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Koala: A Natural History And An Uncertain Future
by Danielle ClodeA New Scientist Best Popular Science Book of the Year "This is the book I’ve been waiting for." —Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus An Australian biologist delves into the extraordinary world of koalas, from their ancient ancestors to the current threats to their survival. Koalas regularly appeared in Australian biologist Danielle Clode’s backyard, but it was only when a bushfire threatened that she truly paid them attention. She soon realized how much she had to learn about these complex and mysterious animals. In vivid, descriptive prose, Clode embarks on a delightful and surprising journey through evolutionary biology, natural history, and ecology to understand where these enigmatic animals came from and what their future may hold. She begins her search with the fossils of ancient giant koalas, delving into why the modern koala has become the lone survivor of a once-diverse family of uniquely Australian marsupials. Koala investigates the remarkable physiology of these charismatic creatures. Born the size of tiny “jellybeans,” joeys face an uphill battle, from crawling into their mother’s pouch to being weaned onto a toxic diet of gum-tree leaves, the koalas’ single source of food. Clode explores the complex relationship and unexpected connections between this endearing species and humans. She explains how koalas are simultaneously threatened with extinction in some areas due to disease, climate change, and increasing wildfires, while overpopulating forests in other parts of the country. Deeply researched and filled with wonder, Koala is both a tender and inquisitive paean to a species unlike any other and a call to ensure its survival.
The Koala of Death: A Gunn Zoo Mystery (Gunn Zoo Series #2)
by Betty WebbWhen zookeeper Theodora "Teddy" Bentley fishes the body of Koala Kate out of Gunn Landing Harbor, she discovers that her fellow zookeeper didn't drown; she was strangled. The clues to Kate's killer implicate other animal keepers at Gunn Zoo, including Outback Bill, marsupial keeper and Kate's Aussie ex-boyfriend; and Robin Chase, the big cat keeper who's got it in for Teddy. Also displaying suspicious behavior are several "liveaboarders" at the harbor; Speaks-To-Souls, a shady "animal psychic;" and even Caro, Teddy's much-married, ex-beauty queen mother.But murderers aren't all Teddy has to worry about. Her embezzling father is still on the run from the Feds, and the motor on her houseboat is failing. To pay for the repairs, Teddy agrees to appear on a weekly live television broadcast featuring misbehaving animals that range from a cuddly koala to a panicky wallaby - and all hell breaks loose in the TV studio. All the while, the killer is narrowing in on Teddy....
Kontinuumsmechanik fester Körper: Mit mathematischen Grundlagen und Anwendungen in der Strukturmechanik
by Frank IhlenburgDas Lehr- und Übungsbuch ist im Stil der Standardliteratur zur Technischen/Höheren Mechanik geschrieben und schließt inhaltlich an diese an. Theoretische Zusammenhänge werden mit Beispielen und Grafiken illustriert, dazu Übungsaufgaben mit durchgerechneten Lösungen im Anhang. Zielgruppe sind Studierende des Ingenieurwesens und praktisch tätige Ingenieure werden bei nichtlinearen Finite-Elemente-Simulationen unterstützt. In der Verknüpfung FEM-CAD setzt sich die kontinuumsmechanische Modellierung mit Volumenelementen durch, zudem wird Stahl oft durch nichtmetallische Werkstoffe ersetzt. Die Kapitel zur Materialtheorie tragen diesen Trends Rechnung. Weitere Themen sind Kinematik und Kinetik großer Deformationen sowie mathematische und thermodynamische Grundlagen. Für Elastizität und Plastizität wird jeweils auch das viskose Verhalten diskutiert. Das Materialverhalten bei großen Deformationen wird im Kontext mit der linearen Theorie und einfachen FE-Simulationen erläutert.
