Motor Vehicles, the Environment, and the Human Condition

Motor Vehicles, the Environment, and the Human Condition PDF Author: Hans A. Baer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793604894
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Get Book Here

Book Description
The world now has more than a billion motor vehicles, and this number continues to increase as developing countries imitate developed societies in their adoption of the culture of automobility. This book explores the political ecology of motor vehicles in an era of growing social disparities and environmental crises, the latter of which are most manifest in anthropogenic climate change to which motor vehicles constitute a major contributor. A political ecological perspective recognizes that motor vehicles, perhaps more than any other machine, embody the social, structural, cultural, and environmental contradictions of the capitalist world system. In addition to highlighting many of the environmental, social, and health, environmental consequences of humanity’s increasing reliance on motor vehicles, particularly private automobiles, this book argues that ultimately we need as a species to move beyond motor vehicles as much as possible but that such an effort will have be part and parcel of creating an alternative world system based on social justice, democratic processes, environmental sustainability, and a safe climate, one termed democratic eco-socialism.

Motor Vehicles, the Environment, and the Human Condition

Motor Vehicles, the Environment, and the Human Condition PDF Author: Hans A. Baer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793604894
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Get Book Here

Book Description
The world now has more than a billion motor vehicles, and this number continues to increase as developing countries imitate developed societies in their adoption of the culture of automobility. This book explores the political ecology of motor vehicles in an era of growing social disparities and environmental crises, the latter of which are most manifest in anthropogenic climate change to which motor vehicles constitute a major contributor. A political ecological perspective recognizes that motor vehicles, perhaps more than any other machine, embody the social, structural, cultural, and environmental contradictions of the capitalist world system. In addition to highlighting many of the environmental, social, and health, environmental consequences of humanity’s increasing reliance on motor vehicles, particularly private automobiles, this book argues that ultimately we need as a species to move beyond motor vehicles as much as possible but that such an effort will have be part and parcel of creating an alternative world system based on social justice, democratic processes, environmental sustainability, and a safe climate, one termed democratic eco-socialism.

Environment, Social Justice, and the Media in the Age of the Anthropocene

Environment, Social Justice, and the Media in the Age of the Anthropocene PDF Author: Elizabeth G. Dobbins
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793607613
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 435

Get Book Here

Book Description
Environment, Social Justice, and the Media in the Age of Anthropocene addresses three imminent challenges to human society in the age of the Anthropocene. The first challenge involves the survival of the species; the second the breakdown of social justice; and the third the inability of the media to provide global audiences with an adequate orientation about these issues. The notion of the Anthropocene as a geological age shaped by human intervention implies a new understanding of the human context that influences the physical and biological sciences. Human existence continues to be affected by the physical and biological reality from which it evolved but, in turn, it affects that reality as well. This work addresses this paradox by bringing together the contributions of researchers from very different disciplines in conversation about the complex relationships between the physical/biological world and the human world to offer different perspectives and solutions in establishing social and environmental justice in the age of the Anthropocene.

Nuclear Weapons and the Environment

Nuclear Weapons and the Environment PDF Author: John Perry
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793602840
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 191

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Nuclear Weapons and the Environment, John Perry highlights the environmental damage caused by nuclear device testing. The failure of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty and the continued proliferation of nuclear weapons is a grave risk to not only human life but to the environment. Pointing to the unstable political situation between a variety of state and non-state actors, the remediation of nuclear test sites, and the risks involved in the production of nuclear weapons, Perry makes a clear case for the dire importance of non-proliferation.

Environmental and Animal Abuse Denial

Environmental and Animal Abuse Denial PDF Author: Tomaž Grušovnik
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793610479
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Get Book Here

Book Description
The staggering rate of environmental pollution and animal abuse despite constant efforts to educate the public and raise awareness challenges the prevailing belief that the absence of serious action is a consequence of a poorly informed public. In recent decades alternative explanations of social and political inaction have emerged, including denialism. Challenging the information-deficit model, denialism proposes that people actively avoid unpleasant information that threatens their established worldviews, lifestyles, and identities. Environmental and Animal Abuse Denial: Averting Our Gaze analyzes how people avoid awareness of climate change, environmental pollution, animal abuse, and the animal industrial complex. The contributors examine the theory of denialism in regards to environmental pollution and animal abuse through a range of disciplines, including social psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, cultural history and law.

