This book presents a global and historical perspective of energy flows during the last millennium. The search for sustainable energy is a key issue dominating today's energy regime. This book details the historical evolution of energy, following the overlapping and slow flowing transitions from one regime to another. In doing so it seeks to provide insight into future energy transitions and the means of utilizing sustainable energy sources to reduce humanity's fossil fuel footprint. The book begins with an examination of the earliest and most basic forms of energy use, namely, that of humans metabolizing food in order to work, with the first transition following the domestication and breeding of horses and other animals. The book also examines energy sources key to development during the industrialization and mechanization, such as wood and coal, as well as more recent sources, such as crude oil and nuclear energy. The book then assesses energy flows that are at the forefront of sustainability, by examining green sources, such as solar, wind power and hydropower. While it is easy to see energy flows in terms of "revolutions," transitions have taken centuries to evolve, and transitions are never fully global, as, for example, wood remains the primary fuel source for cooking in much of the developing world. This book not only demonstrates the longevity of energy transitions but also discusses the possibility for reducing transition times when technological developments provide inexpensive and safe energy sources that can reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy transitions, sustainable energy and environmental and energy history.

This book presents contemporary case studies of land use, management practices, and innovation in Africa with a view to exploring how multifunctional land uses can alleviate food insecurity and poverty. Food security and livelihoods in Africa face multiple challenges in the form of feeding a growing population on declining land areas under the impacts of climate change. The overall question is what kind of farming systems can provide resilient livelihoods? This volume presents a selection of existing farming systems that demonstrate how more efficient use of land and natural resources, labour and other inputs can have positive effects on household food security and livelihoods. It examines how aquaculture, integrated water management, peri-urban farming systems, climate-smart agriculture practices and parkland agroforestry contribute multiple benefits. Drawing on case studies from Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, contributed by young African scientists, this book provides a unique perspective on multifunctional land use in Africa and illustrates how non-conventional uses can be profitable while promoting social and environmental sustainability. Tapping into the global discussion on land scarcity and linking food security to existing land use change processes, this volume will stimulate readers looking for diversified land uses that are compatible with both household and national food security ambitions. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of African development, agriculture, food security, land use and environmental management, as well as sustainable development more generally, in addition to policymakers and practitioners working in these areas.

Energy demand reduction is fast becoming a business activity for all companies and organisations because it can increase profits regardless of the nature of their core activity. The International Energy Agency believes that industry could improve its energy efficiency and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by almost a third using the best available practices and technologies. This guide looks at the many ways available to energy managers to achieve or even exceed this level of performance, including: base-lining consumption planning a monitoring and verification strategy metering (including smart, wireless metering) energy supply management motors and drives compressed air and process controls. Uniquely, it includes a whole chapter on greening data centres. It also looks at topics covered in greater detail in its companion volume, Energy Management in Buildings: insulation, lighting, renewable heating, cooling and HVAC systems. Further chapters examine minimising water use and how to make the financial case, both to prioritise measures for cost effectiveness, and to get management on board. This title is aimed at all professional energy, industry and facilities managers, energy consultants, students, trainees and academics and can be read alongside training for ISO 50001 - Energy Management Systems. It takes the reader from basic concepts to the latest advanced thinking, with principles applicable anywhere in the world and in any climate.

The role of the energy manager has evolved significantly as the task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions from buildings has become increasingly important. Managers are now technical experts, negotiators, construction project managers, procurement specialists, efficiency advocates and often provide energy services to others. This comprehensive book covers how to: * conduct an energy audit * plan a monitoring and verification strategy * make any energy-saving campaign successful * evaluate and make the financial case for energy-saving measures * make use of free energy for lighting and managing heat loss and gain. It also contains special chapters on: * ventilation, heating and cooling * demand management through automated systems * lighting * most requirements of industrial facilities * regulatory requirements in Britain, Europe and the United States * the use of smart meters and monitoring * how to achieve zero energy buildings * the use of renewable energy. For all professional energy, building and facilities managers, energy consultants, students, trainees and academics. It takes the reader from basic concepts to the latest advanced thinking, with principles applicable anywhere in the world and in any climate.

