As global concern about the environment grows, so too does the demand for accurate and precise information about it. A new generation of interdisciplinary scientists is being trained to meet this need. These scientists have a massive area of operation, utilising tools from a plethora of traditional sciences. Essential Environmental Science brings together in a quantitative and easily applicable manner a large selection of these tools, providing for the first time a useable and self-contained set of methodologies for undergraduates in the environmental sciences. The book is in ten chapters with three appendices. Essential Environmental Science is an invaluable resource for students in the laboratory or field, as well as providing a substance reference source to supplement course work and research.

While the need for effective action toward a greener and socially inclusive economy has long been evident, health promotion in the context of sustainable development has faltered. Arguing that human health is the key factor to sustainable development, Development and Sustainability promotes a fresh, transdisciplinary approach to the eradication of extreme poverty. This ground-breaking book calls for new forms of cooperation which cross the traditional boundaries between social activism and science, and which are capable of harnessing the complex knowledge that such radical change requires. The contributions bridge the gap between those working for health and those working for sustainability science and the green economy, through developing the methodological and scientific means to deal with some of the most critical issues faced by humanity in the twenty-first century.

One of the main features of the contemporary environmental crisis is that no-one has a clear pictue of what is taking place. Environmental problems are real enough but they bring home the inadequacy of our knowledge. How does the natural world relate to the social world? Why do we continue to have such a poor understanding? How can ecological knowledge be made to relate to our understanding of human society? The book argues that the division of labour is a key but neglected factor underlying people's inability to adequately understand and relate to the natural world. The argument extends Marx's theory of alienation to account for inadequate knowledge and therefore inadequate concern for nature. Using recent developments in "critical realist" philosophy, the book aims to find ways of reorganising knowledge in the light of ecological consciousness. It also corrects the emphasis of much environmental literature by focusing on production rather than consumption.

Struggles for environmental justice involve communities mobilising against powerful forces which advocate 'development', driven increasingly by neoliberal imperatives. In doing so, communities face questions about their alliances with other groups, working with outsiders and issues of class, race, ethnicity, gender, worker/community and settler/indigenous relationships. Written by a wide range of international scholars and activists, contributors explore these dynamics and the opportunities for agency and solidarity. They critique the practice of community development professionals, academics, trade union organisers, social movements and activists and inform those engaged in the pursuit of justice as community, development and environment interact.

Provides an up-to-date analysis of many aspects of Latin America through a series of short essays, written by experienced geographers.

The contributors to this book focus on the relationship between nature and society from a variety of theoretical and ethnographic perspectives. Their work draws upon recent developments in social theory, biology, ethnobiology, epistemology, sociology of science, and a wide array of ethnographic case studies -- from Amazonia, the Solomon Islands, Malaysia, the Mollucan Islands, rural comunities from Japan and north-west Europe, urban Greece, and laboratories of molecular biology and high-energy physics. The discussion is divided into three parts, emphasising the problems posed by the nature-culture dualism, some misguided attempts to respond to these problems, and potential avenues out of the current dilemmas of ecological discourse.

Contents:
Preface Part One 1. Feelings about difference 2. Images of Difference 3. Border Crossings 4. Mapping the Pure and Defiled 5. Bounding Space: Purification and Control 6. Spaces of Exclusion: Home, Locality, Nation Part Two 7. The Exclusion of Knowledge 8. W.E.B. Dubois: A Black Perspective on Social Space 9. Radical Women, Men of Science and Urban Society 10. Conclusion 11. Bibliography

Contents:
Preface Part One 1. Feelings about difference 2. Images of difference 3. Border Crossings 4. Mapping the pure and defiled 5. Bounding space: purification and control 6. Spaces of exclusion: home, locality, nation Part Two 7. The exclusion of knowledge 8. W.E.B. Dubois: a black perspective on social space 9. Radical women, men of science and urban society 10. Conclusion 11. Bibliography

A text for undergraduate students which concentrates on central themes and issues concerning environment and development, including discussion of policy issues and implications.

In Consuming Places John Urry draws together some of his most significant essays on the sociology of place. He interrogates the nature of time and space, the different ways in which places are economically and culturally transformed, the form taken by the visual consumption of place, and the ways in which travel transforms nature and the environment. Wide-ranging yet coherent, this much needed book is a major contribution to the sociology of place. It is likely to be debated for years to come.

eBook available with sample pages: PB:0415113113 EB:0203202929

In Consuming Places John Urry draws together some of his most significant essays on the sociology of place. He interrogates the nature of time and space, the different ways in which places are economically and culturally transformed, the form taken by the visual consumption of place, and the ways in which travel transforms nature and the environment. Wide-ranging yet coherent, this much needed book is a major contribution to the sociology of place. It is likely to be debated for years to come.

