The Routledge Handbook of Latin America and the Environment provides an in-depth and accessible analysis and theorization of environmental issues in the region. It will help readers make connections between Latin American and other regions' perspectives, experiences, and environmental concerns. Latin America has seen an acceleration of environmental degradation due to the expansion of resource extraction and urban areas. This Handbook addresses Latin America not only as object of study, but also as a region with a long and profound history of critical thinking on these themes. Furthermore, the Handbook departs from the environment as a social issue inextricably linked to politics, economy and culture. It will be an invaluable resource for those wanting not only to understand the issues, but also to engage with ideas about environmental politics and social-ecological transformation. The handbook covers a broad range organized in three areas: physical geography, ecology and crucial environmental problems of the region, key theoretical and methodological issues used to understand Latin America's ecosocial contexts, and institutional and grassroots practices related to more just and sustainable worlds. The Handbook will set a research agenda for the near future and provide comprehensive research on most subregions relative to environmental transformations, challenges, struggles and political processes. It stands as a fresh and much needed state of the art introduction for researchers, scholars, post-graduates and academic audiences on Latin American contributions to theorization, empirical research and environmental practices.

This open access book focuses on the meanings, agendas, as well as the local and global implications of bioeconomy and bioenergy policies in and across South America, Asia and Europe. It explores how a transition away from a fossil and towards a bio-based economic order alters, reinforces and challenges socio-ecological inequalities. The volume presents a historically informed and empirically rich discussion of bioeconomy developments with a particular focus on bio-based energy. A series of conceptual discussions and case studies with a multidisciplinary background in the social sciences illuminate how the deployment of biomass sources from the agricultural and forestry sectors affect societal changes concerning knowledge production, land and labour relations, political participation and international trade. How can a global perspective on socio-ecological inequalities contribute to a complex and critical understanding of bioeconomy? Who participates in the negotiation of specific bioeconomy policies and who does not? Who determines the agenda? To what extent does the bioeconomy affect existing socio-ecological inequalities in rural areas? What are the implications of the bioeconomy for existing relations of extraction and inequalities across regions? The volume is an invitation to reflect upon these questions and more, at a time when the need for an ecological and socially just transition away from a carbon intensive economy is becoming increasingly pressing.

The first field guide to all of the world's major land habitats-richly illustrated and packed with essential information to help you get the most out of your outdoor adventures Accurately identifying and understanding habitats in detail is essential to any birder, naturalist, outdoor enthusiast, or ecologist who wants to get the most out of their experiences in the field. Habitats of the World is the first field guide to the world's major land habitats-189 in all. Using the format of a natural history field guide, this compact, accessible, and comprehensive book features concise identification descriptions and is richly illustrated-including more than 650 color photographs of habitats and their wildlife, 150 distribution maps, 200 diagrams, and 150 silhouettes depicting each habitat alongside a human figure, providing an immediate grasp of its look and scale. Each major habitat has an illustrated "climate box" that allows easy comparisons between habitats. Thirty other illustrated boxes present clear explanations of complex phenomena affecting habitats-from plate tectonics and mountain formation to fire regimes and climate change. Requiring no scientific background, Habitats of the World offers quick and reliable information for anyone who wants a deeper understanding and appreciation of the habitats around them, whether in their own backyard or while travelling anywhere in the world. Covers 189 of the world's major land habitats Provides all the information you need to quickly and accurately identify and understand habitats anywhere in the world Features concise text, more than 650 color photographs of habitats and their wildlife, an up-to-date distribution map for each habitat, and hundreds of helpful diagrams and illustrations

This book explores how a handful of liberal foundations contributed to establish and orientate the international climate regime. Looking back at the origins of international climate philanthropy and its evolution over the past three decades, the author examines the role of philanthropic foundations in the international climate debate. The research presented in this book shows that foundations, through their grant-making and convening activities, are at the heart of the climate debate. In fact, many credit them with having, through their activities prior to and at the COP, significantly contributed to laying the basis for the Paris Agreement in December 2015.

