Energy plays a central role in shaping our society and infrastructure, making it increasingly important for today's leaders to understand the impact of energy decisions. Discussions about energy often neglect important historical lessons about previous energy transformations and provide inadequate consideration of context - Driven by Demand takes a fresh approach by exploring the emergence of energy systems, outcomes and priorities. It outlines select historical and current events, challenges, and developing energy trends using a range of case studies. Readers will gain foundational knowledge about energy flows and end-uses, helping them to become more conversant about energy outcomes and priorities. This accessible book paves the way for broader discussions about societal resilience, privacy, and security concerns associated with the move towards 'smart' infrastructure. This is a must-read for business executives, policymakers and students working in energy policy, energy management and sustainable business.

Historical ecology is a research framework which draws upon diverse evidence to trace complex, long-term relationships between humanity and Earth. With roots in anthropology, archaeology, ecology and paleoecology, geography, and landscape and heritage management, historical ecology applies a practical and holistic perspective to the study of change. Furthermore, it plays an important role in both fundamental research and in developing future strategies for integrated, equitable landscape management. The framework presented in this volume covers critical issues, including: practicing transdisciplinarity, the need for understanding interactions between human societies and ecosystem processes, the future of regions and the role of history and memory in a changing world. Including many examples of co-developed research, Issues and Concepts in Historical Ecology provides a platform for collaboration across disciplines and aims to equip researchers, policy-makers, funders, and communities to make decisions that can help to construct an inclusive and resilient future for humanity.

The Natural Bounty of China is an important book series of 60 titles that comprehensively documents the vast diversity of China's natural resources. China recognizes more than 1,600 products unique to the country - known as geographical indication products. This series describes these products in detail, with each single volume focusing on a particular region of China and the unique products cultivated there, such as Changbaishan ginseng in northeast China to the bean paste of Pixian (the "soul of Sichuan cuisine") in the southwest. From the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang to history-steeped Shandong and gorgeously scenic Yunnan, almost every place in the country has produced something that is readily identifiable with it. This series not only makes a major contribution to our understanding of the geography and agriculture of China, but also gives us a greater appreciation of Chinese culture as a whole. This volume looks at the abundant resources and products of Tibet, the `Roof of the World'.

In order to engage tourism's possibilities and responsibilities in the creation of more sustainable futures, collaboration is vital. Collaboration does not imply a division of labour, which is often the essence of cooperation, but rests on the hypothesis that the sum of the work is more than its individual parts. The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals highlights collaboration and partnerships as central tenets for resilient action. Collaboration leverages the sustainable development of tourism between diverse groups of agencies, organisations, businesses and people with many different values and agendas. Collaboration for Sustainable Tourism Development explores the role of collaboration in tourism to sustain livelihoods, create profitable partnerships, and protect cultures and the environment. Based on robust research, it critically examines how collaboration enables (or impedes) sustainable tourism development, and suggests a role for collaboration where there is currently none. With contributions from leading international scholars it charts a course for unpredictable futures and suggests advances in sustainable tourism development education. Essential reading for undergraduate and post-graduate students engaged in international tourism and hospitality as well as academic researchers, planners, managers and developers of tourist destinations. Complementing online tutorials are available for select chapters as part of the BEST EN Lecture Series, see http://www.innotour.com/bestenModules.

Our food system is broken, and it's endangering what's most precious to us: our environment, our health, our soil and water, and our future. In recent years, a host of books and films have compellingly documented the dangers. But advice on what to do about them largely begins and ends with the admonition to eat local" or eat organic." Longtime good food pioneer Oran Hesterman knows that we can't fix the broken system simply by changing what's on our own plates: the answer lies beyond the kitchen. In Fair Food he shares an inspiring and practical vision for changing not only what we eat, but how food is grown, packaged, delivered, marketed, and sold. He introduces people and organizations across the country who are already doing this work in a number of creative ways, and provides a wealth of practical information for readers who want to get more involved.

The Natural Bounty of China is an important book series of 60 titles that comprehensively documents the vast diversity of China's natural resources. China recognizes more than 1,600 products unique to the country - known as geographical indication products. This series describes these products in detail, with each single volume focusing on a particular region of China and the unique products cultivated there, such as Changbaishan ginseng in northeast China to the bean paste of Pixian (the "soul of Sichuan cuisine") in the southwest. From the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang to history-steeped Shandong and gorgeously scenic Yunnan, almost every place in the country has produced something that is readily identifiable with it. This series not only makes a major contribution to our understanding of the geography and agriculture of China, but also gives us a greater appreciation of Chinese culture as a whole. This volume looks at the abundant resources and products from the birthplace of Chinese civilization, Inner Mongolia.

