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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Conservation of the environment
Over the last five centuries, North-East England's River Tyne went
largely with the flow as it rode with us on a rollercoaster from
technologically limited early modern oligarchy, to large-scale
Victorian 'improvement', to twentieth-century deoxygenation and to
twenty-first-century efforts to expand the river's biodiversity. By
studying five centuries of Tyne conservatorship, we can see that
1855 to 1972 was a blip on the graph of environmental concern,
preceded and followed by more sustainable engagement and a fairer
negotiation with the river's forces and expressions as a whole and
natural system, albeit driven by different motivations. Even during
this blip, however, many people expressed environmental concern.
Several organisations, including the Tyne Salmon Conservancy
(1866-1950), local governors, the Tyne's anglers and the Standing
Committee on River Pollution's Tyne Sub-Committee (1921-1939),
tried to protect the river's environmental health from harm, as
they perceived it. This Tyne study offers a template for a future
body of work on British rivers that shakes off the straitjacket of
the Thames as the river of choice in British environmental history.
And it undermines traditional socio-cultural approaches which
reduce rivers to passive backdrops of human activities. Departing
from progressive narratives that equated change with improvement,
and declensionist narratives that equated change with loss and
destruction, it moves away from morally loaded notions of better or
worse, and even dead, rivers. This book refocuses on the production
of new and different rivers and fully situates the Tyne's fluvial
transformations within their political, economic, cultural, social
and intellectual contexts. Let us sit with the Tyne itself, some of
its salmon, a seventeenth-century Tyne River Court Juror, some
nineteenth-century Tyne Improvement Commissioners, a 1920s
biologist, a twentieth-century Tyne angler, shipbuilder and council
planner and some twenty-first-century Tyne Rivers Trust volunteers.
What would they disagree about? Would they agree on anything? How
would they explain their conceptualisation of what the river is for
and how it should be used and regulated? This book takes you to the
heart of such virtual debates to revive, reconnect and reinvigorate
the severed bonds and flows linking riparian places, issues and
people across five centuries. By analysing the Tyne's past
conservatorships, we can objectify ourselves through our
descendants' eyes, reconnecting us not only to our past, but also
to our future.
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A Tree for a Year
(Hardcover)
Ellen Dutton; Illustrated by Emily Hurst Pritchett
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In the late nineteenth century, humans came at long last to a
devastating realisation: their rapidly industrialising and
globalising societies were driving scores of animal species to
extinction. In Beloved Beasts, acclaimed science journalist
Michelle Nijhuis traces the history of the movement to protect and
conserve other forms of life. From early battles to save
charismatic species such as the American bison and bald eagle to
today's global effort to defend life on a larger scale, Nijhuis's
"spirited and engaging" account documents "the changes of heart
that changed history" (Dan Cryer, Boston Globe). With "urgency,
passion, and wit" (Michael Berry, Christian Science Monitor), she
describes the vital role of scientists and activists such as Aldo
Leopold and Rachel Carson, reveals the origins of vital
organisations like the Audubon Society and the World Wildlife Fund,
explores current efforts to protect species such as the whooping
crane and the black rhinoceros and confronts the darker side of
modern conservation, long shadowed by racism and colonialism. As
the destruction of other species continues and the effects of
climate change wreak havoc on our world, Beloved Beasts charts the
ways conservation is becoming a movement for the protection of all
species including our own.
Time and Methods in Environmental Interfaces Modelling: Personal
Insights considers the use of time in environmental interfaces
modeling and introduce new methods, from the global scale (e.g.
climate modeling) to the micro scale (e.g. cell and nanotubes
modeling), which primarily arise from the personal research
insights of the authors. As the field of environmental science
requires the application of new fundamental approaches that can
lead to a better understanding of environmental phenomena, this
book helps necessitate new approaches in modeling, including
category theory, that follow new achievements in physics,
mathematics, biology, and chemistry.
This is an important book for researchers and students of resources
management, rural development, hydrology and African studies.
