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Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Social impact of environmental issues > General
This volume was developed to meet a much noted need for accessible case study material for courses in human ecology, cultural ecology, cultural geography, and other subjects increasingly offered to fulfill renewed student and faculty interest in environmental issues. The case studies, all taken from the journal Human Ecology: An Interdisciplinary Jouma represent a broad cross-section of contemporary research. It is tempting but inaccurate to sug gest that these represent the "Best of Human Ecology." They were selected from among many outstanding possibilities because they worked well with the organization of the book which, in turn, reflects the way in which courses in human ecology are often organized. This book provides a useful sample of case studies in the application of the perspective of human ecology to a wide variety of problems in dif ferent regions of the world. University courses in human ecology typically begin with basic concepts pertaining to energy flow, feeding relations, ma terial cycles, population dynamics, and ecosystem properties, and then take up illustrative case studies of human-environmental interactions. These are usually discussed either along the lines of distinctive strategies of food pro curement (such as foraging or pastoralism) or as adaptations to specific habitat types or biomes (such as the circumpolar regions or arid lands)."
This book focuses on drosophila as an especially useful model organism for exploring questions of evolutionary biology in the full range of evolutionary studies: population genetics, ecology, ecological genetics, speciation, phylogenetics, genome evolution, molecular evolution, and development. The author presents an integrated view of evolutionary biology as elucidated in this single organism. Special effort is made to point out holes in our knowledge and areas particularly ripe for new investigation.
A Guide to Eco-Anxiety outlines a manifesto for action, connection and hope. Showing how to harness anxiety for positive action, as well as effective ways to reduce your personal carbon footprint. The most powerful thing we can do to combat climate change is to talk about it and act collectively. But despite it being an emergency, most people don't bring climate change into conversation in everyday life. The book explores the health impact of experiencing eco-anxiety, grief and trauma, and signposts recommended treatments and therapies. It also tackles practical issues such as: why it's important to reduce plastic waste; parenting and the choice to have a family; which is more effective to bring your carbon footprint down, go vegan or fly less? The book will cultivate a pragmatic form of hope by offering a dynamic toolkit packed with practical ways to connect with community and systemic support, self-care practices to ease the symptoms of anxiety, and strategies to spread awareness and - crucially - bring about change.
R. David Simpson Norman L. Christensen, Jr. Human Activity and Ecosystem Function: Reconciling Economics and Ecology Recognizing the need to improve social decision making on tradeoffs between economic growth and ecological health, the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation convened a workshop in October 1995 on "Human Activity and Ecosystem Function: Reconciling Economics and Ecology. " While the subtitle perhaps reflected unrealistic expectations, the presentations and discus sions at the workshop were a preliminary step toward that rec onciliation: bringing together ecologists, economists, other nat ural and social scientists, and policy makers to layout the issues, articulate their needs and perspectives, and identify common ground for further work. This volume contains the pa pers presented and reports generated from the workshop. We emphasize ecology and economics in this discussion. We could argue that organizing our inquiry around these diSCiplines is only natural. Ecology is the study of behavior of organisms within complex systems composed of a myriad of other organ isms and their physical environments. Increasingly, this disci pline has focused on how interactions among biological and physical components influence the overall functioning of ecosys tems. These components are increasingly being determined by viii Ecosystem Function and Human Activities human activities. Economics is the study of how we decide which of our needs and wants we choose to satisfy given our limited re sources."
*The first practical reference devoted to the emerging field of environmental impact assessment (EIA) follow-up--destined to be the classic text on follow-up * Written and edited by an authoritative team of internationally known experts in EIA * The "must-have" tool for impact assessment professionals, academics, regulators, and proponents working on projects of all scales in all jurisdictionsThis is the first book to present in a coherent manner the theory and practice of environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA) follow-up. Without some form of follow-up, the consequences of impact assessments and the environmental outcomes of development projects will remain unknown.Assessing Impact examines both EIA follow-up and the emerging practice of SEA follow-up, and showcases follow-up procedures in various countries in North America, Europe, and Australasia. It offers theoretical and legislative perspectives through detailed case study examples. The authors present a micro-, macro- and meta-scale analysis of EIA practice ranging from individual plan and project level through to the jurisdictional level, as well as an analysis of the concept of EIA. They give full coverage to the roles of proponents, both private and governmental, EIA regulators, and the affected public in designing and executing follow-up programs.The Contributors: Barry Sadler (Canada), Leonard Ortolano (US), Maria Rosario Partidario (Portugal), Thomas Fischer (Germany/UK), Bill Ross (Canada), Elvis Au (Hong Kong/China), Ross Marshall (UK), John Bailey (Australia), Bryan Jenkins (New Zealand), Jill Baker (Canada), Simon Hui (Hong Kong/China), Christine May (US), Johan Meijer (TheNetherlands)
Unlike nearly all science books which tell of successful ventures and satisfactory conclusions, this book reveals the harsher but more common side of scientific research. Written by one of this century's most distinguished small mammal ecologists, it is both a personal history of and an apology for a life in science spent working on problems for which no final dramatic closure was reached. Included along the way are important anecdotes and history about Charles Elton and his pioneering work at the Bureau of Animal Population at Oxford University, from which much of modern population has grown, and insights on the philosophy and practice of science. This eye-opening account of a scientific career should be read by everyone in life sciences or the history and philosophy of science.
