Earth Sciences, Geography & Environment Books
MIT Press Ltd Can We Price Carbon
Book Synopsis
£27.55
MIT Press Carbon Capture
Book Synopsis
£13.59
MIT Press What We Know about Climate Change updated edition
Book SynopsisAn updated edition of a guide to the basic science of climate change, and a call to action.The vast majority of scientists agree that human activity has significantly increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere—most dramatically since the 1970s. Yet global warming skeptics and ill-informed elected officials continue to dismiss this broad scientific consensus. In this updated edition of his authoritative book, MIT atmospheric scientist Kerry Emanuel outlines the basic science of global warming and how the current consensus has emerged. Although it is impossible to predict exactly when the most dramatic effects of global warming will be felt, he argues, we can be confident that we face real dangers. Emanuel warns that global warming will contribute to an increase in the intensity and power of hurricanes and flooding and more rapidly advancing deserts. But just as our actions have created the looming crisis, so too might they avert it. Emanuel calls for urge
£13.59
MIT Press Enlivenment Toward a Poetics for the Anthropocene
Book SynopsisA new understanding of the Anthropocene that is based on mutual transformation with nature rather than control over nature.We have been told that we are living in the Anthropocene, a geological era shaped by humans rather than by nature. In Enlivenment, German philosopher Andreas Weber presents an alternative understanding of our relationship with nature, arguing not that humans control nature but that humans and nature exist in a commons of mutual transformation. There is no nature-human dualism, he contends, because the fundamental dimension of existence is shared in what he calls aliveness. All subjectivity is intersubjectivity. Self is self-through-other. Seeing all beings in a common household of matter, desire, and imagination, an economy of metabolic and economic transformation, is “enlivenment.” This perspective allows us to move beyond Enlightenment-style thinking that strips material reality of any subjectivity.To take this step, Weber argu
£14.44
MIT Press Ltd Flint Fights Back
Book SynopsisAn account of the Flint water crisis shows that Flint''s struggle for safe and affordable water is part of a broader struggle for democracy.When Flint, Michigan, changed its source of municipal water from Lake Huron to the Flint River, Flint residents were repeatedly assured that the water was of the highest quality. At the switchover ceremony, the mayor and other officials performed a celebratory toast, declaring “Here''s to Flint!” and downing glasses of freshly treated water. But as we now know, the water coming out of residents'' taps harbored a variety of contaminants, including high levels of lead. In Flint Fights Back, Benjamin Pauli examines the water crisis and the political activism that it inspired, arguing that Flint''s struggle for safe and affordable water was part of a broader struggle for democracy. Pauli connects Flint''s water activism with the ongoing movement protesting the state of Michigan''s policy of replacing elected officials in fi
£40.90
MIT Press Ltd Taming the Sun Innovations to Harness Solar
Book SynopsisHow solar could spark a clean-energy transition through transformative innovation—creative financing, revolutionary technologies, and flexible energy systems.Solar energy, once a niche application for a limited market, has become the cheapest and fastest-growing power source on earth. What's more, its potential is nearly limitless—every hour the sun beams down more energy than the world uses in a year. But in Taming the Sun, energy expert Varun Sivaram warns that the world is not yet equipped to harness erratic sunshine to meet most of its energy needs. And if solar's current surge peters out, prospects for replacing fossil fuels and averting catastrophic climate change will dim.Innovation can brighten those prospects, Sivaram explains, drawing on firsthand experience and original research spanning science, business, and government. Financial innovation is already enticing deep-pocketed investors to fund solar projects around the world, from t
£16.19
MIT Press Ltd Grounding Urban Natures Histories and Futures of
Book Synopsis
£28.00
MIT Press Ltd Food The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series
Book SynopsisA consumer's guide to the food system, from local to global: our part as citizens in the interconnected networks, institutions, and organizations that enable our food choices.Everybody eats. We may even consider ourselves experts on the topic, or at least Instagram experts. But are we aware that the shrimp in our freezer may be farmed and frozen in Vietnam, the grapes in our fruit bowl shipped from Chile, and the coffee in our coffee maker grown in Nicaragua, roasted in Germany, and distributed in Canada? Whether we know it or not, every time we shop for food, cook, and eat, we connect ourselves to complex supply networks, institutions, and organizations that enable our food choices. Even locavores may not know the whole story of the produce they buy at the farmers market. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, food writer and scholar Fabio Parasecoli offers a consumer's guide to the food system, from local to global.Parasecoli describes a system m
£15.19
MIT Press Ltd Recovering Lost Species in the Modern Age
Book SynopsisA groundbreaking study of how emotions motivate attempts to counter species loss.This groundbreaking book brings together environmental history and the history of emotions to examine the motivations behind species conservation actions. In Recovering Lost Species in the Modern Age, Dolly Jørgensen uses the environmental histories of reintroduction, rewilding, and resurrection to view the modern conservation paradigm of the recovery of nature as an emotionally charged practice. Jørgensen argues that the recovery of nature—identifying that something is lost and then going out to find it and bring it back—is a nostalgic practice that looks to a historical past and relies on the concept of belonging to justify future-oriented action. The recovery impulse depends on emotional responses to what is lost, particularly a longing for recovery that manifests itself in such emotions as guilt, hope, fear, and grief. Jørgensen explains why emotional
£25.65
MIT Press Ltd The Science of Bureaucracy Risk DecisionMaking
Book SynopsisHow the US Environmental Protection Agency designed the governance of risk and forged its legitimacy over the course of four decades.The US Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970 to protect the public health and environment, administering and enforcing a range of statutes and programs. Over four decades, the EPA has been a risk bureaucracy, formalizing many of the methods of the scientific governance of risk, from quantitative risk assessment to risk ranking. Demortain traces the creation of these methods for the governance of risk, the controversies to which they responded, and the controversies that they aroused in turn. He discusses the professional networks in which they were conceived; how they were used; and how they served to legitimize the EPA. Demortain argues that the EPA is structurally embedded in controversy, resulting in constant reevaluation of its credibility and fueling the evolution of the knowledge and technologies it uses to produce
£49.40
MIT Press Ltd Spatial Computing MIT Press Essential Knowledge
Book SynopsisAn accessible guide to the ideas and technologies underlying such applications as GPS, Google Maps, Pokémon Go, ride-sharing, driverless cars, and drone surveillance.Billions of people around the globe use various applications of spatial computing daily—by using a ride-sharing app, GPS, the e911 system, social media check-ins, even Pokémon Go. Scientists and researchers use spatial computing to track diseases, map the bottom of the oceans, chart the behavior of endangered species, and create election maps in real time. Drones and driverless cars use a variety of spatial computing technologies. Spatial computing works by understanding the physical world, knowing and communicating our relation to places in that world, and navigating through those places. It has changed our lives and infrastructures profoundly, marking a significant shift in how we make our way in the world. This volume in the MIT Essential Knowledge series explains the technologies
