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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Conservation of the environment
This important new book is an indispensable guide to the
development and implementation of environmental policy. It presents
authoritative analyses and state-of-the-art summaries which will be
essential both to scholars and practitioners trying to keep abreast
of the most recent developments in this fast changing field.The
book sheds new light on two areas of environmental policy -
liability law and enforcement - which are experiencing dramatic
change. It shows how economic analysis can provide useful and
meaningful insights about subjects such as criminal penalties,
private enforcement, liability for oil spills, tort remedies, and
lender liability which have hitherto only been considered by
lawyers. Drawing on the latest advances in both economics and law,
it critically assesses how the most recent innovations in liability
law and enforcement are actually working in practice.
This book provides a comprehensive review of Grain for Green,
China's nationwide program which pays farmers to revert sloping or
marginal farm land to trees or grass. The program aims to improve
the ecological conditions of much of China, and the socioeconomic
circumstances of hundreds of millions of people. GfG is the largest
reforestation, ecological restoration, and rural development
initiative in history, combining the biggest investment, the
greatest involvement, and the broadest degree of public
participation ever. The book is organised in three sections. Part
One reviews the history of land management in China from 1949 to
1998, exploring the conditions that led to the introduction of GfG,
and comparing it to other reforestation programs. Part Two offers
an overview of GfG, describing the timeline of the program,
compensation paid to farmers, the rules concerning land and plant
selection, the extent to which these rules were followed, the
attitudes of farmers towards the program, and the way in which the
program is organized and implemented by various state actors. Part
Three discusses the impact of the GfG, from both ecological and
socio-economic standpoints, looking at the economic benefits that
result from participating in the GfG, the impact of the GfG across
local economies, the redistribution of the labor force and the
sustainability of the program, in particular the question of what
will happen to the converted land when payments to farmers end.
Now in its second edition, Global Capitalism and Climate Change:
The Need for an Alternative World System examines anthropogenic
climate change in the context of global capitalism, a political
economy that emphasizes profit-making, is committed to on-going
economic growth, results in massive social inequality, fosters a
treadmill of production and consumption, and is heavily reliant on
fossil fuels. Looking ahead, Hans A. Baer explores the systemic
changes necessary to create a more socially just, democratic, and
environmentally sustainable world system capable of moving humanity
toward a safer climate. This book is recommended for readers
interested in anti-systemic efforts, including eco-anarchism,
eco-feminism, the de-growth perspective, Indigenous voices, and the
climate justice movement.
A two-volume set made up of 'Biology and Conservation of Wild
Canids' and 'Biology and Conservation of Wild Felids'. These
advanced textbooks bring together a unique network of the world's
most respected and knowledgeable experts to provide a review of the
biology and conservation of these families, and provide detailed
case-studies from species investigations worldwide.
This special issue of the Journal of Human Rights and the
Environment revisits Professor Christopher D. Stone's iconic 1972
article, and features an introduction by Professor Philippe Sands
QC, a set of elegant and thought-provoking reflections on the
original article by Baroness Mary Warnock, Professor Ngaire Naffine
and Professor Lorraine Code, and an equally elegant and
thought-provoking response to their reflections from Professor
Stone himself. This thoughtful collection of essays will be a
valuable addition to contemporary debates concerning the crucial
search for new relationships between humanity and the living world
and between human rights and the environment. The renowned
contributors offer rich reflections on questions of legal standing,
legal subjectivity and epistemology raised by Stone's article, and
which have greater salience than ever as we face the environmental
and human challenges of the 21st century. Contributors: L. Code, A.
Grear, N. Naffine, P. Sands, C.D. Stone, M. Warnock
Pollution, resource depletion, habitat management, and climate
change are all issues that necessarily transcend national
boundaries. Accordingly, they and other environmental concerns have
been a particular focus for international organizations from before
the First World War to the present day. This volume is the first to
comprehensively explore the environmental activities of
professional communities, NGOs, regional bodies, the United
Nations, and other international organizations during the twentieth
century. It follows their efforts to shape debates about
environmental degradation, develop binding intergovernmental
commitments, and-following the seminal 1972 Conference on the Human
Environment-implement and enforce actual international policies.
The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is one of the longest established
and more controversial of the common policies of the EC. It deals
principally with the management of fishery resources, relations
between the EC and third States in fisheries matters, the marketing
of and trade in fishery products, financial assistance to the
fisheries sector, and aquaculture. However, the CFP is not just a
matter for those with an economic interest in fisheries. It also
raises many issues of more general concern, such as the capacity of
the EC and its Member States to manage important natural resources
sustainably, the impact of fishing on the wider marine environment,
and relations between developed and developing States. This book
addresses the CFP from a legal perspective. It provides a detailed
account of the very large body of EC law comprising the CFP, and
draws on the European Commission's associated documents to aid
interpretation and add context. As a result, the book will be of
value to anyone wanting knowledge of the law of the CFP. Although
not addressing the Commission's 2009 Green Paper on reform of the
CFP, the book should provide a useful reference point against which
to view the reform of parts of the CFP that is anticipated to take
place over the next few years.
