This signal volume gathers theologians from around the world to address three pressing questions: How can Christianity and Christian churches rethink themselves and their roles in light of the endangered earth? What "earth-honoring" elements does justice-oriented Christianity have to contribute to the common good? And how can local communities and churches respond creatively and constructively on a level to these vast global forces?

This volume captures the chief themes and presentations from the October 1998 conference on social justice, ecology, and church, entitled "Ecumenical Earth" and held at Union Theological Seminary. Among the 18 contributors to this trailblazing conference are Rasmussen and Hessel, James Cone, Kusumita Pedersen, Brigitte Kahl, Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi, Steven Rockefeller, Havid Hallman, Ernst Conradie, Peggy Shepard, and Troy Messenger.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2014 While few detailed surveys of fauna or flora exist in England from the period before the nineteenth century, it is possible to combine the evidence of historical sources (ranging from game books, diaries, churchwardens' accounts and even folk songs) and our wider knowledge of past land use and landscape, with contemporary analyses made by modern natural scientists, in order to model the situation at various times and places in the more remote past. This timely volume encompasses both rural and urban environments from 1650 to the mid-twentieth century, drawing on a wide variety of social, historical and ecological sources. It examines the impact of social and economic organisation on the English landscape, biodiversity, the agricultural revolution, landed estates, the coming of large-scale industry and the growth of towns and suburbs. It also develops an original perspective on the complexity and ambiguity of man/animal relationships in this post-medieval period.

Recent decades have witnessed a surge of literature and activism from religious leaders and thinkers on the natural environment. Religions and Environments: A Reader in Religion, Nature and Ecology brings together some of the most thought-provoking examples of such writings from the nineteenth century up to today, spanning a variety of methodological approaches and religious traditions, viewpoints and locations. Religions and Environments: A Reader in Religion, Nature and Ecology depicts some of the diverse ways that religious narratives and practices have helped people connect to the physical world around them. To do so, it is divided into three parts: the wilderness, the garden, and the city. Traditions represented include nature spiritualities, Asian traditions, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and indigenous traditions.Reflecting the most current scholarship in the study of religion and nature, as well as providing important historical essays, it draws on a range of perspectives and methodologies, including historical, theological, philosophical and literary methods. Each part contains a critical introduction by the editor which provides an overview of issues and guides students to key ideas. Section introductions also provide an overview of the specific issues which arise in the readings in each section. Each part also includes suggestions for further reading and resources on the topics, making this the ideal resource for courses on religion and the environment, religion and ecology, and religion and nature.

Meat consumption impacts all aspects of human life and humanity's long-term survival prospects. Despite this knowledge, society continues to ignore the negative impact of consuming meat, which include excessively high contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions, land and water pollution and depletion, antimicrobial resistance, and negative impacts on human health. Impact of Meat Consumption on Health and Environmental Sustainability addresses the difficulties, challenges, and opportunities in reducing excessive meat consumption in order to mitigate human and environmental damage. Policymakers, academicians, researchers, advanced-level students, technology developers, and government officials will find this text useful in furthering their research exposure to pertinent topics such as dietary recommendations for limiting meat consumption, trade and the meat industry, ethics of meat production and consumption, and the environmental impacts of meat consumption.

The role and agency of the public is often a minor consideration for researchers, authorities, and other experts evaluating policy goals, strategies, and instruments within the transport sector. Public Participation in Transport in Times of Change analyses and discusses different forms of participation, challenges, and lessons to be learned across the field. Chapters discuss various forms of public participation in connection to sustainable mobility, transport planning, policy packaging, health, infrastructure, and active travel, creating a comprehensive analysis relevant for both practitioners and researchers who operate within the transport field. The Transport and Sustainability series addresses the important nexus between transport and sustainability containing volumes dealing with a wide range of issues relating to transport, its impact in economic, social, and environmental spheres, and its interaction with other policy sectors.