A changing climate is likely to have a drastic impact on crop yields in Africa. The purpose of this book is to document the effects of climate change on agriculture in Africa and to discuss strategies for adaptation to hotter weather and less predictable rainfall. These strategies include promoting opportunities for farmers to adopt technologies that produce optimal results in terms of crop yield and income under local agro-ecological and socioeconomic conditions. The focus is on sub-Saharan Africa, an area that is already affected by changing patterns of heat and rainfall. Because of the high prevalence of subsistence farming, food insecurity, and extreme poverty in this region, there is a great need for practical adaptation strategies. The book includes empirical research in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and other Sub-Saharan countries, and the conclusion summarizes policy-relevant findings from the chapters. It is aimed at advanced students, researchers, extension and development practitioners, and officials of government agencies, NGOs, and funding agencies. It also will provide supplementary reading for courses in environment and development and in agricultural economics.

Drawing on first hand interview data with experts and government officials, Olivia Gippner develops a new analytical framework to explore the vested interests and policy debates surrounding Chinese climate policy-making. Scrutinising the ''turf wars'' that have erupted between bureaucratic institutions competing for resources, promotions and access, this innovative book unpacks the histories and trajectories of Chinese climate policies, placing them in the context of the international politics of climate change. Gippner's new framework is deployed in detailed case studies based on the 2 DegreesC target, emissions trading and carbon capture and storage to illustrate the timing and scale of climate policy adoption. This book will appeal to researchers exploring the creation and establishment of Chinese policy and the influence from other countries, in particular the EU's climate policy promotion. Environmental politics and climate policy researchers looking to expand their research field will also benefit from this book's unique framework of analysis. Policymakers and the growing think tank community in this field will value details from first-hand interviews with Chinese government officials and climate change negotiators.

This book offers comprehensive information on the theory, models and algorithms involved in state-of-the-art multivariate time series analysis and highlights several of the latest research advances in climate and environmental science. The main topics addressed include Multivariate Time-Frequency Analysis, Artificial Neural Networks, Stochastic Modeling and Optimization, Spectral Analysis, Global Climate Change, Regional Climate Change, Ecosystem and Carbon Cycle, Paleoclimate, and Strategies for Climate Change Mitigation. The self-contained guide will be of great value to researchers and advanced students from a wide range of disciplines: those from Meteorology, Climatology, Oceanography, the Earth Sciences and Environmental Science will be introduced to various advanced tools for analyzing multivariate data, greatly facilitating their research, while those from Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, and the Computer Sciences will learn how to use these multivariate time series analysis tools to approach climate and environmental topics.

The use of fossil fuels results in rising CO2 and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, causing global temperature rise and climate change that will negatively impact human health, the food supply, and eventually worsen hunger and misery. Presently, fossil fuels meet 88% of the energy demand, resulting in rising CO2/GHG emissions at alarming rates. The increased use of biofuels would help to mitigate climate change. Efficiently designing methods for the production of biofuels and plant-derived high-value products requires a deeper understanding of photosynthetic processes as a prerequisite for applying novel biotechnologies. Accordingly, this book provides ample information and a wealth of illustrative examples. The book's eighteen richly illustrated chapters are divided into three thematic parts. I: Photosynthesis and Biomass Production under Changing Conditions, II: Microalgae and Engineered Crops for Production of Biofuels and High-value Products, and III: Genetic Resources and Engineering Methods to Improve Crop Plants. Readers will find the latest information on the molecular basis of photosynthetic processes in plants (including the regulatory principles that allow plants to maintain homeostasis under changing conditions), stress resistance and synthetic pathways. In addition, the basic principles of important biotechnologies, as well as examples of specially designed crops capable of growing under stress conditions with improved productivity, are presented. The book sets the course for future research in the field of biofuel development and production and provides both general and specific information for students, teachers, academic researchers, industrial teams, and general readers who are interested in new developments concerning the production of biofuels with value-added properties.

