"We are surrounded by a world that talks, but we don't listen. We are part of a community engaged in a vast conversation, but we deny our role in it." In the face of climate change, species loss, and vast environmental destruction, the ability to stand in the flow of the great conversation of all creatures and the earth can feel utterly lost to the human race. But Belden C. Lane suggests that it can and must be recovered, not only for the sake of endangered species and the well-being of at-risk communities, but for the survival of the world itself. The Great Conversation is Lane's multi-faceted treatise on a spiritually centered environmentalism. At the core is a belief in the power of the natural world to act as teacher. In a series of personal anecdotes, Lane pairs his own experiences in the wild with the writings of saints and sages from a wide range of religious traditions. A night in a Missourian cave brings to mind the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola; the canyons of southern Utah elicit a response from the Chinese philosopher Laozi; 500,000 migrating sandhill cranes rest in Nebraska and evoke the Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar. With each chapter, the humility of spiritual masters through the ages melds with the author's encounters with natural teachers to offer guidance for entering once more into a conversation with the world.

A lucid and rigorous demonstration that climate change cannot be overcome unless capitalism is overcome. The scourge of humanity is also the scourge of nature. This is a great achievement: putting forth the necessary contours of the direction that must be taken if we are to be equal to the greatest challenge ever faced by humankind. - Joel Kovel, author of The Enemy of Nature The climate crisis is at a critical moment while millions despair that no action is being taken. The difficulties our "world leaders" have in taking meaningful action do not spring out of nowhere but from their refusal to understand that this crisis is the consequence of the globalised, neoliberal economic system. This book argues that we cannot simply green our current society, but that we need a more thorough, more fundamental social transformation. - Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales An important contribution to outlining an ecosocialist project able to overcome the contradictions between a critique of capitalism and ecology. Daniel Tanuro demonstrates that climate change cannot be separated from the "normal" functioning of capitalism. He argues that it is therefore necessary to replace the logic of maximising profit with that of maximising common well-being within an environmental framework. The reading of this book should convince ecologists to become anti-capitalists. And vice-versa. - Michel Husson, an economist at the IRES Paris, author and global justice activist

Earth, Empire and Sacred Text examines the Muslim-Christian theology of creation and humanity, aiming to construct a dialogue to enable both faiths to work together to preserve our planet, to bring justice to its most needy inhabitants, and to contribute to peace-building. Earth, Empire and Sacred Text opens with an analysis of the influential shift from the Cartesian view of the autonomous, disembodied self to a self defined in discourse, community and culture. The "career" of Q. 2:30 (Adam's God-mandated trusteeship) is then traced, from Islamic commentaries of the classical period to writings of Muslim scholars in the modern and postmodern periods. This is examined alongside the concept of human trusteeship under God in Christian and Jewish writers. The book concludes by highlighting the essential elements for a Muslim-Christian theology of human trusteeship.

Giada Ripa’s photos form an itinerary of landscapes traversing Italy, North to South, focusing on five regions: Friuli, Lombardy, Tuscany, Abruzzo, and Sicily. This account is not limited to a photographic album; rather, it calls upon champions from each area who, through engaging interviews, describe the positive impact on its territory of the commitment of an important local business. Concrete examples of this cooperation are the environmental revival carried out in the Prealpi Giulie Nature Reserve in Friuli, the conservation of local species of flowers carried out with the cooperation of the Botanical Gardens in Palermo, and stretches of land made available and leased free of charge. Thus, The Thin Line represents a hope, but also an awareness of the territory and of those who not only inhabit it now, but will come to inhabit it in the future. Text in English and Italian

In this book, Chapter One explores these conflicts and disputes focusing on the Harapan Rainforest Project, and weighs the relevance of ERCs for German development cooperation. Chapter Two discusses Cambodia, where land use has been changing increasingly as dry evergreen forests are being converted into rubber plantations. Based on the case of Slovenia, Chapter Three shows that social irresponsibility (eg: inadequate spatial planning, lack of supervision, insufficient insurance policies, and a mix of politics and capital influences) is a factor more responsible than climate change for the catastrophic consequences of natural disasters. In Chapter Four, a variety of optical methods is used to investigate the flicker patterns of light in small waterfalls and their splash zones. Chapter Five discusses the Chandrabhaga river basin, where to release partial pressure from ground water, delineation of the alternative surface water irrigation potential zone is necessary for agricultural sustenance. Chapter Six examines the spatial patterns of urban runoff and occurrences of droughts using Geographic Information System and spatial statistics. Chapter Seven seeks to highlight use of innovative and digital tools for improving design process and comfort in the built environment.