£14.24
MIT Press Ltd Carbon Captured How Business and Labor Control
Book SynopsisA comparative examination of domestic climate politics that offers a theory for cross-national differences in domestic climate policymaking.Climate change threatens the planet, and yet policy responses have varied widely across nations. Some countries have undertaken ambitious programs to stave off climate disaster, others have done little, and still others have passed policies that were later rolled back. In this book, Matto Mildenberger opens the “black box” of domestic climate politics, examining policy making trajectories in several countries and offering a theoretical explanation for national differences in the climate policy process.Mildenberger introduces the concept of double representation—when carbon polluters enjoy political representation on both the left (through industrial unions fearful of job loss) and the right (through industrial business associations fighting policy costs)—and argues that different climate policy approaches ca
£32.00
MIT Press Ltd Mercury Stories Understanding Sustainability
Book SynopsisAn interdisciplinary analysis of human interactions with mercury through history that sheds light on efforts to promote and achieve sustainability.In Mercury Stories, Henrik Selin and Noelle Eckley Selin examine sustainability through analyzing human interactions with mercury over thousands of years. They explore how people have made beneficial use of this volatile element, how they have been harmed by its toxic properties, and how they have tried to protect themselves and the environment from its damaging effects. Taking a systems approach, they develop and apply an analytical framework that can inform other efforts to evaluate and promote sustainability. After introducing the framework, which uses the lens of a human-technical environmental system and a matrix-based approach to analyze mercury use and exposure, the authors examine five topical mercury systems that each illustrate important issues in mercury science and governance: global cycling of mercury thr
£30.40
MIT Press Deep Time Reckoning How Future Thinking Can Help
Book SynopsisA guide to long-term thinking: how to envision the far future of Earth.We live on a planet careening toward environmental collapse that will be largely brought about by our own actions. And yet we struggle to grasp the scale of the crisis, barely able to imagine the effects of climate change just ten years from now, let alone the multi-millennial timescales of Earth's past and future life span. In this book, Vincent Ialenti offers a guide for envisioning the planet's far future—to become, as he terms it, more skilled deep time reckoners. The challenge, he says, is to learn to inhabit a longer now.Ialenti takes on two overlapping crises: the Anthropocene, our current moment of human-caused environmental transformation; and the deflation of expertise—today's popular mockery and institutional erosion of expert authority. The second crisis, he argues, is worsening the effects of the first. Hearing out scientific experts who study a wider time span than a Facebo
£21.60
MIT Press Ltd Novacene
Book Synopsis
£14.36
MIT Press Ltd Resigned Activism revised edition Living with
Book SynopsisAn examination of the daily grind of living with pollution in rural China and of the varying forms of activism that develop in response.Residents of rapidly industrializing rural areas in China live with pollution every day. Villagers drink obviously tainted water and breathe visibly dirty air, afflicted by a variety of ailments—from arthritis to nosebleeds—that they ascribe to the effects of industrial pollution. In Resigned Activism, Anna Lora-Wainwright explores the daily grind of living with pollution in rural China and the varying forms of activism that develop in response. This revised edition offers expanded acknowledgment of the contributions of Lora-Wainwright’s collaborators in China.Lora-Wainwright finds that claims of health or environmental damage are politically sensitive, and that efforts to seek redress are frustrated by limited access to scientific evidence, growing socioeconomic inequalities, and complex local realities.
£30.07
MIT Press Ltd The Contamination of the Earth
Book Synopsis
£15.29
MIT Press Ltd Ignorance and Surprise
Book Synopsis
£26.77
MIT Press Ltd Oceans
Book Synopsis
£21.56
MIT Press Ltd Sewer of Progress Corporations Institutionalized
Book SynopsisA creative and comprehensive exploration of the institutional forces undermining the management of environments critical to public health.For almost two decades, the citizens of Western Mexico have called for a cleanup of the Santiago River, a water source so polluted it emanates an overwhelming acidic stench. Toxic clouds of foam lift off the river in a strong wind. In Sewer of Progress, Cindy McCulligh examines why industrial dumping continues in the Santiago despite the corporate embrace of social responsibility and regulatory frameworks intended to mitigate environmental damage. The fault, she finds, lies in a disingenuous discourse of progress and development that privileges capitalist growth over the health and well-being of ecosystems. Rooted in research on institutional behavior and corporate business practices, Sewer of Progress exposes a type of regulatory greenwashing that allows authorities to deflect accusations of environmental du
£43.20
MIT Press Ltd Mnemonic Ecologies
Book Synopsis
£40.85
MIT Press Ltd Our Urban Future
Book SynopsisA practical, comprehensive textbook that uses active learning techniques to teach about the challenges and opportunities associated with urban sustainability.While the problem of urban sustainability has long been a subject of great scholarly interest, there has, until now, been no single source providing a multi-disciplinary, exhaustive view of how it can be effectively taught. Filling this gap, Our Urban Future uses active learning techniques to comprehensively relate the theory of urban sustainability and the what, why, and how of sustainable cities. This practical, pedagogically rich textbook concisely covers all the key subjects of the field, including ecosystem services and transects, the internal design and patterning of urban elements, how cities mitigate and adapt to climate change, and questions of environmental justice. It functions as both an illuminating roadmap and active reference to which any student
£36.10
MIT Press Ltd The Infrastructural South
Book SynopsisAn in-depth look at the infrastructural landscape of Africa amid the third wave of urbanization, drawing on case studies from Africa and extending further afield.The Infrastructural South represents a major theoretical contribution to the study of infrastructure?s role in the third wave of urbanization centered on Africa. Based on over a decade of empirical research, Silver?s sweeping examination probes many of contemporary urbanism?s most exciting and pressing issues through the lens of the Global South. Focusing on Uganda, Ghana, and South Africa, Silver?s conceptually innovative chapters explore the way access to energy, water, sanitation, transit, and information technologies shape everyday life as they map the dynamic relations between cities, technology, and the environment.Pushing readers to look at the wider worlds that suffuse urban systems, this theoretical and geographical perspective treats Africa?s rapidly transforming towns and cities as complex sites of disruption, emancipation, and contradiction. In doing so, it shows how the proliferating urbanisms and contested techno-environments arise from shifting priorities in infrastructure planning, politics, and financing gaps.As urban issues become a key twenty-first-century challenge for Africa, Silver offers a comprehensive reworking of our understanding of urbanization. The Infrastructural South rethinks how global scholarship approaches infrastructure, laying pathways for future research at the intersection of technology, environmental urbanism, and urban politics.
