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Author: Scientific American Editors
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Published: 2005-08-29
Total Pages:
ISBN-13: 9780805382815
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A collection of nine accessible and dynamic articles from Scientific American magazine, presenting key issues in environmental science from the past year.
Author: Rob Jackson
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 2002-11-01
Total Pages: 198
ISBN-13: 9780292740556
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Writing especially for people who've tuned out the environmental debate, Rob Jackson persuasively argues that we're at a crucial turning point in environmental history, where choices we make now will determine the quality of life into the unforeseeable future. Laying out the scientific facts in plain language and with flashes of humor, he shows how the escalation of population growth and resource consumption in the twentieth century caused problems from ozone depletion to global warming, habitat destruction, and biodiversity loss. At the same time, however, he highlights ongoing solutions to these problems and ways in which we can create a sustainable future for subsequent generations and all life on earth. His urgent message is not that we've already failed, but that we can succeed.
Author: Gary Urton
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 2013-12-18
Total Pages: 247
ISBN-13: 0292790511
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Above Misminay, the sky also is so divided by the alternation of the two axes of the Milky Way passing through the zenith. This mirror-image quadri-partition of terrestrial and celestial spheres is such that a point within one of the quarters of the earth is related to a point within the corresponding celestial quarter. The transition between the earth and the sky occurs at the horizon, where sacred mountains are related to topographic and celestial features. Based on fieldwork in Misminay, Peru, Gary Urton details a cosmology in which the Milky Way is central. This is the first study that provides a description and analysis of the astronomical and cosmological system in a contemporary community in the Americas. Separate chapters take up the sun, the moon, meteorological phenomena, the stars, and the planets. Star-to-star constellations, the "animal" dark-cloud constellations that cut through the Milky Way, and certain twilight- and midnight-zenith stars are analyzed in terms of their spatial and temporal integration within an indigenous cosmological framework. Urton breaks new ground by demonstrating the indigenous merging of such forms of "precise knowledge" as astronomy, meteorology, agriculture, and the correlation of astronomical and biological cycles within a single calendar system. More than sixty diagrams clarify this Quechua system of astronomy and relate it to more familiar principles of Western astronomy and cosmology.
Author: Hartmut Bossel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1998-07-28
Total Pages: 354
ISBN-13: 9780521630054
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →We are fast becoming a global society. Flagging economies and social problems, environmental pollution and ecological destruction are burdens that fall on the shoulders of our international community. As we stand on the threshold of the twenty-first century, we search for cooperative answers to take us through the next millennium, and are confronted with the task of establishing a future that is both environmentally and socially sustainable. Earth at a Crossroads offers an integrated view for the development of human society within the natural environment on which it depends for support. The book stresses the dynamic and interconnected nature of feedback processes, traces possible future paths of societal development and their impacts, determines their sustainability, and points at necessary changes. Two alternative visions of the future are presented: Path A resulting from continuation of current trends, and a contrasting Path B that would result from adhering to principles of sustainability and protection of the natural system in the interests of future generations. This book will become an important reference in the discussion of global society's path into the next millennium. It will be a valuable read for anyone looking forward to a healthier world, and a well-thumbed resource for environmental scientists and policy-makers. Hartmut Bossel received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of ten books and over 300 papers. His research includes studies of agricultural policy for the German Bundestag.
Author: Hartmut Bossel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1998-06-25
Total Pages: 358
ISBN-13: 9780521639958
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Can we reach a future that is both environmentally and socially sustainable? Many issues characterise global developments at the end of the twentieth century: globalization of the economy, unemployment, social problems, environmental pollution, resource waste, ecological destruction. Earth at a Crossroads offers a holistic systems view of the development of human society within the natural environment on which it depends for support. The book stresses the dynamic nature of interconnected feedback processes, traces possible future paths of societal development and their impacts, determines their sustainability, and points at necessary changes. Two alternative visions of the future are presented: a Path A resulting from continuation of current trends, and a contrasting Path B that would result from adhering to principles of sustainability and protection of the natural system in the interests of future generations. This book will become an important reference in the discussion of global society's path into the next millennium.
Author: Peter Blaze Corcoran
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 2008
Total Pages: 188
ISBN-13: 0820332119
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A Voice for Earth is a collection of poems, essays, and stories that together give a voice to the ethical principles outlined in the Earth Charter. The Earth Charter was adopted in the year 2000 with the mission of addressing the economic, social, political, spiritual, and environmental problems confronting the world in the twenty-first century. Part 1 of the book, "Imagination into Principle," comprises Steven C. Rockefeller's behind-the-scenes summary of how the language for the Earth Charter was drafted. In part 2, "Principle into Imagination," ten writers breathe life into its concepts with their own original work. Contributors include Rick Bass, Alison Hawthorne Deming, John Lane, Robert Michael Pyle, Janisse Ray, Scott Russell Sanders, Lauret Savoy, and Mary Evelyn Tucker. In part 3, "Imagination and Principle into a New Ethic," Leonardo Boff offers a new paradigm created through reflecting on the concept of care in the Earth Charter.
Author: Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Publisher: Little, Brown Spark
Published: 2021-05-04
Total Pages: 199
ISBN-13: 0316426474
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Deepen your connection to the natural world with this inspiring meditation, "a path to the place where science and spirit meet" (Robin Wall Kimmerer). In Rooted, cutting-edge science supports a truth that poets, artists, mystics, and earth-based cultures across the world have proclaimed over millennia: life on this planet is radically interconnected. Our bodies, thoughts, minds, and spirits are affected by the whole of nature, and they affect this whole in return. In this time of crisis, how can we best live upon our imperiled, beloved earth? Award-winning writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt’s highly personal new book is a brilliant invitation to live with the earth in both simple and profound ways—from walking barefoot in the woods and reimagining our relationship with animals and trees, to examining the very language we use to describe and think about nature. She invokes rootedness as a way of being in concert with the wilderness—and wildness—that sustains humans and all of life. In the tradition of Rachel Carson, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Mary Oliver, Haupt writes with urgency and grace, reminding us that at the crossroads of science, nature, and spirit we find true hope. Each chapter provides tools for bringing our unique gifts to the fore and transforming our sense of belonging within the magic and wonder of the natural world.
Author: Greg Matloff
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Published: 2010-07-17
Total Pages: 201
ISBN-13: 0387799869
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →What was our planet like before the advent of our modern civilization? What effects has our civilization had on the planet and its ecological systems? Paradise Regained discusses these questions and then creates a scenario for the re-greening of Earth. The authors introduce new and innovative ideas on how humankind might use the resources of the solar system for terrestrial benefit. Earth would then become a place for a technologically advanced human civilization to live in synchronization, if not in harmony, with the environment which gave us birth. Since the formation of our solar system, the resources and ecological state of Earth have undergone many changes. The environmental challenges facing humanity today, as the authors posit them, will not be resolved simply by conservation and Earth-based alternative technologies. Paradise Regained considers the environmental dilemma and highlights the risk of humankind's future extinction from environmental degradation. Human population growth, climate change, and the strained sustainability of the few remaining habitats for wild life are all discussed. The authors, however, are not discouraged and offer a potential solution through the development of space. Not only will extraterrestrial resources help avert environmental disaster, but will also provide the basis for continued technological and societal progress. The resources of the solar system will help meet our projected industrial needs and feed our industry once terrestrial sources are depleted. Space-based power generation systems will work synergistically with Earth-based conservation. Paradise Regained concludes with the discussion on how closed ecological systems in space will help us to build a prosperous and sustainable future for all humanity.
