The tension between nature and culture, which accompanies the rise of any large society, has become a subject of great concern in our time. In this compelling study, Gunther Barth, acclaimed author of City People: The Rise of Modern City Culture in Nineteenth-Century America, identifies fleeting moments of concord between nature and culture in the course of American history. During the search for the Wilderness Passage, the progress of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the building of park cemeteries and big city parks, Americans realized that nature was not merely a force to be reckoned with, not merely a resource to be exploited, but also an integral component of their lives. Through the engineering of nature and culture in the urban environment, the energetic attempts to conserve large-scale nature in the United States emerged as an offspring of the big city. Heightening our understanding of the historical complexity of the relationship between nature and culture, and suggesting that harmony between the two is a mark of civilization, this original study will be an invaluable guide to anyone concerned with the quality of life in America, past and future.

Academic writing on environmental communication proliferated in the 1990's. A few of us had been calling for such work and making initial investigations throughout the 1980's, but the momentum in the field built slowly. Spurred by coverage in the mass media, academic publishers finally caught the wave of interest. In this exciting new volume, the editors demonstrate more fully than ever before how environmental rhetoric and technical communication go hand in hand. The key link that they and their distinguished group of contributors have discovered is the ancient concern of communication scholars with public deliberation. Environmental issues present technical communicators with some of their greatest challenges, above all, how to make the highly specialized and inscrutably difficult technical information generated by environmental scientists and engineers usable in public decision making. The editors encourage us to accept the challenge of contributing to environmentally conscious decision making by integrating technical knowledge and human values. For technical communicators who accept the challenge of working toward solutions by opening access to crucial information and by engaging in critical thinking on ecological issues, the research and theory offered in this volume provide a strong foundation for future practice.

Bioremediation and Bioeconomy provides a common platform for scientists from various backgrounds to find sustainable solutions to environmental issues, including the ever-growing lack of water resources which are under immense pressure due to land degradation, pollution, population explosion, urbanization, and global economic development. In addition, large amounts of toxic waste have been dispersed in thousands of contaminated sites and bioremediation is emerging as an invaluable tool for environmental clean-up. The book addresses these challenge by presenting innovative and cost-effective solutions to decontaminate polluted environments, including usage of contaminated land and waste water for bioproducts such as natural fibers, biocomposites, and fuels to boost the economy. Users will find a guide that helps scientists from various backgrounds find sustainable solutions to these environmental issues as they address the topical issues crucial for understanding new and innovative approaches for sustainable development.

A fascinating study of the environmental history of Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of the Pacific, from the time of the dinosaurs to the present day. Of interest to students and academics alike, this book provides a much-needed synthesis of the recent literature on the environmental history of Australia and Oceania. Part of ABC-CLIO's Nature and Human Societies series, this book maps out the key trends in the region's environmental history, charting the creation of the Australian continent from the ancient land mass of Gondwanaland to the arrival of humans. Especially fascinating are the chapters highlighting how successive waves of human migration created environmental havoc throughout the region, leading to the collapse of the Easter Island civilization and the spread of nonindigenous flora and fauna. From the controversies over the reasons why creatures such as the marsupial lion and the giant kangaroo became extinct to such contemporary problems as deforestation and global warming, this book contains sobering lessons for us all. A chronology covers key phenomena and events in the region's environmental history from before the dinosaurs to the present day Includes an annotated bibliography detailing the major works on the history of the region's environment

The constant increase in the consumption of mineral resources, as well as the growing awareness of their exploitation, is causing deep concern within the scientific community. This concern is justified by the fact that the energy transition will increase the pressure on these resources, as renewable energies require an increased and more diversified quantity of mineral materials. This book presents an overview of the exploitation of these mineral resources, where the natural, regulatory and environmental constraints interfere with economic, financial and geopolitical interests. By mobilizing the fields of the humanities, geosciences and engineering, it also analyzes the challenges that the energy transition will encounter, challenges related to the contradictory effects that the acceleration of the extraction of these resources will have on their physical availability, the economies that exploit them and the populations that live off of them

The matsutake mushroom continues to be a highly sought delicacy, especially in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cuisine. Matsutake Worlds explores this mushroom through the lens of multi-species encounters centered around the matsutake's notorious elusiveness. The mushroom's success, the contributors of this volume argue, cannot be accounted for by any one cultural, social, political, or economic process. Rather, the matsutake mushroom has flourished as the result of a number of different processes and dynamics, culminating in the culinary institution we know today.