Korteweg–de Vries Flows with General Initial Conditions (Mathematical Physics Studies)
by Shinichi KotaniLarge numbers of studies of the KdV equation have appeared since the pioneering paper by Gardner, Greene, Kruskal, and Miura in 1967. Most of those works have employed the inverse spectral method for 1D Schrödinger operators or an advanced Fourier analysis. Although algebraic approaches have been discovered by Hirota–Sato and Marchenko independently, those have not been fully investigated and analyzed. The present book offers a new approach to the study of the KdV equation, which treats decaying initial data and oscillating data in a unified manner. The author’s method is to represent the tau functions introduced by Hirota–Sato and developed by Segal–Wilson later in terms of the Weyl–Titchmarsh functions (WT functions, in short) for the underlying Schrödinger operators. The main result is stated by a class of WT functions satisfying some of the asymptotic behavior along a curve approaching the spectrum of the Schrödinger operators at +∞ in an order of -(n-1/2)for the nth KdV equation. This class contains many oscillating potentials (initial data) as well as decaying ones. Especially bounded smooth ergodic potentials are included, and under certain conditions on the potentials, the associated Schrödinger operators have dense point spectrum. This provides a mathematical foundation for the study of the soliton turbulence problem initiated by Zakharov, which was the author’s motivation for extending the class of initial data in this book. A large class of almost periodic potentials is also included in these ergodic potentials. P. Deift has conjectured that any solutions to the KdV equation starting from nearly periodic initial data are almost periodic in time. Therefore, our result yields a foundation for this conjecture. For the reader’s benefit, the author has included here (1) a basic knowledge of direct and inverse spectral problem for 1D Schrödinger operators, including the notion of the WT functions; (2)Sato’s Grassmann manifold method revised by Segal–Wilson; and (3) basic results of ergodic Schrödinger operators.
Kouchibouguac: Removal, Resistance, and Remembrance at a Canadian National Park
by Ronald RudinIn 1969, the federal and New Brunswick governments created Kouchibouguac National Park on the province's east coast. The park's creation required the relocation of more than 1200 people who lived within its boundaries. Government officials claimed the mass eviction was necessary both to allow visitors to view "nature" without the intrusion of a human presence and to improve the lives of the former inhabitants. But unprecedented resistance by the mostly Acadian residents, many of whom described their expulsion from the park as a "second deportation," led Parks Canada to end its practice of forcible removal. One resister, Jackie Vautour, remains a squatter on his land to this day.In Kouchibouguac, Ronald Rudin draws on extensive archival research, interviews with more than thirty of the displaced families, and a wide range of Acadian cultural creations to tell the story of the park's establishment, the resistance of its residents, and the memory of that experience.
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
by Simon WinchesterThe bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World examines the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the coast of Java of the earth's most dangerous volcano -- Krakatoa.The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa -- the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic disaster -- was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Dust swirled round die planet for years, causing temperatures to plummet and sunsets to turn vivid with lurid and unsettling displays of light. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogotá and Washington, D.C., went haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar. The sound of the island's destruction was heard in Australia and India and on islands thousands of miles away. Most significant of all -- in view of today's new political climate -- the eruption helped to trigger in Java a wave of murderous anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims: one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings anywhere.Simon Winchester's long experience in the world wandering as well as his knowledge of history and geology give us an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event as he brings it telling back to life.
Kreislaufwirtschaft in der Textilindustrie: Multi-Stakeholder-Analyse und ordnungspolitische Empfehlungen (BestMasters)
by Thekla WilkeningIn diesem Buch werden im Rahmen einer interviewbasierten Multistakeholder-Analyse die Perspektiven unterschiedlicher Stakeholder der textilen Kreislaufwirtschaft untersucht. Dabei wird analysiert, wie die Wertschöpfung aus dem Rohstoff Alttextil ökonomisch, sozial und ökologisch maximiert werden kann, um einen Beitrag zur Agenda 2030 zu leisten. Die derzeitige Erarbeitung einer nationalen Kreislaufstrategie zur Umsetzung der EU-Textilstrategie in nationales Recht ist ebenso relevant wie die verpflichtende, europaweite Getrenntsammlung von Textilien. In diesem Zusammenhang werden die Herausforderungen und Chancen einer kreislaufbasierten Textilindustrie bewertet und ordnungspolitische Maßnahmen wie eine Recyclingquote sowie ein digitaler Produktpass empfohlen. Kooperationen und Anreize, wie Steuervorteile oder freiwillige Kodizes für kreislauforientiertes Design, bieten zusätzliche Ansätze, um die Textilwirtschaft nachhaltiger zu gestalten. Resale und Recycling werden als zentrale Geschäftsmodelle hervorgehoben, deren Erfolg durch Zusammenarbeit, Digitalisierung und verbesserte Recyclingstrukturen gesichert werden kann. Ein gemeinsames Engagement von Bürger:innen, Unternehmen und der Politik ist der Schlüssel, um die Transformation zu einer nachhaltigen Textilindustrie voranzutreiben und eine umweltfreundlichere Zukunft zu gestalten.
