Earth Sciences, Geography & Environment Books

Book SynopsisThe story that captured the imagination of the world... In 1969 Harrods department store in London sold a three month old lion cub to two young Australians, John Rendall and Anthony (Ace) Bourke. They called him Christian. For a year Christian lived happily and safely with John and Ace and his human 'pride', initially in the World's End on the King's Road in Chelsea, where Derek Cattani first began photographing him. When Christian outgrew his London environment he moved first to the home of Bill Travers in Surrey. He was then entrusted to the care of George Adamson in Kenya, who with his wife Joy, had successfully rehabilitated their lioness Elsa, the subject of Joy's Book Born Free. A year after Christian had been living in the wild John and Ace returned to Kenya to try and find him. The film clip of their emotional reunion has now been viewed by over 100 million people on YouTube. In 1973 Christian disappeared into the wild forever. George Adamson had uniquely rehabilitated a 5th generation zoo-bred lion. John and Ace's first book about Christian was a million seller in the 1970s, and enjoyed a huge resurgence of interest after their YouTube clip went viral in 2006. This brand new book from Bradt, collects Derek Cattani's never-before-seen pictures of Christian and updates the story to the present day, including the story of their YouTube sensation and a chapter on the murder of George Adamson. When John and Ace took Christian to Kenya in 1970 there were an estimated 300,00 lions in Africa. Today there are fewer than 25,000.Trade Review'A new must-read book' Sloane Square magazine 'Well balanced and delightfully written account of an extraordinary adventure, brimming with fine pictures' Kensington and Chelsea Today 'The remarkable true story of a lion called Christian.' Catworld 'Brings (Christian's) remarkable story to the present day.' Your Cat Recommended reading London Property South, Big Issue, Best, The Resident, Time & Leisure, and SW ResidentTable of ContentsChapter 1: From Ilfracombe Zoo to Harrods Chapter 2: Lion at the World's End Chapter 3: Indoors and Outdoors Chapter 4: Life on the King's Road Chapter 5: Preparing for Africa Chapter 6: Out to Africa Chapter 7: Joining the Pride Chapter 8: Tragedy and Reunion Chapter 9: A Final Farewell Chapter 10: Christian's New World Chapter 11: George's Murder Chapter 12: Mkomazi Chapter 13: Searching for Signs of Christian Post Script: A Youtube Sensation: Lions in Trouble

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Book SynopsisThe Earth has entered a new epoch: the Anthropocene. What we are facing is not only an environmental crisis, but a geological revolution of human origin. In two centuries, our planet has tipped into a state unknown for millions of years.How did we get to this point? Refuting the convenient view of a "human species" that upset the Earth system, unaware of what it was doing, this book proposes the first critical history of the Anthropocene, shaking up many accepted ideas: about our supposedly recent "environmental awareness," about previous challenges to industrialism, about the manufacture of ignorance and consumerism, about so-called energy transitions, as well as about the role of the military in environmental destruction. In a dialogue between science and history, The Shock of the Anthropocene dissects a new theoretical buzzword and explores paths for living and acting politically in this rapidly developing geological epochTrade ReviewAt a time when the word 'Anthropocene' is becoming so fashionable, this well-documented and well-argued book will help readers sort out the various meanings of this most unstable label. The authors show the bewildering varieties of historical actors at work in what is called the 'environmental crisis'. -- Bruno LatourA very important book. In this historically rich and meticulously detailed work, Bonneuil and Fressoz show us how to keep our head without losing our heart to technocracy. -- Timothy Morton, author of Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the WorldCleverly argued and extremely compelling, this book offers a remarkably timely analysis and critique of the very notion of the Anthropocene. It's widely held that modern industrial societies innocently and ignorantly generated the forces that have wrought such dramatic ecological effects on their world. It's also believed that only very recently, because of the heroic work of a few visionaries, has this ignorance been overcome and the truth of the Anthropocene at last revealed. Using an astonishing range of sources from climate sciences and economics, history and technology, Bonneuil and Fressoz brilliantly show the utter falsity of this story, and why it matters so much. -- Simon Schaffer, University of CambridgeThis revelatory, lucid and daring book rejects the delusions of control implicit in conventional environmentalism, and outlines the enormity of the changes necessary for us to continue to live in the Anthropocene. -- David Edgerton, King’s College LondonA timely book which firmly grounds history in the stuff that the sciences now tell us about what commodified life does to the planet. This is an essential volume for the project of historical thought and action. -- McKenzie Wark, author of Molecular Red: Theory for the AnthropoceneIn questioning the idea of an apolitical Anthropocene and raising the spectre of a new self-selecting scientific geocracy, their book should begin a vital discussion. We do need a new politics of the Anthropocene. -- Fred Pearce * New Scientist *A wide-ranging essay that combines elements of environmental history, history of science and technology, and economic and intellectual history, while covering an extensive geographic base including British, American, French, and German cases. * Public Books *This bold, brilliantly argued history of the Anthropocene epoch is a corrective to cosy thinking about humanity's grave disruptions to Earth systems. Bonneuil and Fressoz call for a "new environmental humanities", and a shift away from market-based approaches that feed the beast. -- Barbara Kiser * Nature *This is the first book to seriously come to terms-philosophically and psychologically as well as scientifically-with the overwhelming planetary transformation implied by the word 'Anthropocene.' Bonneuil and Fressoz have done humanity a great service by thinking through the startling issues raised by the fact that our species has launched the entire ecosphere onto a new and frightening trajectory. -- Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon InstituteThe Shock of the Anthropocene is a detailed, data-driven, and well-argued critique of conventional thought on enormity of the challenges and changes that lay ahead for humanity on an Earth that is irreparably damaged by our actions. It should be a central addition to readers' climate change libraries. * New York Journal of Books *The book is very well written and highly readable. I recommend the book highly. It is currently the most lucid and comprehensive introduction to 'Anthropocene discourse'. -- Noel Castree * Antipode *These two historians have undertaken to explain the entry into this new epoch and reveal its major determinants. * Le Monde *Challenges the certainties of our modernity, our mode of development and our view of the world. * Libération *This book attacks such widespread ideas as 'sustainable development,' 'green growth,' or, still worse, 'geo-engineering'-the new manifestation of the blind faith in a technological process supposedly now capable of reducing global warming by various clever tricks. * La Vie *This is no climate change doomsday book. It's about the long-term legacy of the planet we are altering. -- Laura Cole * Geographical Magazine *Impressively researched, intellectually rigorous and elegantly written . it should be assigned reading for all current and aspiring Anthropocenologists. * Environment and History *One of the most insightful books on the Anthropocene. * Ecozoïc *Table of ContentsPART ONE WHAT'S IN A WORD? Chapter 1. Welcome to the Anthropocene Chapter 2. Th inking with Gaia: Towards Environmental Humanities PART TWO SPEAKING FOR THE EARTH, GUIDING HUMANITY: Deconstructing the Geocratic Grand Narrative of the Anthropocene Chapter 3. Clio, the Earth and the Anthropocenologists Chapter 4. Who Is the Anthropos? PART THREE WHAT HISTORIES FOR THE ANTHROPOCENE? Chapter 5. Th ermocene: A Political History of CO2 Chapter 6. Thanatocene: Power and Ecocide Chapter 7. Phagocene: Consuming the Planet Chapter 8. Phronocene: Grammars of Environmental Reflexivity Chapter 9. Agnotocene: Externalizing Nature, Economizing the World Chapter 10 . Capitalocene: A Combined History of Earth System and World-Systems Chapter 11 . Polemocene: Resisting the Deterioration of the Earth since 1750 Conclusion: Surviving and Living the Anthropocene

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Book SynopsisIn this brilliant, very original survey of the politics and meanings of urban landscapes, leading sociologist Göran Therborn offers a tour of the world's major capital cities, and the forces that have shaped them. Through a global, historical lens, and with a thematic range extending from the mutations of modernist architecture to the contemporary return of urban revolutions, Therborn questions received assumptions about the source, manifestations and reach of urban power, combining perspectives on politics, sociology, urban planning, architecture, and urban iconography. With its unique systematic overview, from Washington DC and revolutionary Paris to the flamboyant twenty-first century capital of Kazakhstan, its wealth of urban observations from all the populated continents, and its sharp and multi-faceted analyses, Cities of Power forces us to rethink our urban future, as well as our historically shaped present.Trade ReviewGöran Therborn analyses urban life with sweeping historical and global range. As he shows in tremendous detail, urban history is baked into a place by its streets, its institutions and the cultural outlook of its inhabitants -- Max Holleran * Times Literary Supplement *Should become an early port of call for anyone looking to know more about how urban and national power functions around the world * Irish Times *One of the world's most engaging and intriguing sociologists. Cities of Power helps us understand the current tensions between states and people, capitals and peripheries, populism and elitism, nationalism and globalism -- Felipe Fernández-Armesto, author of Our America: A Hispanic History of the United StatesCities of Power is explicitly a riposte to the idea of the Global City, and the peculiar Monocle-magazine vision of trans-national, interconnected, intangible capitalism that it serves to alternately describe and vindicate. Few thinkers display such a genuinely global range -- Owen Hatherley * New Left Review *One more publication in a sparkling list of career accomplishments, Cities of Power might function as an important resource for many a sociology doctoral student -- Luzia Lodder * PopMatters *

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Book Synopsis‘Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour.’ Greta ThunbergOur planet is in danger. Sea levels are rising, natural habitats are being destroyed and the global temperature is rising. There is some good news though: we can halt climate change if we work together. Let Pocket Earth Wisdom teach you how you can make a positive impact, however small. Feauturing a collection of some of the most powerful and inspiring quotes about Planet Earth, Pocket Earth Wisdom will be the call to arms you need to step up as there's no planet B. Together we have the power to make a difference.

