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Books > Sport & Leisure > Natural history, country life & pets > General
A fresh and engaging introduction to the science behind pollution
disasters for science and non-science majors Coming generations
will have to reckon with a growing number of environmental
challenges, whether caused by climate change, population growth or
industrial production. Polluted Earth: The Science of Earth's
Environment combines the best features of a textbook and a popular
science book. It retains the organization needed for a course while
adopting a highly illustrative style that is mirrored in a
multitude of case studies: short, self-contained and
well-illustrated stories of well-known pollution disasters that are
highly engaging for both science and non-science majors, from the
historic Black Sunday dust storm in the midwestern United States to
the more recent Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. From
the very start, it also introduces the concept of environmental
justice that ties pollution to economic and social life, bringing
its subject into the world of the reader in an unprecedented way.
Polluted Earth readers will also find: Well-known case studies
including the Great London smog, the Pacific Gas and Electric case
(made famous by Erin Brockovitch), the Exxon Valdez, and more
Detailed illustrations showing the spatial and temporal relations
of various pollution sources Modern technological solutions already
in use by environmental industries A comprehensive list of
pollutants, their health & environmental impact and their
regulated exposure limits With its fresh and engaging style,
Polluted Earth is an ideal introduction to the concepts, tasks and
challenges of environmental science for undergraduate students of
all disciplines.
This book examines why the religion-science skirmishes known as the
Evolution Wars have persisted into the 21st century. It does so by
considering the influences of mass media in relation to
decision-making research and the Elaboration Likelihood Model, one
of the most authoritative persuasion theories. The book's analysis
concentrates on the expression of cues, or cognitive mental
shortcuts, in Darwin-sceptic and counter-creationist broadcasts. A
multiyear collection of media generated by the most prominent
Darwin-sceptic organizations is surveyed, along with rival
publications from supporters of evolutionary theory described as
the pro-evolutionists. The analysed materials include works
produced by Young Earth Creationist and Intelligent Design media
makers, New Atheist pacesetters, as well as both agnostic and
religious supporters of evolution. These cues are shown to function
as subtle but effective means of shaping public opinion, including
appeals to expertise, claims that ideas are being censored, and the
tactical use of statistics and technical jargon. Contending that
persuasive mass media is a decisive component of science-religion
controversies, this book will be of keen interest to scholars of
Religion, Science and Religion interactions, as well as researchers
of Media and Communication Studies more generally. *Winner ISSR
2021 Book Prize*
From the author of the #1 "New York Times" bestseller "Inside of a
Dog," this "elegant and entertaining" ("The Boston Globe")
explanation of how humans perceive their environments "does more
than open our eyes...opens our hearts and minds, too, gently
awakening us to a world--in fact, many worlds--we've been missing"
("USA TODAY").
Alexandra Horowitz" "shows us how to see the spectacle of the
ordinary--to practice, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it, "the
observation of trifles." Structured around a series of eleven walks
the author takes, mostly in her Manhattan neighborhood, "On
Looking" features experts on a diverse range of subjects, including
an urban sociologist, the well-known artist Maira Kalman, a
geologist, a physician, and a sound designer. Horowitz also walks
with a child and a dog to see the world as they perceive it. "What
"they see, "how "they see it, and why most of us do "not "see the
same things reveal the startling power of human attention and the
cognitive aspects of what it means to be an expert observer.
Page by page, Horowitz shows how much more there is to see--if only
we would really look. Trained as a cognitive scientist, she
discovers a feast of fascinating detail, all explained with her
generous humor and self-deprecating tone. So turn off the phone and
other electronic devices and "be "in the real world--where
strangers communicate by geometry as they walk toward one another,
where sounds reveal shadows, where posture can display humility,
and the underside of a leaf unveils a Lilliputian universe--where,
indeed, there are worlds within worlds within worlds.
