Time forms such an important part of our lives that it is rarely thought about. In this book the author moves beyond the time of clocks and calendars in order to study time as embedded in social interactions, structures, practices and knowledge, in artefacts, in the body, and in the environment. The author looks at the many different ways in which time is experienced, in relation to the various contexts and institutions of social life. Among the topics discussed are time in the areas of health, education, work, globalization and environmental change. Through focusing on the complexities of social time she explores ways of keeping together what social science traditions have taken apart, namely, time with reference to the personal-public, local-global and natural-cultural dimensions of social life.

Barbara Adam's time-based approach engages with, yet differs from postmodernist writings. It suggests ways not merely to deconstruct but to reconstruct both common-sense and social science understanding.

This book will be of interest to undergraduates, graduates and academics in the areas of sociology, social theory environmental/green issues, feminist theory, cultual studies, philosophy, peace studies, education, social policy and anthropology.

Two hundred sixty million years ago, life on Earth suffered wave after wave of cataclysmic extinctions, with the worst wiping out nearly every species on the planet. The Worst of Times delves into the mystery behind these extinctions and sheds light on the fateful role the primeval supercontinent, known as Pangea, might have played in causing these global catastrophes. Drawing on the latest discoveries as well as his own firsthand experiences conducting field expeditions to remote corners of the world, Paul Wignall reveals what scientists are only now beginning to understand about the most prolonged and calamitous period of environmental crisis in Earth's history. Wignall shows how these series of unprecedented extinction events swept across the planet, killing life on a scale more devastating than the dinosaur extinctions that would follow. The Worst of Times unravels one of the great enigmas of ancient Earth and shows how this ushered in a new age of vibrant and more resilient life on our planet.

The modern era is facing unprecedented governance challenges in striving to achieve long-term sustainability goals and to limit human impacts on the Earth system. This volume synthesizes a decade of multidisciplinary research into how diverse actors exercise authority in environmental decision making, and their capacity to deliver effective, legitimate and equitable Earth system governance. Actors from the global to the local level are considered, including governments, international organizations and corporations. Chapters cover how state and non-state actors engage with decision-making processes, the relationship between agency and structure, and the variations in governance and agency across different spheres and tiers of society. Providing an overview of the major questions, issues and debates, as well as the theories and methods used in studies of agency in earth system governance, this book provides a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers, as well as practitioners and policy makers working in environmental governance. This is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. For more publications, see www.cambridge.org/earth-system-governance.

This is a first evaluation of the physical impact of railway construction on the British coast. The building of railways has had a profound but largely ignored physical impact on Britain's coasts. This book explores the coming of railways to the edge of Britain, the ruthlessness of the companies involved and the transformation of our coasts through the destruction or damage to the environment. In many places today, railways are the first defence against the sea and similarly the embankments of long closed lines act as sea walls. It is ironic, at a time when climate change is very much favouring rail as a means of transport, that many lines are increasingly exposed to extreme weather and the very actions associated with their construction have exacerbated coastal erosion. With the benefit of hindsight, many coastal railways have been built in locations that would not have been chosen today. As our climate changes and storminess potentially increases, what might be the implications for some of Britain's lines on the edge? Features: unique combination of environmental and historical research; timely given the impact of the storms of January and February 2014; and, covers the breaching of the South Devon, Cambrian and Cumbrian coastal lines.

