In the last twenty years the biofuels industry has developed rapidly in many regions of the world. This timely book provides an in-depth and critical study of the law and policies in many of the key biofuels producing countries, such as Brazil, China and the US, as well as the EU, and a number of other countries where this industry is quickly developing. Drawing on a range of disciplines, the contributors examine the roles of the public and private sectors in the governance of biofuels. They discuss topics such as sustainability and biofuels, and provide a critical review of regulatory regimes for biofuels. They conclude by proposing recommendations for more effective and efficient biofuel policies. Academics working in the area of renewable energy and students in environmental law will find this book to be of interest. It will also be of use to policy makers around the world looking to learn from various existing regimes.

This is the first volume in the new multi-volume set, Global Biodiversity. Each volume in this series aims to provide insightful information on the biodiversity of selected nations in particular regions. The volumes summarize the available data on both wild and cultivated plants, wild and domesticated animals, and microbes of the different nations. Global Biodiversity, Volume 1: Selected Countries in Asia focuses on selected countries of Asia, providing an abundance of biodiversity information on Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, and Vietnam. The first chapter in the volume provides an informative overview of what is biodiversity along with biogeographic classifications. It provides explanations of biodiversity patterns and species number; biodiversity conservation, protection, and international commitments and cooperation; biodiversity threats and drivers of change (such as human population growth, climate change, land use change); and the economics of biodiversity as well.

Whether for love or money, in a backyard or a homestead, here is illustrated, practical advice any chicken keeper can use. Carissa Bonham boils down chicken-keeping into 101 easy-to-understand tips, tricks, and chicken hacks. Advice ranges from learning how to grow your flock despite having a broody hen to directions for making a nesting box herb blend that will keep pests at bay and keep the coop smelling fresh. Other tips will touch on: Stretching your feed budget with fermentation Making a predator-proof coop Using your chickens to get your garden ready in the spring Creating easy chicken chores for kids And much more! Having raised a variety of chickens both inside her home and with the help of broody chicken moms, author Carissa Bonham is ready to share her chicken-keeping advice with others looking to add the joy of poultry to their lives. Her approach to chicken keeping focuses on keeping hens happy using natural methods so you can spend less time doing the dirty work and more time enjoying your flock.

Satellite remote sensing presents an amazing opportunity to inform biodiversity conservation by inexpensively gathering repeated monitoring information for vast areas of the Earth. However, these observations first need processing and interpretation if they are to inform conservation action. Through a series of case studies, this book presents detailed examples of the application of satellite remote sensing, covering both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, to conservation. The authors describe how collaboration between the remote sensing and conservation communities makes satellite data functional for operational conservation, and provide concrete examples of the lessons learned in addition to the scientific details. The editors, one at NASA and the other at a conservation NGO, have brought together leading researchers in conservation remote sensing to share their experiences from project development through to application, and emphasise the human side of these projects.

The book communicates coastal geology such that the reader gets a better understanding of how scientists work and how scientific knowledge is acquired and how it progresses. It presents the human side of geologic research, including missteps, in this case, research on coastal change of the recent past, the present, and the near future. The audience for this volume is the general public, coastal managers, politicians, and decision makers in general, in the coastal realm. But the implications of this work with regard to future climate change and human responses are relevant globally.

This book presents various aspects of agroforestry research and development, as well as the latest trends in degraded landscape management. Over the last four decades, agroforestry research (particularly on degraded landscapes) has evolved into an essential problem-solving science, e.g. in terms of sustaining agricultural productivity, improving soil health and biodiversity, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting carbon sequestration and mitigating climate change. This book examines temperate and tropical agroforestry systems around the world, focusing on traditional and modern practices and technologies used to rehabilitate degraded lands. It covers the latest research advances, trends and challenges in the utilization and reclamation of degraded lands, e.g. urban and peri-urban agroforestry, reclamation of degraded landscapes, tree-based multi-enterprise agriculture, domestication of high-value halophytes, afforestation of coastal areas, preserving mangroves and much more. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable asset for a broad range of stakeholders including farmers, scientists, researchers, educators, students, development/extension agents, environmentalists, policy/decision makers, and government and non-government organizations.

