World Ecological Degradation

World Ecological Degradation PDF Author: Sing C. Chew
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 9780759100312
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Deforestation, soil runoff, salination, pollution. While recurrent themes of the contemporary world, they are not new to us. In this broad sweeping review of the environmental impacts of human settlement and development worldwide over the past 5,000 years, Sing C. Chew shows that these processes are as old as civilization itself. With examples ranging from Ancient Mesopotamia to Malaya, Mycenaean Greece to Ming China, Chew shows that the processes of population growth, intensive resource accumulation, and urbanization in ancient and modern societies almost universally bring on ecological disaster, which often contributes to the decline and fall of that society. He then turns his eye to the development of the modern European world-system and its impact on the environment. Challenging us to change these long-term trends, Chew also traces the existence of environmental conservation ideas and movements over the span of 5,000 years. Can we do it? Look at Chew's evidence of the past five millennia and decide. Ideal for courses in environmental history, anthropology, and sociology, and world-systems theory.

World Ecological Degradation

World Ecological Degradation PDF Author: Sing C. Chew
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 9780759100312
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Get Book

Book Description
Deforestation, soil runoff, salination, pollution. While recurrent themes of the contemporary world, they are not new to us. In this broad sweeping review of the environmental impacts of human settlement and development worldwide over the past 5,000 years, Sing C. Chew shows that these processes are as old as civilization itself. With examples ranging from Ancient Mesopotamia to Malaya, Mycenaean Greece to Ming China, Chew shows that the processes of population growth, intensive resource accumulation, and urbanization in ancient and modern societies almost universally bring on ecological disaster, which often contributes to the decline and fall of that society. He then turns his eye to the development of the modern European world-system and its impact on the environment. Challenging us to change these long-term trends, Chew also traces the existence of environmental conservation ideas and movements over the span of 5,000 years. Can we do it? Look at Chew's evidence of the past five millennia and decide. Ideal for courses in environmental history, anthropology, and sociology, and world-systems theory.

Industrial Development and Environmental Degradation

Industrial Development and Environmental Degradation PDF Author: Se Hark Park
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 9781858988832
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Industrialization to achieve economic development has resulted in global environmental degradation. This book identifies/quantifies environmental consequences of industrial growth, and provides policy advice, including the use of clean technologies, with reference to the developing world.

The Cost of Environmental Degradation

The Cost of Environmental Degradation PDF Author: Lelia Croitoru
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821383965
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
How much is a cleaner environment worth? For policy makers, that question used to go largely unanswered. Many economic activities cause environmental degradation, entailing real costs to the economy and to people's welfare. Knowing the extent of these costs is crucial for identifying a country's main environmental priorities and allocating appropriate funds for environmental protection. Over the past decade, the World Bank has initiated a systematic effort to measure the costs of environmental degradation in the Middle East and North Africa, shedding new light on their magnitude and on the need for policy changes. In many cases, these costs were found to be surprisingly large. 'The Cost of Environmental Degradation: Case Studies from the Middle East and North Africa' brings together the best case studies of this program and summarizes their policy impacts at the national and regional levels. The case studies quantify monetarily the annual damage due to environmental degradation and express these estimates as percentages of the countries' gross domestic product. The studies use the most recent environmental valuation methods to estimate the economic costs resulting from air pollution, water degradation, deforestation, and land degradation. Uniquely, the book dedicates a case study to value the costs of environmental degradation resulting from an oil spill and demolition waste in times of conflict. The studies then illuminate the concrete implications on policy, investments, and institutions for the respective nations. This book will be of interest to policy makers, nongovernmental organizations, and academic and research institutions.

Rewilding

Rewilding PDF Author: Nathalie Pettorelli
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108472672
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
Discusses the benefits and risks, as well as the economic and socio-political realities, of rewilding as a novel conservation tool.

The Global Politics of the Environment

The Global Politics of the Environment PDF Author: Lorraine Elliott
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814722180
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
Human activity is changing the global environment on a scale unlike that of any other era. Environmental deterioration is now a global issue—ecologically, politically, and economically—that requires global solutions. Yet there is considerable disagreement over what kinds of strategies we should adopt in order to halt and reverse damage to the global ecosystem. What kinds of international institutions are best suited to dealing with global environmental problems? Why are women and indigenous peoples still marginalized in global environmental politics? What are the consequences of the global ecological crisis for economic and security policies? The Global Politics of the Environment makes sense of the often seemingly irreconcilable answers to these questions. It focuses throughout on the tensions between mainstream strategies, which seek to build support for reforms through existing institutions, and radical critiques, which argue that environmental degradation is a symptom of a dysfunctional world order that must itself be transformed if we are to meet the challenge of saving the planet.

Insatiable Appetite

Insatiable Appetite PDF Author: Richard P. Tucker
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742553651
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
This book presents a comprehensive and critical historical overview of the role played by the US as a developer and consumer of tropical nature. -- Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, LLC.

World on the Edge

World on the Edge PDF Author: Lester Brown
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113654075X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
In this urgent time, World on the Edge calls out the pivotal environmental issues and how to solve them now. We are in a race between political and natural tipping points. Can we close coal-fired power plants fast enough to save the Greenland ice sheet and avoid catastrophic sea level rise? Can we raise water productivity fast enough to halt the depletion of aquifers and avoid water-driven food shortages? Can we cope with peak water and peak oil at the same time? These are some of the issues Lester R. Brown skilfully distils in World on the Edge. Bringing decades of research and analysis into play, he provides the responses needed to reclaim our future.

Ecology and Development in the Third World

Ecology and Development in the Third World PDF Author: Avijit Gupta
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134745117
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
This comprehensive second edition provides an up-to-date introduction to the nature of ecological degradation in a world of dramatic environmental change.

Ecology and Development in the Third World

Ecology and Development in the Third World PDF Author: Avijit Gupta
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780416042023
Category : Developing countries
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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Book Description
This comprehensive second edition provides an up-to-date introduction to the nature of ecological degradation in a world of dramatic environmental change.

The Global Environmental Benefits of Land Degradation Control on Agricultural Land

The Global Environmental Benefits of Land Degradation Control on Agricultural Land PDF Author: Stefano Pagiola
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
This book focuses on the global effects of land degradation, but emphasizes other important levels of land degradation: at the field level, it may result in reduced productivity; at the national level, it may cause flooding, and sedimentation; and, at the global level, it can contribute to climate changes, damaging bio-diversity, and international waters. The effects on climate changes are explored, and the report questions the extent to which land degradation on agricultural land, affects climate change. Does it increase emissions of greenhouse gases? Does it affect land's capacity to serve as a carbon sink? Can appropriate management enhance both land's productivity, and its capacity to store carbon? The carbon cycle in soils is analyzed, indicating land degradation is likely to reduce the ability of soils to serve as carbon sink, and release stored carbon into the atmosphere, and, bio-diversity effects are likely to be adverse. Global benefits of land degradation control, include afforestation, to allow increased carbon sequestration, and provide adequate bio-diversity habitats; and, community-based wildlife management, can provide alternatives to some marginal areas. Although integrating global dimensions into land degradation control projects, may reverse the field level, or national problems it is causing, difficulties and constraints will likely contribute to the failure of these projects.