Rattle's new book challenges key assumptions concerning the role of Internet and communication technologies (ICTs) in globalization processes. The author argues that while globalization is predicated upon a strong, extensive, and interconnected global ICT network of products, processes, and services, the real environmental and health benefits remain far from certain. ICTs have been promoted as the next economic wave with the potential to generate jobs, wealth, and prosperity to surpass that of the industrial era. It is assumed the environmental impacts will be negligible or even beneficial in this shift towards a service economy. Rattle investigates these current and expected trends in ICTs and their potential contribution to sustainable development. His book is an indispensable overview for researchers and instructors in globalization, Internet communication technologies, and environmental anthropology or sociology, as well as a resource for policy makers in environmental protection, sustainable development, sustainable consumption, and the social role of science and technology.

A spirited memoir by artist Aviva Rahmani, offering a relatable narrative to discuss trigger point theory and the importance of eco-art activism. Divining Chaos is an intimate personal memoir of unparalleled transparency into the moments in Rahmani's life that shaped her as an artist and activist. Detailing the history that led her to two seminal projects-Ghost Nets, restoring a coastal town dump to flourishing wetlands, and The Blued Trees Symphony, which applied her premises to challenge natural gas pipelines with a novel legal theory about land use-Rahmani shares the decisions that shaped her life's work and thinking. Her discussions about trigger point theory argue for how to predict, confront, and determine outcomes to the ecological challenges we face today.

The amazing true stories of the greatest wildlife champions of our time. Wildlife conservation is at a critical juncture. While large, charismatic mammals may be the first animals that come to mind-the mere 3,000 wild tigers still in existence, the giraffes declared endangered for the first time just last year-it is not only these magnificent keystone species disappearing. A full third of all studied birds, reptiles, and mammals have suffered devastating population losses, and a third of all insects are now endangered, including crucial pollinators that sustain worldwide food supply. Over 15,000 animal species are now considered to be threatened with extinction. There are, however, bright spots that provide optimism-many of them due to the efforts of a small group of scientists and activists. In Saving Endangered Species, Robert W. Shumaker brings together ten conservation heroes, seven of them winners of the Indianapolis Prize, three of them recipients of the Jane Alexander Global Wildlife Ambassador Award. With moving immediacy, each wildlife defender offers their unique perspective on the state of wildlife conservation and the future of the natural world. Bringing to life their work in the field, each contributor also explains key concepts in wildlife conservation, reveals why they are important, and discusses what kinds of work can be done to address biodiversity loss. Contributors sharing their stories in their own words include * George Schaller, one of the founding fathers of wildlife conservation, who conducted the field work that resulted in the establishment of the world's largest wildlife preserve, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge * Iain Douglas-Hamilton, who is widely credited with developing the metrics and methods that stemmed the tide of elephant poaching for ivory in Africa * Steven Amstrup, who discovered the disturbing truth that the sea ice polar bears rely on for traveling, hunting, and raising their young was disappearing * Russell Mittermeier, who has discovered over 20 new animal species, conducted field work in more than 30 countries around the globe, and authored 15 books on biodiversity * Harrison Ford, Academy Award-winning actor, who has been a passionate wildlife advocate and board member of Conservation International for over 25 years * Sigourney Weaver, three-time Academy Award nominee, whose work with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund has helped save thousands of gorillas in Rwanda and Congo This unique book aims to win new recruits, inspire biologists and conservationists already in the field, and illustrate the profession's fundamental scientific tenets through wildlife champions' own exciting narratives. Covering issues from reproduction and prey-predator relationships to population dynamics and community engagement, Saving Endangered Species also addresses such thorny topics as overhunting, retaliatory killing by farmers, development-driven habitat loss, and the illegal wildlife trade. By encompassing a broad spectrum of subjects, this volume ultimately gives readers a first-person look into what it takes to dedicate oneself to the crucial field of wildlife conservation. Contributors: Jane Alexander, Steven C. Amstrup, George Archibald, Michael I. Crowther, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Harrison Ford, Carl Jones, Russell Mittermeier, George B. Schaller, Robert W. Shumaker, Sigourney Weaver, Patricia Chapple Wright

To prepare today's students to meet growing global environmental challenges, colleges and universities must make environmental literacy a core learning goal for all students, in all disciplines. But what should an environmentally literate citizen know? What teaching and learning strategies are most effective in helping students think critically about human-environment interactions and sustainability, and integrate what they have learned in diverse settings? Educators from the natural and social sciences and the humanities discuss the critical content, skills, and affective qualities essential to environmental literacy. This volume is an invaluable resource for developing integrated, campus-wide programs to prepare students to think critically about, and to work to create, a sustainable society.

