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Religious Tolerance in the Atlantic World
By Eliane Glaser. 2014
Placing topical debates in historical perspective, the essays by leading scholars of history, literature and political science explore issues of…
difference and diversity, inclusion and exclusion, and faith in relation to a variety of Christian groups, Jews and Muslims in the context of both early modern and contemporary England and America.Recasting Transnationalism through Performance
By Christina S. Mcmahon. 2014
The past two decades have witnessed the emergence of a lively Portuguese-language theatre festival circuit, where Brazilian, Portuguese, and Lusophone…
African artists come together and jointly negotiate the cultural dynamics of an emerging transnational community grounded in a common language and shared colonial histories. Christina S. McMahon trains a sharp ethnographic eye on African performances staged at these festivals, revealing how festival productions and their aftermath can generate new perspectives on race and gender, colonial trauma, and the economics of cultural globalization. Featuring in-depth analysis of performances and artist interviews from Cape Verde, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique countries with vibrant theatre practices and vexed colonial pasts the book reveals how international festivals can be valuable platforms for new intercultural dialogues and diplomatic possibilities. Recasting Transnationalism through Performance offers a fresh look at the role of theatre in navigating new postcolonial realities. "Multiple Helix Ecosystems for Sustainable Competitiveness
By Marta Peris-Ortiz, João J. Ferreira, Luís Farinha, Nuno O. Fernandes. 2016
This book discusses the main issues, challenges, opportunities, andtrends involving the interactions between academia, industry, government and society. Specifically, it…
aims to explore how these interactions enhance the ways inwhich companies deliver products and services in order to achieve sustainablecompetitiveness in the marketplace. Sustainable competitiveness has been widely discussed by academics andpractitioners, considering the importance of protecting the environment whilesustaining the economic goals of organizations. The Quintuple Helix innovation modelis a framework for facilitating knowledge, innovation and sustainablecompetitive advantage. It embeds the Triple and the Quadruple Helix models byadding a fifth helix, the "natural environment. " The Triple Helix model focuseson the university-industry-government triad, while the Quadruple adds civilsociety (the media- and culture-driven public) as a fourth helix. The Quintuple Helix model facilitates research, public policy, andpractical application of sustainable competitiveness principles. Applying themost recent developments and theoretical insights of this model, thecontributors to this volume address such questions as: how do government,academia, industry and civil society actors interact for promoting sustainablecompetitiveness at the country (regional) level? How do these actors influencesustainable operations management at the company (business) level? In so doing,they shed new light on the dynamics of economic growth, sustainability andcompetitiveness.Social Movements, Public Spheres and the European Politics of the Environment
By Hein-Anton van der Heijden. 2010
Personalities on the Plate: The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat
By Barbara J. King. 2017
In recent years, scientific advances in our understanding of animal minds have led to major changes in how we think…
about, and treat, animals in zoos and aquariums. The general public, it seems, is slowly coming to understand that animals like apes, elephants, and dolphins have not just brains, but complicated inner and social lives, and that we need to act accordingly. Yet that realization hasn’t yet made its presence felt to any great degree in our most intimate relationship with animals: at the dinner table. Sure, there are vegetarians and vegans all over, but at the same time, meat consumption is up, and meat remains a central part of the culinary and dining experience for the majority of people in the developed world. With Personalities on the Plate, Barbara King asks us to think hard about our meat eating--and how we might reduce it. But this isn’t a polemic intended to convert readers to veganism. What she is interested in is why we’ve not drawn food animals into our concern and just what we do know about the minds and lives of chickens, cows, octopuses, fish, and more. Rooted in the latest science, and built on a mix of firsthand experience (including entomophagy, which, yes, is what you think it is) and close engagement with the work of scientists, farmers, vets, and chefs, Personalities on the Plate is an unforgettable journey through the world of animals we eat. Knowing what we know--and what we may yet learn--what is the proper ethical stance toward eating meat? What are the consequences for the planet? How can we life an ethically and ecologically sound life through our food choices? We could have no better guide to these fascinatingly thorny questions than King, whose deep empathy embraces human and animal alike. Readers will be moved, provoked, and changed by this powerful book.Sabkha Ecosystems Volume V: The Americas
By Siegmar-W. Breckle, Miguel Clüsener-Godt, M. Ajmal Ajmal Khan, Benno Boër, Münir Ȫzturk, Bilquees Gul. 2016
