Most Americans agree that our heritage--both natural and cultural--should be protected. Then why does development run rampant, aided--rather than limited--by government inaction? Tom King has been a participant in and observer of this system for decades, as a government worker, heritage consultant, and advocate for local communities. In this hard-hitting critique of the heritage-industrial complex, King points the finger at watchdogs who instead serve as advocates, unintelligible (often contradictory) regulations, disinterested government employees and power-seeking agencies, all of whom conspire to keep our heritage unprotected. His solution to this crisis will be uncomfortable to many in power, but may help save more of our cultural and natural treasures.

This book is about phylogenetic diversity as an approach to reduce biodiversity losses in this period of mass extinction. Chapters in the first section deal with questions such as the way we value phylogenetic diversity among other criteria for biodiversity conservation; the choice of measures; the loss of phylogenetic diversity with extinction; the importance of organisms that are deeply branched in the tree of life, and the role of relict species. The second section is composed by contributions exploring methodological aspects, such as how to deal with abundance, sampling effort, or conflicting trees in analysis of phylogenetic diversity. The last section is devoted to applications, showing how phylogenetic diversity can be integrated in systematic conservation planning, in EDGE and HEDGE evaluations. This wide coverage makes the book a reference for academics, policy makers and stakeholders dealing with biodiversity conservation.

From Denali's majestic slopes to the Great Swamp of central New Jersey, protected wilderness areas make up nearly twenty percent of the parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and other public lands that cover a full fourth of the nation's territory. But wilderness is not only a place. It is also one of the most powerful and troublesome ideas in American environmental thought, representing everything from sublime beauty and patriotic inspiration to a countercultural ideal and an overextension of government authority. The Promise of Wilderness examines how the idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964. Wilderness preservation has engaged diverse groups of citizens, from hunters and ranchers to wildlife enthusiasts and hikers, as political advocates who have leveraged the resources of local and national groups toward a common goal. Turner demonstrates how these efforts have contributed to major shifts in modern American environmental politics, which have emerged not just in reaction to a new generation of environmental concerns, such as environmental justice and climate change, but also in response to changed debates over old conservation issues, such as public lands management. He also shows how battles over wilderness protection have influenced American politics more broadly, fueling disputes over the proper role of government, individual rights, and the interests of rural communities; giving rise to radical environmentalism; and playing an important role in the resurgence of the conservative movement, especially in the American West. Watch the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsq-6LAeYKk

European ecosystems and species remain under pressure from intensive agriculture and forestry, fishing, pollution, urban sprawl, invasive species and climate change. This book provides a detailed description and critical analysis of nature conservation responses, achievements and failures, motivated by the concerning state of nature and missed biodiversity targets. It summarises Europe's nature and the impact of human activities, and then gives an overview of relevant international biodiversity treaties and the EU nature conservation policy and legislative framework. The core of the book comprises chapters written by national experts, which cover the UK and twenty-five EU Member States, providing comparative case studies from which valuable lessons are drawn. Covering wide-ranging topics such as biodiversity pressures, legislation and governance, biodiversity strategies, species protection, protected areas, habitat management, and funding, this book is of interest to a wide audience, including academics and professionals involved in nature conservation and related environmental fields.

The book reviews the current state of knowledge on the chemical and physical processes occurring in the environmental media (i) the atmosphere, (ii) the aqueous phase and (iii) soil and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the chemical mechanisms (both explicit and condensed) currently available to simulate the multimedia environmental chemistry of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matter in these media. Contributions examine how well this knowledge has been incorporated into different types of CT models and appraise the current status and significant issues in the development and usage of the models. Model simulations of some real world chemical perturbations to the Earth system are presented which appraise the performance of the models in relation to "real world" observations. Serious caveats in our understanding of chemical processes and their simulation in the various compartments of the Earth system are highlighted and areas are identified that need urgent improvement, in particular with respect to environmental security.

The number of protected areas has risen in recent years to over 110,000 covering over 20 million square kilometres, over 12% per cent of the planet's surface. How has this growth been achieved and why was so much of it undertaken in the last 15 years? What is the relationship between the massive rise in conservation initiatives, our economic system and corporate interests? What are the implications for the millions of people who live in or depend on protected areas? This groundbreaking volume is the first comprehensive examination of the rise of protected areas and their current social and economic position in our world. It examines the social impacts of protected areas, the conflicts that surround them, the alternatives to them and the conceptual categories they impose.The book explores key debates on devolution, participation and democracy; the role and uniqueness of indigenous peoples and other local communities; institutions and resource management; hegemony, myth and symbolic power in conservation success stories; tourism, poverty and conservation; and the transformation of social and material relations which community conservation entails. For conservation practitioners and protected area professionals not accustomed to criticisms of their work, or students new to this complex field, the book will provide an understanding of the history and current state of affairs in the rise of protected areas; introduce the concepts, theories and writers on which critiques of conservation have been built and provide the means by which practitioners can understand problems with which they are wrestling. For advanced researchers the book will present a critique of the current debates on protectedareas and provide a host of jumping off points for an array of research avenues.

