Droughts

Droughts PDF Author: Donald A. Wilhite
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317854233
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1368

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Book Description
Drought draws together contributions from over 75 leading international researchers in the field to present the most comprehensive body of research on the physical and social dimensions of drought to date. Including an extensive range of case-studies covering the most drought-prone and most affected countries, the contributors examine new technology, planning methodologies and mitigation actions from recent drought experiences worldwide. Following a discussion of the critical concepts of drought, the work is divided into the following additional parts: · causes and predictability · monitoring and early warning techniques · impacts and assessment methodologies · links between drought and other global issues · conclusions and future challenges

Droughts

Droughts PDF Author: Donald A. Wilhite
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317854233
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1368

Get Book Here

Book Description
Drought draws together contributions from over 75 leading international researchers in the field to present the most comprehensive body of research on the physical and social dimensions of drought to date. Including an extensive range of case-studies covering the most drought-prone and most affected countries, the contributors examine new technology, planning methodologies and mitigation actions from recent drought experiences worldwide. Following a discussion of the critical concepts of drought, the work is divided into the following additional parts: · causes and predictability · monitoring and early warning techniques · impacts and assessment methodologies · links between drought and other global issues · conclusions and future challenges

The Future of Arid Lands-Revisited

The Future of Arid Lands-Revisited PDF Author: Charles F. Hutchinson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402066899
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
The Future of Arid Lands, edited by Gilbert White and published in 1956, comprised papers delivered at the "International Arid Lands Meetings" held in New Mexico in 1955. At these meetings, experts considered the major issues then confronting the world’s arid lands and developed a research agenda to address these issues. This book reexamines this earlier work and explores changes in the science and management of arid lands over the past 50 years within their historical contexts.

The Drought-Resilient Farm

The Drought-Resilient Farm PDF Author: Dale Strickler
Publisher: Storey Publishing
ISBN: 1635860024
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Rainfall levels are rarely optimal, but there are hundreds of things you can do to efficiently conserve and use the water you do have and to reduce the impact of drought on your soil, crops, livestock, and farm or ranch ecosystem. Author Dale Strickler introduces you to the same innovative systems he used to transform his own drought-stricken family farm in Kansas into a thriving, water-wise, and profitable enterprise, maximizing healthy cropland, pasture, and water supply. Ranging from simple, short-term projects such as installing rain-collection ollas to long-term land-management planning strategies, Strickler’s methods show how to get more water into the soil, keep it in the soil, and help plants and livestock access it.

Drought Follows the Plow

Drought Follows the Plow PDF Author: Michael H. Glantz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521477215
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
People around the globe are becoming increasingly aware that our use of the land has an effect on the environment in which we live. Global warming is seen as a major threat to the well-being of the world's communities. Fear abounds, but does anyone really know what is going on? Will human activity make things worse? In this 1994 book, the author examines the relationship between society and climate change. With contributions from colleagues in the worst hit areas of the world, the author shows how some patterns of land use can make the problems worse; increasing the risk of droughts and associated food shortages. This book will help scientists and researchers assess our impact on the planet and consider our ability to respond to the consequences of future environmental change.

Drought and the Human Story

Drought and the Human Story PDF Author: R.L. Heathcote
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317147758
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
Drought has been a long companion in the human story. Mythologised as the devastating Bull of Heaven in one of the earliest heroic legends to come out of Mesapotamia, drought has continued to wreak havoc upon societies, in many cases playing a significant role in their final demise. For societies in the 21st Century drought hovers on all horizons, the ultimate drought-proofing of society - long sought - remains elusive. This study of the human conceptualization of drought in a global setting examines the historical record from early human society through to present day concerns to explore how and why attitudes to drought have changed and why the mitigation of its impacts has become more difficult. To offer a more lasting strategy for protection against drought, the author argues that physical scientists need to combine their skills in understanding global ecology and their technological expertise with the social scientists' awareness of the socio-economic, political and cultural contexts in which modern societies operate. Both will have to ensure that their cooperative strategies for drought management will be understood and supported by the public. If this cooperation can be achieved, the future rampages of the Bull of Heaven may be contained.