This book is a part of the Sabkha Ecosystems series which was designed to provide information on sabkha ecosystems of…
different regions and to add to the collective knowledge available about saline ecosystems. The comprehensive coverage assists the reader gaining a thorough understanding of sabkha geology, hydrology, geomorphology, zoology, botany, ecology and ecosystem functioning, as well as sabkha conservation, utilization and development. Volume I focused on The Arabian Peninsula and Adjacent Countries, volume II was based on describing saline ecosystems of West and Central Asia , volume III referred to Africa and Southern Europe, while volume IV focused on Cash Crop Halophyte and Biodiversity Conservation. The present volume V focuses on Americans.Governance of Earth Systems: Science and Its Uses
By Robert Boardman. 2010
Science and politics are closely connected in today's global environmental issues. This book focuses on these links in relation to…
climate change, the threats to wildlife species, and natural hazards and disasters. Study of these reveals the need for more effective international cooperation and the limits of global governance.Geobiotechnological Solutions to Anthropogenic Disturbances
By Mark Anglin Harris. 2017
This book offers a problem-and-solution approach toenvironmental remediation in mining, including the environmentally sustainableutilization of waste materials from the mining…
industry. It largely comprisesarticles published in Springer journals, which have been thoroughly revised andexpanded. With supplementary data and illustrations, it discusses specificproblem areas in relevant Caribbean locations and provides an overview ofgeotechnical and microbial solutions to prevent post-mining deterioration inthis area.Problematic Wildlife
By Francesco M. Angelici. 2016
This book provides insight into the instancesin which wildlife species can create problems. Some species trigger problemsfor human activities, but…
many others need humans to save them and to continueto exist. The text addresses issues faced by economists and politicians dealingwith laws involving actions undertaken to resolve the problems of theinteraction between humans and wildlife. Here, the words 'problematic species'are used in their broadest sense, as may be appreciated in the short introductionsto the various sections. At times, the authors discuss special cases whilealways extending the discussion into a more general and broad vision. At others,they present real cutting-edge analysis of ecological topics and issues. The book will be of interest to biologists,ecologists and wildlife managers involved in research on wildlife, parks, andenvironmental management, as well as to government departments and agencies,NGOs and conservation wildlife organizations. Even those in contact with nature,such as hunters, herders, and farmers, will be able to find a great deal ofimportant information. Specific case studies are selected from among the mostsignificant and prevalent cases throughout the world. A total of 26 papers have been selected forthis book, written by zoologists, biologists and ecologists. Many have aninterdisciplinary approach, with contributions by economists, criminologists, technicalspecialists, and engineers.Participatory Sensing, Opinions and Collective Awareness
By Andreas Hotho, Gerd Stumme, Vittorio Loreto, Muki Haklay, Vito D. P. Servedio, Jan Theunis, Francesca Tria. 2017
This book introduces and reviews recent advances inthe field in a comprehensive and non-technical way by focusing on the potentialof…
emerging citizen-science and social-computation frameworks, coupled with thelatest theoretical and modeling tools developed by physicists, mathematicians,computer and social scientists to analyse, interpret and visualize complex datasets. There is overwhelming evidence that the currentorganisation of our economies and societies is seriously damaging biologicalecosystems and human living conditions in the short term, with potentiallycatastrophic effects in the long term. The need to re-organise the dailyactivities with the greatest impact - energy consumption, transport, housing -towards a more efficient and sustainable development model has recently beenraised in the public debate on several global, environmental issues. Above all,this requires the mismatch between global, societal and individual needs to beaddressed. Recent advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)can trigger important transitions at the individual and collective level toachieve this aim. Based on the findings of the collaborative researchnetwork EveryAware the following developments among the emerging ICTtechnologies are discussed in depth in this volume: * Participatory sensing - where ICT development ispushed to the level where it can supportinformed action at the hyperlocal scale, providing capabilities forenvironmental monitoring, data aggregation and mining, as well as informationpresentation and sharing. * Web gaming, social computing and internet-mediatedcollaboration - where the Web will continue to acquire the status of aninfrastructure for social computing, allowing users' cognitive abilities to becoordinated in online communities, and steering the collective action towardspredefined goals. * Collective awareness and decision-making - where theaccess to both personal and community data, collected by users, processed withsuitable analysis tools, and re-presented in an appropriate format by usablecommunication interfaces leads to a bottom-up development of collective socialstrategies.Ecodocumentaries