This unique survey of the environmental history of the southern United States explores the ecological, social, and economic interaction between humans and the environment in the South over the last 20,000 years. The melting of the Ice Age glaciers heralded the arrival of the Archaic peoples in the South and the lives of the South's peoples have long been shaped and challenged by the environment. Conversely, the human impact on the South's landscape has been dramatic, from the mound building of Native Americans to the construction of cities and the birth of modern industry. Part of ABC-CLIO's Nature and Human Societies series, Southern United States: An Environmental History explores the historical and ecological dimensions of human interaction with the environment throughout Southern history. Examining diverse issues from the impact of the end of the Ice Age to the consequences of the U.S. space program for Florida's environment, this invaluable guide synthesizes literature from a wide range of authoritative sources to provide a fascinating guide to the South's environment. Illustrations, including maps, and first-hand accounts of the southern landscape from early travel writers A chronology listing key individuals, events, and movements in the environmental history of the South

Margaret Atwood is arguably the most renowned and internationally acclaimed Canadian writer, poet, novelist, short story writer, literary critic, and environmental activist. In this incisive interpretation of Atwood's prose, Candy D'Cunha argues that the novelist's ecosophical vision provides valuable lessons that could help in creating a greater and more responsible awareness in the modern psyche about the environment. By exploring the works of Atwood, one can understand the need for a deeper rethinking and a clearer re-orientation in this area. Select novels, namely Surfacing (1972), The Handmaid's Tale (1985), Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013), bring out the principles of ecological philosophy by describing various aspects of the current ecological crisis. Duplicity in the norms and recognition, the degradation of the environment, consequent tragic dilemmas, and the general ghastliness of life are all found in Atwood's oeuvre. A number of studies have been made on the thematic works of Atwood, such as feminism, quest for identity, power and politics, dystopian and utopian elements, but this book is the first ecosophical exploration of Atwood's themes and concerns. This volume enables readers to propagate the requisite ecological wisdom for self-realization for the harmonious and just development of society. Interpreting Atwood's works from an Indian perspective also helps to promote Indian ecological justice.

Indoor Pollution educates concerned readers about the sources of indoor pollutants, the illnesses associated with them, and the measures used to control them. Readers will also find a comprehensive listing of relevant laws and regulations, a directory of organizations, a complete bibliography, and a listing of audio/visual aids. Appendixes listing organizations, chemical compounds, measurements, and testing information complete the volume. Includes a comprehensive listing of relevant laws and regulations Provides an extensive appendix which lists organizations, chemical compounds, measurements, and testing information

In this ambitious, myth-busting book, leading scientist and internationally bestselling author Vaclav Smil investigates many of the burning questions facing the world today: Why are some of the world’s biggest food producers also the countries with the most undernourished populations? Why is food waste a colossal 1,000kcal per person daily, and how can we solve that? Could we all go vegan and be healthy? Should we? How will we feed the ballooning population without killing the planet?

How Food Really Works shows how we misunderstand the essentials of where our food really comes from, how our dietary requirements shape us, and why this impacts our planet in drastic ways. Ultimately, this data-based, rigorously researched guide explains how we will survive and thrive long into the future.

This book examines "New Localism' - exploring how communities have turned towards more local concerns: my street, my town, my state, as an expression of dissatisfaction with globalization. It details the ideas that have created a political force that academics have often misunderstood and provides a template for further investigation with a strong focus on how to harness the motivations behind such changes for the benefit of individuals, communities and the more-than-human environment. The book discusses human progress, both individual and collective, in terms of the interactions of the local and the global, the specific and the universal, and the concrete and the abstract. It also considers how forms of social progress can be understood and reconfigured in the context of the rejection of certain aspects of liberal intelligentsia orthodoxy over recent years. Developing his arguments with specific reference to the evolving, political landscape, the author helps readers to understand major events such as the Trump presidency and the British vote to leave the EU from a fully semiotic perspective. He also explains how educational processes can use and respond to such events in ways that are locally grounded but nevertheless not at odds with more abstract formulations of progress such as sustainability and social justice.

The research and review papers presented in this volume provide an overview of the main issues, findings, and open questions in cutting-edge research on the fields of modeling, optimization and dynamics and their applications to biology, economics, energy, finance, industry, physics and psychology. Given the scientific relevance of the innovative applications and emerging issues they address, the contributions to this volume, written by some of the world's leading experts in mathematics, economics and other applied sciences, will be seminal to future research developments and will spark future works and collaborations. The majority of the papers presented in this volume were written by participants of the 4th International Conference on Dynamics, Games and Science: Decision Models in a Complex Economy (DGS IV), held at the National Distance Education University (UNED) in Madrid, Spain in June 2016 and of the 8th Berkeley Bioeconomy Conference: The Future of Biofuels, held at the UC Berkeley Alumni House in April 2015.

