The Whale and the Supercomputer

The Whale and the Supercomputer PDF Author: Charles Wohlforth
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780865477148
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Scientists and natives wrestle with our changing climate in the land where it has hit first --and hardest.

The Whale and the Supercomputer

The Whale and the Supercomputer PDF Author: Charles Wohlforth
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780865477148
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Scientists and natives wrestle with our changing climate in the land where it has hit first --and hardest.

The Whale and the Supercomputer

The Whale and the Supercomputer PDF Author: Charles Wohlforth
Publisher: North Point Press
ISBN: 1429923741
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
In The Whale and the Supercomputer, scientists and natives wrestle with our changing climate in the land where it has hit first--and hardest A traditional Eskimo whale-hunting party races to shore near Barrow, Alaska--their comrades trapped on a floe drifting out to sea--as ice that should be solid this time of year gives way. Elsewhere, a team of scientists transverses the tundra, sleeping in tents, surviving on frozen chocolate, and measuring the snow every ten kilometers in a quest to understand the effects of albedo, the snow's reflective ability to cool the earth beneath it. Climate change isn't an abstraction in the far North. It is a reality that has already dramatically altered daily life, especially that of the native peoples who still live largely off the land and sea. Because nature shows her footprints so plainly here, the region is also a lure for scientists intent on comprehending the complexities of climate change. In this gripping account, Charles Wohlforth follows the two groups as they navigate a radically shifting landscape. The scientists attempt to decipher its smallest elements and to derive from them a set of abstract laws and models. The natives draw on uncannily accurate traditional knowledge, borne of long experience living close to the land. Even as they see the same things-a Native elder watches weather coming through too fast to predict; a climatologist notes an increased frequency of cyclonic systems-the two cultures struggle to reconcile their vastly different ways of comprehending the environment. With grace, clarity, and a sense of adventure, Wohlforth--a lifelong Alaskan--illuminates both ways of seeing a world in flux, and in the process, helps us to navigate a way forward as climate change reaches us all.

Infowhelm

Infowhelm PDF Author: Heather Houser
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 023154720X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
How do artists and writers engage with environmental knowledge in the face of overwhelming information about catastrophe? What kinds of knowledge do the arts produce when addressing climate change, extinction, and other environmental emergencies? What happens to scientific data when it becomes art? In Infowhelm, Heather Houser explores the ways contemporary art manages environmental knowledge in an age of climate crisis and information overload. Houser argues that the infowhelm—a state of abundant yet contested scientific information—is an unexpectedly resonant resource for environmental artists seeking to go beyond communicating stories about crises. Infowhelm analyzes how artists transform the techniques of the sciences into aesthetic material, repurposing data on everything from butterfly migration to oil spills and experimenting with data collection, classification, and remote sensing. Houser traces how artists ranging from novelist Barbara Kingsolver to digital memorialist Maya Lin rework knowledge traditions native to the sciences, entangling data with embodiment, quantification with speculation, precision with ambiguity, and observation with feeling. Their works provide new ways of understanding environmental change while also questioning traditional distinctions between types of knowledge. Bridging the environmental humanities, digital media studies, and science and technology studies, this timely book reveals the importance of artistic medium and form to understanding environmental issues and challenges our assumptions about how people arrive at and respond to environmental knowledge.

The Poem Is You

The Poem Is You PDF Author: Stephanie Burt
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674737873
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
The variety of contemporary American poetry leaves many readers overwhelmed. The critic, scholar, and poet Stephen Burt sets out to help. Beginning in the early 1980s, where critical consensus ends, he presents 60 poems, each with an original essay explaining how the poem works, why it matters, and how it speaks to other parts of art and culture.

Finding the Arctic

Finding the Arctic PDF Author: Matthew Sturm
Publisher: University of Alaska Press
ISBN: 1602231648
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
The history of the Arctic is rich, filled with fascinating and heroic stories of exploration, multicultural interactions, and humans facing nature at its most extreme. In Finding the Arctic, the accomplished arctic researcher Matthew Sturm collects some of the most memorable and moving of these stories and weaves them around his own story of a 2,500-mile snowmobile expedition across arctic Alaska and Canada. During that trip, Sturm and six companions followed a circuitous route that brought them to many of the most historic spots in the North. They stood in the footsteps of their predecessors, experienced the landscape and the weather, and gained an intimate perspective on notable historical events, all chronicled here by Sturm. Written with humor and pathos, Finding the Arctic is a classic tale of adventure travel. And throughout the book,Sturm, with his thirty-eight years of experience in the North, emerges as an excellent guide for any who wish to understand the Arctic of today and yesterday.

Alaska at 50

Alaska at 50 PDF Author: Gregory W. Kimura
Publisher: University of Alaska Press
ISBN: 1602231087
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
In 2009 Alaska celebrates its fiftieth anniversary of U.S. statehood. To commemorate that milestone, Alaska at 50 brings together some of today’s most noteworthy and recognizable writers and researchers to address the past, present, and future of Alaska. Divided into three overarching sections—art, culture, and humanities; law, economy, and politics; and environment, people, and place—Alaska at 50 is written in highly accessible prose. Illustrations and photographs of significant artefacts of Alaska history enliven the text. Each contributor brings a strong voice and prescription for the next fifty years, and the resulting work presents Alaskans and the nation with an overview of Alaska statehood and ideas for future development.

