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The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene
by Simon Lewis Mark A. MaslinMeteorites, methane, mega-volcanoes and now human beings; the old forces of nature that transformed Earth many millions of years ago are joined by another: us. Our actions have driven Earth into a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. For the first time in our home planet's 4.5-billion year history a single species is dictating Earth's future. To some the Anthropocene symbolises a future of superlative control of our environment. To others it is the height of hubris, the illusion of our mastery over nature. Whatever your view, just below the surface of this odd-sounding scientific word, the Anthropocene, is a heady mix of science, philosophy, religion and politics linked to our deepest fears and utopian visions. Tracing our environmental impact through time to reveal when humans began to dominate Earth, Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin show what the new epoch means for the future of humanity, the planet and life itself.
The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering After The Enlightenment
by Peter H. HansenMountaineering has served as a metaphor for civilization triumphant. A fascinating study of the first ascents of the major Alpine peaks and Mt. Everest, The Summits of Modern Man reveals the significance of our encounters with the world’s most forbidding heights and how difficult it is to imagine nature in terms other than conquest and domination.
Shinrin-Yoku: The Art and Science of Forest Bathing
by Dr Qing LiShinrin = Forest Yoku = Bathing Shinrin-Yoku or forest bathing is the practice of spending time in the forest for better health, happiness and a sense of calm. A pillar of Japanese culture for decades, Shinrin-Yoku is a way to reconnect with nature, from walking mindfully in the woods, to a break in your local park, to walking barefoot on your lawn. Forest Medicine expert, Dr Qing Li's research has proven that spending time around trees (even filling your home with house plants and vaporising essential tree oils) can reduce blood pressure, lower stress, boost energy, boost immune system and even help you to lose weight. Along with his years of ground-breaking research, anecdotes on the life-changing power of trees, Dr Li provides here the practical ways for you to try Shinrin-Yoku for yourself.
It Takes a Tribe: Building the Tough Mudder Movement
by Will DeanWinner of the Business Book Awards 'Startup Inspiration' category ------Tough Mudder is not a race. It's a challenge.Unlike other endurance events, Tough Mudder encourages team spirit. The course's design forces you to seek help from others and with twenty obstacles, forty tons of ice and five hundred thousand litres of Grade-A mud set over ten to twelve miles, you're going to need it.This revival of community is the key to the company's success. In It Takes a Tribe, co-founder and CEO Will Dean explores the mental, physical and social principles behind the experience and reveals how he built a global tribe. Arguing for clear principles, bravery and persistence, Dean shows a new generation of entrepreneurs why it's important to create a brand that people identify with and love.It Takes a Tribe is the astonishing inside story of Tough Mudder, and a textbook for anyone looking to start a business or find more followers.'Gripping - reveals what it takes to stand by your values' ADAM GRANT, Wharton professor and bestselling author of Originals and co-author of Option BWill Dean is co-founder and CEO of Tough Mudder. Will was included in Fortune's '40 Under 40' list and received the US National EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Emerging Award. He was born in the UK and is a graduate of the University of Bristol and Harvard Business School. Prior to founding Tough Mudder, he worked as a counter-terrorism officer at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He divides his time between London and New York.
Global Discontents: Conversations on the Rising Threats to Democracy (American Empire Project Ser.)
by Noam Chomsky David Barsamian'If I were a voter in Britain, I would vote for [Jeremy Corbyn]' - Noam Chomsky, 2017Global Discontents is an essential guide to geopolitics and how to fight back, from the world's leading public intellectualWhat kind of world are we leaving to our grandchildren? How are the discontents kindled today likely to blaze and explode tomorrow?From escalating climate change to the devastation in Syria, pandemic state surveillance to looming nuclear war, Noam Chomsky takes stock of the world today. Over the course of ten conversations with long-time collaborator David Barsamian, spanning 2013-2016, Chomsky argues in favour of radical changes to a system that cannot possibly cope with what awaits tomorrow.Interwoven with personal reflections spanning from childhood to his eighth decade of life, Global Discontents also marks out Chomsky's own intellectual journey, mapping his progress to revolutionary ideas and global prominence.
