Although this book centers on the life, works and martyrdom of Father Ignacio de la Torre, it is much more than just a biography. This first half of the book tells the graphic story of the Cristero uprising in Sonora, Mexico, at a time when the Governor sought to prohibit religious worship. It tells the story of one family's love of God, and the lengths they would go to to protect their right to worship. It is a story of hope, faith, miracles and martyrs during a time of religious persecution. The second half of the book outlines everything Father de la Torre, affectionately called Padre Nacho, did to encourage the faith and build the Catholic Church in the area around Nogales, Sonora, along the border with Arizona. He was murdered for reasons still unknown, and is currently being considered for beatification by the Vatican.

Weather is the condition of the atmosphere over a brief period of time. Climate represents the composite of day-to-day weather over a longer period of time. Climate is the statistics of weather, usually over a 30-year interval. It is measured by assessing the patterns of variation in temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, precipitation, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given region over long periods of time. Climate differs from weather, in that weather only describes the short-term conditions of these variables in a given region. A region's climate is generated by the climate system, which has five components: atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. The earth-ocean-atmosphere system may be divided into a number of zones with each traditionally studied by a separate scientific discipline. The atmosphere is the component of the system studied by climatologists and meteorologists. Climatology is the scientific study of climates, which is defined as the mean weather conditions over a period of time. A branch of study within atmospheric sciences, it also takes into account the variables and averages of short-term and long-term weather conditions. Climatology is different than meteorology and can be divided into different areas of study. Various approaches to this field can be taken, including paleoclimatology, which focuses on studying the climate over the course of the Earth's existence by examining records of tree rings, rocks and sediment, and ice cores. Historical climatology focuses primarily on climate changes throughout history and the effects of the climate on people and events over time. Though both climatology and meteorology are areas of study that are considered branches of similar areas of study, climatology differs from meteorology because its focus is on averages of weather and climatic conditions over a long period of time. Meteorology focuses more on current weather conditions such as humidity, air pressure, and temperatures and forecasting the short-term weather conditions to come.

The natural world is made up of living and non-living things. Interactions between these components especially in resource sharing, allocation and use, have an important function in the environment. To understand interrelationships existing in our environment we need to look into ecology. Ecology is the study of relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment; it seeks to understand the vital connections between plants and animals and the world around them. Ecology also provides information about the benefits of ecosystems and how we can use Earth's resources in sustainable ways to supply the needs of future generations. Ecology elucidates the ways wherein people and nature depend on one another. Specialized fields in ecology provide us with information to better understand our world and also help us improve our environment, manage our natural resources, and protect human health. Predictions on the human effects on the environment is borne out of understanding how ecological systems work. Studying how different species rely on one another can also aid in protecting critical populations of species. Lack of understanding of these relationships have led to reduction of species numbers and even to extinction in the past. Human populations can also benefit from the natural services that ecosystems provide. Ecologists have discovered that marshes and wetlands filter toxins and other impurities from water. Leaving some of these filtering ecosystems intact can reduce the burden on water treatment plants that have been built to perform the same service. By using natural filtering systems, we have the option to build less treatment plants. Harnessing these natural services has been a key point in global initiatives to mitigate environmental degradation. This book provides opportunities for students to study, practice, and develop quantitative and analytical skills in learning about ecology.

Boundaries are ubiquitous across a wide range of ecological systems and spatial scales. However, most research on boundaries has been scale and system specific. Investigates how management systems and their dynamics can improve stewardship of selected ecosystems. In this new book, all these have been discussed such as climate change, sustainable economies, education, and food from an ecocentric perspective. It addresses the need not only to understand ecological science, but to put that science into an ecosystem conservation ethics perspective.

Any unwanted material that turns out to be toxic, radioactive, explosive, irritating to the respiratory system, carcinogenic and has a negative effect on the environment as well as harmful to human life is called hazardous waste. Developing countries are quickly becoming industrialized and the number of factories is increasing. One common thing in all of these countries is the creation of waste from in huge quantities from industries, hospitals, as well as households. This waste often becomes hazardous easily due to poor solid waste mechanisms put in place. This in turn poses a great danger to the life of humans, animals, and the environment with several cases of injury and sometimes death being reported. Mostly in these developing countries, the main types of hazardous waste are industrial and medical waste. However, there is also a significant amount of household waste being produced daily. Industrial waste is mainly from the numerous processing and manufacturing factories which release solid, liquid and gaseous waste daily. Medical waste is mainly from hospitals and health facilities which is increasing with more people seeking medical care every day. Back at their homes the people also create large amounts of waste. And despite there being designated dumping areas, crude dumping is a norm which increases risks. Some factories also send their liquid waste directly to rivers without treating it. Others release gases and smoke into the atmosphere which increases the effects of global warming. Interestingly, there are laws and policies that govern waste management in these developing countries. However, due to policies not being implemented well, lack of resources and sometimes ignorance by the people, the risks arising from poor waste management are always prevalent. Any waste should be well controlled from the point of production and well stored until it's transported to the ultimate point of disposal. This is not always the case in developing countries whose waste disposal methods being unregulated and unconventional. For example, the owner of a household may not know about segregation of non-hazardous and hazardous wastes. He or she therefore puts all waste in one container and maybe burns it, not knowing there was an explosive waste in the batch. This of course exposes people to more risk. Health facilities have incinerators and pits where they securely dispose all their waste. However, . investigations show that not all of them carry our proper disposal of their waste posing much danger to the environment and life. Despite legislation being in place to control waste management, it seems there needs more to be done to not only reduce the amount of waste being produced but also to manage it and make it non-hazardous. This includes education to the population, segregation of waste, taking tough measures on all those who disregard these policies, allocating more resources to the waste management departments and inclusion of technology as a means of waste management. The technology in developing countries may not be as effective as it is in the developed countries, but with proper use of the current one available to them can make a huge difference. There are sites marked as waste disposal sites, however, all these lie misused where you find them filled to capacity and spilling over but not being emptied. With flies buzzing all over and a strong stink polluting the air, this is very hazardous. However, with the use of innovative technology, this is easily manageable. Through the use of conventional ways of disposal such as incineration, landfilling or even treating waste in factories before releasing it, great strides can be made in making waste less hazardous or non-hazardous at all. This includes developing mechanisms that are sustainable and applicable even at the household level.

This book tries to help the reader to get a grasp of the concept of the sustainable development of natural resources. Various dimensions related to sustainable development have been covered. The book also talks about various indicators that show how human race is pressurizing these natural resources for their never-ending demands and wants. The book throws light on various technologies that are being developed to ensure sustainable development across countries and companies; in the advent of growing importance of using natural resources in the most prudent way, economists, scientists and industrialists have pledged to unify their efforts to ensure sustainable development.

Written on a high scientific level and at the same time quite popular, this book will undoubtedly be interesting and useful to anyone who is interested in the distant past of our planet. The book covers a wide range of issues. It tells about the most ancient plants and modern subtle methods of studying them.