By Rayson K. Alex, S. Susan Deborah. 2016
This book features ten critical essays on ecodocumentaries written by eminent scholars from India, USA, Ireland, Finland and Turkey in…
the area of ecocinema studies. Situating social documentaries with explicit ecological form and content, the volume takes relational positions on political, cultural and conservational aspects of natures and cultures in various cultural contexts. Documentaries themed around issues such as electronic waste, animal rights, land ethics, pollution of river, land grabbing, development and exotic plants are some of the topics ecocritiqued in this volume.Ecological Crisis, Sustainability and the Psychosocial Subject
By Matthew Adams. 2016
This book draws on recent developments across a range of perspectives including psychoanalysis, narrative studies, social practice theory, posthumanism and…
trans-species psychology, to establish a radical psychosocial alternative to mainstream understanding of 'environmental problems'. Only by addressing the psychological and social structures maintaining unsustainable societies might we glimpse the possibility of genuinely sustainable future. The challenges posed by the reality of human-caused 'environmental problems' are unprecedented. Understanding how we respond to knowledge of these problems is vital if we are to have a hope of meeting this challenge. Psychology and the social sciences have been drafted in to further this understanding, and inform interventions encouraging sustainable behaviour. However, to date, much of psychology has appeared happy to tinker with individual behaviour change, or encourage minor modifications in the social environment aimed at 'nudging' individual behaviour. As the ecological crisis deepens, it is increasingly recognised that mainstream understandings and interventions are inadequate to the collective threat posed by climate change and related ecological crises.The Three Axial Ages: Moral, Material, Mental
By John Torpey. 2017
How should we think about the “shape” of human history since the birth of cities, and where are we headed?…
Sociologist and historian John Torpey proposes that the “Axial Age” of the first millennium BCE, when some of the world’s major religious and intellectual developments first emerged, was only one of three such decisive periods that can be used to directly affect present social problems, from economic inequality to ecological destruction. Torpey’s argument advances the idea that there are in fact three “Axial Ages,” instead of one original Axial Age and several subsequent, smaller developments. Each of the three ages contributed decisively to how humanity lives, and the difficulties it faces. The earliest, or original, Axial Age was a moral one; the second was material, and revolved around the creation and use of physical objects; and the third is chiefly mental, and focused on the technological. While there are profound risks and challenges, Torpey shows how a worldview that combines the strengths of all three ages has the potential to usher in a period of exceptional human freedom and possibility.A Climate of Crisis: America in the Age of Environmentalism
By Patrick Allitt. 2015
A provocative history of the environmental movement in America, showing how this rise to political and social prominence produced a…
culture of alarmism that has often distorted the factsFew issues today excite more passion or alarm than the specter of climate change. In A Climate of Crisis, historian Patrick Allitt shows that our present climate of crisis is far from exceptional. Indeed, the environmental debates of the last half century are defined by exaggeration and fearmongering from all sides, often at the expense of the facts. In a real sense, Allitt shows us, collective anxiety about widespread environmental danger began with the atomic bomb. As postwar suburbanization transformed the American landscape, more research and better tools for measurement began to reveal the consequences of economic success. A climate of anxiety became a climate of alarm, often at odds with reality. The sixties generation transformed environmentalism from a set of special interests into a mass movement. By the first Earth Day in 1970, journalists and politicians alike were urging major initiatives to remedy environmental harm. In fact, the work of the new Environmental Protection Agency and a series of clean air and water acts from a responsive Congress inaugurated a largely successful cleanup. Political polarization around environmental questions after 1980 had consequences that we still feel today. Since then, the general polarization of American politics has mirrored that of environmental politics, as pro-environmentalists and their critics attribute to one another the worst possible motives. Environmentalists see their critics as greedy special interest groups that show no conscience as they plunder the earth while skeptics see their adversaries as enemies of economic growth whose plans stifle initiative under an avalanche of bureaucratic regulation. There may be a germ of truth in both views, but more than a germ of falsehood too. America’s worst environmental problems have proven to be manageable; the regulations and cleanups of the last sixty years have often worked, and science and technology have continued to improve industrial efficiency. Our present situation is serious, argues Allitt, but it is far from hopeless. Sweeping and provocative, A Climate of Crisis challenges our basic assumptions about the environment, no matter where we fall along the spectrum—reminding us that the answers to our most pressing questions are sometimes found in understanding the past.From the Trade Paperback edition.Energy without Conscience: Oil, Climate Change, and Complicity