In this bold intervention, Cudworth and Hobden draw on recent advances in thinking about complexity theory to call for a profound re-envisioning of the study of international relations. As a discipline, IR is wedded to the enlightenment project of overcoming the "hazards" of nature, and thus remains constrained by its blinkered "human-centered" approach. Furthermore, as a means of predicting major global-political events and trends, it has failed consistently. Instead, the authors argue, it is essential we develop a much more nuanced and sophisticated analysis of global political systems, taking into account broader environmental circumstances, as well as social relations, economic practices and formations of political power. Essentially, the book reveals how the study of international politics is transformed by the understanding that we have never been exclusively human. An original work that is sure to provoke heated debate within the discipline, "Posthuman International Relations" combines insights from complexity theory and ecological thinking to provide a radical new agenda for a progressive, twenty-first century, International Relations.

This book provides readers with the latest developments in environmental research. Chapter One provides a socio-economic analysis on the impact of the Cyclone Sidr on rural communities of Southwest Bangladesh. Chapter Two describes the recent status of Ophraella communa and the ragweed in Japan and discusses the changes in the relationship between this herbivore and its host plants. Chapter Three reviews seed dispersal systems in the regeneration of semiarid Mediterranean forests. Chapter Four examines important implications for providing adaptive silvicultural practices under future climate change. Chapter Five presents the mathematical model and results of numerical simulations of long-term thermal influences of different engineering construction on the permafrost in northern oil and gas fields exploitation. Chapter Six discusses the current policies for urban heat island (UHI) mitigation and adaptation in Canada. Chapter Seven examines the Bei'anHeihe highway, located in northeast China, which goes through a permafrost degradation area in the northwest section of the Lesser Khingan Mountain. Chapter Eight focuses on metal and metalloids in sediments from the estuary of the Nerbioi-Ibaizabal River. Chapter Nine reviews a study of the deforestation of Agave cupreata-Trelet Berger in Guerrero, Mexico. Chapter Ten analyses a 25-year-long study using tree-ring 13C records from Spanish forests, which reveals a transitory interruption of the Suess effect during the nineties of the past century.

This book provides readers with the latest developments in environmental research. Chapter One reviews different toxicological and ecotoxicological tests applied to different types of textile effluent treatments and their efficiency in detecting potential toxicity in treated effluents. Chapter Two illustrates that in properly leveraging green marketing through sustainability strategic initiatives, a firm can simultaneously become more profitable, promote quality environmental issues, and enhance corporate reputation. Chapter Three investigates drinking water recarbonization process based on a combination of experimental and mathematical modelling. Chapter Four discusses improving the management of ecosystem services by means of stakeholder perceptions. Chapter Five examines community involvement in river management for ecosystem services and livelihood. Chapter Six focuses on the effect of some environmental factors on milk production of primiparous Holstein raised in the Souss-Massa region in Morocco. Chapter Seven studies the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) influence over precipitation in Argentina. The final chapter discusses kinematics of ice-cores near divides and inferences from age/depth data.

Drawing on the insights of ecology, feminism, and socialism, ecofeminism's basic premise is that the ideology that authorizes oppression based on race, class, gender, sexuality, physical abilities, and species is the same ideology that sanctions the oppression of nature. In this collection of essays, feminist scholars and activists discuss the relationships among human begins, the natural environment, and nonhuman animals. They reject the nature/culture dualism of patriarchal thought and locate animals and humans within nature. The goal of these twelve articles is to contribute to the evolving dialogue among feminists, ecofeminists, animal liberationists, deep ecologists, and social ecologists in an effort to create a sustainable lifestyle for all inhabitants of the earth. Among the issues addressed are the conflicts between Green politics and ecofeminism, various applications of ecofeminist theory, the relationship of animal liberation to ecofeminism, harmful implications of the romanticized woman-nature association in Western culture, and cultural limitations of ecofeminism. In the series Ethics and Action, edited by Tom Regan.

