From time to time we all tend to wonder what sort of "story" our life might comprise: what it means, where it is going, and whether it hangs together as a whole. In The Stories We Are, William Lowell Randall explores the links between literature and life and speculates on the range of storytelling styles through which people compose their lives. In doing so, he draws on a variety of fields, including psychology, psychotherapy, theology, philosophy, feminist theory, and literary theory. Using categories like plot, character, point of view, and style, Randall plays with the possibility that we each make sense of the events of our lives to the extent that we weave them into our own unfolding novel, as simultaneously its author, narrator, main character, and reader. In the process, he offers us a unique perspective on features of our day-to-day world such as secrecy, self-deception, gossip, prejudice, intimacy, maturity, and the proverbial "art of living." First published in 1995, this second edition of The Stories We Are includes a new preface and afterword by the author that offer insight into his argument and evolution as a scholar, as well as an illuminating foreword by Ruthellen Josselson.

Native Americans suffer disproportionately from many social and health disparities. High rates of poverty, exposure to environmental toxins, and various forms of violence all increase the risk of health problems, including disabilities, yet there is very little published scholarship concerning Native American experiences with disabilities. In collecting contributions on various aspects of disability in Native American populations in one volume, this book seeks to redress this lack of attention. Writing about regions of the United States, Canada, and Australia, and spanning a diverse range of settings from remote rural areas, to reservations, to college campuses, the authors are attentive to the impact of specific environments on their inhabitants. Taking into account both physical and social environment, and recognizing the importance of cultural context, this book is a good starting point for anyone interested in developing a better understanding of the experience of Native peoples living with disabilities. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Social Work in Disability & Rehabilitation.

Ecotourism is a useful concept, but not a very well defined one. It has been debated in theory and attempted in practice for nearly two decades. Its key goal is to reduce the net environmental impact of the tourism industry, via mechanisms including minimal impact management measures, education, community involvement, private conservation, contributions to public protected areas, expansion of ecotourism enterprises and mainstreaming of ecotourism principles.Focusing on fundamental ecotourism concepts, this broad-based textbook provides a basis for studies into environment-based tourism. It covers key topics such as the management, economics and potential environmental impacts both positive and negative of this popular and growing sector. Written for tourism students and an ideal resource for undergraduate courses, "Ecotourism: Principles and Practices" will also interest industry practitioners and researchers.

Futures: Imagining Socioecological Transformation brings together leading scholars to explore how we might know, enact, and struggle for, the conjoined social and ecological transformations we need to achieve just and sustainable futures. The question of transformation, and how it might be achieved, is explored across a variety of topics and geographical sites, and through heterodox analytical and theoretical approaches, in a collective effort to move beyond a form of critique that hands down judgements, to one that brings new ideas and new possibilities to life. Chapters are lively and original engagements with concrete situations that sparkle with creativity. Together, they add up to an impressive study of how to live, and what to struggle for, in the complex socioecological landscapes of the Anthropocene. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers.

'A visionary look at how quality food should replace money as the new world currency' Tim Spector 'Hugely ambitious and beautifully written...destined to become a modern classic' Bee Wilson How we search for, make and consume food has defined human history. It transforms our bodies and homes, our politics and our trade, our landscapes and our climate. But by forgetting our culinary heritage and relying on cheap, intensively produced food, we have drifted into a way of life that threatens our planet and ourselves. What if there were a more sustainable way to eat and live? Drawing on many disciplines, as well as stories of the farmers, designers and economists who are remaking our relationship with food, this inspiring and deeply thoughtful book gives us a provocative and exhilarating vision for change, and points the way to a better future. 'Utterly brilliant' Thomasina Miers WINNER OF THE 2021 GUILD FOOD OF WRITERS AWARD FOR BEST FOOD BOOK *Shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize 2020*

Read the Sunday Times bestseller that reveals the Earth’s awesome impact on the shape of human civilisations.

