![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Earth & environment > The environment
In Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, writer, sailor, and surfer Jonathan White takes readers across the globe to discover the science and spirit of ocean tides. In the Arctic, White shimmies under the ice with an Inuit elder to hunt for mussels in the dark cavities left behind at low tide; in China, he races the Silver Dragon, a twenty-five-foot tidal bore that crashes eighty miles up the Qiantang River; in France, he interviews the monks that live in the tide-wrapped monastery of Mont Saint-Michel; in Chile and Scotland, he investigates the growth of tidal power generation; and in Panama and Venice, he delves into how the threat of sea level rise is changing human culture the very old and very new. Tides combines lyrical prose, colorful adventure travel, and provocative scientific inquiry into the elemental, mysterious paradox that keeps our planet's waters in constant motion. Photographs, scientific figures, line drawings, and sixteen color photos dramatically illustrate this engaging, expert tour of the tides.
The question of what environmental statistics is about is particularly important when it comes to the formulation of relevant research and training, whether in academia, agencies, or industries. This volume aims to give a new perception on the subject with some examples that are of concern and interest today. Environmental statistics is in a take-off stage both for reasons of societal challenge and statistical opportunity, and is demanding more and more from non-traditional and innovative statistical approaches. The chapters in this volume, which are specially prepared by several outstanding professionals involved in statistics and the environment, discuss the current state of the art in diverse areas of environmental statistics. The volume provides new perspectives and problems for future research, training, policy and regulation. It will be valuable to researchers, teachers, consultants and graduate students in statistics, environmental statistics, statistical ecology, and quantitative environmental sciences in academia, industries, governmental agencies, laboratories and libraries.
Could low-level exposure to polluting chemicals be analogous to exercise-a beneficial source of stress that strengthens the body? Some scientists studying the phenomenon of hormesis (beneficial or stimulatory effects caused by low-dose exposure to toxic substances) claim that that this may be the case. Is A Little Pollution Good For You? critically examines the current evidence for hormesis. In the process, it highlights the range of methodological and interpretive judgments involved in environmental research: choices about what questions to ask and how to study them, decisions about how to categorize and describe new information, judgments about how to interpret and evaluate ambiguous evidence, and questions about how to formulate public policy in response to debated scientific findings. The book also uncovers the ways that interest groups with deep pockets attempt to influence these scientific judgments for their benefit. Several chapters suggest ways to counter these influences and incorporate a broader array of societal values in environmental research: (1) moving beyond conflict-of-interest policies to develop new ways of safeguarding academic research from potential biases; (2) creating deliberative forums in which multiple stakeholders can discuss the judgments involved in policy-relevant research; and (3) developing ethical guidelines that can assist scientific experts in disseminating debated and controversial phenomena to the public. Kevin C. Elliott illustrates these strategies in the hormesis case, as well as in two additional case studies involving contemporary environmental research: endocrine disruption and multiple chemical sensitivity. This book should be of interest to a wide variety of readers, including scientists, philosophers, policy makers, environmental ethicists and activists, research ethicists, industry leaders, and concerned citizens. "This is a timely, well-researched and compelling book .Elliott admirably combines insights and strategies from philosophy of science with those of applied ethics to carefully analyze contemporary science and science policy around pollutants and human health. There is a growing interest in the philosophy of science community in bringing the work of philosophers to bear on contemporary social issues. This book stands out as a model for how to do just that." - Sandra D. Mitchell, Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh Is A Little Pollution Good For You? is a wonderfully clear and insightful book dealing with the interplay between social values and economic and political interests in scientific research. He articulates an account of how societal values should and should not enter into science and illustrates his views with an extended discussion of research on hormesis-the hypothesis that chemicals that are toxic at high doses may be benign or even beneficial at low doses. The chemical industry has a strong financial interest in promoting scientific acceptance of hormesis, as this could convince regulatory agencies to loosen up restrictions on allowable exposures to pesticides and other chemicals. Elliott argues that because scientists have an obligation to minimize the harmful effects of their research, they must be mindful of the social context of their work and how it may be interpreted and applied by private companies or interest groups, to the potential detriment of public and environmental health. Elliott's book is a must read for researchers, scholars, and students who are interested in the relationship between science, industry, and society." - David B. Resnik, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, author of Playing Politics With Science: Balancing Scientific Independence And Government
We are becoming increasingly aware of the overwhelming pollution of our limited water resources on this planet. And while many contaminants originate from Mother Earth, most water pollution comes as a direct result of anthropogenic activities. This problem has become so immense that it threatens the future of all humanity. If effective measures to reduce and/or remediate water pollution and its sources are not found, it is estimated by UN that 2.7 billion people will face water shortage by 2025 as opposed to 1.2 billion people who do not have access to clean drinking water now. Therefore, development of novel green technologies to address this major problem represents a priority of the highest importance. This book discusses green chemistry and other novel solutions to the water pollution problems which includes some interesting applications of nanoparticles. Novel Solutions to Water Pollution is a useful and informative text for those engaged in issues of water quality and water pollution remediation at operational, administrative, academic, or regulatory levels.
