Dr. Michael Charles Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison are world-renowned ecological philosophers and activists, interdisciplinary social and environmental scientists and broad-ranging, deeply committed humanists. This collection of fifty essays and interviews comprises an invigorating, outspoken, provocative and eloquent overview of the ecological humanities in one highly accessible volume. The components of this collection were published in the authors' "Green Conversations" blog series, and pieces in the Eco News Network from 2011 to 2013 and feature luminaries from Jane Goodall to Ted Turner to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution to the former head of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Stunning color photographs captured by the authors and contributors make Why Life Matters: Fifty Ecosystems of the Heart and Mind a feast for the eyes as well as the mind and soul. Ethics, science, technology, ecological literacy, grass-roots renaissance thinkers, conservation innovation from the U.S. to the U.K.; from India to Ecuador; from Bhutan to Haiti; from across Africa, the Neo-Tropics, Central Asia and Japan, to Rio, Shanghai and Manhattan - this humanistic ode to the future of life on earth is a relevant and resonating read. Michael Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison, partners who between them have authored some 50 books and written, directed and produced some 170 films, a prolific body of work that has been read, translated and/or broadcast around the world, have been married for more than a quarter-of-a-century. Their field research across the disciplines of comparative literature, anthropology, the history of science and philosophy, ecology and ethics, in over 80 countries, has served as a telling example of what two people - deeply in love with one another - can accomplish in spreading that same unconditional love to others - of all species.

An exploration of the production and reception of nature and spirituality in America's national park system America's national parks are some of the most powerful, beautiful, and inspiring spots on the earth. They are often considered "spiritual" places in which one can connect to oneself and to nature. But it takes a lot of work to make nature appear natural. To maintain the apparently pristine landscapes of our parks, the National Park Service must engage in traffic management, landscape design, crowd-diffusing techniques, viewpoint construction, behavioral management, and more-and to preserve the "spiritual" experience of the park, they have to keep this labor invisible. Spirituality and the State analyzes the way that the state manages spirituality in the parks through subtle, sophisticated, unspoken, and powerful techniques. Following the demands of a secular ethos, park officials have developed strategies that slide under the church/state barrier to facilitate deep connections between visitors and the space, connections that visitors often express as spiritual. Through indirect communication, the design of trails, roads, and vista points, and the management of land, bodies and sense perception, the state invests visitors in a certain way of experiencing reality that is perceived as natural, individual, and authentic. This construction of experience naturalizes the exercise of authority and the historical, social, and political interests that lie behind it. In this way a personal, individual, nature spirituality becomes a public religion of a particularly liberal stripe. Drawing on surveys and interviews with visitors and rangers as well as analyses of park spaces, Spirituality and the State investigates the production and reception of nature and spirituality in America's national park system.

This book offers a concise but comprehensive introduction to desert ecology and adopts a strong evolutionary focus. As with other titles in the Biology of Habitats Series, the emphasis in the book is on the organisms that dominate this harsh environment, although theoretical and experimental aspects are also discussed. In this updated second edition, there is a greater focus on the effects of climate change and some of its likely effects on deserts, seeing desertification as among the most serious results of climate change, leading ultimately to the increasing size of arid and semi-arid regions. The Biology of Deserts Second Edition includes a wide range of ecological and evolutionary issues including morphological and physiological adaptations of desert plants and animals, species interactions, the importance of predation and parasitism, food webs, biodiversity, and conservation. It features a balance of plant and animal (both invertebrate and vertebrate) examples, and also emphasizes topical applied issues such as desertification and invasive species. The book concludes by considering the positive aspects of desert conservation. This accessible textbook is intended for senior undergraduate and graduate students, as well as professional ecologists, conservation practitioners, and resource managers working in the field of desert ecology.

The United States Congress appears to be in perpetual gridlock on environmental policy, notes Sara Rinfret, editor of the significant collection, Who Really Makes Environmental Policy? As she and her contributors explain, however, most environmental policy is not made in the halls of Congress. Instead, it is created by agency experts in federal environmental agencies and it is implemented at the state level. These individuals have been delegated the authority to interpret vague congressional legislation and write rules-and these rules carry the same weight as congressional law. Who Really Makes Environmental Policy? brings together top scholars to provide an explanation of rulemaking processes and regulatory policy, and to show why this context is important for U.S. environmental policy. Illustrative case studies about oil and gas regulations in Colorado and the regulation of coal ash disposal in southeastern states apply theory to practice. Ultimately, the essays in this volume advance our understanding of how U.S. environmental policy is made and why understanding regulatory policy matters for its future.