Shivalik ranges cover an area of about 2.14 million ha in Himachal
Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Haryana States
of north-west India. Over exploitation of the resources in the
region had lead to soil erosion resulting in the rise of riverbeds,
siltation of tanks, reservoirs and other natural water bodies. Soil
erosion greater than 80 t ha-1 yr-1 have been recorded from denuded
hills at places. More than 70 per cent people of the region are
dependent on agriculture, however, only 18 per cent of the
cultivated area is irrigated. Agroforestry where tree and crops are
integrated with each other had been recommended worldwide to check
soil erosion and simultaneously achieve production goals. Adoption
of scientifically proven agroforestry systems in Shivaliks can
reverse the degradation and improve the economic status of the
farmers of the region. Extensive research had been done till date
on role of agroforestry in resource conservation and livelihood
security in the region. The book is an attempt to compile the
available knowledge on the subject. There are 20 s in the book
covering various topics relating agroforestry systems with soil and
water conservation, livelihood security, slope protection through
mechanical and vegetative measures, fertility build up, mine spoil
rehabilitation, bamboos, climate change and carbon sequestration.
Decision Consequence Analysis (DCA) is a framework for improving
the quality of decision results. The framework is a systematic,
multi-criteria quantification of uncertainties and the
opportunities for managing and reducing the potential negative
consequences of such uncertainties. DCA is demonstrated throughout
Sustainable Land Development and Restoration for each stage of
system based management of environmental issues. DCA links
disciplines and incorporates components of risk modelling,
probability modelling and the psychology of decision making. Its
goal is to provide a comprehensive unbiased decision making
framework. Its foundation is accurately defining your problem
statement and clearly vetting your objectives to build a structure
for meaningful analysis of data. Employment of DCA consistently
throughout the environmental industry can reduce decibel-driven,
agenda-laden decision making, streamline expenditure of resources
(financial, human, natural), and provide a clear path to the
sustainable maintenance of balanced environmental systems as the
penultimate objective. Sustainable Land Development and Restoration
provides a toolbox to both the novice and experienced environmental
practitioner of valuable techniques for addressing site specific
environmental issues, as well as managing a portfolio of
liabilities on an international scale. Ultimately, the authors are
addressing the critical issue of balancing environmental asset
balance sheets, whether on the scale of an individual project,
across a company's portfolio, or for a community. The environmental
manager who adopts the principles in this book will have greater
confidence that environmental protection or restoration activities
are providing measurable utility. The goal is that, through
multidimensional resource management analysis and practices
companies and societies can achieve sustainable maintenance of a
balanced environmental system. Descriptions of technical,
contracting and implementation processes are supported by detailed
case studies to provide real world context rather than an academic
exchange of theories.
Russia and the Politics of International Environmental Regimes is
an important and timely analysis of Russia's interaction with the
international environmental policy process. The three authors draw
on a wealth of research experience working within the region in
order to explore Russia s activities with respect to climate
policy, water protection and fisheries management. Their detailed
analysis provides an illuminating and much-needed insight into the
interaction between Russian foreign and domestic policy goals and
international environmental regimes operating at a range of
scales.' - Jonathan Oldfield, University of Birmingham, UK'This is
a timely contribution to our understanding of the motives behind,
and results to be expected from, Russia's international
environmental engagement. By focusing on climate change policy,
Barents Sea fisheries, and regional seas protection in the Baltic,
the authors judiciously conclude that trans-boundary environmental
commitments are primarily the result of 'great power' concerns
including domestic economic growth, regional trade, and a globally
favorable image - not ecological conscience. The book represents a
major step forward in post-Soviet foreign policy studies.' - David
Feldman, University of California, Irvine, US 'This valuable book
brings together the insights and research of three established
scholars. Students new to the environmental aspects of Russia's
international engagement will appreciate the clear and readable
case studies. The findings and discussion that result from the
authors' unique and rigorous cross-case comparison will be of great
interest to scholars of Russia s foreign policy and environmental
policy more broadly.' - Elana Wilson Rowe, Norwegian Institute of
International Affairs Russia and the Politics of International
Environmental Regimes examines the political relationship between
Russia and other states in environmental matters. Based on detailed
empirical analysis and data, including interviews and media
sources, this groundbreaking book scrutinizes the dynamics of
Russia's participation in international environmental politics. The
authors explore three detailed case studies focusing on climate
policy, water protection and fisheries management. They then
recommend how best to negotiate with Russia on key environmental
issues. This book will be of particular interest to scholars of
environmental politics, international relations and Russian
studies. Environmental policymakers will also find this to be a
useful tool when looking to understand environmental politics
within Russia. Contents: Preface 1. Introduction 2. Environmental
Regimes and Russia's Approaches to Environmental and Foreign Policy
3. The Global Case: The Climate Regime 4. The Regional Case:
Protecting the Environment of the Baltic Sea 5. The Bilateral Case:
Fisheries Management in the Barents Sea 6. Discussion: Two levels
of Discourses in Russian Environmental Policy 7. Conclusion:
Environmental Encounters? References Index
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