Earth Sciences, Geography & Environment

Energy Systems and Sustainability provides an exploration of the economic, social, environmental, and policy issues raised by current systems of energy use, as well as describing their key physical and engineering features. From an overview of the historical evolution of the world's energy systems, through the principles underlying their use, to future prospects and sustainability, this comprehensive text provides thorough coverage of contemporary energy conversion systems and their impact on society and the environment. The engaging writing style and frequent use of illustrations makes the text accessible for students of all backgrounds and levels. Feature boxes throughout the text present explanations of the more advanced topics and detailed energy arithmetic is addressed in the appendix. The new edition has been thoroughly updated to include the most recent statistics and developments in this rapidly moving field. Digital formats and resources Energy Systems and Sustainability is available for students and institutions to purchase in a variety of formats. The e-book offers a mobile experience and convenient access along with functionality tools, navigation features, and links that offer extra learning support: www.oxfordtextbooks.co.uk/ebooks The online resources to accompany Energy Systems and Sustainability include: For students: · Links to sources of further information and up-to-date energy statistics · Self-assessment questions For registered adopters of the book: · Figures from the book, available for download

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In 1528, a mission set out from Spain to colonize Florida. But the expedition went horribly wrong: Delayed by a hurricane, knocked off course by a colossal error of navigation, and ultimately doomed by a disastrous decision to separate the men from their ships, the mission quickly became a desperate journey of survival. Of the three hundred men who had embarked on the journey, only four survived,three Spaniards and an African slave. This tiny band endured a horrific march through Florida, a harrowing raft passage across the Louisiana coast, and years of enslavement in the American Southwest. They journeyed for almost ten years in search of the Pacific Ocean that would guide them home, and they were forever changed by their experience. The men lived with a variety of nomadic Indians and learned several indigenous languages. They saw lands, peoples, plants, and animals that no outsider had ever seen before. In this enthralling tale of four castaways wandering in an unknown land, Andrés Reséndez brings to life the vast, dynamic world of North America just a few years before European settlers would transform it forever.

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‘Trees are wildlife just as deer or primroses are wildlife. Each species has its own agenda and its own interactions with human activities …’ Written by one of Britain’s best-known naturalists, Woodlands offers a fascinating new insight into the trees of the British landscape that have filled us with awe and inspiration throughout the centuries. Looking at such diverse evidence as the woods used in buildings and ships, and how woodland has been portrayed in pictures and photographs, Rackham traces British woodland through the ages, from the evolution of wildwood, through man’s effect on the landscape, modern forestry and its legacy, and recent conservation efforts and their effects. In his lively and thoroughly engaging style, Rackham explores woodlands and their history, through names, surveys, mapping and legal documents, archaeology, photographs and works of art, thus offering an utterly compelling insight into British woodlands and how they have come to shape a national obsession.

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There is an enormous need to map cities, rivers, coasts, roads, industrial installations and infrastructure in general, and also vulnerable areas in full three dimensions. It has to be done accurately and in detail. The main technologies for detailed 3D mapping are based on imaging devices (photogrammetry) and Lidar sensors (laser scanning). These geodata acquisition technologies routinely acquire point clouds of billions of points and have matured rapidly since the mid-1990s. They have become key geodata sources for 3D city modelling, creation of digital twins and smart cities, and inspection of roads, railways, and natural features. Many GIS analysts extensively use point clouds in the form of digital elevation models. Pointcloudmetry is the specialized branch of geomatics that encompasses the acquisition and processing of point clouds captured by Lidar devices as well as point clouds derived from photogrammetric images. The technology allows accurate and detailed geo-information about earth-related objects, including the bare earth surface, to be obtained. This book covers the entire chain from the principles of geo-referencing and the basics of electromagnetic energy up to the generation of 2.5D and 3D geoinformation. The book provides vital knowledge about the fundamentals, idiosyncrasies and unparalleled potential of point cloud technology and is an indispensable aid to acquiring competent knowledge on the processing steps necessary for converting raw data into high quality 3D geo-information.

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Waste is one of the planet’s last great resource frontiers. From furniture made from up-cycled wood to gold extracted from computer circuit boards, artisans and multinational corporations alike are finding ways to profit from waste while diverting materials from overcrowded landfills. Yet beyond these benefits, this “new” resource still poses serious risks to human health and the environment. In this unique book, Kate O’Neill traces the emergence of the global political economy of wastes over the past two decades. She explains how the emergence of waste governance initiatives and mechanisms can help us deal with both the risks and the opportunities associated with the hundreds of millions – possibly billions – of tons of waste we generate each year. Drawing on a range of fascinating case studies to develop her arguments, including China’s role as the primary recipient of recyclable plastics and scrap paper from the Western world, “Zero-Waste” initiatives, the emergence of transnational waste-pickers’ alliances, and alternatives for managing growing volumes of electronic and food wastes, O’Neill shows how waste can be a risk, a resource, and even a livelihood, with implications for governance at local, national, and global levels.