This is a charming and beautifully illustrated book, first
published in 1893, covering all aspects of the weather including:
Times and Seasons, Months, Days of the week, Winter birds and times
of their arrival, Sun, Moon and Stars, Wind, Clouds, Mists, Haze,
Dew, Fog, Sky, Air, Sound, Sea, Tide, Heat, Rain, Rainbow, Frost,
Hail, Snow, Ice, Thunder and Lightning. Measuring instruments
include: Barometer, Thermometer, Hygrometer, Telescope,
Spectroscope. Animals include: Quadrupeds, Birds, Fish, Molluscs,
Reptiles, Insects, Plants etc. This new edition has been completely
redesigned and is fully illustrated with reproductions of woodcuts,
photographs and drawings throughout.
Jones's Icones contains finely delineated paintings of more than
760 species of Lepidoptera, many of which it described for the
first time, marking a critical moment in the study of natural
history. With Iconotypes Jones's seminal work is published for the
first time, accompanied by expert commentary and contextual essays,
and featuring annotated maps showing the location of each species.
Jones painted the species between the early 1780s and 1800, drawing
from his own collection and the collections of Joseph Banks, Dru
Drury, Sir James Edward Smith, John Francillon, the British Museum
and the Linnean Society. For every specimen painting he provided a
species name, the collection from which it was taken and the
geographical location in which it was found. In 1787, during a
visit to London, the Danish scientist Johann Christian Fabricius
studied Jones's paintings and based 231 species of butterfly and
moths on them. In this enhanced facsimile, Jones's references to
historic references are clarified and modern taxonomic names are
provided, together with notes on which paintings serve as
iconotypes. Contextual commentary by specialist entomologist
Richard I. Vane-Wright gives an account of Jones's life and his
motivation for collecting butterflies and creating the Icones, and
evaluates the significance of his work. Interspersed at intervals
between the pages of Jones's paintings are modern maps showing the
location of each species painted, and expert essays on the
development of lepidoptery and taxonomy after Linneaus, and the
roles of collectors and natural history artists from the late 1700s
to mid-1800s. With 1600 illustrations in colour In partnership with
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Originally published in 1995, The Antievolution Pamphlets of
William Bell Riley is the fourth volume in the series, Creationism
in Twentieth Century America, reissued in 2021. The volume
comprises of nine antievolution pamphlets written by William Bell
Riley during the interwar years. The pamphlets detail Riley's
antievolutionist ideas and activities, and the book attempts to
place the work in the larger contexts of Riley's career, as well as
discussing the pamphlets included. The collection will be of
especial interest to natural historians, and theologians as well as
academics of philosophy, and history.
Describes a hypothesis that ecosystems maximize biodiversity
Suggests modified version of the dominant paradigm in population
biology and evolution Discusses specific examples of events and
phenomena that positively affect the diversity of life Presents a
new view likely to elicit deeper discussions of biodiversity
Exploring one of the greatest potential contributors to climate
change—thawing permafrost—and the anxiety of extinction on an
increasingly hostile planet  Climate scientists point to
permafrost as a “ticking time bomb†for the planet, and from
the Arctic, apocalyptic narratives proliferate on the devastating
effects permafrost thaw poses to human survival. In Earth, Ice,
Bone, Blood, Charlotte Wrigley considers how permafrost—and its
disappearance—redefines extinction to be a lack of continuity,
both material and social, and something that affects not only life
on earth but nonlife, too. Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood approaches the
topic of thawing permafrost and the wild new economies and
mitigation strategies forming in the far north through a study of
the Sakha Republic, Russia’s largest region, and its capital city
Yakutsk, which is the coldest city in the world and built on
permafrost. Wrigley examines people who are creating commerce out
of thawing permafrost, including scientists wishing to recreate the
prehistoric “Mammoth steppe†ecosystem by eventually rewilding
resurrected woolly mammoths, Indigenous people who forage the
tundra for exposed mammoth bodies to sell their tusks, and
government officials hoping to keep their city standing as the
ground collapses under it. Warming begets thawing begets economic
activity— and as a result, permafrost becomes discontinuous, both
as land and as a social category, in ways that have implications
for the entire planet. Discontinuity, Wrigley shows, eventually
evolves into extinction. Offering a new way of defining extinction
through the concept of “discontinuity,†Earth, Ice, Bone, Blood
presents a meditative and story-focused engagement with permafrost
as more than just frozen ground.