In this volume, Stephen M. Gardiner and David A. Weisbach present arguments for and against the relevance of ethics to global climate policy. Gardiner argues that climate change is fundamentally an ethical issue, since it is an early instance of a distinctive challenge to ethical action (the perfect moral storm), and ethical concerns (such as with justice, rights, political legitimacy, community and humanity's relationship to nature) are at the heart of many of the decisions that need to be made. Consequently, climate policy that ignores ethics is at risk of "solving " the wrong problem, perhaps even to the extreme of endorsing forms of climate extortion. This is especially true of policy based on narrow forms of economic self-interest. By contrast, Weisbach argues that existing ethical theories are not well suited to addressing climate change. As applied to climate change, existing ethical theories suffer from internal logical problems and suggest infeasible strategies. Rather than following failed theories or waiting indefinitely for new and better ones, Weisbach argues that central motivation for climate policy is straightforward: it is in their common interest for people and nations to agree to policies that dramatically reduce emissions to prevent terrible harms.
This book addresses one of the most challenging problems that plagues the environmental field today-subsurface contamination. The past three decades have ushered in various methods for removal of organic and inorganic contaminants from the subsurface to varying degrees of effectiveness. Because of the site-to-site variability in the nature of contamination characteristics, the pattern of waste disposal and accidental releases, the site characteristics and thus contaminant behavior, and hydrologic conditions, predicting the effectiveness of one treatment method over another is a daunting task. Field demonstration of innovative technologies is a key step in their development, however, only after successful scale-up from laboratory testing. This book features chapters written by researchers who have linked laboratory- and field-scales in efforts to find creative, cost-effective methods for prediction of successful remediation of contaminated soil and ground water. State-of-the-art technologies using physicochemical removal methods and biological methods are discussed in the context of not only their effectiveness in remediating organic and inorganic wastes from various subsurface environments but also in terms of useful flask-scale methods for measuring and predicting their field-scale effectiveness. Chapters address sorption and hydrolysis of pesticides by organoclays, use of Fentons agents to destroy chlorinated solvents removed from the subsurface by granulated activated carbon, methanol flushing as a means of removing toxaphene from soils, natural attenuation as a method for effectiveness of remediation metals and biodegrading acid-mine drainage constituents, and biodegradation ofradiologically contaminated soils. Also addressed in this book are current and future methods of assessing microbiological activity potential and diversity and of modeling biodegradation, contaminant flux, and gaseous transport in the subsurface.
This book outlines a simple and easy-to-follow process for auditing building operation to identify and reduce energy consumption. It explains the operational and cost-based opportunities, assessing the current conditions, analyzing the opportunities, and reporting the findings and documenting the plan. The book discusses the different building components and systems and how they affect energy efficiency and describes the operational energy efficiencies that can be gained by implementing no cost changes or alternate maintenance activities already funded. Capital improvement opportunities, and evaluating Return on Investment and life cycle replacement of equipment are also covered.
Responsible Tourism: Using tourism for sustainable development 2nd edition is about the globally vital necessity of realising sustainable tourism. It is a hugely important challenge to those who organise and sell travel and tourism, and those who consume it.