From Kim Heacox, the acclaimed author of The Only Kayak and John Muir and the Ice That Started a Fire, comes Rhythm of the Wild, an Alaska memoir focused on Denali National Park. Music runs through every page of this book, as do stories, rivers and wolves. At its heart, Rhythm of the Wild is a love story. It begins in 1981 and ends in 2014, yet reaches beyond the arc of time. Author and mountaineer Jonathan Waterman has called Heacox "our northern Edward Abbey." In this book we find out why. We hitchhike with Kim through Idaho, camp on the Colorado Plateau, and fly off the sand cliffs of Hangman Creek with a little terrier named Super Max, the Wonder Dog. We meet Zed, the Aborigine; Nine Fingers, the blues guitarist; and Adolph Murie, the legendary wildlife biologist, who dared to say that wolves should be protected, not persecuted. Kim also reprises in this book his friend Richard Steele, a beloved character from The Only Kayak. Some books are larger than their actual subject-this is one. Part memoir, part exploration of Denali's inspiring natural and human history, and part conservation polemic, Rhythm of the Wild ranges from funny to provocative. It's a celebration of-and a plea to restore and defend-the vibrant earth and our rightful place in it.

This study focuses on impacts of the environmental and socio-economic transformation on the indigenous people's livelihoods in Vietnam's Central Highlands recent decades since the country's reunification in 1975. The first empirical section sheds light on multiple external conditions (policy reforms, population trends, and market forces) exposed onto local people. The role of human and social capital is examined again in a specific livelihood of community-based tourism to testify the resilience level of local people when coping with constraints. The study concludes with an outlook on implications of development processed which still places agriculture at the primary position livelihood, and pays attention to human capital and social capital of indigenous groups in these highlands.

This book initiates multipolar climate/clime studies of the world's altitudinal and latitudinal highlands with terrestrial, experiential, and affective approaches. Framed in the environmental humanities, it is an interdisciplinary, comparative study of the mutually-embodied relations of climate, nature, culture, and place in the Himalaya, Andes, and Arctic. Innovation-driven, the book offers multipolar clime case studies through the contributors' historical findings, ethnographic documentations, and diverse conceptualizations and applications of clime, an overlooked but returning notion of place embodied with climate history, pattern, and changes. The multipolar clime case studies in the book are geared toward deeper, lively explorations and demonstrations of the translatability, interchangeability, and complementarity between the notions of clime and climate. "Multipolar" or "multipolarity" in this book connotes not only the two polar regions and the tectonically shaped highlands of the earth but also diversely debated perspectives of climate studies in the broadest sense. Contributors across the twelve chapters come from diverse fields of social and natural sciences and humanities, and geographically specialize respectively in the Himalayan, Andean, and Arctic regions. The first comparative study of climate change in altitudinal and latitudinal highlands, this will be an important read for students, academics and researchers in environmental humanities, anthropology, climate science, indigenous studies and ecology.

This book initiates multipolar climate/clime studies of the world's altitudinal and latitudinal highlands with terrestrial, experiential, and affective approaches. Framed in the environmental humanities, it is an interdisciplinary, comparative study of the mutually-embodied relations of climate, nature, culture, and place in the Himalaya, Andes, and Arctic. Innovation-driven, the book offers multipolar clime case studies through the contributors' historical findings, ethnographic documentations, and diverse conceptualizations and applications of clime, an overlooked but returning notion of place embodied with climate history, pattern, and changes. The multipolar clime case studies in the book are geared toward deeper, lively explorations and demonstrations of the translatability, interchangeability, and complementarity between the notions of clime and climate. "Multipolar" or "multipolarity" in this book connotes not only the two polar regions and the tectonically shaped highlands of the earth but also diversely debated perspectives of climate studies in the broadest sense. Contributors across the twelve chapters come from diverse fields of social and natural sciences and humanities, and geographically specialize respectively in the Himalayan, Andean, and Arctic regions. The first comparative study of climate change in altitudinal and latitudinal highlands, this will be an important read for students, academics and researchers in environmental humanities, anthropology, climate science, indigenous studies and ecology.

This book takes a critical look at solar geoengineering as an acceptable means for addressing climate change. Baskin explores the assumptions and imaginaries which animate 'engineering the climate' and discusses why this climate solution is so controversial. The book explains geoengineering's past, its revival in the mid-2000s, and its future prospects including its shadow presence in the Paris climate accord. The main focus however is on dissecting solar geoengineering today - its rationales, underpinning knowledge, relationship to power, and the stance towards nature which accompanies it. Baskin explores three competing imaginaries associated with geoengineering: an Imperial imaginary, an oppositional Un-Natural imaginary, and a conspiratorial Chemtrail imaginary. He seeks to explain why solar geoengineering has struggled to gain approval and why resistance to it persists, despite the support of several powerful actors. He provocatively suggests that reconceptualising our present as the Anthropocene might unwittingly facilitate the normalisation of geoengineering by providing a sustaining socio-technical imaginary. This book is essential reading for those interested in climate policy, political ecology, and science & technology studies.