The essays collected in The Peace of Nature and the Nature of Peace consider connections between ecology, environmental ethics, nonviolence, and philosophy of peace. Edited by Andrew Fiala, this book includes essays written by important scholars in the field of peace studies, pacifism, and nonviolence, including Michael Allen Fox, Andrew Fitz-Gibbon, Bill Gay, and others. Topics include: ecological consciousness and nonviolence, environmental activism and peace activism, the environmental impact of militarism, native and indigenous peoples and peace, food ethics and nonviolence, and other topics. The book should be of interest to scholars, students, and activists who are interested in the relationship between peace movements and environmentalism.

In consequence of significant social, political, economic, and demographic changes several wildlife species are currently growing in numbers and recolonizing Europe. While this is rightly hailed as a success of the environmental movement, the return of wildlife brings its own issues. As the animals arrive in the places we inhabit, we are learning anew that life with wild nature is not easy, especially when the accumulated cultural knowledge and experience pertaining to such coexistence have been all but lost. This book provides a hermeneutic study of the ways we come to understand the troubling impacts of wildlife by exploring and critically discussing the meanings of 'ecological discomforts'. Thus, it begins the work of rebuilding the culture of coexistence. The cases presented in this book range from crocodile attacks to mice infestations, and their analysis consequently builds up an ethics that sees wildlife as active participants in the shaping of human moral and existential reality. This book is of interest not only to environmental philosophers, who will find here an original contribution to the established ethical discussions, but also to wildlife managers, and even to those members of the public who themselves struggle to make sense of encounters with their new wild neighbors.

A textbook for courses on environmental economics in either an economics or an environmental science degree, this text introduces an economic approach to environmental problems, seeing them as the result of failures of co-ordination between people and their use of natural resources. Author at Monash University.

This book presents a compilation of case studies from different countries on achieving agricultural sustainability. The book stresses that, in order to meet the needs of our rapidly growing population, it is imperative to increase agricultural productivity. If global food production is to keep pace with an increasing population, while formulating new food production strategies for developing countries, the great challenge for modern societies is to boost agricultural productivity. Today, the application of chemicals to enhance plant growth or induced resistance in plants is limited due to the negative effects of chemical treatment and the difficulty of determining the optimal concentrations to benefit the plant. In the search for alternative means to solve these problems, biological applications have been extensively studied. Naturally occurring plant-microbe-environment interactions are utilized in many ways to enhance plant productivity. As such, a greater understanding of how plants and microbes coexist and benefit one another can yield new strategies to improve plant productivity in the most sustainable way. Developing sustainable agricultural practices requires understanding both the basic and applied aspects of agriculturally important microorganisms, with a focus on transforming agricultural systems from being nutrient-deficient to nutrient-rich. This work is divided into two volumes, the aim being to provide a comprehensive description and to highlight a holistic approach, respectively. Taken together, the two volumes address the fundamentals, applications, research trends and new prospects of agricultural sustainability.  Volume one consists of two sections, with the first addressing the role of microbes in sustainability, and the second exploring beneficial soil microbe interaction in several economically important crops. Section I elucidates various mechanisms and beneficial natural processes that enhance soil fertility and create rhizospheric conditions favourable for high fertility and sustainable soil flora. It examines the mechanism of action and importance of rhizobacteria and mycorrhizal associations in soil. In turn, section II presents selected case studies involving economically important crops. This section explains how agriculturally beneficial microbes have been utilized in sustainable cultivation with high productivity. Sustainable food production without degrading the soil and environmental quality is a major priority throughout the world, making this book a timely addition. It offers a comprehensive collection of information that will benefit students and researchers working in the field of rhizospheric mechanisms, agricultural microbiology, biotechnology, agronomy and sustainable agriculture, as well as policymakers in the area of food security and sustainable agriculture.