Jean Liedloff, an American writer, spent two and a half years in the South American jungle living with Stone Age Indians. The experience demolished her Western preconceptions of how we should live and led her to a radically different view of what human nature really is. She offers a new understanding of how we have lost much of our natural well-being and shows us practical ways to regain it for our children and for ourselves.

This book explains how and why large oil-producing corporations have affected government institutions, energy policy, and politics in the United States—and suggests how their influence can be reduced. Big oil is the leading factor in U.S. energy politics today; the largest oil-producing companies also constitute a formidable force and interest group in American politics. This book examines why oil is so important and how the prominence of huge corporations—often working in the absence of countervailing forces—has affected government institutions, policy (with a focus on energy policy), and politics in the United States. Analyzing big oil's influence on political outcomes, particularly through campaign contributions and lobbying, this book shows how strong corporate power affects political participation. The book documents how the influence of big oil flows in all directions, intricately connecting U.S. policies at all levels—foreign policy, federal, state, and even local—regarding oil exploration, development, production, and transportation. Readers will come away with a clear understanding of how these multi-tiered relationships between oil corporations and governments work to the advantage of corporations—and to the disadvantage of states and the citizens they represent.

Although enormous industrial advances were made in the USSR, the country still lagged behind the West in the post-industrial age. What the Soviets could not build or manufacture, they had to get from the West. The final outcome was a culture developed in which there was no regard for consumerism and no respect for the environment. The author traces the development of the Soviet malaise, but warns that a future authoritarian regime could still revive the technological race. Conversely, he also replies to the academic debate on the excesses of modern technology in the West, with a sharp criticism of feminist and post-modernist perspectives.

Environmental and natural resource policy decision making is changing. Increasingly citizens and management agency personnel are seeking ways to do things differently; to participate meaningfully in the decision making process as parties work through policy conflicts. Doing things differently has come to mean doing things collaboratively.

Daniels and Walker examine collaboration in environmental and natural resource policy decision making and conflict management. They address collaboration by featuring a method collaborative learning, that has been designed to address decision making and conflict management needs in complex and controversial policy settings. As they illustrate, collaborative learning differs in some significant ways from existing approaches for dealing with policy decision making, public participation, and conflict management. First, it is a hybrid of systems thinking and alternative dispute resolution concepts. Second, it is grounded explicitly in experiential, team-or organizational-and adult learning theories. It is a theory-based framework through which parties can make progress in the management of controversial environmental policy situations. They discuss both the theory and technique of collaborative learning and present cases where it has been applied. This is a professional and teaching tool for scholars, students, and researchers involved with environmental issues as well as dispute resolution.

After years of expeditions all over the world, adventurer Alastair Humphreys spends a year exploring the detailed local map around his home.

Can this unassuming landscape, marked by the glow of city lights and the hum of busy roads, hold any surprises for the world traveller or satisfy his wanderlust? Could a single map provide a lifetime of exploration? Discovering more about the natural world than in all his years in remote environments, he learns the value of truly getting to know his neighbourhood.

An ode to slowing down, Local is a celebration of curiosity and time spent outdoors, as well as a rallying cry to protect the wild places on our doorstep.

The United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development brought over 100 governments together in Rio de Janeiro (3-14 June 1992) to agree action and legal bases for the future protection of the environment. This text elucidates the UNCED process and the Conference itself by assembling the key documents, including the final version of Agenda 21, and using them to recount how UNCED began, developed and finally, in Rio, came to fruition. Each document is preceded by analytical commentary, and a comprehensive index has been included.

