Man-made Deserts PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download Man-made Deserts PDF full book. Access full book title Man-made Deserts by Walter Clay Lowdermilk. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Walter Clay Lowdermilk
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 18
Get Book Here
Book Description
The history of civilizations is a record of struggles against the progressive dessication of civilized lands. The more ancient the civilization, the drier and more wasted, usually, is the supporting country.
Author: Walter Clay Lowdermilk
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 18
Get Book Here
Book Description
The history of civilizations is a record of struggles against the progressive dessication of civilized lands. The more ancient the civilization, the drier and more wasted, usually, is the supporting country.
Author: Siegmar-W. Breckle
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642211178
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 499
Get Book Here
Book Description
Having been the fourth largest lake on the globe roughly 50 years ago, today the Aral Sea no longer exists. Human activities caused its desiccation and the formation of a huge new desert, the Aralkum, which can be regarded as one of the greatest ecological catastrophes and - at the same time - the largest primary succession experiment of mankind. This volume brings together the results of international and interdisciplinary long-term studies on the new desert ecosystem and is divided into four main sections. The first section provides an overview of the physical characteristics of the area and covers geological, pedological, geomorphological and climatological aspects and their dynamics, especially dust-storm dynamics. The second focuses on the biotic aspects and highlights the spatial and temporal patterns of the flora and fauna. In the third section studies and projects aiming to combat desertification by phytomelioration and to develop strategies for the conservation of biodiversity are presented. The book is rounded off with a section providing a synthesis and conclusions.
Author: Daniel Hillel
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520080805
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 358
Get Book Here
Book Description
A moving tribute to the physical and spiritual properties of nature's richestelement by one of the world's leading soil conservationists.
Author: Siegmar-W. Breckle
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 364259560X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 473
Get Book Here
Book Description
Changing desert areas for land use implies a lot of ecological problems. These and related ones are dealt with in this book covering various interdisciplinary and international aspects. Large areas in arid and semi-arid regions are already polluted in various ways. One of the biggest problems is the anthropogenic salinization by inadequate means of agriculture and irrigation. Additionally, most arid areas in the world are dramatically overgrazed. Methods and practices of a sustainable land use in deserts are urgently needed in many arid regions. This book gives a broad survey on some of the affected regions of the world as well as some case studies from elsewhere (Aral Sea, Negev desert, Namib desert etc.). Thus, basic and applied sciences are brought together. Water management in deserts, grazing systems or reclamation of desertified areas are among the topics of this book, as well as social and economic aspects.
Author: Diana K. Davis
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262333546
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 302
Get Book Here
Book Description
An argument that the perception of arid lands as wastelands is politically motivated and that these landscapes are variable, biodiverse ecosystems, whose inhabitants must be empowered. Deserts are commonly imagined as barren, defiled, worthless places, wastelands in need of development. This understanding has fueled extensive anti-desertification efforts—a multimillion-dollar global campaign driven by perceptions of a looming crisis. In this book, Diana Davis argues that estimates of desertification have been significantly exaggerated and that deserts and drylands—which constitute about 41% of the earth's landmass—are actually resilient and biodiverse environments in which a great many indigenous people have long lived sustainably. Meanwhile, contemporary arid lands development programs and anti-desertification efforts have met with little success. As Davis explains, these environments are not governed by the equilibrium ecological dynamics that apply in most other regions. Davis shows that our notion of the arid lands as wastelands derives largely from politically motivated Anglo-European colonial assumptions that these regions had been laid waste by “traditional” uses of the land. Unfortunately, such assumptions still frequently inform policy. Drawing on political ecology and environmental history, Davis traces changes in our understanding of deserts, from the benign views of the classical era to Christian associations of the desert with sinful activities to later (neo)colonial assumptions of destruction. She further explains how our thinking about deserts is problematically related to our conceptions of forests and desiccation. Davis concludes that a new understanding of the arid lands as healthy, natural, but variable ecosystems that do not necessarily need improvement or development will facilitate a more sustainable future for the world's magnificent drylands.
Author: Philipp Lehmann
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691238286
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Get Book Here
Book Description
How technological advances and colonial fears inspired utopian geoengineering projects during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries From the 1870s to the mid-twentieth century, European explorers, climatologists, colonial officials, and planners were avidly interested in large-scale projects that might actively alter the climate. Uncovering this history, Desert Edens looks at how arid environments and an increasing anxiety about climate in the colonial world shaped this upsurge in ideas about climate engineering. From notions about the transformation of deserts into forests to Nazi plans to influence the climates of war-torn areas, Philipp Lehmann puts the early climate change debate in its environmental, intellectual, and political context, and considers the ways this legacy reverberates in the present climate crisis. Lehmann examines some of the most ambitious climate-engineering projects to emerge in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Confronted with the Sahara in the 1870s, the French developed concepts for a flooding project that would lead to the creation of a man-made Sahara Sea. In the 1920s, German architect Herman Sörgel proposed damming the Mediterranean in order to geoengineer an Afro-European continent called “Atlantropa,” which would fit the needs of European settlers. Nazi designs were formulated to counteract the desertification of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Despite ideological and technical differences, these projects all incorporated and developed climate change theories and vocabulary. They also combined expressions of an extreme environmental pessimism with a powerful technological optimism that continue to shape the contemporary moment. Focusing on the intellectual roots, intended effects, and impact of early measures to modify the climate, Desert Edens investigates how the technological imagination can be inspired by pressing fears about the environment and civilization.
Author: Martin Williams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107016916
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 653
Get Book Here
Book Description
A synthesis of the environmental and climatic history of every major desert and desert margin, for researchers and advanced students.
Author: S. Bottema
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9789061911388
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364
Get Book Here
Book Description
Revised papers from a symposium entitled "The impact of ancient man on the landscape of the Eastern Mediterranean region and the Near East" held in Groningen, the Netherlands, March 1989.
Author: Celina Osuna
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040044689
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 265
Get Book Here
Book Description
Storied Deserts makes a crucial and critical intervention in the field of environmental humanities by showcasing an emerging body of research on desert places from around the world. Deserts, despite dominant stereotypes of wasteland and barrenness, are culturally and ecologically abundant places. This edited volume sets out to reimagine the world’s desert places and the very concept of "the desert" itself, taking a boldly interdisciplinary and multicultural approach. Authors engage in literary ecocriticism and ecopoetics, film and visual studies, critical theory, personal and transdisciplinary reflection, creative practices, and historical scholarship. Through their diverse range of perspectives, contributors show how arid lands have been and can be understood as sites of narrative production, places where signs and imaginaries are born from the materialities of space and entanglement. In this way, this volume highlights how the storied matter of the Earth’s deserts informs lived realities, environmental histories, cinematic and literary imaginaries, political conflicts, and even intellectual categories such as "the human" and "the elemental". Ultimately, this book shows that reimagining desert places can help us to grapple with the epochal challenges of the Anthropocene. It is an important and engaging collection for scholars and students across disciplines that helps establish the value of desert humanities.
Author: James McKeen Cattell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic journals
Languages : en
Pages : 618
Get Book Here
Book Description