Kristallographie: Eine Einführung Für Naturwissenschaftler (Springer-Lehrbuch #180)
by Walter Borchardt-Ott Heidrun SowaDieses eingeführte Lehrbuch basiert auf Vorlesungen an der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster, an der TU Berlin und an der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Der Schwerpunkt des Buches liegt bei der geometrischen Kristallographie. Vom Raumgitter ausgehend werden Symmetrieoperationen, Bravaisgitter, Raum- und Punktgruppen abgehandelt. Auch auf die Beziehungen zwischen Symmetriegruppen und deren Anwendung wird kurz eingegangen. Es folgen Kapitel über Kristallchemie und röntgenographische Untersuchungen. Die einzelnen Kapitel schließen mit zahlreichen Übungsaufgaben, deren Lösungen angegeben sind.
Kristallographie: Eine Einführung für Naturwissenschaftler
by Heidrun Sowa Walter Borchardt-OttDieses eingeführte Lehrbuch basiert auf Vorlesungen an der Westfälischen Wilhelms- Universität Münster, an der TU Berlin und an der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Der Schwerpunkt des Buches liegt bei der geometrischen Kristallographie. Vom Raumgitter ausgehend werden Symmetrieoperationen, Bravais-Gitter, Raum- und Punktgruppen abgehandelt. Die Betrachtung der Raumgruppen ist in dieser 8. Auflage um eine kurze Einführung in die Beziehungen zwischen Symmetriegruppen und deren Anwendung erweitert worden. Es folgen Kapitel über Kristallchemie und röntgenographische Untersuchungen. Die einzelnen Kapitel schließen mit zahlreichen Übungsaufgaben, deren Lösungen angegeben sind.
The Kruger Experience: Ecology And Management Of Savanna Heterogeneity
by Brian Walker Anthony R.E. Sinclair Kevin H. Rogers Johan T. du Toit Harry C. BiggsThe Kruger Experience is an invaluable new resource for scientists and managers involved with large, conserved ecosystems as well as for conservation practitioners and others with interests in adaptive management, the societal context of conservation, links between research and management in parks, and parks/academic partnerships.
Kulturlandschaft - Äcker, Wiesen, Wälder und ihre Produkte: Ein Lesebuch für Städter
by Ulrich HampickeDieses Buch gibt einen detaillierten Überblick über die Kulturlandschaften Mitteleuropas einschließlich des Waldes und wie diese durch den Menschen und seine Wirtschaft entstanden und geprägt wurden. Der Leser erfährt, wie die moderne Produktion in der Landwirtschaft aussieht und welche Probleme durch diese Produktion und unseren Konsum entstehen. In diesem Zusammenhang wird auf die Agrarpolitik und den Außenhandel eingegangen. Neben ökonomisch-politischen Themen erklärt der Autor auch die biologischen Zusammenhänge und Auswirkungen unserer Landwirtschaft. So geht er neben anderen Themen besonders auf dem Verlust der Biodiversität und die Desorganisation der Stoffkreisläufe in der Agrarlandschaft ein. Im zweiten Teil des Buches werden Lösungen zu den Problemen und Perspektiven aufgezeigt. Dabei werden zuerst die Ansätze auf politischer Ebene beleuchtet und danach auf Initiativen auf anderen Ebenen eingegangen. Dieses Buch wendet sich an alle, die sich über die moderne Landwirtschaft informieren und die Hintergründe aktueller Debatten verstehen möchten.
