Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
|||
Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Applied ecology > General
After leading a regional office in Africa that studied ticks and tick-borne diseases, Rupert Pegram received a call in 1994 that changed his life. His higher ups wanted him to lead a new program in the Caribbean. The Caribbean Amblyomma Program, known as the CAP, sought to eliminate the Amblyomma tick from the Caribbean region. The stakes were high because ticks transmit terrible diseases. Today, the tropical pest introduced from Africa threatens to invade large areas of the south and central parts of North America. By learning about the progress, setbacks, political and financial constraints, and final heartbreak of failure in the Caribbean, the rest of world can discover how to fight the growing problem. Learn why the CAP program failed and how the Caribbean farmers who were let down by the program suffered. This history and analysis conveys the need to re-establish vigorous research to eradicate tick-borne illnesses. Ticks are invading the larger world, and there are serious implications. They found much of their strength during Thirteen Years of Hell in Paradise.
This edited collection highlights the different meanings that have been attached to the notion of energy security and how it is taken to refer to different objects. Official policy definitions of energy security are broadly similar across countries and emphasize the reliability and affordability of access to sufficient energy resources for a community to uphold its normal economic and social functions. However, perceptions of energy security vary between states causing different actions to be taken, both in international relations and in domestic politics. Energy Security in Europe moves the policy debates on energy security beyond a consideration of its seemingly objective nature. It also provides a series of contributions that shed light on the conditions under which similar material factors are met with very different energy security policies and divergent discourses across Europe. Furthermore, it problematizes established notions prevalent in energy security studies, such as whether energy security is 'geopolitical', and an element of high politics, or purely 'economic', and should be left for the markets to regulate. This book will be of particular relevance to students and academics in the fields of energy studies and political science seeking to understand the divergence in perspectives and understandings of energy security challenges between EU member states and in multilateral relationships between the EU as a whole.
This book presents tools for valuing and controlling corporate innovation. It combines a well-established theoretical framework with case studies at Siemens that illustrate the practice of valuing and controlling innovation and underline the strong link between theoretical concepts and practical application. Innovation is a key factor determining the success of companies and since corporate innovation consumes large quantities of resources, the issue of how best to distribute these resources among different projects is crucial. For an optimal resource allocation, companies need valuation tools to assess the benefits, costs and risks of competing projects. The energy sector is an example of a market that is strongly driven by innovation, and as such the book describes the processes and the potential of digitalizing product development and outlines the valuation process for a long-term innovation project in this sector - the development of the latest Siemens gas turbine.
This book is devoted to the issue of how we can learn to live together in the face of division and conflict. It is dedicated to the life and work of a remarkable human being, Dr Epimenidis Haidemenakis, scientist, statesman, visionary leader, President Emeritus of the International S.T.E.P.S. Foundation and founding father of The Olympiads of the Mind (OM). The monograph consists of a collection of papers presented at the 8th and 9th Olympiads of the Mind held in Washington, DC and Chania, Crete respectively. Distinguished international scholars, government and corporate representatives, leading researchers and academics from multiple disciplines and Nobel Laureates Leon Lederman (Physics, 1988), Martin Perl (Physics, 1995) and Yuan T. Lee (Chemistry, 1986) address a broad range of issues all with the aim of improving the human condition and achieving cooperation among the people of the world. The topics include the environment, sustainability and security; diversity and how to achieve integration and peace among people in a fractured world; the important role of brain research; how to overcome poverty and inequality; how to enhance creativity and improve education at all levels; and how new technologies and tools can be used for common benefit. The culmination of the book is a call to action, to join what one might call the "OM Movement"-bringing the best minds in the world together to create solutions to world issues so that we can all live together in harmony.
How to progress climate science to be policy-relevant and actionable? This book presents a novel framework to give a positive vision and structuring approach to guide research and practice on transformative climate governance, to shift the narrative from apathy and stalemate to action and transformation. Our vision contrasts existing climate governance and associated lock-ins that signify the institutional resistance to change. To effectively address climate change, climate governance itself needs to be transformed to foster sustainability transitions under climate change. The book brings together a collection of case studies to investigate how capacities for transformative climate governance are developing at multiple scales and how they can be strengthened vis-a-vis existing governance regimes. Specifically, it sheds light on the following questions: What are key overarching conditions, actors and activities that facilitate governance for transformation under climate change? Given persistent climate governance lock-ins, what needs to happen in research and policy to build-up the capacities that transform climate governance and ensure effective climate action?
This broad-ranging text provides an analysis and assessment of the European Union's energy policy. It examines the components of the internal energy market alongside energy policy and politics on the international stage, and in doing so outlines the increasing importance of this global issue.