This book presents state-of-the-art research on bioremediation, which is understood as a discipline that uses organisms or their products to reduce or eliminate the adverse effects of pollutants in the environment. Today, there are many research groups that focus on remedying the adverse effects of our industrialised society, which release compounds daily, increasingly polluting the environment. This book compiles the most important work of distinguished scientists around the world who are at the vanguard in this discipline, covering the environments of soil and water, as well as a great variety of micro-organisms and mechanism bioremediators. Thus, the bioremediation strategy and bioremediator should be chosen according to the pollutant. This material is one of the few available for discussion in literature, and the authors and editorial board hope that this book can be used as a guide or as a base material useful for people who want to develop or apply new strategies in the bioremediation field. The book consists of the following sections: 1) bacterial bioremediation, 2) microbioremediation, 3) phyto- and phycoremediation, 4) composite bioremediation and finally 5) derivative bioremediation. Each section is disposed depending on the kind and type of pollutant; inorganic or organic; and by the complexity of organic mixtures. Studies include in silico, in vitro, in situ, ex situ approaches, from mathematical models to real landscape cases, including analytical methods to assess bioremediation efficacy and the biotechnological use of rhamnolipids, acetogenins, surfactants, micro-bubbles, agricultural residues and enzymes to improve or achieve bioremediation. This book is intended to provide tools to readers in order to apply or to understand the feasibility, advances, advantages, disadvantages, aspects, processes, challenges and future prospects in bioremediation.

This book's objective is to present a comprehensive, theoretical, practical, and adaptive approach to understanding the issues involved in eco-city planning and green community development. It builds on recent advances in urban theories, environmental science, architectural design, engineering, and geospatial information technologies to provide readers with the scientific foundation needed to understand the major visionary ideas about new urban forms. This book provides a basis of knowledge in planning theory and natural science and a major review of urban forms that have evolved over the past century; its primary emphasis is to describe and explain emerging approaches, methods, and techniques for eco-city. This book also responds to the key questions outlined at the beginning of this introduction: What are the theoretical foundations and historical views of eco-city and green community? What is a green and eco-friendly urban form? How can we find the appropriate approaches to build eco-city and green community? What international experiences and lessons can we learn from?

In the face of the environmental crisis, believers from all the world's faith traditions have come to recognize that religion's relation to ecology is of critical importance. Vital new theologies, profound criticisms of the past, and ecologically oriented visions of God, Enlightenment, and human beings have arisen. Religious morality has expanded to include human relations to other species and ecosystems, and religious practice has come to include rituals that express our grief and remorse as well as celebrate what is left. Religious leaders and institutions have committed themselves to a new green gospel, and in countless places across the globe people engage in environmental activism for religious reasons. This book serves as the definitive scholarly overview of these exciting new developments. Part I explores traditional religious concepts of and attitudes toward nature and how these have been changed by the environmental crisis. Part II analyzes conceptual issues that transcend individual traditions. Part III examines religious participation in environmental politics. With essays by the leading scholars in the field, many of whom have themselves been instrumental in the rise of religious environmentalism, this Handbook will be invaluable to anyone interested in religion, environmentalism, and the future of our planet.

Readings that point the way to a peaceful, democratic, and ecologically resilient transition to an era of localization, limits, and societal opportunities. Energy supplies are tightening. Persistent pollutants are accumulating. Food security is declining. There is no going back to the days of reckless consumption, but there is a possibility-already being realized in communities across North America and around the world-of localizing, of living well as we learn to live well within immutable constraints. This book maps the transition to a more localized world. Society is shifting from the centrifugal forces of globalization (cheap and abundant raw materials and energy, intensive commercialization, concentrated economic and political power) to the centripetal forces of localization: distributed authority and leadership, sustainable use of nearby natural resources, community self-reliance and cohesion (with crucial regional, national, and international dimensions). This collection, offering classic texts by such writers as Wendell Berry, M. King Hubbert, and Ernst F. Schumacher, as well as new work by authors including Karen Litfin and David Hess, shows how localization-a process of affirmative social change-can enable psychologically meaningful and fulfilling lives while promoting ecological and social sustainability. Topics range from energy dynamics to philosophies of limits, from the governance of place-based communities to the discovery of positive personal engagement. Together they point the way to a transition that can be peaceful, democratic, just, and environmentally resilient.

