You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
All serious environmental threats are now international in scope and more than one thousand international environmental agreements already exist. Yet the prospects for international cooperation leading to the management of impacts on the planet remain grim. The Global Environment meets the need for an authoritative assessment of the state of international environmental institutions, laws and policies at the end of the 20th century. The book examines disagreements over the meaning of sustainable development, problems inherent in implementing environmental policies and the conflict over the exclusion of developing countries from the Kyoto Protocol. It discusses the profound trade-offs that may be required, the role of international financial interests in promoting incompatible forms of development and analyses international environmental institutions, law and policy and sustainable development.
One of the most dramatic intellectual events of the last decade has been the stunning re-emergence of the catastrophist paradigm in the biological and earth sciences From killer asteroids to emergent viruses, it has become evident that the history of life on earth has been shaped—far more than previous orthodoxies would allow ... by extreme events and non-linear processes. The old "uniformitarian" dogma of steady-rate evolution has been decisively challenged by the research of contemporary neo-catastrophists like Stephen Jay Gould, David Raup, Stuart Ross Taylor, Ursula Marvin and Kenneth Hsu. Whether debating the origin of the moon or the current human impact on the biosphere, they urge us to recognize the radically event- or chance-driven structure of natural history. Surveying these various theories of uniformitarian and neo-catastrophist thought in a clear and accessible fashion, and seeking a path towards a new and workable synthesis, Richard Hugget provides a superb introduction to the ideas which have defined the way we look at the world.
This compact and accessible text provides a comprehensive, issue-oriented introduction to population geography. After grounding students in the fundamentals, K. Bruce Newbold then explains the tools and techniques commonly used to describe and understand population concepts using real-world issues and events. Drawing on both US and international cases, he explores such pressing concerns as HIV/AIDS, international migration, fertility, mortality, resource scarcity, and conflict. Every chapter includes methods and focus sections, as well as study questions, to provide a more in-depth discussion of the ideas and concepts developed in the book. In addition, a wide array of maps, tables, and figures illustrates and enhances the cases. Newbold highlights the geographical perspective—with its ability to provide powerful insights and bridge disparate issues—by emphasizing the role of space and place, location, regional differences, and diffusion. Arguing that an understanding of population is essential to prepare for the future, this cogent text will provide upper-division undergraduates with a thorough grasp of the field.
This balanced text offers a concise and readable introduction to world population growth and its implications for the future. With a population currently exceeding six billion and expected to reach ten billion by mid-century, the globe faces a demographic situation that is now more critical than ever before. While the developed world grapples with the problems of an aging and declining population, the developing world will contend with the opposite dilemma of explosive growth. And so the strongest factors shaping the global environment in the decades to come will include population fertility, the social and economic impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, legal and illegal immigration, and refugees. The implications are enormous as population growth exacerbates food and resource scarcities, places pressure on institutions, and promotes the potential for conflict. Drawing on a geographical perspective and using examples from around the world, this fully updated edition will be an invaluable resource for all readers concerned with the intertwined issues of population, environment, and health.
Earth is imperiled. Human activities are adversely affecting the land, water, air, and myriad forms of biological life that comprise the ecosystems of our planet. Indicators of global warming and holes in the ozone layer inhibit functions vital to the biosphere. Environmental damage to the planet becomes damaging to human health and well-being now and into the future—and too often that damage affects those who are least able to protect themselves. Can religion make a positive contribution to preventing further destruction of biological diversity and ecosystems and threats to our earth? Jame Schaefer thinks that it can, and she examines the thought of Christian Church fathers and medieval t...
In 1991, a remarkable symposium brought together humanists, historians, earth scientists, biologists, medical scientists, physicians, sociologists, and Native people to discuss the problems facing planet Earth and identify solutions and ways to avert impending catastrophes. The conference took advantage of the confluence of meetings of the Royal Society of Canada, the Learned Societies of Canada, and the Canadian Federation of Biological Societies at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Planet Earth, a compendium of papers presented at the conference, is the result of that meeting.
Global Change and Our Common Future includes 22 edited presentations from the Forum on Global Change and Our Common Future. The Forum, sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, Smithsonian Institution, American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, and Sigma Xi, was organized to inform the public about the changes occurring in the global environment and the implications for public policy.
Does the universe have the character it has because of design? In this collection of essays first presented at a symposium sponsored by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and the Royal Society of Canada, seventeen scientists and philosophers re-examine the "Argument by Design" in light of current scientific theories. Scientists in such diverse fields as cosmology, physics, geology, biology, and psychology provide syntheses of the state of their respective disciplines with regard to questions such as the origin or evolution of the universe and of life, the interaction of life and terrestrial environment, and verbal communication in prehumans. Contributions by philosophers cover such areas as arguments for a designer and the question of whether nature's laws and initial conditions could be viewed as "fine tuned" for the production of life. Many of the chapters demonstrate the awe-inspiring success of modern science in explaining the universe in terms of fairly straightforward natural laws, countering those versions of the design argument which try to find evidence of God's activities in the supposed failures of scientific laws to cover various phenomena.
The second edition of International Political Economy and Globalization is completely revised and updated to include new material on trade, monetary, and environmental issues. It provides a comprehensive treatment of major developments in the global economy and is suitable for adoption as a primer in undergraduate courses in international political economy. The author takes a stand that is supportive of globalization in principle, while acknowledging that there are many areas of inequity that disadvantage developing countries. This is explored in chapters that deal with trade, debt crises, and the environment. Students will find that the material is presented in a readable format that does not presuppose prior familiarity with economics.