We live on an increasingly human-dominated planet. Our impact on the Earth has become so huge that researchers now suggest that it merits its own geological epoch - the 'Anthropocene' - the age of humans. Combining theory development and case studies of 'planetary boundaries', emerging infectious diseases, financial markets and geoengineering, this groundbreaking book explores the 'Anthropocene Gap' otherwise known as society's current failure to address the most profound environmental challenges of our times. What are the political and institutional implications of this new epoch? And what are some novel ways to analyse the complicated interplay between institutions, Earth system complexity and technology? This book offers one of the first explorations of political and institutional dimensions of the Anthropocene concept by providing a novel combination of institutional analysis along with insights from Earth system sciences. It provides an exploration of the role of technology for global environmental governance and defines a new agenda for political science analysis in the Anthropocene. Offering the first summary of the planetary boundaries debate, this cutting edge book will be of great interest to researchers concerned in the interplay between politics, technology, and global environmental change, and those interested in the debate surrounding the Anthropocene and "planetary boundaries".

Waste is one of the planet's last great resource frontiers. From furniture made from up-cycled wood to gold extracted from computer circuit boards, artisans and multinational corporations alike are finding ways to profit from waste while diverting materials from overcrowded landfills. Yet beyond these benefits, this "new" resource still poses serious risks to human health and the environment. In this unique book, Kate O'Neill traces the emergence of the global political economy of wastes over the past two decades. She explains how the emergence of waste governance initiatives and mechanisms can help us deal with both the risks and the opportunities associated with the hundreds of millions - possibly billions - of tons of waste we generate each year. Drawing on a range of fascinating case studies to develop her arguments, including China's role as the primary recipient of recyclable plastics and scrap paper from the Western world, "Zero-Waste" initiatives, the emergence of transnational waste-pickers' alliances, and alternatives for managing growing volumes of electronic and food wastes, O'Neill shows how waste can be a risk, a resource, and even a livelihood, with implications for governance at local, national, and global levels.

Wind farms are an essential component of global renewable energy policy and the action to limit the effects of climate change. There is, however, considerable concern over the impacts of wind farms on wildlife, leading to a wide range of research and monitoring studies, a growing body of literature and several international conferences on the topic. This unique multi-volume work provides a comprehensive overview of the interactions between wind farms and wildlife. Volume 3 documents the current knowledge of the potential effects upon wildlife during both construction and operation of offshore wind farms. An introductory chapter on the nature of wind farms and the legislation surrounding them is followed by a series of in-depth chapters documenting effects on physical processes, atmosphere and ocean dynamics, seabed communities, fish, marine mammals, migratory birds and bats and seabirds. A synopsis of the known and potential effects of wind farms upon wildlife concludes the volume. The authors have been carefully selected from across the globe from the large number of academics, consultants and practitioners now engaged in wind farm studies, for their influential contribution to the science. Edited by Martin Perrow and with contributions by 30 leading researchers including: Goeran Brostroem, Steven Degraer, Mike Elliot, Andrew Gill, Ommo Huppop, Georg Nehls and Nicolas Vanermen. The authors represent a wide range of organisations and institutions including the Universities of Gothenburg, Hamburg and Hull, Alfred Wegener Institute, Cefas (UK), Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vattenfall and several leading consultancies. Each chapter includes informative figures, tables, colour photographs and detailed case studies, including some from invited authors to showcase exciting new research. Other volumes: Volume 1: Onshore: Potential Effects (978-1-78427-119-0) Volume 2: Onshore: Monitoring and Mitigation (978-1-78427-123-7) Volume 4: Offshore: Monitoring and Mitigation (978-1-78427-131-2)

A comprehensive handbook covering all aspects of the conservation of Barn Owls. Written by the Barn Owl Trust, this book includes in-depth information on Barn Owl survey techniques, relevant ecology, Barn Owls and the law, mortality, habitat management, use of nest boxes and barn Owl rehabilitation. Essential reading for ecologists, planners, land managers and ornithologists.

The Politics of Climate Change Negotiations describes the successes and failures of protracted international negotiations and most importantly, examines the lessons they hold for the future. Drawing on more than 100 interviews with climate change insiders, including former ministers, chief negotiators and presidential advisers, Christian Downie presents a rare inside account of why states agree to what they do and why they change their position in long negotiations. He also identifies eight strategies that others can use to influence the most powerful states in the world. This book will be invaluable to academics and students working in the fields of international relations, political science, negotiation studies and global environmental politics. It will be of equal value to diplomats, policymakers and various non-governmental organizations that seek to influence international negotiations.