Was lAuft eigentlich falsch mit Mensch und Gesellschaft? Warum handeln die meisten Menschen nicht verantwortlich gegenA1/4ber der Umwelt? Dies sind die Kernfragen, mit denen sich dieses Buch beschAftigt. Es richtet damit seine Aufmerksamkeit auf einen zunehmend bedeutenden Bereich der Umweltforschung, der sich mit den individuellen und sozialen Ursachen der Umweltproblematik befasst und damit ein wichtiges Gegengewicht zur naturwissenschaftlich-technologisch motivierten Umweltforschung darstellt.
The apparent decline in numbers among many species of migratory songbirds is a timely subject in conservation biology, particularly for ornithologists, ecologists, and wildlife managers. This book is an attempt to discuss the problem in full scope. It presents an ambitious, comprehensive assessment of the current status of neotropical migratory birds in the U.S., and the methods and strategies used to conserve migrant populations. Each chapter is an essay reviewing and assessing the trend from a different viewpoint, all written by leaders in the fields of ornithology, conservation, and population biology.
A gracefully written treatment of the mutual relationship between pine trees and jays, 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 treats one of the more satisfying stories of symbiosis and natural history from perspectives of evolution, ecology, and animal behaviour.
Concentrating on the period between the end of World War II and the end of the century, this reader argues that there is a reciprocal relationship between the constitution of places and people. It brings together an interdisciplinary collection of articles for social and cultural geographers and examines the argument that the close associations of the 1950s between place (the home, community and the nation state) and the social divisions (gender, class and nationality) are breaking down in the 1990s. Drawing out the oppositional movements in each decade, it seeks to show how the supposed stability of one and the mobility of the other are exaggerated.
- What makes people care about the environment? - Why and how do different cultural groups value land in different ways? With increasing international concern about green issues, and the apparent failure of mechanistic solutions to complex problems, Uncommon Ground provides a timely understanding of the cultural values that underpin human-environmental relations. Through a comparison of two very different groups, the Aboriginal people and the white cattle farmers in Far North Queensland, Uncommon Ground explores how the human-environmental relationship is culturally constructed. This highly topical study also examines the long-term conflicts over land in Australia, which have brought to the surface each group's environmental values. The author considers how these values are acquired, and the universal and cultural factors that lead to their development. Major emphasis is put on the cultural forms that create and express environmental values for the Aborigines and the white pastoralists, such as: - historical background - land use and economic modes - socio-spatial organization - language, knowledge and methods of socialization - oral and visual representation - cosmological beliefs and systems of law This book is very accessible and should be widely used on anthropology, environmental studies and geography courses.]
Rivers, landscapes, whole territories: these are the latest entities environmental activists have fought hard to include in the relentless expansion of rights in our world. But what does it mean for a landscape to have rights? Why would anyone want to create such rights, and to what end? Is it a good idea, and does it come with risks? This book presents the logic behind giving nature rights and discusses the most important cases in which this has happened, ranging from constitutional rights of nature in Ecuador to rights for rivers in New Zealand, Colombia, and India. Mihnea Tanasescu offers clear answers to the thorny questions that the intrusion of nature into law is sure to raise.
A valuable and documented source. --Choice Ferkiss has navigated an exceedingly complex course through our
philosophical history, tracing the lineage of ideas about nature
and technology as they evolved from ancient times through Taoism,
industrialism, Marxism, and several other isms.' Offers a colorful, concise, and well-written survey of formal thought on the role of science and technology.