Conservation, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice in India

Conservation, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice in India PDF Author: Alok Gupta
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793614555
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 287

Get Book Here

Book Description
Conservation, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice in India highlights the environmental challenges that India faces, largely due to high population and limited natural resources, and discusses the gap between the intent of environmental policies and the actualization of those policies. Contributors posit that the protection of the environment poses a fundamental challenge to the nation’s desire to industrialize and develop more quickly, arguing that the conservation of biodiversity, protection of wetlands, prevention of environmental pollution, and promotion of ecological balance are all crucial in enabling sustainable development. This book poses the question of how large a role the judiciary system should play in the protection of the environment as a vital body that passes policies to promote conservation and sustainable development.

Grappling with Societies and Institutions in an Era of Socio-Ecological Crisis

Grappling with Societies and Institutions in an Era of Socio-Ecological Crisis PDF Author: Hans A. Baer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793637466
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Get Book Here

Book Description
Grappling with Societies and Institutions in an Era of Socio-Ecological Crisis is an autobiographical ethnography of the journey through various societies and institutions and how they function in the midst of an era of socio-ecological crises. The volume traces the steps of the author in becoming a radical anthropologist, namely through the experience of immigration and naturalization from Peru to the United States and then to Australia, politicization while working as an engineer in the aircraft industry during the late 1960s, socialization in and subsequent exit from Roman Catholicism, and experiences as an academic working in the corporate university. As well, the author illuminates the practices of research and engagement as a scholar-activist on various topics, such as the Levites of Utah and African American Spiritual churches, socio-political and religious life in East Germany, complementary and alternative medicine, the Australian climate movement, and democratic eco-socialism.

Ecology, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality

Ecology, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality PDF Author: Sing C. Chew
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 179364151X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 119

Get Book Here

Book Description
We live in a digitalized world that is experiencing environmental changes, scarcity of natural resources, global pandemics, mass migrations, and burgeoning global populations. In Ecology, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality, Sing C. Chew proposes that we meet these challenges by examining the connected global world we live in and by considering the advances that have been made in digitalization, miniaturization, dematerialization, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented realities, and machine learning, which have increased our socioeconomic and political productivity. Chew outlines potential structural avenues to address these challenges, suggests pragmatic choices to ease living during these chaotic crisis conditions, and outlines solutions that will enable us to traverse systemic crises.

Living Deep Ecology

Living Deep Ecology PDF Author: Bill Devall
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793631875
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 115

Get Book Here

Book Description
Living Deep Ecology: A Bioregional Journey is an exploration of our evolving relationship with a specific bioregion. It is set in Humboldt County in northwestern California, in the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion. By focusing on a specific bioregion and reflecting on anthropogenic changes in this bioregion over three decades, Bill Devall engages the reader in asking deeper questions about the meaning we find in Nature. He addresses questions such as how do we relate the facts and theories presented by science with our feelings, our intimacy, and our sense of Place as we dwell in a specific bioregion. This book engages the reader to consider our place in Nature. Devall approaches the bioregion not from the perspective of agencies and government, but from the perspective of the landscape itself.

Portland's Good Life

Portland's Good Life PDF Author: R. Bruce Stephenson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 179361458X
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Get Book Here

Book Description
Iconic urbanist Lewis Mumford stressed the role of a well-constructed city in the development of the good life, championing pedestrian-scaled, sustainable cities. In Portland's Good Life, R. Bruce Stephenson examines how Portland, the one city in America that adopted Mumford’s vision, became a model city for living the good life. Stephenson traces Portland’s success to its grass roots governing system, its housing and climate protection initiatives, and most of all, its citizens devoted to the public good; all of which have resulted in the construction of a city that honors the humanity of its people.

Australian Wetland Cultures

Australian Wetland Cultures PDF Author: John Charles Ryan
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498599958
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book Here

Book Description
Among the most productive ecosystems on earth, wetlands are also some of the most vulnerable. Australian Wetland Cultures argues for the cultural value of wetlands. Through a focus on swamps and their conservation, the volume makes a unique contribution to the growing interdisciplinary field of the environmental humanities. The authors investigate the crucial role of swamps in Australian society through the idea of wetland cultures. The broad historical and cultural range of the book spans pre-settlement indigenous Australian cultures, nineteenth-century European colonization, and contemporary Australian engagements with wetland habitats. The contributors situate the Australian emphasis in international cultural and ecological contexts. Case studies from Perth, Western Australia, provide practical examples of the conservation of wetlands as sites of interlinked natural and cultural heritage. The volume will appeal to readers with interests in anthropology, Australian studies, cultural studies, ecological science, environmental studies, and heritage protection.