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Books > Professional & Technical > Environmental engineering & technology > General
In these short illustrated guides, Dr Mark Everard, avid
nature-watcher, angler and scientist, takes a dedicated look at
three British freshwater fishes, the Silver Bream, Gudgeon and
Ruffe. Though an integral part of aquatic ecosystems and well-known
to anglers, these fish are often overlooked by the wider public as
well as scientists. Each book is in three sections, first exploring
the biology of the fish itself, including science written in
accessible style, second discussing angling history and tips, and
thirdly exploring the fish's cultural connections, including
etymology of the fish. A bibliography at the end of each guide
directs the reader to additional resources.
"Handbook of Recycling" is an authoritative review of the
current state-of-the-art of recycling, reuse and reclamation
processes commonly implemented today and how they interact with one
another. The book addresses several material flows, including iron,
steel, aluminum and other metals, pulp and paper, plastics, glass,
construction materials, industrial by-products, and more. It also
details various recycling technologies as well as recovery and
collection techniques. To completely round out the picture of
recycling, the book considers policy and economic implications,
including the impact of recycling on energy use, sustainable
development, and the environment.
With contemporary recycling literature scattered across
disparate, unconnected articles, this book is a crucial aid to
students and researchers in a range of disciplines, from materials
and environmental science to public policy studies.
Portrays recent and emerging technologies in metal recycling,
by-product utilization and management of post-consumer wasteUses
life cycle analysis to show how to reclaim valuable resources from
mineral and metallurgical wastesUses examples from current
professional and industrial practice, with policy and economic
implications
Renewable energy (RE) is a subject of great interest today. It is
one of the two main means for implementing climate change
mitigation programmes, and presently the only perceived means for
replacing the declining global fossil fuel reserves. It also helps
fight poverty and assists in the global quest for gender equity by
taking clean energy where it is needed most for development. It is
perhaps not surprising therefore that there is so much coverage of
RE in both the conventional media and the internet by media and
tech writers, economists and bloggers, many of who only have a
partial understanding of the technology itself. The end result is
mostly promotional rhetoric that says little about the true value
of the technology, and leads to a confused picture for the serious
individual or decision-maker who wants to know what the technology
is really capable of doing. This book provides a clear and factual
picture of the status of RE and its capabilities today. The need
for such a book was first realized by the author when he was
engaged in a renewable energy capacity-building project
encompassing countries from Europe, the Caribbean, Africa, and the
Pacific. The book is largely non-technical in nature; it does
however contain enough mention of the science and technology to
enable readers to go further with their own investigations should
they wish to. The book covers all areas of renewable energy (RE),
starting from biomass energy and hydropower and proceeding to wind,
solar and geothermal energy before ending with an overview of ocean
energy. It begins with a simple introduction to the physical
principles of the RE technologies, followed by an enumeration of
the requirements for their successful implementation. The last two
chapters consider how the technologies are actually being
implemented today and their roles in climate change mitigation and
poverty alleviation.
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.
Hydrology is a key influence on water security, environmental
sustainability, agricultural production, energy, and transport,
especially in unique environments such as arid regions and the
tropics, where degradation issues on water and land can threaten
the livelihoods of poor communities. With implications in
urbanization, landscape architecture, and sanitation, enhancing the
practice of water use, management, and planning is imperative for
the sustainable development of these regions. Hydrology and Water
Resources Management in Arid, Semi-Arid, and Tropical Region is an
essential research publication that seeks to improve scientific
understanding and sharing of data in hydrology and integrated water
resources management of arid, semi-arid, and tropical regions in
order to enhance water governance and alleviate reduction in the
vulnerability of water resources systems to global changes.
Featuring a wide range of topics such as hydrometeorology,
sustainable development, and climate change, this book is ideal for
researchers, technology developers, academicians, policymakers,
government officials, and students.
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Woven Together
(Hardcover)
James S. Mastaler; Foreword by Holmes Rolston
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R822
Discovery Miles 8 220
Save R141 (15%)
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The terrestrial organisms of the Galapagos Islands live under
conditions unlike those anywhere else. At the edge of a uniquely
rich mid-ocean upwelling, their world is also free of mammalian
predators and competitors, allowing them to live unbothered,
exuberant lives. With its giant tortoises, marine iguanas,
flightless cormorants, and forests of giant daisies, there's no
question that this is a magnificent place. Long before people
traversed the Earth, evolution endowed native species with
adaptations to these special conditions and to perturbations like
El Nino events and periodic droughts. As the islands have grown
ever-more connected with humanity, those same adaptations now make
its species vulnerable. Today, the islands are best viewed as one
big social-ecological system where the ability of each native
organism to survive and reproduce is a product of human activity in
addition to ecological circumstances. In this book, William H.
Durham takes readers on a tour of Galapagos and the organisms that
inhabit these isolated volcanic islands. Exuberant Life offers a
contemporary synthesis of what we know about the evolution of its
curiously wonderful organisms, how they are faring in the
tumultuous changing world around them, and how evolution can guide
our efforts today for their conservation. The book highlights the
ancestry of a dozen specific organisms in these islands, when and
how they made it to the Galapagos, as well as how they have changed
in the meantime. Durham traces the strengths and weaknesses of each
species, arguing that the mismatch between natural challenges of
their habitats and the challenges humans have recently added is the
main task facing conservation efforts today. Such analysis often
provides surprises and suggestions not yet considered, like the
potential benefits to joint conservation efforts between tree
finches and tree daisies, or ways in which the peculiar evolved
behaviors of Nazca and blue-footed boobies can be used to benefit
both species today. In each chapter, a social-ecological systems
framework is used to highlight links between human impact,
including climate change, and species status today, Historically,
the Galapagos have played a central role in our understanding of
evolution; what these islands now offer to teach us about
conservation may well prove indispensable for the future of the
planet.