£42.75
MIT Press Ltd Recycling Class
Book SynopsisAn ethnographic and community-engaged study of the class, caste, and gender politics of environmental mobilizations around Bengaluru, India’s discards.In Recycling Class, Manisha Anantharaman examines the ideas, flows, and relationships around unmanaged discards in Bengaluru, India, itself a massive environmental problem of planetary proportions, to help us understand what types of coalitions deliver social justice within sustainability initiatives. Recycling Class links middle-class, sustainable consumption with the environmental labor of the working poor to offer a relational analysis of urban sustainability politics and practice. Through ethnographic, community-based research, Anantharaman shows how diverse social groups adopt, contest, and modify neoliberal sustainability’s emphasis on market-based solutions, behavior change, and the aesthetic conflation of “clean” with “green.” Tracing garbage politics in Bengaluru for over a decade, Anantharaman argues that middle class “communal sustainability” efforts create new avenues for waste picker organizations to make claims for infrastructural inclusion. Coproduced “DIY infrastructures” serve as sites of citizenship and political negotiation, challenging the technocratic and growth-based logics of dominant sustainability policies. Yet, these configurations reproduce class, caste, and gender-based divisions of labor, demonstrating that inclusion without social reform can reproduce unjust distributions of risk and responsibility. Revealing the “win-win” fallacy of sustainability and foregrounding the agency of communities excluded from environmental policy, Recycling Class will appeal to scholars and activists alike who want to create a future with more transformative sustainability.
£43.00
MIT Press Ltd A World in a Shell
Book SynopsisFollowing the trails of Hawai‘i’s snails to explore the simultaneously biological and cultural significance of extinction.In this time of extinctions, the humble snail rarely gets a mention. And yet snails are disappearing faster than any other species. In A World in a Shell, Thom van Dooren offers a collection of snail stories from Hawai‘i—once home to more than 750 species of land snails, almost two-thirds of which are now gone. Following snail trails through forests, laboratories, museums, and even a military training facility, and meeting with scientists and Native Hawaiians, van Dooren explores ongoing processes of ecological and cultural loss as they are woven through with possibilities for hope, care, mourning, and resilience.Van Dooren recounts the fascinating history of snail decline in the Hawaiian Islands: from deforestation for agriculture, timber, and more, through the nineteenth century shell collecting mania of missionary settlers, and on to the contemporary impacts of introduced predators. Along the way he asks how both snail loss and conservation efforts have been tangled up with larger processes of colonization, militarization, and globalization. These snail stories provide a potent window into ongoing global process of environmental and cultural change, including the largely unnoticed disappearance of countless snails, insects, and other less charismatic species. Ultimately, van Dooren seeks to cultivate a sense of wonder and appreciation for our damaged planet, revealing the world of possibilities and relationships that lies coiled within a snail’s shell.
£17.85
MIT Press Navigating the Polycrisis
Book Synopsis
£38.70
MIT Press Hedgehogs Killing and Kindness
Book SynopsisHow our understanding of and relationship to hedgehogs reveals the complex interactions between culture, technology, bodies, conservation, and care for other animals.Across the globe, the bumbling hedgehog has been framed in a variety of ways throughout history—as a symbol of both good and bad luck, of transformation, of vengeance, and of wit and reincarnation. In recent years, it has also, in different parts of the world, been viewed as a pest for its predation on ground-nesting birds and has thus become a target for culling. In Hedgehogs, Killing, and Kindness, Laura McLauchlan explores how human actors have interacted with hedgehogs and other species through time and attends to the questions these interactions raise when it comes to ending and preserving life in the name of species conservation and wildlife rehabilitation.Grounded in rich empirical material and careful critique, Hedgehogs, Killing, and Kindness traces the author’s own more-t
£38.70
MIT Press Tenacious Beasts
Book Synopsis
£19.55
MIT Press Ltd Reimagining the MoreThanHuman City
Book Synopsis
£34.20
MIT Press Natura Urbana
Book Synopsis
£29.70
MIT Press Ltd Carbon Removal
£14.44
MIT Press Ltd Particles of Truth
Book SynopsisA compelling, real-life account of how scientists uncovered air pollution?s deadly impact on human health?and the contentious battles to use key scientific evidence in the critical fight for clean air.Particles of Truth is a riveting account of the discovery of the critical health effects of air pollution told by Arden Pope and Douglas Dockery, who have been at the forefront of air pollution and health research for four decades. With an insightful foreword by former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, this compelling book provides an inside look at groundbreaking scientific research and ensuing political and public-policy battles. It presents evidence that air pollution is a major contributor to disease and death and that reducing air pollution saves lives. The book also delves into intense efforts to discredit and cast doubt on the science.Through firsthand accounts, Pope and Dockery bring the scientific discoveries regarding the health effects of air pollution and accompanying controversies to life. They describe the real-world challenges of conducting impactful research when public health clashes with economic interests and politics. Despite these challenges, they and their colleagues persisted, accumulating evidence that supports landmark clean-air legislation and pollution reduction efforts worldwide. More than an inside look at pioneering air pollution research and the hidden health burden of air pollution, Particles of Truth is a story of determination and perseverance by those working to protect air quality and our health; indeed, their efforts have contributed to improvements in public health and an increase in longevity. For anyone interested in public health, environmental quality, or public policy, this is a must-read book that takes you to the front lines of discovery and controversy.
