economic viability of wind installation and how to calculate the resultant carbon savings.
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How do we explain the remarkably abrupt changes that sometimes occur in nature and society - and can we predict why and when they happen? This book offers a comprehensive introduction to critical transitions in complex systems - the radical changes that happen at tipping points when thresholds are passed. Marten Scheffer accessibly describes the dynamical systems theory behind critical transitions, covering catastrophe theory, bifurcations, chaos, and more. He gives examples of critical transitions in lakes, oceans, terrestrial ecosystems, climate, evolution, and human societies. And he demonstrates how to deal with these transitions, offering practical guidance on how to predict tipping points, how to prevent 'bad' transitions, and how to promote critical transitions that work for us and not against us. Scheffer shows the time is ripe for understanding and managing critical transitions in the vast and complex systems in which we live. This book can also serve as a textbook and includes a detailed appendix with equations. It provides an accessible introduction to dynamical systems theory. It covers critical transitions in lakes, oceans, terrestrial ecosystems, the climate, evolution, and human societies. It explains how to predict tipping points. It offers strategies for preventing 'bad' transitions and triggering 'good' ones. It features an appendix with equations.
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Cultural geography is concerned with making sense of people and the places they occupy through analyses and understandings of cultural processes, cultural landscapes, and cultural identities. "Cultural Geography, Second Edition" contains six substantive thematic chapters on cultural geography that focus on a particular cultural geographic theme, explains the rationale for the theme, and provides examples of analyses conducted by cultural geographers.
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This important Handbook reveals that most urban growth takes place in the less developed world and much of it represents over-urbanization - i.e. urbanization in which most migrants cannot effectively compete for employment, cannot find adequate shelter and do not have the means to feed themselves properly. Yet, compared to rural poverty, urban poverty is widely regarded as the lesser of the two evils. H.S Geyer and his contributors highlight the enormous challenges posed by urbanization to decision makers at all levels of government. This final volume, in a series of three original reference works, covers four broad themes including: urban growth patterns; spatial issues; policy issues; and urban growth determinants. The chapters have been written not only for the advanced student and academics but also with undergraduate students in mind. The Handbook will appeal to scholars and researchers interested in international urban development issues.
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Most of us have heard the dire predictions about global warming. Some experts insist that warming has already started, and they warn of such impending disasters as the sea level rising to flood coastal cities. Others, however, have issued loud counterclaims, assuring us that global warming is a myth based on misleading data. How can we tell who is right, and how we should respond? And why is there no scientific consensus on a matter of such vital importance? George Philander addresses these questions in this book, as he guides the nonscientific reader through new ideas about the remarkable and intricate factors that determine the world's climate. In simple, nontechnical language, Philander describes how the interplay between familiar yet endlessly fascinating phenomena--winds and clouds, light and air, land and sea--maintains climates that permit a glorious diversity of fauna and flora to flourish on Earth. That interplay also creates such potent weather disrupters as El Nio and La Nia, translates modest fluctuations in sunlight into global climate changes as dramatic as the Ice Age, and determines the Earth's response to the gases we are discharging into the atmosphere, such as those that led to the ozone hole over Antarctica and those that are likely to cause global warming. In his discussion of these matters, Philander emphasizes that our planet is so complex that the scientific results will always have uncertainties. To continue to defer action on environmental problems, on the grounds that more accurate scientific results will soon be available, could lead to a crisis. To make wise decisions, it will help if the public is familiar with the geosciences, which explore the processes that make ours a habitable planet. The book is an excellent introduction to the basics of the Earth's climate and weather, and will be an important contribution to the debate about climate change and the relationship between scientific knowledge and public affairs.
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This title includes a book & CD. Dr Harald Winkler is an internationally renowned expert on climate change, based at the Energy Research Centre at the University of Cape Town. In 2007 he was approached by South Africa's Department of the Environment to head a project to research and develop scenarios that would form the basis for a national, long-term climate policy as well as well-founded positions for international negotiations on the future of global climate policy after 2012. This book is based on his report.