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'With a dazzling command of science and a relentless faith in people, George Monbiot writes about social change with his eyes wide open' Naomi Klein'A manifesto for change ... The combination of practical detail and creative thinking is immensely impressive' P. D. Smith, GuardianWe know that climate change is happening. We know that it could, if the worst predictions come true, destroy the conditions which make human life possible. Only one question is now worth asking: can it be stopped? In Heat, George Monbiot shows that it can.In every case, he supports his proposals with a rigorous investigation into what works, what doesn't, how much it costs and what the problems might be. He wages war on bad ideas as energetically as he promotes good ones. He is not afraid to attack anyone - friend or foe - whose claims are false or whose figures have been fudged. Heat also contains a breath-taking new exposure of the corporations trying to stop us from taking action.

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This textbook explains how mountains are formed and why there are old and young mountains. It provides a reconstruction of the Earths paleogeography and shows why the shapes of South America and Africa fit so well together. Furthermore, it explains why the Pacific is surrounded by a ring of volcanos and earthquake-prone areas while the edges of the Atlantic are relatively peaceful.This thoroughly revised textbook edition addresses all these questions and more through the presentation and explanation of the geodynamic processes upon which the theory of continental drift is based and which have led to the concept of plate tectonics. It is a source of information for students of geology, geophysics, geography, geosciences in general, general natural sciences, as well as professionals, and interested layman.

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In this groundbreaking work, two world-renowned scholars argue that ecological destruction and industrial catastrophes constitute a direct threat to everyday life, the maintenance of which has been made the particular responsibility of women. In both industrialized societies and the developing countries, the new wars the world is experiencing, violent ethnic chauvinisms and the malfunctioning of the economy also pose urgent questions for ecofeminists. Is there a relationship between patriarchal oppression and the destruction of nature in the name of profit and progress? How can women counter the violence inherent in these processes? Should they look to a link between the women's movement and other social movements? Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva offer a thought-provoking analysis of these and many other issues from a unique North-South perspective. They critique prevailing economic theories, conventional concepts of women's emancipation, the myth of 'catching up' development, the philosophical foundations of modern science and technology, and the omission of ethics when discussing so many questions, including advances in reproductive technology and biotechnology. In constructing their own ecofeminist epistemology and methodology, these two internationally respected feminist environmental activists look to the potential of movements advocating consumer liberation and subsistence production, sustainability and regeneration. They argue for an acceptance of limits and reciprocity and a rejection of exploitation, the endless commoditization of needs, and violence.

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Ruth Allen PhD is a qualified psychotherapist, writer, and an experienced trainer and facilitator. Originally trained as a geologist, with a doctorate in Himalayan mountain-building, she now specialises in movement and nature-based practice, nature connection and relational embodiment. She is a supervisory director for 'Rooted for Girls' , a unique woodland-based psycho-educational programme for teenage girls in the North of England, and is influential in the UK outdoor therapy field, offering training to new practitioners and trainees as well as offering expert consultation. In her spare time, she is a keen mountain adventurer. Her first book, the illustrated title Grounded, was published in 2021 to critical acclaim.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 'Compelling, fascinating, sometimes unexpectedly moving, this vitally important book is, above all, a springboard for hope and transformation.' –Isabella Tree, author of Wilding 'Do your imagination, your activism, your sense of what’s possible a favour, and swim in this book.' –Rob Hopkins, author of From What Is to What If In a time of uncertainty about our environmental future—an eye-opening global tour of some of the most wounded places on earth, and stories of how a passionate group of eco-restorers is leading the way to their revitalisation. Award-winning science journalist Judith D. Schwartz takes us first to China’s Loess Plateau, where a landmark project has successfully restored a blighted region the size of Belgium, lifting millions of people out of poverty. She journeys on to Norway, where a young indigenous reindeer herder challenges the most powerful orthodoxies of conservation—and his own government. And in the Middle East, she follows the visionary work of an ambitious young American as he attempts to re-engineer the desert ecosystem, using plants as his most sophisticated technology. Schwartz explores regenerative solutions across a range of landscapes: deserts, grasslands, tropics, tundra, Mediterranean. She also highlights various human landscapes, the legacy of colonialism and industrial agriculture, and the endurance of indigenous knowledge. The Reindeer Chronicles demonstrates how solutions to seemingly intractable problems can come from the unlikeliest of places, and how the restoration of local water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles can play a dramatic role in stabilizing the global climate. Ultimately, it reveals how much is in our hands if we can find a way to work together and follow nature’s lead.

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A TIMES AND TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR'Beautifully written, movingly told and meticulously researched ... a convincing plea for a wilder, richer world' Isabella Tree, author of Wilding'By the time I'd read the first chapter, I'd resolved to take my son into the woods every afternoon over winter. By the time I'd read the sixth, I was wanting to break prisoners out of cells and onto the mossy moors. Losing Eden rigorously and convincingly tells of the value of the natural universe to our human hearts' Amy Liptrot, author of The OutrunToday many of us live indoor lives, disconnected from the natural world as never before. And yet nature remains deeply ingrained in our language, culture and consciousness. For centuries, we have acted on an intuitive sense that we need communion with the wild to feel well. Now, in the moment of our great migration away from the rest of nature, more and more scientific evidence is emerging to confirm its place at the heart of our psychological wellbeing. So what happens, asks acclaimed journalist Lucy Jones, as we lose our bond with the natural world-might we also be losing part of ourselves? Delicately observed and rigorously researched, Losing Eden is an enthralling journey through this new research, exploring how and why connecting with the living world can so drastically affect our health. Travelling from forest schools in East London to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault via primeval woodlands, Californian laboratories and ecotherapists' couches, Jones takes us to the cutting edge of human biology, neuroscience and psychology, and discovers new ways of understanding our increasingly dysfunctional relationship with the earth. Urgent and uplifting, Losing Eden is a rallying cry for a wilder way of life - for finding asylum in the soil and joy in the trees - which might just help us to save the living planet, as well as ourselves.