Most film critics point to classic conflicts - good versus evil, right versus wrong, civilization versus savagery - as defining themes of the American Western. In this provocative examination of Westerns from Tumbleweeds (1925) to Rango (2011), Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann argue for a more expansive view that moves beyond traditional conflicts to encompass environmental themes and struggles. The environment, after all, is the fundamental stage for most western stories, from land rush dramas that pit ""sod busters"" against ranchers to conflicts between mining-town communities and corporations. Because environmental issues lie at the forefront of so many conflicts today, Murray and Heumann believe that the Western is ripe for such new examination. Drawing on perspectives from both film studies and environmental history, the authors show how western films frequently deal with issues related to land use and different ways of looking at the natural world. In films as diverse as Gene Autry musicals, early John Wayne B-Westerns, and revisionist critiques such as the 2010 remake of True Grit, resources are exploited in the name of progress. Beginning with an analysis of two iconic Westerns, Shane and The Searchers, Murray and Heumann identify the environmental dichotomies - previously overlooked by critics - that are broached in both films, and they clarify the history that lies behind the environmental debates in these films and many others. How do Westerns respond to the historical contexts they present? And what do those responses suggest about American views of nature and its exploitation? The conflicts these movies address grow out of differing views of progress, frequently in relation to technology. The authors show that such binary oppositions tend to blur when examined closely, demonstrating that environmental issues are often more complex than we realize.

This extensive Handbook captures a range of expertise and perspectives on the changing geographies and landscapes of energy production, distribution, and use. Combining established and emerging scholarship from across disciplines, the expert contributions provide a broad overview of research frontiers for the changing geographies of energy worldwide. Interdisciplinary in nature and broad in scope, it serves to answer a range of questions and provide the reader with conceptual and methodological foundations. The conversation spans the gamut from smart grids to alternative fuels, discussed in a range of settings from India to Nigeria and from Brazil to North America, highlighting the ways in which new energy technologies and consumer dynamics are changing the way people, places, and the physical world are interconnected through energy systems. In addition to a compendium of regional case studies, the Handbook identifies emerging conceptual and methodological frameworks that help us better understand energy and energy transitions. Unique in scope and breadth, this Handbook's dual purpose as a capsule for existing and emerging geographical perspectives on energy will be of immense value to students and scholars in the social sciences, environmental sciences, and humanities. Policymakers and planners will also benefit from the novel perspectives and the illuminating exploration of geographic information systems, community energy planning, and energy landscapes.

This comprehensive and accessible textbook addresses important relationships between economics and environmental policy, highlighting in particular the role of taxation. It also connects environmental policy to social accounting by describing how measures of welfare and sustainable development depend on whether policies successfully internalize market failures. The authors discuss how the modern literature on environmental taxation and tradable permits has evolved. Environmental taxation is examined from a purely corrective perspective, and as part of a broader system of optimal taxation that reflects distributional objectives. Cost benefit rules of environmental policy reforms are also examined in various contexts. Key features include: * Examination of optimal tax policy in static and dynamic general equilibrium models with environmental externalities * Examination of cost benefit rules for environmental policy reforms * Essential historical background to the modern literature on environmental policy * Discussion of measures of welfare and sustainable development * Environmental policy from a fiscal federalism perspective. This textbook will be essential reading for those studying environmental economics and environmental policy, working effectively as both an in-depth supplementary text in general courses on environmental economics and a strong main source for environmental policy courses.

Are profits and sustainability compatible? This book brings unique perspectives to this key debate by exploring the history of green entrepreneurship since the nineteenth century, and its spread globally in industries including renewable energy, organic food, natural beauty, ecotourism, recycling, architecture, and finance. The book uses the lens of the extraordinary and often eccentric men and women who defied convention and imagined that business could help save the planet, rather than consume it. The social and religious beliefs that drove many of these individuals are explored as the book looks at how they overcame huge obstacles to execute their strategies. The green entrepreneurs seen here are shown to have created new markets and industries, and driven innovations in sustainable practices, even at times when most consumers and governments marginalized the entire subject. The struggles of early pioneers appear to have been rewarded by the growth of environmental awareness among consumers, business leaders, and others in recent years, but the Earth's environmental health continues to deteriorate. If profits and sustainability have proved challenging to reconcile, this book argues that one reason was how they were both defined.