Life in the Garden
by Penelope Lively'Rich and unusual, a book to treasure. Few recent gardening books come anywhere close to its style, intelligence and depth. Moves between Lively's own horticultural life and a broad history of gardening' Observer'Wonderful. A manifesto of horticultural delight' Literary Review'Beautiful. Perfect for literary garden lovers' Good Housekeeping'Exquisite and original' Daily Telegraph 'Enchanting. Reading this book is like walking with a wise, humorous guide through a series of garden rooms . . . and finding that vistas suddenly open out, on to history, fashion, politics, reflections on time and the taming of nature' Tablet'A perfect bedside book. In part it's a memoir of the gardens in Lively's life, starting with the exotic Egyptian garden of her childhood and continuing up to her small present-day garden in a north London square' Sunday Express'A gentle survey of the garden's place in Western culture, which morphs into a personal meditation on time, memory and a life well lived' i'Scholarly bedtime reading' The Times, Books of the Year
Mary's Household Tips and Tricks: Your Guide to Happiness in the Home
by Mary BerryOne of the Guardian's TOP TEN BOOKS to gift. 'It's practical AND beautiful . . . an ideal gift' Graham Norton, BBC Radio 2Britain's best-loved cook and national treasure Mary Berry lets readers in on her very own household secrets . . . A comprehensive, beautifully illustrated guide that shares her greatest tips on how to care for your home. 'This book is a collection of skills I've learned for running a home. Gleaned from years of practical experience, along with all the hints that friends and family have imparted to me, I hope it will be a helping hand' - Mary BerryInside you'll find . . . A KITCHEN KNOW-HOW for the heart of your home - Freezer tips - Organize your food - CLEANING & CONFIGURING YOUR HOME - Create cleaning products from store cupboard items - LAUNDRY & WARDROBE WISDOM - Banish moths from your home for good - Remove stains from every kind of fabric - get green fingered with GARDENING & FLOWERS - Bring greenery into your home even without a garden - Create beautiful flower arrangements - And finally master the art of HOSTING & ADDING THE EXTRA TOUCHES for sparkling parties at home.Easy to use, practical and gorgeously illustrated, Mary's Household Tips & Tricks covers everything from Mary's golden rules for baking to her favourite flowers for each season, from how to polish silver to whether tea should be poured before or after milk. With secrets for accomplishing the most challenging home-keeping tasks with ease, Mary's wonderfully simple book will help turn any house into a home.'The Queen of British baking has whipped up a recipe for home happiness' The Independent'A domestic goddess' The Daily Telegraph
Commonplaces Of Scientific Evidence In Environmental Discourses (Routledge Studies In Technical Communication, Rhetoric, And Culture Series )
by Denise TilleryThis book focuses on the uses of scientific evidence within three types of environmental discourses: popular nonfiction books about the environment; traditional and social media texts created by a grassroots environmental group; and a set of data displays that make arguments about global warming in a variety of media and contexts. It traces the operations of eight commonplaces about science and shows how they recur throughout these contexts, starting with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and ending with contemporary blogs and social media. The commonplaces are shown to embed ideological assumptions and simultaneously challenge those assumptions. In addition, the book addresses the potential dangers involved in relying too heavily on aspects of these commonplaces, and how they can undermine the goals of some of the writers who use them.
Commonplaces Of Scientific Evidence In Environmental Discourses (Routledge Studies In Technical Communication, Rhetoric, And Culture Series )
by Denise TilleryThis book focuses on the uses of scientific evidence within three types of environmental discourses: popular nonfiction books about the environment; traditional and social media texts created by a grassroots environmental group; and a set of data displays that make arguments about global warming in a variety of media and contexts. It traces the operations of eight commonplaces about science and shows how they recur throughout these contexts, starting with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and ending with contemporary blogs and social media. The commonplaces are shown to embed ideological assumptions and simultaneously challenge those assumptions. In addition, the book addresses the potential dangers involved in relying too heavily on aspects of these commonplaces, and how they can undermine the goals of some of the writers who use them.