Worldwide in its scope and reach, Ferkiss's book encompasses
ethics and technology, society, and international relations--a true
renaissance perspective. It is written clearly and without
trepidations. A valuable overview of conceptions of nature, science, and
technology since ancient times. Anyone concerned with global
environmental issues will benefit from its temperate, even- handed
treatment of the hundreds of thinkers who have participated in
great age-old debate over the human conquest of the earth and its
resources. A fine book . . . an excellent source book and] a valuable
reference work, one of those books that belong on the shelf, near
at hand, in the collection of any serious student of
environmentalism and the history of technology. It will be
consulted often. An extraordinary achievement--a dazzling scholarly tour de force
that is so clearly and elegantly written that readers are gripped
by the superb story Ferkiss] tells. It is the story of what may be
the central issue of our time--humanity's relationship with nature.
. . . Perhaps no scholar on earth is better equipped to tell this
story. . . . Ferkiss] exhibits an extraordinary command of the
subject as he takes readers on a fascinating guided tour through
Western and Eastern culture, beautifully summarizing and
judiciously commenting on the changing attitudes shown by people
ranging from Buddhists to Nazis, from the ancient Greeks to today's
Earth Firsters and ecotopians .... A genuine treat. A fine book...it reaches broadly and deeply into our cultural
roots, bringing religion, theology, popular culture, science,
folklore, natural history and much else into the discussion...an
excellent source book and] a valuable reference work, one of those
books that belong on the shelf, near at hand, in the collection of
any serious student of environmentalism and the history of
technology. It will be consulted often. While all human societies have enlisted technologies to control
nature, the last hundred years have witnessed the technological
exploitation and destruction of natural resources on an
unprecedented scale. As environmental groups and the scientific
community sound the alarm about deforestation, global warming and
ozone depletion, the obvious question arises: how did we get where
we are today? Victor Ferkiss here sets out to answer this central
question, emphasizing that we cannot escape from our present
environmental predicament unless we understand the ideas which have
created it.
As human activity and environmental change come to be increasingly recognized as intertwined phenomena on a rapidly urbanizing planet, the field of urban ecology has risen to offer useful ways of thinking about coupled human and natural systems. On the forefront of this discipline is Marina Alberti, whose innovative work offers a conceptual framework for uncovering fundamental laws that govern the complexity and resilience of cities, which she sees as key to understanding and responding to planetary change and the evolution of Earth. Bridging the fields of urban planning and ecology, Alberti describes a science of cities that work on a planetary scale and that links unpredictable dynamics to the potential for innovation. It is a science that considers interactions - at all scales - between people and built environments and between cities and their larger environments. Cities That Think like Planets advances strategies for planning a future that may look very different from the present, as rapid urbanization could tip the Earth toward abrupt and nonlinear change. Alberti's analyses of the various hybrid ecosystems, such as self-organization, heterogeneity, modularity, multiple equilibria, feedback, and transformation, may help humans participate in guiding the Earth away from inadvertent collapse and toward a new era of planetary co-evolution and resilience.
Hailed as "one of the most eminent environmental historians of the
West" by Alan Brinkley in The New York Times Book Review, Donald
Worster has been a leader in reshaping the study of American
history. Winner of the prestigious Bancroft Prize for his book Dust
Bowl, Worster has helped bring humanity's interaction with nature
to the forefront of historical thinking. Now, in The Wealth of
Nature, he offers a series of thoughtful, eloquent essays which lay
out his views on environmental history, tying the study of the past
to today's agenda for change.
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.
Every person on our home planet is affected by a worldwide deluge of man-made chemicals and pollutants - most of which have never been tested for safety. Our chemical emissions are six times larger than our total greenhouse gas emissions. They are in our food, our water, the air we breathe, our homes and workplaces, the things we use each day. This universal poisoning affects our minds, our bodies, our genes, our grandkids, and all life on Earth. Julian Cribb describes the full scale of the chemical catastrophe we have unleashed. He proposes a new Human Right - not to be poisoned. He maps an empowering and hopeful way forward: to rid our planet of these toxins and return Earth to the clean, healthy condition which our forebears enjoyed, and our grandchildren should too.