Climate Change [3 volumes]

Climate Change [3 volumes] PDF Author: Bruce E. Johansen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440840865
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1145

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Book Description
This three-volume set presents entries and primary sources that will impress on readers that what we do—or don't do—today regarding climate change will dramatically influence what life on this planet will be like for untold numbers of generations. How are the behaviors of birds, butterflies, and other migratory animals connected to climate change? What does the term "thermal inertia" mean, and what does this geophysical effect have on predicting what the planet's future will be like? What is the context for the effects we are seeing on various forms of animal life, from migrating birds to polar bears to mosquitoes that transmit Zika and other diseases? Climate Change: An Encyclopedia of Science, Society, and Solutions combines entries describing Earth's variable climatic history, references to scientific literature, weather record data, and selected primary documents to present readers with a comprehensive account of global warming's effects worldwide. By examining verifiable, quantitative information such as the frequency and intensity of hurricanes and changes in the hydrological cycle, as well as clear patterns and trends of alternating droughts and deluges and wildfires, melting ice, and rising seas, readers will be able to understand why scientists are so concerned about the future of our climate. Researchers will benefit from detailed explanations of scientific topics such as thermal inertia, feedbacks, and tipping points; and receive invaluable context on the role of energy use in climate change, including automobiles and air travel. Readers will learn about the role of China in the current global climate and in the future; the widespread effects of climate change on agriculture; and how indigenous peoples' lives are being impacted, from drought and the Navajos to hunters' lives in the Arctic. The work concludes with thought-provoking debates regarding potential solutions, from wind power and solar power to geo-engineering.

How Climate Change Comes to Matter

How Climate Change Comes to Matter PDF Author: Candis Callison
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822376067
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
During the past decade, skepticism about climate change has frustrated those seeking to engage broad publics and motivate them to take action on the issue. In this innovative ethnography, Candis Callison examines the initiatives of social and professional groups as they encourage diverse American publics to care about climate change. She explores the efforts of science journalists, scientists who have become expert voices for and about climate change, American evangelicals, Indigenous leaders, and advocates for corporate social responsibility. The disparate efforts of these groups illuminate the challenge of maintaining fidelity to scientific facts while transforming them into ethical and moral calls to action. Callison investigates the different vernaculars through which we understand and articulate our worlds, as well as the nuanced and pluralistic understandings of climate change evident in different forms of advocacy. As she demonstrates, climate change offers an opportunity to look deeply at how issues and problems that begin in a scientific context come to matter to wide publics, and to rethink emerging interactions among different kinds of knowledge and experience, evolving media landscapes, and claims to authority and expertise.

Alaska For Dummies

Alaska For Dummies PDF Author: Charles P. Wohlforth
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470477962
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 461

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Book Description
You’re in for a scenic, sensory treat! Alaska has 100,000 glaciers and 10 million lakes. Wildlife roams freely across vast spaces, unfettered by fences or roads. Opportunities to experience real wilderness and enjoy outdoor activities abound. You can’t see or do it all, but you can make the most of your time with this friendly guide that gives you the scoop on: Anchorage, the gateway to Alaska, and nearby outdoor destinations Road trips from Anchorage: The Kenai Peninsula, including Seward, Kenai Fjords National Park, Kenai, and Homer; Fairbanks and its environs; Alaska’s long rural highways; and Denali National Park Southeast Alaska, including Juneau, Skagway and Sitka Bush Alaska, covering fascinating places in the Arctic Options for visiting by cruise ship Five great itineraries that touch on Alaska’s best destinations The best places to see marine mammals, birds, humpback whales, black, brown, or polar bears, and other wildlife The best gold rush towns, including Fairbanks, Juneau, Skagway, and Nome, where the free-wheeling frontier spirit abides today Info on fishing, skiing, sea kayaking, dogmushing, hiking, and more Accommodations, ranging from a luxury hotel to railroad cars to a romantic inn and spa Like every For Dummies travel guide, Alaska For Dummies, 4th Edition includes: Down-to-earth trip-planning advice What you shouldn’t miss — and what you can skip The best hotels and restaurants for every budget Handy Post-it Flags to mark your favorite pages Whether you want to get up close and personal (but not too close or too personal) with bears, explore the native heritage with its great totem poles, clan houses, and Iñupiat artwork, enjoy outdoor adventures, or just soak up the magnificent, unspoiled scenery, you’re on your way to a great Alaskan escape.

Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada

Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada PDF Author: Bruce E. Johansen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440864039
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
From Flint, Michigan, to Standing Rock, North Dakota, minorities have found themselves losing the battle for clean resources and a healthy environment. This book provides a modern history of such environmental injustices in the United States and Canada. From the 19th-century extermination of the buffalo in the American West to Alaska's Project Chariot (a Cold War initiative that planned to use atomic bombs to blast out a harbor on Eskimo land) to the struggle for recovery and justice in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017, this book provides readers with an enhanced understanding of how poor and minority people are affected by natural and manmade environmental crises. Written for students as well as the general reader with an interest in social justice and environmental issues, this book traces the relationship between environmental discrimination, race, and class through a comprehensive case history of environmental injustices. Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada: Seeking Justice and Sustainability includes 50 such case studies that range from local to national to international crises.