The European Union (EU) has a hugely important effect on the way in which environmental policies are framed, designed and implemented in many parts of the world, but especially Europe. The new edition of this leading textbook provides a state-of-the-art analysis of the EU's environmental policies. Comprising five parts, Environmental Policy in the EU covers the rapidly changing context in which EU environmental policies are made, the key actors who interact to co-produce them and the most salient dynamics of policy making, ranging from agenda setting and decision making, through to implementation and evaluation. Written by leading international experts, individual chapters examine how the EU is responding to a multitude of different challenges, including biodiversity loss, climate change, energy insecurity, and water and air pollution. They tease out the different ways in which the EU's policies on these topics co-evolve with national and international environmental policies. In this systematically updated fourth edition, a wider array of learning features are employed to ensure that readers fully understand how EU environmental policies have developed over the last 50 years and how they are currently adapting to the rapidly evolving challenges of the twenty-first century, including the COVID-19 pandemic. It is an essential resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying environmental policy and politics, climate change, environmental law and EU politics more broadly. The Open Access versions of chapters 19 and 20, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429402333, have been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book intends to be an alert to the fact that the curve measuring environmental costs against the economic benefits of capitalism has irreversibly entered into a negative phase. The prospect of an environmental collapse has been evidenced by the sciences and the humanities since the 1960s. Today, it imposes its urgency. This collapse differs from past civilizations in that it is neither local nor just civilizational. It is global and occurs at the broadest level of the biosphere, accelerated by the convergence of different socio-environmental crises, such as: Earth energy imbalance, climate change and global warming Sea-level rise Decrease and degradation of forests Collapse of terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity Floods, droughts, wildfires, and extreme weather events Degradation of soils and water resources Increase in pollution caused by fossil fuels and coal Increase in waste production and industrial intoxication The book is divided in two parts. In the first part it presents a comprehensive review of scientific data to show the already visible effects of each of the different environmental crises and its consequences to human life on Earth. In the second part, Luiz Marques critically discusses what he calls the three concentric illusions that prevent us from realizing the gravity of the current socio-environmental crises: the illusion of a sustainable capitalism, the illusion that economic growth is still capable of providing more well-being and the anthropocentric illusion. Finally, Marques argues that "fitting" back into the biosphere will only be possible if we dismantle the expansive socioeconomic gear that has shaped our societies since the 16th century by moving from a Social Contract to a Natural Contract, which takes into account the whole biosphere. According to him, the future society will be post-capitalist or it will not be a complex society, and even perhaps, we must fear, no society at all. "This book is backed up with the latest and best science and has made the complexities understandable for the average reader, all in a context of hope for the future." - William J. Ripple, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Ecology, Director of the Alliance of World Scientists, Oregon State University

This book arises from a 2011 international conference entitled Climate Change, Agri-Food, Fisheries and Ecosystems: Reinventing Research, Innovation, and Policy Agendas for an Environmentally and Socially-Balanced Growth (ICCAFFE2011), organized by the North-South Center for Social Sciences (NRCS) in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Germany and the Institute for Research and Development (IRD), France. Coverage focuses on the agricultural sector and helps improve understanding of the relationships between agriculture and the environment and between human communities and nature, so as to sustainably manage agricultural development. The contributors analyze the interdependence between sustainable agricultural development and environmental, economic and social dynamics; assess the impacts of soil degradation on agricultural productivity; present ways to enhance livestock production and recommend mechanisms for managing links between agro-biodiversity, climate change and livelihoods. Part I examines sustainable agriculture development and environmental, economic and social dynamics, addressing topics such as global climate change, agriculture and challenges including socio-economic factors, adaptation, poverty reduction and water management. Part II covers the impacts of soil degradation on agricultural productivity and discusses the use of expert systems to assess and manage degraded lands, agricultural productivity, land suitability and rehabilitation. Part III focuses on livestock production enhancements, such as feed resources and supplemental feeds for animals and capacity building for women in dairy management. Part IV shares the outcomes of research in agro-biodiversity, climate change and livelihoods, addressing topics such as co-management of forests, carbon consumption models, biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration and scarce mangrove forests. Current environmental and agro-ecological research focuses on understanding the cause-consequence relationships between specific agricultural practices and land use and the responses at different levels of ecosystems. This book is intended to contribute to this discussion."

'The Economics of Pollution Control is a seminal contribution that is strongly recommended as a core addition to professional, governmental, and academic library "environmental studies" reference collections and supplemental reading lists.' - The Midwest Book Review This volume includes a series of previously published papers that both illustrate basic principles in the economics of pollution control and represent recent advances in the field over the last fifteen years. This authoritative collection includes seminal papers, written by leading scholars in the field, which relate to the overarching issue of designing pollution control policies to reduce environmental threats. The editor successfully covers a wide range of contemporary contexts and issues and includes both theoretical papers and empirical analyses of the impacts of pollution control policies. This volume will serve as an excellent source of reference for researchers, advanced students and practicing economists interested in a contemporary overview of the field.

Originally published in 1980. A clear understanding of how radioactivity moves through the environment is essential to discussions on nuclear power. This book describes, in didactic rather than polemic style, the nature of radioactivity, how it arises in the day-to-day running of nuclear reactors, how and why a small fraction is introduced into the environment in a controlled manner, and on what basis judgements on these processes should be made.