By David Mcdermott Hughes. 2017
In Energy without Conscience David McDermott Hughes investigates why climate change has yet to be seen as a moral issue.…
He examines the forces that render the use of fossil fuels ordinary and therefore exempt from ethical evaluation. Hughes centers his analysis on Trinidad and Tobago, which is the world's oldest petro-state, having drilled the first continuously producing oil well in 1866. Marrying historical research with interviews with Trinidadian petroleum scientists, policymakers, technicians, and managers, he draws parallels between Trinidad's eighteenth- and nineteenth-century slave labor energy economy and its contemporary oil industry. Hughes shows how both forms of energy rely upon a complicity that absolves producers and consumers from acknowledging the immoral nature of each. He passionately argues that like slavery, producing oil is a moral choice and that oil is at its most dangerous when it is accepted as an ordinary part of everyday life. Only by rejecting arguments that oil is economically, politically, and technologically necessary, and by acknowledging our complicity in an immoral system, can we stem the damage being done to the planet.Conservation and Management of Tropical Rainforests, 2nd Edition
By Eberhard F. Bruenig. 2014
This new edition of Conservation and Management of Tropical Rainforests applies the large body of knowledge, experience and tradition available…
to those who study tropical rainforests. Revised and updated in light of developments in science, technology, economics, politics, etc. and their effects on tropical forests, it describes the principles of integrated conservation and management that lead to sustainability, identifying the unifying phenomena that regulate the processes within the rainforest and that are fundamental to the ecosystem viability. Features of the natural forest and the socio-cultural ecosystems which can be mimicked in the design of self-sustaining forests are also discussed. A holistic approach to the management and conservation of rainforests is developed throughout the book. The focus on South-East Asian forestry will be widened to include Africa and Latin America. Recent controversial issues such as biofuels and carbon credits with respect to tropical forests and their inhabitants will be discussed. This book is a substantial contribution to the literature, it is a valuable resource for all those concerned with rainforests.High and Dry: Meeting the Challenges of the World's Growing Dependence on Groundwater
By Rosemarie Alley, William M Alley. 2017
An engaging call to understand and protect groundwater, the primary source of drinking water for almost half of the world's…
population Groundwater is essential for drinking water and food security. It provides enormous environmental benefits by keeping streams and rivers flowing. But a growing global population, widespread use of industrial chemicals, and climate change threaten this vital resource. Groundwater depletion and contamination has spread from isolated areas to many countries throughout the world. In this accessible and timely book, hydrology expert William M. Alley and science writer Rosemarie Alley sound the call to protect groundwater. Drawing on examples from around the world, including case studies in the United States, Canada, Australia, India, and Sub-Saharan Africa, the authors examine groundwater from key scientific and socioeconomic perspectives. While addressing the serious nature of groundwater problems, the book includes stories of people who are making a difference in protecting this critical resource.A Good That Transcends: How US Culture Undermines Environmental Reform
By Eric T. Freyfogle. 2017
Since the birth of the modern environmental movement in the 1970s, the United States has witnessed dramatic shifts in social…
equality, ecological viewpoints, and environmental policy. With these changes has also come an increased popular resistance to environmental reform, but, as Eric T. Freyfogle reveals in this book, that resistance has far deeper roots. Calling upon key environmental voices from the past and present—including Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, David Orr, and even Pope Francis in his Encyclical—and exploring core concepts like wilderness and the tragedy of the commons, A Good That Transcends not only unearths the causes of our embedded culture of resistance, but also offers a path forward to true, lasting environmental initiatives. A lawyer by training, with expertise in property rights, Freyfogle uses his legal knowledge to demonstrate that bad land use practices are rooted in the way in which we see the natural world, value it, and understand our place within it. While social and economic factors are important components of our current predicament, it is our culture, he shows, that is driving the reform crisis—and in the face of accelerating environmental change, a change in culture is vital. Drawing upon a diverse array of disciplines from history and philosophy to the life sciences, economics, and literature, Freyfogle seeks better ways for humans to live in nature, helping us to rethink our relationship with the land and craft a new conservation ethic. By confronting our ongoing resistance to reform as well as pointing the way toward a common good, A Good That Transcends enables us to see how we might rise above institutional and cultural challenges, look at environmental problems, appreciate their severity, and both support and participate in reform.Garbage In, Garbage Out: Solving the Problems with Long-distance Trash Transport