‘Stands comparison with Sapiens… Thrilling’ Sunday Times

Human evolution in East Africa was driven by geological forces. Ancient Greece developed democracy because of its mountainous terrain. Voting behaviour in the United States today follows the bed of an ancient sea.

Professor Lewis Dartnell takes us on an astonishing journey into our planet’s past to tell the ultimate origin story. Blending science and history, Origins reveals the Earth’s awesome impact on the shape of human civilisations – and helps us to see the challenges and opportunities of the future.

"Ecology and Society" is an introduction to 'green ideas' for students in the social sciences. It goes beyond traditional sociological boundaries to show how society interacts with nature but suggests that there are flaws in the philosophy and politics of the green movement.

The book analyses ecological limits on, and effects of, industrialism and economic growth. Martell assesses forms of society and politics appropriate to sustainability. He evaluates proposals for frugality and argues for global and interventionist solutions over the decentralized and capitalist proposals of greens and economic liberals.

The volume analyses the philosophy of environmentalism and assesses explanations for the development of the green movement in recent years. Martell shows how ecology both revolutionizes and relies on traditions in political thought such as conservatism, liberalism, socialism and feminism. In an assessment of ways of rethinking relations between society and nature he proposes a realistic perspective over approaches popular in sociology and the green movement.

The book concludes with an assessment of the future of the green movement, arguing for a focus on politics and alliances, rather than social agents or lifestyle politics, in green politics.

How do scientists, scholars, and other experts engage with the general public and with the communities affected by their work or residing in their sites of study? Where are the fine lines between public scholarship, civic engagement, and activism? Must academics 'give back' once they collect data and publish results? In this volume, authors from a wide range of disciplines examine these relationships to assess how they can be fruitful or challenging. Describing the methodological and ethical issues that experts must consider when carrying out public scholarship, this book includes a checklist for critical factors of success in engagement and an examination of the role of digital social media in science communication. Illustrated by a range of case studies addressing environmental issues (climate change, resource use, post-disaster policy) and education, it offers an investigation into the levels and ways in which scholars can engage, and how and whether academics and experts who engage in community work and public scholarship are acknowledged and rewarded for doing so by their institutions. Also bringing into the debate the perspective of citizens who have collaborated with academics, the book offers an exploration of the democratizing potential of participatory action research.

The impact of global environmental change on surface water resources affects gendered livelihoods, governance and development. The deterioration of water quality, rising temperatures, and changes in the seasonality, quantity, and duration of precipitation increasingly alters human, animal and plant demand for water resources. This edited volume explores how a feminist political ecology framework can bring new and exciting insights to the study of livelihoods dependent on vulnerable rivers, watersheds, wetlands and coastal environments. Bringing together political ecologists and feminist scholars from multiple disciplines, the book develops solution-oriented advances to theory, policy and planning to tackle the complexity of these global environmental changes.Using applied research on the contemporary management of rivers, watersheds and coastal wetlands in the South Pacific, Central and South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and North America, the authors draw on a variety of methodological perspectives and new theoretical approaches to demonstrate the importance of considering multiple layers of social difference as produced by and central to the effective governance and local management of water resources. This unique collection employs a unifying feminist political ecology framework that emphasizes the ways that gender interacts with other social and geographical locations of water resource users. In doing so, the book further questions the normative gender discourses that underlie policies and practices surrounding water management and climate change, large-scale development and dams, resource knowledge and expertise, and critical livelihood studies. The book should be of interest to students and scholars of environment studies, development studies, anthropology, feminist and environmental geography, as well as women's and gender studies.

As progress towards a greater knowledge in sustainability science continues, the question of how better to integrate scientific progress with actual decisions made by practitioners remains paramount. This book aims to help close the gap between science and practice. Based on a two year collaborative project between Harvard and Clark Universities, the book takes as its focus the vulnerability and resilience of people around the world to the effects of environmental change, a mature area of research in which one might expect the gap between science and policy/practice to have been extensively bridged.