£22.46
MIT Press Concrete and Clay Reworking Nature in New York
Book SynopsisAn interdisciplinary account of the environmental history and changing landscape of New York City.In this innovative account of the urbanization of nature in New York City, Matthew Gandy explores how the raw materials of nature have been reworked to produce a metropolitan nature distinct from the forms of nature experienced by early settlers. The book traces five broad developments: the expansion and redefinition of public space, the construction of landscaped highways, the creation of a modern water supply system, the radical environmental politics of the barrio in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the contemporary politics of the environmental justice movement. Drawing on political economy, environmental studies, social theory, cultural theory, and architecture, Gandy shows how New York's environmental history is bound up not only with the upstate landscapes that stretch beyond the city's political boundaries but also with more distant places that reflect the nation's col
£29.70
MIT Press Ltd Nature by Design People Natural Process and
Book Synopsis
£38.00
MIT Press Ltd Mapping Boston The MIT Press
Book SynopsisAn informative—and beautiful—exploration of the life and history of a city through its maps.To the attentive user even the simplest map can reveal not only where things are but how people perceive and imagine the spaces they occupy. Mapping Boston is an exemplar of such creative attentiveness—bringing the history of one of America's oldest and most beautiful cities alive through the maps that have depicted it over the centuries.The book includes both historical maps of the city and maps showing the gradual emergence of the New England region from the imaginations of explorers to a form that we would recognize today. Each map is accompanied by a full description and by a short essay offering an insight into its context. The topics of these essays by Anne Mackin include people both familiar and unknown, landmarks, and events that were significant in shaping the landscape or life of the city. A highlight of the book is a series of new maps detailing Bost
£25.65
University of Notre Dame Press Unearthed
Book SynopsisIn Unearthed: The Economic Roots of Our Environmental Crisis, Kenneth M. Sayre argues that the only way to resolve our current environmental crisis is to reduce our energy consumption to a level where the entropy (degraded energy and organization) produced by that consumption no longer exceeds the biosphere''s ability to dispose of it. Tangible illustrations of this entropy buildup include global warming, ozone depletion, loss of species diversity, and unmanageable amounts of nonbiodegradable waste. Degradation of the biosphere is tied directly to human energy use, which has been increasing exponentially since the Industrial Revolution. Energy use, in turn, is directly correlated with economic production. Sayre shows how these three factors are invariably bound together. The unavoidable conclusion is that the only way to resolve our environmental crisis is to reverse the present pattern of growth in the world economy. Economic growth is motivated by social valueTrade Review"With unerring logic and science, Kenneth Sayre dissects the origins of the ecological crisis and points to the necessary recalibration of industrial societies with the laws of thermodynamics and ecology. It is a radical book in that he gets to the heart of what ails us, and it charts a course toward a future grounded in authentic hope." —David W. Orr, Oberlin College“Sayre’s assessment forces all seeking a sustainable future to reexamine the preeminence accorded to clean energy. Unearthed uniquely combines thermodynamics and ethics to challenge and broaden readers’ understandings of the systemic issues we face. Assembled and presented with piercing clarity, Unearthed constructs a brilliant framework for making sense of our quiet, but growing crises.” —Felipe Witchger, IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates“Kenneth M. Sayre’s Unearthed: The Economic Roots of Our Environmental Crisis constitutes a major and significant contribution to our understanding of the grave ecological crisis facing humanity. It covers the complete picture, from the basic physical causes of the destruction of our environment to the sociological or anthropological forces that condition our self-destructive actions. The work not only is a brilliant and mind-sweeping piece of diagnosis and prognosis, but it goes all the way to point towards possible solutions.” —Fernando del Río Haza, Laboratorio de Termodinámica, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa, Mexico“This is a well-written, well-organized, thorough book. Sayre leads the reader to the conclusion that to avoid catastrophe, humankind must change its fixation on continued economic growth and learn to live sustainably. . . . Sayre writes a short but excellent history of the modern environmental movement highlighting no-growth economics as a future alternative path for humankind.” —Choice“. . . considers the origins of the ecological crisis and how industrial societies need to re-consider the laws of ecology to make necessary changes key to our survival. Any[one] interested in sustainable living need[s] this science-oriented survey blending thermodynamics and ethics: it argues that the only way to resolve our current environmental crisis is to reduce our energy consumption vastly based on the biosphere’s ability to dispose of byproducts.“ —California Bookwatch“Explores the economic sources of the current environmental crisis and considers whether fundamental changes to our economic system could eradicate or contain the damage being done to the ecological system and human society.” —Journal of Economic Literature
£28.80
University of Notre Dame Press United States and the Pacific
Book SynopsisThis work offers a history of the Pacific as a ""frontier"" of the United States using economics, politics, and culture as its central areas of consideration. While many studies have analyzed specific regions within the Pacific, this work considers the whole of this vast ocean.Trade Review“Wilson’s translation is polished and lucid, and Heffer handles the complexities of his story adroitly; his historical synthesis will introduce a new generation of readers to a region certain to play an increasingly important role in world affairs.” —Publishers Weekly“It is profound and is highly recommended.” —Journal of the West"Heffer offers striking details and a conceptually expansive text. No equivalent exists on this topic, and we are fortunate to have this work translated for a wide readership, both scholarly and general." —Library Journal“[A] strikingly successful narrative. . . . One of the greatest strengths of Heffer’s book is the way it narrates the domestic American story of Asian immigration . . . consistently sound judgement characterizes the book. Perhaps the most rewarding part of Heffer’s book, however, is the section which brings the story almost to the present day, again distinguished by its clearsightedness and sound judgement.” —Times Literary Supplement“The book is a solid contribution to the field of Pacific Studies because of its theoretical perspective, which is innovative in its geographical scope thus offering a useful sythesis for students and scholars in history and other social sciences.” —Journal of Economic History“The publication of an English translation of this unique treatise is a welcome and important addition to our understanding of how the United States was shaped by the Pacific Ocean and Pacific rim, and, conversely, how the United States shaped that oceanic world, its islands, and littorals.” —International History Review