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Book SynopsisThis book explores how fishers make the sea productive through their labour, using technologies ranging from wooden boats to digital GPS plotters to create familiar places in a seemingly hostile environment. It shows how their lives are affected by capitalist forces in the markets they sell to, forces that shape even the relations between fishers on the same boat. Fishers frequently have to make impossible choices between safe seamanship and staying afloat economically, and the book describes the human impact of the high rate of deaths in the fishing industry. The book makes a unique contribution to understanding human-environment relations, examining the places fishers create and name at sea, as well as technologies and navigation practices. It combines phenomenology and political economy to offer new approaches for analyses of human-environment relations and technologies.This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14, Life below waterTrade Review'Brilliant...boldly bridging the conceptual gap between studies of work and the environment, McCall Howard's ethnography charts an innovative and ambitious course for research on the Anthropocene...tremendously compelling.'Brandon Hunter-Pazzara, Current Anthropology‘As Howard makes clear capital and its drive to profit must be challenged—this book is a weapon in that fight.’Sarah Ensor, International Socialism, A quarterly review of socialist theoryHow do the fishers relate to each other, their boats, their technologies, the sea, their catches? In this deeply researched book, written with an intimate feel for fishing and the sea, Penny McCall Howard answers these questions. Based on the Scottish industry, this important book shows how class relations continue to shape labour, working relationships, environments and at times life and death. Few researchers hold both a 100-ton captain’s licence from the US Merchant Marine and a doctoral degree; few are as at home on a fishing boat’s deck as they are in a library. Penny McCall Howard brings a unique blend of abilities to this compelling account of work and has produced an argument for rethinking how we understand the nature of labour in any industry and in all places. Professor Bradon Ellem, University of Sydney Business School‘It is rare to find a work that so compellingly integrates a phenomenological analysis of the experience of work, based on participant observation, with an account of the pressures of political economy and dynamic patterns of class relations in a specific industry. Inspired by Robert Desjarlais, Howard achieves a ‘critical phenomenology’, giving greater depth to phenomenological description by linking sensation, perception and subjectivity to pervasive systems of power and inequality. These in turn are connected to the mutually constitutive connections between workers and the environment that create productive fishing grounds.’Professor Linda Connor, The Australian Journal of Anthropology‘The description of the lived experiences of the author and fishers are used to create an absorbing and, at times, moving narrative….It is the ability to connect the daily lives of fishers to seemingly distant market forces that makes Environment, labour and capitalism at sea an exceptional book…There is an incredible amount to this text that will be of relevance to those interested in global supply chains, environment labour relations, social relations of work, neo-liberalism and regulation….McCall Howard’s deeply rich and confronting account of the social relations that face and at times overwhelm the fishers of the west coast of Scotland needs be read by people interested in work and our collective environmental future.’Dr. Caleb Goods, Journal of Industrial Relations ‘This story of how livelihoods are wrestled from the sea is an anthropological first. Never before has the work of commercial fishermen been brought to life with such vividness, depth and attention to detail, or subjected to such rigorous and hard-headed analysis.’ Professor Tim Ingold, Chair in Social Anthropology, University of Aberdeen, UK‘Environment, Labour and Capitalism at Sea unpacks the broader social forces that mediate interactions between human beings and their marine environment while simultaneously drawing out the individual stories and life histories of Scottish fishers….It is well written and emotive. The honest portrayal of the suffering of conflicted fishers who struggle against forces beyond their control aids in our understanding of the root causes of environmental change and the metabolic relationship between humankind and nature. Readers who study environmental sociology, food, and agricultural systems would do well to read Howard’s work.’Timothy P. Clark, Human Ecology Review‘This well-written and memorable account provides thought-provoking reading on an industry that is poorly understood. As such it will merit a space on the shelves of those who are interested in fishing, in ethnography, and in the human costs of capitalism.’Helen Sampson Cardiff University, Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute, 24:4'Penny McCall Howard provides us with a thoroughly engaging and sensitively written account of the multiple forces that shape fishers’ lives at sea. Based on extended participant observation both on boats and on land on the west coast of Scotland, the richness of the material presented for analysis reveals the quality of her fieldwork practices and the strength of the relationships she forged with fishers during that time….Howard’s work represents a refreshing contribution to ethnographies of northern Scotland because it firmly dispels the tired tropes of rural idylls and bucolic landscapes that have long been associated with this part of the world.'Louise Rebecca Senior, Social Anthropology‘Environment, Labour and Capitalism at Sea is a remarkable work. It’s a first rate piece of Marxist anthropology that puts human labor at the center of a discussion about ecology. It shows how the biodiversity crisis in the oceans is related to wider social relations, and emphasizes again how the fight to prevent environmental destruction requires challenging the priorities of the system — not just changes to our diet. For radical environmentalists and Marxist ecologists this should be a required read.’Martin Empson, climate and Capitalism, June 2019'It has been a pleasure to read this book, and I highly recommend it to everyone.' Charles Menzies, Journal of Agrarian Change'Howard has written a rare book that presents complex and well-formulated arguments while also being immersive, exciting, and hugely enjoyable to read. Drawing together phenomenology and political economy, Howard analyzes labor through its perceptual engagement with the environment, insisting that the environment is not just land and sea, but also markets, competition, and traumatic experiences of loss.'Rebecca Prentice, Focaal-Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology -- .Table of ContentsIntroductionPart I: A metabolism of labour and environment1 'Working the ground'2 From Wullie's Peak to the Burma: naming places at seaPart II: Techniques and technologies3 Techniques to extend the body and its senses4 From 'where am I?' to 'where is that?' Rethinking navigationPart III: Capitalism and class5 'You just can't get a price': the difference political economy makes6 Structural violence in ecological systemsConclusion: labour, class, environments and anthropologyIndex

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Book Synopsis With growing evidence of unsustainable use of the world’s resources, such as hydrocarbon reserves, and related environmental pollution, as in alarming climate change predictions, sustainable development is arguably the prominent issue of the 21st century. This volume gives a wide ranging introduction focusing on the arid Gulf region, where the challenges of sustainable development are starkly evident. The Gulf relies on non-renewable oil and gas exports to supply the world’s insatiable CO2 emitting energy demands, and has built unsustainable conurbations with water supplies dependent on energy hungry desalination plants and deep aquifers pumped beyond natural replenishment rates. Sustainable Development has an interdisciplinary focus, bringing together university faculty and government personnel from the Gulf, Europe, and North America -- including social and natural scientists, environmentalists and economists, architects and planners -- to discuss topics such as sustainable natural resource use and urbanization, industrial and technological development, economy and politics, history and geography. Trade Review “This is clearly the most comprehensive overview of sustainable development in the Gulf, a strategic region within the global economy…What is particularly innovative is the last section on cultural issues, ranging from collaborative research methods to indigenous knowledge… the inclusion of health issues, together with a discussion of the ‘cultural turn’ in sustainability, including participatory approaches, make this book an exemplar of the next generation of thought and knowledge development in the area of sustainable development.” · Carl Maida, University of California, Los Angeles “[This volume] amounts to a well edited, comprehensive, collection of sustainable development papers, strongly introduced and concluded by the editor, on a region that surely no one could doubt can only gain from the salutary environmental analysis time after time it offers… While a regional study, it is fully alert to current theoretical issues in the general sustainable development literature at large while at the same contributing to them. It is… certainly deserving to become required reading for all tertiary education institutions.” · Raymond Apthorpe, SOAS University of London Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables Forward Shaikha Al-Misnad Introduction: Sustainable Development in the Gulf: Some Introductory Remarks Paul Sillitoe Chapter 1. Societal Change and Sustainability within the Central Plateau of Iran: An Archaeological Viewpoint Mark Manuel, Robin Coningham, Gavin Gillmore and Hassan Fazeli PART I: PLANNING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Chapter 2. Qatar National Vision 2030: Advancing Sustainable Development Trudy Tan, Aziza Al-Khalaqi and Najla Al-Khulaifi Chapter 3. The Qatar National Master Plan Khondker Rahman Chapter 4. The State of Qatar: Along the Way to Sustainable Development Bahaa Darwish Chapter 5. Charting the Emergence of Environmental Legislation in Qatar: A Step in the Right Direction or Too Little Too Late? Wesam Al Othman and Sarah F. Clarke PART II: ENERGY AND ECONOMIC ISSUES Chapter 6. Sustainable Energy: What Futures for Qatar? Thomas Henfrey Chapter 7. Money Rain: The Resource Curse in Two Oil and Gas Economies Emma Gilberthorpe, Sarah F. Clarke and Paul Sillitoe Chapter 8. Islam and Sustainable Economic Development Rodney Wilson PART III: ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES Chapter 9. Linking Local and Global in the Sustainable Development of Biodiversity Conservation Ben Campbell Chapter 10. Conservation and Sustainable Development: the Qatari and Gulf Region Experience Paul Sillitoe with Ali Alshawi Chapter 11. Promoting Sustainable Development in Marine Regions James Howard Chapter 12. Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainability: Friends or Enemies? Nobuyuki Yamaguchi PART IV: URBAN AND HEALTH ISSUES Chapter 13. From Pearling to Skyscrapers: The Predicament of Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism in Contemporary Gulf Cities. Ali A. Alraouf and Sarah F. Clarke Chapter 14. How the City Grows: Urban Growth and Challenges to Sustainable Development in Doha, Qatar Andrew M. Gardner Chapter 15. Sustainable Waste Management in Qatar: Charting the Emergence of an Integrated Approach to Solid Waste Management Sarah Clarke with Salah Almannai Chapter 16. Sustainable Development and Health: From Global to Local Agenda Mylène Riva, Catherine Panter-Brick and Mark Eggerman PART V: CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES Chapter 17. Exploring Collaborative Research Methodologies in the Pursuit of Sustainable Futures Gina Porter Chapter 18. On the Importance of Culture in Sustainable Development Serena Heckler Chapter 19. People, Social Groups, Cultural Practices: From Venn Diagrams to Alternative Paradigms for Sustainable Development Fadwa El Guindi Chapter 20. Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Values: Environmental Contradictions in Qatari Society Kaltham Al-Ghanim Conclusion: A Doha Undeclaration, Puzzling over Sustainable Development with Indigenous Knowledge Paul Sillitoe List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisIn Emergent, Miriam McDonald explores the relationships that bind our world together. It is by reintegrating lost species with historic ranges that rewilding reignites the miraculous dance of life across landscapes. It is through reforming severed relationships that regenerative farmers build soil, produce nutrient-dense food and foster a renewed sense of kinship and community. And it is by reweaving our lives with those of the wild that we can restore our earth and ourselves. Regenerative agriculture and rewilding grow from the same root but appear as separate entities to our unaccustomed eyes, divided by how we view ourselves within, or banish ourselves from, the land. Emergent delves into this divide to explore the fascinating story of our exclusion from the wild and the scientific discovery of our interdependence with it. Above all, Emergent gives us a reason to be hopeful. To embrace all that humanity is, and can be, as an amazingly beneficial force in a complex and connected world.

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Book Synopsis'Shearwater is sheer delight, a luminous portrait of a magical seabird which spans the watery globe' Daily Mail.'Charming and impassioned ... a rich tribute to an extraordinary bird.' Horatio Clare, author of A Single Swallow and Heavy Light.A very personal mix of memoir and natural history from the author of Liquid Gold.Ten weeks into its life, a Manx shearwater chick will emerge from its burrow and fly 8,000 miles from the west coast of the British Isles to the South Atlantic. It will be unlikely to touch land again for four years.Part memoir, part homage to wilderness, Shearwater traces the author's 50-year obsession with one of nature's supreme travellers. In the finest tradition of nature writing, Roger Morgan-Grenville, author of Liquid Gold - described by Mary Colwell (Curlew Moon) as 'a book that ignites joy and warmth' - unpicks the science behind its incredible journey; and into the story of a year in the shearwater's life, he threads the inspirational influence of his Hebridean grandmother who instilled in him a love of wild places and wild animals.Full of lightly-worn knowledge, acute human observation and self-deprecating humour, Shearwater brings to life a truly mysterious and charismatic bird.Trade ReviewCharming and impassioned ... a rich tribute to an extraordinary bird. -- Horatio Clare, author of A Single Swallow and Heavy LightA truly lovely book. -- Mary Colwell, author of Curlew MoonThis is wonderful: written with light and love. A tonic for these times. -- Stephen Rutt, author of The Seafarers: A Journey Among BirdsA delightful account of a lifelong passion for seabirds. -- Stephen Moss, naturalist and author of The Swallow: A BiographyA memoir lit by wry humour and vivid prose. -- Brian Jackman, author of Wild About BritainThis is a book that birders will enjoy because it is stitched together around a fairly amazing bird, but if you've never heard of shearwaters you will still get a lot out of this book if you are interested in nature, in adventures, in foreign parts, in landscapes or in people ... a very good read. -- Mark AveryA great read * birdwatching.co.uk *[A] lovely blend of natural history and memoir ... Morgan-Grenville beautifully blends science, memories, and wonder in this striking homage to an amazing bird. * Booklist *Shearwater is sheer delight, a luminous portrait of a magical seabird which spans the watery globe * Daily Mail *A captivating mix of memoir, travel and ornithological obsession ... A book not just for seabirders or island-addicts, but for all who have ever gazed longingly out to sea and pondered vast possibilities and connections. * BBC Wildlife magazine *[A] pleasant mixture of facts and an imagined narrative of the shearwater ... readers will enjoy relaxing into the story. * Library Journal *A book that delights, informs, amuses and concerns you page by page * Winchester Today *'Morgan-Grenville is a delightful writer ... his writerly tone here is perfect: serious, but not hysterical or preachy, with a gleam of hope evident.' * 10,000birds.com *'A beautiful mix of memoir and natural history ... entirely infectious.' * Scottish Field *

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Book SynopsisWHEN EMPIRES CRUMBLE, WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE LEFT IN THE RUINS? In Rule Britannia, Danny Dorling and Sally Tomlinson argue that the vote to leave the EU was the last gasp of the old empire working its way out of the British psyche. Fuelled by a misplaced nostalgia, the result was driven by a lack of knowledge of our imperial history, by a profound anxiety about Britain's status today, and by a deeply unrealistic vision of our future. At a time when close relationships with our near neighbours are more crucial than ever before, Britain has opted to surrender its remaining influence and squander international goodwill. And yet, there is hope. In this wide-ranging and thoughtful analysis, now fully updated to cover the fallout from Brexit and the impact of coronavirus, Dorling and Tomlinson argue that if Britain can reconcile itself to its new place on the world stage, a new identity can be born from the ashes. Rule Britannia is a powerful call to leave behind the jingoistic ignorance of the past and build a fairer Britain, eradicating the inequality that blights our society and embracing our true strengths.

