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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > General
The field of environmental history emerged just decades ago but has
established itself as one of the most innovative and important new
approaches to history, one that bridges the human and natural
world, the humanities and the sciences. With the current trend
towards internationalizing history, environmental history is
perhaps the quintessential approach to studying subjects outside
the nation-state model, with pollution, global warming, and other
issues affecting the earth not stopping at national borders. With
25 essays, this Handbook is global in scope and innovative in
organization, looking at the field thematically through such
categories as climate, disease, oceans, the body, energy,
consumerism, and international relations.
Handbook on the Toxicology of Metals, Volume II: Specific Metals,
Fifth Edition provides complete coverage of 38 individual metals
and their compounds. This volume is the second volume of a
two-volume work which emphasizes toxic effects in humans, along
with discussions on the toxic effects of animals and biological
systems in vitro when relevant. The book has been systematically
updated with the latest studies and advances in technology. As a
multidisciplinary resource that integrates both human and
environmental toxicology, the book is a comprehensive and valuable
reference for toxicologists, physicians, pharmacologists, and
environmental scientists in the fields of environmental,
occupational and public health.
Winner of the 2022 Eric Zencey Prize in Ecological Economics
Capitalism is broken. The relentless pursuit of more has delivered
climate catastrophe, social inequality and financial instability -
and left us ill-prepared for life in a global pandemic. Tim
Jackson's passionate and provocative book dares us to imagine a
world beyond capitalism - a place where relationship and meaning
take precedence over profits and power. Post Growth is both a
manifesto for system change and an invitation to rekindle a deeper
conversation about the nature of the human condition.
"Evaluating Environmental and Social Impact Assessment in
Developing Countries" is" "a valuable reference book for
practitioners and researchers conducting research in and developing
studies on environmental science and management and environmental
and social impact assessment. The book s authors have developed and
tested a new framework to evaluate environmental impact assessment
(EIA) systems that may be adopted by most developing countries with
EIA experience. Application of this framework will help determine
if the EIA is achieving its intended goal of sustainable
development in these countries. It also explains the reasons behind
the strengths and weaknesses from which the development
practitioners and international development partners can take
lessons. This book will help the reader answer such questions as
"What are the best forms of public participation?" and "How do we
measure contributions to EIA procedure?" since it is based on
direct experiences from a developing country that is struggling
with many of these issues. "Evaluating Environmental and Social
Impact Assessment in Developing Countries" provides further
understanding of appropriate tools to evaluate environmental and
social impacts of development initiatives especially in developing
countries.
- Demonstrates the development of an integrated holistic method
that presents new research in the field
- Offers a thorough analytical assessment of an EIA system in a
developing country
- Presents valuable insights into how developing countries are
coping with the new phenomenon of public participation and
involvement in environmental decision making and what methods and
techniques have been successful
- Includes a chapter on social impact assessment in developing
countries with special focus on Bangladesh, providing valuable
information applicable to developing countries"
Consisting of presented papers from the 15th International
Conference on Urban Regeneration and Sustainability, the included
works address various aspects of the urban environment and provide
solutions leading towards sustainability. Urban areas result in a
series of environmental challenges varying from the consumption of
natural resources and the subsequent generation of waste and
pollution, contributing to the development of social and economic
imbalances. As cities continue to grow all over the world, these
problems tend to become more acute and require the development of
new solutions. The challenge of planning sustainable contemporary
cities lies in considering the dynamics of urban systems, exchange
of energy and matter, and the function and maintenance of ordered
structures directly or indirectly supplied and maintained by
natural systems. The task of researchers is to improve the capacity
to manage human activities, pursuing welfare and prosperity in the
urban environment. Any investigation or planning on a city ought to
consider the relationships between the parts and their connections
with the living world. The dynamics of its networks (flows of
energy matter, people, goods, information and other resources) are
fundamental for an understanding of the evolving nature of
today’s cities. Large cities represent a fertile ground for
architects, engineers, city planners, social and political
scientists, and other professionals able to conceive new ideas and
time them according to technological advances and human
requirements. Coastal areas and coastal cities are an important
area covered in this volume as they have some specific features.
Their strategic location facilitates transportation and the
development of related activities, but this requires the existence
of large ports, with the corresponding increase in maritime and
road traffic and all its inherent negative effects. This requires
the development of well-planned and managed urban environments, not
only for reasons of efficiency and economics but also to avoid
inflicting environmental degradation that causes the deterioration
of natural resources, quality of life and human health. These
research papers put a focus on sustainability across the
multidisciplinary components of urban planning, the challenges
presented by the increasing size of cities, the number of resources
required and the complexity of modern society.