This spectacular new edition of the best-selling Helm field guide
of all time covers all resident, migrant and vagrant species found
in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. More than 1,300
species are illustrated with full details of all the plumages and
major races likely to be encountered. Concise text describes the
identification, status, range, habits and voice, with fully updated
range maps for each species. This authoritative book will not only
be an indispensable guide to the visiting birder, but also a vital
tool for those engaged in work to conserve and study the avifauna
of the region - East Africa shelters a remarkable diversity of
birds, many seriously endangered with small and vulnerable ranges.
Combining memoir and studies in the Environmental Humanities, Black
Swan Song weaves together an autobiographically-based account of
the unique life and work of Rod Giblett. For over 25 years he was a
leading local wetland conservationist, environmental activist, and
pioneer transdisciplinary researcher and writer of fiction and
non-fiction. He has researched, written, and published more than 25
books in the environmental humanities, especially wetland cultural
studies, and psychoanalytic ecology. Black Swan Song traces Rod's
early and later life and work from being born in Borneo as the
child of Christian missionaries, through his childhood in Bible
College, being a High School dropout and studying at three
universities to becoming an academic, activist and author, and now
a writer. Following in the footsteps of New Lives of the Saints:
Twelve Environmental Apostles, Black Swan Song also comprises
conversations in conservation counter-theology between the twelve
minor biblical prophets and twelve environmental apostles, such as
Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and Rachel Carson. It
also introduces the lives and works of twelve more environmental
apostles, such as John Clare, Rebecca Solnit, John Charles Ryan,
and others who have made a valuable contribution to green thinking
and living. Black Swan Song mixes modes and genres, such as memoir,
essay, story, criticism, etc., making up the writer's black swan
song. It provides ways of living and being with the earth in dark
and troubled times by providing resources of a journey of hope for
learning to live bio- and psycho-symbiotic livelihoods in
bioregional home habitats of the living earth and in the
Symbiocene, the hoped-for age superseding the Anthropocene.
Spatial Resilience is a new and exciting area of
interdisciplinary research. It focuses on the influence of spatial
variation including such things as spatial location, context,
connectivity, and dispersal on the resilience of complex systems,
and on the roles that resilience and self-organization play in
generating spatial variation. Prof. Cumming provides a readable
introduction and a first comprehensive synthesis covering the core
concepts and applications of spatial resilience to the study of
social-ecological systems. The book follows a trajectory from
concepts through models, methods, and case study analysis before
revisiting the central problems in the further conceptual
development of the field. In the process, the author ranges from
the movements of lions in northern Zimbabwe to the urban jungles of
Europe, and from the collapse of past societies to the social
impacts of modern conflict. The many case studies and examples
discussed in the book show how the concept of spatial resilience
can generate valuable insights into the spatial dynamics of
social-ecological systems and contribute to solving some of the
most pressing problems of our time. Although it has been written
primarily for students, this book will provide fascinating reading
for interdisciplinary scientists at all career stages as well as
for the interested public.
""Graeme Cumming, central in the development of resilience
thinking and theory, has produced a wonderful book on spatial
resilience, the first ever on this topic. The book will become a
shining star, a classic in the explosion of new ideas and
approaches to studying and understanding social-ecological
systems."" Carl Folke, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Sweden"
The Arctic, the Antarctic, and the Hindu Kush-Himalayas form a trio
of terrains sometimes called "the three poles". Mainly composed of
rock, snow, and ice, these precious regions, which are home to many
unique species such as the polar bear, the emperor penguin, and the
snow leopard, contain the primary water resource of this planet and
directly shape our climate. This book presents a first-ever global
assessment and progressive review of the three poles and
demonstrates the urgent need for their protection. Sins of the past
have irrevocably harmed and threatened many of the unique qualities
of these regions, and the future looks bleak with the global
population forecast to reach 9 billion by 2060, and with climate
change on the rise. Presented here is a wide-reaching and coherent
overview of the three poles' biodiversity, habitats, and ongoing
destruction. Failed protection and social targets set by the United
Nations and other bodies are exposed while economic growth,
unconstrained or inappropriate development, and urban sprawl are
promoted unabated. Polar regions play a major role in the global
agenda as they are rich in oil and other resources, marking them
for contamination, overfishing, and further degradation. Tourism in
the Antarctic has benefited from enlightened self-regulation, but
there are signs that this is changing, too. The chapters of this
book are written by experts in their fields, and their evidence
leaves no doubt that we already live beyond our carrying capacity
on a finite but decaying space. A global protection role model and
several outlook scenarios are proposed to help set in motion polar
protection priorities that are actually valid. Humanity has
demonstrated through international treaties such as the Antarctic
Treaty and the Madrid Protocol that we can put the interests of the
planet as a whole first. This must become the norm, not the
exception.
