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Land and Water Degradation in Ethiopia: Climate and Land Use Change Implications (Springer Geography)
by Assefa M. Melesse Mekdelawit M. Deribe Ethiopia B. ZelekeWater is life for all human beings and is essential for sustainable economic development. Access to freshwater is a fundamental human right. Ensuring access to safe drinking water and sanitation is vital for economic growth, poverty reduction and enhancement of human well-being. Yet, uncertain global water availability compounded by factors such as climate change and land degradation have made meeting the growing water demand a daunting task for many communities. The world is facing an unprecedented climate crisis, intricately linked with water resources. We have witnessed frequent and intense hydrologic extremes (floods and droughts). In the past decade alone, floods, storms, droughts, and other weather-related events accounted for over 90% of natural disasters. Water, being at the center of national policies of many countries, the impact of climate change on water resources extends across multiple sectors including energy production, food security, health, environmental conservation, and economic development. Research has shown that climate change has impacted the hydrologic cycle, affected the availability and predictability of water, and hence threatened the efforts of poverty reduction and economic development. These impacts are more pronounced in developing countries, exacerbating existing socioeconomic challenges, and hindering progress towards self-sufficiency in food, water, and energy production. The impact of climate change on these countries is further aggravated by land degradation, land use changes, unsustainable agricultural practices, poor watershed management and ecological degradation and loss of biodiversity. This book aims to explore these issues, with chapters dedicated to examining land and water degradation, water quality, irrigation, groundwater management, land use dynamics and the impacts of climate change on freshwater resources in Ethiopia.
Land and Water Student Activity Book
by The Editors at the The National Science Resources CenterThe book talks about land, water, their importance, and ways of preserving these natural resources along with related activities for students.
Land and Wine: The French Terroir
by Charles FrankelFor centuries, France has long been the world’s greatest wine-producing country. Its wines are the global gold standard, prized by collectors, and its winemaking regions each offer unique tasting experiences, from the spice of Bordeaux to the berry notes of the Loire Valley. Although grape variety, climate, and the skill of the winemaker are essential in making good wine, the foundation of a wine’s character is the soil in which its grapes are grown. Who could better guide us through the relationship between the French land and the wine than a geologist, someone who deeply understands the science behind the soil? Enter scientist Charles Frankel. In Land and Wine, Frankel takes readers on a tour of the French winemaking regions to illustrate how the soil, underlying bedrock, relief, and microclimate shape the personality of a wine. The book’s twelve chapters each focus in depth on a different region, including the Loire Valley, Alsace, Burgundy, Champagne, Provence, the Rhône valley, and Bordeaux, to explore the full meaning of terroir. In this approachable guide, Frankel describes how Cabernet Franc takes on a completely different character depending on whether it is grown on gravel or limestone; how Sauvignon yields three different products in the hills of Sancerre when rooted in limestone, marl, or flint; how Pinot Noir will give radically different wines on a single hill in Burgundy as the vines progress upslope; and how the soil of each château in Bordeaux has a say in the blend ratios of Merlot and Cabernet-Sauvignon. Land and Wine provides a detailed understanding of the variety of French wine as well as a look at the geological history of France, complete with volcanic eruptions, a parade of dinosaurs, and a menagerie of evolution that has left its fossils flavoring the vineyards. Both the uninitiated wine drinker and the confirmed oenophile will find much to savor in this fun guide that Frankel has spiked with anecdotes about winemakers and historic wine enthusiasts#151;revealing which kings, poets, and philosophers liked which wines best#151;while offering travel tips and itineraries for visiting the wineries today.