This book sets out some of the latest scientific findings around
the evolutionary development of religion and faith and then
explores their theological implications. This unique combination of
perspectives raises fascinating questions about the characteristics
that are considered integral for a flourishing social and religious
life and allows us to start to ask where in the evolutionary record
they first show up in a distinctly human manner. The book builds a
case for connecting theology and evolutionary anthropology using
both historical and contemporary sources of knowledge to try and
understand the origins of wisdom, humility, and grace in 'deep
time'. In the section on wisdom, the book examines the origins of
complex decision-making in humans through the archaeological
record, recent discoveries in evolutionary anthropology, and the
philosophical richness of semiotics. The book then moves to an
exploration of the origin of characteristics integral to the social
life of small-scale communities, which then points in an indirect
way to the disposition of humility. Finally, it investigates the
theological dimensions of grace and considers how artefacts left
behind in the material record by our human ancestors, and the
perspective they reflect, might inform contemporary concepts of
grace. This is a cutting-edge volume that refuses to commit the
errors of either too easy a synthesis or too facile a separation
between science and religion. As such, it will be of interest to
scholars of religious studies and theology - especially those who
interact with scientific fields - as well as academics working in
anthropology of religion.
Tobin Mitnick, JewsLoveTrees creator and shameless tree lover,
leads you, the tree-curious, through the wonderful world of North
American trees with fact, opinion, and humor. In Must Love Trees,
Mitnick invites you to share his deeply personal connection to our
forest companions in ways that expand the storied genre of nature
writing. From an imagined dialogue with the world’s oldest
bristlecone pine, to the minutiae of tree huggability, to the
emotional toll of taking up the practice of bonsai, this fresh take
into the world of trees is divided into three equally humorous and
insightful sections. The first section discusses Mitnick’s
personal opinions and relationship with trees while the second
section describes the science behind trees (from tree botany to
tree biology to tree ecology). In the final section, Mitnick
answers the question: Who would these trees be if they all attended
high school together?  Tobin’s detailed description of a
tree in action and his thorough run-down of our most-treasured
North American trees (all 100 of whom happen to be classmates at
“Tree High North Americaâ€), makes this compilation an original
and occasionally outlandish guide for both the budding and seasoned
tree-lover. Must Love Trees features beautiful drawings of a vast
selection of North American trees, including: Â Â
Renowned icons like the Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)
Beloved favorites like the Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)
 Historical tragedies like the American Chestnut (Castanea
dentata) Menacing creepers like Poison Sumac (Toxicodendron vernix)
Unsung wonders like the Common Paw-Paw (Asimina triloba) Part
textbook, part memoir, and part comedy, Must Love Trees is the most
complete—and most unconventional—story of our forest pals ever
told.
Imagine going from neurologist to dermatologist, orthopaedic
surgeon to obstetrician, assassin to saviour - all in one day.
Welcome to the extraordinary world of veterinary medicine... In
Never Work with Animals, vet Gareth Steel shares the moments of
humour, horror and heroism across his 20-year career caring for
creatures great and small, from bulls to stick insects.
Thought-provoking, heartwarming and often laugh-out-loud funny,
this unforgettable memoir reveals what life is really like for our
vets.
Adventures in the wilderness can be dramatic and deadly. Everglades
National Park's death records date back to the early 20th century;
all told, hundreds of people have died or are presumed to have died
in the park during the first hundred years of its existence.
Alligator and panther attacks, encounters with pythons, drownings,
plane crashes and boating accidents are chief among the calamities
experienced by visitors and park personnel alike. Collected here
are some the most gripping accounts in park history of these
unfortunate events caused by natural forces or human folly.
In Underland, Robert Macfarlane delivers an epic exploration of the
Earth's underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and
the land itself. Traveling through the dizzying expanse of geologic
time-from prehistoric art in Norwegian sea caves, to the blue
depths of the Greenland ice cap, to a deep-sunk "hiding place"
where nuclear waste will be stored for 100,000 years to
come-Underland takes us on an extraordinary journey into our
relationship with darkness, burial, and what lies beneath the
surface of both place and mind. Global in its geography and written
with great lyricism, Underland speaks powerfully to our present
moment. At once ancient and urgent, this is a book that will change
the way you see the world.