This book, published in two volumes, provides the most
comprehensive review of lamprey biology since Hardisty and Potter's
"The Biology of Lampreys" published more than 30 years ago. This
second volume offers a synthesis of topics related to the lamprey
gonad (e.g., lamprey sex ratios, sex determination and sex
differentiation, sexual maturation, and sex steroids), the
artifical propagation of lampreys, post-metamorphic feeding and the
evolution of alternative feeding and migratory types, the history
and status of sea lamprey control in the Laurentian Great Lakes and
Lake Champlain, and an overview of contributions of lamprey
developmental studies for understanding vertebrate evolution.
This volume presents a representative sample of contributions to
the 41st European Marine Biology Symposium held in September 2005
in Cork, Ireland. The theme of the symposium was 'Challenges to
Marine Ecosystems' and this was divided into four sub themes;
Genetics, Marine Protected Areas, Global Climate Change and Marine
Ecosystems, Sustainable Fisheries and Agriculture. The world's
marine ecosystems face multiple challenges, some natural, but many
resulting from humankind's activities. Global climate change,
driven by influences of energy usage and industrial practices, is a
reality now accepted by most of the world's scientists, media and
political establishments. Warming seas and rising sea levels are
regarded as threats, while visionaries consider deep ocean carbon
disposal as a technological opportunity. Exploitation of the seas
continues apace, with repeated concerns over the impact of
over-fishing, plus reservations about the environmental effects of
marine aquaculture. We need to understand how resilient organisms
and ecosystems are to these challenges, while responding by
protecting biologically-meaningful areas of the oceans. The
subthemes of the 41st European Marine Biology Symposium address all
of these matters.
Living Deep Ecology: A Bioregional Journey is an exploration of our
evolving relationship with a specific bioregion. It is set in
Humboldt County in northwestern California, in the Klamath-Siskiyou
bioregion. By focusing on a specific bioregion and reflecting on
anthropogenic changes in this bioregion over three decades, Bill
Devall engages the reader in asking deeper questions about the
meaning we find in Nature. He addresses questions such as how do we
relate the facts and theories presented by science with our
feelings, our intimacy, and our sense of Place as we dwell in a
specific bioregion. This book engages the reader to consider our
place in Nature. Devall approaches the bioregion not from the
perspective of agencies and government, but from the perspective of
the landscape itself.
Energy Resources: Examining the Facts provides an authoritative,
comprehensive overview of economic, political, and environmental
drivers of America's energy picture, from trends in the production
and consumption of fossil fuels and renewables to the state of the
national energy grid. Energy Resources: Examining the Facts is part
of a series that uses evidence-based documentation to examine the
veracity of claims and beliefs about high-profile issues in
American culture and politics. Each book in the Contemporary
Debates series is intended to puncture rather than perpetuate myths
that diminish our understanding of important policies and
positions; to provide needed context for misleading statements and
claims; and to confirm the factual accuracy of other assertions.
This installment in the series provides a comprehensive overview of
all energy resources used in the United States, including fossil
fuels (oil, gas, coal), nuclear power, hydropower, other major
renewables (solar and wind), and even smaller energy sources, such
as wood products (biomass), ethanol, plant-based fluids/gases, and
geothermal, that have meaningful potential for future growth. The
framework of laws and regulations in which energy resources are
developed, produced, and overseen is described, as are the ways in
which economic development powered by different energy resources is
impacting people and ecosystems in the United States and around the
world. Extensively covers both energy resources and the electricity
grid Illuminates the economic, environmental, legal, and regulatory
foundations of energy policymaking since World War II Presents
information in an easy-to-navigate Q&A format Uses quantifiable
data from respected sources as the foundation for examining every
issue Provides readers with leads to conduct further research in
Further Reading sections for each entry Examines claims made by
individuals and groups of all political backgrounds and ideologies
Bird migration between Europe and Africa is a fraught journey,
particularly in the Mediterranean, where migratory birds are shot
and trapped in large numbers. In Malta, thousands of hunters share
a shrinking countryside. They also rub shoulders with a strong
bird-protection and conservation lobby. Drawing on years of
ethnographic fieldwork, this book traces the complex interactions
between hunters, birds and the landscapes they inhabit, as well as
the dynamics and politics of bird conservation. Birds of Passage
looks at the practice and meaning of hunting in a specific context,
and raises broader questions about human-wildlife interactions and
the uncertain outcomes of conservation.
