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.

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.

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.
This book addresses synthesis and properties of Ferrate(VI), which is an environmentally friendly chemical for oxidation, coagulation, and disinfection for the multipurpose treatment of water and wastewater. It provides information on using different approaches to synthesize ferrate(VI). New processes to synthesize ferrate(VI) are detailed. Properties and generations of high oxidation states of iron including ferrate(IV) and ferrate(V) are discussed. Interestingly, possible formations of iron in unusual oxidation states, +7 and +8 are also discussed. The potential use of ferrate(VI) in high energy density rechargeable batteries is thoroughly reviewed. Chapters of the book demonstrate development of new technology for removing emerging pollutants without forming toxic side reactions or by-products. Examples include endocrine disruptors (EDs) and pharmaceuticals, which are of a great concern because of their possible toxic effects on humans and the ecology of the environment. Ferrate(VI) is an emerging water-treatment disinfectant, whichcan address the concerns raised by the currently used oxidants and disinfectants. Interestingly, ferrate(VI) does not react with the bromide ion; carcinogenic bromate ion would thus not be produced in the treatment of bromide-containing water. Ferrate(VI) can inactivate chlorine resistant bacteria. This book also provides information on the means to oxidize highly resistant organics and microorganisms in order to design appropriate remediation and water treatment technology which is cleaner and greener.

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.

As indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most?

Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth―its abundance of sweet, juicy berries―to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution insures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”

As Elizabeth Gilbert writes, Robin Wall Kimmerer is “a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world.” The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that “hoarding won’t save us, all flourishing is mutual.”

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.
To uncover and assess these scientific flaws, award-winning biologist and philosopher of science Kristin Shrader-Frechette uses the analytical tools of classic philosophy of science. She identifies and evaluates the concepts, data, inferences, methods, models, and conclusions of science tainted by the influence of special interests. As a result, she challenges accepted scientific findings regarding risks such as chemical toxins and carcinogens, ionizing radiation, pesticides, hazardous-waste disposal, development of environmentally sensitive lands, threats to endangered species, and less-protective standards for workplace-pollution exposure. In so doing, she dissects the science on which many contemporary scientific controversies turn. Demonstrating and advocating "liberation science," she shows how practical, logical, methodological, and ethical evaluations of science can both improve its quality and credibility -- and protect people from harm caused by flawed science, such as underestimates of cancers caused by bovine growth hormones, cell phones, fracking, or high-voltage wires.
This book is both an in-depth look at the unreliable scientific findings at the root of contemporary debates in biochemistry, ecology, economics, hydrogeology, physics, and zoology -- and a call to action for scientists, philosophers of science, and all citizens.

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.
It is a popular misconception that bird bones are rarely preserved (compared with mammals), and cannot be reliably identified when they are found. The book explores both these contentions, armed with a database of 9,000 records of birds that have been identified on archaeolgical sites. Most are in England, but sites elsewhere in Great Britian, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Isles are included.
Britain's most numerous bird is also the most widespread in the archaeological record, but some of the more charismatic species also have a rich historical pedigree. For example, we can say quite a lot about the history of the Crane, Red Kite, White-tailed Eagle and great Auk. The history of many introduced domestic species can also be illuminated. Even so, there remain uncertainties, posed by difficulties of dating or identification, the vagaries of the archaeological record or the ecological specialities of the birds themselves. These issues are highlighted, thus posing research questions for others to answer.
And the commonest British bird, then and now? Buy the book and read on...

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.