The book introduces basic entomology, emphasising perspectives on insect diversity important in conservation assessment and setting priorities for management, as a foundation for managers and others without entomological training or background. It bridges the gap between photographic essays on insect identification and more technical texts, to illustrate and discuss many aspects of taxonomic, ecological and evolutionary diversity in the Australian insect fauna, and its impacts in human life, through outlines of many aspects of insect natural history.

The British beach is full of creatures that we think we know - from crabs to clams, starfish to anemones. But, in fact, we barely understand how many survive or thrive. In Rock Pool the delights of childhood paddling are elevated to oceanic discoveries, as the fragile beauty and drama of intertidal existence is illustrated through the incredible lives of twenty-four individual creatures. Rock Pool is the eye-opening account of a life-long passion by a talented writer and naturalist.

Two headstrong conservative Mormon housewives, bent on preserving open space near Utah's Jordan River for their children and coming generations, speak out publicly against a multimillion-dollar commercial project that would encroach on the river and destroy wildlife habitat. They are promptly sued by the wealthy, influential, and powerful developers for $1.7 million. When these women choose to stand their ground and fight, the developers do everything in their power to use these women as "whipping moms" so that no citizen or city will ever dare oppose their developments in the future. On these bones of a classic American story (based on actual events), a cast of fascinating characters fleshes out. A bipolar lone-wolf environmental activist forms an alliance with the women and becomes the story's x-factor. A diverse team of lawyers, including a civil rights attorney, supply the women with legal assistance. The developers' network of family members, business associates, political cronies, judges, and church leaders reaches deep into small-town Salt Lake County. Here, they inevitably cross paths with the housewives and their allies. Neighborhood vandalism, vicious gossip, and dirty tricks ensue. The two beleaguered housewives and their ragtag grassroots supporters hunker down to resist a brutal lawsuit, intended to shut them up and break them with legal bills. An important environmental fight morphs into an even more significant battle for free speech. Will a glass and concrete city rise in the river bottoms?

County Mayo, Ireland, is spectacularly beautiful. Dolphins, whales, and seals frolic in bays, rivers teem with salmon. Into this tranquil, unspoiled region, in early 2002, came Shell Oil, announcing plans to build a gas refinery. Shell promised wonderful things: new jobs, improved roads, money for schools. Church officials called this project a “godsend,� while honest, hard-working families, who had lived in Mayo for generations, certainly saw no harm in the project. But when the citizens of County Mayo realized what Shell actually intended to do, they rose up. Shamrocks & Oil Slicks tells the story of County Mayo—the fishermen, farmers, teachers, business people—who, motivated by love for their environment, their community, and their country, fought one of the planet’s most powerful destroyers to a standstill. To combat the pipelines that Shell planned to build dangerously close to their homes and the toxic chemicals Shell wanted to dump into their drinking water and their bay rich in sea life, the people launched a nonviolent resistance movement that was to last some fifteen years. Residents from all walks of life were beaten by police, threatened by mercenaries, sent to jail and prison. Abandoned by the state and their church, insulted and maligned by the media, they refused to give up fighting to save their environment and their heritage. This is a story of the courage inherent in everyday folk, told with sweeping and lyrical sincerity. It is one of many stories taking place now throughout the world, wherever people struggle to preserve what’s left of their natural world. More people are joining this resistance every day, inspired by uprisings like the one in County Mayo, Ireland.

The existential environmental crisis prompted the United Nations to formulate the Millennium Development Goals at the turn of the 21st century in order to embark on an era of sustainable development. The progress and deficiencies in achieving the Millennium Development Goals provided impetus to the intelligentsia and policymakers to map out the pertinent goals for a sustainable growth trajectory for humanity and the planet. The United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted in September 2015, took the shape of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets. In effect, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals focus on protecting the earth's life support systems for intra- and inter-generational equity and for development that is rooted in sustainability science. Attaining these goals is an uphill task; nevertheless, scientific knowledge, trans and interdisciplinary inquiries, concerted global action and capacity building would provide an enabling environment for achieving the SDGs. This book explores the synergies and trade-offs between climate change management and other SDGs. It highlights the policy imperatives as well as the interrelations between combating climate change and its impacts (SDG 13) and food and nutritional security (SDG 2), water security (SDG 6), soil security (SDG 15), energy security (SDG 7), poverty eradication (SDG 1), gender equality (SDG 5), resilient infrastructure (SDG 9), and sustainable and resilient cities (SDG 11).