In the popular imagination, the Caribbean islands represent tropical paradise. This image, which draws millions of tourists to the region annually, underlies the efforts of many environmentalists to protect Caribbean coral reefs, mangroves, and rainforests. However, a dark side to Caribbean environmentalism lies beyond the tourist's view in urban areas where the islands' poorer citizens suffer from exposure to garbage, untreated sewage, and air pollution. Concrete Jungles explores the reasons why these issues tend to be ignored, demonstrating how mainstream environmentalism reflects and reproduces class and race inequalities. Based on over a decade of research in Kingston, Jamaica and Willemstad, Curacao, Rivke Jaffe contrasts the environmentalism of largely middle-class professionals with the environmentalism of inner-city residents. The book combines a sophisticated discussion of the politics of difference with rich ethnographic detail, including vivid depictions of Caribbean ghettos and elite enclaves. Jaffe also extends her analysis beyond ethnographic research, seeking to understand the role of colonial history in shaping the current trends in pollution and urban space. A thorough analysis of the hidden inequalities of mainstream environmentalism, Concrete Jungles provides a political ecology of urban pollution with significant implications for the future of environmentalism.
This book is targeted for chemists and environmental scientists and
engineers who are engaged in understanding the chemistry of
high-valent iron (Ferrate) and in applications of chemical oxidants
to treat contaminants in water, wastewater, and industrial
effluents. This book will be of interest to biochemical engineers
and microbiologists who want to understand Ferrate's disinfection
performance. Additionally, the book will be of tremendous interest
to graduate students who are performing research on the
understanding of the mechanism of higher oxidation states of iron
and in developing innovative drinking water and wastewater
treatment technologies.
McKittrick’s history of the 1918 Kalahari Thirstland Redemption Scheme reveals the environment to have been central to South African understandings of race. The plan fanned white settlers’ visions for South Africa, stoked mistrust in scientific experts, and influenced ideas about race and the environment in South Africa for decades to come. In 1918, South Africa’s climate seemed to be drying up. White farmers claimed that rainfall was dwindling, while nineteenth-century missionaries and explorers had found riverbeds, seashells, and other evidence of a verdant past deep in the Kalahari Desert. Government experts insisted, however, that the rains weren’t disappearing; the land, long susceptible to periodic drought, had been further degraded by settler farmers’ agricultural practices—an explanation that white South Africans rejected. So when the geologist Ernest Schwarz blamed the land itself, the farmers listened. Schwarz held that erosion and topography had created arid conditions, that rainfall was declining, and that agriculture was not to blame. As a solution, he proposed diverting two rivers to the Kalahari’s basins, creating a lush country where white South Africans could thrive. This plan, which became known as the Kalahari Thirstland Redemption Scheme, was rejected by most scientists. But it found support among white South Africans who worried that struggling farmers undermined an image of racial superiority. Green Lands for White Men explores how white agriculturalists in southern Africa grappled with a parched and changing terrain as they sought to consolidate control over a black population. Meredith McKittrick’s timely history of the Redemption Scheme reveals the environment to have been central to South African understandings of race. While Schwarz’s plan was never implemented, it enjoyed suffi cient support to prompt government research into its feasibility, and years of debate. McKittrick shows how white farmers rallied around a plan that represented their interests over those of the South African state and delves into the reasons behind this schism between expert opinion and public perception. This backlash against the predominant scientific view, McKittrick argues, displayed the depth of popular mistrust in an expanding scientific elite. A detailed look at the intersection of a settler society, climate change, white nationalism, and expert credibility, Green Lands for White Men examines the reverberations of a scheme that ultimately failed but influenced ideas about race and the environment in South Africa for decades to come.
Although the problem of controlling the spread of exotic invasive plant and animal species in the United States has been recognized for quite some time, it has been lacking an adequate legislative mandate, public awareness, and sufficient funding to meet the challenge. This ACS Symposium Series title showcases the many diverse efforts being made to control invasive species at the federal, state, and local levels. It recognizes the global extent of the problem and compares the methods used in other countries with those of the U.S., and includes recommendations of how best to proceed from here.
This volume provides an up-to-the-minute review of the open economy approach to analysing environmental problems and policies, which has produced a wealth of research over the past decade. It contains non-technical, issue-oriented, and comprehensive surveys written by specialists in international and environmental economics. The volume will appeal to scholars and students of economics and political science.