'This is Bill McKibben at his glorious best. Wise and warning, with everything on the line. Do not miss it' Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine Thirty years ago, Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature, the first book that alerted us to the dangers of climate change. Falter is a new call to arms, to save not only our planet but our very souls as well. Over tens of thousands of years, through the harnessing of nature, the development of civilization, and the application of new technologies, human beings have created the world we live in. But as McKibben points out in this provocative and sobering look at the world today, we are fast approaching a tipping point, putting into question the viability of humanity itself. McKibben argues that we have failed to recognize how individual actions often operated against our collective interest, and as a result we now face three daunting challenges - to adjust to a new life on a broken planet, to fight the hyper-individualism that now animates government and business; and to reverse the ways that technology is bleaching out the variety of human existence. He asks if we still retain the tools and social capital to fight these larger forces - and if we are willing to make the effort.

Agriculture as a social-ecological system embraces many disciplines. This book breaks through the silos of individual disciplines to bring ecologists and economists together to consider agriculture through the lens of resilience. It explores the economic, environmental and social uncertainties that influence the behaviour of agricultural producers and their subsequent farming approach, highlighting the importance of adaptability, innovation and capital reserves in enabling agriculture to persist under climate change and market volatility. The resilience concept and its relation to complexity theory is explained and the characteristics that foster resilience in agricultural systems, including the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services, are explored. The book discusses modelling tools, metrics and approaches for assessing agricultural resilience, highlighting areas where interdisciplinary thinking can enhance the development of resilience. It is suitable for those researching sustainable agriculture or those engaged in agricultural policy decisions and analysis, as well as students of ecology, agriculture and socioeconomics.

By making available the almost unlimited energy stored in prehistoric plant matter, coal enabled the industrial age - and it still does. Coal today generates more electricity worldwide than any other energy source, helping to drive economic growth in major emerging markets. And yet, continued reliance on this ancient rock carries a high price in smog and greenhouse gases. We use coal because it is cheap: cheap to scrape from the ground, cheap to move, cheap to burn in power plants with inadequate environmental controls. In this book, Mark Thurber explains how coal producers, users, financiers, and technology exporters drive this supply chain, while fragmented environmental movements battle for full incorporation of environmental costs into the global calculus of coal. Delving into the politics of energy versus the environment at local, national, and international levels, Thurber paints a vivid picture of the multi-faceted challenges associated with continued coal production and use in the twenty-first century.

Are you excited about permaculture but unclear how to put it into practice for yourself? In this unique, full colour guide, experienced permaculture teacher Aranya leads you through the design process from beginning to end, using clear explanations, flowcharts and diagrams. It is based on course worksheets which have been designed, refined and tested on students over time. Linking theory to practice, he places the ethics, principles, philosophies, tools and techniques directly into the context of the process itself. While written for anyone with a basic grasp of permaculture, this book also has plenty to offer the more experienced designer. This guide covers: Systems and patterns ~ Working as part of a design team ~ Land and non-land based design ~ Design frameworks ~ Site surveying and map making ~ Interviewing clients ~ Working with large client groups ~ Identifying functions ~ Choosing systems and elements ~ Placement and integration ~ Creating a design proposal ~ Project management ~ Presenting your ideas to clients ~ and much more. A great reference for anyone who has done, or is thinking of doing, any kind of permaculture course.

In recent years, international, inter-governmental entities have acknowledged the importance of civil society for engaging stakeholders in environmental change, especially at the local community level, and in promoting democracy. In Russia, efforts by NGOs to promote reform since the fall of the Soviet Union have been aimed at achieving both objectives. This fascinating and highly illuminating book explores the political, legal, and attitudinal barriers to environmental reform in Russia since 1991. The authors, renowned experts in the field, explore efforts to develop a mature civil society in Russia, and analyse the policy views of environmental groups, the media, and the scientific community. Three important case studies underpin the study: suspended plans to build an oil pipeline near Lake Baikal; management of Cold War-generated radioactive waste at Chelyabinsk; and public reaction to the introduction of genetically modified foods. The conclusion is that although civil society groups face obstacles in the form of apathy, state-imposed constraints on their activities, and agency reluctance to confer on decisions, there are some successes in reversing decisions due in part to NGO pressures yielding reform. This path-breaking book will be of enormous interest to scholars, researchers and students focusing on comparative environmental policy and politics, contemporary public policy in Russia, and international politics.