In the dramatic narratives that comprise The Republic of Nature, Mark Fiege reframes the canonical account of American history based on the simple but radical premise that nothing in the nation's past can be considered apart from the natural circumstances in which it occurred. Revisiting historical icons so familiar that schoolchildren learn to take them for granted, he makes surprising connections that enable readers to see old stories in a new light. Among the historical moments revisited here, a revolutionary nation arises from its environment and struggles to reconcile the diversity of its people with the claim that nature is the source of liberty. Abraham Lincoln, an unlettered citizen from the countryside, steers the Union through a moment of extreme peril, guided by his clear-eyed vision of nature's capacity for improvement. In Topeka, Kansas, transformations of land and life prompt a lawsuit that culminates in the momentous civil rights case of Brown v. Board of Education. By focusing on materials and processes intrinsic to all things and by highlighting the nature of the United States, Fiege recovers the forgotten and overlooked ground on which so much history has unfolded. In these pages, the nation's birth and development, pain and sorrow, ideals and enduring promise come to life as never before, making a once-familiar past seem new. The Republic of Nature points to a startlingly different version of history that calls on readers to reconnect with fundamental forces that shaped the American experience. For more information, visit the author's website: http://republicofnature.com/

Like the Green Revolution of the 1960s, a "Blue Revolution" has taken place in global aquaculture. Geared towards quenching the appetite of privileged consumers in the global North, it has come at a high price for the South: ecological devastation, displacement of rural subsistence farmers, and labour exploitation. The uncomfortable truth is that food security for affluent consumers depends on a foundation of social and ecological devastation in the producing countries. In Confronting the Blue Revolution, Md Saidul Islam uses the shrimp farming industry in Bangladesh and across the global South to show the social and environmental impact of industrialized aquaculture. The book pushes us to reconsider our attitudes to consumption patterns in the developed world, neoliberal environmental governance, and the question of sustainability.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster is among the worst nuclear accidents in history. What environmental and public health effects can be expected from the widespread radiation contamination? Majia Holmer Nadesan offers a detailed look at the Fukushima disaster, examines evidence of contamination in Japan and North America, and reviews preliminary research on the human and environmental effects of the disaster. Her findings are contextualized in relation to historical and present understandings of ionizing radiation and genomic instability.

Human interaction with the natural environment has a dual character. By turning increasing quantities of natural substances into physical resources, human beings might be said to have freed themselves from the constraints of low-technology survival pressures. However, the process has generated a new dependence on nature in the form of complex "socionatural systems," as Bennett calls them, in which human society and behavior are so interlocked with the management of the environment that small changes in the systems can lead to disaster. Bennett's essays cover a wide range: from the philosophy of environmentalism to the ecology of economic development; from the human impact on semi-arid lands to the ecology of Japanese forest management. This expanded paperback edition includes a new chapter on the role of anthropology in economic development.

Bennett's essays exhibit an underlying pessimism: if human behavior toward the physical environment is the distinctive cause of environmental abuse, then reform of current management practices offers only temporary relief; that is, conservationism, like democracy, must be continually reaffirmed. Clearly presented and free of jargon, Human Ecology as Human Behavior will be of interest to anthropologists, economists, and environmentalists.

"Sensuous Geographies" is an exploratory study of our immediate sensuous experience of the world. Touch, smell, hearing and sight - the four senses chiefly relevant to geographical experience - both receive and structure information. Historical, cultural and technological contexts influence this process. Basic issues of definition are illustrated through a variety of sensuous geographies. Focusing on postmodern concerns with representation, the book challenges us to reconsider the role of the sensuous as not merely the physical basis of understanding but as an integral part of the cultural definition of geographical knowledge.

The Gulf War inflicted dramatic environmental damage upon the fragile desert and shore environments of Kuwait and north eastern Saudi Arabia. Marine environments experienced oil spills; inland, oil lakes and burning oil wells caused widespread pollution. This book, first published in 1994, presents an in-depth analysis of these environmental disasters, their long-term consequences, and potential ways to repair the damage.