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The first hopeful book about climate change, The Future Earth shows readers how to reverse the short- and long-term effects of climate change over the next three decades.The basics of climate science are easy. We know it is entirely human-caused. Which means its solutions will be similarly human-led. In The Future Earth, leading climate change advocate and weather-related journalist Eric Holthaus (“the Rebel Nerd of Meteorology”—Rolling Stone) offers a radical vision of our future, specifically how to reverse the short- and long-term effects of climate change over the next three decades. Anchored by world-class reporting, interviews with futurists, climatologists, biologists, economists, and climate change activists, it shows what the world could look like if we implemented radical solutions on the scale of the crises we face. What could happen if we reduced carbon emissions by 50 percent in the next decade? What could living in a city look like in 2030? How could the world operate in 2040, if the proposed Green New Deal created a 100 percent net carbon-free economy in the United States? This is the book for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the current state of our environment. Hopeful and prophetic, The Future Earth invites us to imagine how we can reverse the effects of climate change in our own lifetime and encourages us to enter a deeper relationship with the earth as conscientious stewards and to re-affirm our commitment to one another in our shared humanity.

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A NPR Best Book of 2023A Shelf Awareness Best Nonfiction Book of 2023An August 2023 Indie Next Pick, selected by booksellersA Vogue Most Anticipated Book of 2023A WBUR Summer Reading RecommendationA Next Big Idea Club's August 2023 Must-Read BookAn astonishing, vital book about Antarctica, climate change, and motherhood from the author of Rising, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.In 2019, fifty-seven scientists and crew set out onboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer. Their destination: Thwaites Glacier. Their goal: to learn as much as possible about this mysterious place, never before visited by humans, and believed to be both rapidly deteriorating and capable of making a catastrophic impact on global sea-level rise.In The Quickening, Elizabeth Rush documents their voyage, offering the sublime—seeing an iceberg for the first time; the staggering waves of the Drake Passage; the torqued, unfamiliar contours of Thwaites—alongside the workaday moments of this groundbreaking expedition. A ping-pong tournament at sea. Long hours in the lab. All the effort that goes into caring for and protecting human life in a place that is inhospitable to it. Along the way, she takes readers on a personal journey around a more intimate question: What does it mean to bring a child into the world at this time of radical change?What emerges is a new kind of Antarctica story, one preoccupied not with flag planting but with the collective and challenging work of imagining a better future. With understanding the language of a continent where humans have only been present for two centuries. With the contributions and concerns of women, who were largely excluded from voyages until the last few decades, and of crew members of color, whose labor has often gone unrecognized. The Quickening teems with their voices—with the colorful stories and personalities of Rush’s shipmates—in a thrilling chorus.Urgent and brave, absorbing and vulnerable, The Quickening is another essential book from Elizabeth Rush.

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'Fast paced and energetic' Financial Times'Punchy, provocative and wonderfully readable' - David Shukman'Eye-popping and essential' - Rowan Hooper'A must-read' - Peter Stott Have you heard that you should plant trees to save the planet? Or buy carbon offsets when you fly? Or recycle plastic? Go vegan? Or not have children? What if all these actions were a distraction, no matter how well-intentioned?In this provocative manifesto, Assaad Razzouk shows that for too long our ideas about what's best for the environment have been unfocused and distracted, trying to go in too many directions and concentrating on individual behaviour. While some of these things can be useful, they are dwarfed by one big thing that simply has to happen very soon if we're to avoid major environmental breakdown: curtailing the activities of the fossil fuel industry.Full of counter-intuitive statistics and positive suggestions for individual and collective action, this ingenious book will change how you view the climate crisis.

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Introduction to Sustainability, Second Edition, reviews all the major themes in the cutting-edge field of sustainability. The book is suitable for introductory interdisciplinary courses on sustainability, as well as those in the fields of geography, geology, sociology, planning, political science, and anthropology. Allowing students to see the world in new ways while also encouraging them to become part of the change needed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the planet, this book is an invaluable introduction to this multifaceted and ever-changing subject. Now fully revised and updated, this second edition includes new material on the most recent developments in the field of sustainability; environmental sustainability issues like water, food, and energy; social sustainability themes like environmental justice and transportation; and economic sustainability topics like green businesses and economic development. The book concludes with a chapter on sustainability issues in college and universities. Brinkmann intersperses many fascinating case studies and text boxes that encourage students to deeply explore the material. This is a book that not only organizes the complex field of sustainability, but also encourages students to take action to make the world a better place.

