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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > General
Complex chemical mixtures impact our health every day. In the United States, and also in Central and Eastern Europe, there are a number of locations where complex chemical mixtures have been released to environmental media. Although exposure to mixtures is common, minimal information exists to quantify these exposures, or to determine their impact on human or ecological receptors. These proceedings present some of the most current research conducted to quantify complex mixtures in the environment and investigate their potential impact on human health. Many of the manuscripts reported in these proceedings represent the most up-to-date measurements of population exposures in Central and Eastern Europe. These studies are of value to health and environmental professionals around the world as they develop strategies for assessing exposures, remediating contaminated environments, and improving public health.
`Europe is sometimes credited with a `polis,' but not a `demos'. Political integration and economic globalisation cannot diminish local identity and social memories. This fascinating collection of national case studies shows why there will always be a local `demos' located in ecology, economy, and society. But there will never be a transnational `demos', precisely because locality is the basis for meaningful sustainability. Long may it triumph.' Tim O'Riordan, CSERGE, University of East Anglia 'The book offers a refreshing perspective on the diversity of Europe and at the same time, on the interdependence of the policies, economies, and societies of European countries. Going beyond the dichotomies of `good and bad' and `leaders and laggards' in environmental matters, the authors contribute to a different understanding of the North-South divide in the process of European integration.' Angela Liberatore, European Commission, Directorate General for Research `This is a self-consciously revisionist volume, whose findings are theoretically significant, policy-relevant, and timely. Its insistence on `bringing society back in,' its debunking of the notion of a `Mediterranean syndrome,' its emphasis on developmental `leapfrogging' capacity of late-comers to emerge as leaders in contexts of late modernity, and its systematic attempt to reconceptualize the politics of Europeanization should be carefully listed to students and policy-makers concerned with collective action, Southern Europe, European integration, and environmental politics.' P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, University of Athens
The book stresses the six key structural factors that will affect future environmental policies in the Mediterranean region during the next fifty years: population growth, climate change, soil erosion and desertification, water scarcity, food production, and urbanization and pollution. The contributors point out the potential of all these problems as sources of violent conflict, their policy implications, and the possibilities for the development of preventive policies, based on cooperative strategies. The interdisciplinary approach of the book makes it relevant and useful to a broad range of professionals, specialists and researchers.
Lake Baikal is the oldest, largest and deepest lake in the world.
Its unique animal life and the beauty of the surrounding landscapes
are renowned.
This book explores the role of institutions in policy-making and the states' role in promotion of technology, focusing on environmental technology development. Case studies include wind power diffusion in the UK and Germany, waste recycling in a variety of countries, and green automobile technology in the US and Japan.
Two basic tools for integrated management of the environment are modeling and environmental data. Both tools were available and valid in the past; however, the recent requirements for integrated environmental management have also led to a significant evolution of both modeling procedures and data management systems. Regarding these advances, current literature provides vast amounts of studies on modeling of different environmental processes. However, issues related to data management systems are barely touched on in a comprehensive framework. Data requirements and data availability are mentioned merely as subtopics in most environmental studies, although it is well recognized that data constitute the basis for all environmental management activities. In particular, there is no book yet published that focuses exclusively on data management systems. In this respect, the present book fills an important gap by providing a systematic approach to various aspects of environmental data management. The contents of the book follow the basic steps that constitute an environmental data management system. These steps cover in sequence: collection of environmental data for assessing air quality, surface water quality and solid waste management; reliability considerations in data collection; storage, handling and retrieval of available data; transfer of data into information via data analysis and environmental modeling; and finally the use of available data in decision-making for environmental management. This volume will be useful to faculty members, researchers, professional engineers, planners and managers, and graduate students, who are involved in environmental management, data collection anddissemination, and information retrieval. It will also be of interest to research and data centres, international programmes and organizations related to environmental management.
Standards and Thresholds play an important role in many stages of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process. They can be legally binding or guidance values and are linked to environmental data. This book provides a comprehensive collection of standards and thresholds, with their derivation and application in case studies of EIA projects. The text introduces key drivers of standards, their effect on environment and health, emerging issues and more.
In the 1970s the relationship between literature and the environment emerged as a topic of serious and widespread interest among writers and scholars. The ideas, debates, and texts that grew out of this period subsequently converged and consolidated into the field now known as ecocriticism. A Century of Early Ecocriticism looks behind these recent developments to a prior generation's ecocritical inclinations. Written between 1864 and 1964, these thirty-four selections include scholars writing about the "green" aspects of literature as well as nature writers reflecting on the genre. In his introduction, David Mazel argues that these early "ecocritics" played a crucial role in both the development of environmentalism and the academic study of American literature and culture. Filled with provocative, still timely ideas, A Century of Early Ecocriticism demonstrates that our concern with the natural world has long informed our approach to literature.