KULUNDA: South Siberian Agro-steppe as Pioneering Region for Sustainable Land Use (Innovations in Landscape Research)
by Manfred Frühauf Georg Guggenberger Tobias Meinel Insa Theesfeld Sebastian LentzThis book focuses on a representative example and one of the world’s largest steppe conversions, and provides a detailed overview of the results of the BMBF-funded research project KULUNDA. As part of the Siberian virgin land policy, the Kulunda steppe was transformed into agricultural land from 1954 to 1965. In the course of the project, a multidisciplinary research team conducted a natural, social-economic and agro-scientific cause-and-effect analysis of (agro-)ecosystem destabilisation, as well as various field trials covering tillage and crop rotation options in their socio-economic context. The ecologically and economically sound findings offer strategies for combining climate smart land utilization, ecosystem restoration and sustainable regional development, and can readily be applied to other virgin land conversion efforts. In addition, the findings on the Eurasian steppes will expand the current conversion literature, which mainly consists of the ‘Dust Bowl’ literature of the North American plains. Given its scope, the book will appeal to scientists, professionals, and students in the environmental, geo- and climate sciences.
Kuroshio Current: Physical, Biogeochemical, and Ecosystem Dynamics (Geophysical Monograph Series #242)
by Takeyoshi Nagai Hiroaki Saito Koji Suzuki Motomitsu TakahashiAn interdisciplinary study of the Kuroshio nutrient stream The surface water of the Kuroshio, a western boundary current in the North Pacific Ocean, is nutrient-depleted and has relatively low primary productivity, yet abundant fish populations are supported in the region. This is called the “Kuroshio Paradox”. Kuroshio Current: Physical, Biogeochemical and Ecosystem Dynamics presents research from a multidisciplinary team that conducted observational and modeling studies to investigate this contradiction. This timely and important contribution to the ocean sciences literature provides a comprehensive analysis of the Kuroshio. Volume highlights include: New insights into the role of the Kuroshio as a nutrient stream The first interdisciplinary examination of the Kuroshio Paradox Reflections on the influence of the Kuroshio on Japanese culture Research results on both the lower and higher trophic levels in the Kuroshio ecosystem Comparisons of nutrient dynamics in the Kuroshio and Gulf Stream Predictions of ecosystem responses to future climate variability
Kuwait Soil Taxonomy
by Shabbir A. Shahid Samira A. OmarThis book provides guidelines to key soil taxa in the deserts of Kuwait and guidance to associated procedures for laboratory analyses of soils, leading to land use planning on informed decisions. Soils are essential to provide food, feed, and fiber in addition to multiple ecosystem services that sustain life on earth. To achieve the above services sustainably, it is essential to use soils rationally based on their potential for specific uses. This requires establishing national soil classification systems to assess soils locally and to provide guidance to other countries where similar soils may be occurring. Once soil classification is established, it becomes easier to adopt technologies established on similar soils and environmental conditions without conducting long-term and expensive experimental trial. The taxa are established based on soil’s morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical properties and climatic factors. It offers opportunities to maintain future soil surveys and their correlation to the soils of Kuwait. The book is useful in other arid region countries where similar soil and environmental conditions are existing, such as Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. The book also has international relevance, as it was prepared by extracting definitions from USDA-NRCS keys to soil taxonomy, and sections related to soils of Kuwait are added in the book. The book is a unique and excellent addition to the international soil literature.
The Kyoto Protocol in the EU
by Leonardo MassaiThe participation of the European Community and the Member States in the international climate change regimes is a complex issue. In the case of the Kyoto Protocol, this is rendered more complicated by the fact that, for the purposes of Article 4 of the Kyoto Protocol, the membership of the European Community and Member States is frozen at a particular point in time. The result of this is that, under international law, the European Community and a part of the Member States (EU15) have agreed to jointly fulfil some of those obligations, whereas under community law all Member States share a certain degree of responsibility to meet the obligations created by the Kyoto Protocol. This book analyses in great detail the Kyoto Protocol and the obligations established, such as monitoring and reporting obligations, eligibility criteria and reduction commitments.