What do eggs, flour, and milk have in common? They form the basis
of waffles, of course, but these staples of breakfast bounty also
share an evolutionary function: eggs, seeds (from which we derive
flour by grinding), and milk have each evolved to nourish
offspring. Indeed, ponder the genesis of your breakfast, lunch, or
dinner, and you'll soon realize that everything we eat and drink
has an evolutionary history. In Dinner with Darwin, join Jonathan
Silvertown for a multicourse meal of evolutionary gastronomy, a
tantalizing tour of human taste that helps us to understand the
origins of our diets and the foods that have been central to them
for millennia--from spices to spirits. A delectable concoction of
coevolution and cookery, gut microbiomes and microherbs, and both
the chicken and its egg, Dinner with Darwin reveals that our
shopping lists, recipe cards, and restaurant menus don't just
contain the ingredients for culinary delight. They also tell a
fascinating story about natural selection and its influence on our
plates--and palates. Digging deeper, Silvertown's repast includes
entrees into GMOs and hybrids, and looks at the science of our
sensory interactions with foods and cooking--the sights, aromas,
and tastes we experience in our kitchens and dining rooms. As is
the wont of any true chef, Silvertown packs his menu with eclectic
components, dishing on everything from Charles Darwin's intestinal
maladies to taste bud anatomy and turducken. Our evolutionary
relationship with food and drink stretches from the days of cooking
cave dwellers to contemporary creperies and beyond, and Dinner with
Darwin serves up scintillating insight into the entire, awesome
span. This feast of soup, science, and human society is one to
savor. With a wit as dry as a fine pinot noir and a cache of
evolutionary knowledge as vast as the most discerning connoisseur's
wine cellar, Silvertown whets our appetites--and leaves us hungry
for more.
'Generous, moving and alive. A gift' - Tim Dee, author of Greenery
'Intelligent, thought-provoking and always, always interesting' -
Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment 'Smyth writes with
warmth and engaging perception about our relationship and
understanding of the natural world on our doorsteps' - Jon Dunn,
author of The Glitter in the Green 'Fresh and tender and playful' -
Patrick Galbraith, author of In Search of One Last Song Weren't
they richer, rock pools, wasn't the seashore busier, when I was a
kid? Richard Smyth had always been drawn to the natural world, but
when he became a father he found a new joy and a new urgency in
showing his kids the everyday wild things around them. As he and
his children explore rockpools in Whitley Bay, or the woods and
moors near his Yorkshire home, he imagines the world they might
inhabit as they grow up. Through different objects discovered on
their wanderings - a beech leaf, a jay feather, a limpetshell -
Smyth examines his own past as well as that of the early natural
historians, weaving together history, memoir, and environmentalism
to form a new kind of nature writing: one that asks both what we
have lost, and what we have yet to find.
Wouldn't it be useful to be able to come up with an accurate
weather forecast simply by reading the clouds? Well, with this
book, you can! TV forecasts, online predictions and smartphone apps
are all based on the same data - a number-crunched overview of how
air pressure and temperature affects the weather over a large
geographical area. But to get an idea of how the weather will
develop for the precise spot where you're standing (or walking,
sailing, golfing, fishing, etc) you don't need any equipment or a
wifi connection - you just need to look up. This book will give you
a great understanding of why clouds are symptoms of weather
patterns, not causes. Highly practical, it shows you how by reading
these signs in the sky and referring to the explanatory colour
photos and diagrams, you will be able to tell exactly what those
signs mean. After its very well received first edition, this second
edition is revised and expanded, including plenty of new photos to
cover every possible view of the sky. With this at-a-glance guide
to the clouds anywhere in the world, on land or at sea, you will be
able to predict the weather by recognising cloud types, shapes,
colours and behaviour. Including a Foreword by Tom Cunliffe,
writer, TV presenter and yachting instructor, this will be an
invaluable companion for everyone who enjoys time spent outdoors.
