Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain

Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain PDF Author: Jon Agar
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1911576585
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain brings together historians with a wide range of interests to take a uniquely wide-lens view of how technology and the environment have been intimately and irreversibly entangled in Britain over the last 300 years. It combines, for the first time, two perspectives with much to say about Britain since the industrial revolution: the history of technology and environmental history. Technologies are modified environments, just as nature is to varying extents engineered. Furthermore, technologies and our living and non-living environment are both predominant material forms of organisation – and self-organisation – that surround and make us. Both have changed over time, in intersecting ways. Technologies discussed in the collection include bulldozers, submarine cables, automobiles, flood barriers, medical devices, museum displays and biotechnologies. Environments investigated include bogs, cities, farms, places of natural beauty and pollution, land and sea. The book explores this diversity but also offers an integrated framework for understanding these intersections.

Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain

Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain PDF Author: Jon Agar
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1911576585
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 357

Get Book Here

Book Description
Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain brings together historians with a wide range of interests to take a uniquely wide-lens view of how technology and the environment have been intimately and irreversibly entangled in Britain over the last 300 years. It combines, for the first time, two perspectives with much to say about Britain since the industrial revolution: the history of technology and environmental history. Technologies are modified environments, just as nature is to varying extents engineered. Furthermore, technologies and our living and non-living environment are both predominant material forms of organisation – and self-organisation – that surround and make us. Both have changed over time, in intersecting ways. Technologies discussed in the collection include bulldozers, submarine cables, automobiles, flood barriers, medical devices, museum displays and biotechnologies. Environments investigated include bogs, cities, farms, places of natural beauty and pollution, land and sea. The book explores this diversity but also offers an integrated framework for understanding these intersections.

Britain's Changing Environment

Britain's Changing Environment PDF Author: Garrett Nagle
Publisher: Nelson Thornes
ISBN: 9780174900238
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
Britain's Changing Climate.Human Impact on Hydrology and Rivers in Britain.Changing Landforms.Soils and Ecosystems.Managing Environments.

Britain's Changing Environment from the Air

Britain's Changing Environment from the Air PDF Author: Tim Bayliss-Smith
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521327121
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Commercial pressures and mechanization have rendered almost unrecognizable the natural and man-made landscapes of Britain as they existed before World War I. How this happened and how we can best conserve what is left is charted using the perspective of aerial photography in this book.

The Mesolithic in Britain

The Mesolithic in Britain PDF Author: Chantal Conneller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000475158
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
The Mesolithic in Britain proposes a new division of the Mesolithic period into four parts, each with its distinct character. The Mesolithic has previously been seen as timeless, where little changed over thousands of years. This new synthesis draws on advances in scientific dating to understand the Mesolithic inhabitation of Britain as a historical process. The period was, in fact, a time of profound change: houses, monuments, middens, long-term use of sites and regions, manipulation of the environment and the symbolic deposition of human and animal remains all emerged as significant practices in Britain for the first time. The book describes the lives of the first pioneers in the Early Mesolithic; the emergence of new modes of inhabitation in the Middle Mesolithic; the regionally diverse settlement of the Late Mesolithic; and the radical changes of the final millennium of the period. The first synthesis of Mesolithic Britain since 1932, it takes both a chronological and a regional approach. This book will serve as an essential text for anyone studying the period: undergraduate and graduate students, specialists in the field and community archaeology groups.

The UK's Changing Democracy

The UK's Changing Democracy PDF Author: Patrick Dunleavy
Publisher: LSE Press
ISBN: 1909890464
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 521

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Book Description
The UK’s Changing Democracy presents a uniquely democratic perspective on all aspects of UK politics, at the centre in Westminster and Whitehall, and in all the devolved nations. The 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU marked a turning point in the UK’s political system. In the previous two decades, the country had undergone a series of democratic reforms, during which it seemed to evolve into a more typical European liberal democracy. The establishment of a Supreme Court, adoption of the Human Rights Act, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolution, proportional electoral systems, executive mayors and the growth in multi-party competition all marked profound changes to the British political tradition. Brexit may now bring some of these developments to a juddering halt. The UK’s previous ‘exceptionalism’ from European patterns looks certain to continue indefinitely. ‘Taking back control’ of regulations, trade, immigration and much more is the biggest change in UK governance for half a century. It has already produced enduring crises for the party system, Parliament and the core executive, with uniquely contested governance over critical issues, and a rapidly changing political landscape. Other recent trends are no less fast-moving, such as the revival of two-party dominance in England, the re-creation of some mass membership parties and the disruptive challenges of social media. In this context, an in-depth assessment of the quality of the UK’s democracy is essential. Each of the 2018 Democratic Audit’s 37 short chapters starts with clear criteria for what democracy requires in that part of the nation’s political life and outlines key recent developments before a SWOT analysis (of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) crystallises the current situation. A small number of core issues are then explored in more depth. Set against the global rise of debased semi-democracies, the book’s approach returns our focus firmly to the big issues around the quality and sustainability of the UK’s liberal democracy.

