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Books > Earth & environment > General
This stunning depiction of geology in Namibia combines searingly beautiful photography with clear explanations of how the varied landscapes formed.
Arranged chronologically (starting 13.8 billion years ago), the chapters each deal with a particular event or process that has resulted in the formation under discussion. These include the early beginnings of the Earth, meteorites, canyons and limestone caves, vast desert landscapes, moonscapes and bizarrely-shaped rocks, and Namibia’s astonishing underwater lakes and reservoirs.
Picture-driven, with accessible text, this book features all the highlights of Namibian landscapes and landforms. A treat for travellers real and virtual – those on the road as well as those in armchairs.
A history of humanity on the brink of decline.
We are living through a period that is unique in human history. For the first time in more than ten thousand years, the rate of human population growth is slowing down. In the middle of this century population growth will stop, and the number of people on Earth will start to decline - fast.
In this provocative book, award-winning science writer Henry Gee offers a concise, brilliantly-told history of our species--and argues that we are on a rapid, one-way trip to extinction. The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire narrates the dramatic rise of humanity, how a scattered range of small groups across several continents eventually inbred, interacted, fought, established stable communities and food supplies, and began the process of dominating the planet. The human story is relatively brief―the oldest fossils of H. Sapiens date to approximately 300,000 years ago―yet the spread of our species has been unstoppable…until recently.
As Gee demonstrates, our population has peaked, and is declining; our environment is becoming inimical to human life in many locations; our core resources of water, arable land, and air are diminishing; and new diseases, simmering conflicts, and ambiguous technologies threaten our collective health. Can we still change our course? Or is our own extinction inevitable?
There could be a way out, but the launch window is narrow.
Unless Homo sapiens establishes successful colonies in space within the next two centuries, our species is likely to stay earthbound and will have vanished entirely within another ten thousand years, bringing the seven-million-year story of the human lineage to an end.
With assured narration, dramatic stories, and his signature sprightly humor, Henry Gee envisions new opportunities for the future of humanity―a future that will reward facing challenges with ingenuity, foresight, and cooperation.
We rarely think about the energy systems that prop up our existence. With hot water, lighting and digital entertainment all available at the flick of a switch, it's easy to underestimate the vast global network that makes these things possible.
Growing up in Iraq, Yasmin Ali regularly experienced power cuts - ironic for a country rich in oil and sunshine. Now as an engineer working in energy, Yasmin has a deep appreciation for what these resources mean for our lives.
In Power Up she takes us on a journey across the globe to reveal the bigger picture, from solar farms shimmering in the desert to power stations hidden deep in the mountains. We discover where we get energy from, how it is moved and used around the world - and why we need to understand the whole system if we want to transition towards a clean, green future.
Power Up is a definitive picture of the intricate world that humanity has built, and a rallying cry to face the challenges of climate change using the power at our fingertips.
Attention deficit is the disorder of our times. What if a simple but
powerful solution could be found on our doorstep?
With so many things vying for our attention, we’re suffering a global
epidemic of distraction. Renowned professor of psychology Dr Marc
Berman may have found a cure, through environmental neuroscience and
the art of attention restoration.
What if we knew how to harness attention restoration for our brain
health and focus, to help us become calmer, more productive, less
distracted? If modern life is leaving you feeling drained, depleted,
isolated or depressed, in Nature and the Mind, Dr Berman identifies the
essential elements of a 'nature prescription' that can inspire
happiness and hope, renew energy and attention, and spur cooperation
and connection.
Nature and The Mind explains how nature holds the key to our cognitive
performance and mental resilience, offering clear, practical tools for
incorporating this knowledge into your immediate environment and
practice, to reap the benefits for your mental clarity and physical
calm. With practical check ins at the end of each chapter, we are
gifted an accessible toolkit for immediately applying the neuroscience
in our daily lives.
Nature and The Mind is an authoritative and groundbreaking book, the
first of its kind to reveal the new science behind why exactly we need
nature to enhance our focus and attention, strengthening our awareness
of how humans are intertwined with our environment in myriad powerful
ways.
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Abundance
(Hardcover)
Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson
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R688
R558
Discovery Miles 5 580
Save R130 (19%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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From bestselling authors and journalistic titans Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Abundance is a once-in-a-generation, paradigm-shifting call to renew a politics of plenty, face up to the failures of liberal governance, and abandon the chosen scarcities that have deformed American life.
To trace the history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history of unaffordability and shortage. After years of refusing to build sufficient housing, America has a national housing crisis. After years of limiting immigration, we don’t have enough workers. Despite decades of being warned about the consequences of climate change, we haven’t built anything close to the clean-energy infrastructure we need. Ambitious public projects are finished late and over budget—if they are ever finished at all. The crisis that’s clicking into focus now has been building for decades—because we haven’t been building enough.
Abundance explains that our problems today are not the results of yesteryear’s villains. Rather, one generation’s solutions have become the next generation’s problems. Rules and regulations designed to solve the problems of the 1970s often prevent urban-density and green-energy projects that would help solve the problems of the 2020s. Laws meant to ensure that government considers the consequences of its actions have made it too difficult for government to act consequentially. In the last few decades, our capacity to see problems has sharpened while our ability to solve them has diminished.
Progress requires facing up to the institutions in life that are not working as they need to. It means, for liberals, recognizing when the government is failing. It means, for conservatives, recognizing when the government is needed. In a book exploring how we can move from a liberalism that not only protects and preserves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and propose a path toward a politics of abundance. At a time when movements of scarcity are gaining power in country after country, this is an answer that meets the challenges of the moment while grappling honestly with the fury so many rightfully feel.
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Where's Winter
(Hardcover)
Erin Rounds; Illustrated by Erin Rounds; Edited by Tammie Stevens
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R541
Discovery Miles 5 410
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Ships in 18 - 22 working days
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This book is a contribution to the history of a vital stage of
UK technical and economic development, perhaps the most important
since the Second World War. It shows, from an industrial viewpoint,
how the British handled the exploitation of their most significant
natural resource gain of the 20th century. Notwithstanding the
nearly 30 years of government support through the Offshore Supplies
Office, the UK has not reaped the full benefit of the North Sea
discoveries; this book attempts to explain why. It will assist
governments and industries faced with future instances of
unforeseen, specialist and large-scale new demand to manage their
reactions more effectively. It also throws light on how governments
can pursue strategic industrial objectives while leaving market
mechanisms to function with minimal interference, something some
administrations - perhaps even the British - may wish to do now or
in the future.
Covers the entire period from the first well offshore Britain until
the dismantling of the specific British industrial policy
measuresfor offshore suppliesBased in large measure upon archives
not previously accessed and the private testimony/papers of
participants 'Drills down' to the level of individual company
decisions through case study and other materialThe only properly
researched description of how the world s first major local content
initiative developed "
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