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Book SynopsisWe live in a world where the drive for economic growth is crowding out everything that can’t be given a monetary value. We’re stuck on a treadmill where only the material things in life gain traction and it’s getting harder to find space for the things that really matter but money can’t buy, including our future. Fiona Reynolds proposes a solution that is at once radical and simple – to inspire us through the beauty of the world around us. Delving into our past, examining landscapes, nature, farming and urbanisation, she shows how ideas about beauty have arisen and evolved, been shaped by public policy, been knocked back and inched forward until they arrived lost in the economically-driven spirit of today. A passionate, polemical call to arms, The Fight for Beauty presents an alternative path forward: one that, if adopted, could take us all to a better future. Trade Review‘The Fight For Beauty is a remarkable book: passionate, persuasive and brave.’ -- Robert Macfarlane‘A passionately written clarion call to all who value the quality of beauty in their surroundings. It is a book which should be compulsory reading for all who hold environmental responsibilities in both local and national government.’ * Times Literary Supplement *‘Shines light on those inspired to try to reverse the damage done to wildlife and the landscape in the 19th century…Compelling…It was clearly intended to be an uncomfortable read – and it is.’ * Country Life *‘A book fizzing with ideas and passion…Full of stories of politicians and officials who made a difference for good, it shows that politics matters. I hope it will inspire today’s leaders to fight for beauty’. * The Countryman *‘[A] spirited defence of the British landscape’. * Apollo *‘Few people are better qualified to write the history of the century-old fight to protect the British countryside and point the way to its future than Fiona Reynolds’. * Countryfile Magazine *‘A fascinating story told by someone who has lived and worked at the heart of the struggle for more than 30 years... This deeply inspiring book needs to transform the government of Britain.’ -- Adam Nicolson, author of Sea Room‘Fiona Reynolds writes with clarity, wisdom and passion about a subject in which she has few if any peers. It is an important story in which she argues convincingly that, while Britain of course needs economic progress, the human spirit needs beauty every bit as much. At its heart, her book is a warning against thoughtless depredation authorised by policy-makers who ignore or dismiss this fundamental truth. Despite her forebodings, however, Reynolds is an optimist who believes that we will wake up before it is too late. If so, her masterly cri de coeur will prove to have been an invaluable inspiration.’ -- Jonathan Dimbleby

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Book SynopsisRandom House presents the audiobook edition of Erebus, written and read by Michael Palin. In September 2014 the wreck of a sailing vessel was discovered at the bottom of the sea in the frozen wastes of the Canadian Arctic. It was broken at the stern and covered in a woolly coat of underwater vegetation. Its whereabouts had been a mystery for over a century and a half. Its name was HMS Erebus.Now Michael Palin – former Monty Python stalwart and much-loved television globetrotter – brings this extraordinary ship back to life, following it from its launch in 1826 to the epic voyages of discovery that led to glory in the Antarctic and to ultimate catastrophe in the Arctic. He explores the intertwined careers of the men who shared its journeys: the dashing James Clark Ross who charted much of the ‘Great Southern Barrier’ and oversaw some of the earliest scientific experiments to be conducted there; and the troubled John Franklin, who at the age of sixty and after a chequered career, commanded the ship on its final, disastrous expedition. And he vividly recounts the experiences of the men who first stepped ashore on Antarctica’s Victoria Land, and those who, just a few years later, froze to death one by one in the Arctic wastes as rescue missions desperately tried to reach them.To help tell the story, he has travelled to various locations across the world – Tasmania, the Falklands, the Canadian Arctic – to search for local information, and to experience at first hand the terrain and the conditions that would have confronted the Erebus and her crew. Illustrated with maps, paintings and engravings, this is a wonderfully evocative and epic account, written by a master explorer and storyteller.Trade ReviewBeyond terrific. I didn’t want it to end. -- Bill BrysonThoroughly absorbs the reader. . . Carefully researched and well-crafted, it brings the story of a ship vividly to life. * Sunday Times *[Palin’s] narrative is driven by a deep sympathy for explorers and adventurers, while also being illuminated by flashes of gentle wit . . . It’s a fascinating story that he brings full-bloodedly to life, stripping away the barnacles of the past to reveal the hidden history of a ship. -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst * Guardian *Everybody’s talking about it . . . A brilliant book. -- Chris Evans, BBC Radio 2With this irresistible and often harrowing account, Michael Palin makes a convincing case that one heroic little ship embodied the golden ago of polar exploration better than any other: HMS Erebus. -- John Geiger, co-author of Frozen in Time

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Book SynopsisThis sustainable travel handbook inspires readers to explore our fascinating planet without causing it further harm. Ten chapters help you go lightly, including how to choose the least impactful methods of travel, how best to protect wildlife, how to pack with more consideration and how to implement mindful practices into each travel day, Go Lightly gives the reader a tool kit of fresh ideas for travelling more consciously. The book also covers eco-friendly activities including biking, boating and camping, and introduces us to some of the world's most inspiring eco-adventure pioneers.

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Book Synopsis'Clever, pretty, fun and informative - what more can a reader ask for?' Sara Maitland, author of Gossip From the ForestWe're surrounded in cities by trees, quiet colossuses that most of us don't know by name. Does that matter? It's certainly possible to appreciate a tree for its beauty, its shade and its shelter without knowing whether it's an alder, an elder, a lime or a beech. But look harder, and we begin to see the beauty beneath the bark - the tales of how trees are integral to medicine and art as they are furniture and firewood; the stories of why wild figs grow on the banks of Sheffield's rivers and why the ash tree is touched with magic and mischief. As well as being an illustrated guide that will help you identify some of the species you see around town every day, Sylvan City is also a potted-journey through our cities' woody places and a literary hunt for where their wild things are.Inviting readers on an intricately illustrated journey into the urban forest, Sylvan City is both a practical guide to identifying twenty of the most common trees standing sentry on our street corners, and a lyrical, anecdotal treasure trove of facts and history, culture and leafy lore.Trade ReviewCharming...lovely...well-written...beautifully illustrated. * Gardens Illustrated *Dulce et utile. (I'm allowed the Latin for "both sweet and useful" here because the botanical science is as sound as the cultural, historical and poetic aspects.) This is a delightful book: clever, pretty, fun and informative - what more can a reader ask for? Even a committed rural dweller like me is impressed. Big thanks to Helen Babbs, who has solved a fair number of my 2019 Christmas present problems already. * Sara Maitland, author of Gossip From the Forest *Full of gems; a manifesto for green cities. Babbs will turn us all into urban rangers, an unquiet army of neighbourhood watchers. * Max Adams, author of Wisdom of Trees *Her read-aloud pen portraits on common varieties are a joy. * FT *Table of Contents1: THE ALDERS 1: Common alder 2: Italian alder 2: THE ASHES 1: Common ash 2: Raywood ash 3: THE BEECHES 1: Common beech 2: Copper beech 3: Hornbeam 4: THE BIRCHES 1: Silver birch 2: Himalayan birch 5: THE BUTTERFLY BUSHES 1: Buddleja davidii 2: Leyland cypress 6: THE CHERRIES 1: Wild cherry 2: Crab apple 7: THE ELDERS 1: Common elder 2: Lime and pine 8: THE ELMS 1: English elm 2: Wych elm 9: THE FIGS 1: Common fig 2: Mulberry 10: THE HAZELS 1: Common hazel 2: Turkish hazel 11: THE HORSE CHESTNUTS 1: Horse chestnut 2: Sweet chestnut 12: THE LIMES 1: Common lime 2: Silver lime 13: THE MAIDENHAIRS 1: Ginkgo biloba 2: Caucasian wingnut 14: THE MAPLES 1: Sycamore 2: Norway maple 15: THE OAKS 1: English oak 2: Red oak, holm oak and pin oak 16: THE PINES AND ANOTHER CONIFER 1: Maritime pine 2: Dawn redwood 17: THE PLANES 1: London plane 2: American sweet gum 18: THE POPLARS 1: Black poplar 2: Lombardy poplar 19: THE TREES OF HEAVEN 1: Tree of heaven 2: Indian bean tree 20: THE WHITEBEAMS 1: Bristol whitebeam 2: Rowan 21: THE YEWS 1: English yew 2: Willow

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Book SynopsisA Guide to Eco-Anxiety outlines a manifesto for action, connection and hope. Showing how to harness anxiety for positive action, as well as effective ways to reduce your personal carbon footprint. The most powerful thing we can do to combat climate change is to talk about it and act collectively. But despite it being an emergency, most people don’t bring climate change into conversation in everyday life. The book explores the health impact of experiencing eco-anxiety, grief and trauma, and signposts recommended treatments and therapies. It also tackles practical issues such as: why it's important to reduce plastic waste; parenting and the choice to have a family; which is more effective to bring your carbon footprint down, go vegan or fly less? The book will cultivate a pragmatic form of hope by offering a dynamic toolkit packed with practical ways to connect with community and systemic support, self-care practices to ease the symptoms of anxiety, and strategies to spread awareness and – crucially – bring about change.Trade ReviewAn awesome and important book!

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Book SynopsisHUNDREDS OF PRACTICAL WAYS TO HELP COMBAT THE CLIMATE CRISIS! Turn over a green leaf in every aspect of your life with this comprehensive guide. Packed with practical, reliable and up-to-date advice about making achievable and sustainable changes, this book shows you can cut carbon by: HEATING AND COOLING YOUR HOUSE INTUITIVELY by using a smart thermostat or plugging your chimney MANAGING DEVICES AND ELECTRONICS by unplugging unused chargers or passing along your old phone COOKING, WASHING AND CLEANING SMART by frying with small pans, defrosting the freezer regularly or washing your car with rainwater GARDENING ACCORDING TO NATURE by participating in No Mow May or by creating your own green roof SHOPPING AND TRAVELLING CONSCIOUSLY by becoming a “locavore” or supporting low carbon resorts CHANGING FINANCIAL HABITS by investing in the future or buying services rather than products Everywhere you look, there’s a way to help the planet. Whether it’s a simple change of habit or a forward-thinking home improvement project, you’ll find plenty of suggestions to improve your bank balance, your health and your eco-karma.

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Book SynopsisWe've reached an environmental crisis point with plastic, and it's time to take action. But is it possible to make positive changes without radically changing your lifestyle? Absolutely! This practical book suggests eco-friendly alternatives to plastic, including budget options, high-street substitutes and DIY ideas to help you drastically reduce your plastic consumption. With 101 simple ways to use less plastic, you'll find it easy to take the first step and make a difference.