This book provides a comprehensive study of the notion of responsibility in environmental governance. It starts with the observation that, although the rhetoric of responsibility is indeed all-pervasive in environmental and sustainability-related fields, decisive political action is still lacking. Governance architectures increasingly strive to hold different stakeholders responsible by installing accountability and transparency mechanisms to manage environmental problems, yet the structural background conditions affecting these issues continue to generate unevenly distributed, socially unjust, and ecologically devastating consequences. Responsibility in Environmental Governance develops the concept of responsibility as an analytical approach to map and understand these dynamics and to situate diverse meanings of responsibility within larger socio-political contexts. It applies this approach to the study of food waste governance, uncovering a narrow governance focus on accountability, optimization, and consumer behavior change strategies, opening up spaces for organizing more democratic solutions to a truly global problem.

This book proves, through empirical research, that indigenous and traditional agricultural communities have experienced severe climate change impacts, and have developed corresponding livelihood strategies to strengthen their resilience in a variable climate. With a focus on indigenous minority farming communities in the developing region of South-Western Zimbabwe, the study presents both qualitative and quantitative approaches of data analysis to assess sustainability problems amid climate change and climate variability challenges, and proposes potential solutions. In eight chapters, the book expands on the scarce availability of community-based research on climate change and variability in Zimbabwe. The book is meant for college and university students and stakeholders involved in development work in rural minority farmer communities, especially in climate change prone regions of Africa and other developing countries who have very few options of adaptation and mitigation.

The IPCC (2007) warned that the Ganges Brahmaputra Meghna (GBM) basin will be at greatest risk due to increased flooding, and that the region s poverty would reduce its adaptation capacity. This book investigates autonomous adaptation using a multi-method technique comprising PRA and a questionnaire survey applied in the case study area Islampur "Upazila" in Bangladesh.
The study has four key approaches. First, it reviews the flood literature for Bangladesh from 1980 to 2014. Second, it examines farmers' crop adaptation processes in a case study area at Islampur, Bangladesh. Third, it assesses the vulnerability and adaptation (V & A) in response to three extreme flood events (EFEs). Fourth, the book assesses the economic consequences of failure effects of autonomous crop adaptation in response to EFEs. The results show that Bangladeshi farmers are highly resilient to EFEs, but the economic consequences of failure effects of autonomous crop adaptation (FEACA) on marginal farmers are large.
The book contributes to current knowledge by filling three important research gaps as follows, 1) farmers autonomous crop adaptation processes in response to various types of extreme floods; 2) methodological contribution for assessing vulnerability and adaptation through PRA; and 3) the economic consequences of the failure effects of autonomous crop adaptations.

"This book provides a good account of autonomous adaptation and its impact on flood vulnerable communities in Bangladesh. Anyone wishing to fully understand the impact of climate change should read the book."
Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Laureate

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Hotspots are enigmatic surface features that are not easily explained in the framework of plate tectonics. Investigating their origin is the goal of this thesis, using field evidence collected in the Cape Verde Islands, a prominent hotspot archipelago in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. The approach taken is to document uplift of the islands relative to sea level and use the uplift features to test various models of hotspot development. Island uplift is thought to arise from the growth of the anomalously shallow seafloor on which the islands rest, known as the bathymetric swell, which is characteristic of hotspots. The work comprises a geological summary and detailed mapping of paleo sea level markers on Cape Verde. Isotopic dating of the markers shows that uplift on the islands over the last 6 Myr is up to 400 m, and that the uplift chronology varies among islands. Two processes act to raise the Cape Verde Islands. The dominant process is one that is local to individual islands. The regional, swell-related component is smaller, and possibly episodic. The observations provide strong constraints on swell development and on hotspot models.

First published in 1984, The Mediterranean Region considers the broad economic and political problems facing the region from a variety of perspectives. The book features the work of international experts on the Mediterranean region. It discusses the changing legal environment and covers the Law of the Sea as applied to the Mediterranean, and the position of the Arab countries in the region. Chapters are also devoted to exploring the different policies of Russia, the United States, and Europe, towards the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean Region is a detailed contribution to research and understanding of the area.