The Natural Bounty of China is an important book series of 60 titles that comprehensively documents the vast diversity of China's natural resources. China recognizes more than 1,600 products unique to the country - known as geographical indication products. This series describes these products in detail, with each single volume focusing on a particular region of China and the unique products cultivated there, such as Changbaishan ginseng in northeast China to the bean paste of Pixian (the "soul of Sichuan cuisine") in the southwest. From the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang to history-steeped Shandong and gorgeously scenic Yunnan, almost every place in the country has produced something that is readily identifiable with it. This series not only makes a major contribution to our understanding of the geography and agriculture of China, but also gives us a greater appreciation of Chinese culture as a whole. This volume looks at the abundant resources and products of China's historic capital city, Beijing.

Strawberries are big business in California. They are the sixth-highest-grossing crop in the state, which produces 88 percent of the nation's favorite berry. Yet the industry is often criticized for its backbreaking labor conditions and dependence on highly toxic soil fumigants used to control fungal pathogens and other soilborne pests. In Wilted, Julie Guthman tells the story of how the strawberry industry came to rely on soil fumigants, and how that reliance reverberated throughout the rest of the fruit's production system. The once-favorable conditions of plants, soils, chemicals, climate, and laboring bodies that made strawberry production so lucrative have now changed and become a set of related threats that jeopardize the future of the industry.

Reflecting the R&D efforts in the field that have resulted in a plethora of novel applications over the past decade, this handbook gives a comprehensive overview of the tangible benefits of nanotechnology in catalysis. By bridging fundamental research and industrial development, it provides a unique perspective on this scientifically and economically important field. While the first three parts are devoted to preparation and characterization of nanocatalysts, the final three provide in-depth insights into their applications in the fine chemicals industry, the energy industry, and for environmental protection, with expert authors reporting on real-life applications that are on the brink of commercialization. Timely reading for catalytic chemists, materials scientists, chemists in industry, and process engineers.

A New Statesman Book of the Year

The wolf stands at the forefront of the debate about our impact on the natural world. In one of the most celebrated successes of modern conservation, it has been reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park.

What unfolds is a riveting multi-generational saga, at the centre of which is O-Six, a charismatic alpha female beloved by park rangers and amateur spotters alike. As elk numbers decline and the wolf population rises, those committed to restoring an iconic landscape clash with those fighting for a vanishing way of life; hunters stalk the park fringes and O-Six’s rivals seek to bring an end to her dominance of the stunningly beautiful Lamar Valley.

The story of the Snowdonia National Park and the Society, dedicated to conserving and enhancing its unique landscape, is one which will fascinate and inform those who live and work within it as well as being of interest to visitors, be they picnickers or sightseers or committed hill walkers, climbers, canoeists and mountain bikers. This book commemorates the fortieth anniversary of the Snowdonia Society and is a record of its sometimes turbulent history and the ever-changing but still inspiring landscape of the National Park. Created in 1951, the Snowdonia National Park is a landscape of rugged grandeur, great natural diversity and cultural associations going back thousands of years. The vision of its founders was that this very special region should be protected from harmful development for all time. From the beginning, however, there were problems? Out of these difficulties grew the idea of an independent society dedicated to conserving and enhancing the landscape. Today the Snowdonia Society has a membership of over 2,500 and has a close working relationship with both the Snowdonia National Park Authority and the Council for National Parks. This lively narrative chronicles the story of the Snowdonia Society ? its successes and failures, its internal conflict and the personalities involved ? as well as discussing the wider issues which have affected this unique landscape over the last forty years. This lavishly illustrated book will appeal to anyone who loves the rugged landscape of Snowdonia, published in dual language text of English and Welsh.

From Josh Tickell, one of America's most celebrated documentary filmmakers, comes a "fascinating, easy-to-follow blueprint for how eating in ways that nourish and regenerate the soil can not only help reverse global warming, but also bring greater vitality to our lives" (Wolfgang Puck). "A must read for anyone committed to healing our bodies and our Earth" (Deepak Chopra), Kiss the Ground explains an incredible truth: by changing our diets to a soil-nourishing, regenerative agriculture diet, we can reverse global warming, harvest healthy, abundant food, and eliminate the poisonous substances that are harming our children, pets, bodies, and ultimately our planet. This "richly visual" (Kirkus Reviews) look at the impact of an underappreciated but essential resource-the very ground that feeds us-features fascinating and accessible interviews with celebrity chefs, ranchers, farmers, and top scientists. Kiss the Ground teaches you how to become an agent in humanity's single most important and time-sensitive mission: reverse climate change and effectively save the world-all through the choices you make in how and what to eat. Also a full-length documentary executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and narrated by Woody Harrelson, "Kiss the Ground both informs and inspires" (Marianne Williamson, #1 New York Times bestselling author).

