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The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water
Par Charles Fishman. 2011
Praised as &“an entertaining and torrential flow of a book&” by Nature magazine, The Big Thirstis a startling examination of…
the passing of the golden age of water and the shocking facts about how water scarcity will soon be a major factor in our lives.The water coming out of your kitchen tap is four billion years old and might well have been sipped by a Tyrannosaurus rex. Rather than only three states of water—liquid, ice, and vapor—there is a fourth, &“molecular water,&” fused into rock 400 miles deep in the Earth, and that&’s where most of the planet&’s water is found. Unlike most precious resources, water cannot be used up; it can always be made clean enough again to drink—indeed, water can be made so clean that it&’s toxic. Water is the most vital substance in our lives but also more amazing and mysterious than we appreciate. As Charles Fishman brings vibrantly to life in this surprising and mind-changing narrative, water runs our world in a host of awe-inspiring ways, yet we take it completely for granted. But the era of easy water is over.Bringing readers on a lively and fascinating journey—from the wet moons of Saturn to the water-obsessed hotels of Las Vegas, where dolphins swim in the desert, and from a rice farm in the parched Australian outback to a high-tech IBM plant that makes an exotic breed of pure water found nowhere in nature—Fishman vividly shows that we&’ve already left behind a century-long golden age when water was thoughtlessly abundant, free, and safe and entered a new era of high-stakes water. In 2008, Atlanta came within ninety days of running entirely out of clean water. California is in a desperate battle to hold off a water catastrophe. And in the last five years Australia nearly ran out of water—and had to scramble to reinvent the country&’s entire water system. But as dramatic as the challenges are, the deeper truth Fishman reveals is that there is no good reason for us to be overtaken by a global water crisis. We have more than enough water. We just don&’t think about it, or use it, smartly.The Big Thirst brilliantly explores our strange and complex relationship to water. We delight in watching waves roll in from the ocean; we take great comfort from sliding into a hot bath; and we will pay a thousand times the price of tap water to drink our preferred brand of the bottled version. We love water—but at the moment, we don&’t appreciate it or respect it. Just as we&’ve begun to reimagine our relationship to food, a change that is driving the growth of the organic and local food movements, we must also rethink how we approach and use water. The good news is that we can. As Fishman shows, a host of advances are under way, from the simplicity of harvesting rainwater to the brilliant innovations devised by companies such as IBM, GE, and Royal Caribbean that are making impressive breakthroughs in water productivity. Knowing what to do is not the problem. Ultimately, the hardest part is changing our water consciousness.As Charles Fishman writes, &“Many civilizations have been crippled or destroyed by an inability to understand water or manage it. We have a huge advantage over the generations of people who have come before us, because we can understand water and we can use it smartly.&” The Big Thirst will forever change the way we think about water, about our essential relationship to it, and about the creativity we can bring to ensuring that we&’ll always have plenty of it.Blueprint for Going Green: How a Small Foundation Changed the Model for Environmental Conservation
Par Gerald P. McCarthy. 2024
How one organization took on industrial pollution—and the lessons for our new century In 1977, one forward-thinking judge took an…
ecological disaster—the poisoning of the James River by Allied Chemical—and turned it into a great environmental-protection legacy. The $8 million payment made by Allied would go on to fund the game-changing Virginia Environmental Endowment.Blueprint for Going Green provides an insider&’s account of the remarkable results of this landmark ruling and the foundation it spawned. Over the following decades, the VEE helped to grow the fledgling environmental movement in Virginia into a powerful force for protecting the state&’s water quality and conserving its landscape. This inspiring story reveals how a small group can make a profound difference by engaging in public policy work, funding science to advance public policy, and helping to build a lasting and effective citizen-led environmental movement.Carbon Footprint Analysis: Concepts, Methods, Implementation, and Case Studies (Systems Innovation Book Series)