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Winner of the 2019 Turku Book Award from the European Society for Environmental History The Albufera Natural Park, an area ten kilometers south of Valencia that is widely regarded as the birthplace of paella, has long been prized by residents and visitors alike. Since the twentieth century, the disparate visions of city dwellers, farmers, fishermen, scientists, politicians, and tourists have made this working landscape a site of ongoing conflict over environmental conservation in Europe, the future of Spain, and Valencian identity. In Cultivating Nature, Sarah Hamilton explores the Albufera’s contested lands and waters, which have supported and been transformed by human activity for a millennium, in order to understand regional, national, and global social histories. She argues that efforts to preserve biological and cultural diversity must incorporate the interests of those who live within heavily modified and long-exploited ecosystems such as the Albufera de Valencia. Shifting between local struggles and global debates, this fascinating environmental history reveals how Franco’s dictatorship, Spain’s integration with Europe, and the crisis in European agriculture have shaped the Albufera, its users, and its inhabitants.

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Britain was once the leading economy in Europe; it is now the most unequal. In Shattered Nation, leading geographer and author of Inequality and the 1% shows that we are growing further and further apart. Visiting sites across the British Isles and exploring the social fissures that have emerged, Danny Dorling exposes a new geography of inequality. Middle England has been hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis, and even people doing comparatively well are struggling to stay afloat. Once affluent suburbs are now unproductive places where opportunity has been replaced by food banks. Before COVID, life expectancy had dropped as a result of poverty for the first time since the 1930s.Fifty years ago the UK led the world in child health; today, twenty-two of the twenty-seven EU countries have better mortality rates for newborns. No other European country has such miserly unemployment benefits; university fees so high; housing so unaffordable; or a government economically so far to the right. In the spirit of the 1942 Beveridge Report, Dorling identifies the five giants of twenty-first-century poverty that need to be conquered: Hunger, Precarity, Waste, Exploitation, and Fear. He offers powerful insights into how we got here and what we must do in order to save Britain from becoming a failed state.

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As climate change begins to take a serious toll on the planet--with much more damage yet to come--a solution to our warming problems is hiding in plain sight. We need to commit to de-carbonizing our economy, and do so immediately, but so far we have lacked the courage to really try.Our fears of nuclear energy have grown irrationally large, even as our fears of climate change are irrationally small.In this clear-sighted and compelling book, Joshua Goldstein and Steffan Qvist come bearing good news: a real solution, one that is fast, cheap, and provably works. Based on Sweden's success cutting their carbon emissions in half, Goldstein and Qvist argue for a policy that combines nuclear and renewable energy sources. From 1970-1990, Sweden replaced coal power plants with nuclear ones, and slowly integrated renewable energy alongside it. During that same time period, the country generated more electricity than ever and its economy grew by 50 percent. They have had no nuclear accidents, nor has any of their uranium been stolen by terrorists.Separating facts from doomsday scenarios, Goldstein and Qvist force a real and meaningful dialogue about what the best energy policy is, and the dangers of remaining on our present path. And they offer an answer that really could work--if only we'd give it a try.

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This ground-breaking Encyclopedia provides a nuanced overview of the key concepts of urban and regional planning and design. Embracing a broad understanding of planning and design within and beyond the professions, it examines what planners and designers can do in and for a community. Covering both classic and novel planning theories, this Encyclopedia adopts an evolutionary perspective, reflecting on the changing meanings of terms over time. Featuring over 140 contributions drawn from diverse fields, it highlights the cross-disciplinary nature of planning and design. Contributors give practical insight into the field, and advance scientific knowledge and public conversation on planning and design.The Elgar Encyclopedia in Urban and Regional Planning and Design will be an essential resource for students and scholars of planning, design, urban studies and governance. It will also be highly useful for practitioners and civil servants seeking to deepen their understanding of public works, planning and environmental policy.Key Features: Critical perspectives on core concepts and debates Reflection on how to avoid reproducing current power/knowledge relations Explores connections between fields and disciplines in planning and design Extensive cross-referencing between entries

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Global climate change is one of the most important issues humanity faces today. This updated, second edition assesses the sensible, senseless and biased proposals for averting the potentially disastrous consequences of global warming, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions on switching to more sustainable energy provision. Burton Richter is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who has served on many US and international review committees on climate change and energy issues. He provides a concise overview of our knowledge and uncertainties within climate change science, discusses current energy demand and supply patterns, and the energy options available to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. Written in non-technical language, this book presents a balanced view of options for moving from our heavy reliance on fossil fuels into a much more sustainable energy system, and is accessible to a wide range of readers without scientific backgrounds - students, policymakers and the concerned citizen.

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This book serves as a guide for those seeking a profound understanding of regenerative design principles, offering practical insights and techniques to implement sustainable methodologies on the farm, smallholding and even the back garden. Caters to farmers, agricultural practitioners, home-growers and anyone engaged in where their food comes from.