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Globalization, population growth, and resource depletion are drawing increased attention to the importance of common resources such as forests, water resources, and fisheries. It is critical that these resources be governed in an equitable and sustainable way. The Commons in the New Millennium presents cutting-edge research in common property theory and provides an overview and progress report on common property research.The book analyzes new problems that owners, managers, policy makers, and analysts face in managing natural commons. It examines recent findings about the physical characteristics of the commons, their complexity and interconnectedness, and the role of social capital. It also provides empirical studies and suggestions for sustainable development. The topics discussed include the role of financial, political, and social capital in deforestation, community efforts to gain political influence in Indonesia, the Maine lobster industry, outcomes of the implementation of individual transferable quotas in New Zealand and Iceland fisheries, and design of multilateral emissions trading for regional air pollution and global warming.
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This book builds on a decade-long experience with mechanisms provided by the Kyoto Protocol and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It discusses the challenges of climate finance in the context of the post-Copenhagen negotiations and provides a long-term outlook of how climate finance in developing countries could develop. Written by climate finance experts from academia, carbon finance businesses and international organizations, the book provides background, firsthand insights, case studies and analysis into the complex subject area of climate finance.
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One of the major challenges of sustainable development is the interdisciplinary nature of the issues involved. To this end, a team of conservation biologists, hunters, tourist operators, ranchers, wildlife and land managers, ecologists, veterinarians and economists was convened to discuss whether wildlife outside protected areas in Africa can be conserved in the face of agricultural expansion and human population growth. They reached the unequivocal - if controversial - conclusion that wildlife can be an economic asset, especially in the African savannas, if this wildlife can be sustainably utilized through safari hunting and tourism. Using the African savannas as an example, Wildlife Conservation by Sustainable Use shows that in many instances sustainable wildlife utilization comprises an even better form of land use than livestock keeping. Even when population pressure is high, as in agricultural areas or in humid zones, and wild animal species can pose a serious cost to agriculture, these costs are mainly caused by small species with a low potential for safari hunting. Although ranching has a very low rate of return and is hardly ever profitable, the biggest obstacle to the model of sustainable wildlife use outlined in Wildlife Conservation by Sustainable Use is from unfair competition from the agricultural sector, such as subsidies and lack of taxation, resulting in market distortion for wildlife utilization. This book thus gives valuable evidence for a different way of working, providing arguments for removing such distortions and thereby facilitating financially sound land use and making it a rationally sound choice to conserve wildlife outside protected areas. The expert team of authors, most of whom came together at a workshop to thrash out the ideas that were then developed into the various chapters, has written a superb account of recent research on this complex subject, resulting in a book that is a major contribution to our understanding of sustainable use of land. The important conclusion is that wildlife conservation can be possible for landholders and local communities if they have a financial interest in protecting wildlife on their lands.
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The Rockliff new project illustrated geography.

Charles Darwin famously concluded On the Origin of Species with a vision of "endless forms most beautiful" continually evolving. More than 150 years later many evolutionary biologists see not endless forms but the same, or very similar, forms evolving repeatedly in many independent species lineages. A porpoise's fishlike fins, for example, are not inherited from fish ancestors but are independently derived convergent traits. In this book, George McGhee describes the ubiquity of the phenomenon of convergent evolution and connects it directly to the concept of evolutionary constraint--the idea that the number of evolutionary pathways available to life are not endless, but quite limited. Convergent evolution occurs on all levels, from tiny organic molecules to entire ecosystems of species. McGhee demonstrates its ubiquity in animals, both herbivore and carnivore; in plants; in ecosystems; in molecules, including DNA, proteins, and enzymes; and even in minds, describing problem-solving behavior and group behavior as the products of convergence. For each species example, he provides an abbreviated list of the major nodes in its phylogenetic classification, allowing the reader to see the evolutionary relationship of a group of species that have independently evolved a similar trait by convergent evolution. McGhee analyzes the role of functional and developmental constraints in producing convergent evolution, and considers the scientific and philosophical implications of convergent evolution for the predictability of the evolutionary process.
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Archaeologists today need a wide range of scientific approaches in order to delineate and interpret the ecology of their sites. Dena Dincauze has written an authoritative and essential guide to a variety of archaeological methods, ranging from techniques for measuring time with isotopes and magnetism to the sciences of climate reconstruction, geomorphology, sedimentology, soil science, paleobotany and faunal paleoecology. Professor Dincauze insists that borrowing concepts from other disciplines demands a critical understanding of their theoretical roots. Moreover, the methods that are chosen must be appropriate to particular sets of data. The applications of the methods needed for an holistic human-ecology approach in archaeology are illustrated by examples ranging from the Paleolithic, through classical civilizations, to recent urban archaeology.