Originally published in 1975, Man and Wildlife traces the evolution
of man from pre-hominid ancestors, and his influence in modifying
the environment and its flora and fauna as technical knowledge
grew. The development of civilization allowed man to dominate the
environment; its advance led to the discovery and exploitation of
the world's resources. In spite of all the discoveries of science,
man's battle with the adverse forces of wildlife remain un-won and
seems likely to stay so for the foreseeable future. The book traces
the beginnings of environmental consciousness in the decades
preceding its publication. It examines the extent of the human
devastation of the environment, which has increased with rapid
expansion of the world's human population, and the belated efforts
to halt the destruction and help wildlife preservation.
Get submerged in the amazing world of sharks! Your expert host,
award-winning marine biologist Dr. David Shiffman, will show you
how-and why-we should protect these mysterious, misunderstood
guardians of the ocean. Sharks are some of the most fascinating,
most ecologically important, most threatened, and most
misunderstood animals on Earth. More often feared than revered,
their role as predators of the deep have earned them a reputation
as a major threat to humans. But the truth is that sharks are not a
danger to us-they're in danger from us. In Why Sharks Matter,
marine conservation biologist Dr. David Shiffman explains why it's
crucial that we overcome our misconceptions and rise above
cinematic jump scares to embrace sharks as the imperiled and
elegant ocean guardians they really are. Sharing his own
fascinating experiences working with sharks, Shiffman tells us *
why healthy shark populations are a must for supporting ocean
ecosystems-and the coastal economies that depend on them * why
we're in danger of losing many shark species forever * what
scientists, conservationists, and readers can do to help save these
iconic predators * why so much of what you've heard about sharks
and how to save them is wrong Exploring the core tenets of shark
conservation science and policy, Shiffman synthesizes decades of
scientific research and policymaking, weaving it into a narrative
full of humor and adventure. Touching on everything from Shark Week
to shark fin soup, overfishing to marine sanctuaries, Shiffman
reveals why sharks are in trouble, why we should care, and how we
can save them. Perfect for shark enthusiasts, Why Sharks Matter is
an approachable, informative guide to the world of shark
conservation and the passionate, fascinating, brilliant people who
work to understand and protect our oceans. This fun read will have
you looking at sharks with a fresh perspective and an understanding
that the survival of sharks is crucial to the survival of another
apex predator-ourselves.
Humanity is by many measures the biggest success story in the
animal kingdom; but what are the costs of this triumph? Over its
three million years of existence, the human species has
continuously modified nature and drained its resources. In
Cataclysms, Laurent Testot provides the full tally, offering a
comprehensive environmental history of humanity's unmatched and
perhaps irreversible influence on the world. Testot explores the
interconnected histories of human evolution and planetary
deterioration, arguing that our development from naked apes to Homo
sapiens has entailed wide-scale environmental harm. Testot makes
the case that humans have usually been catastrophic for the planet,
"hyperpredators" responsible for mass extinctions, deforestation,
global warming, ocean acidification, and unchecked pollution, as
well as the slaughter of our own species. Organized chronologically
around seven technological revolutions, Cataclysms unspools the
intertwined saga of humanity and our environment, from our shy
beginnings in Africa to today's domination of the planet, revealing
how we have blown past any limits along the way--whether by
exploding our own population numbers, domesticating countless other
species, or harnessing energy from fossils. Testot's book, while
sweeping, is light and approachable, telling the stories--sometimes
rambunctious, sometimes appalling--of how a glorified monkey
transformed its own environment beyond all recognition. In order to
begin reversing our environmental disaster, we must have a better
understanding of our own past and the incalculable environmental
costs incurred at every stage of human innovation. Cataclysms
offers that understanding and the hope that we can now begin to
reform our relationship to the Earth.
Originally published in 1985, The Semantic Theory of Evolution
addresses the notion that life is not shaped by the single law of
natural selection, but instead by a plurality of laws that resemble
grammatical rules in language. This remarkable work presents a
semantic theory centering on the concept of the ribotype. Supported
by both sound facts and logical arguments, this analysis reaches
beyond the established cadre of biological thought to unravel many
of life's mysteries and paradoxes, including the origin of the cell
and the nucleus and the evolution of ribosomes.
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