The implementation of the circular economy will entail a major transformation from a resource-destroying, linear economy to a circular one that operates within the planet's regenerative boundaries. This book presents an interim assessment of the implementation of a circular economy in the EU. It reveals what achievements have been made in various EU institutions, but which are scarcely perceived by the public; which basic scientific principles can be applied in this context; and what NGOs are demanding beyond this progress. It provides convincing arguments for abandoning the "hamster wheel" of material-based satisfaction of our needs, and shows that the primacy of the economy stands in the way of a good life for all. Given its focus, it will appeal to everyone interested in an ecologically sustainable economic system.
In Volume 12, eminent international ornithologists further elucidate endocrinological correlates of mating strategies and hormones and reproductive behavior; assess the value of the "brood reduction hypothesis" in explaining "the paradox of hatching asynchrony"; and explore the validity and sensitivity of growth bands in feathers as an indication of nutritional condition and the use of feather banding in studying growth. Chapters in this book are well supported with charts, maps, schematic diagrams, and photographs. "Current Ornithology" is the only English-language publication currently devoted exclusively to extensive reviews and synthesis of topics pertaining to all aspects of the biology of birds. Chapters fall under such diverse rubrics as ecology, evolution, behavior, phylogeny, behavioral ecology, anatomy and physiology, and conservation biology. All authors are leading authorities on their subjects, and each chapter is refereed by experts in the topics covered. Although all chapters focus primarily on birds, some topics, such as the social cognition of birds as compared to primates (Volume 13), have significant application to disciplines outside of ornithology. "Current Ornithology" aims to provide an accessible, up-to-date, accurate source of data and to contribute to conceptual generalization and unification across the biological sciences.
There is an increasing interest of biotechnologists in the potential of cold-adapted organisms, since they play a major role in the processes of nutrient turnover and primary biomass production in cold ecosystems. Essential advantages of the application of such organisms are the rapid microbial metabolism at low temperatures, the low activation energy for enzymatic substrate hydrolysis and the low thermostability of enzymes from cold-adapted organisms. Benefits can also be deduced from the frost hardiness and frost resistance of cold-adapted plants and animals.
The book focuses on the challenges faced by urban areas in the context of handling waste in an environmentally and socially acceptable manner. It also discusses effective waste management approaches, which differ according to culture, climate, and socio-economic variables, as well as institutional volume. Presenting selected, high-quality papers from IconSWM 2018, the book explores a number of waste management methods with the help of case studies.
In 2020, the world was rocked by the sudden and indiscriminate spread of COVID-19. But for all the damage caused - lives lost, economies roiled and jobs eradicated - it also created opportunities for individuals and businesses to pause and reflect. Bushido Capitalism explores the ways in which this forced interlude has allowed us to reflect on the effects of a Great Acceleration of the last two decades and to critically evaluate where we should go next. Guided by updated values of Bushido, which have long been enshrined in Japanese culture but are rarely referenced in the West, this book presents ways in which we can use this current inflection point to become more responsible, ethical and sustainably minded citizens and business leaders. It underscores the importance of collaboration, humility and realism, but also of confidence, ambition and creativity. It demonstrates that businesses, particularly in a complex and polarized world, can be a force for the common good of society - if run the right way.
This overview of the roles of alien species in insect conservation brings together information, evidence and examples from many parts of the world to illustrate their impacts (often severe, but in many cases poorly understood and unpredictable) as one of the primary drivers of species declines, ecological changes and biotic homogenisation. Both accidental and deliberate movements of species are involved, with alien invasive plants and insects the major groups of concern for their influences on native insects and their environments. Risk assessments, stimulated largely through fears of non-target impacts of classical biological control agents introduced for pest management, have provided valuable lessons for wider conservation biology. They emphasise the needs for effective biosecurity, risk avoidance and minimisation, and evaluation and management of alien invasive species as both major components of many insect species conservation programmes and harbingers of change in invaded communities. The spread of highly adaptable ecological generalist invasive species, which are commonly difficult to detect or monitor, can be linked to declines and losses of numerous localised ecologically specialised insects and disruptions to intricate ecological interactions and functions, and create novel interactions with far-reaching consequences for the receiving environments. Understanding invasion processes and predicting impacts of alien species on susceptible native insects is an important theme in practical insect conservation.
Harnessing new enthusiasm for Nan Shepherd's writing, The Living World asks how literature might help us reimagine humanity's place on earth in the midst of our ecological crisis. The first book to examine Shepherd's writing through an ecocritical lens, it reveals forgotten details about the scientific, political and philosophical climate of early twentieth century Scotland, and offers new insights into Shepherd's distinctive environmental thought. More than this, this book reveals how Shepherd's ways of relating to complex, interconnected ecologies predate many of the core themes and concerns of the multi-disciplinary environmental humanities, and may inform their future development. Broken down into chapters focusing on themes of place, ecology, environmentalism, Deep Time, vital matter and selfhood, The Living World offers the first integrated study of Shepherd's writing and legacy, making the work of this philosopher, feminist, amateur ecologist, geologist, and innovative modernist, accessible and relevant to a new community of readers.
