Environmental Imaginaries of the Middle East and North Africa

Environmental Imaginaries of the Middle East and North Africa PDF Author: Diana K. Davis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Get Book Here

Book Description
The landscapes of the Middle East have captured our imaginations throughout history. Images of endless golden dunes, camel caravans, isolated desert oases, and rivers lined with palm trees have often framed written and visual representations of the region. Embedded in these portrayals is the common belief that the environment, in most places, has been deforested and desertified by centuries of misuse. It is precisely such orientalist environmental imaginaries, increasingly undermined by contemporary ecological data, that the eleven authors in this volume question. This is the first volume to critically examine culturally constructed views of the environmental history of the Middle East and suggest that they have often benefitted elites at the expense of the ecologies and the peoples of the region. The contributors expose many of the questionable policies and practices born of these environmental imaginaries and related histories that have been utilized in the region since the colonial period. They further reveal how power, in the form of development programs, notions of nationalism, and hydrological maps, for instance, relates to environmental knowledge production.

Climate Change in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Region

Climate Change in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Region PDF Author: Walter Leal Filho
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030785661
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 520

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book serves the purpose of showcasing some of the works in respect of applied research, field projects, and best practice to foster climate change adaptation across the region. Climate change is having a much greater impact in the Mediterranean than the global average. In the Paris Climate Agreement, the UN member states pledged to stop global warming at well below two degrees, if possible at 1.5 degrees. This mark, which is expected elsewhere only for 2030 to 2050, has already been reached in the region. The situation could worsen in the coming years if the global community does not limit its emissions. The above state of affairs illustrates the need for a better and more holistic understanding of how climate change affects countries in the Mediterranean region on the one hand, but also on the many problems it faces on the other, which prevent adaptation efforts. There is also a perceived need to showcase successful examples of how to duly address and manage the many social, economic, and political problems posed by climate change in the region, in order to replicate and even upscale the successful approaches used. It is against this background that the book "Climate Change in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Region" has been produced. It contains papers prepared by scholars, practitioners, and members of governmental agencies, undertaking research and/or executing climate change projects, and working across the region.

Issues in Global Environment—Biodiversity, Resources, and Conservation: 2013 Edition

Issues in Global Environment—Biodiversity, Resources, and Conservation: 2013 Edition PDF Author:
Publisher: ScholarlyEditions
ISBN: 1490109633
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1135

Get Book Here

Book Description
Issues in Global Environment—Biodiversity, Resources, and Conservation: 2013 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ book that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Additional Research. The editors have built Issues in Global Environment—Biodiversity, Resources, and Conservation: 2013 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Additional Research in this book to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Issues in Global Environment—Biodiversity, Resources, and Conservation: 2013 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

Environmental Politics in the Middle East

Environmental Politics in the Middle East PDF Author: Harry Verhoeven
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190050136
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 359

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book investigates how ecology and politics meet in the Middle East and how those interactions connect to the global political economy. Through region-wide analyses and case studies from the Arabian Peninsula, the Gulf of Aden, the Levant and North Africa, the volume highlights the intimate connections of environmental activism, energy infrastructure and illicit commodity trading with the political economies of Central Asia, the Horn of Africa and the Indian subcontinent. The book's nine chapters analyze how the exploitation and representation of the environment have shaped the history of the region--and determined its place in global politics. It argues that how the ecological is understood, instrumentalized and intervened upon is the product of political struggle: deconstructing ideas and practices of environmental change means unravelling claims of authority and legitimacy. This is particularly important in a region frequently seen through the prism of environmental determinism, where ruling elites have imposed authoritarian control as the corollary of 'environmental crisis'. This unique and urgent collection will question much of what we think we know about this pressing issue.

The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures

The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures PDF Author: Laith A. Jawad
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030515060
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1377

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Arabian Seas Marine Region encompasses marine areas from Djibouti to Pakistan, including the northern part of Somalia, the Red Sea, the Arabian/Persian Gulf, and parts of the Arabian Sea. Human pressures on the coastal and marine environments are evident throughout the region, and have resulted in harmful environmental effects. Oil and domestic, urban and industrial pollutants in several areas of this part of the world have caused local habitat degradation, eutrophication and algal blooms. Further, coastal landfill, dredging, and sedimentation, as well as nutrient and sediment runoff from phosphate mining, agriculture and grazing, and reduction in freshwater seepage due to groundwater extraction are all contributing to the degradation of coastal environments. This book discusses aspects not covered in other books on the region, which largely focus on marine biodiversity, and examines several environmental challenges that are often ignored, but which have a significant impact on the environment. Evaluating the status quo, it also recommends conservation measures and examines the abiotic factors that play a major main role in the environmental changes. Lastly, the book addresses the biodiversity of the area, providing a general context for the conservation and management measures discussed.