The riotous story of a guilty liberal who snaps, swears off plastic, goes organic, turns off his power, and becomes a bicycle nut in an effort to make zero environmental impact
Manhattanite Colin Beavan spent a year trying to live without a net environmental impact, and he dragged his baby daughter and Prada-loving wife along for the ride (bicycle-powered, of course). In other words, no trash, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no air conditioning, no television...What would it be like to try to live a no-impact lifestyle? Is it possible? Could it catch on? Is living this way more satisfying or less satisfying? Is it worthwhile or senseless? These are the questions at the heart of this whole mad endeavour, which ultimately challenges each of us to embrace green living.

* "The publisher has aimed for sustainability in all aspects of this book's production. For example, the interior paper is 100% post-consumer recycled, processed without chlorine, and certified by both the Forest Stewardship Council and EcoLogo. Instead of a jacket, the cover boards are stamped directly with ink, and the boards themselves are made from 100% recycled and FSC-certified materials."

"From the Hardcover edition."

The threat of ecological collapse is increasingly becoming a reality for the world's populations, both human and nonhuman; addressing this global challenge requires enormous cultural creativity and demands a diversity of perspectives, especially from the humanities. Theology and Ecology Across the Disciplines draws from a variety of academic disciplines and positions in order to explore the role and nature of environmental responsibility, especially where such themes intersect with religious or theological viewpoints. Covering disciplines such as history, philosophy, literature, politics, peace studies, economics, women's studies, and the ecological sciences as well as systematic and moral theology, the contributors emphasize how these positions have begun to develop distinct perspectives on urgent ecological issues, as well as pointing toward specific practices at the local and international level. This volume provides a multidisciplinary point of departure for urgent conversations on environmental responsibility that resist simplistic solutions. Rather, the contributors highlight the complex nature of modern ecology, and suggest creative ways forward in the situation of an apparently intractable global problem.

What we make and buy is a major indicator of society's collective priorities. Among twenty-four key trends, Vital Signs Volume 22 explores significant global patterns in production and consumption. The result is a fascinating snapshot of how we invest our resources and the implications for the world's well-being. The book examines developments in six main areas: energy, environment and climate, transportation, food and agriculture, global economy and resources, and population and society. Readers will learn how aquaculture is making gains on wild fish catches, where high speed rail is accelerating, why plastic production is on the rise, who is escaping chronic hunger, and who is still suffering. Researchers at the Worldwatch Institute not only provide the most up-to-date statistics, but put them in context. The analysis in Vital Signs teaches us both about our current priorities and how they could be shaped to create a better future.

Environmental movements have produced some impressive results, including cleaner air and the preservation of selected species and places. But movements that challenged western prosperity and comfort seldom made much progress, and many radical environmentalists have been unabashed utopianists. In this short guide, Peterson del Mar untangles this paradox by showing how prosperity is essential to environmentalism. Industrialisation made conservation sensible, but also drove people to look for meaning in nature even as they consumed its products more relentlessly. Hence Englandled the way in both manufacturing and preserving its countryside, and the United Statescreated a matchless set of national parks as it became the world's pre-eminent economic and military power. Environmentalismconsiders both the conservation and preservation movements and less organized forms of nature loving (from seaside vacations to ecotourism) to argue that these activities have commonly distracted us from the hard work of creating a sustainable and sensible relationship with the environment.

Business-led environmental initiatives have become prominent in recent years. At the same time, governments have shown increasing interest in 'voluntary' programs for environmental protections. While one could argue that such corporate environmentalism is motivated either by cost reduction or as a marketing strategy to appeal to the 'green' consumer, Lyon and Maxwell explore a third and more complex possibility. Drawing heavily on their prior work in corporate environmentalism, they argue that corporate environmentalism is the result of firms attempting to anticipate public policy changes and influence the legislative process in their best interests. Presenting a general framework that illuminates the links between corporate environmentalism and pubic policy, they use the analytical tools of positive political economy and game theory to provide insights into both corporate strategy and the effects of corporate and government polices on overall social welfare. This integrated and comprehensive book will have wide policy and management appeal.

