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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > General
Physics and the Environment directly connects the physical world to
environmental issues that the world is facing today and will face
in the future. It shows how the first and second laws of
thermodynamics limit the efficiencies of fossil fuel energy
conversions to less than 100%, while also discussing how clever
technologies can enhance overall performance. It also extensively
discusses renewable forms of energy, their physical constraints and
how we must use science and engineering as tools to solve problems
instead of opinion and politics. Dr. Kyle Forinash takes you on a
journey of understanding our mature and well developed technologies
for using fossil fuel resources and how we are unlikely to see huge
gains in their efficiency as well as why their role in climate
change ought to be an argument for their replacement sooner rather
than later. He also discusses the newest technologies in employing
renewable resources and how it is important to understand their
physical constrains in order to make a smooth transition to them.
An entire chapter is dedicated to energy storage, a core question
in renewable energy as well as another chapter on the technical
issues of nuclear energy. The book ends with a discussion on how no
environmental solution, no matter how clever from a technical
aspect, will succeed if there are cheaper alternative, even if
those alternatives have undesirable features associated with them.
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.
Paper recycling in an increasingly environmentally conscious
world is gaining importance. Increased recycling activities are
being driven by robust overseas markets as well as domestic demand.
Recycled fibers play a very important role today in the global
paper industry as a substitute for virgin pulps. Paper recovery
rates continue to increase year after year
Recycling technologies have been improved in recent years by
advances in pulping, flotation deinking and cleaning/screening,
resulting in the quality of paper made from secondary fibres
approaching that of virgin paper. The process is a lot more
eco-friendly than the virgin-papermaking process, using less energy
and natural resources, produce less solid waste and fewer
atmospheric emissions, and helps to preserve natural resources and
landfill space.
Currently more than half of the paper is produced from recovered
papers. Most of them are used to produce brown grades paper and
board but for the last two decades, there is a substantial increase
in the use of recovered papers to produce, through deinking, white
grades such as newsprint, tissue, market pulp.
By using recycled paper, companies can take a significant step
toward reducing their overall environmental impacts. This study
deals with the scientific and technical advances in recycling and
deinking including new developments.
Covers in great depth all the aspects of recycling
technologiesCovers the latest science and technology in
recyclingProvides up-to-date, authoritative information and cites
many mills experiences and pertinent researchIncludes the use of
biotech methods for deinking, refining. and improving drainage
Risk science is becoming increasingly important as businesses,
policymakers and public sector leaders are tasked with
decision-making and investment using varying levels of knowledge
and information. Risk Science: An Introduction explores the theory
and practice of risk science, providing concepts and tools for
understanding and acting under conditions of uncertainty. The
chapters in this work cover the fundamental concepts, principles,
approaches, methods and models for how to understand, assess,
communicate, manage and govern risk. These topics are presented and
examined in a way which details how they relate, for example, how
to characterize and communicate risk with particular emphasis on
reflecting uncertainties; how to distinguish risk perception and
professional risk judgments; how to assess risk and guide
decision-makers, especially for cases involving large uncertainties
and value differences; and how to integrate risk assessment with
resilience-based strategies. The text provides a variety of
examples and case studies that relate to highly visible and
relevant issues facing risk academics, practitioners and non-risk
leaders who must make risk-related decisions. Presenting both the
foundational and most recent advancements in the subject matter,
this work particularly suits students of risk science courses at
college and university level. The book also provides broader key
reading for students and scholars in other domains, including
business, engineering and public health.
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.
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.
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.
'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.
The Design and Construction of Pitched Roofing is the definitive
guide to obtaining successful results in pitched roofing
construction. Written by a team of experts from the NFRC and the
RTA, the representative groups in industry for roofing
construction. This guide is fully in line with the latest best site
practice, innovations and British and European Standards, to ensure
readers are receiving the most up-to-date and accurate information
available in the field. Based on actual teaching practice, the book
is highly illustrated throughout to increase accessibility of the
text for the reader in its exploration of the practical aspects of
roofing. It also includes an extensive glossary of roofing terms
for ease of reference. This first edition contains material
detailing recent innovations in roofing, in the areas of roof
components and envelope performance requirements. It brings
together a comprehensive collection of the design, materials
specification, and workmanship requirements to construct a
successful pitched roof. Including: Up to date design, product and
workmanship standards Current best site practice Advances in Health
and Safety Current typical scope of works for a Roofing Contractor
Broad knowledge of the overall building envelope performance.
Specifically, the increasing insulation and air tightness
requirements. Students following Diploma (Foundation, Intermediate
and Advanced level) and apprenticeship routes, will find this book
to be an invaluable reference source of information which will
accompany them throughout their studies. Building professionals
concerned with the design, detailing and specification of roofing
will also find this book to be an essential reference.
This book offers essential information on geospatial technologies
for water resource management and highlights the latest GIS and
geostatistics techniques as they relate to groundwater. Groundwater
is inarguably India's single most important natural resource. It is
the foundation of millions of Indian farmers' livelihood security
and the primary source of drinking water for a vast majority of
Indians in rural and urban areas. The prospects of continued high
rates of growth in the Indian economy will, to a great extent,
depend on how judiciously we can manage groundwater in the years to
come. Over the past three decades, India has emerged as by far the
single largest consumer of groundwater in the world. Though
groundwater has made the country self-sufficient in terms of food,
we face a crisis of dwindling water tables and declining water
quality. Deep drilling by tube wells, which was once part of the
solution to water shortages, is now in danger of becoming part of
the problem. Consequently, we urgently need to focus our efforts on
the sustainable and equitable management of groundwater. Addressing
that need, this book presents novel advances in and applications of
RS–GIS and geostatistical techniques to the research community in
a precise and straightforward manner.
This book provides a didactic overview of techniques for inferring
information from soil spectroscopic data, and the codes in the R
programming language for performing such analyses. It is intended
for students, researchers and practitioners looking to infer soil
information from spectroscopic data, focusing mainly on, but not
restricted to, the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Little prior knowledge of the R programming language or digital
soil spectra is required. We work through the steps to process
spectroscopic data systematically.
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.
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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