Food, Water, First Aid, and Self-Defense Tips for Surviving Natural Disasters, Extreme Weather, Pandemics, Biological Threats, Terrorist Attacks, and Riots It could be a fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, or hailstorm. Financial system collapse or bioterrorism. Governmental shutdown or societal breakdown. The world is full of possible threats, and they seem to be coming at us from all sides these days. Jason Ryder Adams covers everything you need to know prepare your home, keep your family safe, and get ready to leave if the worst happens. You'll learn how to: Prep with children and pets (and do test runs ahead of time) Plan for staying put, sealing yourself in, and leaving depending on the threat Choose and protect a safe location and develop an escape route Defend your family with self-defense training and firearms Put together a 72-hour emergency kit, bug-out bag, and first aid kit So don't panic-prepare! Prepping today is for everyone. Survival Prepping is written for ordinary folks who want to get started on preparing for the worst. Adams shares bug-out plans for every scenario, safety tips, and invaluable checklists for acquiring the right supplies for emergency situations. Survival Prepping will help you ensure your family survives-and hopefully thrives-should a disaster strike.

In forty years, the population of the Earth will reach ten billion. Can our world support so many people? What kind of world will it be? In this unique, original and important book, Charles C. Mann illuminates the four great challenges we face - food, water, energy, climate change - through an exploration of the crucial work and wide-ranging influence of two little-known twentieth-century scientists, Norman Borlaug and William Vogt. Vogt (the Prophet) was the intellectual forefather of the environmental movement, and believed that in our using more than the planet has to give, our prosperity will bring us to ruin. Borlaug's research in the 1950s led to the development of modern high-yield crops that have saved millions from starvation. The Wizard of Mann's title, he believed that science will continue to rise to the challenges we face. Mann tells the stories of these scientists and their crucial influence on today's debates as his story ranges from Mexico to India, across continents and oceans and from the past and the present to the future. Brilliantly original in concept, wryly observant and deeply researched, The Wizard and the Prophet is essential reading for readers of Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens or Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, for anyone interested in how we got here and in the future of our species.

In 2011, there were fourteen natural calamities that each destroyed over a billion dollars worth of property in the United States alone. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast and major earthquakes struck in Italy, the Philippines, Iran, and Afghanistan. In the first half of 2013, the awful drumbeat continued a monster supertornado struck Moore, Oklahoma; a powerful earthquake shook Sichuan, China; a cyclone ravaged Queensland, Australia; massive floods inundated Jakarta, Indonesia; and the largest wildfire ever engulfed a large part of Colorado.

Despite these events, we still behave as if natural disasters are outliers. Why else would we continue to build new communities near active volcanoes, on tectonically active faults, on flood plains, and in areas routinely lashed by vicious storms?

A famous historian once observed that civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice. In the pages of this unique book, leading geologist Susan W. Kieffer provides a primer on most types of natural disasters: earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, landslides, hurricanes, cyclones, and tornadoes. By taking us behind the scenes of the underlying geology that causes them, she shows why natural disasters are more common than we realize, and that their impact on us will increase as our growing population crowds us into ever more vulnerable areas.

Kieffer describes how natural disasters result from changes in state in a geologic system, much as when water turns to steam. By understanding what causes these changes of state, we can begin to understand the dynamics of natural disasters.

In the book s concluding chapter, Kieffer outlines how we might better prepare for, and in some cases prevent, future disasters. She also calls for the creation of an organization, something akin to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but focused on pending natural disasters."

This book contains selected papers presented during the World Renewable Energy Network's 28thanniversary congress at the University of Kingston in London. The forum highlighted the integration of renewables and sustainable buildings as the best means to combat climate change. In-depth chapters written by the world's leading experts highlight the most current research and technological breakthroughs and discuss policy, renewable energy technologies and applications in all sectors - for heating and cooling, agricultural applications, water, desalination, industrial applications and for the transport sectors. Presents cutting-edge research in green building and renewable energy from all over the world; Covers the most up-to-date research developments, government policies, business models, best practices and innovations; Contains case studies and examples to enhance practical application of the technologies.