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Invasion ecology is the study of the causes and consequences of the introduction of organisms to areas outside their native range. Interest in this field has exploded in the past few decades. Explaining why and how organisms are moved around the world, how and why some become established and invade, and how best to manage invasive species in the face of global change are all crucial issues that interest biogeographers, ecologists and environmental managers in all parts of the world. This book brings together the insights of more than 50 authors to examine the origins, foundations, current dimensions and potential trajectories of invasion ecology. It revisits key tenets of the foundations of invasion ecology, including contributions of pioneering naturalists of the 19th century, including Charles Darwin and British ecologist Charles Elton, whose 1958 monograph on invasive species is widely acknowledged as having focussed scientific attention on biological invasions.
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This seventh volume in the "SAGE Series on Green Society" explores the environmental movement's proliferation in the field of education, from elementary school classroom efforts to the university curriculum to building sustainable campuses. Focusing on the critical role of education in building a sustainable future, approximately 150 signed entries, written by scholars and experts in a variety of disciplines, examine school and college courses in green education, the structures of educational institutions, the challenges of reducing their ecological footprint, administrative policies, green campus organizations, and student and faculty participation. Pedagogical elements in the front- and back-matter include a Reader's Guide, a Glossary of relevant terms, a Resource Guide to further readings, an Appendix of primary documents, and a thorough Index, all of which comprise an outstanding reference for academic and public libraries presented in both pring and electronic formats to enhance accessibility.
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In the latter part of the 20th century, humans are doing a particularly poor job of managing natural resources in a sustainable way over the long term. "Institutions, Ecosystems, and Sustainability" focuses on long-term, sustainable natural resource management practices at the local, national, and international levels. The authors suggest that a major cause of the 'sustainability problem' - regulatory policies for large areas that often threaten the sustainability of both natural resources and previously effective governance problems - lie in 'scale' problems. Large scale ecosystems are not simply larger versions of smaller systems, and micro-scale ecosystems are not merely microcosms of large scale systems. The driving forces and feedback mechanisms operate at different levels and exhibit distinct patterns of their own.Traditional management practices that do well at the local level cannot be expected to do equally well in handling activities organized at the continental or global scale. Even more importantly, when local systems are superseded by national or international management practices, local ecosystems frequently suffer. The challenge is to match ecosystems and governance systems in ways that maximize the compatibility of these systems. This book builds upon this fundamental principle. Particularly valuable is the use of simulation exercises to explore the consequences of social institutions and a discussion of the progress being made in developing a broad global data base to test hypothesis about the relationship between ecosystems and social institutions, and to investigate ways to repair the damage already caused by scale mismatches.
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Unplanned deforestation, which is occurring at unsustainable rates in many parts of the world, can cause significant hardships for rural communities by destroying critical stocks of fuel, fodder, food and building materials. It can also have profound regional and global consequences by contributing to biodiversity loss, erosion, floods, lowered water tables and climate change. "People and Forests" explores the complex interactions between local communities and their forests. It focuses on the rules by which communities govern and manage their forest resources. As part of the International Forestry Resources and Institutions research programme, each of the contributors employs the same systematic, comparative and interdisciplinary methods to examine why some people use their forests sustainably while others do not. The case studies come from fieldwork in Bolivia, Ecuador, India, Nepal and Uganda. "People and Forests" offers policymakers a sophisticated view of local forest management from which to develop policy options and offers biophysical and social scientists a better understanding of the linkages between residents, local institutions and forests.