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Book SynopsisThe third edition of a best-selling book on the Port Sunlight Village, with a new chapter on the Lady Lever Art Gallery, further information on key individuals and an increase in the number of illustrations. The model industrial village of Port Sunlight was founded by the soap manufacturer W. H. Lever (later Lord Leverhulme) in 1888 for the factory workers of the firm of Lever Brothers. The village was acclaimed from the first as exemplifying the best in English town planning and house design, and greatly influenced subsequent industrial villages such as the later parts of Bournville, and the garden city movement more generally. This guide considers the village in its historical context, with particular emphasis on the planning and architectural aspects. It explains the social and visual significance of Port Sunlight and the reasons for its being unique in the history of town planning, as well as looking at the way its development was influenced by changing fashions in urban design. The relevance of Lever’s own character and interests – his social conscience, his love of art and beauty and his architectural enthusiasms – are also examined. Two tours, one for pedestrians and one for car drivers, which include and describe the most significant buildings of the village, are an additional feature of the guide.Table of Contents Preface to the 1988 Edition Preface to the 2005 Edition Foreward 1 The Founder 2 Background 3 Planning and Development 4 Housing and Architectural Character 5 Public Buildings 6 Fame and Influence Tours of the Village Walk: Heritage Centre to Lady Lever Art Gallery Drive: Lady Lever Art Gallery to Heritage Centre Appendix 1: Demolished Buildings Appendix 2: Notes on Architects Bibliography

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Book SynopsisBased on new evidence that challenges existing theories of urban inequality, Crankshaw argues that the changing pattern of earnings and occupational inequality in Johannesburg is better described by the professionalism of employment alongside high-levels of chronic unemployment. Central to this examination is that the social polarisation hypothesis, which is accepted by many, is simply wrong in the case of Johannesburg. Ultimately, Crankshaw posits that the post-Fordist, post-apartheid period is characterised by a completely new division of labour that has caused new forms of racial inequality. That racial inequality in the post-apartheid period is not the result of the persistence of apartheid-era causes, but is the result of new causes that have interacted with the historical effects of apartheid to produce new patterns of racial inequality.Trade ReviewThis detailed study of urban inequality in Johannesburg provides a rigorous examination of the links between de-industrialisation, occupational change, residential segregation and the housing market. It highlights the way in which race and the legacy of the South African apartheid state intersect with changes in the structure of the labour market over a 40 year period from 1970-2011 to change the structure of urban inequality. It is an invaluable source which links to wider international debates about urban social polarisation, professionalization and the post-Fordist city. A ‘must read’ for all students of African cities. * Emeritus Professor Chris Hamnett, King’s College London, UK *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures List of Tables Introduction: 1.Theories of Urban Inequality Part One: De-Industrialisation and the Labour Market 2.The Changing Occupational Structure: Social Polarisation or Professionalisation? 3.Professionalisation, Unemployment and Racial Inequality Part Two: From a Fordist to a Post-Fordist Spatial Order 4.Johannesburg’s Fordist Spatial Order 5.The Edge City of Sandton 6.From Racial Ghetto to Excluded Ghetto: Soweto, Eldorado Park and Lenasia 7.Racial Residential Desegregation in White Neighbourhoods Conclusion 8.Urban Inequality References

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Book SynopsisBestselling author Christopher Winn takes a closer look at our Roads, Avenues, Groves, Gardens, Hills and Lanes.There are around 800,000 streets in the UK and the name of each one tells a tale. We take them for granted but the choice of name can reveal facts about Britain''s history, geography, topography and nature, even its politics and culture.From the most common names, to the rarest, the funniest to the most notorious, among the many fascinating facts, find out why the City of London has no "Roads", and where the UK''s shortest street name (Rye) is located, as well as its longest (Bolderwood Arboretum Ornamental Drive). And why Station Road is in the top five most popular street names, alongside the multitude of Victoria Streets and Albert Roads. Devon even boasts The Street with No Name, which of course has its own story...Perfect for fans of trivia and local history, Great British Street Names will prompt you to think a littledifferently about the street where you live.

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Book SynopsisIt's in our instant noodles and chocolate bars, our lipsticks and fuel tanks. But what even is palm oil, and how has it come to dominate our lives so completely? Jocelyn C. Zuckerman travels across four continents and back two centuries to find answers about the most widely used vegetable oil on Earth. The little oil palm fruit has played an outsized role in world history and economic development. But the multi-billion-dollar palm oil business has been built on stolen land and slave labour; it spurred colonisation and swept away lives and cultures. Today, its fires and mass deforestation generate carbon emissions to rival those of entire industrialized nations, and they've pushed animals like the orangutan to the brink of extinction. Combining history, travelogue and investigative reporting, Planet Palm offers an unsettling, urgent look at a global industry that has become an environmental, public health, and human rights disaster.Trade Review‘Planet Palm will and should enrage you. […] Troubling, thoroughly researched and thrilling from beginning to end, [Jocelyn Zuckerman’s] book traverses four continents in a broad sweep of the history, power and politics behind palm oil.’'Planet Palm is an illuminating read, as engrossing as it is informative. Those who take some time with it will understand palm oil as a force of modern history and see just how much of the world map has been stained in red oil.' -- Mongabay

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Book SynopsisCities around the world are pursuing a smart cities agenda. In general, these initiatives are promoted and rolled-out by governments and corporations which enact various forms of top-down, technocratic governance and reproduce neoliberal governmentality. Despite calls for the smart city agenda to be more citizen-centric and bottom-up in nature, how this translates into policy and initiatives is still weakly articulated and practiced. Indeed, there is little meaningful engagement by key stakeholders with respect to rights, citizenship, social justice, commoning, civic participation, co-creation, and how the smart city might be productively reimagined and remade. This book fills this lacuna by providing critical reflection on whether another smart city is possible and what such a city might look like, exploring themes such as how citizens are framed within it, the ethical implications of smart city systems, and whether injustices are embedded in city systems, infrastructures, services and their calculative practices. Contributors question whether the need for order, and the priorities of capital and property rights, trump individual and collective liberty. Ultimately considering what kind of smart city do individuals want to create, and how we create the most sustainable smart urban landscape.Table of Contents1. Citizenship, Justice and the Right to the Smart City; Rob Kitchin, Paolo Cardullo, and Cesare Di Feliciantonio Part 1: Citizenship and the Commons 2. Whose Right to the Smart City?; Katharine Willis 3. Reading The Neoliberal Smart City Narrative: The Political Potential of Everyday Meaning Making; Jiska Engelbert 4. Playable Urban Citizenship: Social Justice and The Gamification of Civic Life; Alberto Vanolo 5. The Right to the Datafied City: Interfacing the Urban Data Commons; Michiel De Lange 6. Smart Commons or a 'Smart Approach' to the Commons?; Paolo Cardullo 7. Against the Romance of the Smart Community: The Case of Milano 4 You; Cesare Di Feliciantonio Part 2: Civic Engagement, Participation and The Right to The Smart City 8. Sensors and Civics: Towards a Community-Centred Smart City; Catherine D'Ignazio, Eric Gordon and Elizabeth Christoferetti 9. What is Civic Tech? Defining a Practice of Technical Pluralism; Andrew Schrock 10. Hackathons and the Practices and Possibilities of Participation; Sung-Yueh Perng 11. Smart Cities by Design? Interrogating Design Thinking for Citizen Participation; Gabriele Schliwa 12. Appropriating 'Big Data': Exploring the Emancipatory Potential of the Data Strategies of Civil Society Organisations in Cape Town, South Africa; Nancy Odendaal 13. Moving from Smart Citizens to Technological Sovereignty?; Ramon Ribera-Fumaz 14. Towards a Genuinely Humanizing Smart Urbanism; Rob Kitchin

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Book SynopsisWe all have the power to make a difference We know our planet’s resources are stretched to the limits. We know that without significant changes to our diets and shopping habits, nature will continue to suffer. But sometimes it feels like we’re bombarded with mixed messages, and it can be hard to work out which foods are truly eco-friendly. This book sets out the facts in a clear and straightforward way, helping you to make informed choices about environmentally conscious ways to shop, the products to avoid, the best foods to buy, and sustainable ways to prepare them. With over 30 delicious recipes that you, and the earth, will love, The Planet-Friendly Kitchen contains all the tips and advice you need to start making small changes that have big impacts. The choices we make can help create a kinder way of feeding the world, and will preserve our beautiful planet for many generations to come.

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Book SynopsisThe UK has declared a 'climate emergency' and pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050. So how do we get there? Drawing on actions, policies and technologies already emerging around the world, Chris Goodall sets out the ways to achieve this. His proposals include: -Building a huge over-capacity of wind and solar energy, storing the excess as hydrogen. -Using hydrogen to fuel our trains, shipping, boilers and heavy industry, while electrifying buses, trucks and cars. -Farming - and eating - differently, encouraging plant-based alternatives to meat -paying farmers to plant and maintain woodlands. -Making fashion sustainable and aviation pay its way, funding synthetic fuels and genuine offsets. -Using technical solutions to capture CO2 from the air, and biochar to lock carbon in the soil. What We Need To Do Now is an urgent, practical and inspiring book that signals a green new deal for Britain.Trade ReviewThis is exactly the kind of mapping out that we need to make the zero carbon world happen. Chris Goodall's plan is well argued and delightfully readable.Chris Goodall is the kind of person we need to lead us to safety faced with climate change. I learned so much reading this book. It's crisp, superbly researched - and remarkably calm. We can do this.Praise for Ten Technologies: 'Brilliantly concise and clear-eyed.' * New Scientist *Praise for How to Live a Low-Carbon Life: 'Valuable ammunition for those who want to do something about global warming ... Goodall is a pioneer.' * Guardian *The Switch 'A highly readable book ... for anyone interested in the future of energy.' * Financial Times *

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Book Synopsis'One of the most important books I've read this year. How Are We Going To Explain This? is a crystal clear treatise on where we are, and what we need to do right now. Especially recommended for those who feel hopeless.' Rutger Bregman, author of Utopia for Realists 'At a time when despair, malign fabrication and partisanship are combining to prevent vital action, How Are We Going To Explain This is a much-needed, joyful, clear and practical companion. Read this - it could save your planet. Give it to your friends and colleagues - it's their planet, too.' A.L. Kennedy 'Shines a light on the path forward with clarity and determination.' Christiana Figueres Architect of the Paris climate agreement, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 2010-2016 'As more of humanity adjusts to living with crises - we need books like this, which tell us what we can do - from small steps to big ones - to find our way to a new normal.' May Boeve, Executive Director 350.org and 350 Action Fund THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 'There's a new story in the making, one in which the consequences of our actions add up - and every contribution is meaningful.' If climate change is the biggest threat humanity has ever faced, then why are we doing so little? Will the corona pandemic make it worse or better? And where do we go from here? Drawing on the latest climate science, Jelmer Mommers helps you find hope in the midst of the climate crisis. He describes how we got here, what possible futures await us, and how you can help to truly make a difference. 'As a journalist, Jelmer Mommers has broken important stories about how we got in our current climate mess; as a thinker, he shows us there may still be some ways out, if we move with grace and speed. A fine account of where we stand, and where we could go if we wanted to!' Bill McKibben, author, environmentalist, activist and founder of 350.org 'Climate change is a story so often told in the future tense. But Mommers roots it firmly in the present. The problem, the consequences and the solution - right here, right now.' Leo Hickman, editor of Carbon BriefTrade ReviewI'm not exaggerating when I say this is one of the most important books I've read this year.' -- Rutger Bregman, author of Utopia for RealistsBreezy, easy to read, perky, full of good stories and all done with a brisk summary of the history of ideas * Sunday Times *As a journalist, Jelmer Mommers has broken important stories about how we got in our current climate mess; as a thinker, he shows us there may still be some ways out, if we move with grace and speed. A fine account of where we stand, and where we could go if we wanted to!' -- Bill McKibben, author, environmentalist, and activistAs more of humanity adjusts to living with crises - we need books like this, which tell us what we can do - from small steps to big ones - to find our way to a new normal. -- May Boeve, Executive Director 350.org and 350 Action FundJelmer Mommer's How Are We Going to Explain This provides a unique take on challenge to avert a climate crisis. It provides important insights into our dire situation, but it also sketches out a persuasive path forward. A must-read if you want to know where we stand and what we can and must still do! -- Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor, Penn State University and author of The Hockey Stick, the Climate Wars. and The Madhouse EffectClear-eyed and compelling, this book is a much-needed antidote to despair; an inspiration to create the narrative our (grand)children will tell about how we forged a genuinely sustainable world. Read it and make it so! -- Peter C. Frumhoff PhD, Director of Science and Policy and Chief Climate Scientist at the Union of Concerned ScientistsA very interesting and important book, and it's nice that it doesn't depress you -- Georgina Verbaan, actress and writerExplaining the climate story clearly and convincingly: Jelmer Mommers can do it like no other. -- David Van Reybrouck, author of CongoThis climate book is not only great to read, it also outlines a future that you want to be a part of. Inspiring! -- Philip HuffThe first book on climate that doesn't make you feel like it's too late. There's something we can do, let's see this wonderfully fluently written book. -- Jill Peters, weather forecasterThis is the book that needed to be written. -- Marjan Minnesma, Director of UrgendaClimate change is a story so often told in the future tense. But Mommers roots it firmly in the present. The problem, the consequences and the solution - right here, right now." -- Leo Hickman, editor of * Carbon Brief *At a time when despair, malign fabrication and partisanship are combining to prevent vital action, How Are We Going To Explain This is a much-needed, joyful, clear and practical companion. Read this - it could save your planet. Give it to your friends and colleagues - it's their planet, too. -- A.L. KennedyIf there is a silver lining to the Covid crisis, it is surely that from governments to citizens, we have demonstrated that we can work together for the common good. Jelmer Mommers brilliantly captures the essence of this spirit of the possible and applies it to the elephant in the room - the climate crisis, for which we are rapidly reaching an inflection point. This must-read beautifully argues why we must all act together - and act now - dispelling feelings of lethargy and hopelessness on the way. This is a wonderful and prescient stimulus for all those (the majority) who yearn for a more equitable and sustainable future. -- Simon Taylor, Co-founder of Global WitnessJelmer Mommers' How Are We Going to Explain This is an important contribution to the most existential threat of our day: climate change and environmental collapse. What sets this book apart from others is that the author combines hard science with the narratives necessary to save us. We are taken on a trip from gut bacteria and dancing bees to agricultural practices and CO2 sequestering - the micro and the macro beautifully linked to provide us with the big picture with all its hope and horror. -- Joanna PocockHow Are We Going to Explain This is an important contribution to the most existential threat of our day: climate change and environmental collapse. What sets this book apart from others is that the author combines hard science with the narratives necessary to save us. We are taken on a trip from gut bacteria and dancing bees to agricultural practices and CO2 sequestering - the micro and the macro beautifully linked to provide us with the big picture with all its hope and horror. -- Joanna PockockAnother great book on climate change: how we got here but most importantly how we get out of the mess we have created. Shines a light on the path forward with clarity and determination. -- Christiana Figueres Architect of the Paris climate agreement, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 2010-2016"We have to dream bigger, as Jelmer Mommers does. The likely warming of the next few decades can make the future look practically unlivable. But we will find ways to live in it, perhaps even thrive. Mommers helps us see how-how we might remake the world, secure that future, and above all stop seeing the present as a conceptual cage constricting our hopes rather than a husk to leave behind." -- David Wallace-Wells, author of * The Uninhabitable Earth *A welcome reminder that there are things we can do to heal the planet that go beyond useless half-measures. * Kirkus *