We live on an increasingly human-dominated planet. Our impact on the Earth has become so huge that researchers now suggest that it merits its own geological epoch - the 'Anthropocene' - the age of humans. Combining theory development and case studies of 'planetary boundaries', emerging infectious diseases, financial markets and geoengineering, this groundbreaking book explores the 'Anthropocene Gap' otherwise known as society's current failure to address the most profound environmental challenges of our times. What are the political and institutional implications of this new epoch? And what are some novel ways to analyze the complicated interplay between institutions, Earth system complexity and technology? This book offers one of the first explorations of political and institutional dimensions of the Anthropocene concept by providing a novel combination of institutional analysis along with insights from Earth system sciences. It provides an exploration of the role of technology for global environmental governance and defines a new agenda for political science analysis in the Anthropocene. Offering the first summary of the planetary boundaries debate, this cutting edge book will be of great interest to researchers concerned in the interplay between politics, technology, and global environmental change, and those interested in the debate surrounding the Anthropocene and 'planetary boundaries'. Contents: Foreword. The 'Anthropocene Gap' 1. Planetary Terra Incognita 2. Governance and Complexity 3. Earth System Complexity 4. Epidemics and Supernetworks 5. Engineering the Planet 6. Financial Markets, Robots and Ecosystems 7. Bridging the 'Anthropocene Gap' Epilogue: Back to London via the Baltic Sea References Index
This book examines the different ways companies can develop and design social innovation. Combining technological and social perspectives, the contributors present emerging research on social innovation from different sectors such as entrepreneurship, education and energy. Collectively, the authors demonstrate the ways in which social innovation can drive sustainability and development in regions around the world. All societies are characterized by their political, economic and social institutions, as well as by how they utilize technology. The social innovations with the highest importance are those which modify existing institutions or create new ones, and based on their magnitude, they can be considered as radical or incremental. For example, when Joseph Chamberlain encouraged workers to organize in order to achieve universal male suffrage in Great Britain in 1885, this was a considered a radical innovation for British society, which in turn changed its political framework. Social innovations may be based on intelligence and commitment, on technology or on social entrepreneurship in its most open forms. In addition, social innovations can be classified into those which correspond to an entire country or region, a field (e.g., education) or a sector (e.g., entrepreneurship, technology, social reform). Featuring contributions on topics such as agro-food, smart cities, higher education, gender equality and sports, this book is ideal for academics, students, scholars, professionals and policy makers in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability and regional development.
This thesis deals with two important and very timely aspects of the future power system operation - assessment of demand flexibility and advanced demand side management (DSM) facilitating flexible and secure operation of the power network. It provides a clear and comprehensive literature review in these two areas and states precisely the original contributions of the research. The book first demonstrates the benefits of data mining for a reliable assessment of demand flexibility and its composition even with very limited observability of the end-users. It then illustrates the importance of accurate load modelling for efficient application of DSM and considers different criteria in designing DSM programme to achieve several objectives of the network performance simultaneously. Finally, it demonstrates the importance of considering realistic assumptions when planning and estimating the success of DSM programs. The findings presented here have both scientific and practical significance; they gained her BSc and MSc degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Belgrade in 2011 and 2012 respectively. She graduated with her PhD from the University of Manchester. She has presented at several conferences, and has won runner-up prizes in poster presentation at three. She has authored or co-authored more than 40 journal, conference and technical papers.provide a basis for further research, and can be used to guide future applications in industry.
This volume brings together a range of voices from across the global environmental media community to build a comparative international set of perspectives on 'green' film and television production. Through this, it provides a necessary intervention in environmental media studies that actively foregrounds media infrastructure, production, policy, and labour - that is, the management and practice of media production cultures. Due to its immense sociocultural influence and economic resources, the global screen media industry is at the forefront of raising awareness for the political and social issues resulting from accelerated environmental instability. However, the 21st century relationship between screen media and the environment has another face that demands urgent scrutiny. The advent of the digital age and the vast electrical and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) infrastructures required to support digital production, distribution, and archiving has resulted in the rapid expansion and diversification of the industry's resource use, infrastructure construction, energy dependency, and consequent waste and emissions production. Addressing these structures is essential to alleviating their environmental and social impact and ensuring that the industry's rhetoric on environmental responsibility is reflected in its practice. As a mitigating counterbalance to the above trends, there has been a heightenedpush for sustainability measures along various lines of industry management, policy, and practice. These initiatives-including the cultural values they reflect, the political economies that form their logic, the managerial and marketing tactics that orchestrate them, and the environmental realities of their implementation-form the central object of inquiry for this collection.