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A funny, snarky, and engaging guide to getting a better biking city.Urban designer Mikael Colville-Andersen draws from his experience working for dozens of cities around the world on bicycle planning, strategy, infrastructure design, and communication. In Copenhagenize he shows cities how to effectively and profitably re-establish the bicycle as a respected, accepted, and feasible form of transportation.Building on his popular blog of the same name, Copenhagenize offers entertaining stories, vivid project descriptions, and best practices, alongside beautiful and informative visuals to show how to make the bicycle an easy, preferred part of everyday urban life.

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Shows the solid geology. Details of overlying drift deposits may be omitted or shown only in outline.

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Introduction toGeographic Information Systems, 9th edition is designed to provide students in a first orsecond GIS course with a solid foundation in both GIS concepts and the use ofGIS. Introduction to GIS strikes a careful balance between GIS concepts andhands-on applications. The main portion of the chapter presents GIS terms andconcepts and helps students learn how each one fits into a complete GIS system.At the end of each chapter, an application section with 2-7 tasks presentsstudents with actual GIS exercises and the necessary data to solve the problem.

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This book is about how climate science works and why you should absolutely trust some of its conclusions and absolutely distrust others. Climate change raises new, foundational challenges in science. It requires us to question what we know and how we know it. The subject is important for society but the science is young and history tells us that scientists can get things wrong before they get them right. How, then, can we judge what information is reliable and what is open to question? Stainforth goes to the heart of the climate change problem to answer this question. He describes the fundamental characteristics of climate change and shows how they undermine the application of traditional research methods, demanding new approaches to both scientific and societal questions. He argues for a rethinking of how we go about the study of climate change in the physical sciences, the social sciences, economics, and policy. The subject requires nothing less than a restructuring of academic research to enable integration of expertise across diverse disciplines and perspectives. An effective global response to climate change relies on us agreeing about the underlying, foundational, scientific knowledge. Our universities and research institutes fail to provide the necessary clarity - they fail to separate the robust from the questionable - because they do not acknowledge the peculiar and unique challenges of climate prediction. Furthermore, the widespread availability of computer simulations often leads to research becoming divorced from understanding, something that risks undermining the relevance of research conclusions. This book takes the reader on a journey through the maths of complexity, the physics of climate, philosophical questions regarding the origins and robustness of knowledge, and the use of natural science in the economics and policy of climate change.

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For many years, planetary science has been taught as part of the astronomy curriculum, from a very physics-based perspective, and from the framework of a tour of the Solar System - body by body. Over the past decades, however, spacecraft exploration and related laboratory research on extraterrestrial materials have given us a new understanding of planets and how they are shaped by geological processes. Based on a course taught at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, this is the first textbook to focus on geologic processes, adopting a comparative approach that demonstrates the similarities and differences between planets, and the reasons for these. Profusely illustrated, and with a wealth of pedagogical features, this book provides an ideal capstone course for geoscience majors - bringing together aspects of mineralogy, petrology, geochemistry, volcanology, sedimentology, geomorphology, tectonics, geophysics and remote sensing.

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The evolution of sustainability, with a practical framework for integration Regenerative Development and Design takes sustainability to the next level, and provides a framework for incorporating regenerative design principles into your current process. The Regenesis Group is a coalition of experienced design, land-use, planning, business, and development professionals who represent the forefront of the movement; in this book, they explain what regenerative development is, how and why it works, and how you can incorporate the fundamental principles into your practice. A clear, focused framework shows you how to merge regenerative concepts with your existing work, backed by numerous examples that guide practical application while illustrating regenerative design and development in action. As the most comprehensive and systemic approach to regenerative development, this book is a must-have resource for architects, planners, and designers seeking the next step in sustainability. Regenerative design and development positions humans as co-creative and mutually-evolving participants in an ecosystem—not just a built environment. This book describes how to bring that focus to your design from the earliest stages. Understand the fundamentals of regenerative design and development Learn how regenerative development contributes to sustainability Integrate regenerative development concepts into practice Examine sample designs that embody the regenerative concept To create a design with true sustainability, considerations must extend far beyond siting, materials, and efficiency. Designers must look at the place, it's inhabitants, and the purpose—the whole living ecosystem—and proceed with their work from that more humbling perspective. The finished product should itself be an ecosystem and sustainable economy, which is the root of the regenerative development approach. Sustainability has evolved, and the designer's responsibility has increased in kind. Regenerative Development and Design provides an authoritative resource for those ready to take the next step forward.

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The little-known story of the systems that bring us our drinking water, how they were developed, the problems they are facing, and how they will be reinvented Turn on the faucet, and water pours out. Pull out the drain plug, and the dirty water disappears. Most of us give little thought to the hidden systems that bring us water and take it away when we’re done with it. But these underappreciated marvels of engineering face an array of challenges that cannot be solved without a fundamental change to our relationship with water, David Sedlak explains in this enlightening book. To make informed decisions about the future, we need to understand the three revolutions in urban water systems that have occurred over the past 2,500 years and the technologies that will remake the system. The author starts by describing Water 1.0, the early Roman aqueducts, fountains, and sewers that made dense urban living feasible. He then details the development of drinking water and sewage treatment systems—the second and third revolutions in urban water. He offers an insider’s look at current systems that rely on reservoirs, underground pipe networks, treatment plants, and storm sewers to provide water that is safe to drink, before addressing how these water systems will have to be reinvented. For everyone who cares about reliable, clean, abundant water, this book is essential reading.