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When rain falls on the city, it creates urban runoff that cause flooding, erosion, and water pollution. Municipal engineers manage a complex network of technical and natural systems to treat and remove these temporary water flows from cities as quickly as possible. Urban runoff is frequently discussed in terms of technical expertise and environmental management, but it encompasses a multitude of such nontechnical issues as land use, quality of life, governance, aesthetics, and community identity, and is central to the larger debates on creating more sustainable and livable cities. In this book, Andrew Karvonen uses urban runoff as a lens to view the relationships among nature, technology, and society. Offering theoretical insights from urban environmental history, human geography, landscape and ecological planning, and science and technology studies as well as empirical evidence from case studies, Karvonen proposes a new relational politics of urban nature.After describing the evolution of urban runoff practices, Karvonen analyzes the urban runoff activities in Austin and Seattle--two cities known for their highly contested public debates over runoff issues and exemplary stormwater management practices. The Austin case study highlights the tensions among urban development, property rights, land use planning, and citizen activism; the Seattle case study explores the city's long-standing reputation for being in harmony with nature. Drawing on these accounts, Karvonen suggests a new relational politics of urban nature that is situated, inclusive, and action-oriented to address the tensions among nature, technology, and society.
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Based on the work of the workshop on pollinators and pollination held in Mabula, South Africa, in May 2003.

"Taking Back Eden" is the gripping tale of an idea - that ordinary people have the right to go to court to defend their environment - told through the stories of lawsuits brought in eight countries around the world. Starting in the United States in the 1960's, this idea is now traveling the planet, with impacts not just on imperiled environments but on systems of justice and democracy. It has brought people back into the question of governing the quality of their lives. Author Oliver Houck describes the sites under contention in their place and time, the people who rose up, their lawyers, strategies, obstacles, setbacks and victories. Written for general readers, students, and lawyers alike, "Taking Back Eden" tells the stories of a lone fisherman intent on protecting the Hudson River, a Philippine lawyer boarding illegal logging ships from the air, the Cree Indian Nation battling for its hunting grounds, and a civil rights attorney who set out to save the Taj Mahal. The cases turn on Shinto and Hindu religions, dictatorships in Greece and Chile, regime changes in Russia, and on a remarkable set of judges who saw a crisis and stepped up to meet it in similar ways. Spontaneously, without communication among each other, their protagonists created a new brand of law and hope for a more sustainable world.
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Taking the North-East Atlantic ocean as an example of regional practice, this book addresses the dual approach to ocean governance in international law. It examines the interaction between zonal and integrated management approaches and the conservation of marine living resources and marine biological diversity. The study examines the limitations of the traditional zonal approach and suggests new possibilities for conformity between sovereign states, international law and sustainable development.
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The second edition of this acclaimed, accessible textbook brings the subject of sedimentation and erosion completely up-to-date, providing an excellent primer on both fundamental concepts of sediment-transport theory and methods for practical applications. The structure of the first edition is essentially unchanged, but all the chapters have been updated, with several chapters reworked and expanded significantly. Examples of the new additions include the concept of added mass, the Modified Einstein Procedure, sediment transport by size fractions, sediment transport of sediment mixtures, and new solutions to the Einstein Integrals. Many new examples and exercises have been added. Erosion and Sedimentation is an essential textbook on the topic for students in civil and environmental engineering and the geosciences, and also as a handbook for researchers and professionals in engineering, the geosciences and the water sciences.
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The "tragedy of the commons" is a central concept in human ecology and the study of the environment. It has had tremendous value for stimulating research, but it only describes the reality of human-environment interactions in special situations. Research over the past thirty years has helped clarify how human motivations, rules governing access to resources, the structure of social organizations, and the resource systems themselves interact to determine whether or not the many dramas of the commons end happily. In this book, leaders in the field review the evidence from several disciplines and many lines of research and present a state-of-the-art assessment.They summarize lessons learned and identify the major challenges facing any system of governance for resource management. They also highlight the major challenges for the next decade: making knowledge development more systematic; understanding institutions dynamically; considering a broader range of resources (such as global and technological commons); and taking into account the effects of social and historical context. This book will be a valuable and accessible introduction to the field for students and a resource for advanced researchers.
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Despite its great importance, there are surprisingly few economic studies of the impact of climate on agriculture and how agriculture can adapt under a variety of conditions. This book examines 22 countries across four continents, including both developed and developing economies. It provides both a good analytical basis for additional work and solid results for policy debate concerning income distributional effects such as abatement, adaptation, and equity. Agriculture and grazing are a central sector in the livelihood of many people, particularly in developing countries. This book uses the Ricardian method to examine the impact of climate change on agriculture. The book also quantifies how farmers adapt to climate. The findings suggest that agriculture in developing countries is more sensitive to climate than agriculture in developed countries. Rain-fed cropland is generally more sensitive to warming than irrigated cropland and cropland is more sensitive than livestock. The adaptation to climate change results reveal that farmers make many adjustments including switching crops and livestock species, adopting irrigation, and moving between livestock and crops. The results also reveal that impacts and adaptations vary a great deal across landscapes, suggesting that adaptation policies must be location specific. Finally, the book suggests a research agenda for the future. Economists in academia and the public sector, policy analysts and development agencies will find this broad study illuminating.