Stress in Post-War Britain, 1945–85

Stress in Post-War Britain, 1945–85 PDF Author: Mark Jackson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317318048
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
In the years following World War II the health and well-being of the nation was of primary concern to the British government. The essays in this collection examine the relationship between health and stress in post-war Britain through a series of carefully connected case studies.

Adapting to Climate Change

Adapting to Climate Change PDF Author: W. Neil Adger
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521764858
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 533

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Book Description
This book presents the latest science and social science research on whether the world can adapt to climate change.

Diet for a Large Planet

Diet for a Large Planet PDF Author: Chris Otter
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226826538
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
A history of the unsustainable modern diet—heavy in meat, wheat, and sugar—that requires more land and resources than the planet is able to support. We are facing a world food crisis of unparalleled proportions. Our reliance on unsustainable dietary choices and agricultural systems is causing problems both for human health and the health of our planet. Solutions from lab-grown food to vegan diets to strictly local food consumption are often discussed, but a central question remains: how did we get to this point? In Diet for a Large Planet, Chris Otter goes back to the late eighteenth century in Britain, where the diet heavy in meat, wheat, and sugar was developing. As Britain underwent steady growth, urbanization, industrialization, and economic expansion, the nation altered its food choices, shifting away from locally produced plant-based nutrition. This new diet, rich in animal proteins and refined carbohydrates, made people taller and stronger, but it led to new types of health problems. Its production also relied on far greater acreage than Britain itself, forcing the nation to become more dependent on global resources. Otter shows how this issue expands beyond Britain, looking at the global effects of large agro-food systems that require more resources than our planet can sustain. This comprehensive history helps us understand how the British played a significant role in making red meat, white bread, and sugar the diet of choice—linked to wealth, luxury, and power—and shows how dietary choices connect to the pressing issues of climate change and food supply.

The Economic Implications of Climate Change in Britain

The Economic Implications of Climate Change in Britain PDF Author: Martin Parry
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134168586
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
Climate change could have a substantial economic impact, particularly on coastal states where seas level rises will be felt most strongly. Among these, the British Isles are likely to be significantly affected, and they provide an excellent case study of the consequences for specific sectors of the economy. In this book, leading experts - including several authors of reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UK Climate Change Impacts Review Group - examine the background and alternative scenarios for change, as well as its implications. They look in detail at water supply and management, agriculture and land use, energy, and the finance and insurance sector. In each case, they show how current activities will have to adapt and they conclude by evaluating the arguments for prevention now vs adaptation later. The changes in store could be huge, requiring the attention of academics and professionals from a wide range of disciplines and industries, as well as government action. This book makes a major contribution to understanding what is at stake.

The natural choice

The natural choice PDF Author: Great Britain: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780101808224
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Book Description
This white paper sets out proposals for a detailed programme of action to repair damage done to the environment in the past, and urges everyone to get involved in helping nature to flourish at all levels - from neighbourhoods to national parks. The plans are directly linked to the groundbreaking research in the National Ecosystem Assessment that showed the strong economic arguments for safeguarding and enhancing the natural environment. They also act on the recommendations of 'Making Space for Nature', a report into the state of England's wildlife sites, led by Professor John Lawton and published in September 2010, which showed that England's wildlife sites are fragmented and not able to respond to the pressures of climate change and other pressures we put on our land. Key measures proposed include: i) Reconnecting nature with New Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs) with a £7.5 million fund for 12 initial NIAs, biodiversity offsetting, New Local Nature Partnerships with £1 million available this year, phasing out peat, ii) Connecting people and nature for better quality of life with Green Areas Designation, better urban green spaces; more children experiencing nature by learning outdoors, strengthening local public health activities, the new environmental volunteering initiative "Muck in 4 Life" to improve places in towns and countryside for people and nature to enjoy and iii) Capturing and improving the value of nature with a Natural Capital Committee; an annual statement of green accounts for UK Plc, a business-led Task Force to expand the UK business opportunities from new products and services which are good for the economy and nature alike.