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The classic study of changing attitudes toward wilderness during American history and the origins of the environmental and conservation movements“The Book of Genesis for conservationists”—Dave Foreman Since its initial publication in 1967, Roderick Nash's Wilderness and the American Mind has received wide acclaim. The Los Angeles Times listed it among the one hundred most influential books published in the last quarter century, Outside Magazine included it in a survey of “books that changed our world,” and it has been called the “Book of Genesis for environmentalists.” For the fifth edition, Nash has written a new preface and epilogue that brings Wilderness and the American Mind into dialogue with contemporary debates about wilderness. Char Miller’s foreword provides a twenty-first-century perspective on how the environmental movement has changed, including the ways in which contemporary scholars are reimagining the dynamic relationship between the natural world and the built environment.

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More than thirty years after the collapse of the USSR, the critique of state socialism is still used to deny alternatives to capitalism, irrespective of global capitalist ecological and social devastation. There is seemingly nothing worthwhile salvaging from decades of state socialist experiences. As the climate crisis deepens, Engel-Di Mauro argues that we need to re-evaluate the environmental practices and policies of state socialism, especially as they had more environmentally beneficial than destructive effects. Rather than dismissing state socialism's heritage out of hand, we should reclaim it for contemporary eco-socialist ends. By means of a comparative and multiple-scaled approach, Engel-Di Mauro points to highly diverse and environmentally constructive state socialist experiences. Taking the reader from the USSR to China and Cuba, this is a fiery and contentious look at what worked, what didn't, and how we can move towards an eco-socialist future.

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Recycling is good, isn’t it? In this visionary book, chemist Michael Braungart and architect William McDonough challenge this status quo and put forward a manifesto for an intriguing and radically different philosophy of environmentalism."Reduce, reuse, recycle”. This is the standard “cradle to grave” manufacturing model dating back to the Industrial Revolution that we still follow today. In this thought-provoking read, the authors propose that instead of minimising waste, we should be striving to create value. This is the essence of Cradle to Cradle: waste need not to exist at all. By providing a framework of redesign of everything from carpets to corporate campuses, McDonough and Braungart make a revolutionary yet viable case for change and for remaking the way we make things.

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Anti-trend investigates resilient, anti-trendy living and design as viable alternatives to the insatiable “more wants more” mantra of consumerism. The overall purpose with this book is to encourage designers and consumers to take responsibility for overproduction and overconsumption, and to alter unsustainable production and behavioral patterns. The anti-trendy design-object is designed to be used. It is created to nourish the user aesthetically on a long-term or short-term basis. It is alive in the sense that it is made to develop in accordance with human life—by either being alterable or perishable. The anti-trendy object supports a life worth sustaining. A life that contains wholesome rhythms and edifying challenges and isn’t dependent on consumption for pleasure. Anti-trendy living is a natural, fulfilling, and sustainable way to live. It may have many different expressions but is characterised by authenticity and meaningfulness. Reduction of consumption and long-term usage of things is a vital part of anti-trendy living—it involves mending and caring and maybe even sharing. Through an analysis of resilience and sustainability life in general and in design-objects the themes of the book unfold: intuition and anti-trend research, a life worth sustaining, existentialist despair, raw and resilient aesthetics, sustainable storytelling, legitimisations for designing products in a world with too many things, democratic sustainability, craft innovation, civil disobedience, and collaborative consumption.

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A quantitative, broad, hands-on introduction to the cutting-edge science of global warmingThis textbook introduces undergraduates to the concepts and methods of global warming science, covering topics that they encounter in the news, ranging from the greenhouse effect and warming to ocean acidification, hurricanes, extreme precipitation, droughts, heat waves, forest fires, the cryosphere, and more. This book explains each of the issues based on basic statistical analysis, simple ordinary differential equations, or elementary chemical reactions. Each chapter explains the mechanisms behind an observed or anticipated change in the climate system and demonstrates the tools used to understand and predict them. Proven in the classroom, Global Warming Science also includes “workshops” with every chapter, each based on a Jupyter Python notebook and an accompanying small data set, with supplementary online materials and slides for instructors. The workshop can be used as an interactive learning element in class and as a homework assignment. Provides a clear, broad, quantitative yet accessible approach to the science of global warming Engages students in the analysis of climate data and models, examining predictions, and dealing with uncertainty Features workshops with each chapter that enhance learning through hands-on engagement Comes with supplementary online slides, code, and data files Requires only elementary undergraduate-level calculus and basic statistics; no prior coursework in science is assumed Solutions manual available (only to instructors)

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LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR CONSERVATION WRITING A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKA 2023 BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE GUARDIAN AND THE NEW YORKER ‘Captivating’ Literary Review‘Powerful’ New Scientist ‘Impressive’ Spectator‘Important’ Financial Times Waste is everywhere. It’s clogging our rivers and littering our streets. The Pacific Ocean contains a great garbage patch three times the size of France. Our junk is even orbiting the earth. No wonder there are microplastics in our bloodstreams. Waste, a problem we’ve ignored for too long, is now a global crisis – and it’s getting worse. From the landfills of New Delhi, to the second-hand clothing markets of Ghana and the overflowing sewers of Britain, join Oliver Frankl