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Book Synopsis'Unseen Beings is a magnificent, passionate, brilliantly written manifesto for our urgent reimagining of our relationship with every aspect of the creation… indispensable reading for anyone who longs for a just and balanced human future. Buy it and give it to everyone you know.' Andrew Harvey, author of The HopeA revolutionary perspective on the climate catastrophe bridging history, philosophy, science, and religion.You’ve heard the hard-hitting data and you’ve seen the documentaries. But what will it truly take for humanity to change? We will not tackle the climate catastrophe with data alone – we need new stories and new ways of seeing and thinking. By drawing on traditional eco-philosophies and Buddhist wisdom, Erik Jampa Andersson offers an approach to our environmental emergency that will make us rethink the very nature of our existence on this incredible planet. Looking at the climate catastrophe through the framework of disease, Unseen Beings examines our ecological diagnosis, its historical causes and conditions and, crucially, its much-needed treatment, as well as exploring: · how and why we constructed a human-centric worldview · amazing recent discoveries around non-human intelligence · how religious traditions have dealt with questions of nature, sentience and ecology· critical connections between human health and environmental healthThis book is a call to action. Climate anxiety has left many of us feeling confused and powerless, but there is another way. If we can recover our natural sense of enchantment and kinship with non-human beings, we may still find a path to build a better future.

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Book SynopsisAs one of the fastest growing cities in Europe, London has become a mass generator of employment and a magnet for inward migration. Yet London is also a divided city, whose expansion has generated many planning challenges. This book explores the tensions, complexities and difficulties in mobilizing policy agendas in London, but it also argues that public policy still matters and makes a significant difference to outcomes. The authors show how the market-led development of London has meant that the state supports more private-sector-led governance and this has given rise to widespread privatization of the city’s decision-making processes and policy implementation. As a key command and control centre in the global economy, London’s privatized model has become one for other megacities to emulate.Trade ReviewThis book brings together public regulation and property market activity under the lens of urban planning, providing fresh data, sharp observations and meticulous research. A must-read to understand what shapes new residential landscapes in global cities like London today beyond property market crises. -- Tuna Tasan-Kok, Chair of Urban Governance and Planning, University of AmsterdamTable of Contents1. Planning challenges and the emergence of a london model2. Public regulation and planning for the global city3. Private regulation, governance, and the rise of the para-state capital4. Governing the financing and funding of the london model5. London’s housing crisis and emergence of new residential landscapes6. Tall buildings and the built environment7. Major infrastructure projects: the building of the Thames Tideway Tunnel and Crossrail8. People, diversity and community9. Challenging the para-state: political representation, community politics, and the right to regulate10. Risks, resilience and failure: what next for the london model?

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Book SynopsisA call to arms, How to Save the City invites the reader to engage with the challenges of living and working in cities at a time when several conflating emergencies have become more pressing and connected. While the climate crisis is the most urgent, we also face deep social crises in housing, gender and race inequalities, the breakdown of our natural world, our energy consumption, and the deep ripples resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. These emergencies are playing out in acute ways in urban areas. Locked in to high-energy, high-resource use, cities are responsible for about three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions, have ecological and carbon footprints far bigger than their city limits, and are the beating heart of our pro-growth, unequal, consumer-saturated way of life. The city has to change, but how and by whom? Paul Chatterton engages, inspires and empowers the reader to take action to make cities more sustainable, liveable and safer places. He guides the reader through a sequence of challenges, strategies, players, moves and practical tactics of how to save their city.Trade ReviewThis is a high-energy, thoughtful and exciting book that is certain to inspire students, activists and anybody who cares about the current climate crisis. -- Nik Heynen, Professor of Geography, University of GeorgiaThought provoking. -- Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, University of OxfordA fantastic handbook for anyone wanting to get into action and transform the future of their city – dive in. -- Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut EconomicsGlobal boiling is here! And that’s just one of the crises we face. This book urges a leap into action. It casts all city dwellers as emergency responders who can (metaphorically speaking) take up a hose or carry a stretcher. Inspiring and instructive, Paul Chatterton outlines practical ways for how to save our cities. There is no time to dither and much to do. If you want to know how we can haul ourselves away from disaster and begin to transform our urban environments – read this book. -- J. K. Gibson-Graham, Community Economies Institute & Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityThis is a clever and useful account of where we are (a tough place) and how we might get out (by, you know, making some changes). Read it, reflect on it, and then act on it. -- Bill McKibben, author of The End of NatureThis is a very unusual, very clever, very important book. In the face of the emergency created by changing climatic, social and ecological conditions, it asks simply: what can we do here and now to rescue cities and, by extension, the world? It is a very practical book, with detailed analysis and suggestions as to what to do. Face up to the awful reality that confronts us, but don’t panic, do something, change things! It is a book that shakes us, in a very helpful and stimulating way. Definitely a book to read, and to apply in practice. -- John Holloway, author of Change the World Without Taking Power and Crack CapitalismIt's easy to bury your head in the sand and think that technology will fix the climate crisis. Alternatively, you can feel that climate activists (Paul included) are very brave people, braver than me: they will fix it. You can think we are doomed: there is nothing I personally can do, the problems are overwhelming. This inspiring book shows that there are things we can all do, and perhaps we should focus more on them than worrying about our current predicament. A perfect guide to what is to be done. -- Peter North, Professor of Alternative Economies, University of LiverpoolAn excellent and superbly written book, which persuasively argues that the transformational change demanded by the ecological, democratic and social crises that our cities face can be brought about by the professional experts – we, us, the residents of cities. The author lays out a path, starting from the question 'do we need to save cities?' (yes) to an in-depth exploration of how and by whom, underpinned by the premise that 'people make their own cities, but they do not make them under circumstances they choose'. Chatterton’s exploration is provocative, thought provoking, and in an age of climate breakdown, important indeed. -- David Miller, Managing Director, C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and EconomyAt a time when humanity needs to fundamentally change everything, all too often our imaginations get stuck, unable to really embrace the possibilities of the near future. How to Save the City is a brilliant dive into a delicious array of ways we could reshape the future, presented in such a way that the win/win/win nature of these solutions becomes obvious. Paul Chatterton acts as our tour guide from the future and wow, what a future. -- Rob Hopkins, Transition NetworkTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. Our decade of transformation 3. Strategy: our approach to change 4. Players: who will do it 5. Moves: making it happen 6. It’s the 2030s and we are saving the city

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Book SynopsisEnough! insists there is enough for all. Creating such a future is not about producing more or living with less. Instead, it starts with rethinking our politics, economics and approach to livelihoods. Mary Lawhon and Tyler McCreary develop a “modest approach” to justice and sustainability, drawing on ecology and postcolonial theory, as well as their research on infrastructure in African cities and the Canadian north. The authors chart a pathway beyond modernist and arcadian environmentalisms, emphasizing uncertainty while holding onto hope for creating better worlds. The chapters tack between conceptual contours, concrete examples, proposed inventions, and personal narrative. Theorizing from the struggles of the global south and Indigenous peoples, Enough! proposes delinking livelihoods from work through a redistributive basic income, which enables enough without overreliance on modern states. It also enables us to prevent conflicts over jobs, reduce some types of production, and deploy resources towards building postcapitalist worlds.Trade ReviewCan we imagine a future economy that is attractive, fair, sustainable and ... possible? Lawhon and McCreary have. In Enough! they hurtle us beyond the eco-twin romances of degrowth and techno-optimism to a world where basic income is guaranteed, Earth systems are protected, peoples' needs to thrive are met and the human economy remains vibrant, active, inventive, and full of possibility. Modesty, they show us convincingly, requires neither wearing a sack cloth nor boarding a spaceship. Recommended reading for an optimistic and progressive future. -- Paul Robbins, Dean, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and Professor, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-MadisonIt is refreshing to read such a well-thought-out vision of a better future that so clearly understands and explains the foundational role that a universal, unconditional basic income has to play in underwriting and catalyzing that future. Enough ignoring or maligning UBI, and read this book to gain a larger more comprehensive view. -- Scott Santens, author of Let There Be MoneyAmidst a deepening climate crisis and growing inequalities, what changes are needed to constitute a good and sustainable life? What does 'enough' look like? This book provides a lively, thoughtful and eloquent response. It confronts the uncertainties of possible futures with confidence and care, and makes a compelling case for a redistributive and cooperative economy, universal basic income, and a modest politics to negotiate ecological conflicts and crises. -- Colin McFarlane, Professor of Urban Geography, Durham UniversityIt is a political act to find hope in this twenty-first-century moment of protracted ecological, economic and political malaise. Lawhon and McCreary sit with these troubled times and offer not so much a way out, but a way through. Propositional, curious, and joyful, this book invites us to see the radical in modest imaginaries of infrastructure politics, and the possible in the seemingly unattainable Universal Basic Income. A much-needed provocation, this book will trigger animated conversations in the classroom, the boardroom, and the street. -- Tatiana A. Thieme, Associate Professor in Geography, University College LondonWritten at the height of the pandemic which laid bare global injustices, intersecting crises and uncertainties, but also possibilities for drastic change, Enough! offers radical ideas for a world in which there will be enough for all. Through theoretical reflections and concrete examples on infrastructure and access to basic services from both the global North and South, Lawhon and McCreary make a compelling case for a modest politics which includes universal basic income and a reimagining of state citizenship relations, livelihoods and the economy that will enable justice and sustainability for all. Enough’s call to embrace a modest politics of sufficiency in an uncertain world leaves us with hope and immense possibilities to aspire and fight for a sustainable and just world in which all people can thrive and live well. -- Lyla Mehta, Professorial Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and Visiting Professor at Norwegian University of Life SciencesEnough! begins with the premise that we all want a better world, and in doing so it is radically hopeful as well as accessible. Lawhon and McCreary's ‘modest’ proposal is inspiring and provocative, opening up big conversations on what really matters while remaining careful to recognize and work within the complexities of current economic, political and environmental life. In doing so, they encourage us to collectively work towards social and ecological well-being in ways that are sure to engage students and practitioners alike. -- Julia Corwin, Assistant Professor in Environment, London School of EconomicsAmidst the current anxieties and pessimism about the future, Lawhon and McCreary shake us to be optimistic for a future where we all live decent and dignified lives. A just and sustainable world where there is enough for all! Through well-described and contextualised fragments of life from the global north and south, that sits with the troubled realities of our times, Enough! showcases a pathway to a just and sustainable future we should look forward to. A hope-filled timely read for young scholars, activists and policy makers whose betterment of society is the core of their comradeship. -- Mwangi Mwaura, 2023 Rhodes Scholar elect, University of OxfordEnough! is a lucid and eloquent read on how the politics of nature–society relationships have evolved and how the arguments on modesty can renew foundational claims on political ecology. Keeping infrastructure politics as the cornerstone, the book contributes to a futuristic 'modest imaginary' analysis of the state, market forces and livelihoods. The book challenges the 'modern infrastructure ideal' and a 'usual inverted modernist' approach, presenting a more nuanced analysis and illustrations of modest environmental governance, setting the course for future sustainability. A must-read for future infrastructure practitioners, activists, students focusing on interdisciplinarity, and political ecologists. -- Sumit Vij, Assistant Professor, Sociology and Development Change Group, Wageningen University, the NetherlandsTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Polarising political ecologies of the future 2. Neither more nor less: cultivating a modest political ecology Interlude: radical potential of a universal, unconditional basic income 3. A modest economy: diverse and distributionist 4. A modest state 5. Modest livelihoods 6. Onwards