International environmental agreements provide a practical basis for countries to address environmental issues on a global scale. This book explores the workings and outcomes of these agreements, and analyses key questions of why some problems are dealt with successfully and others ignored. By examining fundamental policies and issues in environmental protection this text gives an easily comprehensible introduction to international environmental agreements, and discusses problems in three areas: air, water and on land. It traces the history of agreements in broad thematic areas related to long-distance air pollution, ozone-depleting and greenhouse gases, ocean management, biological diversity, agricultural plant diversity and forest stewardship. Drawing on experts in their respective fields, this book provides an insightful evaluation of the successes and failures, and analysis of the reasons for this. Concluding with an insightful examination of research to show how performance of agreements can be improved in the future, this volume is a vital contribution to our understanding of the politics associated with establishing international environmental consensus. International Environmental Agreements will be of interest to scholars, students and researchers in global environmental politics, international relations and political science. Steinar Andresen is Senior Research Fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway, and formerly professor at the Dept. of Political Science, University of Oslo. Elin Lerum Boasson is Research Fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway. Geir Honneland is Research Director at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute and adjunct professor at the University of Tromso.

This book describes the ecosystem of the Andean watersheds, covering the Californian valley, tropical Andes, and southern Andes. Case studies of the new methods and techniques used for hydrological research in the Andes are provided, and sustainability issues pertaining to Andean water resources are discussed in the context of climate change, social and economic issues, and public policy. Furthermore, the impact of economic development on the Andean ecosystem, specifically the effect on the water cycle and the water-energy-food nexus, are examined.

As natural resources have become scarcer, issues of environmental policy have become more vital and subject to debate in global as well as local arenas. Through the use of case studies especially developed for this book, the authors analyze the wide range of institutional contexts in which natural resource and environmental policy issues arise and the processes by which they are resolved. The first chapter provides a theoretical framework of key resource and environmental economics concepts-an overview that gradually broadens as the student is exposed to alternative methods of analysis, including market-oriented analysis, institutional analysis, and modeling. The case studies all begin with discussions of the pertinent biological, physical, social, and institutional issues before economic analysis is applied and policy conclusions are drawn. Suggested readings and study questions follow each chapter. This book is designed for use in upper-level college courses in natural resource and environmental economics and graduate courses in resource management. It can be used either as a primary text in conjunction with theoretical readings or as a supplemental source of case study readings. The cases will also be valuable for natural resource, environmental, and community development economists.

This study examines Japan's transnational environmental policy through environmental technology transfer to Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs) in the 1990s. It addresses the ability of Japan to take up the challenges in this transnational sphere. Social scientists differ in their assessment about the future of nation-states' capability to steer policy formulation under this changing framework. However, transnationalization does not necessarily undermine the state, but includes transformations of state forms and policy making. The transfer of environmental technology to NICs proceeds on the assumption of the existent, but probably reduced capacity of states to act. Based on the policy cycle model, this study focuses special attention to the actors based on Albrecht Dehnhard's theory that nation-states are gaining power in international circles.

Globally, local and indigenous approaches to conserving biodiversity, crop improvement, and managing precious natural resources are under threat. Many communities have to deal with 'biopiracy, ' for example. As well, existing laws are usually unsuitable for protecting indigenous and traditional knowledge and for recognizing collective rights, such as in cases of participatory plant breeding, where farmers, researchers and others join forces to improve existing crop varieties or develop new ones, based on shared knowledge and resources.

This book addresses these issues. It outlines the national and international policy processes that are currently underway to protect local genetic resources and related traditional knowledge and the challenges these initiatives have faced. In particular these themes are addressed within the context of the Convention of Biological Diversity and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The authors broaden the policy and legal debates beyond the sphere of policy experts to include the knowledge-holders themselves. These are the 'custodians of biodiversity': farmers, herders and fishers in local communities. Their experience in sharing access and benefits to genetic resources is shown to be crucial for the development of effective national and international agreements. The book presents and analyzes this experience, including case studies from China, Cuba, Honduras, Jordan, Nepal, Peru and Syria.

Copublished with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

Land degradation is increasingly considered as a global problem. The extent of degraded and degrading areas adversely impacts on large numbers of people and leads to significant social and economic costs, thus raising the questions: In which way is it worth taking action against land degradation? Where and when should action take place, and what are costs related to certain actions? For policy makers it is important to know the social and economic costs linked to the current and future status of land degradation. A conceptual framework that allows comparing the costs of action against land degradation versus the costs of inaction is provided in this book. The applicability of the framework is illustrated with case studies and prepares the ground for a global assessment on the costs of land degradation.