Research on the cutting edge of economics, ecology, and ethics is
presented in this timely study. Building from a theoretical
critique of the tradition of cost-benefit analysis, the
contributors lay the foundation for a macroeconomics of
environmental sustainability and distributive justice. Attention is
then turned to three of the most critical areas of social and
environmental applied research - biodiversity, climate change, and
energy. The contributors redefine progress away from growth and
toward development. To this end, the first section of the book
tackles the dominant framework used in the US today to evaluate
tradeoffs between economic growth and its inherent externalities.
Succeeding chapters cover a wide variety of studies related to
biodiversity health and energy. Each section is anchored with
overviews by top scholars in these areas - including Herman Daly,
Carl McDaniel, Stephen Schneider, and Nathan Hagens - and followed
by detailed analyses reflecting the transdisciplinary approach of
ecological economics. Students and scholars of ecological,
environmental, and natural resource economics, sustainability
sciences, and environmental studies will find this book of great
interest. Non-profit and government agencies in search of methods
and cases that merge the study of ecology and economics will also
find the analyses of great practical value.
'In the past two decades there has been considerable work on global
climatic change and its effect on the ecosphere, as well as on
local and global environmental changes triggered by human
activities. From the tropics to the Arctic, peatlands have
developed under various geological conditions, and they provide
good records of global and local changes since the Late
Pleistocene.
The objectives of the book are to analyze topics such as geological
evolution of major peatlands basins; peatlands as self sustaining
ecosystems; chemical environment of peatlands: water and peat
chemistry; peatlands as archives of environmental changes;
influence of peatlands on atmosphere: circular complex
interactions; remote sensing studies of peatlands; peatlands as a
resource; peatlands degradation, restoration, plus more.'
* Presents an interdisciplinary approach, with an emphasis on Earth
Science, and addresses the need for intergration between
subdisciplines and the developing of new approaches
* Synthesizes the evolutionary, ecological, and chemical
characteristics of major peatlands, as well as focuses on the
environmental changes, from climate changes to surface ares changes
due to human activities
* Covers topical studies of worldwide interest and provides
examples from many different countries
Humans rank with the powerful forces of nature transforming Earth.
Since the mid-20th century, population growth, industrialization,
and globalization have had such deep and wide-ranging impacts that
our planet no longer functions as it did during the previous eleven
millennia. So distinctive is this collective human intervention
that a new geological interval has been proposed; it is called the
Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is intriguing scientifically,
fascinating intellectually, and deeply disturbing politically,
socially, economically, and ethically. We must learn how to
co-exist sustainably with the rest of nature in what is emerging as
a new planetary state. To do so, we must first understand what
"Anthropocene" means in all its dimensions. This book adopts a
multidisciplinary approach, starting with an exploration of the
Anthropocene as a geological concept: ranging across the physical
changes to the landscape, to the rapidly heating climate, to a
biosphere undergoing transformation. And what of the "anthropos" in
the Anthropocene? While geoscience does not normally address
political and ethical issues of justice and equity, or economics
and culture, Anthropocene studies in the humanities and social
sciences investigate the complexities of the human activity driving
global change. Here the book looks at human history, both in the
deep past and more recently, the politics and economics of growth
spurring the Anthropocene, and potential ways of mitigating its
cruel effects. Our fragile, still beautiful, planet is finite. The
new realities of the Anthropocene will need our best efforts,
across disciplinary divides, at effective hope and action.
As population growth accelerates, researchers and professionals
face challenges as they attempt to plan for the future. Urban
planning is a significant component in addressing the key concerns
as the world population moves towards the city and leaves the rural
environment behind, yet there are many factors to consider for a
well rounded community. The Handbook of Research on Social,
Economic, and Environmental Sustainability in the Development of
Smart Cities brings together the necessary research and
interdisciplinary discussion to address dilemmas created by
population growth and the expansion of urban environments. This
publication is an essential reference source for researchers,
academicians, investors, and practitioners interested in the urban
planning and technological advancements necessary for the creation
of smart cities.
This volume includes several perspectives on how to connect the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals with the 12 principles
of green chemistry, and green chemistry education.
Comprises four parts, the first of which provides an overview of
the topics that are developed from fundamental principles to more
advanced levels in the other parts. Presents in the second part an
in-depth introduction to the relevant background in molecular and
cellular biology and in physical chemistry, which should be
particularly useful for students without a formal background in
these subjects. Provides in the third part a detailed treatment of
microscopy techniques and optics, again starting from basic
principles. Introduces in the fourth part modern statistical
approaches to the determination of parameters of interest from
microscopy data, in particular data generated by single molecule
microscopy experiments. Uses two topics related to protein
trafficking (transferrin trafficking and FcRn-mediated antibody
trafficking) throughout the text to motivate and illustrate
microscopy techniques
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