The movement of millions of settlers to Siberia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries marked one of the most ambitious undertakings pursued by the tsarist state. Colonizing Russia's Promised Land examines how Russian Orthodoxy acted as a basic building block for constructing Russian settler communities in current-day southern Siberia and northern Kazakhstan. Russian state officials aspired to lay claim to land that was politically under their authority, but remained culturally unfamiliar. By exploring the formation and evolution of Omsk diocese - a settlement mission - Colonizing Russia's Promised Land reveals how the migration of settlers expanded the role of Orthodoxy as a cultural force in transforming Russia's imperial periphery by "russifying" the land and marginalizing the Indigenous Kazakh population. In the first study exploring the role of Orthodoxy in settler colonialism, Aileen Friesen shows how settlers, clergymen, and state officials viewed the recreation of Orthodox parish life as practised in European Russia as fundamental to the establishment of settler communities, and to the success of colonization. Friesen uniquely gives peasant settlers a voice in this discussion, as they expressed their religious aspirations and fears to priests and tsarist officials. Despite this agreement, tensions existed not only among settlers, but also within the Orthodox Church as these groups struggled to define what constituted the Russian Orthodox faith and culture.

What does Japan's 2011 nuclear accident have in common with the 2005 flooding of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina? This thought-provoking book presents a compelling account of recent and historical disasters, both natural and human-caused, drawing out common themes and providing a holistic understanding of hazards, disasters and mitigation, for anyone interested in this important and topical subject. Based on his on-the-ground experience with several major recent disasters, Timothy H. Dixon explores the science, politics and economics behind a variety of disasters and environmental issues, arguing that many of the worst effects are avoidable. He describes examples of planning and safety failures, provides forecasts of future disasters and proposes solutions for hazard mitigation. The book shows how billions of dollars and countless lives could be saved by adopting longer-term thinking for infrastructure planning and building, and argues that better communication is vital in reducing global risks and preventing future catastrophes.

"Nelson spent a year among the Koyukon people of western Alaska, studying
their intimate relationship with animals and the land. His chronicle of
that visit represents a thorough and elegant account of the mystical
connection between Native Americans and the natural world."--"Outside"
"This admirable reflection on the natural history of the Koyukon River
drainage in Alaska is founded on knowledge the author gained as a student
of the Koyukon culture, indigenous to that region. He presents these
Athapascan views of the land--principally of its animals and Koyukon
relationships with those creatures--together with a measured account of his
own experiences and doubts. . . . For someone in search of a native
American expression of 'ecology' and natural history, I can think of no
better place to begin than with this work."--Barry Lopez, "Orion Nature "
"Quarterly"
"Far from being a romantic attempt to pass on the spiritual lore of Native
Americans for a quick fix by others, this is a very serious ethnographic
study of some Alaskan Indians in the Northern Forest area. . . . He has
painstakingly regarded their views of earth, sky, water, mammals and every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. He does admire their love of
nature and spirit. Those who see the world through his eyes using their
eyes will likely come away with new respect for the boreal forest and those
who live with it and in it, not against it."--"The Christian Century"
"In "Make Prayers to the Raven" Nelson reveals to us the Koyukon
beliefs and attitudes toward the fauna that surround them in their forested
habitat close to thelower Yukon. . . . Nelson's presentation also gives
rich insights into the Koyukon subsistence cycle through the year and into
the hardships of life in this northern region. The book is written with
both brain and heart. . . . This book represents a landmark: never before
has the integration of American Indians with their environment been so well
spelled out."--Ake Hultkrantz, "Journal of Forest History"

Nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives: these are the seven things that have made our world and will shape its future. In making these things cheap, modern commerce has transformed, governed, and devastated Earth. In A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore present a new approach to analyzing today's planetary emergencies. Bringing the latest ecological research together with histories of colonialism, indigenous struggles, slave revolts, and other rebellions and uprisings, Patel and Moore demonstrate that throughout history, crises have always prompted fresh strategies to make the world cheap and safe for capitalism. At a time of crisis in all seven cheap things, innovative and systemic thinking is urgently required. This book proposes a radical new way of understanding-and reclaiming-the planet in the turbulent twenty-first century.