Sixteen of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in China. A serious water pollution incident occurs once every two-to-three days. China's breakneck growth causes great concern about its global environmental impacts, as others look to China as a source for possible future solutions to climate change. But how are Chinese people really coming to grips with environmental problems? This book provides access to otherwise unknown stories of environmental activism and forms the first real-life account of China and its environmental tensions.
"China and the Environment" provides a unique report on the experiences of participatory politics that have emerged in response to environmental problems, rather than focusing only on macro-level ecological issues and their elite responses. Featuring previously untranslated short interviews, extracts from reports and other translated primary documents, the authors argue that going green in China isn't just about carbon targets and energy policy; China's grassroots green defenders are helping to change the country for the better.

This book examines the concept of naturalness in ecosystems, discusses its values and considers choices about the level of naturalness in conservation efforts. The author argues that all ecosystems have been modified and the idea of places 'untouched by humans' is a myth. But there are large differences in the degree of modification and levels of naturalness which can be identified. Changes are not always irreversible; some apparent wilderness areas are sites of former civilizations. There is no longer any simple distinction possible between 'natural' and 'cultural' systems. In the future, society will, to some extent, choose the degree of naturalness in land and seascapes. The growth of protected areas is an early sign of this, as are changes in forest management, dam removal and control of invasive species. To make informed choices about these areas, the author shows that we must understand the characteristics and values of naturally regulating ecosystems - their practical benefits, social values and management needs.

Authenticity in Nature uses a rigorous definition of authenticity to help in the understanding and measurement of naturalness. It discusses the choices facing us and some of the information we need to make decisions relating to land and water management. Practical issues of management and numerous terrestrial and aquatic examples from around the world are discussed. It is an optimistic and highly original book, aiming to make genuine advances in our understanding and management of natural systems.

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. Fisheries management and conservation draws on fisheries science in order to find ways to protect fishery resources so sustainable exploitation is possible. Modern fisheries management often involves regulating when, where, how, and how much fishermen are allowed to harvest to ensure that there will be fish in the future. This work on fisheries management and conservation covers a broad array of chapters on this field of growing importance. It includes chapters on illegal fishing, recovery of endangered fish, effective management of fisheries, fish invasions in river systems, selection of fishing areas, fish invasions, conservation efforts, and much more.

Wildlife expert Eanna Ni Lamhna takes us on a tour of all things to do with our wonderful natural world: from a celebration of our fascinating birds and bees, and their powers of migration and pollination, to the thorny challenges of our time, such as climate change, sustainability and our carbon footprint. Her mantra is that learning about our wild world is not just for young children or David Attenborough fans, it is a lifelong necessary knowledge for our survival - and we need to open our eyes and our minds to the challenges that face us and our world into the future. The key is to find the balance between our needs and wants and the future of our precious planet and all its inhabitants. This brand new book raises, and discusses, questions such as; Why should we care about this natural world? Do we need and value the great outdoors now more than ever? But who wants spiders in their house? And what use are wasps anyway? Should we be worried by genetic engineering and windfarms? Biodiversity - what did it ever do for us? Does it mean the end of the world if the whales become extinct? Are global warming and climate change the same thing? What happened to the hole in the ozone layer? Is veganism the answer to sustainable food? What is carbon sequestration - just fancy words for trees? And why are carbon sinks so important? Is the mobile phone taking over our lives for good or for evil? How does a virus become a pandemic, and why?

The earth, our home, is in crisis. There are two sides to this crisis-our global economy, and its effect on the ecology of our home planet. Despite conventional thinking that typical monetary and fiscal manipulations will put us back on the path of economic growth, the reality is not that simple. Meanwhile, the natural environment is sending unmistakable warnings. Glaciers are melting; oceans are becoming dangerously acidic; species and their ecological services are becoming extinct; and weather patterns are becoming increasingly severe and unpredictable each year. The stress on resource systems of all kinds threatens to shrink the carrying capacity of the planet, even as we call upon it for increased contributions to support a burgeoning human population. Co-written by an ecologist and an economist, Economics and Ecology: United for a Sustainable World counsels the replacement of symptomatic thinking with a systemic worldview that treats the environment and the economy as an ecosystemic unit. The first part of the book establishes the methodological and biophysical principles needed to develop the concept of socioeconomic sustainability. The second part of the book examines the misuse of economics in the service of what increasingly appears to be a ruinous pursuit of material wealth and expansion. The third part offers advice on reconciling economics and ecology by proposing an economics in which the principles employed are aligned with the biophysical principles of ecology. This timely volume puts forth a sustainable worldview based on systemic thinking, with the emphasis more on what and how people think than on what they do. A unique reference for professionals and laypersons alike, it can also serve as a supplementary classroom text for students of economics, ecology, biology, and environmental science.