This book examines the "oil-tourism interface", the broad range of direct and indirect contact points between offshore oil extraction and nature-based tourism. Offshore oil extraction and nature-based tourism are pursued as development paths across the North Atlantic region. Offshore oil promises economic benefits from employment and royalty payments to host societies, but is based on fossil fuel-intensive resource extraction. Nature-based tourism, instead, is based on experiencing natural environments and encountering wildlife, including whales, seals, or seabirds. They share social-ecological space, such as oceans, coastlines, cities and towns where tourism and offshore oil operations and offices are located. However, they rarely share cultural or political space, in terms of media coverage, public debate, or policy discussion that integrates both modes of development. Through a comparative analysis of Denmark, Iceland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Norway, and Scotland, this book offers important lessons for how coastal societies can better navigate relationships between resource extraction and nature-based tourism in the interests of social-ecological wellbeing.

This book examines social processes that have contributed to growing pesticide use, with a particular focus on the role governments play in urban aerial pesticide spraying operations. Beyond being applied to sparsely populated farmland, pesticides have been increasingly used in densely populated urban environments, and when faced with invasive species, governments have resorted to large-scale aerial pesticide spraying operations in urban areas. This book focuses on New Zealand's 2002-2004 pesticide campaign to eradicate the Painted Apple Moth, which is the largest operation of its kind in world history, whether we consider its duration (29 months), its scope (at its peak the spraying zone was 10,632 hectares/26,272 acres), the number of sprayings that were administered (the pesticide was administered on 60 different days), or the number of people exposed to the spraying (190,000+). This book provides an in-depth understanding of the social processes that contributed to the incursion, why the government sought to eradicate the moth through aerial pesticide spraying, the ideological strategies they used to build and maintain public support, and why those strategies were effective. Urban Aerial Pesticide Spraying Campaigns will be of great interest to students and researchers of pesticides, environmental sociology, environmental history, environmental studies, political ecology, geography, medical sociology, and science and technology studies.

1. Provides a holistic understanding of Polar Geoscience and its trajectory of change. 2. Presents four decades of scientific research by Indian scientists in Polar regions and the data obtained to address global climate issues. 3. Includes case studies on geological, glaciological, and geophysical investigations done in polar regions. 4. Highlights glaciological studies that explain changes with time in polar regions. 5. Discusses the use of natural archives to explain the cryosphere region's climate scenario.

This book conceptualizes community nutrition resilience as a critical area that is currently lacking the attention it requires from both the public and private sectors. The book spotlights Greater Miami's resilience efforts, both responding to slowly developing challenges such as immigration, environmental deterioration, and the wealth distribution gap, as well as sudden disasters such as hurricanes or flooding driven by climate change. Drawing on existing literature as well as interviews with professionals working in the field, the author makes recommendations on how to incorporate food systems into urban resilience planning, how to prioritize resilience on urban food agendas, and how to strengthen food system resilience through public, private, and third sector level engagement. She also highlights how the availability of and access to nutritious food impact the health, performance, and well-being of communities in the region, thus making a strong case for the prioritization of this growing issue.

This handbook is recognition of the need to better integrate physical and human geography. It combines a collection of work and research within the new field of Critical Physical Geography, which gives critical attention to relations of social power with deep knowledge of a particular field of biophysical science. Critical Physical Geography research accords careful attention to biophysical landscapes and the power relations that have increasingly come to shape them, and to the politics of environmental science and the role of biophysical inquiry in promoting social and environmental justice. The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Physical Geography lays out the scope and guiding principles of Critical Physical Geography research. It presents a carefully selected set of empirical work, demonstrating the range and intellectual strength of existing integrative work in geography research. This handbook is the first of its kind to cover this emerging discipline and will be of significant interest to students and academics across the fields of geography, the environment and sustainability.