There is a plethora of information available on the river Ganga in the form of books, blogs, articles, websites, videos. Unfortunately, most of the information about this famous river is in a scattered form and reproduced from unverified sources. This contributed volume is the first multi-author volume publication on this subject. The River Ganga includes a vast array of topics written by several authors of distinction. Topics include; hydrology, tributaries, water uses, and environmental features such as river water quality, aquatic and terrestrial flora/fauna, natural resources, ecological characteristics, sensitive environmental components and more. Part I gives a basic introduction of the Ganga river. The existing data and available information from various sources has been compiled in a pictorial fashion in the form of cmaps. Its cultural importance with changing times is also discussed. Part II looks at the rich biodiversity of the Ganga Basin. It gives a detailed description of the major floral and faunal biodiversity with special emphasis on the national aquatic animal dolphin and Sunderbans, the largest mangrove wetland in the world. Part III examines 'The Ganga Water as it flows'. It focuses on the water quality as well as its associated challenges. Part IV looks at the complexities of issues confronting the river 'Ganga in changing times' be it snowmelt runoff, river bank erosion hazards and hydropower assessments; how the factors of population, poverty and pollution contribute to the fate of the river. Part IV touches on economic aspects derived from the river such as business opportunities and tourism.
The environmental performance of SMEs (Small and Medium sized Enterprises) is an area of major policy concern. SMEs in Europe reports on factors influencing the environmental performance of SMEs across four European countries: the UK, Ireland, Germany and Italy. While there are a range of factors which are expected to influence the take up of clean technology, this book focuses on three key hypotheses, namely firm competitiveness, culture and use and availability of information and advice. The book is unique as it is based on in-depths interviews conducted in 300 SMEs and an additional postal survey with more than 800 replies.
A journey into the world of carbon, the most versatile element on the planet, by the New York Times bestselling author Paul Hawken. Carbon is the only element that animates the entirety of the living world. Though comprising a tiny fraction of Earth’s composition, our planet is lifeless without it. Yet it is maligned as the driver of climate change, scorned as an errant element blamed for the possible demise of civilization. Here, Paul Hawken looks at the flow of life through the lens of carbon. Embracing a panoramic view of carbon’s omnipresence, he explores how this ubiquitous and essential element extends into every aperture of existence and shapes the entire fabric of life. Hawken charts a course across our planetary history, guiding us into the realms of plants, animals, insects, fungi, food, and farms to offer a new narrative for embracing carbon’s life-giving power and its possibilities for the future of human endeavor. In this stirring, hopeful, and deeply humane book, Hawken illuminates the subtle connections between carbon and our collective human experience and asks us to see nature, carbon, and ourselves as exquisitely intertwined—inseparably connected.
Quantified Societal Risk and Policy Making is the result of an international workshop on societal risk organized by the Dutch Ministry for Transport, Public Works and Water Management with additional financial support from the Directorate for Transportation (DG VII) of the European Union. Managing risks, whether there is a strong man-made or natural component, basically means assessing alternative options under uncertainty. The possibility of multiple fatalities is one of the factors that can vary between options. This volume is concerned with one particular type of risk - the risk of death of a number of people in one accident - and with one particular tool - probabilistic risk analysis - as they are developing in various domains of society nowadays. Generally, this risk is labelled societal risk. This book shows how such comparisons are shaped at present in various hazard domains, such as: flood protection location and physical planning of industry transportation of chemicals, and prevention of aircraft accidents. It examines how to represent aggregate risks from major hazards in ways that can be handled by policy-makers. The purpose of the book is to increase the awareness of societal risk, disseminate available knowledge of existing approaches, and exchange information on applications from various domains. Quantified Societal Risk and Policy Making should be of interest to all those professionally concerned with defining the optimal separation between hazardous activities and equally desirable developments nearby.