Par Matthew John Franchetti, Defne Apul. 2013
The negative impacts of carbon emissions from human activities continue to dramatically reshape the environmental, political, and social landscape. These…
impacts coupled with cap and trade schemes iterate the importance and need to properly measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon Footprint Analysis: Concepts, Methods, Implementation, anThe House on an Irish Hillside: A Memoir
Par Felicity Hayes-McCoy. 2012
&“A lovely writer, far superior to the average memoirist. . . . A curious mind, a perceptive observer with an artist&’s eye, a…
seeker of truth and beauty.&” —Irish IndependentFrom the moment I crossed the mountain, I fell in love with the place, which was more beautiful than any I&’d ever seen. And with a way of looking at life that was deeper, richer and wiser than any I&’d known before. . . . From the first day I came here I always knew I&’d come back. Sometimes we have to go back to our beginnings to become the person we want to be. More than a decade ago, USA Today–bestselling author Felicity Hayes-McCoy left the hectic pace of London and returned to her home country of Ireland to forge a new life in a remarkable house on the stunning Dingle peninsula. Gorgeously written, this is a life-affirming tale of rediscovering lost values and remembering the things that matter most. &“Wise, funny and touching, this book is a portrait of friendships, customs and folklore of Ireland; but what stays with you is harder to catch, like smoke or running water. It is the taste of something we all once knew, ever-present if only you look for it.&” ―Joanna Lumley, actress and author of Absolutely: A Memoir &“The book glowed . . . when I finished reading, I felt a sense of well-being, wonder and delight.&” —Alice Taylor, bestselling author of To School Through the FieldsPraise for Felicity Hayes-McCoy &“A pitch-perfect delight.&” —Marian Keyes, international bestselling author of Grown Ups on The Transatlantic Book Club &“The spot-on descriptions of Ireland&’s country roads and expansive sky all but leap off the page. . . . Maeve Binchy and Patrick Taylor fans will find much to enjoy.&” —Booklist on The Library at the Edge of the World &“Sunshine on the page.&” —Cathy Kelly, bestselling author of Between Sisters on The Month of Borrowed DreamsUnderstanding Imperiled Earth: How Archaeology and Human History Can Inform Our Planet's Future
Par Todd J. Braje. 2024
A unique introduction to how understanding archaeology can support modern-day sustainability efforts, from restoring forested land to developing fire management strategiesAn essential and…
hopeful book for climate-conscious readersThe world faces an uncertain future with the rise of climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, overfishing, and other threats. Understanding Imperiled Earth meets this uncertainty head-on, presenting archaeology and history as critical guides to addressing the modern environmental crisis.Anthropologist Todd J. Braje draws connections between deep history and today's hot-button environmental news stories to reveal how the study of the ancient past can help build a more sustainable future. The book covers a diverse array of interconnected issues, including: how modern humans have altered the natural world conservation work of Indigenous communitiesextinction of megafauna like dire wolves and woolly rhinocerosthe risk of deforestation highlighted by Notre Dame's destructionthe extinction crisis reflected by endangered bird species in Hawai'ifish scarcity driving demand and price, like the single blue-fin tuna fish that sold for three million dollarsimportance of "action archaeology" Braje examines how historical roots offer a necessary baseline for a healthier Earth, because understanding how the planet used to be is fundamental to creating effective restoration efforts moving forward through urban forests, sustainable food webs, and more. Understanding Imperiled Earth offers an illuminating, hopeful, and actionable approach to some of the world's most urgent problems.Beekeeping in the End Times
Par Larisa Jašarević. 2024
Every hundred years, as the story goes, two angels wonder out loud whether the bees are still swarming. For as…