This book sets forth a new research agenda for climate theory and aesthetics for the age of the Anthropocene. It explores the challenge of representing and conceptualizing climate in the era of climate change. In the Anthropocene when geologic conditions and processes are primarily shaped by human activity, climate indicates not only atmospheric forces but the gamut of human activity that shape these forces. It includes the fuels we use, the lifestyles we cultivate, the industrial infrastructures and supply chains we build, and together these point to the possible futures we may encounter. This book demonstrates how every weather event constitutes the climatic forces that are as much social, cultural, and economic as they are environmental, natural, and physical. By foregrounding this fundamental insight, it intervenes in the well-established political and scientific discourses of climate change by identifying and exploring emergent aesthetic practices and the conceptual project of mediating the various forces embedded in climate. This book is the first to sustain a theoretical and analytical engagement with the category of realism in the context of anthropogenic climate change, to capture climate's capacity to express embedded histories, and to map the formal strategies of representation that have turned climate into cultural content.

Originally published in 1987. The Chernobyl disaster intensified the whole debate on the nuclear power industry. There was great public concern about the industry regulation, about the siting of nuclear facilities, including the dumping of nuclear waste, and about the alleged secretiveness of the industry. This book examines these and many other important aspects of the industry worldwide and provides much important original research. It focuses in particular on the political processes which control the industry, on waste disposal and on the social impact.

Originally published in 1983. The Indian nuclear power programme, both the earliest in the Third World and also one of the most comprehensive, is an important and instructive subject for a wide-ranging and detailed study. This book examines the origins and rationale of the Indian programme in the context of energy resources and consumption. It traces the progress of its historical development and leads up to an evaluation of its performance, in both technical and economic terms of both individual reactors and the programme as a whole. In addition, the book discusses India's nuclear explosion of 1974 and the possibilities for novel developments in nuclear power and other energy sources, such as coal, biogas, hydro and solar power. The author then sets the Indian programme into the world picture by comparing developments in India with those of the Third World (including developments in China and South Africa) and discusses the overall prospects for the Third World. This extremely informative account will appeal to readers with interest in energy, science, technology and Third World developments.

Originally published in 1984. This annotated bibliography will serve as a starting point for information on the issue of nuclear power. Arranged for easy use into three sections - Pro-Nuclear, Anti-Nuclear, and Neutral - the book cites over a hundred of the most important books on the subject, offering for each full bibliographic data and a lengthy annotation that is balanced and informative. This work, which features author, title and subject indexes, is simultaneously a collection-building tool, a guide for non-specialist library patrons and an invaluable aid for research.

Originally published in 1986. Nuclear power is now regarded as essential to survival in the twenty-first century. But the safety of nuclear power stations is a highly controversial topic, and where they will be sited is a most vital question. In this independent critique, based on four years of research, Stan Openshaw argues that reactor siting provides a simple means of offering additional, design-independent margins of safety. Reactor siting policies in the UK and USA are examined and it is suggested that UK siting practices need to be updated. The large number of potential alternative sites should be used to devise new planning strategies - strategies which will minimise both the residual health risks from accidents and the danger that a future change in public opinion might lead to calls for the closure of many existing sites on safety grounds.

Originally published in 1981. Examining in detail the best evidence on the likely level of domestic and overseas demand for British coal over the following 20 years, this study raised questions about the declared development and investment strategy of the National Coal Board. It exposes a central dilemma facing both the management and the unions of the British coal industry consequent upon their commitment to production objectives substantially out of line with likely market opportunities. It also poses questions for government and the EEC regarding the industry's finances and market prospects. The study concludes that Britain is unlikely to need both the scale of investment proposed for the coal industry and the nuclear programme endorsed by both the government and the electricity supply industry. The author argues for a rigorous reinterpretation of the prospects and a revision of the plans of Western Europe's largest coal industry. This is a fascinating snapshot of a changing industry and is interesting to those in geography, economics and industrial management and anyone interested in energy.

Originally published in 1985. This book gives the views of both oil producers and oil consumers, detailing in a systematic manner the problems that they have encountered in the energy field and the solutions that they have devised to deal with them. The book makes clear that producers and consumers have common purpose in the conservation and judicious management of the dwindling and non-renewable world oil resources. It also makes clear that they share a consistent vision of the industry's future development. The contributions to the book explore a range of important themes in the development of the energy sector. The future of OPEC is discussed in the context of the state of the world oil market. Other chapters consider the lessons that have been drawn by the Arab Gulf oil producers and throughout the book there is comparison with the experience of Canada providing a number of important insights into the operation of the world oil industry.