£35.10
University of Notre Dame Press Irish Ethnologies
Book SynopsisIrish Ethnologies gives an overview of the field of Irish ethnology, covering representative topics of institutional history and methodology, as well as case studies dealing with religion, ethnicity, memory, development, folk music, and traditional cosmology. This collection of essays draws from work in multiple disciplines including but not limited to anthropology and ethnomusicology.These essays, first published in French in the journal Ethnologie française, illuminate the complex history of Ireland and exhibit the maturity of Irish anthropology. Martine Segalen contends that these essays are part of a larger movement that galvanized the quiet revolution in the domain of the ethnology of France. They did so by making specific examples, in this instance Ireland, inform a larger definition of a European identity. The essays, edited by Ó Giolláin, also significantly explain, expand, and challenge Irish ethnography. From twelfth-century accounts to Anglo-Irish RomTrade Review“This anthology is a significant and original contribution to scholarship in several related fields: anthropology, ethnology, folkloristics, history, sociology, religious history, and others. The essays are well organized and contextualize each other beautifully. Together they furnish the reader (not least the reader from outside of Ireland) with many inroads to understanding Ireland (North and South), Irish culture, religion, history, and the development of the ‘ethnological sciences’ in Ireland and comparatively. ” —Barbro Klein, Uppsala University"The clarity of the title says it all. Ó Giolláin assembles articulate, engaged, informed, and theoretically savvy scholars from around the world (including Ireland) to present their best research-based thoughts about Irish society and culture, urban and rural, north and south, in the twenty-first century. The result greatly exceeds the sum of its parts. Readable, sure-footed, rich in detail, and hugely informative, this interdisciplinary collection digs deep into existing scholarship to offer new insights. It is at once an encyclopaedia and a kaleidoscope for anyone interested in the complexities of this small island." —Angela Bourke, professor emerita, UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore, Dublin"From its stunning historical overview of anthropological and folkloristic studies of Ireland through chapters that open new doors into the spaces in which culture, tradition, materiality, and museums are made, unmade, and rebaptized as heritage or carnival, Irish Ethnologies demonstrates why Ireland and Northern Ireland continue to be remarkably productive of insights into colonialism, nationalism, and cosmopolitanism." —Charles L. Briggs, co-author of Tell Me Why My Children Died: Rabies, Indigenous Knowledge, and Communicative Justice
£28.80
University of Notre Dame Press The Practice of Human Development and Dignity
Book SynopsisAlthough deeply contested in many ways, the concept of human dignity has emerged as a key idea in fields such as bioethics and human rights. It has been largely absent, however, from literature on development studies. The essays contained in The Practice of Human Development and Dignity fill this gap by showing the implications of human dignity for international development theory, policy, and practice. Pushing against ideas of development that privilege the efficiency of systems that accelerate economic growth at the expense of human persons and their agency, the essays in this volume show how development work that lacks sensitivity to human dignity is blind. Instead, genuine development must advance human flourishing and not merely promote economic betterment. At the same time, the essays in this book also demonstrate that human dignity must be assessed in the context of real human experiences and practices. This volume therefore considers the meaning of human dignity inducTrade Review“The Practice of Human Development and Dignity is a very timely book and starts a fascinating conversation. Doing dignity is a question of presence and relationship. Any intervention then should begin by offering my presence, my hearth, and that deep form of listening that opens the source of our shared dignity.” —Mathias Nebel, co-editor of Searching for the Common Good
£45.00
University of Notre Dame Press An Inconvenient Apocalypse
Book SynopsisConfronting harsh ecological realities and the multiple cascading crises facing our world today, An Inconvenient Apocalypse argues that humanity's future will be defined not by expansion but by contraction.For decades, our world has understood that we are on the brink of an apocalypseand yet the only implemented solutions have been small and convenient, feel-good initiatives that avoid unpleasant truths about the root causes of our impending disaster. Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen argue that we must reconsider the origins of the consumption crisis and the challenges we face in creating a survivable future. Longstanding assumptions about economic growth and technological progressthe dream of a future of endless bountyare no longer tenable. The climate crisis has already progressed beyond simple or nondisruptive solutions. The end result will be apocalyptic; the only question now is how bad it will be.Jackson and Jensen examine how geographic determinism shTrade Review“An Inconvenient Apocalypse pulls no punches. Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen, in this work of Anthropocenic soul-searching, offer an honest, accessible, and ruefully playful look at their own lives and at the predicament of human civilization during this century of upheaval and denial.” —Scott Slovic, co-editor of Ecoambiguity, Community, and Development“The problematic human/earth relationship will not be resolved anytime soon, and Jackson and Jensen’s book makes an important contribution to assessing our situation and envisioning a way forward. Anyone who has a nagging feeling that something is wrong and doesn’t understand the breadth and depth of the problem or how to grapple with it should read this book.” —Lisi Krall, author of Proving Up"While making no religious claims, Jackson and Jensen engage the core questions that religious people must ask, if their own witness is to be credible: Who are we, and where are we in history? Do we have the capacity to make drastic change for the sake of a decent human future? Can we live with humility and grace instead of arrogance and an infatuation with knowledge devoid of wisdom? Read and consider." —Ellen F. Davis, author of Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture"With intrepid honesty, tenderness, and grace, Jackson and Jensen lay out a clear framework for making sense of the most elusive complexities of climate crisis. Through kindred reflections and incisive analysis, they boldly enlighten readers of the probable and the possible in the decades to come. An affirmation and solace for the weary. A beacon for those seeking courage and understanding in unsettling times." —Selina Gallo-Cruz, author of Political Invisibility and Mobilization"The nature of all living organisms, so this book argues, is to go after 'dense energy,' resulting eventually in crisis. If that is so, then the human organism is facing a tough question: Can we overcome our own nature? Courageous and humble, bold and provocative, the authors of An Inconvenient Apocalypse do not settle for superficial answers." —Donald Worster, author of Shrinking the Earth"This is one of the most important books of our lifetime. An Inconvenient Apocalypse can help us face the difficult choices that confront us all and enable us to acknowledge the urgency of our current circumstance." —Frederick L. Kirschenmann, author of Cultivating an Ecological Conscience"Wes Jackson and Bob Jensen have written Common Sense for our time. This book might be the spark that catalyzes the American Evolution." —Peter Buffett, co-president of the NoVo Foundation“In this essential contribution to the public debate, Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen critique the capitalist forces accelerating the climate crisis and the intellectual-activists who have balked at calling for the radical changes in human behavior that could mitigate, if not prevent, environmental and societal collapse. Their contribution will prove as enduring as it is timely.” —Jason Brownlee, author of Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization“If you’re already concerned about our species’ survival prospects, this book will take you to the next level of understanding. Jackson and Jensen are clear and deeply moral thinkers, and their assessment of humanity’s precarious status deserves to be widely read.” —Richard Heinberg, author of Power"Jackson and Jensen take a hard look at the near future as climate change intensifies and predict looming crises will lead to human suffering and radical changes. . . . [The authors] cut through pervasive denial about humanity's destiny in a more hostile environment. As in an effective seminar, they posit a situation and then raise questions that will resonate with readers." —Library Journal"Harrowing and accessible, this is just the thing for readers interested in a sociological or philosophical examination of the climate crisis." —Publishers Weekly"A hard-hitting philosophical reckoning with climate breakdowns, and with the social collapses that they may entail. ... Climate disasters may render hope for the future tenuous, but the philosophical book An Inconvenient Apocalypse asserts that working toward social justice is still purpose-giving." —Foreword Reviews (starred review)"The goal of An Inconvenient Apocalypse isn’t to try to convince people of the reality of humankind’s environmental and societal crises. . . . Instead the book takes these threats as a starting point and spends the majority of its lean page count exploring their implications and how we might best respond to them. It succeeds commendably in this regard." —Resilience"In An Inconvenient Apocalypse, authors Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen style themselves as heralds of some very bad news: societal collapse on a global scale is inevitable, and those who manage to survive the mass death and crumbling of the world as we know it will have to live in drastically transformed circumstances. . . . The current way of things is doomed, and it’s up to us to prepare as best we can to ensure as soft a landing as possible when the inevitable apocalypse arrives." —The Guardian"Global warming is headed in a calamitous direction. Even if humans can limit the increase in the Earth’s temperature, other factors are pushing us to an apocalypse. . . . This a sobering examination of current trends in human behavior and likely existential consequences." —Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies"We are in the midst of a major environmental catastrophe for which we are little prepared, but for which action is desperately needed. An Inconvenient Apocalypse seeks to engage this problem with a deep concern for social justice, equality, and reverence for us and the planet that we have so deeply scarred." —New York Journal of Books"Unlike many works in the eco-catastrophe genre, An Inconvenient Apocalypse isn’t strident, angry, or panicked about the impending collapse. It’s more of an elegy for a dying civilization, which takes a pragmatic but soft-spoken approach to the problems we face; so soft-spoken that it’s a slight shock when we realize what the authors are saying." —Medium"An Inconvenient Apocalypse is one powerful book. It will move many of its readers out of the past and into a reasonable, informed, and passionate space for assessing a difficult future." —Ecological Economics"Read this personal manifesto of wisdom and passion for our suffering planet, a very important, timely, and riveting book." —CounterPunch"Few books can shake up and awaken long-time climate activists, environmental activists, and sustainability activists to expansive new levels of understanding of the big picture of our major crises, but this is one of those books." —Job One for Humanity Climate Blog“Right now, the questions posed by Jackson and Jensen carry more potency than the answers we are being led to believe will resolve the predicaments we are in. That is because we have been asking the wrong questions. Jackson and Jensen ask new, and inconvenient, questions. Get the book and start asking the same questions.” —Rainbow Juice“The authors seek to redefine what hope can be, as the day-to-day expectations of most of us are off the table... Compulsory reading.” —Hastings Independent Press"If we are to see a better future realized, not only do we need to rethink our individual patterns of behavior, but we must also resist cultural formations that reduce our humanity to marketplace identities. . . . If we decide this is who we are, our future may still be bright, even if it is not convenient." —The Christian CenturyTable of ContentsIntroductions: Who are we? 1. Who is “we”? 2. Four hard questions: Size, scale, scope, speed 3. We are all apocalyptic now 4. Saving remnant 5. Ecospheric grace Conclusions: The sum of all hopes and fears
£70.55
Pennsylvania State University Press Reading Shavers Creek Ecological Reflections from
