From Coastal Wilderness to Fruited Plain

From Coastal Wilderness to Fruited Plain PDF

Author: Gordon G. Whitney

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1996-08-29

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13: 9780521576581

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From Coastal Wilderness to Fruited Plain is an account of the making of a large part of the American landscape following European settlement. Drawing upon land survey records and early travellers' accounts, Dr Whitney reconstructs the 'virgin' forests and grasslands of the north-eastern and central United States during the pre-settlement period. He then documents successively the clearance and fragmentation of the region's woodlands, the harvest of the forest and its game, the ploughing of the prairies, and the draining of wetlands. The degree to which these activities altered the soil, climate, plant and animal communities, and water cycle are evaluated, and the sustainability of present-day ecosystems is brought into question in this account.

The Earth Around Us

The Earth Around Us PDF

Author: Jill Schneiderman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-02-19

Total Pages: 478

ISBN-13: 0429965206

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Soil contamination . . . public lands . . . surface and groundwater pollution . . . coastal erosion . . . global warming. Have we reached the limits of this planet's ability to provide for us? If so, what can we do about it?These vital questions are addressed in The Earth Around Us, a unique collection of thirty-one essays by a diverse array of today's foremost scientist-writers. Sharing an ability to communicate science in a clear and engaging fashion, the contributors explore Earth's history and processes--especially in relation to today's environmental issues--and show how we, as members of a global community, can help maintain a livable planet. The narratives in this collection are organized into seven parts that describe: Earth's time and history and the place of people on it Views of nature and the ethics behind our conduct on Earth Resources for the twenty-first century, such as public lands, healthy forests and soils, clean ground and surface waters, and fluctuating coastlines Ill-informed local manipulations of landscapes across the United States Innovative solutions to environmental problems that arise from knowledge of the interactions between living things and the Earth's air, water, and soil Natural and human-induced global scale perturbations to the earth system Our responsibility to people and all other organisms that live on Earth. Never before has such a widely experienced group of prominent earth scientists been brought together to help readers understand how earth's environment works. Driven by the belief that earth science is, and should be, an integral part of everyday life, The Earth Around Us empowers all of us to play a more educated and active part in the search for a sustainable future for our planet and its inhabitants.

Nature and the Environment in Amish Life

Nature and the Environment in Amish Life PDF

Author: David L. McConnell

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2018-11-01

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 142142617X

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The first comprehensive study of Amish understandings of the natural world, this compelling book complicates the image of the Amish and provides a more realistic understanding of the Amish relationship with the environment.

American Pests

American Pests PDF

Author: James E. McWilliams

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 023113942X

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Inspired by the still-revolutionary theories of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," McWilliams argues for a more harmonious and rational approach to people's relationship with insects, one that does not harm the environment and, consequently, ourselves along the way.

Wilderness Comes Home

Wilderness Comes Home PDF

Author: Christopher McGrory Klyza

Publisher: UPNE

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9781584651024

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The first book to look at wilderness in the northeastern US, Wilderness Comes Home features a new approach based on ecological reserve design to protect biological diversity, rewilding and restoring lands to wilderness, and embedding wilderness in a landscape of sustainably managed farmland and forestland. It addresses major theoretical and practical aspects of this important issue -- whether, why, and how to reestablish wilderness areas in the Northeast. Although Western wilderness models already exist for undeveloped areas, Eastern models are still evolving. Protection and social management are being urged not for the "forest primeval" but for recovering areas, in which returning species such as moose and peregrine falcons roam over new growth softwoods and hardwoods, interspersed with the stone walls that once marked field boundaries.

A Companion to Global Environmental History

A Companion to Global Environmental History PDF

Author: J. R. McNeill

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2015-05-04

Total Pages: 578

ISBN-13: 111897753X

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The Companion to Global Environmental History offers multiple points of entry into the history and historiography of this dynamic and fast-growing field, to provide an essential road map to past developments, current controversies, and future developments for specialists and newcomers alike. Combines temporal, geographic, thematic and contextual approaches from prehistory to the present day Explores environmental thought and action around the world, to give readers a cultural, intellectual and political context for engagement with the environment in modern times Brings together environmental historians from around the world, including scholars from South Africa, Brazil, Germany, and China

The Greater Plains

The Greater Plains PDF

Author: Brian Frehner

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2021-07

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 1496225074

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This collection of essays represents an attempt to move beyond degradation and exploitation as the defining ecological narratives of the Great Plains by examining the region through the interrelated themes of water, grasses, animals, and energy.