Late Victorian Holocausts

Late Victorian Holocausts PDF Author: Mike Davis
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1781680612
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
This global environmental and political history “will redefine the way we think about the European colonial project” (Observer). “ . . . sets the triumph of the late 19th-century Western imperialism in the context of catastrophic El Niño weather patterns at that time . . . groundbreaking, mind-stretching.” —The Independent Examining a series of El Niño-induced droughts and the famines that they spawned around the globe in the last third of the 19th century, Mike Davis discloses the intimate, baleful relationship between imperial arrogance and natural incident that combined to produce some of the worst tragedies in human history. Late Victorian Holocausts focuses on three zones of drought and subsequent famine: India, Northern China; and Northeastern Brazil. All were affected by the same global climatic factors that caused massive crop failures, and all experienced brutal famines that decimated local populations. But the effects of drought were magnified in each case because of singularly destructive policies promulgated by different ruling elites. Davis argues that the seeds of underdevelopment in what later became known as the Third World were sown in this era of High Imperialism, as the price for capitalist modernization was paid in the currency of millions of peasants’ lives.

Linking Climate Change to Land Surface Change

Linking Climate Change to Land Surface Change PDF Author: S.J. McLaren
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0306480867
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
Our views and understanding of variations in climate, geomorphological processes and the interrelationships that exist between climatic changes and land surface changes, both now and in the past, have developed greatly over the last decade. This book aims to encapsulate some of these recent advances and focuses on the integration of research that has been conducted by geomorphologists and climatologists on linking climate and land surface changes. This book is divided into two main parts: Section A incorporates research that has concentrated on short-term variations in climate, whilst Section B looks at some of the work on long-term climate variability. The volume concludes with a summary chapter that brings together the various ideas that have been presented in this work and other recent research in this general field. This text will be of interest to upper level students of geomorphology, Quaternary studies, climatology, earth sciences, and environmental studies. It will also be of use to researchers in these fields.

Coping with Climate Variability

Coping with Climate Variability PDF Author: Colleen Vogel
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351777572
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
This title was first published in 2003. Recent food shortages in Southern Africa, induced by rainfall variability but compounded by problems of governance and rising food prices, have resulted in massive relief efforts. A recent scientific innovation - supplying farmers with seasonal climate forecasts - has been touted as a way to increase preparedness for such situations. This book examines how climate forecasts are used by the agricultural community in Southern Africa. Based on a workshop funded by the World Bank, it covers a broad set of issues related to the use of seasonal forecasts, including factors that constrain users' capacities to respond. Case studies presented in the book explore how forecasts can potentially increase production and food security among a population highly dependent on agriculture and vulnerable to climate variability. The book reflects on how the production, delivery and uptake of seasonal forecasts might be improved, as well as the limitations to their usefulness, and it should catalyse future thinking and research in this field.

The Environment and World History

The Environment and World History PDF Author: Edmund Burke III
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520943481
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
Since around 1500 C.E., humans have shaped the global environment in ways that were previously unimaginable. Bringing together leading environmental historians and world historians, this book offers an overview of global environmental history throughout this remarkable 500-year period. In eleven essays, the contributors examine the connections between environmental change and other major topics of early modern and modern world history: population growth, commercialization, imperialism, industrialization, the fossil fuel revolution, and more. Rather than attributing environmental change largely to European science, technology, and capitalism, the essays illuminate a series of culturally distinctive, yet often parallel developments arising in many parts of the world, leading to intensified exploitation of land and water. The wide range of regional studies—including some in Russia, China, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Southern Africa, and Western Europe—together with the book's broader thematic essays makes The Environment and World History ideal for courses that seek to incorporate the environment and environmental change more fully into a truly integrative understanding of world history. CONTRIBUTORS: Michael Adas, William Beinart, Edmund Burke III, Mark Cioc, Kenneth Pomeranz, Mahesh Rangarajan, John F. Richards, Lise Sedrez, Douglas R. Weiner

God's Family, God's Earth

God's Family, God's Earth PDF Author: Kaoma, Kapya J.
Publisher: Kachere Series
ISBN: 9990802629
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This book explores how the mounting ecological crisis has religious, political, and economic roots that enable and promote social and environmental harm. It presents the thesis that religious traditions, including their ethical expressions, can effectively address the crisis, ameliorate its effects, and advocate social and environmental betterment, now and in the future. The ecological overtones of African traditional religions and Christianity are examined along with a discussion on African morality. Recognition is given to the conflict between ecological values and religious teachings in an examination contrasting the awareness of socio-economic problems caused by overpopulation.