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We know there's a climate emergency but what does that mean we should do? What does a 'better future' look like and how do we get there? Having spent over a decade on the frontlines of climate activism - organising, campaigning, and holding the powerful to account - Tamsin Omond discovered first-hand that this crisis is too big for one group of activists to solve. It needs everyone. Do Earth is about collective action and community engagement. It's about healing our relationships with nature, each other and ourselves; and feeling inspired about what the next phase of human evolution might be. With practical guidance and gentle encouragement, Do Earth provides a blueprint for reimagining the world and reviving our beautiful planet.

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In 2019, mobility experts Melissa and Chris Bruntlett began a new adventure in Delft in the Netherlands. They had packed up their family in Vancouver, BC, and moved to Delft to experience the cycling city as residents rather than as visitors. A year earlier they had become unofficial ambassadors for Dutch cities with the publication of their first book Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality. In Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives, Melissa and Chris Bruntlett chronicle their experience living in the Netherlands and the benefits that result from treating cars as visitors rather than owners of the road. They weave their personal story with research and interviews with experts and Delft locals to help readers share the experience of living in a city designed for people. In the planning field, little attention is given to the effects that a “low-car” city can have on the human experience at a psychological and sociological level. Studies are beginning to surface that indicate the impact that external factors, such as sound, can have on our stress and anxiety levels. Or how the systematic dismantling of freedom and autonomy for children and the elderly to travel through their cities is causing isolation and dependency. In Curbing Traffic, the Bruntletts explain why these investments in improving the built environment are about more than just getting from place to place more easily and comfortably. The insights will help decision makers and advocates to better understand and communicate the human impacts of low-car cities: lower anxiety and stress, increased independence, social autonomy, inclusion, and improved mental and physical wellbeing. The book is organised around the benefits that result from thoughtfully curbing traffic, resulting in a city that is: child-friendly, connected, trusting, feminist, quiet, therapeutic, accessible, prosperous, resilient, and age-friendly. Planners, public officials, and citizen activists should have a greater understanding of the consequences that building for cars has had on communities (of all sizes). Curbing Traffic provides relatable, emotional, and personal reasons why it matters and inspiration for exporting the low-car city.

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Conservationist Grant Fowlds lives to save and protect Africa's rhinos, elephants and other iconic wildlife, to preserve their habitats, to increase their range and bring back the animals where they have been decimated by decades of war, as in Angola, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This vivid account of his work tells of a fellow conservationist tragically killed by the elephants he was seeking to save and a face-off with poachers, impoverished rural people exploited by rapacious local businessmen. Fowlds describes the impact of the Covid pandemic on conservation efforts, the vital wildlife tourism that sustains these and rural communities; and tells of conservationists' efforts to support people through the crisis. Lockdowns may have brought a welcome lull in rhino and other poaching, but also brought precious tourism to a standstill. He shows how the pandemic has highlighted the danger to the world of the illicit trade in endangered wildlife, some of it sold in 'wet markets', where pathogens incubate and spread. He describes a restoration project of apartheid-era, ex-South African soldiers seeking to make reparations in Angola, engulfed for many years in a profoundly damaging civil war, which drew in outside forces, from Cuba, Russia and South Africa, with a catastophic impact on that country's wildlife. Those who fund conservation, whether in the US, Zambia or South Africa itself, are of vital importance to efforts to conserve and rewild: some supposed angel-investors turn out to be not what they had appeared, some are thwarted in their efforts, but others are open-hearted and generous in the extreme, which makes their sudden, unexpected death an even greater tragedy. A passionate desire to conserve nature has also brought conservationists previously active in far-off Venezuela to southern Africa. Fowlds describes fraught meetings to negotiate the coexistence of wildlife and rural communities. There are vivid accounts of the skilled and dangerous work of using helicopters to keep wildebeest, carrying disease, and cattle apart, and to keep elephants from damaging communal land and eating crops such as sugar cane. He tells of a project to restore Africa's previously vast herds of elephants, particularly the famed 'tuskers', with their unusually large tusks, once prized and hunted almost to extinction. The range expansion that this entails is key to enabling Africa's iconic wildlife to survive, to preserving its wilderness and, in turn, helping humankind to survive.There is a heartening look at conservation efforts in Mozambique, a country scarred by years of war, which are starting to bear fruit, though just as a new ISIS insurgency creates havoc in the north of the country. What will humanity's relationship with nature be post-pandemic? Will we have begun to learn that by conserving iconic wildlife and their habitats we help to preserve and restore precious pockets of wilderness, which are so vital not only the survival of wildlife, but to our own survival on our one precious planet.