Asylum
by Sean BorodaleLike his two previous books, Asylum was written live on-site; in this case deep within the caves, mines, quarries, geological and archaeological horizons of the Mendip Hills in Somerset. The poems stage modes of exile in the darkness of earth, enacting solidarity with those others who have made their journey into the underworld – Dante, Orpheus, blinded Oedipus, Euripides. These are semi-dramatic voicings, staged across the thirty-mile theatre of the Mendip subterranean: each an act of recovery, of rescue. Traversing the broken, collapsed, eroded stones, looking for voices that express the damaged and the damned, Asylum pays homage to the darkness of the human cave: its memories and ancient histories, and to its more contemporary signals – internationally owned quarries, abandoned coal mines, decommissioned Cold War bunkers.As with Bee Journal and Human Work, these poems take on the nature of the experience recorded. Written blind, as it were, the diction here becomes mineral, deeply tactile – hard and granular, alert to sound in its own blackness. Descending underground with the poet is to enter a theatre of heightened senses, and these extraordinary poems feel both unearthed and unearthly.
The Garden Farmer
by Francine RaymondSelected as a Book of the Year 2017 in You Magazine'A lavish monthly guide to getting the most from your garden' Daily MailA punnet of plums from your tree, a handful of gooseberries; home-grown nuts and herbs, and a few freshly laid eggs from your hens – all enjoyed in your own small plot. What could be more satisfying?The Garden Farmer is an evocative journal and monthly guide to getting the most out of your garden throughout the year. Whether you are a keen gardener looking for inspiration, or just starting out and wanting to rediscover and reclaim your patch of earth, Sunday Telegraph garden-columnist Francine Raymond lays the groundwork for a bountiful year of garden farming. Maybe you would like to get outside more, grow a few essential vegetables, some fruit trees or bushes for preserving, and create a scented kitchen garden to provide for you year round. Or perhaps you will raise a small flock of ducks or geese, or even a couple of pigs? Could this be the year you decorate your home with nature’s adornments, encourage wildlife back to pollinate your trees and plants, and spend celebratory hours in a haven of your own creation? Each chapter of The Garden Farmer offers insight into the topics and projects you might be contemplating that month, along with planting notes and timely advice, and a recipe that honours the fruits of your labour. With just a little effort and planning, every garden can be tended in tune with nature, and every gardener can enjoy a host of seasonal delights from their own soil.Keep up-to-date with Francine's gardening adventures on her blog at kitchen-garden-hens.co.uk.
Woman at Sea
by Catherine Poulain Adriana Hunter'A tale of travel and adventure, the story of a body utterly surrendered to pain and joy. It is mind-blowing, a delight.' Le MondeLili is a runaway. She’s left behind her native France to go in search of freedom, of adventure, of life. Her search takes her to Kodiak, Alaska, home to a ragtag community of fishermen, army vets and drifters who man the island’s fishing fleet. Despite her tiny frame, faltering English and lack of experience, Lili lands a job on board the Rebel, the only woman on the boat.Out on the open sea, everything is heightened: colours are more vivid, sounds are louder and the work is harder than anything she's ever known. The terrifying intensity of the ocean is addictive to the point of danger. But Lili is not alone: in her fellow crewmembers she finds kindred spirits – men living on the edge, drawn to extremes. Based on Catherine Poulain’s own experiences, and written in taut, muscular prose, Woman at Sea cuts through the noise of life and straight to the heart of our innermost longings.
Climate Resilient Water Resources Management (Palgrave Studies in Climate Resilient Societies)
by Robert C. BrearsThe effects of climate change are beginning to impact water quantity and water quality across the globe. However, there is no single action or strategy that any government can implement to ensure a community is resilient to climate change-related extreme weather events while also protecting the natural system. Instead, Robert Brears argues, climate resilient water resources management requires integrated, forward-thinking policies that are not only adaptable to changing climatic conditions but also seek to maximise economic and social welfare in an equitable manner while ensuring the continued health of their ecosystems. This book addresses how several levels of government in different geographical locations, with varying climates, incomes, and lifestyles, have implemented a variety of policies and technologies to ensure communities are resilient to climatic risks, and how these policies preserve and enhance the natural system and its associated ecosystem’s health.