Land-Atmospheric Research Applications in South and Southeast Asia (Springer Remote Sensing/photogrammetry Ser.)
by Krishna Prasad Vadrevu Toshimasa Ohara Chris JusticeThis edited volume sheds new light on the impact of rapid Land Use/Cover Changes (LU/CC) on greenhouse gases (GHG’s) and aerosol emissions in South and Southeast Asia. Several countries in South/Southeast Asia have the highest population growth rates in the world, which is the main cause for LU/CC. Conversion of dense forests to agricultural areas and then to residential and urban areas is most commonly observed in South/Southeast Asian countries with a significant release of GHG’s and aerosols. The book showcases several case studies on the use of remote sensing and geospatial technologies to quantify biomass burning and air pollution impacts, aerosol pollution, LU/CC, and impacts on ecosystem services. The book also includes articles on regional initiatives in research, capacity building, and training. The authors of this book are international experts in the field, and their contributions highlight significant drivers and impacts of air pollution in South/Southeast Asia. Readers will discover the latest tools and techniques, in particular, the use of satellite remote sensing and geospatial technologies for quantifying GHG’s, aerosols and pollution episodes in this region.
The Land Beneath the Ice: The Pioneering Years of Radar Exploration in Antarctica
by David J. DrewryA wondrous story of scientific endeavor—probing the great ice sheets of AntarcticaFrom the moment explorers set foot on the ice of Antarctica in the early nineteenth century, they desired to learn what lay beneath. David J. Drewry provides an insider’s account of the ambitious and often hazardous radar mapping expeditions that he and fellow glaciologists undertook during the height of the Cold War, when concerns about global climate change were first emerging and scientists were finally able to peer into the Antarctic ice and take its measure.In this panoramic book, Drewry charts the history and breakthrough science of radio-echo sounding, a revolutionary technique that has enabled researchers to measure the thickness and properties of ice continuously from the air—transforming our understanding of the world’s great ice sheets. To those involved in this epic fieldwork, it was evident that our planet is rapidly changing, and its future depends on the stability and behavior of these colossal ice masses. Drewry describes how bad weather, downed aircraft, and human frailty disrupt the most meticulously laid plans, and how success, built on remarkable international cooperation, can spawn institutional rivalries.The Land Beneath the Ice captures the excitement and innovative spirit of a pioneering era in Antarctic geophysical exploration, recounting its perils and scientific challenges, and showing how its discoveries are helping us to tackle environmental challenges of global significance.
A Land Between Two Niles: Quaternary geology and biology of the Central Sudan
by Martin A.J. Williams; D.A.AdamsonThree themes run through this book, the first is the history of the Nile; the second is the degree to which the present Sudanese landscape reflects the operation of former geological processes; the third is the interaction between man and environment, not always to the benefit of either. A land between two Niles is an interdisciplinary account of the origins and characteristics of the alluvial plains of the lower Blue and White Nile. The contributors have focussed their attention upon this region for several reasons. Although the Gezira plain itself only occupies about one percent of the total area of the Sudan, the high quality long-staple cotton grown there provides nearly two-thirds of the country’s total export revenue.
Land Bridges: Ancient Environments, Plant Migrations, and New World Connections
by Alan GrahamLand bridges are the causeways of biodiversity. When they form, organisms are introduced into a new patchwork of species and habitats, forever altering the ecosystems into which they flow; and when land bridges disappear or fracture, organisms are separated into reproductively isolated populations that can evolve independently. More than this, land bridges play a role in determining global climates through changes to moisture and heat transport and are also essential factors in the development of biogeographic patterns across geographically remote regions. In this book, paleobotanist Alan Graham traces the formation and disruption of key New World land bridges and describes the biotic, climatic, and biogeographic ramifications of these land masses’ changing formations over time. Looking at five land bridges, he explores their present geographic setting and climate, modern vegetation, indigenous peoples (with special attention to their impact on past and present vegetation), and geologic history. From the great Panamanian isthmus to the boreal connections across the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans that allowed exchange of organisms between North America, Europe, and Asia, Graham’s sweeping, one-hundred-million-year history offers new insight into the forces that shaped the life and land of the New World.