Tigris and Euphrates Rivers: Their Environment from Headwaters to Mouth

Tigris and Euphrates Rivers: Their Environment from Headwaters to Mouth PDF Author: Laith A. Jawad
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030575705
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1612

Get Book Here

Book Description
The system of the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers is one of the great river systems of southwestern Asia. It comprises the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which follow roughly parallel courses through the heart of the Middle East. The lower portion of the region that they run through is known as Mesopotamia, was one of the cradles of civilisation. There are several environmental factors that govern the nature of the two rivers and shape the landscape the two rivers running through. Geological events create rivers, climate monitor the water supply, the surrounding land influences the vegetation and the physical and chemical features of water. The Tigris-Euphrates system runs through the territory of four countries, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. Therefore, any scientific approach to the environment of these two rivers should include the natural history events in these countries. The book "Tigris and Euphrates Rivers: Their Environment from Headwaters to Mouth" will be divided into nine parts. These parts deal with the issues of the environment, the status of the flora and fauna, the abiotic aspects, ecology, hydrological regime of the two rivers, the biotic aspects. Water resources, stress of the environment, conservation issues. Since the book of Julian Rzoska "Euphrates and Tigris Mesopotamian Ecology and Destiny" in 1980, no book or major reference has been published that includes between its cover the facts and information that the present book will present. Therefore, the importance of the present book falls in stating the present status of the environment of the two rivers and the comparison of their environment between now and that of 37 years ago as given by J. Rzoska (1980). The recent studies showed that there are a large number of natural and political events that happened within the last three decades in the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system that for sure have done a great change to the environment of the two rivers and consequently changing the biological and non-biological resources of the two rivers. This book will be a reference book to both Academic and students across the Middle East in different disciplines of knowledge to use in their researches on Tigris-Euphrates river system. The scholars interested in this area will use this book as a guide to compare this freshwater system with other areas in Asia and the world.

Agricultural Water Management

Agricultural Water Management PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309179254
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Get Book Here

Book Description
This report contains a collection of papers from a workshopâ€"Strengthening Science-Based Decision-Making for Sustainable Management of Scarce Water Resources for Agricultural Production, held in Tunisia. Participants, including scientists, decision makers, representatives of non-profit organizations, and a farmer, came from the United States and several countries in North Africa and the Middle East. The papers examined constraints to agricultural production as it relates to water scarcity; focusing on 1) the state of the science regarding water management for agricultural purposes in the Middle East and North Africa 2) how science can be applied to better manage existing water supplies to optimize the domestic production of food and fiber. The cross-cutting themes of the workshop were the elements or principles of science-based decision making, the role of the scientific community in ensuring that science is an integral part of the decision making process, and ways to improve communications between scientists and decision makers.

Environment, Biodiversity and Conservation in the Middle East

Environment, Biodiversity and Conservation in the Middle East PDF Author: Friedhelm Krupp
Publisher: Academica PressLlc
ISBN: 9789546425201
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 219

Get Book Here

Book Description
A collection of fifteen papers addressing a wide range of themes, including success and limits of re-colonisation of the Mediterranean with tropical marine species, biodiversity networks, ecological challenges of rapid urbanization in the United Arab Emirates, habitat mapping for protected area design, diversity of cyanobacteria in hot springs, variability and diversity of phytoplankton in the Gulf, diversity and distribution of lichens, and the Key Biodiversity Areas Programme implemented by Nature Iraq.

Africa & the Middle East

Africa & the Middle East PDF Author: Kevin Hillstrom
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1576076938
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description
A concise yet thorough overview of the environmental issues, problems, and controversies facing the continent of Africa and the Middle East. Examining both the rich biological heritage of the world's second largest continent and the very serious human threats to it, Africa and the Middle East explores the impact global pollution and a burgeoning population are having on landscape and wildlife alike. How is global warming responsible for the rapidly expanding Sahara Desert? Can local populations be recruited to preserve threatened species? Over 80 percent of Madagascar's species are endemic, the highest percentage of any major ecological region in the world, such as the highly endangered aye-aye which resembles a cross between a monkey, a bat, and a woodpecker, and the giraffe-necked weevil, a red rainforest insect with a neck like a fire truck rescue ladder. Readers will learn all about these fascinating species and much more.

Plant Ecology in the Middle East

Plant Ecology in the Middle East PDF Author: Ahmad Hegazy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191078735
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 363

Get Book Here

Book Description
This advanced textbook explores the intriguing flora and plant ecology of the Middle East, framed by a changing desert landscape, global climate change, and the arc of human history. This vast region has been largely under-recognized, under-studied, and certainly under-published, due in part to the challenges posed to research by political disputes and human conflict, and a treatise on the subject is now timely. The book integrates Middle Eastern plant geography and its major drivers (geo-tectonics, seed and fruit dispersal, plant functional types, etc.) with the principles of plant ecology. The authors include the many specialized adaptations to desert and dryland ecosystems including succulence, water-conserving photosynthesis, and a remarkable range of other life history strategies. They explore the formation of 'climate relicts', and describe the long history of domestication in the region together with the many reciprocal effects of agriculture on plant ecology. The book concludes by discussing conservation in the region, highlighting five regional biodiversity hotspots where the challenges of desertification, habitat loss, and other threats to plant biodiversity are particularly acute. Plant Ecology in the Middle East is a timely synthesis of the field, setting a new baseline for future research. It will be important reading for both undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in plant ecology, evolution, systematics, biodiversity, and conservation, and will also be of interest and use to a professional audience of botanists, conservation biologists, and practitioners working in dryland ecosystems.

Conserving Biodiversity

Conserving Biodiversity PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309046831
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 138

Get Book Here

Book Description
The loss of the earth's biological diversity is widely recognized as a critical environmental problem. That loss is most severe in developing countries, where the conditions of human existence are most difficult. Conserving Biodiversity presents an agenda for research that can provide information to formulate policy and design conservation programs in the Third World. The book includes discussions of research needs in the biological sciences as well as economics and anthropology, areas of critical importance to conservation and sustainable development. Although specifically directed toward development agencies, non-governmental organizations, and decisionmakers in developing nations, this volume should be of interest to all who are involved in the conservation of biological diversity.