Book SynopsisA collection of essays on nature observations at the Shaver's Creek Environmental Center, focusing on deepening the connection of personal and cultural meanings to a specific place through a process of sustained close attention.Trade Review“What a pleasure to wander with some of America’s finest environmental writers along the ferny edges of a Pennsylvania stream—to listen to birdsong with their educated ears, to see the stony past and stormy future through their discerning eyes, to explore the brambles and branches of their marvelous minds. Like Walden, Reading Shaver’s Creek is testimony to the power of creative attention to a special place, and a rollicking good read.”—Kathleen Dean Moore,author of Great Tide Rising: Towards Clarity and Moral Courage in a Time of Planetary Change and Piano Tide“Reading Shaver’s Creek is an inspirational contribution to the growing genre of multivoiced, place-oriented community writing projects, sometimes called ‘deep maps.’ Its blend of environmental history, ecological understanding, and literary flair is all seasoned with a healthy love of place, whether that place is thought of as an out-of-the-way valley in the Allegheny Mountains or the whole of planet Earth.”—Tom Lynch,Coeditor of Thinking Continental: Writing the Planet One Place at a Time“The journals of nature writers like John Burroughs and Henry David Thoreau provide a rich record of cultural and climate change. Now the Ecological Reflections Project has brought this approach to the eastern Appalachians. Over the next one hundred years, accomplished writers will experience and reflect on place, and this lively book samples the project’s first decade. Brimming with beautiful insights, stories, and meditations, it will inspire anyone who loves the way wood, stone, wind, and water speak to the human spirit.”—John Tallmadge,author of The Cincinnati Arch: Learning from Nature in the City“Visit Shaver’s Creek. Observe. Write. Like exquisite footprints meandering along a muddy shore, the ‘best of’ pieces in this ten-year compendium track the fascinating merging of mind and matter, words and wildness, people and place. After reading these reflections by scientists, local writers, and visiting authors, Shaver’s Creek has become meaningful—and even a little magical—to me, and I hope that this book will inspire similar long-term ecological reflections projects in other special places.”—Cheryll Glotfelty,coeditor of The Bioregional Imagination: Literature, Ecology, and Place “This book can serve well as a model for nature centers or writers who may wish to explore a place and document that exploration. It also makes an excellent text for courses in environmental writing and environmental studies, English literature courses that focus on nature, or parks and recreation courses interested in how visitors experience a nature center, park, or natural area.”—D. Ostergren ChoiceTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Reading the Forested Landscape: Where to Begin (Ian Marshall)Site 1: Twin BridgesOn Orange Teeth and Busy Beavers (Scott Weidensaul)Dams and Lushness (David Gessner)The Insistence of Forests (Hannah Inglesby)In Search of Signs (Michael P. Branch)Site 2: The Sawmill Site The Mill and the Hemlocks (Scott Weidensaul)Looking into the Past: The Rudy Sawmill (Jacy Marshall-McKelvey)Nothing Remains the Same (Marcia Bonta)The Saw (Perpetual) Mill (Julianne Lutz Warren)Site 3: The Chestnut OrchardWhich Side Are You On? (Michael P. Branch)Reflections on Ecology from the Chestnut Grove (Carolyn Mahan)The Chestnut Plantation (John Lane)Almost Lost (Katie Fallon)Site 4: The Dark Cliffy SpotThe Dark Cliffy Place: A Fiction Fragment in Imitation of Cormac McCarthy (David Gessner)Song for the Unnamed Creek (David Taylor)Naming a Place, Placing a Name (Michael P. Branch)Reflections on Ecology at the Dark Cliffy Spot (Carolyn Mahan)Site 5: The Bluebird TrailBattleground (Scott Weidensaul)Plotlines, Transitions, and Ecotones (Ian Marshall)Caught in the Web (John Lane)A New Sound (Katie Fallon)Site 6: Lake Perez The Lake on Ice (Ian Marshall)Wet Earth (Todd Davis)Spring Melt (Todd Davis)Lake Perez: Reflections (Julianne Lutz Warren)Fog on Lake Perez (John Lane)Site 7: The Lake TrailClockwise Around the Lake (Ian Marshall)Circumambulating the Lake (David Gessner)The Work of Walking (David Taylor)A Place for Exuberance (Hannah Inglesby)A Little Quiet, Please (Marcia Bonta)Site 8 : The Raptor CenterEarning Intimacy at the Raptor Center (David Taylor)Eagle Acquaintances (Hannah Inglesby)The Raptor (Eye) Center (Julianne Lutz Warren)I Remember a Bird (Katie Fallon)Bibliography About the Contributors
£16.10
Pennsylvania State University Press Fragments from the History of Loss
Book SynopsisExamines the theoretical framing of “nature” in South Africa and beyond. Analyzes myths and fantasies that have brought the world to a point of climate catastrophe and continue to shape the narratives through which it is understood.Trade Review“Louise Green has compiled an important collection of analyses, focusing on the problem of nature in the age of climate change, and relating this to cultural circumstances in colonial and postcolonial Africa. These fascinating, well-researched, and surprisingly original studies show how nature is produced as a cultural relic in late capitalist society. Her book is an important contribution to the fields of Anthropocene studies, African studies, and cultural studies.”—John Noyes,author of Herder: Aesthetics Against Imperialism“What if the Anthropocene means the end of Third World futures, a shift from freedom to responsibility? In Fragments from the History of Loss, Louise Green shows how nature is produced as concept, commodity, and alibi for exploitation. With bracing nuance and salutary attention to inequality and immiseration, this scintillating book sifts through slices of time and fragments of nature in order to assemble shards of wisdom for living—lightly, with less—in the Anthropocene. An indispensable rejoinder to depoliticizing, universalist accounts of environmental crisis.”—Jennifer Wenzel,author of The Disposition of Nature: Environmental Crisis and World Literature“This brief but thought-provoking study challenges readers to view nature through a broad "constellation" . . . of historical and contemporary elements that illustrate the ways humans created a nature industry to reflect their interests rather than as something objectively natural.”—A. S. MacKinnon Choice“This book is an extraordinary curation of the relationship between the global nature industry and the postcolony. It embroiders seemingly unrelated moments and places them into a compelling whole, from the extinction of the mammoth and the ironies of a shopping bag promoting the plight of Africa’s wild dogs, to personal observations of queuing for water at Cape Town’s public fountain and the history of the Land Rover in South Africa.”—Jasmin Kirkbride Green Letters: Studies in EcocriticismTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgments1. The Nature Industry2. Nature in Fragments3. Living in the Subjunctive4. The Primitive Accumulation of Nature5. The Cult of the Wild6. Privatizing Nature7. Living at the End of NatureNotesReferencesIndex
£22.46
Pennsylvania State University Press Oil Fictions World Literature and Our