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This is the first book to provide a comprehensive and state-of-the-art introduction to the novel and fast-evolving topic of in-situ produced cosmogenic nuclides. It presents an accessible introduction to the theoretical foundations, with explanations of relevant concepts starting at a basic level and building in sophistication. It incorporates, and draws on, methodological discussions and advances achieved within the international CRONUS (Cosmic-Ray Produced Nuclide Systematics) networks. Practical aspects such as sampling, analytical methods and data-interpretation are discussed in detail and an essential sampling checklist is provided. The full range of cosmogenic isotopes is covered and a wide spectrum of in-situ applications are described and illustrated with specific and generic examples of exposure dating, burial dating, erosion and uplift rates and process model verification. Graduate students and experienced practitioners will find this book a vital source of information on the background concepts and practical applications in geomorphology, geography, soil-science, and geology. Book description from Nielsen Book Data: http://www.nielsenbookdataonline.com

This unique volume provides a comprehensive overview of all the major aspects of modern drinking water systems in the western European context. It not only covers the theoretical principles, but also the historical background and practical aspects of design and operation, legislation, planning and finance of drinking water supply in its social and economic context. The principles and practices are illustrated using experiences from The Netherlands. The Dutch drinking water supply is well known for its multiple barrier systems and high technical standards. The Dutch drinking water is of high quality and does not contain chlorine, and the Dutch therefore readily drink tap water and do not see the need to buy bottled water or in-house filters, with their drawbacks on national economics, public health and the environment. This illustrative overview can be used as a reference for other countries and regions.
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A comprehensive review of dryland climates and their relationship to the physical environment, hydrology, and inhabitants. Chapters are divided into five major sections on background meteorology and climatology; the nature of dryland climates in relation to precipitation and hydrology; the climatology and climate dynamics of the major dryland regions on each continent; and life and change in the world's drylands. It includes key topics such as vegetation, geomorphology, desertification, micro-habitats, and adaptation to dryland environments. This interdisciplinary volume provides an extensive review of the primary literature (covering nearly 2000 references) and the conventional and satellite datasets that form key research tools for dryland climatology. Illustrated with over 300 author photographs, it presents a unique view of dryland climates for a broad spectrum of researchers, environmental professionals and advanced students in climatology, meteorology, geography, environment science, earth system science, ecology, hydrology and geomorphology.
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Durban, South Africa is a city of immense beauty. It is also a city with deep environmental scars caused by industrial giants and an insensitive government. As the host city for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change conference - COP 17 - Durban will be at the center of the world's climate negotiations. This book takes the reader on a journey from Durban's apartheid roots to its somewhat jaded present, passing cultural icons and political battles while narrating socio-economic and environmental conflict and the reinvention of the city's tradition of social protest. All this creates a context from which the reader can interpret the city's hosting of the COP 17. The book includes the reflections of critical political ecologists, socialists, political economists, geographers, and environmental activists on Durban's political ecology, global climate policy, and COP politics. In this context, it can be understood why the COP 17 represents a vast climate gamble. Will carbon trading solve the Earth's climate crisis? The book looks at the environmental injustices the Earth will have to endure in the face of the demise of the Kyoto protocol, and it critically examines COP 17's faith in finding market solutions for market problems while gambling with the Earth's future.
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Human activities have had a huge impact on the environment and landscape, through industrialisation and land-use change, leading to climate change, deforestation, desertification, land degradation, air and water pollution. These impacts are strongly linked to the occurrence of geomorphological hazards, such as floods, landslides, snow avalanches, soil erosion, and others. Geomorphological work includes not only the understanding but the mapping and modelling of Earth's surface processes, many of which directly affect human societies. In addition, geomorphologists are becoming increasingly involved with the dimensions of societal problem solving, through vulnerability analysis, hazard and risk assessment and management. The work of geomorphologists is therefore of prime importance for disaster prevention. An international team of geomorphologists have contributed their expertise to this volume, making this a scientifically rigorous work for a wide audience of geomorphologists and other Earth scientists, including those involved in environmental science, hazard and risk assessment, management and policy.
