Sustaining Life

Sustaining Life PDF

Author: Eric Chivian

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2008-05-15

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13:

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Edited and written by Harvard Medical School physicians Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein, Sustaining Life presents a comprehensive--and sobering--view of how human medicines, biomedical research, the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, and the production of food, both on land and in the oceans, depend on on the earth's disappearaing biodiversity. With a foreword by E.O. Wilson and a prologue by Kofi Annan, and more than 200 poignant color illustrations, Sustaining Life contributes essential perspective to the debate over how humans affect biodiversity and a compelling demonstration of the human health costs.

Sustaining Life on Earth

Sustaining Life on Earth PDF

Author: Colin Lionel Soskolne

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 459

ISBN-13: 9780739117293

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Sustaining Life on Earth brings together a broad range of specialists to diagnose causes and devise cures for collapsing global life support systems. More than any other text in the fields of ecological and biological integrity, this book emphasizes the impact of global change on population health and the role of legal and paralegal instruments in affecting sustainable change.

Chemistry and Biology of Water, Air and Soil

Chemistry and Biology of Water, Air and Soil PDF

Author: J. Tölgyessy

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 1993-03-11

Total Pages: 879

ISBN-13: 0080875122

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Environmental pollution is a universal problem which threatens the continued existence of mankind, rendering it one of the primary concerns of society. This book provides a comprehensive view of the chemistry and biology of water, air and soil, particularly those aspects connected with the protection of the environment. The first part of the book presents fundamental information on the chemistry and biology of water in its natural state, and the effects of water pollution from industry, traffic, agriculture and urbanization. It covers the composition of natural, service and wastewaters as well as methods of chemical and biological water analysis and water treatment. The second part deals with atmospheric problems, particularly the basic composition of atmosphere and the different sources of its pollution, methods of restriction, and air analysis. The final part of the volume focuses on the characteristics of soil and soil components, natural and anthropogenous soil processes, the chemistry, biology and microbiology of soil, and soil analysis. This book will be of great value to chemists, biologists, physicians, pharmacists, farmers, veterinarians and university students, as well as to those engaged in the sphere of environmental protection.

Sustaining Life on Planet Earth: Metalloenzymes Mastering Dioxygen and Other Chewy Gases

Sustaining Life on Planet Earth: Metalloenzymes Mastering Dioxygen and Other Chewy Gases PDF

Author: Peter M. H Kroneck

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-02-23

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 3319124153

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MILS-15 provides an up-to-date review of the metalloenzymes involved in the activation, production, and conversion of molecular oxygen as well as the functionalization of the chemically inert gases methane and ammonia. Found either in aerobes (humans, animals, plants, microorganisms) or in anaerobes (so-called “impossible bacteria”) these enzymes employ preferentially iron and copper at their active sites, in order to conserve energy by redox-driven proton pumps, to convert methane to methanol, or ammonia to hydroxylamine or other compounds. When it comes to the light-driven production of molecular oxygen, the tetranuclear manganese cluster of photosystem II must be regarded as the key player. However, dioxygen can also be produced in the dark, by heme iron-dependent dismutation of oxyanions. Metalloenzymes Mastering Dioxygen and Other Chewy Gases is a vibrant research area based mainly on structural and microbial biology, inorganic biological chemistry, and environmental biochemistry. All this is covered in an authoritative manner in 7 stimulating chapters, written by 21 internationally recognized experts, and supported by nearly 1100 references, informative tables, and over 140 illustrations (many in color). MILS-15 provides excellent information for teaching; it is also closely related to MILS-14, The Metal-Driven Biogeochemistry of Gaseous Compounds in the Environment. Peter M. H. Kroneck is a bioinorganic chemist who is exploring the role of transition metals in biology, with a focus on functional and structural aspects of microbial iron, copper, and molybdenum enzymes and their impact on the biogeochemical cyles of nitrogen and sulfur. Martha E. Sosa Torres is an inorganic chemist, with special interests in magnetic properties of newly synthesized transition metal complexes and their reactivity towards molecular oxygen, applying kinetic, electrochemical, and spectroscopic techniques.