Integrating Science and Policy presents analysis of past studies, interviews conducted with the producers and users of scientific knowledge, and case studies performed by leading scholars across a spectrum of international settings and political systems. Crucially, the authors identify new directions and tools for closing the gap between science and policy across a range of situations and societies. The result is an illuminating collection of studies and analyses that suggest to researchers, students, practitioners, and policy-makers alike how best to ensure that high quality environmental research informs good environmental policy and practice.

Reaching net zero emissions will not be the end of the climate struggle, but only the end of the beginning. For centuries thereafter, temperatures will remain elevated; climate damages will continue to accrue and sea levels will continue to rise. Even the urgent and utterly essential task of reaching net zero cannot be achieved rapidly by emissions reductions alone. To hasten net zero and minimize climate damages thereafter, we will also need massive carbon removal and storage. We may even need to reduce incoming solar radiation in order to lower unacceptably high temperatures. Such unproven and potentially risky climate interventions raise mind-blowing questions of governance and ethics. Pandora's Toolbox offers readers an accessible and authoritative introduction to both the hopes and hazards of some of humanity's most controversial technologies, which may nevertheless provide the key to saving our world.

Our attitudes to our environment are widely and often acrimoniously discussed, commonly misunderstood, and will shape our future. We cannot assume that we behave as newly minted beings in a pristine garden nor as pre-programmed automata incapable of rational responsibility. Professor Berry has studied nature-nurture interactions for many years, and also been involved with many national and international decision making bodies which have influenced our environmental attitudes. He is therefore well-placed to describe what has moulded our present attitudes towards the environment. This book presents data and concepts from a range of disciplines - genetic, anthropological, social, historical and theological - to help us understand how we have responded in the past and how this influences our future. Beginning with a historical review and moving forwards to current conditions, readers will reach the end of this volume more capable and better prepared to make decisions which affect our communities and posterity.

A bestseller on Amazon.com within months of its first release, Alan AtKisson's debut book quickly became a modern classic of sustainability literature. Global companies, grassroots groups, university courses, government agencies, and even the US Army ordered it by the box. Now fully revised and updated, Believing Cassandra: How to be an Optimist in a Pessimist's World is even more relevant, fresh, and motivating than when it first appeared in 1999. In a style that's refreshingly candid and vivid, with unforgettable personal anecdotes, AtKisson provides us with a bridge over the sea of despair, and shows us how to catch the wave to an enticing, sustainable future. He empowers the reader to join the pioneers who created the ideas, techniques and practices of sustainable living - the people who prove Cassandra's warnings wrong, by believing in them, and taking strategic action.

Along with windstorms, floods are the most common and widespread of all natural disasters. Although they can often be predicted, they cause loss of life, damage and destruction, as many urban communities are located near coasts and rivers. In terms of victims, floods are responsible for more than half the deaths caused by natural catastrophes. As flood events appear to be rapidly increasing world-wide, an advanced and universal approach to urban flooding and how to manage will help reduce flood impact.

This textbook integrates expertise from disciplines such as hydrology, sociology, architecture, urban design, construction and water resources engineering. The subject is approached from an international perspective and case studies, exercises, expert advice and literature recommendations are included to support the theory and illustrations.

Developed by a team of specialists, this volume is intended for urban flood management education of hydrology, geography, civil and environmental engineering, and management students at university level. Moreover, professionals will find this book useful as a reference. More information on flood resilience and urban flood management can be found at www.floodresiliencegroup.org

For a preview, please go to http: //issuu.com/crcpress/docs/urban_flood_management

Introduction to Environmental Toxicology is designed as a concise text, introducing students to the fundamentals of this important subject. It covers the origin, characterization and environmental distribution of the major pollutants, and provides an explanation of their implications for human morbidity via the development of cancer, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary dysfunction and neurological conditions. Considering impacts on biodiversity, such as effects from acid rain, heavy metals and selected anthropogenic compounds, this book: - Covers biogenic contaminants, gases and particulates, organic pollutants, petroleum, heavy metals, complex polymers and radiation; - Considers the impact of pollutants across human health, biodiversity, water and food safety; - Includes questions, further reading and case studies to spark discussion in tutorials. Covering all the major biological toxins and pollutants, this book forms a true introduction to the subject for undergraduates studying environmental toxicology and related subjects.