Carol Ruckdeschel is the wildest woman in America. She wrestles alligators, eats roadkill, rides horses bareback, and lives in a ramshackle cabin that she built by hand in an island wilderness. A combination of Henry David Thoreau and Jane Goodall, Carol is a self-taught scientist who has become a tireless defender of sea turtles on Cumberland Island, a national park off the coast of Georgia. Cumberland, the country's largest and most biologically diverse barrier island, is celebrated for its windswept dunes and feral horses. Steel magnate Thomas Carnegie once owned much of the island, and in recent years, Carnegie heirs and the National Park Service have clashed with Carol over the island's future. What happens when a dirt-poor naturalist with only a high school diploma becomes an outspoken advocate on a celebrated but divisive island? Untamed is the story of an American original standing her ground and fighting for what she believes in, no matter the cost.
This edited collection focuses on the impact of the changing global distribution of power on the EU's energy policy and ability to project its approach to energy-related issues abroad. It maps the EU's changing position on global energy, the impact of various factors on its energy policy, and its relations with Russia, China, the USA and Brazil.
Once patronized primarily by the counterculture and the health food establishment, the organic food industry today is a multi-billion-dollar business driven by ever-growing consumer demand for safe food and greater public awareness of ecological issues. Assumed by many to be a recent phenomenon, that industry owes much to agricultural innovations that go back to the Dust Bowl era. This book explores the roots and branches of alternative agricultural ideas in twentieth-century America, showing how ecological thought has challenged and changed agricultural theory, practice, and policy from the 1930s to the present. It introduces us to the people and institutions who forged alternatives to industrialized agriculture through a deep concern for the enduring fertility of the soil, a passionate commitment to human health, and a strong advocacy of economic justice for farmers. Randal Beeman and James Pritchard show that agricultural issues were central to the rise of the environmental movement in the United States. As family farms failed during the Depression, a new kind of agriculture was championed based on the holistic approach taught by the emerging science of ecology. Ecology influenced the "permanent agriculture" movement that advocated such radical concepts as long-term land use planning, comprehensive soil conservation, and organic farming. Then in the 1970s, "sustainable agriculture" combined many of these ideas with new concerns about misguided technology and an over-consumptive culture to preach a more sensible approach to farming. In chronicling the overlooked history of alternative agriculture, A Green and Permanent Land records the significant contributions of individuals like Rex Tugwell, Hugh Bennett, Louis Bromfield, Edward Faulkner, Russell and Kate Lord, Scott and Helen Nearing, Robert Rodale, Wes Jackson, and groups like Friends of the Land and the Practical Farmers of Iowa. And by demonstrating how agriculture also remains central to the public interest--especially in the face of climatic crises, genetically altered crops, and questionable uses of pesticides--this book puts these issues in historical perspective and offers readers considerable food for thought.
This book discusses the concept of water footprint and corporate water footprint, presenting case studies on a thermal power plant in India and on the food sector. Water conservation is a key element of industrial sustainability strategies.
In recent years, the increasing number of tourists traveling to specific urban and resort destinations has caused challenges for the effective management of tourism in these areas, with a resulting negative impact on towns, cities, and host communities. Such issues have included placing undue pressure on infrastructure; destruction of the physical, economic, and socio-cultural environment; and affecting the quality of residents' daily lives by impacting their mobility and, in some cases, the price and rent of resident accommodation, goods, and services. To achieve a certain level of balance between the interests of local residents and visitors, new regulatory measures and legislation in high tourism areas must be discussed. Impacts, Challenges, and Policy Responses to Overtourism is a collection of innovative research on best practices and legislation solutions for the management of tourism destinations suffering from overtourism, tourismophobia, or antitourism movement issues. While highlighting topics including overcrowding, social displacement, and tourism management, this book is ideally designed for local government officials, policymakers, lawmakers, researchers, entrepreneurs, industry professionals, travel agencies, hotels, academicians, and students seeking current innovative empirical research on destination-management practices and application techniques.
This book deals with the role of expertise and public participation in modern governance. It explores the relationship, tensions and compatibility of these increasingly important and partly conflicting sources of legitimacy and authority. By zooming in on the coordinated procedures of environmental policy-making in European consensus systems and by interconnecting theories of democracy, knowledge and science, organisation and decision-making, the author develops institutional solutions to the tensions between epistemic and democratic demands on public policy-making. |
You may like...
Cape Cod Bay - A History of Salt & Sea
Theresa Mitchell Barbo
Paperback
Origins and Evolution of Environmental…
Tadayoshi Terao, Tsuruyo Funatsu
Hardcover
R2,530
Discovery Miles 25 300
Living Hot - Surviving and Thriving on a…
Clive Hamilton, George Wilkenfeld
Paperback
R221
Discovery Miles 2 210
Invasive Plant Management Issues and…
Anne Leslie, Randy Westbrooks
Hardcover
R2,695
Discovery Miles 26 950
|