Averting Climate Catastrophe Together addresses the necessity of meeting the Paris Agreement temperature target and explores what framework could enable climate action in an effective, efficient and equitable manner that is consistent with that goal. It also looks at the contribution of technological change within the economic system, including the feasibility of a global energy transition. Whether humanity can avoid catastrophic climate change does not seem to depend on the availability of technological solutions, but rather on international cooperation and coordination. Given the various sustainability issues, this book also considers if it is possible to derive a general approach to them. It argues that dealing with compatibility limits in complex systems requires a holistic change in the system structure. Therefore, systems science is discussed together with economics, technological change, and sustainable development. This book targets scientists and experts from different disciplines due to the interdisciplinary topic, but especially from environmental economics and energy technology; policy makers, as policy recommendations are provided to address climate change; as well as the general public due to the pressing common challenge of climate change and comprehensive efforts for sustainable development. Provides evidence based on climate science research on the necessity of meeting the Paris Agreement temperature target Highlights the feasibility of the global energy transition as one major option to mitigate climate change, also going into detail about the process of technological change Brings together systems science with economics, technological change, and sustainable development Derives a framework to meet the Paris Agreement temperature target, enabling coordinated climate action in an effective and efficient manner while pursuing distributive justice

The international legal framework for valuing the carbon stored in forests, known as 'Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation' (REDD+), will have a major impact on indigenous peoples and forest communities. The REDD+ regime contains many assumptions about the identity, tenure and rights of indigenous and local communities who inhabit, use or claim rights to forested lands. The authors bring together expert analysis of public international law, climate change treaties, property law, human rights and indigenous customary land tenure to provide a systemic account of the laws governing forest carbon sequestration and their interaction. Their work covers recent developments in climate change law, including the Agreement from the Conference of the Parties in Paris that came into force in 2016. The Impact of Climate Change Mitigation on Indigenous and Forest Communities is a rich and much-needed contribution to contemporary understanding of this topic.

Written by acknowledged experts in different fields - archaeology, history, and geography - in accessible form, this is an account of the evolution of human settlement in Britain over the last half-million years and its impact on the landscape from the beginnings to the present day. It reviews the way in which, over the centuries, the evolving human presence in Britain has shaped the British landscape and how, in turn, the British landscape has moulded the development of British communities.

Environmental risks are among the most serious challenges of today's societies. Virtually all environmental risks are anthropogenic. The consequences of past decisions made by individuals, business, and governments have already devastated many of the earth's ecological systems and there is an ongoing discussion about the potential effects of environmental change and whether the earth will still provide a livable environment for future generations. The past decade has seen a dramatic growth in publications that focus on environmental issues. However, this literature has been dominated by the natural sciences and research focuses on obtaining more accurate information about natural and ecological processes, with the tacit assumption that this information will prove useful to improve individual, organizational, and societal decision making. This volume focuses on the psychological, sociological, and cultural aspects of environmental risks that have not been given adequate and integrated attention in the past. Understanding of the psychological, social, cultural, and political forces will determine the successes and failures of environmental risk management. In particular, public policy could be improved by the integration of more accurate assumptions about people's cognitions, attitudes, and emotions towards environmental risks.

This book presents a novel approach in the field of global change by presenting a comprehensive analysis of interhemispheric linkages of climate, present and past, and their effects on human societies.
The ultimate goal of this interhemispheric integration is to improve our understanding of causes and mechanisms of climate change to enhance our capability in predicting future changes.
Given the societal interest in global change issues this book offers a new approach for the integration of global information.
It will provide a reference for professional scientists, researchers and graduate students in the fields of climatology, and the earth and environmental sciences.
* Chapters analyse instrumental atmospheric and oceanic data to address such phenomena as El Nino/Southern Oscillation variability and other climate anomalies such as the Pacific and North Atlantic Oscillation and polar air outbreaks
* * A new systematic methodology is presented that allows objective and verifiable reconstruction of climate fields from sparse data
* * Especially valuable in the context of climate proxy data.