This book provides the necessary background of geometry, mathematics and physical geodesy, useful to a rigorous approach to geodetic heights. The concept of height seems to be intuitive and immediate, but on the contrary it requires a good deal of scientific sharpness in the definition and use. As a matter of fact the geodetic, geographic and engineering practice has introduced many different heights to describe our Earth physical reality in terms of spatial position of points and surfaces. This has urged us to achieve a standard capability of transforming one system into the other. Often this is done in an approximate and clumsy way. This book solves the above practical problems in a rigorous way, showing what degree of approximation is used in approximate formulas. In addition the book gives a sound view on a matter that is presently occupying scientific associations, namely the unification of the global and regional height reference systems. It provides the mathematical background as well as the state of the art of its implementation. It will be particularly useful for professionals and national agencies.

Originally published in 1961, this book was the first comprehensive work on South African geography that also presented a balanced account of all facets of the economic life. It was written to provide background information on South Africa - the nature of the country, its resources and deficiencies, its historic settlement by peoples of different races and of the progress made and the difficulties encountered in the major areas of economic activity: agriculture, mining, manufacturing and trade. In discussing these factors the book acknowledged that in South Africa the complexities of the relationships between peoples of different racial origins and widely differently economic and cultural standards are met in one country.

"Origin of the Earth" is an outgrowth of the Lunar and Planetary Institute Conference on the Origin of the Earth, which was held in Berkeley, California, in December 1988, with leading earth and planetary scientists participating. Among the topics covered are theoretical models of the solar nebula, planetary accretion and models of the differentiation of the Earth into the familiar regimes of hydrosphere, crust, mantle and core. A central theme of the book is a discussion of the "giant impact" model for the formation of the Moon. This popular model of lunar origin has severe implications for the early history of the Earth. Contributors discuss whether the "giant impact" model is incorrect in relation to the Earth, or whether natural processes conspired to erase all traces of its consequences. These and other issues related to the Earth's origin and early differentiation are covered.

Mathematical Geoscience is an expository textbook which aims to provide a comprehensive overview of a number of different subjects within the Earth and environmental sciences. Uniquely, it treats its subjects from the perspective of mathematical modelling with a level of sophistication that is appropriate to their proper investigation. The material ranges from the introductory level, where it can be used in undergraduate or graduate courses, to research questions of current interest. The chapters end with notes and references, which provide an entry point into the literature, as well as allowing discursive pointers to further research avenues. The introductory chapter provides a condensed synopsis of applied mathematical techniques of analysis, as used in modern applied mathematical modelling. There follows a succession of chapters on climate, ocean and atmosphere dynamics, rivers, dunes, landscape formation, groundwater flow, mantle convection, magma transport, glaciers and ice sheets, and sub-glacial floods. This book introduces a whole range of important geoscientific topics in one single volume and serves as an entry point for a rapidly expanding area of genuine interdisciplinary research. By addressing the interplay between mathematics and the real world, this book will appeal to graduate students, lecturers and researchers in the fields of applied mathematics, the environmental sciences and engineering.

Magmatic sulfides provide most of the world's supplies of platinum and nickel, among other rare and valuable ores. The author, a ranking authority on the topic, discusses the types of rocks that contain magmatic sulfides, the chemical processes by which they form, and the geological setting of major nickel-copper and platinum deposits throughout the world--in Canada, Australia, the U.S.S.R., South Africa, the U.S.A., and Zimbabwe. Naldrett also examines how theories about ore genesis can be applied in exploring for minerals. The book will be used in graduate-level courses and by economic geologists, geochemists, and geologists in the mining industry. It will also be of interest to members of geological surveys worldwide.

This book traces the evolution of Singapore's parks system, from colonial to present times. Further, it contextualizes the design and planning of parks in the general discourse on western and eastern traditions: early twentieth century western conceptions 'imported' during colonialism; modernism; postmodernism, and the contemporary ecological debate. Park system planning products respond to national policies and result in structural urban elements and a range of park types. Global (western ideology) and local issues have influenced park system planning and the physical design of individual parks over time. However, in Singapore the eastern literature has not addressed the development of parks and urban green spaces in terms of historical perspective. The publication reveals the interrelations between visual representations and changing political ideologies. Singapore's system of public parks is shown to represent an iconography created by the state. Its set of constructed narratives elucidates on the potential social, cultural and environmental roles of public parks. However, Singapore's park system presents a novel paradigm for expanding Asian cities, characterized by evolving urban imaging strategies. In framing Singapore's case study within the broader perspective of eastern applications of western planning and design practices, and constructions of nation in post-colonial countries, the manuscript establishes the contribution of the Singaporean model of design and planning of parks to the international debate.