Climate Resilient Water Resources Management (Palgrave Studies in Climate Resilient Societies)
by Robert C. BrearsThe effects of climate change are beginning to impact water quantity and water quality across the globe. However, there is no single action or strategy that any government can implement to ensure a community is resilient to climate change-related extreme weather events while also protecting the natural system. Instead, Robert Brears argues, climate resilient water resources management requires integrated, forward-thinking policies that are not only adaptable to changing climatic conditions but also seek to maximise economic and social welfare in an equitable manner while ensuring the continued health of their ecosystems. This book addresses how several levels of government in different geographical locations, with varying climates, incomes, and lifestyles, have implemented a variety of policies and technologies to ensure communities are resilient to climatic risks, and how these policies preserve and enhance the natural system and its associated ecosystem’s health.
No. More. Plastic.: What you can do to make a difference – the #2minutesolution
by Martin Dorey Chris PackhamDiscover what you can do to save the planet from plastic. Start now. All it takes is 2 minutes of your time.'I read this book yesterday and I've done three things today and that is testament to Martin's brilliant vision and ideas. Now it's your turn!' Chris Packham'Once, plastic was the miracle material. Now it's the monster. We all need to cut down our plastic consumption and join Martin's #2minutesolution anti-plastic movement. I'm in.' Julia BradburyOpen this book with your children, give it to your friends. Share your #2minutesolution on twitter and instagram and inspire others. Martin Dorey, anti-plastics expert, has been working to save our beaches from plastic for the past 10 years. His Beach Clean Foundation and global call to arms #2minutebeachclean has been taken up by people all over the world, and has proven that collective small actions can add up to a big difference.Together we can fix this.
Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? 200 birds, 12 months, 1 lapsed birdwatcher: A Year of Atrocious Birdwatching
by Lev ParikianAt twelve years old, Lev Parikian was an avid birdwatcher. He was also a fraud, a liar and a cheat. Those lists of birds seen and ticked off? Lies. One hundred and thirty species? More like sixty.Then, when he turned fifty, he decided to right his childhood wrongs. He would go birdwatching again. He would not lie. He would aim to see two hundred species of British bird in a year.Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? is the story of that year, a story about birds, family, music, nostalgia, the nature of obsession and obsession with nature. It’s about finding adventure in life when you twig it’s shorter than you thought, and about losing and regaining contact with the sights, sounds and smells of the natural world.It’s a book for anyone who has ever seen a small brown bird and wondered what it was, or tried to make sense of a world in which we can ask, ‘What’s that bird?’ and ‘What’s for lunch?’ and get the same answer.
The Making Of A Cultural Landscape: The English Lake District As Tourist Destination, 1750-2010 (Heritage, Culture and Identity)
by John K. Walton Jason WoodFor centuries, the English Lake District has been renowned as an important cultural, sacred and literary landscape. It is therefore surprising that there has so far been no in-depth critical examination of the Lake District from a tourism and heritage perspective. Bringing together leading writers from a wide range of disciplines, this book explores the tourism history and heritage of the Lake District and its construction as a cultural landscape from the mid eighteenth century to the present day. It critically analyses the relationships between history, heritage, landscape, culture and policy that underlie the activities of the National Park, Cumbria Tourism and the proposals to recognise the Lake District as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It examines all aspects of the Lake District's history and identity, brings the story up to date and looks at current issues in conservation, policy and tourism marketing. In doing so, it not only provides a unique and valuable analysis of this region, but offers insights into the history of cultural and heritage tourism in Britain and beyond.
The Making Of A Cultural Landscape: The English Lake District As Tourist Destination, 1750-2010 (Heritage, Culture and Identity)
by John K. Walton Jason WoodFor centuries, the English Lake District has been renowned as an important cultural, sacred and literary landscape. It is therefore surprising that there has so far been no in-depth critical examination of the Lake District from a tourism and heritage perspective. Bringing together leading writers from a wide range of disciplines, this book explores the tourism history and heritage of the Lake District and its construction as a cultural landscape from the mid eighteenth century to the present day. It critically analyses the relationships between history, heritage, landscape, culture and policy that underlie the activities of the National Park, Cumbria Tourism and the proposals to recognise the Lake District as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It examines all aspects of the Lake District's history and identity, brings the story up to date and looks at current issues in conservation, policy and tourism marketing. In doing so, it not only provides a unique and valuable analysis of this region, but offers insights into the history of cultural and heritage tourism in Britain and beyond.