We can't stop shopping but we must stop shopping - the consumer dilemma that defines our lives and our future. What would happen if we did? We are using up the planet at almost double the rate it can regenerate. To support our economies, we're told we must shop now like we've never shopped before, yet the scale of our consumption remains the biggest factor in the ruination of the world. But what would life look like if we stopped? Visiting places where economies have experienced temporary shut-downs, artisan producers, zero-consumption societies and bringing together a host of expert views, this is both a history of our relationship with consumption and a story about the future. 'Lays out a wealth of knowledge and wisdom' Ronald Wright, author of A Short History of Progress

Present anxieties about global warming and threats to biodiversity leave no doubts that environmental changes impact upon humans. Perceptions of the environment change as people try to define and shape 'nature' in different ways. The book explores the relationship between environmental change and society from the last Ice Age to the present. The book examines the environmental impact of fluctuations in climate and the demand for energy, and the patters which human societies have imposed on their surroundings, from boundaries to the cultural projections of legends and film. Together they show how insights from the disciplines of geography and geography, history and anthropology, can throw fresh light on the long-term attachment of people to place. The chapters in this book were originally delivered as Linacre Lectures at Linacre College, Oxford University

Ever since the emergence of human culture, people and animals have co-existed in close proximity. Humans have always recognized both their kinship with animals and their fundamental differences, as animals have always been a threat to humans' well-being. The relationship, therefore, has been complex, intimate, reciprocal, personal, and -- crucially -- ambivalent. It is hardly surprising that animals evoke strong emotions in humans, both positive and negative.
This companion volume to Morris' important earlier work, The Power of Animals, is a sustained investigation of the Malawi people's sacramental attitude to animals, particularly the role that animals play in life-cycle rituals, their relationship to the divinity and to spirits of the dead. How people relate to and use animals speaks volumes about their culture and beliefs. This book overturns the ingrained prejudice within much ethnographic work, which has often dismissed the pivotal role animals play in culture, and shows that personhood, religion, and a wide range of rituals are informed by, and even dependent upon, human-animal relations.

Periods of great social change reveal a tension between the need for continuity and the need for innovation. The twentieth century has witnessed both radical alteration and tenacious durability in social organization, politics, economics, and art. To comprehend these changes as history and as guideposts to the future, Peter F. Drucker has, over a lifetime, pursued a discipline that he terms social ecology. The writings brought together in The Ecological Vision define the discipline as a sustained inquiry into the man-made environment and an active effort at maintaining equilibrium between change and conservation.

The chapters in this volume range over a wide array of disciplines and subject matter. They are linked by a common concern with the interaction of the individual and society, and a common perspective that views economics, technology, politics, and art as dimensions of social experience and expressions of social value. Included here are profiles of such figures as Henry Ford, John C. Calhoun, Soren Kierkegaard, and Thomas Watson; analyses of the economics of Keynes and Schumpeter;and explorations of the social functions of business, management, information, and technology. Drucker's chapters on Japan examine the dynamics of cultural and economic change and afford striking comparisons with similar processes in the West.

In the concluding chapter, "Reflections of a Social Ecologist," Drucker traces the development of his discipline through such intellectual antecedents as Alexis de Tocqueville, Walter Bagehot, and Wilhelm von Humboldt. He illustrates the ecological vision, an active, practical, and moral approach to social questions. Peter Drucker summarizes a lifetime of work and exemplifies the communicative clarity that are requisites of all intellectual enterprises. His book will be of interest to economists, business people, foreign affairs specialists, and intellectual historians.