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Book SynopsisA journey across Ireland, in words and dazzling images,exploring the nature we pass every day. Go deep in the bog, high in the mountains and under crashing waves. Discover alpine flowers blooming in the Burren, meet ferocious anemones on our shorelines, and visit the Shannon Dolphins, who have had a place in local legend for centuries.

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Book Synopsis"They demolish our houses while we build theirs." This is how a Palestinian stonemason, in line at a checkpoint outside a Jerusalem suburb, described his life to Andrew Ross. Palestinian "stone men", utilizing some of the best quality dolomitic limestone deposits in the world and drawing on generations of artisanal knowledge, have built almost every state in the Middle East except their own. Today the business of quarrying, cutting, fabrication, and dressing is Palestine's largest employer and generator of revenue, supplying the construction industry in Israel, along with other Middle East countries and even more overseas.Drawing on hundreds of interviews in Palestine and Israel, Ross's engrossing, surprising, and gracefully written story of this fascinating, ancient trade shows how the stones of Palestine, and Palestinian labor, have been used to build out the state of Israel-in the process, constructing "facts on the ground"--even while the industry is central to Palestinians' own efforts to erect bulwarks against the Occupation. For decades, the hands that built Israel's houses, schools, offices, bridges, and even its separation barriers have been Palestinian. Looking at the Palestine-Israel conflict in a new light, this book asks how this record of achievement and labor can be recognized.Trade ReviewMeet 'Michelangelo of Beit Fajjar' and the other Palestinian stone-masons whose superb craft has fashioned Israel's famous 'white cities.' Their hidden labor is the starting point for Ross's brilliantly original exploration of how dispossession and exploitation continue to define the relationship of Israeli and Palestinian societies. This is radical journalism at its best - and I mean Pulitzer-Prize-quality best. -- Mike DavisWhen a writer as original and committed as Andrew Ross turns his attention to Palestine, we know we are up for a unique set of observations. Ross uses the stone quarries of palestine to weave a story that brings together geology, politics, military occupation, water, and environment. It is a story that is at once specific in its attention to details of matter and place and expansive as it takes us across the tragic history of this late manifestation of colonial domination. * Eyal Weizman *Andrew Ross sheds a brilliant light on what he calls the 'sweat equity' of Palestinian laborers who were deprived by Israel's system of occupation and apartheid of their land and livelihood and pushed as a result to build Israeli housing and infrastructure to survive and to resist ethnic cleansing. Ross enriches us not just with a meticulously-researched dose of history and a logical argument for a post-colonial reality of ethical co-existence in historic Palestine. He takes us on a perspicacious journey of human stories, ethical arguments and socioeconomic realities, consciously refraining from speaking on behalf of Palestinians or depicting us as pitiful victims, as many well-meaning white academics still do, and thus contributing to understanding what justice in this land truly means and entails. * Omar Barghouti *Just when you thought that there was no other way to amplify the atrocity of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, along comes Andrew Ross with Stone Men: The Palestinians Who Built Israel. Here is a refreshingly clear picture of the labour that it takes to produce and reproduce Israeli society and the Israeli occupation. Ordinary Palestinians who break and lay the stones tell Andrew Ross their stories, and he offers them to us as a gift of their resilience * Vijay Prashad, author of The Darker Nations *"Poignant, poetic, and illuminating, this book exposes a chief paradox of Israeli settler colonialism: that skilled Palestinian laborers built modern Israel-its homes, offices, shopping malls, prisons, border walls-while their own homes were demolished or seized. This is history, sensitive and somber, written in stone." * Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams *Cultural differences, labor relations, religious certainty, a knotted history of violence, political dominance, and cruel economic policies-all figure prominently in this account of the stone and building industries in Israel. Ross (Social and Cultural Analysis/New York Univ.; Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City, 2011, etc.), a contributor to the Nation, the New York Times, and Artforum, delivers a deeply researched, passionate, pro-proletariat view of his topic. Based on interviews with businessmen, laborers, Palestinians, Israelis, and others, the text rehearses the long history of stonework in the region. The author exposes what he sees as the exploitation of Palestinian stoneworkers and points out the difficulties of those workers (getting through checkpoints each day takes hours) and how many of them are torn by the necessity to make money by building the homes of those whom they view as occupiers. He notes, as well, the lack of civil rights for the workers-and for any other benefits besides a salary, which is, as he describes, often barely adequate to sustain life. From the beginning, Ross pulls no punches, decrying the Israeli employers' "discrimination, degradation, and exploitation." Repeatedly, he shines light on the dark side of economic power: the deals, the political connections, the anti-union efforts. The author visited many building sites and talked with hundreds of workers, often standing in line with them at clogged checkpoints. He reports that many told him "they no longer had any dreams or hopes." Ross also offers details about the stone deposits in the area (and a map-Bethlehem is one important site), talks about the recent "Separation Wall" (with a nod to the issues regarding a border wall in the United States), and does not see much hope. A sturdy and depressing study in which the author's pro-worker sympathies and empathies are clear-as are his condemnations of Israel's (and employers') policies. * Kirkus *

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Climate engineering is a dystopian project. But as the human species hurtles ever faster towards its own extinction, geoengineering as a temporary fix, to buy time for carbon removal, is a seductive idea. We are right to fear that geoengineering will be used to maintain the status quo, but is there another possible future after geoengineering? Can these technologies and practices be used to bring carbon levels back down to pre-industrial levels? Are there possibilities for massive intentional intervention in the climate that are democratic, decentralised, or participatory?These questions are provocative, because they go against a binary that has become common sense: geoengineering is assumed to be on the side of industrial agriculture, inequality and ecomodernism, in opposition to degrowth, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture and climate justice. After Geoengineering rejects this binary, to ask: what if the people seized the means of climate production? Both critical and utopian, the book examines the possible futures after geoengineering. Rejecting the idea that geoengineering is some kind of easy work-around, Holly Buck outlines the kind of social transformation that would be necessary to enact a programme of geoengineering in the first place.

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Book SynopsisThe Great Adaptation tells the story of how scientists, governments and corporations have tried to deal with the challenge that climate change poses to capitalism by promoting adaptation to the consequences of climate change, rather than combating its causes. From the 1970s neoliberal economists and ideologues have used climate change as an argument for creating more "flexibility" in society, that is for promoting more market-based solutions to environmental and social questions. The book unveils the political economy of this potent movement, whereby some powerful actors are thriving in the face of dangerous climate change and may even make a profit out of itTrade ReviewThis is an excellent and very important book. -- Geoff Mann * Antipode *A trenchant essay * Libération *Thanks to its solid argumentation and the quality of its writing, this extremely well documented book offers a judicious interpretation at a time when it is essential to ensure that the solutions to serious problems do not, in turn, become problems in their own right. -- Lucile Maertens * Books and Ideas *

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Book SynopsisWho owns London? In recent decades, it has fallen into the hands of the super-rich. It is today the essential 'World City' for High-Net-Worth Individuals and Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals. Compared to New York or Tokyo, it has the largest number of wealthy people per head of population. Taken as a whole, London is the epicentre of the world's finance markets, an elite cultural hub, and a place to hide one's wealth.Alpha City moves from gated communities and the mega-houses of the super-rich to the disturbing rise of evictions and displacements from the city. It shows how the consequences of widening inequality have an impact on the urban landscape. Rowland Atkinson presents a history of the property boom economy, going back to the end of Empire. It tells the story of eager developers, sovereign wealth and grasping politicians, all paving the way for the wealthy colonisation of the cityscape. The consequences of this transformation of the capital for capital is the brutal expulsion of the urban poor, austerity, cuts, demolitions, and a catalogue of social injustices.Trade ReviewAlpha City is the heart-breaking, carefully-told, story of how London - its heart, mind and soul - was stolen from the people by the plutocrats and their minions. When, the book asks, will the greed of the super-rich end up strangling the city, whose body sustains them? Rowland Atkinson has delved deep to uncover the extent of the super-rich's grip on London. A masterpiece. -- Danny Dorling, author of Inequality and 1%London, Alpha City, tops the global power city index, but rankings aside what does this really mean? In this superb book Atkinson tells us - it means hyper-activity, hyper-consumption, and hyper-gentrification. The fall out is eviction and dispossession of the poor, even the middle classes, the city and its spaces territorialised by the super-wealthy, the collapse of any ethics of care. This is the shady, corrupt world of money destroying the city. And Atkinson tells the story so well through his vivid descriptions of London's neighbourhoods, streets, and buildings as captured, even stolen. This engaging and provocative book is a must read for Londoners, urbanists, and those interested in social, economic and political justice. -- Loretta Lees, King’s College, LondonIn Alpha Cities, Rowland Atkinson lays bare how London has been geared up as the world's monument to inequality. It exposes the tactics of gilded elites alongside their legions of enablers and hangers on, and the ways in which they have turned an already tough city into a 21st century dystopia, where the ultra-rich glide through pristine, soulless environments while the infrastructure we all need decays around us. This fast-paced guide to the new gilded age is a timely warning of how much damage inequality can do. -- Douglas Murphy, author of NincompoopolisA great book which provides vital insights into a strangely under researched group - the wealthiest people on the planet. -- Anna Minton, author of Big CapitalRowland Atkinson's excellent, lively and deeply researched book opens the lid on a can of dangerous worms. While Britain's policies to tempt the world's mobile hot money and its owners have blessed a small section of the population, Atkinson reveals how this has cursed far larger numbers of people, as the super rich have sucked away wealth, talent, investment, culture, government attention, and opportunities from the majority. As he puts it, "the rich kill the cities built to attract them." A welcome and urgently important corrective to the dominant British narrative that the super-rich benefit London and the wider nation. -- Nicholas Shaxson, author of Treasure IslandsTurning large swathes of London over to the Super-Rich was meant to generate a sloshing pool of wealth that would 'trickle down' to the rest of us. In practice, the detailed, informed and devastating trawl through the global capital of the ruling class in Alpha City proves the only thing that has trickled down is contempt -- Owen Hatherley, author of The Ministry of NostalgiaAtkinson writes with beautiful elegance. Almost every page has a sentence I wish I'd written myself! But his fundamental argument is hard-hitting and could not be more relevant for our troubled times. His analysis of London's 'alphahoods' is a reminder, if we need it, of how unequal cities-not just London-have become. -- Glyn Robbins * City *