long as the bees are swarming, the angels are reassured, the world holds together. Still, the tale suggests, the angels live in anxious anticipation of the End. Local beekeepers in Bosnia and Herzegovina retell the old tale with growing unease, as their honeybees weather the ground effects of climate change.Beekeeping in the End Times relates extreme weather events and quieter disasters that have been altering honey ecologies across Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2014. While world-wide endangerment of pollinators, and bees in particular, has been the subject of much global concern, effects of climate change on the indispensable honeybees,remain understudied. Drawing on a five-year long study, the book suggests that local apiarists' field observations resonate with many climate biologists' concerns and speculations about the future of plant-bee relations on the warming planet. Local practice also adds to the record complex and puzzling trends that make honey scarce in otherwise lush, biodiverse landscapes.To Bosnian Muslims, honeybees are more than pollinators. They are inspired beings whose honey is another form of divinely revelation. To appreciate the meaning of honeybees and to grasp the dire ecological catastrophe underway, Jašarević reads contemporary environmental writings and Sufi texts, she listens to the seasoned beekeepers and collects local wisdom tales. From start to finish, Jašarević pores over key Islamic texts, the Quran and the Hadith, and their popular retellings. The Islamic end-times lore, the book proposes, holds surprising lessons on how to live and strive in the 'not yet,' stalling the apocalypse.Solved: How the World’s Great Cities Are Fixing the Climate Crisis
Par David Miller. 2024
If our planet is going to survive the climate crisis, we need to act rapidly. Taking cues from progressive cities…
around the world, including Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Oslo, Shenzhen, and Sydney, this book is a summons to every city to make small but significant changes that can drastically reduce our carbon footprint. We cannot wait for national governments to agree on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and manage the average temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees. In Solved, David Miller argues that cities are taking action on climate change because they can – and because they must. The updated paperback edition of Solved: How the World’s Great Cities Are Fixing the Climate Crisis demonstrates that the initiatives cities have taken to control the climate crisis can make a real difference in reducing global emissions if implemented worldwide. By chronicling the stories of how cities have taken action to meet and exceed emissions targets laid out in the Paris Agreement, Miller empowers readers to fix the climate crisis. As much a “how to” guide for policymakers as a work for concerned citizens, Solved aims to inspire hope through its clear and factual analysis of what can be done – now, today – to mitigate our harmful emissions and pave the way to a 1.5-degree world.An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding
Par Eoghan Daltun. 2022
An Post Irish Book Award Winner'An inspiring vision' Manchán Magan'The stories are absorbing, the writing charismatic and the ideas thought-provoking'…
Irish IndependentOn the Beara peninsula in West Cork, a temperate rainforest flourishes. It is the life work of Eoghan Daltun, who had a vision to rewild a 73-acre farm he bought, moving there from Dublin with his family in 2009. An Irish Atlantic Rainforest charts that remarkable journey. Part memoir, part environmental treatise, as a wild forest bursts into life before our eyes, we're invited to consider the burning issues of our time: climate breakdown, ecological collapse, and why our very survival as a species requires that we urgently and radically transform our relationship with nature. Powerfully descriptive, lovingly told, An Irish Atlantic Rainforest presents an enduring picture of the regenerative force of nature, and how one Irishman let it happen.Devoured: The Extraordinary Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Ate the South
Par Ayurella Horn-Muller. 2024
Kudzu abounds across the American South. Introduced in the United States in the 1800s as a solution for soil erosion,…
this invasive vine with Eastern Asian origins came to be known as a pernicious invader capable of smothering everything in its path. To many, the plant’s enduring legacy has been its villainous role as the “vine that ate the South.” But for a select few, it has begun to signify something else entirely. In its roots, a network of people scattered across the country see a chance at redemption—and an opportunity to rewrite a fragment of troubled history.Devoured: The Extraordinary Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Ate the South detangles the complicated story of the South’s fickle relationship with kudzu, chronicling the ways the boundless weed has evolved over centuries, and dissecting what climate change could mean for its future across the United States. From architecture teams experimenting with it as a sustainable building material, to clinical applications treating binge-drinking, to chefs harvesting it as a wild edible, environmental journalist Ayurella Horn-Muller