This book presents a 360-degree picture of the world of insects and explores how their existence affects our lives: the "good, bad, and ugly" aspects of their interactions with humankind. It provides a lucid introductory text for beginning undergraduate students in the life sciences, particularly those pursuing beginner courses in entomology, agriculture, and botany.

Environmentalism has relentlessly warned about the dire consequences of abusing and exploiting the planet's natural resources, imagining future wastelands of ecological depletion and social chaos. But it has also generated rich new ideas about how humans might live better with nature. Green Utopias explores these ideas of environmental hope in the post-war period, from the environmental crisis to the end of nature. Using a broad definition of Utopia as it exists in Western policy, theory and literature, Lisa Garforth explains how its developing entanglement with popular culture and mainstream politics has shaped successive green future visions and initiatives. In the face of apocalyptic, despairing or indifferent responses to contemporary ecological dilemmas, utopias and the utopian method seem more necessary than ever. This distinctive reading of green political thought and culture will appeal across the social sciences and humanities to all interested in why green utopias continue to matter in the cultivation of ecological values and the emergence of new forms of human and nonhuman well-being.

We live in unprecedented times - the Anthropocene - defined by far-reaching human impacts on the natural systems that underpin civilisation. Planetary Health explores the many environmental changes that threaten to undermine progress in human health, and explains how these changes affect health outcomes, from pandemics to infectious diseases to mental health, from chronic diseases to injuries. It shows how people can adapt to those changes that are now unavoidable, through actions that both improve health and safeguard the environment. But humanity must do more than just adapt: we need transformative changes across many sectors - energy, housing, transport, food, and health care. The book discusses specific policies, technologies, and interventions to achieve the change required, and explains how these can be implemented. It presents the evidence, builds hope in our common future, and aims to motivate action by everyone, from the general public to policymakers to health practitioners.

The prospect of international conflict over water has long been the subject of academic and popular concern, but subnational political conflict is considerably more common, and almost certainly imposes greater economic and environmental costs. Indeed, subnational hydropolitics are an important feature of several large countries, including the United States, India, and China. Moreover, disputes between water users in shared river basins have often persisted despite repeated attempts by central governments to resolve them through both persuasion and coercion. Yet despite the growing threat of water scarcity around the world, little research exists on subnational politics of shared water resources. This book attempts to fill the gap by explaining how and why hydropolitics play out within countries, as well as between them. Subnational Hydropolitics re-examines the issue of water conflict by examining conflicts at the subnational rather than international level. By examining several in-depth case studies of both conflict and cooperation, Scott Moore argues that increasing subnational water conflict is driven by two inter-linked forces, identity politics, which gives subnational politicians a reason to compete over shared water resources; and political decentralization, which provides them with the tools to do so. To understand politics at the subnational level, the book blends insights from both the environmental governance and comparative politics literatures. By examining the challenges many countries face in achieving cooperation over shared water resources, the book helps to shed light on different mechanisms and processes for solving cooperation problems at the regional scale lessons relevant to tackling a wide range of transboundary environmental problems, including air pollution, urbanization, and ecosystem protection. But at its core, this book promises a definitive contribution to the growing sub-field of environmental politics, centered on understanding how different countries attempt to solve the problems inherent in governing water resources in shared river basins.

A Handbook of Environmental Toxicology focuses on two key aspects: human disorders and ecotoxicology as affected by major toxins originating from biological sources and pollutants, as well as radiation generated spontaneously or as a result of anthropogenic activity. A diverse array of these potentially harmful agents regularly appear in the atmosphere, soil, water and food, compromising both human health and biodiversity in natural and managed ecosystems. This book: - provides authoritative reviews together with specialist short communications to complement the main chapters and address contemporary issues with important case studies; - explores the cutting edge of research and also indicates the likely direction of future developments; - contains extensive coverage of toxicants that are of significant current interest and will be of increasing concern for many years to come; and - encourages international cooperation in future research on pollution and other environmental agents causing harm to human health and degradation of natural habitats in the ecosystem. Written by an international team of authors from a range of educational, medical and research establishments, this book is an essential reference for advanced students and researchers in the areas of environmental sciences, ecology, agriculture, environmental health and medicine, in addition to industry and government personnel responsible for environmental regulations and directives.