Sustaining the Earth

Sustaining the Earth PDF

Author: George Tyler Miller

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781305309722

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This book is to help instructors achieve three important goals: first, to explain to their students the basics of earth science, including how life on the earth has survived for billions of years; second, to help students to use this scientific foundation in order to understand the multiple environmental problems that we face and to evaluate possible solutions to them; and third, to inspire their students to make a difference in how we treat the earth on which our lives and economies depend, and thus make a difference in how we treat ourselves and our descendants.

The Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems

The Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2007-07-26

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 030910484X

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The search for life in the solar system and beyond has to date been governed by a model based on what we know about life on Earth (terran life). Most of NASA's mission planning is focused on locations where liquid water is possible and emphasizes searches for structures that resemble cells in terran organisms. It is possible, however, that life exists that is based on chemical reactions that do not involve carbon compounds, that occurs in solvents other than water, or that involves oxidation-reduction reactions without oxygen gas. To assist NASA incorporate this possibility in its efforts to search for life, the NRC was asked to carry out a study to evaluate whether nonstandard biochemistry might support life in solar system and conceivable extrasolar environments, and to define areas to guide research in this area. This book presents an exploration of a limited set of hypothetical chemistries of life, a review of current knowledge concerning key questions or hypotheses about nonterran life, and suggestions for future research.

Last Chance

Last Chance PDF

Author: Larry Schweiger

Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing

Published: 2016-11-16

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1555918050

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"This is an unabashed call to each and every American to moral duty for the future of life on earth," begins National Wildlife Federation president and CEO Larry J. Schweiger in this stirring exposé and call to action. Speaking to us not just as a conservation leader but also as an outdoor lover and a parent, Schweiger describes the causes and effects of global warming on our wildlife, ecosystems, and human life as we know it. With an engaging, down-to-earth tone (and a dash of wit; e.g., "What Happens in Greenland Will Not Stay in Greenland"), Schweiger breaks down the science behind our looming environmental catastrophe. Not letting go of hope, he also offers practical solutions and proposes a plan of action for everyday citizens. Last Chance will inspire each of us to take part in restoring the vital connection to our natural world before it's too late."

The Uninhabitable Earth

The Uninhabitable Earth PDF

Author: David Wallace-Wells

Publisher: Tim Duggan Books

Published: 2019-02-19

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 052557672X

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The Uninhabitable Earth hits you like a comet, with an overflow of insanely lyrical prose about our pending Armageddon.”—Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • The New York Times Book Review • Time • NPR • The Economist • The Paris Review • Toronto Star • GQ • The Times Literary Supplement • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible—food shortages, refugee emergencies, climate wars and economic devastation. An “epoch-defining book” (The Guardian) and “this generation’s Silent Spring” (The Washington Post), The Uninhabitable Earth is both a travelogue of the near future and a meditation on how that future will look to those living through it—the ways that warming promises to transform global politics, the meaning of technology and nature in the modern world, the sustainability of capitalism and the trajectory of human progress. The Uninhabitable Earth is also an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation—today’s. LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD “The Uninhabitable Earth is the most terrifying book I have ever read. Its subject is climate change, and its method is scientific, but its mode is Old Testament. The book is a meticulously documented, white-knuckled tour through the cascading catastrophes that will soon engulf our warming planet.”—Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times “Riveting. . . . Some readers will find Mr. Wallace-Wells’s outline of possible futures alarmist. He is indeed alarmed. You should be, too.”—The Economist “Potent and evocative. . . . Wallace-Wells has resolved to offer something other than the standard narrative of climate change. . . . He avoids the ‘eerily banal language of climatology’ in favor of lush, rolling prose.”—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times “The book has potential to be this generation’s Silent Spring.”—The Washington Post “The Uninhabitable Earth, which has become a best seller, taps into the underlying emotion of the day: fear. . . . I encourage people to read this book.”—Alan Weisman, The New York Review of Books