Land Carbon Cycle Modeling: Matrix Approach, Data Assimilation, & Ecological Forecasting
by Yiqi Luo Benjamin SmithCarbon moves through the atmosphere, through the oceans, onto land, and into ecosystems. This cycling has a large effect on climate – changing geographic patterns of rainfall and the frequency of extreme weather – and is altered as the use of fossil fuels adds carbon to the cycle. The dynamics of this global carbon cycling are largely predicted over broad spatial scales and long periods of time by Earth system models. This book addresses the crucial question of how to assess, evaluate, and estimate the potential impact of the additional carbon to the land carbon cycle. The contributors describe a set of new approaches to land carbon cycle modeling for better exploring ecological questions regarding changes in carbon cycling; employing data assimilation techniques for model improvement; and doing real- or near-time ecological forecasting for decision support. This book strives to balance theoretical considerations, technical details, and applications of ecosystem modeling for research, assessment, and crucial decision making. Key Features Helps readers understand, implement, and criticize land carbon cycle models Offers a new theoretical framework to understand transient dynamics of land carbon cycle Describes a suite of modeling skills – matrix approach to represent land carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles; data assimilation and machine learning to improve parameterization; and workflow systems to facilitate ecological forecasting Introduces a new set of techniques, such as semi-analytic spin-up (SASU), unified diagnostic system with a 1-3-5 scheme, traceability analysis, and benchmark analysis, for model evaluation and improvement Related Titles Isabel Ferrera, ed. Climate Change and the Oceanic Carbon Cycle: Variables and Consequences (ISBN 978-1-774-63669-5) Lal, R. et al., eds. Soil Processes and the Carbon Cycle (ISBN 978-0-8493-7441-8) Windham-Myers, L., et al., eds. A Blue Carbon Primer: The State of Coastal Wetland Carbon Science, Practice and Policy (ISBN 978-0-367-89352-1)
Land Carbon Cycle Modeling: Matrix Approach, Data Assimilation, Ecological Forecasting, and Machine Learning
by Benjamin Smith Yiqi LuoCarbon moves through the atmosphere, through the oceans, onto land, and into ecosystems. This cycling has a large effect on climate – changing geographic patterns of rainfall and the frequency of extreme weather – and is altered as the use of fossil fuels adds carbon to the cycle. The dynamics of this global carbon cycling are largely predicted over broad spatial scales and long periods of time by Earth system models. This book addresses the crucial question of how to assess, evaluate, and estimate the potential impact of the additional carbon to the land carbon cycle. The contributors describe a set of new approaches to land carbon cycle modeling for better exploring ecological questions regarding changes in carbon cycling; employing data assimilation techniques for model improvement; doing real- or near-time ecological forecasting for decision support; and combining newly available machine learning techniques with process-based models to improve prediction of the land carbon cycle under climate change. This new edition includes seven new chapters: machine learning and its applications to carbon cycle research (five chapters); principles underlying carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere, contemporary active research and management issues (one chapter); and community infrastructure for ecological forecasting (one chapter).Key Features Helps readers understand, implement, and criticize land carbon cycle models Offers a new theoretical framework to understand transient dynamics of the land carbon cycle Describes a suite of modeling skills – matrix approach to represent land carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles; data assimilation and machine learning to improve parameterization; and workflow systems to facilitate ecological forecasting Introduces a new set of techniques, such as semi-analytic spin-up (SASU), unified diagnostic system with a 1-3-5 scheme, traceability analysis, and benchmark analysis, and PROcess-guided machine learning and DAta-driven modeling (PRODA) for model evaluation and improvement Reorganized from the first edition with seven new chapters added Strives to balance theoretical considerations, technical details, and applications of ecosystem modeling for research, assessment, and crucial decision-making
Land, Chiefs, Mining: South Africa's North West Province since 1840
by Andrew Manson Bernard MbengaLand, Chiefs, Mining explores aspects of the experience of the Batswana in the thornveld and bushveld regions of the North-West Province, shedding light on defi ning issues, moments and individuals in this lesser known region of South Africa. Some of the focuses are: an important Tswana kgosi (chief ), Moiloa II of the Bahurutshe; responses to and participation in the South African War and its aftermath, 1899-1907; land acquisition; economic and political conditions in the reserves; resistance to Mangope?s Bophuthatswana; the impact of game parks and the Sun City resort; rural resistance and the liberation struggle; and African reaction to the platinum mining revolution. Written in a direct and accessible style, and illustrated with photographs and maps, the book provides an understanding, for a general reader ship, of the region and its recent history. At the same time it opens up avenues for further research. The authors, Andrew Manson and Bernard Mbenga, both based at North-West University, Mahikeng Campus, have, for some thirty years, been studying and writing on the region?s past.