Presenting a novel and needed theoretical model for interpreting shipwrecks and other drowned fragments-the histories they tell, and the futures they presage-as junctures of artefact and ecofact, human remains and emergent ecologies, this book puts the environmental humanities, and particularly multispecies studies, in close conversation with literary studies, history, and aesthetic theory. Earth's oceans hold the remains of as many as three million shipwrecks, some thousands of years old. Instead of approaching shipwrecks as either artefacts or "ecofacts," this book presents a third frame for understanding, one inspired by the material dynamism of sea-floor stuff. As they become encrusted by oceanic matter-some of it living, some inanimate-anthropic fragments participate in a distinctively submarine form of material relation. That relation comprises a wide, and sometimes incalculable, array of things, lives, times, and stories. Drawing from several centuries of literary, philosophical, and scientific encounters with encrustations-as well as from some of the innumerable encrusted "art-forms" that inhabit the sea floor- this book serves anyone in search of better ways to perceive, describe, and imagine submarine matters.

'An inspiring rallying cry for activists everywhere to work together to build a just, ecosocialist future' - Grace Blakeley Time is up. The climate crisis is no longer a future to be feared, but a devastating reality. We see it in the wildfires in California and floods across Britain - the 'once in a generation' extreme weather events that now happen every year. In a world where those in charge are constantly letting us down, real change in our lifetime means taking power into our own hands. The task ahead of us is daunting, but the emergence of a new wave of movements focused on climate justice, equality and solidarity also brings hope. Asking how we have arrived at this moment, Chris Saltmarsh argues that the profoundly political nature of the environmental crisis has been relentlessly downplayed. After all, how can solar panels save us while capitalism places profit over the future of the planet? Analysing the failures of NGOs, the limitations of Extinction Rebellion and Youth Strikes, the role of trade unions, and the possibilities of a Green New Deal, Burnt issues a powerful call for a radical collective movement: saving the world is not enough; we must build a better one in the process.

The Canadian Environment in Political Context uses a non-technical approach to introduce environmental politics to undergraduate readers. The second edition features expanded chapters on wildlife, water, pollution, land, and energy. Beginning with a brief synopsis of environmental quality across Canada, the text moves on to examine political institutions and policymaking, the history of environmentalism in Canada, and other crucial issues including Indigenous peoples and the environment, as well as Canada's North. Enhanced with case studies, key words, and a comprehensive glossary, Olive's book addresses the major environmental concerns and challenges that Canada faces in the twenty-first century.

Climate change is increasingly recognized as a global threat, and is already contributing to record-breaking hurricanes and heat waves. To prevent the worst impacts, attention is now turning to climate engineering - the intentional large-scale modification of the environment to reduce the impact of climate change. The two principal methods involve removing some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (which could consume huge amounts of land and money, and take a long period of time), and reducing the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth's surface, perhaps by spraying aerosols into the upper atmosphere from airplanes (which could be done quickly but is risky and highly controversial). This is the first book to focus on the legal aspects of these technologies: what government approvals would be needed; how liability would be assessed and compensation provided if something goes wrong; and how a governance system could be structured and agreed internationally.

On the coast of Washington and British Columbia sit the misty forests and towering mountains of Cascadia. With archipelagos surrounding its shores and tidal surges of the Salish Sea trundling through the interior, this bioregion has long attracted loggers, fishing fleets, and land developers, each generation seeking successively harder to reach resources as old-growth stands, salmon stocks, and other natural endowments are depleted. Alongside encroaching developers and industrialists is the presence of a rich environmental movement that has historically built community through musical activism. From the Wobblies' Little Red Songbook (1909) to Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs (1941) on through to the Raging Grannies' formation in 1987, Cascadia's ecology has inspired legions of songwriters and musicians to advocate for preservation through music. In this book, Mark Pedelty explores Cascadia's vibrant eco-musical community in order to understand how environmentalist music imagines, and perhaps even creates, a more sustainable conception of place. Highlighting the music and environmental work of such various groups as Dana Lyons, the Raging Grannies, Idle No More, Towers and Trees, and Irthlingz, among others, Pedelty examines the divergent strategies-musical, organizational, and technological-used by each musical group to reach different audiences and to mobilize action. He concludes with a discussion of "applied ecomusicology," considering ways this book might be of use to activists and musicians at the community level.