From 1750 to 1800, a critical period that saw the American Revolution, French Revolution, and Haitian Revolution, the Atlantic world experienced a series of environmental crises, including more frequent and severe hurricanes and extended drought. Drawing on historical climatology, environmental history, and Cuban and American colonial history, Sherry Johnson innovatively integrates the region's experience with extreme weather events and patterns into the history of the Spanish Caribbean and the Atlantic world. By superimposing this history of natural disasters over the conventional timeline of sociopolitical and economic events in Caribbean colonial history, Johnson presents an alternative analysis in which some of the signal events of the Age of Revolution are seen as consequences of ecological crisis and of the resulting measures for disaster relief. For example, Johnson finds that the general adoption in 1778 of free trade in the Americas was catalyzed by recognition of the harsh realities of food scarcity and the needs of local colonists reeling from a series of natural disasters. Weather-induced environmental crises and slow responses from imperial authorities, Johnson argues, played an inextricable and, until now, largely unacknowledged role in the rise of revolutionary sentiments in the eighteenth-century Caribbean. |From 1750 to 1800, a critical period that saw the American Revolution, French Revolution, and Haitian Revolution, the Atlantic world experienced a series of environmental crises, including more frequent and severe hurricanes and extended drought. Drawing on historical climatology, environmental history, and Cuban and American colonial history, Sherry Johnson innovatively integrates the region's experience with extreme weather events and patterns into the history of the Spanish Caribbean and the Atlantic world.

The World Guide to Sustainable Enterprise is the first comprehensive global compendium that clearly describes the national approaches to sustainable enterprise. Through a systematic review of each country, this quick-to-access reference guide showcases the similarities and differences in each region. Every country profile includes key information about the relevant history, country-specific issues, trends, research, and the leading organizations operating in the field as well as best-practice case studies. The guide comprises four volumes, each dedicated to a specific region of the world. In a world where organizations are working increasingly across national and regional boundaries and research takes a joined-up and international approach, this book is an essential guide for practitioners and researchers in the disciplines of business sustainability, social enterprise and corporate responsibility. The first of its kind, this reference book provides the reader with a unique insight into what is the current state-of-play in each country. Each edited volume provides expert contributions from around the world; the contributors have been selected on the basis of their knowledge of the country and their clear experience in sustainable enterprise. Each regional/country profile includes the following subsections: Sustainable Enterprise in context; Priority issues; Trends; Government policies; Case studies; Further resources; and References. This unique resource will be an essential acquisition for all organizations who need to benchmark their sustainable enterprise strategies throughout different regions and cultures and want the best possible intelligence on the key issues and concerns relating to sustainable business and social responsibility in all of the markets in which they operate. It provides a useful companion reference collection to The World Guide to CSR, also edited by Wayne Visser. The full Four Volume Set of The World Guide to Sustainable Enterprise is available for purchase as a single item at a 25% discounted rate.

"Rare and beautiful Norfolk", as described by the artist John Sell Cotman in 1841, with its rich wildlife habitats, historic buildings, diverse landscapes and archaeological sites, has long been a focus of interest for both naturalists and antiquarians. It has also been at the forefront of the modern conservation movement. The Norfolk Archaeological Trust, still the only local trust of its kind, was founded in 1923; the Norfolk Naturalist Trust, (later the Norfolk Wildlife Trust), founded in 1926, was the first county wildlife trust; while Blickling Hall was the first property to be accepted by the National Trust under its Country House Scheme. By the 1970s traditional marshes were seen as particularly under threat and it was proposals to drain part of the Broadland marshes that led to the introduction of conservation schemes which have transformed much of British agriculture. In this engaging book, the author traces the history of the conservation movement and the people who were involved, including the Norfolk botanist and founder of the Linnean Society, Sir James Smith. In particular, she shows the influence of changing social attitudes and priorities upon the movement and ideas of heritage. Susanna Wade Martins is an honorary fellow of the School of History at the University of East Anglia; her previous publications include Coke of Norfolk: A Biography and The Countryside of East Anglia (with Tom Williamson).