Iconic urbanist Lewis Mumford stressed the role of a
well-constructed city in the development of the good life,
championing pedestrian-scaled, sustainable cities. In Portland's
Good Life, R. Bruce Stephenson examines how Portland, the one city
in America that adopted Mumford's vision, became a model city for
living the good life. Stephenson traces Portland's success to its
grass roots governing system, its housing and climate protection
initiatives, and most of all, its citizens devoted to the public
good; all of which have resulted in the construction of a city that
honors the humanity of its people.
Human well-being depends in many ways on maintaining the stock of
natural resources which deliver the services from which human's
benefit. However, these resources and flows of services are
increasingly threatened by unsustainable and competing land uses.
Particular threats exist to those public goods whose values are not
well-represented in markets or whose deterioration will only affect
future generations. As market forces alone are not sufficient,
effective means for local and regional planning are needed in order
to safeguard scarce natural resources, coordinate land uses and
create sustainable landscape structures. This book argues that a
solution to such challenges in Europe can be found by merging the
landscape planning tradition with ecosystem services concepts.
Landscape planning has strengths in recognition of public benefits
and implementation mechanisms, while the ecosystem services
approach makes the connection between the status of natural assets
and human well-being more explicit. It can also provide an economic
perspective, focused on individual preferences and benefits, which
helps validate the acceptability of environmental planning goals.
Thus linking landscape planning and ecosystem services provides a
two-way benefit, creating a usable science to meet the needs of
local and regional decision making. The book is structured around
the Driving forces-Pressures-States-Impacts-Responses framework,
providing an introduction to relevant concepts, methodologies and
techniques. It presents a new, ecosystem services-informed,
approach to landscape planning that constitutes both a framework
and toolbox for students and practitioners to address the
environmental and landscape challenges of 21st century Europe.
The existential environmental crisis prompted the United Nations to
formulate the Millennium Development Goals at the turn of the 21st
century in order to embark on an era of sustainable development.
The progress and deficiencies in achieving the Millennium
Development Goals provided impetus to the intelligentsia and
policymakers to map out the pertinent goals for a sustainable
growth trajectory for humanity and the planet. The United Nations'
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted in
September 2015, took the shape of 17 Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) and 169 targets. In effect, the 17 Sustainable Development
Goals focus on protecting the earth's life support systems for
intra- and inter-generational equity and for development that is
rooted in sustainability science. Attaining these goals is an
uphill task; nevertheless, scientific knowledge, trans and
interdisciplinary inquiries, concerted global action and capacity
building would provide an enabling environment for achieving the
SDGs. This book explores the synergies and trade-offs between
climate change management and other SDGs. It highlights the policy
imperatives as well as the interrelations between combating climate
change and its impacts (SDG 13) and food and nutritional security
(SDG 2), water security (SDG 6), soil security (SDG 15), energy
security (SDG 7), poverty eradication (SDG 1), gender equality (SDG
5), resilient infrastructure (SDG 9), and sustainable and resilient
cities (SDG 11).
This book describes one of our closest relatives, the orangutan,
and the only extant great ape in Asia. It is increasingly clear
that orangutan populations show extensive variation in behavioral
ecology, morphology, life history, and genes. Indeed, on the
strength of the latest genetic and morphological evidence, it has
been proposed that orangutans actually constitute two species which
diverged more than a million years ago - one on the island of
Sumatra the other on Borneo, with the latter comprising three
subspecies.
This book has two main aims. The first is to carefully compare data
from every orangutan research site, examining the differences and
similarities between orangutan species, subspecies and populations.
The second is to develop a theoretical framework in which these
differences and similarities can be explained. To achieve these
goals the editors have assembled the world's leading orangutan
experts to rigorously synthesize and compare the data, quantify the
similarities or differences, and seek to explain them.
Orangutans is the first synthesis of orangutan biology to adopt
this novel, comparative approach. It analyses and compares the
latest data, developing a theoretical framework to explain
morphological, life history, and behavioral variation.
Intriguingly, not all behavioral differences can be attributed to
ecological variation between and within the two islands; relative
rates of social learning also appear to have been influential. The
book also emphasizes the crucial impact of human settlement on
orangutans and looks ahead to the future prospects for the survival
of critically endangered natural populations.
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