What was the first national park in the world? Who was John Muir? What types of animals can you see in Kruger National Park? To find out the answers to these questions and more, open this book and go on an exploration of the world's most amazing national parks

Winner of the 2015 Rachel Carson Prize presented by the Society for Social Studies of Science Residentsof a small Louisiana town were sure that the oil refinery next door wasmaking them sick. As part of a campaign demanding relocation away from therefinery, they collected scientific data to prove it. Their campaign ended witha settlement agreement that addressed many of their grievances-but not concernsabout their health. Yet, instead of continuing to collect data, residents beganto let refinery scientists' assertions that their operations did notharm them stand without challenge. What makes a community moveso suddenly from actively challenging to apparently accepting experts'authority? RefiningExpertise arguesthat the answer lies in the way that refinery scientists and engineers definedthemselves as experts. Rather than claiming to be infallible, they beganto portray themselves as responsible-committed to operating safelyand to contributing to the well-being of the community. The volume showsthat by grounding their claims to responsibility in influential ideas fromthe larger culture about what makes good citizens, nice communities, and moralcompanies, refinery scientists made it much harder for residents to challengetheir expertise and thus re-established their authority over scientificquestions related to the refinery's health and environmental effects. GwenOttinger here shows how industrial facilities' current approaches todealing with concerned communities-approaches which leave much room fornegotiation while shielding industry's environmental and health claims fromcritique-effectively undermine not only individual grassroots campaigns butalso environmental justice activism and far-reaching effortsto democratize science. This work drives home the need for both activistsand politically engaged scholars to reconfigure their own activities inresponse, in order to advance community health and robust scientific knowledgeabout it.

By 2050, the world's population is estimated to grow to 10 billion. To feed everyone, we will have to double our food production, to produce more food in the next 40 years than in the whole of the last 6,000. Changing the Food Game shows how our unsustainable food production system cannot support this growth. In this prescient book, Lucas Simons argues that the biggest challenge for our generation can only be solved by effective market transformation to achieve sustainable agriculture and food production. Lucas Simons explains clearly how we have created a production and trading system that is inherently unsustainable. But he also demonstrates that we have reason to be hopeful - from a sustainability race in the cocoa industry to examples of market transformation taking place in palm oil, timber, and sugarcane production. He also poses the question: where next? Provocative and eye-opening, Changing the Food Game uncovers the real story of how our food makes it on to our plates and presents a game-changing solution to revolutionize the industry.

Ecologists, land managers and policymakers continue to search for the most effective ways to manage biological invasions. An emerging lesson is that proactive management can limit negative impacts, reduce risks and save money. This book explores how to detect and respond to alien plant incursions, summarising the most current literature, providing practical recommendations and reviewing the conditions and processes necessary to achieve prevention, eradication and containment. Chapter topics include assessing invasiveness and the impact of alien plants, how to improve surveillance efforts, how to make timely management decisions, and how legislation and strategic planning can support management. Each chapter includes text boxes written by international experts that discuss topical issues such as spatial predictive modelling, costing invasions, biosecurity, biofuels, and dealing with conflict species.

This open access volume is the first comprehensive assessment of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. It comprises important scientific research on the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainable mountain development and will serve as a basis for evidence-based decision-making to safeguard the environment and advance people's well-being. The compiled content is based on the collective knowledge of over 300 leading researchers, experts and policymakers, brought together by the Hindu Kush Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Programme (HIMAP) under the coordination of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). This assessment was conducted between 2013 and 2017 as the first of a series of monitoring and assessment reports, under the guidance of the HIMAP Steering Committee: Eklabya Sharma (ICIMOD), Atiq Raman (Bangladesh), Yuba Raj Khatiwada (Nepal), Linxiu Zhang (China), Surendra Pratap Singh (India), Tandong Yao (China) and David Molden (ICIMOD and Chair of the HIMAP SC). This First HKH Assessment Report consists of 16 chapters, which comprehensively assess the current state of knowledge of the HKH region, increase the understanding of various drivers of change and their impacts, address critical data gaps and develop a set of evidence-based and actionable policy solutions and recommendations. These are linked to nine mountain priorities for the mountains and people of the HKH consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals. This book is a must-read for policy makers, academics and students interested in this important region and an essentially important resource for contributors to global assessments such as the IPCC reports.

This Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will again form the standard scientific reference for all those concerned with climate change and its consequences, including students and researchers in environmental science, meteorology, climatology, biology, ecology and atmospheric chemistry. It provides invaluable material for decision makers and stakeholders at international, national and local level, in government, businesses, and NGOs. This volume provides: * An authoritative and unbiased overview of the physical science basis of climate change * A more extensive assessment of changes observed throughout the climate system than ever before * New dedicated chapters on sea-level change, biogeochemical cycles, clouds and aerosols, and regional climate phenomena * Extensive coverage of model projections, both near-term and long-term climate projections * A detailed assessment of climate change observations, modelling, and attribution for every continent * A new comprehensive atlas of global and regional climate projections for 35 regions of the world