spotlights how kudzu’s notorious reputation in America is gradually being cast aside in favor of its promise.Weaving careful research with personal stories, Horn-Muller investigates how kudzu morphed from a miraculous agricultural solution to the monstrous archetypal foe of the southern landscape. Devoured is a poignant narrative of belonging, racial ambiguity, outsiders and insiders, and the path from universal acceptance to undesirability. It is a deeply reported exploration of the landscapes that host the many species we fight to control. Above all, Devoured is an ode to the earth around us—a quest for meaning in today’s imperiled world.Innovative Solutions for Soil Structure Interaction: Proceedings of the 3rd GeoMEast International Congress and Exhibition, Egypt 2019 on Sustainable Civil Infrastructures – The Official International Congress of the Soil-Structure Interaction Group in
Par Hany El-Naggar, Khalid El-Zahaby, Hany Shehata. 2020
This book focuses on the role of soil structure interaction and soil dynamics. It discusses case studies as well as…
physical and numerical models of geostructures. Infrastructure is the key to create a sustainable community. It affects our future well-being as well as the economic climate. Indeed, the infrastructure we are building today will shape tomorrow's communities. GeoMEast 2019 created a venue for researchers and practitioners from all over the world to share their expertise to advance the role of innovative geotechnology in developing sustainable infrastructure. It covers soil structure interaction under static and dynamic loads, dynamic behavior of soils, and soil liquefaction. It is hoped that this book contributes to further advance the state of the art for the next-generation infrastructure.Innovative Solutions for Deep Foundations and Retaining Structures: Proceedings of the 3rd GeoMEast International Congress and Exhibition, Egypt 2019 on Sustainable Civil Infrastructures – The Official International Congress of the Soil-Structure Intera
Par Pedro Pinto, Chang-Yu Ou, Hany Shehata. 2020
This edited book’s theme is organized as a part of the GeoMEast 2019 International Congress and Exhibition that was held…
in Cairo, Egypt, on November 10–14 2019.The editors like to express their deep appreciation and gratitude to the authors for their valuable contributions to the GeoMEast 2019 proceedings and to all session chairs and reviewers for their sincere efforts to make this book a reality. The editors are very grateful to have this opportunity to participate in organizing this GeoMEast 2019 conference and hope that this book theme is a valuable reference to the civil/geotechnical engineering community worldwide.Living with Energy Poverty: Perspectives from the Global North and South (Routledge Explorations in Energy Studies)
Par Paola Velasco-Herrejón, Breffní Lennon, Niall P. Dunphy. 2024
Living with Energy Poverty: Perspectives from the Global North and South expands our collective understanding of energy poverty and deepens…
our recognition of the phenomenon by engaging with the lived experiences of energy-poor households across different contexts.Understanding the lived experience of energy poverty is an essential component in the design of any effort to alleviate what is fundamentally a deep-rooted, multi-faceted, wickedly complex problem. This requires a nuanced understanding of the causal factors and the research methods that can respond to the flexible spatial and temporal nature of the condition, as well as its wellbeing and justice implications. Drawing together the expertise and connectedness of authors from the Global South and North, this book presents novel approaches to understanding the often hidden forms of domestic energy deprivation. Case studies from 20 countries provide critical perspectives on this phenomenon while analysing the policy practices, government strategy, and sustainability implications of divergent manifestations. The book takes a multidimensional perspective, challenging the bias towards energy production and service provision, which often do not align with the aspirations and realities of energy households across global contexts, thus facilitating a useful dialogue on the nature of energy poverty.The book is a timely source for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars seeking fresh, diverse insights into the everyday reality of energy poverty and wanting to better understand the challenges a people-centred, just energy transition can present.Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.Chapter 2 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.Chapter 22 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.The Hidden Life of Ice: Dispatches From A Disappearing World
Par Alberto Flores D'Arcais, Marco Tedesco. 2020