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In this new edition of "Key Thinkers on Space and Place", editors Phil Hubbard and Rob Kitchin provide us with a fully revised and updated text that highlights the work of over 65 key thinkers on space and place. Unique in its concept, the book is a comprehensive guide to the life and work of some of the key thinkers particularly influential in the current 'spatial turn' in the social sciences. Providing a synoptic overview of different ideas about the role of space and place in contemporary social, cultural, political and economic life, each portrait comprises: biographical information and theoretical context; an explication of their contribution to spatial thinking; an overview of key advances and controversies; and guidance to further reading. With 14 additional chapters including entries on Saskia Sassen, Tim Ingold, Cindi Katz and John Urry, the book covers ideas ranging from humanism, Marxism, feminism and post-structuralism to queer-theory, post-colonialism, globalization and deconstruction presenting a thorough look at diverse ways in which space and place has been theorized. An essential text for geographers, this now classic reference text is for all those interested in theories of space and place, whether in geography, sociology, cultural studies, urban studies, planning, anthropology, or women's studies.
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Following on from Volume I, this second volume presents an extended look at environmental modelling research and its applications from an even larger selection of global experts. The book presents timely topics and applications of the study of environmental contaminants, with detailed discussions of mathematical concepts used. Five sections cover decision support and assessment modelling; aquatic modelling and uncertainty; soil, sediment and subsurface modelling and pollutant transport; forest ecosystem and footprint modelling; and, air quality modelling and sensitivity analysis. With a section containing figures in full colour, this volume showcases models that predict and simulate the dynamics of environmental systems and are routinely used in environmental decision-making and management. Volumes I and II are essential reading for academics, policymakers, regulatory agencies, technicians, health professionals, engineers, and advanced undergraduate and graduate students involved in all aspects of environmental modelling.
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Environmental modelling has enjoyed a long tradition, but there is a defined need to continually address both the power and the limitations of such models, as well as their quantitative assessment. This book showcases modern environmental modelling methods, the basic theory behind them and their incorporation into complex environmental investigations. It highlights advanced computing technologies and how they have led to unprecedented and adaptive modelling, simulation and decision-support tools to study complex environmental systems, and how they can be applied to current environmental concerns. This volume is essential reading for researchers in academia, industry and government-related bodies who have a vested interest in all aspects of environmental modelling. Features include: A range of modern environmental modelling techniques are described by experts from around the world, including the USA, Canada, Australia, Europe and Thailand; many examples from air, water, soil/sediment and biological matrices are covered in detail throughout the book; key chapters are included on modelling uncertainty and sensitivity analysis; and, a selection of figures are provided in full colour to enable greater comprehension of the topics discussed.
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The quantitative assessment of the impact of climate change on water availability and water resources management requires knowledge of climate, hydro(geo)logical and water resources models, and particularly the relationships between each of them. This book brings together world experts on each of these aspects, distilling each complex topic into concise and easy to understand chapters, in which both the uses and limitations of modelling are explored. The book concludes with a set of case studies using real-life examples to illustrate the steps required and the problems that can be faced in assessing the potential impacts of climate change on water resource systems. For students, scientists, engineers and decision-makers alike, this book provides an invaluable and critical look at the information that is provided by climate models, and the ways it is used in modelling water systems. A key focus is the exploration of how uncertainties may accrue at each stage of an impacts assessment, and the reliability of the resulting information. The book is a practical guide to understanding the opportunities and pitfalls in the quantitative assessment of climate change impacts and adaptation in the water resource sector.
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Water resource management throughout the world is a very complicated issue, involving various aspects and dimensions and a well-coordinated set of policies. A well-designed water policy is a multi-faceted concerted intervention, which could be specific to just one set of political and physical socio-economic conditions. A framework to analyse the interaction between policy design and implementation can assist in improving both of these in various physical, economic and political situations. This book focuses on the interaction between policy making and strategic behaviour of policy makers, water users and other stakeholders, and how policy analysis and other analytical tools from the field of game theory and negotiation can improve policy design. The book presents analysis by high-level policy makers and policy analysts from various countries, to share experience regarding specific policy issues that are relevant to almost any country in the world, but may have been addressed differently in each country.