1 AUK ISMAIL-ZADEH ,2, TOM BEER3 1 International Institute of Earthquake Prediction Theory and Mathematical Geophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Warshavskoye shosse 79-2, Moscow 113556, Russia; e-mail: [email protected] 2 Geophysikalisches Institut, Universittit Karlsruhe, Hertzstr. 16, Karlsruhe 76187, Germany; e-mail: [email protected] 3 CSIRO Environmental Risk Network, CSIRO Atmospheric Research, Aspendale, Vic. 3195 Australia; e-mail: [email protected] The world faces major threats to the sustainability of our planet. These threats are accompanied by the immediate dangers of natural and man-made disasters. Our vulnerability to them is greatly magnified with each passing year undermining our ability to maintain a sustainable and productive world into the 21st Century and beyond. Both history and common sense teach us that science has a tremendous potential to find ways to cope with these threats. 1 The EUROSCIENCE working group "Science and Urgent Problems of Society" 2 and the IUGG Commission on Geophysical Risk and Sustainability were initiators of the EUROSCIENCE - IUGG Advanced Research Workshop "Science for Reduction of Risk and Sustainable Development of Society" sponsored by the NATO Science Program. The Workshop was held on 15-16 June 2002 in Budapest, Hungary. More than 40 participants from 17 countries took part in the Workshop. Talks and discussions addressed mainly the question of how science can help in reduction of risk and sustainable development of society.
Our world is unquestionably one in which ubiquitous movements of people, goods, technologies, media, money, and ideas produce systems of flows. Comparing case studies from across the world, including those from Benin, the United States, India, Mali, Senegal, Japan, Haiti, and Romania, this book focuses on quotidian landscapes of mobility. Despite their seemingly familiar and innocuous appearances, these spaces exert tremendous control over our behavior and activities. By examining and mapping the politics of place and motion, this book analyzes human beings' embodied engagements with their built world and provides diverse perspectives on the ideological and political underpinnings of landscapes of mobility. In order to describe landscapes of mobility as a historically, socially, and politically constructed condition, the book is divided into three sections-objects, contacts, and flows. The first section looks at elements that constitute such landscapes, including mobile bodies, buildings, and practices across multiple geographical scales. As these variable landscapes are reconstituted under particular social, economic, ecological, and political conditions, the second section turns to the particular practices that catalyze embodied relations within and across such spaces. Finally, the last section explores how the flows of objects, bodies, interactions, and ecologies are represented, presenting a critical comparison of the means by which relations, processes, and exchanges are captured, depicted, reproduced and re-embodied.
'THE ENVIRONMENTAL NOVEL OF OUR TIMES.' Lemn Sissay, Booker Prize judge From an acclaimed Guardian First Book Award finalist comes a debut novel 'brutal and beautiful in equal measure' (Emily St. John Mandel) Longlisted for the DUBLIN Literary Award 2022 A Guardian Best Science Fiction Book of the Year A 'Best Book of the Year 2020' according to BBC Culture * An Irish Times Best Debut Fiction of 2020 Bea's daughter, Agnes, is slowly wasting away, her lungs ravaged by the smog and pollution of the overpopulated metropolis they call home. The only alternative is to build a life in the vast expanse of untamed land known as The Wilderness State. No one has been allowed to venture here before. That is all about to change. But as Bea soon discovers, saving her daughter's life might mean losing her in ways she hadn't foreseen. Passionate and exhilarating, The New Wilderness is the story of a mother's fight to save her daughter in a world she can no longer call her own.
There have been five different settings that at one time or another have contained the dead body of Mustafa Kemal AtatA1/4rk, organizer of the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923) and first president of the Republic of Turkey. Narrating the story of these different architectural constructions - the bedroom in DolmabahAe Palace, Istanbul, where he died; a temporary catafalque in this same palace; his funeral stage in Turkey's new capital Ankara; a temporary tomb in the Ankara Ethnographic Museum; and his permanent and monumental mausoleum in Ankara, known in Turkish as 'Anitkabir' (Memorial Tomb) - this book also describes and interprets the movement of AtatA1/4rk's body through the cities of Istanbul and Ankara and also the nation of Turkey to reach these destinations. It examines how each one of these locations - accidental, designed, temporary, permanent - has contributed in its own way to the construction of a Turkish national memory about AtatA1/4rk. Lastly, the two permanent constructions - the DolmabahAe Palace bedroom and Anitkabir - have changed in many ways since their first appearance in order to maintain this national memory. These changes are exposed to reveal a dynamic, rather than dull, impression of funerary architecture.
Nature conservation has become increasingly important in Britain over the last three decades. This title, first published in 1986, deals with the critical issues surrounding nature conservation and wildlife protection. The book is broad in scope, with a focus on the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act and its provisions for the protection of wildlife habitats in Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). This follows an historical account of habitat loss over the past 200 years and the origins of conservation and site-protection policy. This reissue will be of particular value to professionals, voluntary workers and students with an interest in the origins, developments and practice of nature conservation.
Unmanned Aerial Systems for Monitoring Soil, Vegetation, and Riverine Environments provides an overview of how unmanned aerial systems have revolutionized our capability to monitor river systems, soil characteristics, and related processes at unparalleled spatio-temporal resolutions. This capability has enabled enhancements in our capacity to describe water cycle and hydrological processes. The book includes guidelines, technical advice, and practical experience to support practitioners and scientists in increasing the efficiency of monitoring with the help of UAS. The book contains field survey datasets to use as practical exercises, allowing proposed techniques and methods to be applied to real world case studies.