Book SynopsisExplores literature and film about petroleum as a genre of world literature, focusing on the ubiquity of oil as well as the cultural response to petroleum in postcolonial states. Trade Review“This excellent collection not only provides an authoritative introduction to petrofiction’s key texts, conceptual debates, and critical methodologies but also extends the range and scope of that work. In their impressive expansion of the geographical ambit and theoretical concerns of oil fiction, particularly into the Global South, these essays offer new and hitherto underrealized perspectives. They are what the field has been waiting for.”—Graeme Macdonald,coauthor of Combined and Uneven Development: Toward a New Theory of World-Literature“Oil Fictions covers considerable ground in analyzing oil fiction as well as identifying new sensibilities associated with oil’s fantasy of progress and well-being.”—Sofia Ahlberg ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and EnvironmentTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Reading Our Contemporary PetrosphereStacey Balkan and Swaralipi Nandi1. Petrofiction, RevisitedAmitav Ghosh2. Energy and Autonomy: Worker Struggles and the Evolution of Energy SystemsAshley Dawson3. Gendering Petrofiction: Energy, Imperialism, and Social ReproductionSharae Deckard4. Petrofeminism: Love in the Age of OilHelen Kapstein5. “We Are Pipeline People”: Nnedi Okorafor’s Ecocritical SpeculationsWendy W. Walters6. Petro-drama in the Niger Delta: Ben Binebai’s My Life in the Burning Creeks and Oil’s “Refuse of History”Henry Obi Ajumeze7. Documenting “Cheap Nature” in Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace: A Petro-aesthetic CritiqueStacey Balkan8. Aestheticizing Absurd Extraction: Petro-capitalism in Deepak Unnikrishnan’s “In Mussafah Grew People”Swaralipi Nandi9. Petro-cosmopolitics: Oil and the Indian Ocean in Amitav Ghosh’s The Circle of Reason Micheal Angelo Rumore10. Xerodrome Lube: Cyclonic Geopoetics and Petropolytical War MachinesSimon Ryle11. Oil Gets Everywhere: Critical Representations of the Petroleum Industry in Spanish American LiteratureScott DeVries12. Conjectures on World Energy LiteratureImre Szeman13. Petrofiction as Stasis in Abdelrahman Munif’s Cities of Salt and Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland Corbin HidayMemoirs and Interviews14. Assessing the Veracity of the Gulf Dreams: An Interview with Author BenyaminMaya Vinai15. Testimonies from the Permian BasinKristen Figgins, Rebecca Babcock, and Sheena StiefAfterwordContributorsIndex
£88.36
Pennsylvania State University Press Environment Society and The Compleat Angler
Book SynopsisAnalyzes the environmental and social complexities of Izaak Walton’s famous fishing treatise The Compleat Angler. Examines the complex portrayal of the natural world through an ecocritical lens and explores other neglected aspects of Walton’s writings, including his depictions of social hierarchy, gender, and sexuality.Trade Review“One of the earliest and most popular precursors of nature writing in English has at last received the critical attention it deserves. Marjorie Swann's book is arguably the most complete study of The Compleat Angler ever written—and a vital corrective to outdated New Historicist interpretations. It makes an invaluable contribution to Walton studies and early modern ecocriticism.”—Todd Andrew Borlik,author of Ecocriticism and Early Modern English Literature: Green Pastures
£88.36
Reader's Digest Rd Natures Mighty Power Extreme Weather
Book Synopsis
£4.42
University of Texas Press Habitat Conservation Planning
Book SynopsisThis pioneering study focuses on a new tool for resolving the land-use conflict--the creation of habitat conservation plans.Trade ReviewOverall, I strongly recommend it for geographers and planners interested in conservation in and near urban areas, and for anyone who needs further evidence of the very real difficulties involved in finding 'win-win' outcomes to conflicts in the United States between economic development and biodiversity protection. * Professional Geographer *Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1. Land Development and Endangered Species: Emerging Conflicts Chapter 2. The Federal Endangered Species Act: Key Provisions and Implications for Land Development Chapter 3. Overview of Past and Ongoing Habitat Conservation Plans and Processes Chapter 4. The Politics of Habitat Conservation Planning: Key Actors and Perspectives Chapter 5. Habitat Conservation Plans to Protect Butterflies and Other Invertebrate Species: San Bruno Mountain and Beyond Chapter 6. Conserving Habitat for a Threatened Desert Lizard: The Coachella Valley Habitat Conservation Plan Chapter 7. Habitat Conservation in the Florida Keys: The North Key Largo Habitat Conservation Plan Chapter 8. Protecting Migratory Songbirds: The Least Bell's Vireo Habitat Conservation Plan Chapter 9. Endangered Rats and Endangered Homeowners: The Affordable Housing/Species Clash in Riverside County Chapter 10. Preserving the Desert Tortoise: The Clark County Habitat Conservation Plan Chapter 11. Preserving the Kit Fox and Other Flora and Fauna of the San Joaquin Valley: The Bakersfield and Kern County Habitat Conservation Plans Chapter 12. The Promise of Regional, Multi-species Approaches: The Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan Chapter 13. Evaluating the Success of Habitat Conservation Efforts: Lessons Learned and Recommendations for the Future Notes Index
£17.99
University of Texas Press Rethinking Urban Parks Public Space and Cultural
Book SynopsisA study of five major urban parks, including New York's Prospect Park and Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, that offers a blueprint for promoting and maintaining cultural diversity in parks around the world.Table of Contents Acknowledgments Chapter 1. The Cultural Life of Large Urban Spaces Chapter 2. Urban Parks: History and Social Context Chapter 3. Prospect Park: Diversity at Risk Chapter 4. The Ellis Island Bridge Proposal: Cultural Values, Park Access, and Economics Chapter 5. Jacob Riis Park: Conflicts in the Use of a Historical Landscape Chapter 6. Orchard Beach in Pelham Bay Park: Parks and Symbolic Expression Chapter 7. Independence National Historical Park: Recapturing Erased Histories Chapter 8. Anthropological Methods for Assessing Cultural Values Chapter 9. Conclusion: Lessons on Culture and Diversity Notes References Cited Index
£17.99
University of Texas Press Inferno
Book SynopsisOne of America''s foremost environmental writers joins with an acclaimed landscape photographer to create an unmatched portrait of the Sonoran Desert in all its harsh beauty. Winner, Southwest Book Award, Border Regional Library Association, 2007 Runner-up, Honorable Mention, Orion Book Award, 2007Charles Bowden has been an outspoken advocate for the desert Southwest since the 1970s. Recently his activism helped persuade the U.S. government to create the Sonoran Desert National Monument in southern Arizona. But in working for environmental preservation, Bowden refuses to be one who 'outline[s] something straightforward, a manifesto with clear rules and a set of plans for others to follow.' In this deeply personal book, he brings the Sonoran Desert alive, not as a place where well-meaning people can go to enjoy 'nature,' but as a raw reality that defies bureaucratic and even literary attempts to define it, that can only be experienced through the senseTable of Contents How This Book Came to Pass fair warning strike a match bones singing
£31.50