Land Conservation Financing
by Edward T. Mcmahon The Conservation Fund Mike McqueenWritten by two of the nation's leading experts on land conservation, Land Conservation Financing provides a comprehensive overview of successful land conservation programs -- how they were created, how they are funded, and what they've accomplished -- along with detailed case studies from across the United States.The authors present important new information on state-of-the-art conservation financing, showcasing programs in states that have become the nation's leaders in open-space protection: California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New Jersey. They look at key local land protection efforts by examining model programs in DeKalb County, Georgia; Douglas County, Colorado; Jacksonville, Florida; Lake County, Illinois; Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; Marin County, California; the St. Louis metro area in Missouri and Illinois, and on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.The authors then examine how hundreds of communities have created hundreds of millions of dollars in funding by developing successful campaigns to win land conservation ballot measures. They offer case studies and pull together lessons learned as they lay out how to run a successful campaign. The authors also consider the role of private foundations, which have made immense contributions to land conservation over the past two decades.The book concludes with an examination of the emerging concept of green infrastructure -- a strategic approach to conservation that involves planning and managing a network of parks, natural areas, greenways, and working lands that can help support native species, maintain ecological processes, and contribute to the health and quality of life for America's people and its communities.Land Conservation Financing is an indispensable resource for land conservationists in the public and private sectors who are looking for a detailed, national portrait of the state of land conservation in America today.
Land Cover and Land Use Change on Islands: Social & Ecological Threats to Sustainability (Social and Ecological Interactions in the Galapagos Islands)
by Stephen J. Walsh Philip H. Page Diego Riveros-Iregui Javier Arce-NazarioGlobalization is not a new phenomenon, but it is posing new challenges to humans and natural ecosystems in the 21st century. From climate change to increasingly mobile human populations to the global economy, the relationship between humans and their environment is being modified in ways that will have long-term impacts on ecological health, biodiversity, ecosystem goods and services, population vulnerability, and sustainability. These changes and challenges are perhaps nowhere more evident than in island ecosystems. Buffeted by rising ocean temperatures, extreme weather events, sea-level rise, climate change, tourism, population migration, invasive species, and resource limitations, islands represent both the greatest vulnerability to globalization and also the greatest scientific opportunity to study the significance of global changes on ecosystem processes, human-environment interactions, conservation, environmental policy, and island sustainability.In this book, we study islands through the lens of Land Cover/Land Use Change (LCLUC) and the multi-scale and multi-thematic drivers of change. In addition to assessing the key processes that shape and re-shape island ecosystems and their land cover/land use changes, the book highlights measurement and assessment methods to characterize patterns and trajectories of change and models to examine the social-ecological drivers of change on islands. For instance, chapters report on the results of a meta-analysis to examine trends in published literature on islands, a satellite image time-series to track changes in urbanization, social surveys to support household analyses, field sampling to represent the state of resources and their limitations on islands, and dynamic systems models to link socio-economic data to LCLUC patterns. The authors report on a diversity of islands, conditions, and circumstances that affect LCLUC patterns and processes, often informed through perspectives rooted, for instance, in conservation, demography, ecology, economics, geography, policy, and sociology.
Land Degradation and Desertification: Assessment, Mitigation and Remediation
by Angel Faz Cano Marcello Pagliai Pandi Zdruli Selim KapurLand Degradation and Desertification: Assessment, Mitigation, and Remediation reports research results in sustainable land management and land degradation status and mitigation in 36 countries around the world. It includes background papers with continental and international perspectives dealing with land degradation and desertification studies. The book assembles various topics of interest for a large audience. They include carbon sequestration and stocks, modern techniques to trace the trends of land degradation, traditional and modern approaches of resource-base conservation, soil fertility management, reforestation, rangeland rehabilitation, land use planning, GIS techniques in desertification risk cartography, participatory ecosystem management, policy analyses and possible plans for action. Various climatic domains in Africa, Asia, Europe and The Americas are covered. The book will be of interest to a variety of environmental scientists, agronomists, national and international policy makers and a number of organizations dealing with sustainable management of natural resources.