Saving the world's flora and fauna, especially high-profile examples such as chimpanzees, whales and the tropical rain forests, is big business. Individuals and companies channel their resources to the preservation of nature through various ways, one of which is the funding of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs). This book is the first to comprehensively address this issue and focus on a dominant theme in environmental philanthropy, the links between ENGOs and CBOs and their sponsors, especially the private sector.

It has been argued that donor support is based on recipient's perceived expertise and needs, with no favouritism of flagship environmental organizations as recipients of donor funds. A counterview holds that the private sector prefers to fund mainstream ENGOs for environmental research and policy reforms congenial to industrial capital. The authors show that the debate about these arguments, together with the empirical evidence on which they are based, may shed light on certain aspects of the nature of environmental philanthropy. The book evaluates practical examples of environmental philanthropy from Africa and elsewhere against philosophical questions about the material and geographical expressions of philanthropy, and the North-South connections among philanthropists and ENGOs and CBOs.

While artificial reefs may have much to offer, they remain an anecdote in the greater scheme of fisheries management, primarily due to the lack of data specific to validating their use. Based on papers presented at the 9th Conference on Artificial Reefs and Artificial Habitats (CARAH) and also including original articles written for this reference, Artificial Reefs in Fisheries Management brings to the forefront the current state of knowledge regarding artificial reefs and their pragmatic application to furthering fisheries sustainability. It presents a timely compilation of research to increase options for the implementation of artificial reefs for fishery and natural resource managers. Artificial Reefs in Fisheries Management offers an inclusive and encompassing description of the field by chapter authors drawn from diverse geographical areas. This approach gives readers the broadest of perspectives and reflects regional interests and experience with artificial reefs in different parts of the world. Coming at an opportune time in the field of artificial reefs, Artificial Reefs in Fisheries Management aids researchers and natural resource managers more carefully consider the special features of artificial reefs in their application to resolving fisheries management problems. This book is an important step toward improving the prescribed use of artificial reefs as a viable option in many of the world's fisheries in the quest to make more of the world's fisheries sustainable.

Over the last two decades, the topic of forest ecosystem services has attracted the attention of researchers, land managers, and policy makers around the globe. The services rendered by forest ecosystems range from intrinsic to anthropocentric benefits that are typically grouped as provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural. The research efforts, assessments, and attempts to manage forest ecosystems for their sustained services are now widely published in scientific literature. This volume focuses on broad-scale aspects of forest ecosystem services, beyond individual stands to large landscapes. In doing so, it illustrates the conceptual and practical opportunities as well as challenges involved with planning for forest ecosystem services across landscapes, regions, and nations. The goal here is to broaden the scope of land use planning through the adoption of a landscape-scale approach. Even though this approach is complex and involves multiple ecological, social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions, the landscape perspective appears to offer the best opportunity for a sustained provision of forest ecosystem services.

Wetlands encompass a diversity of habitats that rely on the presence of water to survive. Over the last two centuries, these hard-to-reach areas have been viewed with disdain or eliminated by a public that saw them only as dangerous and worthless lowlands. This book tracks changing perceptions of one of the world's richest and biologically productive biomes and efforts that have been undertaken to protect many areas. With land development resulting in the loss of more than half of the world's wetlands, significant efforts are now under way to protect the remaining 5 million square miles. The author describes three noteworthy examples which demonstrate the resilience of wetland plants and animals and their ability to rebound from human-induced pressures. In Central Asia, the Aral Sea and its adjacent wetlands show promising regrowth, in part because of massive hydrology projects being implemented to undo years of damage to the area. The Everglades wetlands complex, spanning the lower one-third of Florida, is slowly reviving as conservation measures are implemented. Finally it is shown how Lake Poyang in southeastern China has experienced increased ecological health as a result of better resource management and community education programs focused on the vital role that wetlands play in a healthy environment.