For most of us, the Arctic is a vast, alien landscape; for research scientist Marco Tedesco, it is his laboratory,…
his life’s work—and the most beautiful, most endangered place on Earth. Marco Tedesco is a world-leading expert on Arctic ice decline and climate change. In The Hidden Life of Ice, he invites us to Greenland, where he and his fellow scientists are doggedly researching the dramatic changes afoot. Following the arc of his typical day in the field, he unearths the surprising secrets just beneath the icy surface—from evidence of long-extinct “polar camels” to the fantastically weird microorganisms that live in freezing cryoconite holes—as well as critical clues about the future of our planet. Not just a student of its secrets, Tedesco is an acolyte of the Arctic’s beauty—its “magnificence and fragility,” as Elizabeth Kolbert writes in her foreword. Alongside the sobering facts on climate change, Tedesco shares stunning photographs of this surreal landscape— as well as captivating legends of Greenland’s earliest local populations, epic deeds of long-ago Arctic explorers, and his own moving reflections. This is an urgent tribute to an awe-inspiring place that may be gone all too soon.How to Read Water: Clues And Patterns From Puddles To The Sea (Natural Navigation #0)
Par Tristan Gooley. 2016
Hone your senses and learn to read the hidden signs of nature—from master outdoorsman Tristan Gooley, New York Times-bestselling author…
of How to Read a Tree and The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs “Equal parts alfresco inspiration, interesting factoids, how-to instructions and self-help advice.”—The Wall Street Journal When most of us go for a walk, a single sense—sight—tends to dominate our experience. But when New York Times–bestselling author and expert navigator Tristan Gooley goes for a walk, he uses all five senses to “read” everything nature has to offer. A single lowly weed can serve as his compass, calendar, clock, and even pharmacist. In How to Read Nature, Gooley introduces readers to his world—where the sky, sea, and land teem with marvels. Plus, he shares 15 exercises to sharpen all of your senses. Soon you’ll be making your own discoveries, every time you step outside!Nowhere Left to Go: How Climate Change Is Driving Species To The Ends Of The Earth
Par Benjamin Von Brackel. 2021
Harrowing journeys of animals and plants—fleeing skyrocketing temperatures and mega-droughts—reported from the frontlines of the greatest migration of species since…
the Ice Age As humans accelerate global warming while laying waste to the environment, animals and plants must flee to the margins: on scattered nature reserves, between major highways, or among urban sprawl. And when even these places become too hot and inhospitable, wildlife is left with only one path to survival: an often-formidable journey toward the poles as they race to find a new home in a warming world. Tropical zones lose their inhabitants, beavers settle in Alaska, and gigantic shoals of fish disappear—just to reappear along foreign coastlines. Award-winning environmental journalist Benjamin von Brackel traces these awe-inspiring journeys and celebrates the remarkable resilience of species around the world. But the lengths these plants and animals must go to avoid extinction are as alarming as they are inspirational: Sea animals—like fish—move on average 45 miles a decade to cooler regions, while land animals—like beavers and butterflies—move 11 miles. As even the poles of the Earth heat up, we’re left with a stark and irreversible choice: Halt the climate emergency now, or face a massive die-off of species, who are increasingly left with nowhere else to go.This Is Climate Change: A Visual Guide To The Facts--see For Yourself How The Planet Is Warming And What It Means For Us
Par Serrer Christian, David Nelles. 2018
The essential, all-in-one guide to climate change—packed with easy-to-understand infographics on all the latest scientific findings This Is Climate Change…
cuts straight to the facts, using infographics on every page to make the reality about our warming planet plain to see. How much do humans contribute to global warming? What do ever-more-frequent storms and floods mean for our homes, forests, coastlines, and crops? And what is happening to our oceans (beyond rising sea levels)? Corroborated by over 100 scientists, This Is Climate Change captures the scope of the present crisis without glossing over the nuance or what we don’t know. This is an urgent examination of the state of our precious, precarious planet—in pictures.Sightlines: A Conversation with the Natural World
Par Kathleen Jamie. 2012
Winner of the 2014 Orion Book Award for Nonfiction Winner of the John Burroughs Association 2014 Medal for Distinguished Natural…