Land Degradation and Society (Routledge Revivals)
by Harold Brookfield Piers BlaikieWhy does land management so often fail to prevent soil erosion, deforestation, salination and flooding? How serious are these problems, and for whom? This book, first published in 1987, sets out to answer these questions, which are still some of the most crucial issues in development today, using an approach called ‘regional political ecology’. This approach acknowledges that the reason why land management can fail are extremely varied, and must include a thorough understanding of the changing natural resource base itself, the human response to this, and broader changes in society, of which land managers are a part. Land Degradation and Society is essential reading for all students of geography, agriculture, social sciences, development studies and related subjects.
Land Degradation and Socio-Economic Development: A Field-based Perspective (Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research)
by Padmini PaniThis book offers an overview of recent literature on land degradation and its interrelationship with socio-economic development processes in the developing world. It provides an in-depth analysis of land degradation as a physical process, with an emphasis on the local and regional scales. The volume contains a detailed case-study of ravine formation processes in the Chambal valley, a unique but least studied part of the world. Using multi-scale and multi-disciplinary approaches, and combining spatial socio-economic data with remote sensing data, this book provides an in-depth analysis of the causes and implications of land degradation.
Land Degradation, Desertification and Climate Change: Anticipating, assessing and adapting to future change
by Mark S. Reed Lindsay C. StringerAlthough much is known about the processes and effects of land degradation and climate change, little is understood about the links between them. Less still is known about how these processes are likely to interact in different social-ecological systems around the world, or how societies might be able to adapt to this twin challenge. This book identifies key vulnerabilities to the combined effects of climate change and land degradation around the world. It identifies triple-win adaptations that can tackle both climate change and land degradation, whilst supporting biodiversity and ecosystem services. The book discusses methods for monitoring effects of climate change and land degradation, and adaptations to these processes. It argues for better co-operation and knowledge exchange, so that the research, land user and policy communities can work together more effectively to tackle these challenges, harnessing the "wisdom of crowds" to assess vulnerability and adapt to climate change and land degradation, whilst protecting livelihoods and biodiversity.
Land Degradation in India: Linkages with Deforestation, Climate and Agriculture (SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science)
by Ratan PriyaThis book discusses land degradation in India using statistical tools such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Regression Analysis (RA), and uses statistical analyses and graphical representations of the causal relationship between land degradation and land productivity to determine linkages with deforestation, climate change and agricultural productivity. While most studies of land degradation in India focus on economic outcomes and physical processes at macro and micro levels, this study addresses land degradation at the meso-level to fill in this gap and provide up-to-date information on often overlooked factors associated with land degradation issues using the latest available data. Districts in the study were selected by land degradation intensity, forming an index of the severity of land degradation in the area, with a focus on gullied lands, soil salinity/alkalinity and open and dense scrubs as indicators. Though the study areas are in India, researchers, policy makers and students around the world will be able to learn from these inputs regarding land degradation to address various challenges associated with sustainable land management and agricultural productivity.
Land Economics Research: Papers Presented At A Symposium Held At Lincoln, Nebraska, June 16-23, 1961 (Routledge Revivals)
by Joseph Ackerman Marion Clawson Marshall HarrisOriginally published in 1962, Land Economics Research brings together papers presented at a symposium in Nebraska in 1961 which deal with ideas, theories and suggestions in land economics to encourage problem-solving in American land issues. This report draws on all types of land, all situations and all economics problems related to land issues. This title will be of interest to students of Environmental Studies and Economics as well as professionals.