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Book SynopsisThe GND has the potential of becoming one of the largest global campaigns of our times, and it started in Ann Pettifor's flat. In 2008, the first Green New Deal was devised by Pettifor and a group of English economist and thinkers, but was ignored within the tumults of the financial crash. A decade later, the ideas was revived within the democratic socialists in the US, forefront by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. The Green New Deal demands a radical and urgent reversal of the current state of the global economy: including total de-carbonisation and a commitment to fairness and social justice. Critics on all sides have been quick to observe that the GND is a pipe dream that could never be implemented, and would cost the earth. But, as Ann Pettifor shows, we need to rethink the function of money, and how it works within the global system. How can we bail out the banks but not the planet? We have to stop thinking about the imperative of economic growth-nothing grows for ever. The program will be a long term project but it needs to start immediately.Trade ReviewThe Case for the Green New Deal succinctly explains what the GND is, where the idea came from, why it's necessary, and how to make it happen. As an economist and expert in monetary theory, Pettifor is uniquely well placed to describe how the GND can be funded * Morning Star *Demanding drastic, even impossible change - as...Pettifor [does] - may just be a way to ensure that something is done. -- Jonathan Ford * Financial Times *Clear, concise, and well put...a crash course in the economics and history of the policy bundle, as well as a roadmap to implementing it. * Bright Green *Concise, erudite and thought-provoking * Quietus *This awareness-raising contribution to an important debate should expand our understanding of what's possible and encourage us to take action. * Labour Briefing *What still distinguishes Pettifor's thinking about the Green New Deal is the way that it tackles not only the climate crisis but also the financial system that helped create it. * Sierra Magazine *Pettifor has a rare approach, both radical and intricate -- Zoe Williams * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisAll politics are climate politics in the twenty-first century - and this bold book argues for a Green New Deal that confronts both climate change and inequalityThe age of climate gradualism is over, as unprecedented disasters are exacerbated by inequalities of race and class. We need profound, radical change. A Green New Deal can tackle the climate emergency and rampant inequality at the same time. Cutting carbon emissions while winning immediate gains for the many is the only way to build a movement strong enough to defeat big oil, big business, and the super-rich - starting right now.A Planet to Win explores the political potential and concrete first steps of a Green New Deal. It calls for dismantling the fossil fuel industry and building beautiful landscapes of renewable energy, guaranteeing climate-friendly work and no-carbon housing and free public transit. And it shows how a Green New Deal in the United States can strengthen climate justice movements worldwide. We don't make politics under conditions of our own choosing, and no one would choose this crisis. But crises also present opportunities. We stand on the brink of disaster - but also at the cusp of wondrous, transformative change.Trade ReviewA Planet to Win helps us imagine life under the umbrella of a radical Green New Deal. * Sierra Magazine *Urgent and pragmatic... refreshingly optimistic and future-oriented -- Eric Klinenberg * New York Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisIn 1985 Boria Sax inherited an area of forest in New York State that had been purchased by his Russian, Jewish Communist grandparents as a buffer against what they felt was a hostile world. For Sax, in the years following, the woodland came to represent a link with those who lived and had lived there, including Native Americans, settlers, bears, deer, turtles and migrating birds. In this personal and eloquent account, Sax explores the meanings and cultural history of forests from prehistory to the present, taking in Gilgamesh, Virgil, Dante, the Gawain poet, medieval alchemists, the Brothers Grimm, the Hudson River painters, Latin American folklore, contemporary African novelists and much more. Combining lyricism with contemporary scholarship, Sax opens new emotional, intellectual and environmental perspectives on the storied history of the forest.Trade Review'Put on your hiking boots and prepare for an adrenaline-fueled journey around the world with Boria Sax as your expert guide. Make stops with Gilgamesh at the Cedar Forest of Lebanon, with Dante as he enters a dark forest, and with Joseph Conrad’s Marlow as he navigates his way down a river to the Congo. Behold Yggdrasil of Nordic mythologies, the Cosmic Tree that grows in Siberia, or the Waq Waq tree in medieval Arab belief systems. Beauty and wisdom flash out at us on every page of this captivating volume.' – Maria Tatar, author of The Heroine with 1001 Faces; 'We generally take forests for granted, but Boris Sax, in this elegant history, reveals their glory and importance. When we look at our devastation of forests throughout the world, and how ignorant we are about the value of trees, it is a crime that we don't know more about their existence. Sax's graceful analysis guides us through all kinds of enchanted forests throughout history that need more respect than they have received.' – Jack Zipes, Professor Emeritus, University of MinnesotaTable of ContentsIntroduction: Forests and Memory 1 Wood and Leaves 2 The World Tree 3 Mythic Beings 4 Conquest of the Woods 5 The Royal Hunt 6 The Forest and Death 7 Lord of the Forest 8 Lady of the Forest 9 The Classical, Rococo and Gothic Woods 10 The Primeval Forest 11 The Forest of Dreams 12 The Law of the Jungle 13 The Man with the Big Axe 14 The Politics of Trees 15 The River in the Forest Epilogue Timeline of Forests in Culture References Further Reading Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements Index

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Book SynopsisMaps go far beyond just showing us where things are located. All Mapped Out is an exploration of how maps impact our lives on social and cultural levels. This book takes you on a journey through the fascinating history of maps, from ancient cave paintings and stone carvings to the digital interfaces we rely on today. But it’s not just about the maps themselves; it’s about the people behind them. Discover how maps have affected societies, influenced politics and economies, impacted the environment, and even shaped our sense of personal identity. Mike Duggan uncovers the incredible power of maps to shape the world and the knowledge we consume. This is a unique and eye-opening perspective on the significance of maps in our daily lives.

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Book SynopsisThe forgotten history of climatic botany, showing how forests create and recycle rainfall.

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Book SynopsisNematodes are incontestably the most numerous and the most diverse metazoans in freshwater habitats, and these properties bestow exceptional significance to their role in the environment. An array of functional roles has been attributed to them: they are grazers on bacteria and primary producers, regulators of decomposition of plant material, predators, prey for other animals, and closely associated symbionts of bacteria and other organisms. Freshwater nematodes are central in the context of environmental monitoring, pollution assessments, global warming and food webs, and this is increasingly being recognized. Moreover, the short generation time (a few days to months) of many species makes nematodes ideal for laboratory studies. This book: Provides a follow-up to Freshwater Nematodes: Ecology and Taxonomy (2006). Offers guidelines for studying the ecology of free-living nematodes, including detailed protocols and case studies. Promotes free-living nematodes as model organisms for studies in a broad range of research fields. Despite the recognized importance of nematodes across ecosystems, many species of free-living nematodes have yet to be discovered, and essential knowledge gaps remain. Ecology of Freshwater Nematodes provides an overview of research efforts in this field, and is an important resource for researchers in the field of nematology and ecology.Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction to Freshwater Nematodes in Ecology: Current Knowledge and Research Chapter 2: Sampling and Processing of Freshwater Nematodes with Emphasis on Molecular Methods Chapter 3: Species Composition and Distribution of Free-living Nematodes in Lakes and Streams Chapter 4: Nematodes from Extreme and Unusual Freshwater Habitats Chapter 5: Dispersal of Free-living Nematodes Chapter 6: Feeding Ecology of Free-living Nematodes Chapter 7: Role of Nematodes in the Food Web: Nematodes as Predator and Prey Chapter 8: Production of Freshwater Nematodes Chapter 9: Freshwater Nematodes in Metacommunity Studies Chapter 10: Single- and Multi-species Toxicity Testing with Nematodes Chapter 11: Freshwater Nematodes as Bioindicators in Field Studies – The NemaSPEAR[%]-index Chapter 12: Case Studies with Nematodes from the Individual to Ecosystem Level

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Book SynopsisIntroduction to Environmental Toxicology is designed as a concise text, introducing students to the fundamentals of this important subject. It covers the origin, characterization and environmental distribution of the major pollutants, and provides an explanation of their implications for human morbidity via the development of cancer, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary dysfunction and neurological conditions. Considering impacts on biodiversity, such as effects from acid rain, heavy metals and selected anthropogenic compounds, this book: - Covers biogenic contaminants, gases and particulates, organic pollutants, petroleum, heavy metals, complex polymers and radiation; - Considers the impact of pollutants across human health, biodiversity, water and food safety; - Includes questions, further reading and case studies to spark discussion in tutorials. Covering all the major biological toxins and pollutants, this book forms a true introduction to the subject for undergraduates studying environmental toxicology and related subjects.Table of Contents1: Introduction 2: Biogenic Contaminants 3: Ambient Gases and Particulates 4: Persistent Organic Pollutants 5: Fossil Fuel Pollutants 6: Metallic Elements 7: Consumerism and Lifestyle Choices: Toxicological Perspectives 8: Radiation 9: Adaptation in Microbes and Higher Plants 10: Discussion

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Book Synopsis'Honest yet inspiring, Go Toxic Free empowers us to take positive action today.' Lucy Siegle__________________________________________________________________________Practical everyday tips and ideas to help make ourselves and our planet a little less toxic.Plastic pollution is headline news. But plastics are only part of the story, and the invisible world of chemical pollutants – in the soil, the air, our water systems and our own bodies – is just as worrying. There’s been a huge rise in chemical-related health issues in recent years, and when we delve into what’s hiding in the clothes we wear, the food and water we consume, as well as the numerous household cleaners and cosmetics we use every day, it’s easy to see why. In this uplifting and practical book, environmental journalist Anna Turns makes this invisible world visible, looking at the wider issue of toxic chemicals – what they are, where they’re hidden and the extent of their environmental impact. Taking you on an in-depth tour of your house and garden, Go Toxic Free reveals the harmful substances that lurk inside your home, and shares essential swaps and tips to avoid them wherever you can.Trade ReviewHonest yet inspiring, Go Toxic Free empowers us to take positive action today. -- Lucy SiegleGo Toxic Free is a book that brings you up against something hard: just how much our world, our homes, our bodies have been poisoned by global industrialization. By the creams and cleaning products and flame retardants and bright plastic toys and packaging and non-stick coatings that promised to make life easier and more convenient – and did. But now the costs are being counted in all the ways we know so horribly well – which leads many of us to despair. Well, if like me you’re despairing, this is the book for you – full of empowering facts and the new science and research, as well as simple practical advice, to lead us out of the mess we’ve made. -- Sheila Dillon, presenter of R4’s 'The Food Programme'Chemical pollution is an insidious problem. It impacts everyone, every day. Of the 100,000 chemicals on the EU market, there is only robust information on a mere 500 of them. Harmful chemicals don’t belong in our bodies, products and ecosystems. Go Toxic Free is a fabulously helpful and informative resource that empowers the reader to start getting toxics out of their life. -- James K. Thornton, Founder and CEO of ClientEarthThis is a scientifically robust and informative book which is also accessible for general readers. The environmental and health impact of toxic chemicals needs a higher profile and people need practical ideas on how to minimize their exposure. This book does an excellent job at both. -- Mike Childs, Head of Policy and Insight at Friends of the EarthA hugely important and informative book, this is essential reading for anyone who wants to reduce their toxic burden on the planet and protect their own health. -- Natalie Fee, author of How to Save the World for FreeCracks open the scam of greenwashing and shines a light on half-truths. While we can easily crumble under the burden of responsibility and flounder awash with marketing cliches, this book has offered up honest, workable solutions. Everyone’s guide to taking steps to clean up how we live so nature can have a chance to recover. -- Susie Hewson, founder of Natracare'This book is a breath of fresh air. Anna explains exactly what chemicals are, and how toxics in everyday products affect us. I love the way she guides us room by room and shows us how to make sustainable swaps. It’s the 'small change, big difference' approach. -- Janey Lee Grace, author of Happy Healthy SoberI’ve learnt more about toxins in the first chapter of this book than I’ve probably known in all my life. And it’s making me think very differently about everything I use / buy / dispose of. It’s quite startling. -- Sophie Marple, 'Impatience Earth'