Originally published in 1988, Conservation at Home looks at practical methods of conservation that can be carried out within the home. Still as relevant today, as it was at the time of publication, this book gives practical and authoritative advice on a wide range of activities and products that can materially affect our environment. From the fabric and fuel, we use to keep warm, to the utensils and chemicals we clean with and the food we eat this book provides detailed information on how our domestic lives are affecting not only the natural world, but also ourselves as humans. Complete with detailed illustrations, this concise and useful book provides an ecologically conscious guide to living at home. This volume will be of interest to those researching and working in the field of ecology and conservation as well as for more general readerships.

In 1986, the Three Mile Island Public Health Fund commissioned a national team of researchers to prepare an alternative emergency plan for the region around the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. This nontechnical book, addressed to emergency workers, the public and policymakers, presents the results of their research in the form of a bold plan that is applicable to any nuclear plant emergency. It builds on the principles that local knowledge is valuable, not unsophisticated, that communities are adaptive, not inflexible, and that information must be made available and accessible to the people who most need it.

In Wetlands and Western Cultures: Denigration to Conservation, Rod Giblett examines the portrayal of wetlands in Western culture and argues for their conservation. Giblett's analysis of the wetland motif in literature and the arts, including in Beowulf and the writings of Tolkien and Thoreau, demonstrates two approaches to wetlands-their denigration as dead or their commendation as living waters with a potent cultural history.

This book examines the U.S. system of intergovernmental relations pertaining to ocean resources. The exploitation of the oceans with regard to fisheries, marine mammals, hydrocarbons and economic minerals, waste disposal, and coastal zone management is analyzed in the context of the Reagan administration's New Federalism. The contributors document the relationships that exist between the various levels of government - federal, state, and local - involved in regulating ocean resources and explore the problems associated with the use of specific resources. The analyses suggest no single pattern of government guidelines during the Reagan years, and they explain existing federal systems in relation to improve the management and conservation of ocean resources.

Biodiversity has been identified as a key issue in the general debate about the sustainable use of the world's natural resources. Major international efforts are now underway to assess and maintain biodiversity. However, there is an urgent need to collect, manage and disseminate information related to biodiversity in an efficient and effective way. The purpose of this book is to review the needs and opportunities for information and efficient information flows in support of world priorities in biodiversity. It is based on papers presented at a workshop held in London in July 1996, organized by CAB International with the support of the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS), International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO), IUCN - The World Conservation Union and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Contributors include leading players from organizations concerned with conserving and managing biodiversity, based in Europe and the USA as well as developing countries.

Environmental translation studies has gained momentum in recent years as a new area of research underscored by the need to communicate environmental concerns and studies across cultures. The dissemination of translated materials on environmental protection and sustainable development has played an instrumental role in transforming local culture and societies. This edited book represents an important effort to advance environmental studies by introducing the latest research on environmental translation and cross-cultural communication. Part I of the book presents the newest research on multilingual environmental resource development based at leading research institutes in Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Asia-Pacific. Part II offers original, thought-provoking linguistic, textual and cultural analyses of environmental issues in genres as diverse as literature, nature-based tourism promotion, environmental marketing, environmental documentary, and children's reading. Chapters in this book represent original research authored by established and mid-career academics in translation studies, computer science, linguistics, and environmental studies around the world. The collection provides engaging reading and references on environmental translation and communication to a wide audience across academia.

This book challenges the notion that nature is a city's opposite and addresses the often-overlooked concept of urban nature and how it relates to children's experiences of environmental education. The idea of nature-deficit, as well as concerns that children in cities lack for experiences of nature, speaks to the anxieties that underpin urban living and a lack of natural experiences. The contributors to this volume provide insights into a more complex understanding of urban nature and of children's experiences of urban nature. What is learned if nature is not somewhere else but right here, wherever we are? What does it mean for children's environmental learning if nature is a relationship and not an entity? How can such a relational understanding of urban nature and childhood support more sustainable and more inclusive urban living? In raising challenging questions about childhoods and urban nature, this book will stimulate much needed discussion to provoke new imaginings for researchers in environmental education, childhood studies, and urban studies. This book was originally published as a special issue of Environmental Education Research.

Originally published in 1975, Man and Wildlife traces the evolution of man from pre-hominid ancestors, and his influence in modifying the environment and its flora and fauna as technical knowledge grew. The development of civilization allowed man to dominate the environment; its advance led to the discovery and exploitation of the world's resources. In spite of all the discoveries of science, man's battle with the adverse forces of wildlife remain un-won and seems likely to stay so for the foreseeable future. The book traces the beginnings of environmental consciousness in the decades preceding its publication. It examines the extent of the human devastation of the environment, which has increased with rapid expansion of the world's human population, and the belated efforts to halt the destruction and help wildlife preservation.