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This is an indispensable book for anyone who seeks to understand world leaders' responses to climate change through the United Nations' Conference of the Parties (COP). Politics of Climate Justice provides the vital background and theoretical context to what happened at the COPS in Kyoto, Copenhagen, Cancun, and Durban. It explores the favored strategies of key elites from the crisis ridden global and national power blocs, including South Africa, and finds them incapable of reconciling the threat to the planet with their economies' addiction to fossil fuels. Finally, the book reveals sites of climate justice and interrogates the new movement's approach.
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This comprehensive textbook offers a conceptual and practical introduction to research methodology, data collection, and techniques used in both human and physical geography.* Explores a full range of contemporary geographic techniques, including statistics, mathematical analysis, GIS, and remote sensing* Unique in both content and organization, it brings together a team of internationally recognized specialists to create a balanced approach between physical geography, human geography, and research techniques* Includes a series of foundational chapters offering multiple perspectives on the central questions in research methods* Examines the conceptual frameworks and practical issues behind data acquisition and analysis, and how to interpret results* Includes explanations of key terminology and exercises throughout.
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Social participation in water management and governance recently became a reality in many economies and societies. Yet the dimensions in which power regulation, social equity and democracy-building are connected with participation have been only tangentially analyzed for the water sector. Understanding the growing interest in social participation involves appreciating the specificity of the contemporary period within its historic and geographic contexts as well as uncovering larger political, economic and cultural trends of recent decades which frame participatory actions. Within a wide variety of cases presented from around the world, the reader will find critical analyses of participation and an array of political ecological processes that influence water governance. Sixteen chapters from a diverse group of scholars and practitioners examine water rights definition, hydropower dam construction, urban river renewal, irrigation organizations, water development NGOs, river basin management, water policy implementation and judicial decision-making in water conflicts. Yet there are commonalities in participatory experiences across this spectrum of water issues. The book's five sections highlight key dimensions of contemporary water management that influence, and in turn are influenced by, social participation. These sections are: participation and indigenous water governance; participation and the dynamics of gender in water management; participation and river basin governance; participation and implementation of water management and participation and the politics of water governance.
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"Spaces for Consumption" offers an in-depth and sophisticated analysis of the processes that underpin the commodification of the city and explains the physical manifestation of consumerism as a way of life. Engaging directly with the social, economic and cultural processes that have resulted in our cities being defined through consumption, this vibrant book clearly demonstrates the ways in which consumption has come to play a key role in the re-invention of the post-industrial city. The book provides a critical understanding of how consumption redefines the consumers' relationship to place using empirical examples and case studies to bring the issues to life. It discusses many of the key spaces and arenas in which this redefinition occurs including: shopping; themed space; mega-events; and, architecture. Developing the notion of 'contrived communality', Steven Miles outlines the ways in which consumption, alongside the emergence of an increasingly individualized society, constructs a new kind of relationship with the public realm. Clear, sophisticated and dynamic, this book will be essential reading for students and researchers alike in sociology, human geography, architecture, planning, marketing, leisure and tourism, cultural studies and urban studies.
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This practical guide, written by a practitioner for practitioners, presents a coherent and straightforward 'how to do it' approach to the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) process. Part I provides an overview of the aims, principles, advantages and problems of SEA as well as looking at key SEA regulations and their requirements. Part II examines the SEA process in considerable detail including setting the policy context, describing the baseline, identifying alternatives, predicting and evaluating impacts and using the SEA information in decision-making. Part III is devoted to assuring SEA quality with a discussion of resources and capacity building. This new edition incorporates five years' worth of practical application of the SEA Directive and SEA practice more broadly. Additions and updates include: the findings of various reviews into SEA effectiveness and efficiency; emerging approaches to identifying and comparing alternatives, cumulative impacts, the likely future baseline without the plan, documenting changes made to the plan in response to the SEA process, and environmental limits; consideration of both the 'baseline-led' and the 'objectives-led' approach to SEA, and the two approaches' advantages and disadvantages; and, SEA's links to 'appropriate assessment' of plans under the European Habitats Directive. Employing a host of real-life case studies and examples, each chapter presents a range of techniques and discusses what the final product should look like. Appendices provide a wealth of additional information including text of the SEA Directive and the UNECE Protocol on SEA, and a 'toolkit' of SEA techniques. The approach and techniques in "Strategic Environmental Assessment in Action" are useful for anyone carrying out or studying SEA at any level, from policy to programme, international to local, but particularly for practitioners responsible for implementing the SEA Directive.