The Land Grabbers
by Fred PearceAn unprecedented land grab is taking place around the world. Fearing future food shortages or eager to profit from them, the world’s wealthiest and most acquisitive countries, corporations, and individuals have been buying and leasing vast tracts of land around the world. The scale is astounding: parcels the size of small countries are being gobbled up across the plains of Africa, the paddy fields of Southeast Asia, the jungles of South America, and the prairies of Eastern Europe. Veteran science writer Fred Pearce spent a year circling the globe to find out who was doing the buying, whose land was being taken over, and what the effect of these massive land deals seems to be. The Land Grabbersis a first-of-its-kind exposé that reveals the scale and the human costs of the land grab, one of the most profound ethical, environmental, and economic issues facing the globalized world in the twenty-first century. The corporations, speculators, and governments scooping up land cheap in the developing world claim that industrial-scale farming will help local economies. But Pearce’s research reveals a far more troubling reality. While some mega-farms are ethically run, all too often poor farmers and cattle herders are evicted from ancestral lands or cut off from water sources. The good jobs promised by foreign capitalists and home governments alike fail to materialize. Hungry nations are being forced to export their food to the wealthy, and corporate potentates run fiefdoms oblivious to the country beyond their fences. Pearce’s story is populated with larger-than-life characters, from financier George Soros and industry tycoon Richard Branson, to Gulf state sheikhs, Russian oligarchs, British barons, and Burmese generals. We discover why Goldman Sachs is buying up the Chinese poultry industry, what Lord Rothschild and a legendary 1970s asset-stripper are doing in the backwoods of Brazil, and what plans a Saudi oil billionaire has for Ethiopia. Along the way, Pearce introduces us to the people who actually live on, and live off of, the supposedly “empty” land that is being grabbed, from Cambodian peasants, victimized first by the Khmer Rouge and now by crony capitalism, to African pastoralists confined to ever-smaller tracts. Over the next few decades, land grabbing may matter more, to more of the planet’s people, than even climate change. It will affect who eats and who does not, who gets richer and who gets poorer, and whether agrarian societies can exist outside corporate control. It is the new battle over who owns the planet.
Land Grabbing and Migration in a Changing Climate: Comparative Perspectives from Senegal and Cambodia (Routledge Studies in Global Land and Resource Grabbing)
by Sara VigilThis book provides a theoretical and empirical examination of the links between environmental change, land grabbing, and migration, drawing on research conducted in Senegal and Cambodia. While the impacts of environmental change on migration and of environmental discourses on land grabs have received increased attention, the role of both environmental and migration narratives in shaping migration by modifying access to natural resources has remained under-explored. Using a variegated geopolitical ecology framework and a comparative global ethnographic approach, this book analyses the power of mainstream adaptation and security frameworks and how they impact the lives of marginalised and vulnerable communities in Senegal and Cambodia. Findings across the cases show how environmental and migration narratives, linked to adaptation and security discourses, have been deployed advertently or inadvertently to justify land capture, leading to interventions that often increase, rather than alleviate, the very pressures that they intend to address. The interrelations between these issues are inherent to the tensions that exist, in different contexts and at different times, between capital accumulation and political legitimation. The findings of the book point to the urgency for researchers and policymakers to address the structural causes, and not the symptoms, of both environmental destruction and forced migration. It shows how acting upon environmental change, land grabs, and migration in isolated or binary manners can increase, rather than alleviate, pressures on those most socio-environmentally vulnerable. This book will be of interest to students, scholars, and practitioners working on the topics of land and resource grabbing and environmental change and migration. The book will also be of interest to those analysing political ecology transitions in Africa and Asia, as well as to those interested in novel theoretical and methodological frameworks.
Land Healer: How Farming Can Save Britain’s Countryside
by Jake Fiennes'Jake Fiennes is changing the face of farming in Britain... a revolutionising force' Isabella TreeOur relationship with our land is broken: we must heal it.Jake Fiennes is on a mission to change the face of the English countryside. As Conservation Manager at Holkham in Norfolk, one of the country's largest historic country estates, his radical habitat restoration and agricultural work has nurtured its species and risen its crop yields - bringing back wetlands, hedgerows, birds and butterflies over 25,000 acres of land.But this isn't rewilding - there is no 'wild' in Britain anymore. Mass farming, crop science and industrial chemicals have destroyed the majority of our natural landscape and wildlife over the last century. Land Healer is the story of Fiennes's ambition to bring back our flora and fauna - by reclaiming our traditions and trialling new experiments which could restore our symbiosis with our land, and save our shared future.Following the farming year and the natural cycle of the seasons, Land Healer chronicles a life of conservation lived at the edges, and is a manifesto for rethinking our relationship with the natural world before it's too late.