The Environmental Responsibility Reader is a definitive collection of classic and contemporary environmental works that offers a comprehensive overview of the issues involved in environmental responsibility, steering the reader through each development in thought with a unifying and expert editorial voice. This essential text expertly explores seemingly intractable modern-day environmental dilemmas - including climate change, fossil fuel consumption, fresh water quality, industrial pollution, habitat destruction, and biodiversity loss. Starting with 'Silent Spring' and moving through to more recent works the book draws on contemporary ideas of environmental ethics, corporate social responsibility, ecological justice, fair trade, global citizenship, and the connections between environmental and social justice; configuring these ideas into practical notions for responsible action with a unique global and integral focus on responsibility.

FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE IN GENERAL NONFICTION WINNER OF THE NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD A CHICAGO TRIBUNE TOP TEN BOOK OF 2018 A GUARDIAN, NPR's SCIENCE FRIDAY, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, AND LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF 2018 Hailed as "deeply felt" (New York Times), "a revelation" (Pacific Standard), and "the book on climate change and sea levels that was missing" (Chicago Tribune), Rising is both a highly original work of lyric reportage and a haunting meditation on how to let go of the places we love. With every passing day, and every record-breaking hurricane, it grows clearer that climate change is neither imagined nor distant-and that rising seas are transforming the coastline of the United States in irrevocable ways. In Rising, Elizabeth Rush guides readers through some of the places where this change has been most dramatic, from the Gulf Coast to Miami, and from New York City to the Bay Area. For many of the plants, animals, and humans in these places, the options are stark: retreat or perish in place. Weaving firsthand testimonials from those facing this choice-a Staten Islander who lost her father during Sandy, the remaining holdouts of a Native American community on a drowning Isle de Jean Charles, a neighborhood in Pensacola settled by escaped slaves hundreds of years ago-with profiles of wildlife biologists, activists, and other members of these vulnerable communities, Rising privileges the voices of those too often kept at the margins. In a new afterword for the paperback edition, Rush highlights questions of storytelling, adaptability, and how to powerfully shift conversation around ongoing climate change-including the storms of 2017 and 2018: Hurricanes Harvey, Maria, Irma, Florence, and Michael.

Most ecological risk assessments consider the risk to individual organisms or organism-level attributes. From a management perspective, however, risks to population-level attributes and processes are often more relevant. Despite many published calls for population risk assessment and the abundance of available scientific research and technical tools assessing risks to populations, risk assessors worldwide still have difficulty determining how population level considerations can be integrated into environmental decision-making. Population-Level Ecological Risk Assessment establishes a framework for goals, methods, and data needs for different assessment applications and for integrating population-level risk assessment into risk management decisions. Beginning with a summary of legal, regulatory, business, and other contexts, the book presents population-level ecological risk assessment as an internationally recognized, science-based tool and offers specific recommendations for using this tool to support environmental management decisions. It gives clear, explicit, operational population assessment definitions and explains the relevance of density dependence, genetics, and spatial considerations, as well as applicable lessons from conservation biology and natural resource management. The authors provide a "tool box" of empirical and modeling methods and describe the general approaches, assumptions, data requirements, strengths, and limitations of each method. They establish a working foundation for designing and conducting population-level ecological risk assessments consistent with North American, European, and Japanese risk management approaches. The book concludes by highlighting key considerations needed to improve the scientific quality and interpretation of assessments. Detailed appendices include examples of population-level assessment approaches applicable to specific environmental management contexts, a modeling case study, and a supplemental reading list.

As climate change takes hold, there is an ever-growing need to develop and apply strategies that optimize the use of natural resources, both on land and in water. This book covers a huge range of strategies that can be applied to various sectors, from forests to flood control. Its aim, as with resource management itself, is to combine economics, policy and science to help rehabilitate and preserve our natural resources.

Beginning with papers on carbon sequestration, including the practice of artificial desertification, the topics move on to cover the use of distributed modeling and neural networks in estimating water availability and distribution. Further chapters look at uncertainty analysis applied to the spatial variation of hydrologic resources, and finally the book covers attempts at estimating meteorological parameters in the context of hydrological variables such as evapo-transpiration from stream flow.