Environment and Society: A Critical Introduction is an overview of the diverse conceptual tools and traditions for thinking about, explaining and addressing the environmental challenges we face in the contemporary world. Provides an introduction to the environmental challenges we face in the contemporary world through foundational theoretical ideas illustrated with concrete, everyday examples Utilizes compelling, conversational language to expound on theory, history, and scientific topics, making the text accessible to a diverse readership Draws upon contemporary theoretical understandings in nature/society theory while demonstrating through practice and deployment Includes discussion of key historical events, topical issues, and policies, as well as scientific concepts

One of the main tenets of evolutionary biology is that organisms behave so as to maximize the number of their genes that will be passed on to future generations. Parents often produce more offspring than they can rear in case special opportunities or calamities occur. This frequently leads to deprivations and even death of some offspring. This book is about the evolutionary diversity, importance, and consequences of such squeezes. The authors, experts in their field, review the theory, field experiments, and natural history of sibling rivalry across a broad sweep of organisms, in an accessible style that should appeal to both academics and natural historians. This book is intended for graduate students and researchers in evolutionary biology, animal behaviour, ecology, population biology, and in philosophy or social sciences as well as for ornithologists and natural historians.

A beautifully written account of the symbiotic relationship between pine trees and jays; a cycle of dependency has progressed for several million years as birds have effectively planted the trees that sustain them by dispersing the seeds. This book covers a wide range of regions, focusing on the Rocky Mountains and the American Southwest, but also ranging from the Alps to Finland, and from Siberia to China. The book is written from the perspectives of evolution, ecology, and animal behaviour.

Members of the Hymenopteran order range from the familiar ants, bees, and wasps to a huge variety of predatory, parasitic, and plant-feeding insects. They are of immense economic significance, primarily as pollinators but also because of their increasing use as biological control agents. For many years, Costa Rica has been a prime location for research in neotropical ecology and as a result is an ideal area for extensive research on the Hymenoptera. "The Hymenoptera of Costa Rica" is the first published study of its kind. It covers the classification, biology, morphology, and economic importance of the group, with illustrated keys to families and subfamilies. Numerous photographs and an extensive bibliography of key works for the study of Central American Hymenoptera make this a good resource for researchers and biological control scientists.

The Anolis lizards of the Caribbean are a model group from which to study evolutionary ecology: there are more than 150 species dispersed over the islands of the Caribbean, providing innumerable comparisons of physical form and behaviour. Their evolutionary divergence corresponds in geological time with the plate-tectonic origins of the Caribbean. Based on his empirical work with these lizards, and on the work of others, Jonathan Roughgarden has developed important theoretical models of evolutionary ecology - the study of how an ecological context supplies the natural selection that drives evolution, and of how evolutionary change among species in turn affects their ecological station. These models have been tested in the field. This book synthesizes two decades of notable research, and points to new directions in modelling and field biology. An associated program disk providing Roughgarden's quantitative models for foraging behaviour, ecological community assembly, and food webs, accompanies the book. This set of 35 files comprising 10 programs is a simulation program which expands upon the information contained in the book.

"Essential Environmental Science" brings together within a single volume the vast range of techniques, methods and basic tools necessary for the study of the environment. Environmental science has a massive area of operation, utilizing tools from a plethora of traditional physical and social sciences. This practical manual draws on contributions from leading experts in each field, to present both general and specific environmental methods and techniques within a unique interdisciplinary environmental perspective. "Essential Environmental" "Science" offers an invaluable reference source for environmental study in both the laboratory and in the field.

Since the advent of the electron microscope, there has been a dramatic increase in our understanding of the microalgae. With contributions from leading researchers from around the world, this book presents a completely up-to-date survey of the prymnesiophyte algae. Ubiquitous in their distribution--particularly as members of the marine phytoplankton--the prymnesiophyte algae has long been recognized for production of fish toxins and for its importance as geological markers via the preservation of their mineralized remains. But the Prymnesiophyta have achieved considerable notoriety in recent years not only because they have they been responsible for disastrous ichthyotoxic blooms in Scandinavian coastal waters, but because it now appears that their production of volatile sulphur compounds and calcifying mineralization may be adversely affecting our climate. This volume is the first book to bring together the scattered literature on this group and covers all the main aspects of Prymnesiophyte biology--including taxonomy, structure, ecology, biochemistry, origins, and evolution. Students and marine biologists studying algae, plankton, and ecology, as well as botanical microbiologists will want to read this important volume.