Modern society is beginning to re-examine its whole relationship with animals and the natural world. Until recently issues such as animal welfare and environmental protection were considered the domain of small, idealistic minorities. Now, these issues attract vast numbers of articulate supporters who collectively exercise considerable political muscle. Animals, both wild and domestic, form the primary focus of concern in this often acrimonious debate. Yet why do animals evoke such strong and contradictory emotions in people - and do our western attitudes have anything in common with those of other societies and cultures? Bringing together a range of contributions from distinguished experts in the field, Animals and Society explores the importance of animals in society from social, historical and cross-cultural perspectives.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203421442

"Signifying Animals" examines what animals mean to human beings around the world, offering a fresh assessment of the workings of animal symbolism in diverse cultures. The essays in the book are based on first-hand field research with peoples as dissimilar as the Mongolian nomads of Soviet Central Asia, Aboriginal Australians, Inuit hunters of the Canadian Arctic and cultivators of Africa and Papua New Guinea.
The essays look at accounts of mythical beasts among the Amerindian peoples of Andean South America, alleged sightings of an extinct giant bird in New Zealand as well as the complex symbolism of the American rodeo. Others discuss animal symbolism in the Middle East, India and the ancient picts of Scotland. The book advances a powerful argument against some prevalent fallacies in symbolic interpretation.

Modernity promised control over nature through science, material abundance through technology and effective government through rational, social organization. Instead of leading to this promised land it has brought us to the brink of environmental and cultural disaster. Why has there been this gap between modernity's aspirations and its achievements? Development Betrayed offers a powerful answer to this question.
Development with its unshakeable commitment to the idea of progress, is rooted in modernism and has been betrayed by each of its major tenets. Attempts to control nature have led to the brink of environmental catastrophe. Western technologies have proved inappropriate for the needs of the South, and governments are unable to respond effectively to the crises that have resulted.
Offering a thorough and lively critiques of the ideas behind development, Richard Norgaard also offers an alternative co-evolutionary paradigm, in which development is portrayed as a co-evolution between cultural and ecological systems. Rather than a future with all peoples merging to one best way of knowing and doing things, he envisions a future of a patchwork quilt of cultures with real possibilities for harmony.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203012402

Human society has constructed many varied notions of the environment. Scientific information about the environment is often seen as the only worthwhile knowledge. This ignores the complexities created by interaction between people and the environment. Idealist thinking argues that everything we know is based on a construct of our minds and that all is possible. Can both be correct and true? Interpreting Nature explores the position of humanity in the environment from the principle that the models we construct are imperfect and can only be provisional. Having examined the way in which the natural sciences have interrogated nature, the types of data produced and what they mean to us, this looks at the environment within philosophy and ethics, the social sciences and the arts, and analyses their role in the formation of environmental cognition.

We face an environmental catastrophe of global proportions. The ecological rationality of modern society, and of science in particular, is in question. Science still responds to crises at the level of technocratic expertise, and still treats society as an adaptive system.
By bringing together a number of integrative approaches to the human-environment problem, Human Ecology shapes a more radical, fundamental agenda for change. The book creates a framework for a cohesive discourse, for a "new human ecology." From the notion that the individual person is an agent mediating between society and environment, the individual contributors recognize that the environmental crisis is really a crisis of society - manifesting itself in an increasing fragmentation of lives in general and knowledge in particular. Arguing for environmentally sustainable lifestyles, the book envisages a new kind of consciousness and a new environment.

Human society has constructed many varied notions of the environment. Scientific information about the environment is often seen as the only worthwhile knowledge. This ignores the complexities created by interaction between people and the environment. Idealist thinking argues that everything we know is based on a construct of our minds and that all is possible. Can both be correct and true?
Interpreting Nature explores the position of humanity in the environment from the principle that the models we construct are imperfect and can only be provisional. Having examined the way in which the natural sciences have interrogated nature, the types of data produced and what they mean to us, this looks at the environment within philosophy and ethics, the social sciences and the arts, and analyses their role in the formation of environmental cognition.

Global Change in Marine Systems analyses and appraises societal and governing responses to change affecting marine social and ecological systems around the world. Acknowledging the stakes - local societies that depend on marine systems for food, livelihoods and wellbeing can suffer great hardship - this book highlights and explains similarities and distinctions between successful and unsuccessful responses. The book presents an analytical framework ('I-ADApT') that enables decision-makers to consider possible responses to global change based on experiences elsewhere. Here an international group of researchers from the natural and social sciences apply the 'I-ADApT' framework to twenty enlightening case studies, covering a wide range of marine systems challenged by critical global change issues around the world. The innovative research presented here guides marine system researchers, policymakers, decision-makers and practitioners in responding to global change in a timely and appropriate manner. It will appeal to students and researchers interested in environmental studies, natural resources, marine resources, environmental sociology, sustainability, and climate change.