Forestry Economics introduces students and practitioners to all aspects of the management and economics of forestry. The book adopts the approach of managerial economics textbooks and applies this to the unique processes and problems faced by managers of forests. While most forestry economics books are written by economists for future economists, what many future forest and natural resource managers need is to understand what economic information is and how to use it to make better business and management decisions. John E. Wagner draws on his twenty years of experience teaching and working in the field of forest resource economics to present students with an accessible understanding of the unique production processes and problems faced by forest and other natural resource managers. There are three unique features of this book: The first is its organization. The material is organized around two common economic models used in forest and natural resources management decision making. The second is the use of case studies from various disciplines: Outdoor and Commercial Recreation, Wood Products Engineering, Forest Products, and Forestry. The purpose of these case studies is to provide students with applications of the concepts being discussed within the text. The third is revisiting the question of how to use economic information to make better business decisions at the end of each chapter. This ties each chapter to the preceding ones and reinforces the hypothesis that a solid working knowledge of these economic models and the information they contain are necessary for making better business decisions. This textbook is an invaluable source of clear and accessible information on forestry economics and management for not only economics students, but for students of other disciplines and those already working in forestry and natural resources.
Three-fourths of scientific research in the United States is funded
by special interests. Many of these groups have specific practical
goals, such as developing pharmaceuticals or establishing that a
pollutant causes only minimal harm. For groups with financial
conflicts of interest, their scientific findings often can be
deeply flawed.
The History of British Birds reviews our knowledge of avifaunal
history over the last 15,000 years, setting it in its wider
historical and European context. The authors, one an ornithologist,
the other an archaeologist, integrate a wealth of archaeological
data to illuminate and enliven the story, indicating the extent to
which climatic, agricultural, and social changes have affected the
avifauna. They discuss its present balance, as well as predicting
possible future changes.
The Arctic Tundra and adjacent Boreal Forest or Taiga support the most cold-adapted flora and fauna on Earth. The evolutionary capacity of both plants and animals to adapt to these thermally limiting conditions has always attracted biological investigation and is a central theme of this book. How the polar biota will adapt to a warmer world is creating significant and renewed interest in this habitat. The Arctic has always been subject to climatic fluctuation and the polar biota has successfully adapted to these changes throughout its evolutionary history. Whether or not climatic warming will allow the Boreal Forest to advance onto the treeless Tundra is one of the most tantalizing questions that can be asked today in relation to terrestrial polar biology. Tundra-Taiga Biology provides a circum-polar perspective of adaptation to low temperatures and short growing seasons, together with a history of climatic variation as it has affected the evolution of terrestrial life in the Tundra and the adjacent forested Taiga. It will appeal to researchers new to the field and to the many students, professional ecologists and conservation practitioners requiring a concise but authoritative overview of the biome. Its accessibility also makes it suitable for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in tundra, taiga, and arctic ecology.
Debates about the causes and impacts of global environmental degradation go to the heart of economic and political systems and raise fundamental questions about power and inequity in a globalized world. The comprehensively revised 2nd edition of this popular text provides wide-ranging coverage of the international negotiations and on assessment of the international political economy of the environment, normative and policy debates on environmental governance, and of prospects for the pursuit of environmental security.
In 1973, a group of California lawyers formed a non-profit, public-interest legal foundation dedicated to defending conservative principles in court. Calling themselves the Pacific Legal Foundation, they declared war on the U.S. regulatory state-the sets of rules, legal precedents, and bureaucratic processes that govern the way Americans do business. Believing that the growing size and complexity of government regulations threatened U.S. economy and infringed on property rights, Pacific Legal Foundation began to file a series of lawsuits challenging the government's power to plan the use of private land or protect environmental qualities. By the end of the decade, they had been joined in this effort by spin-off legal foundations across the country. The Other Rights Revolution explains how a little-known collection of lawyers and politicians-with some help from angry property owners and bulldozer-driving Sagebrush Rebels-tried to bring liberal government to heel in the final decades of the twentieth century. Decker demonstrates how legal and constitutional battles over property rights, preservation, and the environment helped to shape the political ideas and policy agendas of modern conservatism. By uncovering the history-including the regionally distinctive experiences of the American West-behind the conservative mobilization in the courts, Decker offers a new interpretation of the Reagan-era right.