This collection features five peer-reviewed literature reviews on crop rotations in agriculture. The first chapter discusses the effects of crop rotation and intercropping management practices and their impact on soil health enhancement and stability. It also considers the importance of leguminous crops and soil organic matter in maintaining healthy soils, sustaining crop productivity and enhancing biodiversity. The second chapter examines the principles of crop rotation, precrop effects in crop rotations, and the nutrient effects of legumes and other rotation crops. It also reviews the role of rotation crops in suppressing weeds, diseases and pests and studies rotations and crop yields, as well as the challenge of designing a crop rotation. The third chapter illustrates how crop models account for the interactions between soil, genotypes, management, and climate, on crops grown in various rotations, and their effects on yield and environmental outcomes under current and future climate scenarios. The fourth chapter assesses the potential of decision support systems for crop rotations in improving soil health and agricultural sustainability. The final chapter reviews how crop rotations with non-cereal species can be implemented to substantially reduce inoculum sources for residue-borne cereal leaf diseases.

This collection features four peer-reviewed literature reviews on cover crops in agriculture. The first chapter describes the contribution of cover crops to improving soil health. The chapter reviews their key role e.g. supplying a food source for soil organisms, providing a source of carbon to help build soil organic matter, enhancing nutrient dynamics in the soil and improving soil structure. The second chapter considers recent research on the benefits of cover crops in organic cultivation in areas such as soil structure and erosion control as well as nutrient cycling. It also looks at the wider role of cover crops in control of weeds, diseases and pests, promoting biodiversity and reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs). The third chapter highlights the use of different cover crops species to promote live or dead soil mulch cover in Conservation Agriculture systems. It also reviews how cover crops effect aspects such as soil acidity and nutrient availability, soil physical and biological properties, soil nematode control, weed control and grain yield. The final chapter reviews the role of cover crops in weed control. Cover crops are important additions to crop rotations because they suppress weeds during rotational periods when crops are absent and provide ecosystem services that enhance soil quality and fertility.

In 1912, a Congressional committee met to investigate allegations that the Secretary of Agriculture had suppressed a report by J. O. Wright on drainage in the Florida Everglades. The following seven months of committee hearings uncovered a veritable horror-show of corruption, self-dealing, misuse of government personnel and property for private gain, the tarring of reputations in order to protect high-level officials, and outright blackmail within the Department of Agriculture and the state governments of Florida and North Carolina. The "Wright Report Incident" is most commonly understood in its connection to the Everglades, and few histories have included its effects on the North Carolina Pocosin wetland and other coastal plain swamps. This book seeks fills that gap. It details the timeline, intricate politics, and webs of corruption that make up the story of the Wright Incident and, specifically, its connection to land management practices in coastal North Carolina that continue to impact the industries of the state almost 100 years later.

As urban areas keep growing, water infrastructure ages, and the requirements on environmental protection become more rigorous, there is a continual need for upgrading water pollution control facilities and restoring degraded urban waters. Such issues are addressed in this book by focusing on five major topics: (a) Upgrading stormwater management facilities, (b) Retrofitting / upgrading combined sewer overflow (CSO) facilities, (c) Optimising/upgrading sewage treatment plant performance, (d) Urban stream restoration, and (e) Challenges in restoring urban environment. Each chapter contains some overview papers followed by research or case study papers. Besides presentations of new approaches and accomplishments in the field of upgrading and restoration, several papers provide analysis of vast needs in this field in several countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which either recently joined the European Union (EU) or are preparing for accession, and need to comply with the existing EU directives dealing with environmental protection. As such, this book will be of primary interest to researchers and university lecturers dealing with environmental upgrading and restoration, environmental planners from all levels of government, municipal engineers and politicians, and finally the private industry representatives (consultants, private utilities and environmental technology suppliers) searching for new business opportunities among the new or aspiring members of EU.

Global interest in forest conservation, biodiversity preservation, and non-timber values has risen while pressures on the forest as a source of income and employment have also increased. These demands are often conflicting, making forest planning, allocation, and policy formation very complex. This volume explores theoretical and applied issues surrounding forest resource allocation. The book is divided into three sections: (1) Tropical Forests: Environment, Economics and Trade, (2) Non-Timber Valuation: Theory and Application, and (3) Ecosystem Management. The first section focuses on tropical forests, reflecting the fact that global environmental concerns surrounding these regions are often in conflict with local economic objectives. The chapters in this section examine mechanisms for capturing or optimizing total (timber and non-timber) economic value from tropical forests and the implications of forest policy on global trade in forest products and production from tropical forest regions. The second section examines non-timber values. These values, particularly existence or passive use values, are important in planning and policy decisions. However, these non-timber valuation techniques are also very controversial. This section examines theoretical advances in non-timber valuation and presents case studies employing state of the art techniques. The third section considers ecosystem management, a concept that promotes the use of forest harvesting practices that mimic natural disturbance patterns. The impact of ecosystem management on timber and non-timber values is largely unknown. The chapters in this section explore these issues from theoretical and applied perspectives. Overall, the book will be of interest to readers in forestry and environmental economics.