Within the next decade, the effects of climate change will be severe, and felt by ordinary human beings. This book proposes a raft of measures that can mitigate, if not reverse, the impact of global warming on the resources we have all come to depend on.

"A redemption story, an adventure story, and perhaps above all, a love story."-Nate Blakeslee, New York Times-bestselling author of American Wolf The Druid Peak Pack was the most famous wolf pack in Yellowstone National Park, and maybe even in the world. This is the dramatic true story of its remarkable leader, Wolf 21-whose compassion and loyalty challenges commonly held beliefs about alpha males. In this compelling follow-up to the national bestseller The Rise of Wolf 8, Rick McIntyre profiles one of Yellowstone's most revered alpha males, Wolf 21. Leader of the Druid Peak Pack, Wolf 21 was known for his unwavering bravery, his unusual benevolence (unlike other alphas, he never killed defeated rival males), and his fierce commitment to his mate, the formidable Wolf 42. Wolf 21 and Wolf 42 were attracted to each other the moment they met-but Wolf 42's jealous sister interfered viciously in their relationship. After an explosive insurrection within the pack, the two wolves came together at last as leaders of the Druid Peak Pack, which dominated the park for more than 10 years. McIntyre recounts the pack's fascinating saga with compassion and a keen eye for detail, drawing on his many years of experience observing Yellowstone wolves in the wild. His outstanding work of science writing offers unparalleled insight into wolf behavior and Yellowstone's famed wolf reintroduction project. It also offers a love story for the ages. "Like Thomas McNamee, David Mech, Barry Lopez, and other literary naturalists with an interest in wolf behavior, McIntyre writes with both elegance and flair, making complex biology and ethology a pleasure to read. Fans of wild wolves will eat this one up."-Kirkus starred review

A completely up-to-date introduction to the most common group of bees in Britain. Bees, for most people, mean honey or bumble bees, but in fact these social species make up only a small proportion of the species that live in Britain. Open your eyes to the so-called ‘solitary’ bees, and discover a wonderfully diverse population – miners, leafcutters, carpenters and masons – many of which can be found in your own back garden. Solitary bees come in a variety of colours and sizes, with some as large as bumblebees and some only a few millimetres long, and many are key pollinators for our crops and wildflowers. This comprehensive book will tell the story of how these bees live, reproduce and thrive: discover the numerous strategies used by male bees to find females and persuade them to mate; follow the females as they build their nests – or in the case of ‘cuckoo’ species, sneak into the nests of their neighbours – and watch as the new generation appears. Explore the interactions between flowering plants and their bee visitors, asking what the plants get from the relationship, as well as how the bees select the plants they visit, and the ingenuity required to extract pollen, nectar and other rewards. Finally, learn places where bees flourish and what can be done to encourage them and ensure they continue to pollinate our flowers and crops. Drawing on all the latest research as well as the authors’ own observations in the field, this timely New Naturalist gives a wonderful insight into the complicated lives of solitary bees, and the complexity of the behaviour and ecology of this remarkable group of insects.

Environmental anthropology is at its best when firmly grounded in respectful and systematic ethnographic research and writing that spotlights uncommon perspectives on widely recognized issues confronting the world. Intentionally crafted for undergraduate course use in anthropology, geography, and environmental studies, Sustaining Natures showcases the best contemporary writing on nature and sustainability. With concise introductions and sample discussion questions, the editors guide readers through some of the field’s most pressing themes and debates, including farming, alternative energy, extractive industries, environmental justice, multispecies relationships, and urban ecology. This timely reader foregrounds diverse voices, views, and experiences of nature, from US corporate boardrooms to urban waste disposal sites in China, and moves environmental anthropology in new theoretical, methodological, and applied terrains.

Explores the complex relationship humans have with the environment. It is one of both responsibility-including the sustainable or unsustainable management of natural resources-and emotion, like the elation gleaned from a beautiful landscape or the devastation experienced from a natural disaster. Human-induced damage to the environment has widespread consequences for Earth and its inhabitants that have already included sea level rise, increased wildlife extinctions, heatwaves, droughts, intensified air pollution, and water shortages. This book provides comprehensive coverage of the complex interactions between people and the environment. It presents three clear, honest, and down-to-earth essays that cover the devastating impact humans have on the environment; the equally devastating impact the environment has on humans at times; and the positive impact that increasing awareness of our effect on the planet is having on the movement to create a more sustainable future. In addition, in-depth entries on 60 key environmental geography terms, such as deforestation, ecotourism, and environmental justice, provide a deeper dive into the topic; 15 real-world case studies on topics like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the Great Green Wall of Africa illustrate geography in action; and 10 brief spotlights from around the world draw the reader in with relevant facts. Documents human modification of the Eearth on topics such asthrough deforestation, land use change, agricultural soil degradation, water pollution, waste generation, and the ultimate impact: climate change. Describes policies at national and global scales that have exacerbated environmental degradation (such as subsidies to fossil fuels) or acted to reduce such harm (such as pollution control regulations). Explains how richer and poorer nations are affected by and able to mitigate environmental degradation. Describes the interrelationships among people and the environment at various geographic scales: (individuals, communities, national policies, global initiatives); and alsoas well as the influence of public policies and community organizations such as (non-profit groups). Suggests how individuals can make better decisions and have a positive impact on future environmental conditions.