In the context of the current wave of global environmental concern, this book considers measures aimed at solving environmental problems, investigating the example of ecological migration. The term "ecological migration" refers to the organized migration of people engaged in occupations that cause ecological destruction, aimed at rehabilitating and conserving the affected areas. In the vast arid and semi-arid regions that constitute the steppes of Inner Mongolia, grassland vegetation is in imminent danger due to overgrazing. Therefore, the herders are made to migrate to other areas in order to ensure regeneration of the affected grasslands. This book's contributions are guided by questions such as: What has been the result of the strategy of ecological migration? Have the grasslands successfully been conserved? And can the desertification of Inner Mongolia be prevented? The essays collected in this volume originate from a workshop on ecological migration held in Beijing, China, in 2004, and were published in Japanese and Chinese, both in 2005. They have been adopted as a textbook in university classes in Japan and China, and were updated and translated for the English publication.

An insightful look at the historical damages early colonizers of America caused and how their descendants may recognize and heal the harm done to the earth and the native peoples Inherited Silence tells the story of beloved land in California's Napa Valley-how the land fared during the onslaught of colonization and how it fares now in the drought, development, and wildfires that are the consequences of the colonial mind. Author Louise Dunlap's ancestors were among the first Europeans to claim ownership of traditional lands of the Wappo people during a period of genocide. As settlers, her ancestors lived the dream of Manifest Destiny, their consciousness changing only gradually over the generations. When Dunlap's generation inherited the land, she had already begun to wonder about its unspoken story. What had kept her ancestors from seeing and telling the truth of their history? What had they brought west with them from the very earliest colonial experience in New England? Dunlap looks back into California's and America's history for the key to their silences and a way to heal the wounds of the land, its original people, and the harmful mind of the colonizer. It's a powerful story that will awaken others to consider their own ancestors' role in colonization and encourage them to begin reparations for the harmful actions of those who came before. More broadly, it offers a way for every reader to evaluate their own current life actions and the lasting impact they can have on society and our planet.

In this modern era of global environmental crisis, Sing Chew provides a convincing analysis of the recurring human and environmental crises identified as Dark Ages. In this, his second of a three-volume series concerning world ecological degradation, Chew reviews the past 5,000-year history of structural conditions and processes that define the relationship between nature and culture. Chew's message about the coming Dark Ages, as human communities continue to reorganize to meet the contingencies of ecological scarcity and climate changes, is a must-read for those concerned with human interactions and environmental changes, including environmental anthropologists and historians, world historians, geographers, archaeologists, and environmental scientists.

This book describes how an era of biohappiness, based on the conservation and sustainable and equitable use of biodiversity, can be launched. It deals with all aspects of conservation such as in situ, ex situ and community conservation, and also covers conservation issues relating to mangroves and other coastal bioresources, whose importance has grown with the emerging possibility of sea-level rise from global warming. The book includes concrete examples of how local tribal families have taken to the establishment of gene, seed, grain and water banks in villages, thus linking conservation, cultivation, consumption and commerce in a mutually-reinforcing manner.

Indigenous knowledge that embraces ornithology takes in whole social dimensions that are inter-linked with environmental ethos, conservation and management for sustainability. In contrast, western approaches have tended to reduce knowledge to elemental and material references. This book looks at the significance of indigenous knowledge of birds and their cultural significance, and how these can assist in framing research methods of western scientists working in related areas. As well as its knowledge base, this book provides practical advice for professionals in conservation and anthropology by demonstrating the relationship between mutual respect, local participation and the building of partnerships for the resolution of joint problems. It identifies techniques that can be transferred to different regions, environments and collections, as well as practices suitable for investigation, adaptation and improvement of knowledge exchange and collection in ornithology. The authors take anthropologists and biologists who have been trained in, and largely continue to practise from, a western reductionist approach, along another path - one that presents ornithological knowledge from alternative perspectives, which can enrich the more common approaches to ecological and other studies as well as plans of management for conservation.

This volume explores the links between the rapidly growing phenomenon of social entrepreneurship (SE) and the international tourism and hospitality industry. This unique industry is particularly ripe for transformation by SE and the book's authors delve deeply into the reasons for this. The book has three parts. The first creates a conceptual and theoretical framework for understanding the uniqueness of SE in the tourism context. The second examines different communities of practice where SE is being applied in tourism. The third is a rich collection of case studies from eight countries where tourism SE is already having an impact. The book's authors address the topic from many different angles, disciplinary backgrounds and geographic areas. Many case study authors are practicing social entrepreneurs who share their successes, challenges and experience with tourism-related projects. The book also proposes a research agenda and educational programmatic changes needed to support tourism SE. As these are developed, tourism SE will bring innovation to destinations, transformation of their economic and social structures, and contribution to a better world. The book has many insights and resources for scholars and practitioners alike to usher in this transformation.