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This handbook presents an indispensable compilation of fundamental facts and figures about the Earth. It brings together reliable physical, chemical, biological and historical data in a series of 145 easy to read tables, supplemented by maps, charts and colour plates. Eleven sections cover topics spanning the Earth's geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere, with one section focusing on other bodies in the Solar System. Full references for the original data sources are provided to enable users to access further detail, and the appendix provides practical information on units and conversion factors. Compact and easy to use, this handy book provides a time-saving first point of reference for researchers, students and practitioners in the Earth and Environmental Sciences. It allows scientists easy access to basic information on topics outside their specialisation, and is also a convenient resource for non-scientists such as economists, policy makers and journalists.
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The greatest political debate of our time is about the blind rush towards a single global economy, its consequences for jobs, democracy, human well-being and cultural diversity, and its impact on the natural world that sustains us. Its effects will be profound and irreversible, but globalization itself is not inevitable. In The Case Against the Global Economy, 24 leading economic, agricultural, cultural and environmental authorities, drawn from across the world, argue that free trade and economic globalization are producing exactly the opposite results to those promised. From a detailed analysis of the new global economy, its structures and its full social and ecological implications, they show how it is undermining our liberty, our security and our well-being, and is devastating the planet. First published in the USA in 1996, in an edition focused on North America, the book won the American Political Science Association award for the Best Book in Ecological and Transformational Politics. This completely revised and updated international edition presents a passionate and persuasive case for the need to reverse course, away from globalization and towards a revitalized democracy, local self-sufficiency and ecological health.
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"The Sage Handbook of Biogeography" is a manual for scoping the past, present and future of biogeography that enable readers to consider, where relevant, how similar biogeographical issues are tackled by researchers in different 'schools'. In line with the concept of all "Sage Handbooks", this is a retrospective and prospective overview of biogeography that will: consider the main areas of biogeography researched by geographers; detail a global perspective by incorporating the work of different schools of biogeographers; explore the divergent evolution of biogeography as a discipline and consider how this diversity can be harnessed; and, examine the interdisciplinary debates that biogeographers are, and are not, contributing to within geography and within the biological sciences. Aimed at an international audience of research students, academics, researchers and practitioners in biogeography, the text will attract interest from environmental scientists, ecologists and biologists and geographers alike.
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The second edition of Dessler and Parson's acclaimed book provides an integrated treatment of the science, technology, economics, policy, and politics of climate change. Aimed at the educated non-specialist, and at courses in environmental policy or climate change, the book clearly lays out the scientific foundations of climate change, the issues in current policy debates, and the interactions between science and politics that make the climate change debate so contentious and confusing. This new edition is brought completely up to date to reflect the rapid movement of events related to climate change. In addition, all sections have been improved, in particular a more thorough primer on the basic science of climate change is included. The book also now integrates the discussion of contrarian claims with the discussion of current scientific knowledge; extends the discussion of cost and benefit estimates; and provides an improved glossary.
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Global warming is arguably the defining scientific issue of modern times, but it is not widely appreciated that the foundations of our understanding were laid almost two centuries ago with the postulation of a greenhouse effect by Fourier in 1827. The sensitivity of climate to changes in atmospheric CO2 was first estimated about one century ago, and the rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration was discovered half a century ago. The fundamentals of the science underlying the forecast for human-induced climate change were being published and debated long before the issue rose to public prominence in the last few decades. The Warming Papers is a compendium of the classic scientific papers that constitute the foundation of the global warming forecast. The paper trail ranges from Fourier and Arrhenius in the 19th Century to Manabe and Hansen in modern times. Archer and Pierrehumbert provide introductions and commentary which places the papers in their context and provide students with tools to develop and extend their understanding of the subject. The book captures the excitement and the uncertainty that always exist at the cutting edge of research, and is invaluable reading for students of climate science, scientists, historians of science, and others interested in climate change.
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