'Think globally, act locally' has become a call to environmentalist
mobilization, proposing a closer connection between global
concerns, local issues and individual responsibility. "A History of
Environmentalism" explores this dialectic relationship, with ten
contributors from a range of disciplines providing a history of
environmentalism which frames global themes and narrates local
stories.Each of the chapters in this volume addresses specific
struggles in the history of environmental movements, for example
over national parks, species protection, forests, waste,
contamination, nuclear energy and expropriation. A diverse range of
environments and environmental actors are covered, including the
communities in the Amazonian Forest, the antelope in Tibet, atomic
power plants in Europe and oil and politics in the Niger Delta. The
chapters demonstrate how these conflicts make visible the intricate
connections between local and global, the body and the environment,
and power and nature. "A History of Environmentalism" tells us much
about transformations of cultural perceptions and ways of
production and consuming, as well as ecological and social changes.
More than offering an exhaustive picture of the entire
environmentalist movement, "A History of Environmentalism"
highlights the importance of the experience of environmentalism
within local communities. It offers a worldwide and polyphonic
perspective, making it key reading for students and scholars of
global and environmental history and political ecology.
A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS ON THE HISTORY, MEANING AND MATERIALITY OF
THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT There is a blue hole in environmental
history. The thirteen essays in this very accessible collection
fill it by closing the gap between land and sea, by exploring the
ways the earthly and maritime realms influence one another. What
has too often been described as the 'eternal sea' is shown to be
remarkably dynamic. Ranging widely from Australia to the Arctic,
from ocean depths to high islands, a new generation of humanists
and scientists trespass the boundaries of their own fields of
inquiry to tie together human and natural histories. They reflect
contemporary concerns with declining fisheries, damaged estuaries,
and vanishing coastal communities. Here the history of oceanic
sciences meets that of literary and artistic imagination, offering
vivid insights into the meanings as well as the materiality of
waves and swamps, coasts and coral reefs. In their introduction,
John Gillis and Franziska Torma suggest the directions in which the
fluid frontiers of marine environmental history are moving.
CHECK DAM CONSTRUCTION FOR SUSTAINABLE WATERSHED MANAGEMENT AND
PLANNING Authoritative and comprehensive reference on the potential
for watershed development through the use of check dams Check Dam
Construction for Sustainable Watershed Management and Planning
summarizes current knowledge of check dams as key soil and water
conservation structures in some of the most sensitive and
vulnerable ecosystems in the world, as exemplified by the
Mediterranean area and the Chinese Loess Plateau, providing
detailed information on check dam design and watershed planning,
the use of advanced modeling techniques, challenges in dam
construction and how to overcome them. The work integrates decades
of research in the field of soil and water conservation and gully
management, including advanced studies in check dam construction
and watershed management. It also covers important new techniques
and methods, such as hydrological modeling, isotope tracing, and
more. To aid in reader comprehension, the five highly qualified
editors have divided the work into three distinct sections.
Sections I and II focus on the experience gained from the erosion
hotspots in the Chinese Loess Plateau, whereas Section III expands
the scope to other regions with different functions for check dams,
including headwater ecosystems and alpine environments. Sample
topics covered in Check Dam Construction for Sustainable Watershed
Management and Planning include: The regulating effect of check dam
systems on sediment redistribution and the formation and
development of dam systems in small watersheds Water and soil
conservation made possible by check dam construction and sediment
source analysis of water-sediment retarding effects of check dams
The regulation of check dam systems on the erosion dynamic process
and the mechanism of erosion reduction by check dams Flood control
risk assessment on warping dam systems and the development and
utilization model of check dam systems With its systematic coverage
of all aspects of dam construction and maintenance, Check Dam
Construction for Sustainable Watershed Management and Planning
supports decision making by local authorities and can also be used
as a professional guide for ecologists, hydrologists, and water
resource managers.
