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Cultural understandings of soil are diverse and often ambiguous. Cultural framing of soils is common worldwide and is highly consequential. The implications of what place the earth has in people's world view and everyday life can be in line with or in conflict with natural conditions, with scientific views, or with agricultural practices. The main assumption underlying this work is that soil is inescapably perceived in a cultural context by any human. This gives emergence to different significant webs of meaning influenced by religious, spiritual, or secular myths, and by a wide range of beliefs, values and ideas that people hold in all societies. These patterns and their dynamics inform the...
How does our climate actually work? Should we worry about the global supply of drinking water? And can technology help reverse the damage we've done to the Earth? In Atlas of a Threatened Planet, award-winning book and graphic designer Esther Gonstalla digs into these questions and many more through her attractive and easy-to-understand infographics. Gonstalla turns her designer's eye to the most critical threats to our environment, from shrinking glaciers and declining biodiversity to shifting ocean currents. These accessible and fun illustrations will show readers that, although the threats are grave, not all is lost. Changes in technology, infrastructure, and our outlook can still help us protect the places we love. Atlas of a Threatened Planet will spark your curiosity and invite you to see the Earth in a new way. It is written for all who want to understand the interlocking pieces of our home--and fight for the best ideas and strategies to save it.
SOIL: beneath our feet / food and fiber / ashes to ashes, dust to dust / dirt!Soil has been called the final frontier of environmental research. The critical role of soil in biogeochemical processes is tied to its properties and place—porous, structured, and spatially variable, it serves as a conduit, buffer, and transformer of water, solutes and gases. Yet what is complex, life-giving, and sacred to some, is ordinary, even ugly, to others. This is the enigma that is soil. Soil and Culture explores the perception of soil in ancient, traditional, and modern societies. It looks at the visual arts (painting, textiles, sculpture, architecture, film, comics and stamps), prose & poetry, religion...
The field of premodern environmental history (the study of the complex and ever-changing interrelationship between human beings and the world around them prior to the Industrial Revolution) has grown vigorously over the past two decades, in no small part due to the energy and expertise of Richard C. Hoffmann (York University, Canada). In this collection, historians of medieval and early modern Europe and social scientists with a sensitivity to the use of historical information present their current research in honor of Richard C. Hoffmann's retirement from teaching. The result is a panoramic and dynamic view of the state of the field of premodern environmental history by leading practitioners. The papers are organized under the broad themes of "Premodern People and the Natural World" and "Aquatic Ecosystems and Human Economies". Contributors are Richard W. Unger, Paolo Squatriti, William Chester Jordan, Petra J.E.M. van Dam, Verena Winiwarter, Maryanne Kowaleski, Constance H. Berman, Pierre Claude Reynard, Wim Van Neer, and Anton Ervynck.
The reputation of business managers is declining due to their disregard for moral decisions and ethical practices. Business students are currently taught only technical knowledge without concern for being compassionately and holistic engaged. However, when entering the business sector these graduates encounter a world which necessitates difficult, personally challenging decisions, ones for which technical knowledge is insufficient. Successful, sustainable resolutions can only be expected to result from a holistic, sustainable approach which accommodates the difficulty in balancing ethical practices with the demands for ever-increasing profits. This unique graduate textbook addresses the issu...
The town is an organism created and driven by people. The complexity of the problems arising from it poses a challenge to those in positions of responsibility. Oswald and Baccini seek to bring clarity to the web of urban phenomena. They present a highly original model which draws together the two separate fields of architecture and science by considering architecture and urban planning from the scientific perspective. In four main chapters, topics such as new urbanism, the net city, designing with the net-city method, sustainability, renovation, conversion, and responsibility are explored in detail. The examples presented all derive from Switzerland, but the analyses and methodology is valid for any region or country. The theory is complemented by attractive visual material. Franz Oswald is Professor of Architecture and Design, Peter Baccini is Professor of Resource and Waste Management (both at Zurich ETH).
Field to Palette: Dialogues on Soil and Art in the Anthropocene is an investigation of the cultural meanings, representations, and values of soil in a time of planetary change. The book offers critical reflections on some of the most challenging environmental problems of our time, including land take, groundwater pollution, desertification, and biodiversity loss. At the same time, the book celebrates diverse forms of resilience in the face of such challenges, beginning with its title as a way of honoring locally controlled food production methods championed by "field to plate" movements worldwide. By focusing on concepts of soil functionality, the book weaves together different disciplinary ...
Fruchtbare Böden bilden die Grundlage unserer Ernährung und sind durch das komplexe Zusammenspiel mit dem Klima, Wasser- und Luftkreisläufen und der Biologie von zentraler Bedeutung für Ökosysteme und die Biodiversität auf unserer Erde. Sie sind eine lebensnotwendige und gleichzeitig begrenzte Ressource, deren Erhaltung häufig außerhalb unseres Bewusstseins liegt. Fakt ist, dass viele Böden durch Übernutzung und falsches Management degradieren und ihre Funktion als Nährstoff- und Wasserspeicher nicht mehr erfüllen können. Sie verlieren ihr stützendes Gerüst, werden durch Wind- und Wassererosion zusammen mit Nährstoffen von unseren Äckern abgetragen, durch schwere Maschinen i...
"American colleges and universities have been relatively quick to address the challenge of sustainability in operations. Ironically, they have been slower to respond in regard to their core mission: educating students. Teaching sustainability aims to redress this shortcoming by opening doors to education for sustainability in the humanities and social sciences. The essays in this collection are richly diverse. They investigate ways sustainability education "pushes back" against traditional disciplines while it simultaneously benefits from the perspectives and skills these fields have to offer. They also address "big questions" such as how to make education meaningful, how to examine hidden a...