Issues in Green Criminology: confronting harms against environments, humanity and other animals aims to provide, if not a manifesto, then at least a significant resource for thinking about green criminology, a rapidly developing field. It offers a set of specially written introductions and a variety of current and new directions, wide-ranging in scope and international in terms of coverage and contributors. It provides focused discussions of current and cutting edge issues that will influence the emergence of a coherent perspective on green issues. The contributors are drawn from the leading thinkers in the field. The twelve chapters of the book explore the myriad ways in which governments, transnational corporations, military apparatuses and ordinary people going about their everyday lives routinely harm environments, other animals and humanity. The book will be essential reading not only for students taking courses in colleges and universities but also for activists in the environmental and animal rights movements. Its concern is with an ever-expanding agenda the whys, the hows and the whens of the generation and control of the many aspects of harm to environments, ecological systems and all species of animals, including humans. These harms include, but are not limited to, exploitation, modes of discrimination and disempowerment, degradation, abuse, exclusion, pain, injury, loss and suffering. Straddling and intersecting these many forms of harm are key concepts for a green criminology such as gender inequalities, racism, dominionism and speciesism, classism, the north/south divide, the accountability of science, and the ethics of global capitalist expansion. Green criminology has the potential to provide not only a different way of examining and making sense of various forms of crime and control responses (some well known, others less so) but can also make explicable much wider connections that are not generally well understood. As all societies face up to the need to confront harms against environments, other animals and humanity, criminology will have a major role to play. This book will be an essential part of this process.

Providing useful insights on the use of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) in natural resource management, this book examines a number of empirical applications for several countries and a variety of natural resources. It is shown that using MCDA in the management of water, forestry, wetland and other natural resources can substantially improve the design and implementation of natural resource and environmental policies. Stakeholder involvement is also an important determinant of successful resource management and MCDA provides a useful and effective framework for getting stakeholders involved in resource management decisions. Using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis in Natural Resource Management gives in-depth analysis of the potential problems in applying these techniques, including difficulties eliciting required information, lack of suitable measures for environmental variables and the need to develop innovative methods to simplify the use of MCDA.

Cumulative global transformations, occurring daily, affect important aspects of our life. Characteristic cultural and natural heritage, including sites of priceless value, is under constant threat. There are growing pressures, of both natural and human origin, such as wars, con icts, natural or technological disasters and the effects of global climate change. These provoke the continuous degradation of many sites included in the World Heritage List. In consequence, immediate strategic measures must be taken. Natural heritage is our legacy from the past, that we inherited from our ancestors and pass on to future generations. It is vital to realize its value and protect it by all possible means, enforcing innovative and sustainable action plans that promote global international co-operation. This book aims to address speci c natural heritage sites in Europe, from West to East. The six countries of study interest are Portugal, Malta, Greece, Italy, Romania and Turkey. For each case, the corresponding current status is presented. This is accompanied by recommended action plans for protection and conservation, tra- ing initiatives that improve the public awareness of natural heritage issues and efforts to estimate the natural/environmental value of the sites. The book is the overall result of an interregional initiative aiming to promote convergence, provoke public interest and recommend action for radical changes in our attitude towards heritage conservation.

Jonathan D Oldfield provides a detailed assessment of the changing relationship between Russian society and the wider environment since the fall of the Soviet Union. Through this, he highlights the need to critically evaluate assumptions regarding the post-Soviet environment, in order to move beyond generalization and engage meaningfully with the particularities of Russia's contemporary environmental situation. The book begins by focusing on the nature of Soviet environmental legacies as a necessary backdrop to the remainder of the study. This is followed by a general examination of the relationship between economic change and pollution output during the course of the 1990s. Further chapters provide in depth analysis of recent legislative and policy developments in the area of environmental protection and an exploration of emerging pollution and environmental quality trends at both the national and regional level. In addition, the book highlights pressures that are related to Russia's engagement with the global economy.