Conservation: Linking Ecology, Economics, and Culture (PDF)
by Monique Borgerhoff Mulder Peter CoppolilloNearly 90 percent of the earth's land surface is directly affected by human infrastructure and activities, yet less than 5 percent is legally "protected" for biodiversity conservation--and even most large protected areas have people living inside their boundaries. In all but a small fraction of the earth's land area, then, conservation and people must coexist. Conservation is a resource for all those who aim to reconcile biodiversity with human livelihoods. It traces the historical roots of modern conservation thought and practice, and explores current perspectives from evolutionary and community ecology, conservation biology, anthropology, political ecology, economics, and policy. The authors examine a suite of conservation strategies and perspectives from around the world, highlighting the most innovative and promising avenues for future efforts. Exploring, highlighting, and bridging gaps between the social and natural sciences as applied in the practice of conservation, this book provides a broad, practically oriented view. It is essential reading for anyone involved in the conservation process--from academic conservation biology to the management of protected areas, rural livelihood development to poverty alleviation, and from community-based natural resource management to national and global policymaking.
The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History Of North America And Its Peoples
by Tim FlanneryThe Eternal Frontier leads the reader on a 65-million-year quest to understand the formation of North America. From the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period to the present day, Flannery explores America's history with keen insight and an extraordinary breadth of knowledge. Ultimately, human beings had to face the environmental vicissitudes of the continent, and Flannery's exploration of the ways in which we have coped makes for fascinating reading.
How to Survive The End Of The World As We Know It: Tactics, Techniques And Technologies For Uncertain Times
by Rawles James WesleyThis is the definitive guide on how to prepare for any crisis, from global financial collapse to a flu pandemic.It would only take one unthinkable event to disrupt our way of life. If there is a terrorist attack, a flu pandemic, or sharp currency devaluation, you may be forced to fend for yourself in ways you've never imagined. Where would you get water? How would you communicate with relatives? What would you use for fuel?Survivalist expert James Wesley, Rawles, editor of SurvivalBlog.com and a former US Army Intelligence officer, shares the essential tools and skills you will need for your family to survive, including how to find and build a retreat, store food, supply power, rear animals, administer medicine, barter, and defend your family.'Save those wine corks. Burned cork makes quick and cheap face camouflage.''Store only foods with minimal spices. When you are surrounded by starving people, just heating up a can of spicy chili con carne could be a death warrant.' 'If you are on a budget, you might get away with a good-quality bolt-action rifle...'
Green Development: Environment and Sustainability in a Developing World
by Bill AdamsThe concept of sustainability lies at the core of the challenge of environment and development and the way governments, business and environmental groups respond to it. Green Development provides a clear and coherent analysis of sustainable development in both theory and practice. This third edition retains the clear and powerful argument of previous editions, but has been updated to reflect advances in ideas and changes in international policy. Greater attention has been given to political ecology, environmental risk and the environmental impacts of development. This fully revised third edition discusses: the origins of thinking about sustainability and sustainable development and its evolution to the present day the ideas that dominate mainstream sustainable development (ecological modernization, market environmentalism and environmental economics) the nature and diversity of alternative ideas about sustainability that challenge ‘business as usual’ thinking (for example ecosocialism, ecofeminism, deep ecology and political ecology) the dilemmas of sustainability in the context of dryland degradation, deforestation, biodiversity conservation, dam construction and urban and industrial development the nature of policy choices about the environment and development strategies and between reformist and radical responses to the contemporary global dilemmas. Green Development offers clear insights into the challenges of environmental sustainability and social and economic development. It is unique in offering a synthesis of theoretical ideas on sustainability and in its coverage of the extensive literature on the environment and development around the world. This book has proved its value to generations of students as an authoritative, thought-provoking and readable guide to the field of sustainable development.