An exploration of how writers, artists, and filmmakers expose the
costs and contest the assumptions of the Capitalocene era that
guides readers through the rapidly developing field of Spanish
environmental cultural studies. From the scars left by Franco's
dams and mines to the toxic waste dumped in Equatorial Guinea, from
the cruelty of the modern pork industry to the ravages of mass
tourism in the Balearic Islands, this book delves into the power
relations, material practices and social imaginaries underpinning
the global economic system to uncover its unaffordable human and
non-human costs. Guiding the reader through the rapidly emerging
field of Spanish environmental cultural studies, with chapters on
such topics as extractivism, animal studies, food studies,
ecofeminism, decoloniality, critical race studies, tourism, and
waste studies, an international team of US and European scholars
show how Spanish writers, artists, and filmmakers have illuminated
and contested the growth-oriented and neo-colonialist assumptions
of the current Capitalocene era. Focussed on Spain, the volume also
provides models for exploring the socioecological implications of
cultural manifestations in other parts of the world. CONTRIBUTORS:
Eugenia Afinoguenova, Samuel Amago, Daniel Ares-Lopez, Kata Beilin,
John Beusterien, Miguel Caballero Vazquez, Jorge Catala, Glen S.
Close, Jeffrey K. Coleman, Jamie de Moya-Cotter, Ana
Fernandez-Cebrian, Ofelia Ferran, Tatjana Gajic , Pedro
Garcia-Caro, Santiago Gorostiza, German Labrador Mendez, Maryanne
L. Leone, Shanna Lino, Jorge Mari, Jose Manuel Marrero Henriquez,
Maria Antonia Marti Escayol, Christine Martinez, Cristina Martinez
Tejero, Micah McKay, Pamela F. Phillips, Merce Picornell, Luis I.
Pradanos, Cecile Stehrenberger, John H. Trevathan, Joaquin
Valdivielso, William Viestenz, Maite Zubiaurre.
Japan at Nature's Edge is a timely collection of essays that
explores the relationship between Japan's history, culture, and
physical environment. It greatly expands the focus of previous work
on Japanese modernization by examining Japan's role in global
environmental transformation and how Japanese ideas have shaped
bodies and landscapes over the centuries. The immediacy of Earth's
environmental crisis, a predicament highlighted by Japan's March
2011 disaster, brings a sense of urgency to the study of Japan and
its global connections. The work is an environmental history in the
broadest sense of the term because it contains writing by
environmental anthropologists, a legendary Japanese economist, and
scholars of Japanese literature and culture. The editors have
brought together an unparalleled assemblage of some of the finest
scholars in the field who, rather than treat it in isolation or as
a unique cultural community, seek to connect Japan to global
environmental currents such as whaling, world fisheries,
mountaineering and science, mining and industrial pollution, and
relations with nonhuman animals. The contributors assert the
importance of the environment in understanding Japan's history and
propose a new balance between nature and culture, one weighted much
more heavily on the side of natural legacies. This approach does
not discount culture. Instead, it suggests that the Japanese
experience of nature, like that of all human beings, is a complex
and intimate negotiation between the physical and cultural worlds.
Contributors: Daniel P. Aldrich, Jakobina Arch, Andrew Bernstein,
Philip C. Brown, Timothy S. George, Jeffrey E. Hanes, David L.
Howell, Federico Marcon, Christine L. Marran, Ian Jared Miller,
Micah Muscolino, Ken'ichi Miyamoto, Sara B. Pritchard, Julia Adeney
Thomas, Karen Thornber, William M. Tsutsui, Brett L. Walker,
Takehiro Watanabe.
The Anthropocene refers to all societies' current era of
environmental challenges. For the social sciences, the Anthropocene
represents a historical "moment" with huge potential: it offers
people new ways of considering the human condition, as well as how
they interact with the rest of the living world and with the planet
on all levels. At the turn of the 21st century, the idea of the
Anthropocene burst onto the older, diverse and varied scene of risk
studies. This "new geological era", which is entirely created by
humanity, went on to revive our understanding of environmental
issues, as well as the analysis of the social and political
problems that constitute risk situations. Drawing together
contributions from specialists in social sciences concerning risks
and the environment, Risks and the Anthropocene explores the
advantages that the idea of the Anthropocene can offer in
understanding risks and their management, as well as the
limitations it presents.
19th-century British imperial expansion dramatically shaped today's
globalised world. Imperialism encouraged mass migrations of people,
shifting flora, fauna, and commodities around the world and led to
a series of radical environmental changes never before experienced
in history. "Eco-Cultural Networks in the British Empire" explores
how these networks shaped ecosystems, cultures and societies
throughout the British Empire, and how they were themselves
transformed by local and regional conditions.This multi-authored
volume begins with a rigorous theoretical analysis of the
categories of 'empire' and 'imperialism'. Its chapters, written by
leading scholars in the field, draw methodologically from recent
studies in environmental history, post-colonial theory, and the
history of science. Together, these perspectives provide a
comprehensive historical understanding of how the British Empire
reshaped the globe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This book will be an important addition to the literature on
British imperialism and global ecological change.
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