History Book In Sightlines, Kathleen Jamie reports from the field—from her native Scottish “byways and hills” to the frigid Arctic in fourteen enthralling essays. She dissects whatever her gaze falls upon—vistas of cells beneath a hospital microscope, orcas rounding a headland, the aurora borealis lighting up the frozen sea. In so doing, she questions what, exactly, constitutes “nature,” and upends the idea that it is always picturesque. Written with precision, subtlety, and wry humor, Sightlines urges the reader: “Keep looking, even when there’s nothing much to see.”An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey into the Magic of Rewilding
Par Eoghan Daltun. 2022
An Post Irish Book Award Winner'An inspiring vision' Manchán Magan'The stories are absorbing, the writing charismatic and the ideas thought-provoking'…
Irish IndependentOn the Beara peninsula in West Cork, a temperate rainforest flourishes. It is the life work of Eoghan Daltun, who had a vision to rewild a 73-acre farm he bought, moving there from Dublin with his family in 2009. An Irish Atlantic Rainforest charts that remarkable journey. Part memoir, part environmental treatise, as a wild forest bursts into life before our eyes, we're invited to consider the burning issues of our time: climate breakdown, ecological collapse, and why our very survival as a species requires that we urgently and radically transform our relationship with nature. Powerfully descriptive, lovingly told, An Irish Atlantic Rainforest presents an enduring picture of the regenerative force of nature, and how one Irishman let it happen."Terrific, life-lit moments come howling out of Hunt for the Shadow Wolf."—The Telegraph "[Derek Gow is] a wry, profane truth teller…
who is equal parts yeoman farmer, historical ecologist, and pirate."—Ben Goldfarb, author of Eager and Crossings "Beautifully crafted, fascinating and unbearably poignant, I totally loved this book."—Isabella Tree, author of Wilding Renowned rewilder Derek Gow has a dream: that one day we will see the return of the wolf to Britain as it has already returned elsewhere. As Derek worked to reintroduce the beaver, he began to hear stories of the wolf, both real and mythical, and his fascination with this creature grew. With increasing curiosity, Derek started to piece together fragments of information, stories and artefacts to reveal a shadowy creature that first walked proud through these lands and then was hunted to extinction as coexistence turned to fear, hatred – and domination. What Derek came to realize was that the underlying motives behind our hatred were actually far more prosaic and, like most persecutions, to do with power and profit. We turned the wolf into a savage beast and saw its extirpation as a civilizing mission. But the wolf survived far longer than many thought and Derek tells of his sightings of the wolf through folklore and mythology, the records of grand estates and parish churches as well as wolf heads, both real and recreated. With bitingly funny but also tender stories, Hunt for the Shadow Wolf is Derek’s quest to uncover the true nature of this creature because, as we seek to heal our landscape, we must reconcile our relationship with it. Before we can even begin to bring the wolf back, we need to understand it. "I have loved this chase dearly and though what unfolds might be an ending of sorts, I have no intention to let this hunt cease."―Derek Gow, from Hunt for the Shadow Wolf "Gow reinvents what it means to be a guardian of the countryside."—The GuardianLost to the Sea, Britain's Vanished Coastal Communities: Norfolk and Suffolk
Par Stephen Wade. 2017
Lost to the Sea: Norfolk & Suffolk relates the stories of how the human communities along the coast of these…
counties maintained their struggle with the sea. From very early Neolithic times, when global changes created the Continental Shelf and raised the cliffs along Britain's eastern shorelines, through Roman and medieval times, the first villages and towns were gradually established, only to be faced with the problem of the sea's incursions onto agricultural land. In the 1950s, Rowland Parker's classic study of Dunwich, a key town of Suffolk engulfed, set the scene for a long-standing interest in how the sea's challenge has been met. There have been successes and failures, and Stephen Wade tells the story of the seaside holiday towns and fishing communities that have had to struggle for survival.In this book, the reader will find stories of the people involved in this titanic effort through the centuries. The narrative moves down the coast from Hunstanton to Southwold, tracing the losses and the gains, not only in measurements of land, but in the tough human experience of that environmental history.