Phocid (or earless or true) seals are ecologically diverse, occupying habitats from the tropics to the poles in marine and freshwater and feeding on anything from tiny zooplankton to other marine mammals. There are 18 species of phocid seals, the smallest species (ringed seal) is more than 20 times smaller than the largest (southern elephant seal), with marked sexual dimorphism present in some species. This book examines the behavior, ecology, and physiology that allow phocid seals to inhabit such a wide range of habitats. The book is composed of 16 chapters written by 37 authors from 8 countries. The book first describes the general patterns of phocid behavior, followed by descriptions of what is known about well-studied species. We have taken a holistic approach, focusing not only on the behaviors themselves but also on the factors that constrain the expression of behavior and the proximate mechanisms driving behavior. In many cases, the chapters represent collaborations between well-established researchers and early-mid career individuals who bring new perspectives to help carry the field of phocid behavioral ecology well into the future.

Originally published in 1984, The Roots of Modern Environmentalism provides a historical, philosophical and ideological background to environmentalism. Topics covered include, the roots of technological environmentalism, the medieval cosmology and Bacon's philosophy, the non-scientific roots of ecological environmentalism, such as Romanticism and its scientific roots in the theories of Malthus and Darwin. The Marxist perspective on Nature is also discussed. The concluding chapter is a criticism of education which challenges its usefulness as an agent of socio-economic change. This book will be of interest to academics and students of environmentalism and geography.

There are many challenges involved in protecting biodiversity in tropical terrestrial and coastal ecosystems and conservation projects teach many practical lessons. The procedures and attitudes of governments, NGOs, donor agencies, development banks and consulting firms are crucial. These key topics are all dealt with, drawing on the author's extensive experience with conservation projects he designed in Sarawak, Nigeria, China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Costa Rica. Project descriptions illustrate two important themes in conservation: increasing the awareness of the economic value of biodiversity among decision makers, and enabling and encouraging local people to participate in designing and implementing projects. The book sets out guidelines to help others design projects that are practical and effective, yet more complete and more robust than some of those designed in the recent past and will be useful to professionals in environmental biology, conservation, and land use policy.

This book presents current research in the political ecology of indigenous revival and its role in nature conservation in critical areas in the Americas. An important contribution to evolving studies on conservation of sacred natural sites (SNS), the book elucidates the complexity of development scenarios within cultural landscapes related to the appropriation of religion, environmental change in indigenous territories, and new conservation management approaches. Indigeneity and the Sacred explores how these struggles for land, rights, and political power are embedded within physical landscapes, and how indigenous identity is reconstituted as globalizing forces simultaneously threaten and promote the notion of indigeneity.

We are in the midst of a worldwide waste epidemic, where the average person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks. The figure looks even worse at national level with the UK producing more than 100 million tonnes of waste every year. We all know the importance of reducing our environmental footprint, but the prospect of going green can seem daunting. Six Weeks to Zero Waste is both an accessible and aspirational programme to eliminate waste - and it goes beyond plastic. In this book, TV presenter turned eco blogger, Kate Arnell, will help you on your path to rubbish-free living, with the principles of the 5 Rs (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot). From cutting down on food waste and decluttering, to making homemade health and beauty products, you'll soon be on your way to a zero-waste lifestyle.

Overall Winner, SAGT (Scottish Association of Geography Teachers) Awards 2022 Sustainability Education: A Classroom Guide provides an accessible, in-depth guide and critique of sustainability education for school and university students, teachers, curriculum makers and school governors working around the world with children aged 3- to 14-years old. Informed by research findings and learning theory, it provides a progressive framework for sustainability education spanning all subject areas and applicable in a wide range of settings. There are over 180 age-related teaching ideas on topics such as conservation, health, food, wildlife, climate change, social justice and sustainable living, as well as provocative questions designed to stimulate educational debate. Written by two highly experienced UK-based educators, it draws together specially commissioned contributions from Australia, Israel, Norway, South Africa, the UK and the USA. Key concepts and links to the UN Global Goals (SDGs), are highlighted throughout. A companion website offers an extensive toolkit of specially prepared PowerPoint presentations and details of over 100 lectures, reports, picture books, websites and classroom and INSET teaching resources.