By Vivian E. Thomson. 2009
Your garbage is going places you'd never imagine. What used to be sent to the local dump now may move…
hundreds of miles by truck and barge to its final resting place. Virtually all forms of pollution migrate, subjected to natural forces such as wind and water currents. The movement of garbage, however, is under human control. Its patterns of migration reveal much about power sharing among state, local, and national institutions, about the Constitution's protection of trash transport as a commercial activity, and about competing notions of social fairness. In Garbage In, Garbage Out, Vivian Thomson looks at Virginia's status as the second-largest importer of trash in the United States and uses it as a touchstone for exploring the many controversies around trash generation and disposal.Political conflicts over waste management have been felt at all levels of government. Local governments who want to manage their own trash have fought other local governments hosting huge landfills that depend on trash generated hundreds of miles away. State governments have tried to avoid becoming the dumping grounds for cities hundreds of miles away. The constitutional questions raised in these battles have kept interstate trash transport on Congress's agenda since the early 1990s. Whether the resulting legislative proposals actually address our most critical garbage-related problems, however, remains in question.Thomson sheds much-needed light on these problems. Within the context of increased interstate trash transport and the trend toward privatization of waste management, she examines the garbage issue from a number of perspectives--including the links between environmental justice and trash management, a critical evaluation of the theoretical and empirical relationship between economic growth and environmental improvement, and highlighting the ways in which waste management practices in the US differ from those in the European Union and Japan. Thomson then provides specific, substantive recommendations for our own policymakers.Everything eventually becomes trash. As we explore the long, often surprising, routes our garbage takes, we begin to understand that it is something more than a mere nuisance that regularly "disappears" from our curbside. Rather, trash generation and management reflect patterns of consumption, political choices over whether garbage is primarily pollution or commerce, the social distribution of environmental risk, and how our daily lives compare with those of our counterparts in other industrialized nations.Integrating Landscape Approaches and Multi-Resource Analysis into Natural Resource Management: Summary of a Workshop
By Engineering, Medicine, National Academies of Sciences. 2016
The responsible management of natural resources for present-day needs and future generations requires integrated approaches that are place-based, embrace systems…
thinking, and incorporate the social, economic, and environmental considerations of sustainability. Landscape-scale analysis takes this holistic view by focusing on the spatial scales most appropriate for the resource types and values being managed. Landscape-scale analysis involves assessing landscape features in relation to a group of influencing factors such as land use change, hydrologic changes or other disturbances, topography, and historical vegetation conditions. As such, different types of data and multiple disciplines may be required for landscape analysis, depending on the question of interest and scale of analysis. Multi-resource analysis (MRA) is an approach to landscape-scale analysis that integrates information among multiple natural resources, including ecosystem services, and is designed to evaluate impacts and tradeoffs between development and conservation at landscape scales to inform public resource managers. This approach implicitly addresses social, economic, and ecological functional relationships; for example, actions to realize the benefits of one type of natural resource (e.g., minerals, oil, and gas) may influence behavior and potential benefits related to other types of natural resources (e.g., recreational opportunities). In June 2015, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop on using landscape-based approaches and MRA to better inform federal decision making for the sustainable management of natural resources. Participants discussed knowledge gaps and priority areas for research and presentations of case studies of approaches that have been used to effectively integrate landscape-based approaches and MRA into practice. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.