Challenging the widely held notion of a hospice as a building or a place, this book argues that it should instead be a philosophy of care. It proposes that the positive and negative impact that space can have in the pursuit of an ideal such as hospice care has previously been underestimated. Whether it be a purpose-built hospice, part of a hospital, a nursing home or within the home, a hospice is anchored by space and spatial practices, and these spatial practices are critical for a holistic approach to dying with dignity. Such spatial practices are understood as part of a broad architectural, social, conceptual and theoretical process. By linking health, social and architectural theory and establishing conceptual principles, this book defines 'hospice' as a philosophy that is underpinned by space and spatial practice. In putting forward the notion of 'hospice space', removed from the bounds of a specific building type, it suggests that hospice philosophy could and should be available within any setting of choice where the spatial practices support that philosophy, be it home, nursing home, hospice or 'hospice-friendly-hospitals'.
Though predominantly informative about Greek rural life, the book constitutes an illustrative and informative account about human relationships with the natural world more generally. * H-Environment The people of Vassilikos, farmers and tourist entrepreneurs on the Greek island of Zakynthos, are involved in a bitter environmental dispute concerning the conservation of sea turtles. Against the environmentalists' practices and ideals they set their own culture of relating to the land, cultivation, wild and domestic animals. Written from an anthropological perspective, this book puts forward the idea that a thorough study of indigenous cultures is a fundamental step to understanding conflicts over the environment. For this purpose, the book offers a detailed account of the cultural depth and richness of the human environmental relationship in Vassilikos, focusing on the engagement of its inhabitants with diverse aspects of the local environment, such as animal care, agriculture, tourism and hunting. Dimitris Theodossopoulos is a lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Bristol and a senior research fellow at St Peter's College, Oxford.In the early nineties he carried out fieldwork on environmental politics and the indigenous perceptions of the environment in rural Greece. He is currently teaching anthropology and writing on a variety of themes, ranging from the human-environmental relationship to the ethnography of conflict and nationalism in the Balkans. His most recent field of interest focuses on Greek attitudes towards the Turks and the Greco-Turkish politics of friendship.
During the past five years work has been in progress to examine and treat the acidity of Loch Fleet in south west Scotland and its catchment waters. This text describes the background to the research, the application and effects of liming, and relates the experience gained in the project to practice and research in other parts of the world. In particular the success achieved in restoring fish populations to the loch is described as well as the consequences for other flora and fauna.
Although much scholarly and critical attention has been paid to the relationship between rhetoric and environmental issues, media and environmental issues, and politics and environmental issues, no book has yet focused on the relationship between popular culture and environmental issues. This collection of essays provides a rigorous and multifaceted rhetorical and critical perspective on the ways in which the language and imagery of nature is incorporated strategically into various popular culture texts--ranging from greeting cards to advertisements to supermarket tabloids. As a distinguished group of scholars reveals, our notions about the environment and environmentalism are both reflected in and shaped by our popular culture in fascinating ways never previously examined in an academic context. The consumptive vision of nature presented in these texts represents a wholly American view, one promoting leisure and comfort, and nature as the place to experience them. This good life attitude toward the environment often serves to commodify it, to render it little more than space in which to pursue conventional notions of the American dream. As such, the volume represents a bold and striking vision both of popular culture and of popular notions of an environment that can be either protected or just simply consumed.
Living Oil is a work of environmental cultural studies that engages with a wide spectrum of cultural forms, from museum exhibits and oil industry tours to poetry, documentary film, fiction, still photography, novels and memoirs. The book's unique focus is the aesthetic, sensory and emotional legacies of petroleum, from its rise to the preeminent modern fossil fuel during World War I through the current era of so-called Tough Oil. LeMenager conceives Tough Oil as a bid for continuity with the charismatic lifestyles of the American twentieth century that carries distinct and extreme external costs. She explores the uncomfortable, mixed feelings produced by oil's omnipresence in cultural artifacts such as books, films, hamburgers, and Aspirin tablets. The book makes a strong argument for the region as a vital intellectual frame for the study of fossil fuels, because at the regional level we can better recognize the material effects of petroleum on the day-to-day lives of humans and other, non-human lives. Varied forms of art, too, localize the material impacts of petro-culture. The fluid mobility of oil carries the book outside the United States, for instance to Alberta and Nigeria, emphasizing how both international and domestic resource regions have been mined to produce the idealized modern cultures of the so-called American Century. |
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