WINNER OF THE MILES FRANKLIN AWARD 2020 An exquisitely written, heartbreaking and hopeful novel of culture, language, tradition, suffering and empowerment 'A groundbreaking novel for black and white Australia' Richard Flanagan, Man Booker Prize winning author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North Knowing that he will soon die, Albert "Poppy" Gondiwindi has one final task he must fulfill. A member of the indigenous Wiradjuri tribe, he has spent his adult life in Prosperous House and the town of Massacre Plains, a small enclave on the banks of the Murrumby River. Before he takes his last breath, Poppy is determined to pass on the language of his people, the traditions of his ancestors, and everything that was ever remembered by those who came before him. The land itself aids him; he finds the words on the wind. After his passing, Poppy's granddaughter, August, returns home from Europe, where she has lived the past ten years, to attend his burial. Her overwhelming grief is compounded by the pain, anger, and sadness of memory of growing up in poverty before her mother's incarceration, of the racism she and her people endured, of the mysterious disappearance of her sister when they were children; an event that has haunted her and changed her life. Her homecoming is bittersweet as she confronts the love of her kin and news that Prosperous is to be repossessed by a mining company. Determined to make amends and honor Poppy and her family, she vows to save their land a quest guided by the voice of her grandfather that leads into the past, the stories of her people, the secrets of the river. Told in three masterfully woven narratives, The Yield is a celebration of language and an exploration of what makes a place "home." A story of a people and a culture dispossessed, it is also a joyful reminder of what once was and what endures a powerful reclaiming of Indigenous language, storytelling, and identity, that offers hope for the future.
This new volume in the OSEB series presents reviews of key theoretical ideas and frameworks, and outlines progress in evolutionary studies.
Smartphones, laptops, tablets, and e-readers all at one time held the promise of a more environmentally healthy world not dependent on paper and deforestation. The result of our ubiquitous digital lives is, as we see in The Anthrobscene, actually quite the opposite: not ecological health but an environmental wasteland, where media never die. Jussi Parikka critiques corporate and human desires as a geophysical force, analyzing the material side of the earth as essential for the existence of media and introducing the notion of an alternative deep time in which media live on in the layer of toxic waste we will leave behind as our geological legacy. Forerunners: Ideas First is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.
This book assesses and illustrates innovative and practical world-wide measures for combating sea level rise from the profession of landscape architecture. The work explores how the appropriate mixture of integrated, multi-scalar flood protection mechanisms can reduce risks associated with flood events including sea level rise. Because sea level rise is a global issue, illustrative case studies performed from the United States, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Japan, China, and the Netherlands identify the structural (engineered), non-structural (nature-based), and hybrid mechanisms (mixed) used to combat sea level rise and increase flood resilience. The alternative flood risk reduction mechanisms are extracted and analyzed from each case study to develop and explain a set of design-based typologies to combat sea level rise which can then be applied to help proctor new and existing communities. It is important for those located within the current or future floodplain considering sea level rise and those responsible for land use, developmental, and population-related activities within these areas to strategically implement a series of integrated constructed and green infrastructure-based flood risk reduction mechanisms to adequately protect threatened areas. As a result, this book is beneficial to both academics and practitioners related to multiple design professions such as urban designers, urban planners, architects, real estate developers, and landscape architects.
Global climate change policy has failed us all, but what is the reasoning that underlies this failure? Why are some people more disposed to reflect on confounding issues like climate change, recognise the danger, seek a solution, and act accordingly, more than others? This book is concerned with how we think and act in response to climate change. In particular, faced with deep uncertainty and the multifaceted complexities that characterise the climate change conundrum, how the various actors and institutions involved in the policymaking process make decisions that both aid and impede in the design and implementation of climate change policy. This book focuses on how these actors and institutions frame and use the knowledge available - under conditions of competing ideologies and interests - and synthesise it to form often-disparate mental models, or worldviews, that inspire them to become firm advocates of meaningful climate change action or indeed, sceptics that continue to downplay the threat, and hence the need for urgency. By exploring how we think about climate change and the disparate mental models we hold as a result, this book explores why humankind has thus far failed in its endeavours to solve the climate change problem. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, environmental policy and environmental psychology.
In the mid-eighteenth century metaphysics was broadly understood as the study of three areas of philosophical thought: theology, psychology and cosmology. This book examines the fortunes of the third of these formidable metaphysical concepts, the world. Sean Gaston provides a clear and concise account of the concept of world from the mid-eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth century, exploring its possibilities and limitations and engaging with current issues in politics and ecology. He focuses on the work of five principal thinkers: Kant, Hegel, Husserl, Heidegger and Derrida, all of whom attempt to establish new grounds for seeing the world as a whole. Gaston presents a critique of the self-evident use of the concept of world in philosophy and asks whether one can move beyond the need for a world-like vantage point to maintain a concept of world. From Kant to the present day this concept has been a problem for philosophy and it remains to be seen if we need a new Copernican revolution when it comes to the concept of world.
This book deepens the understanding of the broader processes that shape and mediate the responses to climate change of poor urban households and communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Representing an important contribution to the evolution of more effective pro-poor climate change policies in urban areas by local governments, national governments and international organisations, this book is invaluable reading to students and scholars of environment and development studies. |
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