These essays examine several aspects of the nature of the emerging strategic environment and how this situation affects thinking about U.S. strategy in the 21st century. The United States and its Allies currently confront a number of major trouble spots around the world. In addition, the stability and defense policies of U.S. Allies represent an increasingly important factor in the making of U.S. foreign policy. How well the American military is adjusting to the post-Cold War world with the threats of declining defense budgets and rapid changes in technology, will be a determining factor in the course of the coming decade. Here, the discussion of an impending joint military culture and service cultures out of touch with the harsh realities of the emerging strategic environment combine in a dramatic prediction of 21st century foreign strategies.

The Balkans, the Middle East, and Russia all present considerable defense planning difficulties with no obvious solutions. The Balkans represent the clearest immediate danger, as the weight of history and current political ambitions threaten to destabilize Europe's southeastern flank. In the mid-term range are Middle Eastern concerns such as water shortages, border disputes, and new rivalries, all of which unbalance an area whose oil reserves fuel the world economy. Finally, the Russian military collapse suggests that the future Russian threat may result more from national weakness than from strength.

Why should we care about climate chaos and global warming? Because, among other risky outcomes, they may seriously harm our health Scientists around the world are in agreement that global warming, more aptly named climate change, is occurring and human activity is the primary cause. The debate now is in the scientific and policy worlds about just how harmful climate change will be and what are the best ways to stop it. One of those scientists is author Cindy Parker, who believes climate change is the most health-damaging problem humanity has ever faced. Parker has thus immersed herself during the past ten years in educating the public and health professionals about how climate change will affect our well-being. Here, she and husband, Steve Shapiro, a psychologist and former journalist, describe what we can expect if climate change continues unabated. The authors explain our possible physical and mental responses to such climate change factors as heat stress, poor air quality, insufficient water resources, and the rise of infectious diseases fueled by even minor increases in temperature. They also show how other changes that may result from climate change-including sea level rise, extreme weather events, and altered food supplies can harm human health. Parker and Shapiro have found, however, that just talking about the problem is not enough. Actions that can prevent or reduce climate change's harm are presented in each chapter.

To illustrate how much global warming will affect our lives, Parker and Shapiro begin their book with a chapter showing the worst-case scenario if climate change continues without intervention, and end the book with the best case scenario if we act now. Their eye-opening work will appeal to everyone who wants to remain healthy as we challenge this world-altering problem of our own making . While written for a lay audience in a manner that limits technical terminology, the book will also appeal to students and professionals of public health, medicine, environmental psychology, and science who will find the focus on health and the extensive referencing useful.

Over the past decade the notion of sustainability has emerged as a precept that has been applied to government, commerce, the environment and technology. This volume will discuss how sustainability is reflected in economics, political science and geography through the lens of socio-economic change and globalization through theoretical and real world perspectives. Using the Costa Rican Cloud Forest community of Monteverde readers will be able to understand how the notion of sustainability has been applied in a community context whose experiences have global implications.

This study examines the administrative tools and techniques that U.S. presidents have used to influence environmental policy. A major portion of the book assesses current techniques and recent administrations, particularly Reagan, Carter, and Bush strategies. Experts, students, policymakers, and activists concerned with public policy and environmental issues will find this unique study invaluable for understanding the administrative procedures, the powers, and the limitations of the administrative presidency. Robert Shanley opens with a brief overview of how presidents have affected conservation policy in the first part of the century and then discusses the more complex environmental policymaking in recent administrations. Focusing on the Reagan administration, he shows how it controlled the flow of agency information and the gathering of statistical data to curb agency policy and enforcement, and then traces the reaction of Congress and the Federal Courts to these initiatives. He demonstrates how presidential executive orders may significantly affect environmental policy and then contrasts different perspectives of the Carter and Reagan administrations on risk assessment and on various agency programs. Shanley goes on to discuss Bush's record and his efforts to work out compromises between environmental and economic interests. Finally, Shanley posits that administrative procedures are often counter-productive in the long term. The book concludes with an overview of the resources at the disposal of presidents today and the problems confronting national leaders in initiating and shaping environmental policy.