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Book SynopsisThis collection considers the city of the future and its relationship to its citizens. It responds to the foregrounding of digital technologies in the management of urban spaces, and addresses some of the ways in which technologies are changing the places in which we live and the way we live in them. A broad range of interdisciplinary contributors reflect on the global agenda of smart cities, the ruptures in smart discourse and the spaces where we might envisage a more user-friendly and bottom-up version of the smart future. The authors adopt an equality studies lens to assess how we might conceive of a future smart city and what fissures need to be addressed to ensure the smart future is equitable. In the project of envisaging this, they consider various approaches and arguments for equality in the imagined future city, putting people at the forefront of our discussions, rather than technologies. In the smart discourse, hard data, technological solutions, global and national policy and macro issues tend to dominate. Here, the authors include ethnographic evidence, rather than rely on the perspective of the smart technologies’ experts, so that the arena for meaningful social development of the smart future can develop. The international contributors respond purposefully to the smart imperative, to the disruptive potential of smart technologies in our cities: issues of change, design, austerity, ownership, citizenship and equality. The collection examines the pull between equality and engagement in smart futures. To date, the topic of smart cities has been approached from the perspective of digital media, human geography and information communications technology. This collection, however, presents a different angle. It seeks to open new discussions about what a smart future could do to bridge divides, to look at governmentality in the context of (in)equality in the city. The collection is an approachable discussion of the issues that surround smart digital futures and the imagined digital cities of the future. It is aspirational in that it seeks to imagine a truly egalitarian city of the future and to ponder how that might come about. Primary readership will be academics and students in social science, architecture, urban planning, government employees, and those working or studying in social justice and equality studiesTrade Review'One of the strengths of this book is that its authors bridge familiar planning and broader urban studies theory with the contemporary challenges of new technology deployment. This bridging helps ground our engagement with the complexity of new technologies in our long-standing obligation to equitably evaluate how new changes in communities will affect all of our residents. Planners reading this book will gain insight into how we might engage our residents in civic conversations about new technology adoption. [...] Individually and collectively, these chapters will help planners think more critically about the challenges and opportunities new technologies bring before we implement them. Equality in the City has many chapters that could be used in planning theory classes, allowing learners to see how the planning and urbanism theories that have long informed our practice also shed important light on new trends.' -- Pamela Robinson, Journal of the American Planning AssociationTable of ContentsIntroduction Susan Flynn Section 1: Urban Crisis 1. Locked down in the neoliberal Smart City: A-systemic technologies in crisis. Eleanor Dare, Reader in Digital Media, Royal College of Art 2. If (equality). Delfina Fantini von Ditmar, Lecturer in Digital Research, Royal College of Art 3. Reading Lefebvre’s right to the city in the age of the internet. Alan Reeve. Reader in Urban Design, Oxford Brookes University 4. Universities, Equality and the Neoliberal City. Richard Hayes. Vice-President, Waterford Institute of Technology Section 2: City Design 5. Universal Smart City Design. Eoghan Conor O’Shea, Lecturer in Universal Design and Architecture. Institute of Technology, Carlow, Ireland 6. The Design and Public Imaginaries of Smart Street Furniture. Justine Humphry, University of Sydney; Sophia Maalsen, University of Sydney; Justine Gangneux, University of Glasgow; Chris Chesher, University of Sydney; Matt Hanchard, University of Glasgow; Simon Joss, University of Glasgow; Peter Merrington, University of Glasgow; Bridgette Wessels, University of Glasgow 7. Co-creating Place and Creativity Through Media Architecture: The Instabooth. Glenda Caldwell, Associate Professor of Architecture, Queensland University of Technology 8. Narratives, inequalities and civic participation: A case for 'more-than-technological' approaches to smart city development. Carla Maria Kayanan, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University College Dublin; Niamh Moore-Cherry, Associate Professor of Urban Governance and Development in the School of Geography, University College Dublin and Alma Clavin, Post-Doctoral Fellow, University College Dublin Section3: Spatial Humanism 9. Building Participatory City 2.0; Folksonomy, Taxonomy, Hyperhumanism. Carl Smith, Director of the Learning Technology Research Centre (LTRC) and Principal Research Fellow Ravensbourne University London; Fred Garnett, London Knowledge Lab and Manuel Laranja, Senior Associate Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Lisbon 10. Psychogeography: reimagining and re-enchanting the smart city. Adrian Sledmere, Lecturer in Cultural Studies, University of the Arts, London 11. Afterword Rob Kitchin, Professor of Human Geography, National University of Ireland, Maynooth

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Book SynopsisNew Approaches to the Archaeology of Beekeeping aims to take a holistic view of beekeeping archaeology (including honey, wax, and associated products, hive construction, and participants in this trade) in one large interconnected geographic region, the Mediterranean, central Europe, and the Atlantic Façade. Current interest in beekeeping is growing because of the precipitous decline of bees worldwide and the disastrous effect it portends for global agriculture. As a result, all aspects of beekeeping in all historical periods are coming under closer scrutiny. The volume focuses on novel approaches to historical beekeeping but also offers new applications of more established ways of treating apicultural material from the past. It is also keenly interested in helping readers navigate the challenges inherent in studying beekeeping historically. The volume brings together scholars working on ancient, medieval, early modern, and ethnographic evidence of beekeeping from a variety of perspectives. In this sense it will serve as a handbook for current researchers in this field and for those who wish to undertake research into the archaeology of beekeeping.Table of ContentsPreface – David Wallace-Hare (San Diego State University) ; Acknowledgements ; 1. A New Approach to the Study of Ancient Greek Beekeeping – Georgios Mavrofridis (University of the Aegean) ; 2. Smoke and Bees: From Prehistoric to Traditional Smokers in Greece – Sophia Germanidou (University of Newcastle) ; 3. Potters and Beekeepers: Industrial Collaboration in Ancient Greece – Jane Francis—Concordia University (jane.francis@concordia.ca) ; 4. Etruscan 'Honey Pots': Some Observations on a Specialised Vase Shape – Paolo Persano (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa) ; 5. Palynological Insights into the Ecology and Economy of Ancient Bee-Products – Lorenzo Castellano (Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University); Cesare Ravazzi, Roberta Pini, Giulia Furlanetto, Franco Valoti (Research Group Vegetation, Climate and Human Stratigraphy, Laboratory of Palynology and Paleoecology, Institute of Environmental Geology and Geoengineering, National Research Council, Italy) ; 6. La apicultura en el ager de Segóbriga-Cuenca, España – Jorge Morín (Departamento de Arqueología, Paleontología y Recursos Culturales de AUDEMA); Rui Roberto de Almeida (Investigador da UNIARQ-Universidade de Lisboa / Câmara Municipal de Loulé); and Isabel Sánchez Ramos (Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla) ; 7. Beekeeping and Problematic Landscapes: Beekeeping and Mining in Roman Spain and North Africa – David Wallace-Hare (San Diego State University) ; 8. Evidence of Dalmatian Beekeeping in Roman Antiquity – Kristina Jelincic Vučković, Ivana Ožanić Roguljić (Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia); and Emmanuel Botte (MMSH, Centre Camille Jullian Aix-en-Provence Cedex) ; 9. Ancient Rock-cut Apiaries in the Mediterranean Area: Some Case Studies – Roberto Bixio (Hon. Inspector for Archaeology, sector Artificial Cavities, Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage); Andrea Bixio (Centro Studi Sotterranei, Genoa); Andrea De Pascale (Museo Archeologico del Finale /Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri, sezione Finalese Finale Ligure/Savona) ; 10. Appiaria vel in civitate vel in villa: Bees and Cities in the Early Medieval West – Javier Martínez Jiménez (Faculty of Classics/Churchill College, University of Cambridge) ; 11. The Production and Trade of Wax in North-Eastern Iberia, XIV-XVI C: The Case of Catalonia – Lluís Sales i Favà (King’s College London) and Alexandra Sapoznik (King’s College London) ; 12. Del panal a la mesa: La miel en la Corona de Aragón (siglos XIV-XV) – Pablo José Alcover Cateura (Food Observatory, ODELA, Universitat de Barcelona) ; 13. Honey and Wax in Medieval Tyrol on the Basis of Tyrolean Land Registers (Urbaria) and Books of Accounts – Barbara Denicolò (University of Salzburg) ; 14. Early Irish Law on Beekeeping, with Particular Reference to Bechbretha ‘Bee-Judgements’ – Fergus Kelly (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies) ; 15. Arqueología de la apicultura en la Asturias preindustrial – Joaquín López Álvarez (Muséu del Pueblu d’Asturies) ; 16. Approches de l’Archéologie: L’apiculture insolite du nord de l’Espagne – Robert Chevet (Apistoria) ; 17. Historical Beekeeping in Northern Portugal: Between Traditional Practices and Innovation in Movable Frame Hives – Teresa Soeiro (CITCEM)

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Book SynopsisFrom podiums on international stages to mainstream media coverage, from crowds of youth marching in streets, to social media feeds, everywhere we look we can see girls rising in the climate justice movement. Carolyn M. Cunningham and Heather M. Crandall examine these climate activists from the intersection of gender studies, new media studies, and environmental activism. They include cases about iconic climate girls such as Greta Thunberg, Mari Copeny, and Autumn Peltier (Wiikwemkoong First Nation) and lesser-known climate girl activists who design technologies, global non-profit organizations, and lawsuits against governments. Crandall and Cunningham reveal that climate girl activists are consciously intersectional and aware of how systems of oppression, including racism, heterosexism, and capitalism, impact the climate crisis. Scholars of women’s and gender studies, environmental studies, and communications studies will find this book of particular interest.Trade ReviewThis book is an excellent entry point for those interested in learning more about the current wave of girls activism for climate justice. The authors are both scholars and admirers of the activists and movements they present, allowing them to capture the tensions at play, between anxiety and strength, media empowerment and fetishization, and the desire to change the world versus the desire to live “normal” lives in unprecedented times. In combining attention to girls studies, environmental activism, black and indigenous experiences, and social/new media savvy, the book makes notable contributions to how we understand intersectional and coalition activisms. -- Casey R. Schmitt, Independent Scholar -- Casey R. SchmittTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgmentsChapter 1 Girls on EarthChapter 2 The Greta EffectChapter 3 The Flint Girl EffectChapter 4 Indigenous Climate Girl EffectChapter 5 Technofeminist Climate Girl EffectChapter 6 Grassroots Climate Girl EffectChapter 7 Lawyer Up Climate Girl EffectChapter 8 The Future of the Climate Girl EffectReferencesAbout the Author

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Book Synopsis Find pleasure, joy, and calm through communing with nature's majesty in a self-care book overflowing with untamed beauty. Chad Hanson’s captivating photography allows us to observe wild horses in their natural element, offering life-changing moments of splendor, mindfulness, and wonder.Combining stunning imagery with insights from the new science of awe and contemplative practices, The Wild Horse Effect reminds us that stepping away from our modern lives and reconnecting with the natural world is essential to our sense of peace, purpose, and well-being. This unique nature book invites you into a world seldom experienced by humans through breathtaking imagery of wild horses on the open plains. In addition, author Chad Hanson delves into current research and lays out the myriad mind-body benefits of spending time in natural spaces. 'Try this' sidebars throughout offer simple ways to get outside, practice mindfulness, and discover more wonder in your every day, no matter where you live. Handsomely designed to evoke the allure of the West and brimming with images that range from austere to heartwarming to jubilant, this transporting book will appeal to animal and nature lovers, photography enthusiasts, and anyone interested in improving their well-being through time spent outdoors.Perfect for: Horse lovers and equestrians Animal lovers and anyone interested in wildlife conservation People who live in or travel to the western United States  Forest bathers, meditators, and mindfulness practitioners Fans of nature photography  People who enjoy Nature Meditations Deck, Forest Bathing, or Chronicle Books’ Pocket Nature series

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