Land Healing: Physical, Metaphysical, and Ritual Practices for Healing the Earth
by Dana O'DriscollLand Healing is a comprehensive guide to land healing for neopagans and Earth-based spiritual practitioners who have a desire to regenerate and heal human-caused damage throughout our world. The book presents tools and information to take up the path of the land healer with care, reverence, and respect to all beings. The book is structured in a flexible framework that allows one to address any land-healing situation. The framework includes physical land healing (gardening, permaculture practices, creating refugia, wild tending) and metaphysical healing (ritual and chant work, energetic healing, palliative care, meditations, psychopomp work, and much more). Additionally, the book covers creating an earth healer's crane bag, witnessing and deep listening, and spiritual self-care. The goal of this book is to offer a wide range of physical and metaphysical tools and practices to address the challenges of the present age and bring forth a brighter tomorrow.
The Land Is Full: Addressing Overpopulation in Israel
by Alon TalAn assessment of how Israel's extraordinary population growth undermines the country's environment, social equity, and quality of life--and what must be done about it During the past sixty-eight years, Israel's population has increased from one to eight million people. Such exponential growth has produced acute environmental and social crises in this tiny country. Alon Tal, one of Israel's foremost environmentalists, considers the ramifications of the extraordinary demographic shift, from burgeoning pollution and dwindling natural resources to overburdened infrastructure and overcrowding. Based on extensive fieldwork and interviews, the book examines the origins of Israel's population policies and how they must change to support a sustainable future.
The Land Is Our Community: Aldo Leopold’s Environmental Ethic for the New Millennium
by Roberta L. MillsteinA contemporary defense of conservationist Aldo Leopold’s vision for human interaction with the environment. Informed by his experiences as a hunter, forester, wildlife manager, ecologist, conservationist, and professor, Aldo Leopold developed a view he called the land ethic. In a classic essay, published posthumously in A Sand County Almanac, Leopold advocated for an expansion of our ethical obligations beyond the purely human to include what he variously termed the “land community” or the “biotic community”—communities of interdependent humans, nonhuman animals, plants, soils, and waters, understood collectively. This philosophy has been extremely influential in environmental ethics as well as conservation biology and related fields. Using an approach grounded in environmental ethics and the history and philosophy of science, Roberta L. Millstein reexamines Leopold’s land ethic in light of contemporary ecology. Despite the enormous influence of the land ethic, it has sometimes been dismissed as either empirically out of date or ethically flawed. Millstein argues that these dismissals are based on problematic readings of Leopold’s ideas. In this book, she provides new interpretations of the central concepts underlying the land ethic: interdependence, land community, and land health. She also offers a fresh take on of his argument for extending our ethics to include land communities as well as Leopold-inspired guidelines for how the land ethic can steer conservation and restoration policy.
Land Loss in Louisiana: A Neopragmatic Redescription (RaumFragen: Stadt – Region – Landschaft)
by Olaf Kühne Lara KoegstThis book is oriented on testing and developing the neopragmatic approach of horizontal geographies, in which we follow approaches of natural sciences, social sciences, and cultural studies. Regional focus is thereby put on a rapidly changing elemental space and its social representations, characterized by unstable and not well-defined hybridities: coastal Louisiana. This region is highly dynamic: the Mississippi River in particular, with its extensive sediments, has shifted the coastal fringe of present-day Louisiana into the Gulf of Mexico. This land gain is contrasted by natural processes, but also by processes resultant of human intervention which cause marine encroachment. A complex interplay of different aspects is directly and indirectly leading to coastal land loss which makes the question of how to describe emerging hybrid spaces virulent and highlights the limits of a positivist understanding of boundaries that is also physically geographical. In the neopragmatic tradition, positivist research findings will be framed in social constructivist terms and supplemented by phenomenological approaches to Louisiana's coastal space, thus suggesting the need for and potentials of horizontal geographic integration of different theoretical and methodological approaches as well as researcher perspectives and data bases.