Water Resources: An Integrated Approach
by Joseph HoldenThe world faces huge challenges for water as population continues to grow, as emerging economies develop and as climate change alters the global and local water cycle. There are major questions to be answered about how we supply water in a sustainable and safe manner to fulfil our needs, while at the same time protecting vulnerable ecosystems from disaster. Water Resources: An Integrated Approach provides students with a comprehensive overview of both natural and socio-economic processes associated with water. The book contains chapters written by 20 specialist contributors, providing expert depth of coverage to topics. The text guides the reader through the topic of water starting with its unique properties and moving through environmental processes and human impacts upon them including the changing water cycle, water movement in river basins, water quality, groundwater and aquatic ecosystems. The book then covers management strategies for water resources, water treatment and re-use, and the role of water in human health before covering water economics and water conflict. The text concludes with a chapter that examines new concepts such as virtual water that help us understand current and future water resource use and availability across interconnected local and global scales. This book provides a novel interdisciplinary approach to water in a changing world, from an environmental change perspective and inter-related social, political and economic dimensions. It includes global examples from both the developing and developed world. Each chapter is supplemented with boxed case studies, end of chapter questions, and further reading, as well as a glossary of terms. The text is richly illustrated throughout with over 150 full colour diagrams and photos.
Water Resources: An Integrated Approach
by Joseph HoldenThe world faces huge challenges for water as population continues to grow, as emerging economies develop and as climate change alters the global and local water cycle. There are major questions to be answered about how we supply water in a sustainable and safe manner to fulfil our needs, while at the same time protecting vulnerable ecosystems from disaster. Water Resources: An Integrated Approach provides students with a comprehensive overview of both natural and socio-economic processes associated with water. The book contains chapters written by 20 specialist contributors, providing expert depth of coverage to topics. The text guides the reader through the topic of water starting with its unique properties and moving through environmental processes and human impacts upon them including the changing water cycle, water movement in river basins, water quality, groundwater and aquatic ecosystems. The book then covers management strategies for water resources, water treatment and re-use, and the role of water in human health before covering water economics and water conflict. The text concludes with a chapter that examines new concepts such as virtual water that help us understand current and future water resource use and availability across interconnected local and global scales. This book provides a novel interdisciplinary approach to water in a changing world, from an environmental change perspective and inter-related social, political and economic dimensions. It includes global examples from both the developing and developed world. Each chapter is supplemented with boxed case studies, end of chapter questions, and further reading, as well as a glossary of terms. The text is richly illustrated throughout with over 150 full colour diagrams and photos.
Fuel Taxes and the Poor: The Distributional Effects of Gasoline Taxation and Their Implications for Climate Policy (Environment For Development Ser.)
by Thomas SternerFuel Taxes and the Poor challenges the conventional wisdom that gasoline taxation, an important and much-debated instrument of climate policy, has a disproportionately detrimental effect on poor people. Increased fuel taxes carry the potential to mitigate carbon emissions, reduce congestion, and improve local urban environment. As such, higher gasoline taxes could prove to be a fundamental part of any climate action plan. However, they have been resisted by powerful lobbies that have persuaded people that increased fuel taxation would be regressive. Reporting on examples of over two dozen countries, this book sets out to empirically investigate this claim. The authors conclude that while there may be some slight regressivity in some high-income countries, as a general rule, fuel taxation is a progressive policy particularly in low income countries. Rich countries can correct for regressivity by cutting back on other taxes that adversely affect poor people, or by spending more money on services for the poor. Meanwhile, in low-income countries, poor people spend a very small share of their money on fuel for transport. Some costs from fuel taxes may be passed on to poor people through more expensive public transportation and food transport. Nevertheless, in general the authors find that gasoline taxes become more progressive as the income of the country in question decreases. This book provides strong arguments for the proponents of environmental taxation. It has immediate policy implications at the intersection of multiple subject areas, including transportation, environmental regulation, development studies, and climate change. Published with Environment for Development initiative.