The science is clear: by the mid-20th century human beings must stop burning coal, oil and natural gas. Reducing carbon emissions is not enough--they must be eliminated. Each individual "doing their part" is only a start. We heat our homes, light our rooms, power our cars, prepare our food, and produce and distribute consumer goods with the help of fossil fuels. A practical and visionary re-imagining of the future is needed. Calling for a technical and spiritual ground-shift, this book proposes carbon boycotts as collective action, with groups and communities changing what products they consume and seeking new ways to work, live and play to steer aggregate demand towards solar, wind, geothermal and renewable energy alternatives.

Climate Change, Ecological Catastrophe, and the Contemporary Novel responds to the critical need for transdisciplinary research on the relationship between colonialism and catastrophe. It represents the first sustained analysis of the connection between colonial legacy and present-day ecological catastrophe in postcolonial fiction. Analyzing contemporary South Asian and South Pacific novels that grapple with climate change and catastrophe, environmental exploitation and instability, and human-nonhuman relationships in degraded environments, it offers a much-needed corrective to dominant narratives about climate, crisis, and the everyday. Highlighting the contributions of literary fiction from the postcolonial South to the growing field of the environmental humanities, this book reconsiders the novel's relationship with climate change and the contemporary environmental imaginary. Counter to dominant current theoretical discourses, it demonstrates that the novel form is ideally suited to literary and imaginative engagements with climate change and ecological catastrophe. The six case studies it examines connect contemporary ecological vulnerability to colonial legacies, reveal the critical role animals and the environment play in literary imaginations of post-catastrophe recovery, and together constellate a decolonial perspective on ecological catastrophe in the era of climate change. Drawing on the work of Indigenous authors and scholars who write about and against the Anthropocene, this book displaces conventional ways of thinking about the relationship between the mundane and the catastrophic and promotes greater dialogue between the largely siloed fields of postcolonial, Indigenous, and disaster studies.

Nature is all around us, in the beautiful but also in the unappealing and functional, and from the awe-inspiring to the mundane. It is vital that we learn to see the agency of the natural world in all things that make our lives possible, comfortable and profitable. The Ecology of Everyday Things pulls back the veil of our familiarity on a range of 'everyday things' that surround us, and which we perhaps take too much for granted. This key into the magic world of the everyday can enable us to take better account of our common natural inheritance. Professor James Longhurst, Assistant Vice Chancellor, University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) For many people, ecosystems may be a remote concept, yet we eat, drink, breathe and interface with them in every moment of our lives. In this engaging textbook, ecosystems scientist Dr. Mark Everard considers a diversity of 'everyday things', including fascinating facts about their ecological origins: from the tea we drink, to the things we wear, read and enjoy, to the ecology of communities and space flight, and the important roles played by germs and 'unappealing creatures' such as slugs and wasps. In today's society, we are so umbilically connected to ecosystems that we fail to notice them, and this oversight blinds us to the unsustainability of everyday life and the industries and policy environment that supports it. The Ecology of Everyday Things takes the reader on an enlightening, fascinating voyage of discovery, all the while soundly rooted in robust science. It will stimulate awareness about how connected we all are to the natural world and its processes, and how important it is to learn to better treat our environment. Ideal for use in undergraduate- and school-level teaching, it will also interest, educate, engage and enthuse a wide range of less technical audiences.

This book introduces state-of-the-art approaches, methods and research, focusing on smart management of rainwater. In addition, it provides an overview of projects from across the world, illustrating how rainwater-smart management has been implemented in drylands. Focusing on the scientific perspective it demonstrates how rural dryland agriculture can be improved. It also documents the wealth of rainwater-smart know-how available today, and replicates and transfers results to other countries and regions, to encourage cross-sector interactions among various stakeholders, such as practitioners from governmental and public organisations, policy- and decision-makers, and teaching staff from academic scientific institutions. The contributors showcase vital lessons learned from research, field projects and best-practice examples. They address the integrated use of rainwater harvesting management with landscape restoration practices and water-, and climate-smart agriculture for food security and poverty alleviation in arid and semi-arid areas. Original research, combined with the contributors' synthetic approach, lays a foundation for new concepts and ideas. Through case studies and research reports, the book discusses all the relevant issues necessary for the comprehensive analysis and successful implementation of the technologies in rainwater management. Highlighting the working principles and technical recommendations with regard to cost-efficient rainwater-smart solutions, it is of interest to practitioners. It is also a valuable resource for academic specialists, professionals and students, since many development agencies are funding rainwater harvesting for irrigation purposes.