Restoring Layered Landscapes brings together historians, geographers, philosophers, and interdisciplinary scholars to explore ecological restoration in landscapes with complex histories shaped by ongoing interactions between humans and nature. For many decades, ecological restoration - particularly in the United States - focused on returning degraded sites to conditions that prevailed prior to human influence. This model has been broadened in recent decades, and restoration now increasingly focuses on the recovery of ecological functions and processes rather than on returning a site to a specific historical state. Nevertheless, neither the theory nor the practice of restoration has fully come to terms with the challenges of restoring layered landscapes, where nature and culture shape one another in deep and ongoing relationships. Former military and industrial sites provide paradigmatic examples of layered landscapes. Many of these sites are not only characterized by natural ecosystems worth preserving and restoring, but also embody significant political, social, and cultural histories. This volume grapples with the challenges of restoring and interpreting such complex sites: What should we aim to restore in such places? How can restoration adequately take the legacies of human use into account? Should traces of the past be left on the landscape, and how can interpretive strategies be creatively employed to make visible the complex legacies of an open pit mine or chemical weapons manufacturing plant? Restoration aims to create new value, but not always without loss. Restoration often disrupts existing ecosystems, infrastructure, and artifacts. The chapters in this volume consider what restoration can tell us more generally about the relationship between continuity and change, and how the past can and should inform our thinking about the future. These insights, in turn, will help foster a more thoughtful approach to human-environment relations in an era of unprecedented anthropogenic global environmental change.
A public meeting with angry residents and eager reporters is a common feature on the local news. Whether addressing environmental, or other issues, the experience for the board members, consultants, and specialists at these meetings ranges from uncomfortable to nightmarish. The issues discussed in these meetings usually stem from years of community disappointment, mistrust, fears, factions, political or social positioning, or all of the above. Industry faces a labyrinth of environmental and business regulations, and unique challenges in dealing with the public and the media. Environmental Risk Communication serves as a guide to understanding and complying with the Federal Risk Management Program and applying risk management and communication principles to daily plant operations. This book also helps Risk Management Plan (RMP) facilities successfully meet the new Federal requirements for public disclosure of RMP offsite consequence analysis results and provides techniques for communicating effectively during environmental emergencies. Written in a straight-forward, no-nonsense style the book presents concise informative chapters, flow diagrams, checklists, and a thorough index. The authors present step-by-step instruction on developing a principled plan of action that generates open communications. CEOs, Corporate Communications Specialists, Plant Managers, Environmental Compliance Supervisors, Health and Safety Officers, Environmental Scientists and Engineers, and Consultants will benefit from Environmental Risk Communication. Features
Concerns about sustainability have brought environmental economics to the foreground. These volumes are particularly concerned with issues relating to the long-term depletion of non-renewable resources.
Ensuring an adequate, long-term energy supply is a paramount concern in Europe. EU member states now intervene by encouraging investment in generation capacity, offering an additional revenue stream for conventional power plants in addition to the existing, heavily subsidised investments in renewable energy sources. These capacity remuneration mechanisms (or simply capacity mechanisms) have become a hot topic in the wider European regulatory debate. European electricity markets are increasingly interconnected, so the introduction of a capacity mechanism in one country not only distorts its national market but may have unforeseeable consequences for neighbouring electricity markets. If these mechanisms are adopted by several member states with no supra-national coordination and no consideration for their cross-border impact, they may cause serious market distortions and put the future of the European internal electricity market at risk. This book provides readers with an in-depth analysis of capacity mechanisms, written by an expert team of policy-makers, economists, and legal professionals. It will be a first point of reference for regulators and policy-makers responsible for designing optimal capacity mechanisms in Europe, and will be an invaluable resource for academics and practitioners in the fields of energy, regulation, and competition. |
You may like...
The Environmental Ethics and Policy Book…
Christine Pierce, Donald VanDeVeer
Paperback
R1,198
Discovery Miles 11 980
Politics and the Environment - From…
Graham Smith, James Connelly, …
Paperback
(1)R1,628 Discovery Miles 16 280
Wanted Dead & Alive - The Case For South…
Gregory Mthembu-Salter
Paperback
|