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From John Muir to the Endangered Species Act, environmentalism in America has always had close to its core a preservationist ideal. Generations have been inspired by its ethos-to protect nature from the march of human development. But we have to face the facts. Accelerating climate change, rapid urbanization, agricultural and industrial devastation, metastasizing fire regimes, and other quickening anthropogenic forces all attest to the same truth: the earth is now spinning through the age of humans. After Preservation takes stock of the ways we have tried to both preserve and exploit nature to ask a direct but profound question: what is the role of preservationism in an era of seemingly unstoppable human development, in what some have called the Anthropocene? Ben A. Minteer and Stephen J. Pyne bring together a stunning consortium of voices comprised of renowned scientists, historians, philosophers, environmental writers, activists, policy makers, and land managers to negotiate the incredible challenges that environmentalism faces. Some call for a new, post-preservationist model, one that is far more pragmatic and human-centered. Others push back, arguing for a more chastened vision of human action on the earth. Some try to establish a middle ground, while others ruminate more deeply on the meaning and value of wilderness. Some write on species lost, others on species saved, and yet others discuss the enduring practical challenges of managing our land, water, and air. From spirited optimism to careful prudence to critical skepticism, the resulting range of approaches offers an inspiring contribution to the landscape of modern environmentalism, one driven by serious, sustained engagements with the critical problems we must solve if the planet is going to survive the era we have ushered in.

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For decades, conservation and research initiatives in tropical forests have focused almost exclusively on old-growth forests because scientists believed that these "pristine" ecosystems housed superior levels of biodiversity. With Second Growth, Robin L. Chazdon reveals those assumptions to be largely false, bringing to the fore the previously overlooked counterpart to old-growth forest: second growth. Even as human activities result in extensive fragmentation and deforestation, tropical forests demonstrate a great capacity for natural and human-aided regeneration. Although these damaged landscapes can take centuries to regain the characteristics of old growth, Chazdon shows here that regenerating-or second-growth-forests are vital, dynamic reservoirs of biodiversity and enviornmental services. What is more, they always have been. With chapters on the roles these forests play in carbon and nutrient cycling, sustaining biodiversity, providing timber and non-timber products, and integrated agriculture, Second Growth not only offers a thorough and wide-ranging overview of successional and restoration pathways, but also underscores the need to conserve, and further study, regenerating tropical forests in an attempt to inspire a new age of local and global stewardship.

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Garth Andrew Myers' work makes a significant contribution to a long tradition of research on colonial cities and a multidisciplinary body of literature on urban legacies of colonialism. He examines both colonial rule and postcolonial inheritance in these cities, tracing the legacies of colonialism in different and divergent postcolonial settingsa revolutionary left-wing socialist state (Zanzibar) and a reactionary right-wing dictatorship (Malawi). In addition to the examination of urban plans and the African urban majority's responses to them, the book traces the experience of the urban planning process through three different ""verandahs of power,"" or levels of class depiction: the colonial power, the colonized middle, and the urban majority. Interspersed with personal stories, this book illuminates our understanding of the workings of power in African cities by addressing human experiences of that power.

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Granite pegmatite crystals have long been admired by gem and mineral collectors as a source of fine specimens and gem materials. Pegmatites can host important deposits of ore minerals and industrial commodities, such as feldspar and mica. Their physical and chemical complexity presents daunting challenges to researchers who seek to better understand their nature and origins. With 209 stunning color photos and clear, authoritative text, this book provides a thorough discussion. Chapters cover pegmatite forms and distributions, interior structures, crystal, mineral, and gem pockets, and references for further study. Examples are from North America as well as worldwide.

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Beyond the dense urbanism of Mumbai (Bombay) and the technology centres of Bangalore and Hyderabad lies the GangesRiver basin: a fertile alluvial plain of 1.1 million square kilometres in area, which is today home to over one-quarter of India'sbillion-plus population. While most of the basin sits within India, it extends into present day Bangladesh, Nepal, and Tibet. Notonly is the area one of the most densely populated river basins in the world, but every year it also undergoes radical physicalchanges. With the arrival of the southwest monsoon between late-June and late-August, over one metre of rainfall drenchesnorthern India. And, what is more, despite these drastic seasonal changes and population density, the basin remainsagriculturally productive. This book focuses on the overlaps and juxtapositions of these three conditions: Population Density -Monsoon - Agriculture. It is an atlas of built and unbuilt projects designed to transform the Ganges River basin. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, this watercourse has functioned as a laboratory to test and build a new civilisation around the culture of water management.Jointly authored by human actors and their shifting natural heritage, the Ganges River basin is today a machine in which the entire basin functions as a highly engineered hydrological super-surface. This surface has been constructed from innumerable interventions operating at vastly different scales - from massive state-sponsored canals toindividually-drilled wells. Because of the mixture of actors, the scale of inhabitation, and the widely varying techniques ofinterventions, this landscape of infrastructure requires a different kind of map. Reaching through the very heart of some of India's most densely populated cities, small towns, industrial zones, sacred sites, and mountainous forests, Ganges Water Machine by Anthony Acciavatti, composed of eight years of field and archival research, explores and theorises about the people and infrastructures that shaped this territory. Ganges Water Machine is an atlas of the enterprise to make the Ganges River basin into a highly engineered landscape: it reveals the narratives and explanations that allowed engineers and planners to realise fantasies previously only imaginable on paper or in myth.

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