Ultrasocial argues that rather than environmental destruction and extreme inequality being due to human nature, they are the result of the adoption of agriculture by our ancestors. Human economy has become an ultrasocial superorganism (similar to an ant or termite colony), with the requirements of superorganism taking precedence over the individuals within it. Human society is now an autonomous, highly integrated network of technologies, institutions, and belief systems dedicated to the expansion of economic production. Recognizing this allows a radically new interpretation of free market and neoliberal ideology which - far from advocating personal freedom - leads to sacrificing the well-being of individuals for the benefit of the global market. Ultrasocial is a fascinating exploration of what this means for the future direction of the humanity: can we forge a better, more egalitarian, and sustainable future by changing this socio-economic - and ultimately destructive - path? Gowdy explores how this might be achieved.

Collective insight of key thought leaders in the field, combining theoretical, methodological, and empirical knowledge Smart Cities, Energy and Climate: Governing Cities for a Low-Carbon Future is a seminal work that draws together representative insights and case studies on this emerging topic, combining and synthesizing important theoretical, methodological, and empirical debates on low-carbon urbanism across a variety of disciplines—including environmental and urban studies, sociology, geography, engineering and politics. The socio-political background of urban decarbonisation, developments in urban planning, building design, urban-scale technology and digital solutions are discussed and evaluated, based on case studies from cities situated in tropical and temperate regions across the globe. Key topics covered in this book include: A conceptual framework to study low carbon cities and resilience through a unified lens New challenges for cities, like how urban societies can adapt to resource shortage and climate change Technical and planning practices associated with low-carbon policies, with a special focus on issues of planning and environmental management Case studies and regional perspectives from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America Cities, Energy and Climate Governing Cities for a Low-Carbon Future serves as a primary reference for undergraduates and graduates, as well as scholars and policy makers interested in the conceptual, technical, economic, and political challenges associated with the transition towards a more resilient and less carbon intensive urban future.

Winner of the Charles H. Cooley Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. Richard G. Mitchell Jr. spent more than a dozen years among survivalists at public conferences, private meetings, and clandestine training camps across America. He takes us inside a compelling, hidden world more connected to the chaos of modern life many of us experience than the label separatist suggests. In survivalism Mitchell found a profound and meaningful critique of contemporary industrial society, a subculture in which the real evil is not repressive government but the far more insidious influence of a Planet Microsoft mentality with its abundance of empty choices. Survivalists, Mitchell shows us, are seeking resistance, not struggling against it; they are looking for ways to define themselves and test their talents in a society that is becoming devitalized and formless.

This textbook presents a comprehensive overview of the environmental impacts of various types of adventure tourism and how these can be best managed. This volume follows on from the authors previous textbook - 'Outdoor Recreation: Environmental Impacts and Management' and continues the aim of developing a deeper understanding of how tourist numbers impact the environment and to provide practical solutions to these problems. Combining their own first-hand experience and research with extensive literature review the authors' present several popular adventure tourism destinations from across the globe, including the Arctic, the Himalayas, Africa, Australia and Scotland as case studies. Chapters cover the particular challenges faced by each region: including impacts on animals and birds; the spread of invasive plant species and diseases; trail impacts on vegetation; impacts on geological, historical and archaeological sites and pollution and waste issues. A discussion and evaluation of the possible management actions for minimising these impacts and how outdoor recreation tourists can be regulated concludes each chapter. This practical and engaging textbook will be invaluable to students and scholars of adventure tourism and outdoor recreation as well as practitioners and managers working in the field.