La Faim et la Sante: Collection: La Faim dans le Monde (2007)
by World Food ProgrammeFirst published in 2008, La Faim et la Sant is a valuable contribution to the field of Environment and Sustainability.
La Garrotxa Volcanic Field of Northeast Spain
by Joan Martí Llorenç PlanagumàThis informative book takes readers on an enjoyable journey through the La Garrotxa volcanoes. In addition to a general description of the main geological and volcano logical values of the region, it also provides a detailed account of the history of the region, its biological diversity, and its cultural heritage including architecture, folklore and gastronomy. La Garrotxa Volcanic Zone was declared a Natural Park in 1982 to protect the numerous sites of special interest that are found in this region. The Natural Park has been pioneering in many initiatives aimed at preserving the landscape and natural values and promoting awareness of the area within the community. An important part of this book is dedicated to the insights into the educational programs and outreach developed to disseminate the main values of this region. It shows how sustainable tourism has been implemented and the management plan that has been designed to preserve such important natural and cultural values. Including local experts’ views on the topics covered, this book will appeal to a general audience interested not only in visiting the area but also in gaining insights into an example of geoheritage and geoconservation that has successfully integrated of education, tourism, planning and environmental management.
La Niña and the Making of Climate Optimism: Remembering Rain
by Julia MillerThis book examines the deep connection Australians have with their climate to understand contemporary views on human-induced climate change. It is the first study of the Australian relationship with La Niña and it explains how fundamental this relationship is to the climate change debate both locally and globally. While unease with the Australian environment was a hallmark of early settler relations with a new continent, this book argues that the climate itself quickly became a source of hope and linked to progress. Once observed, weather patterns coalesced into recognizable cycles of wet and dry years and Australians adopted a belief in the certainty of good seasons. It was this optimistic response to climate linked to La Niña that laid the groundwork for this relationship with the Australian environment. This book will appeal to scholars and students of the environmental humanities, history and science as well as anyone concerned about climate change.
La Popa Basin, Nuevo León and Coahuila, Mexico: Halokinetic Sequences and Diapiric Structural Kinematics in the Field (Springer Geology)
by Timothy Lawton Katherine Giles Mark RowanThis book describes the two excursions accessed from the Monterrey International Airport on the north side of Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. Excellent exposures of salt diapirs and flanking strata in La Popa basin, northeastern Mexico, contain world-class examples of salt–sediment interaction that provided the basis for the concept of halokinetic sequences. The basin also contains one of the first secondary salt welds described in outcrop. Two one-day excursions described here provide an easily accessible overview of salt–sediment relations within a short distance of Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. Excursion 1 constitutes an introduction to basin stratigraphy, an introduction to halokinetic sequences at El Papalote diapir, and a visit to a salt-cored detachment fold near Hidalgo, Nuevo León. Excursion 2 is a visit to La Popa salt weld, where stops at several parts of the weld permit comparison of different structural styles developed along the weld. Each excursion begins and ends at the Marriott Courtyard Aeropuerto Hotel, near the Monterrey airport.
La Purisíma Concepción: The Enduring History of a California Mission (Brief History)
by Michael R. HardwickIn two centuries, La Purísima Concepción went from a fledgling frontier mission to a renowned California State Historic Park. Once home to many Spanish soldiers, settlers and hundreds of Chumash Indians, La Purísima held the seat of the California Mission government under Father Mariano Payeras. It withstood catastrophic events, including widespread disease in early years and a great Southern California earthquake in 1812. Emerging from ruins for the last time in 1934, after restoration by the Civilian Conservation Corps, structures appear today as they did in the early nineteenth century. The uniquely restored California Mission complex operates as a state park in a pastoral setting. Author and archivist Michael R. Hardwick chronicles the story of La Purísima and the resilient people and culture that made a lasting influence.
La vida secreta del hielo (The Magic and Mystery of the Natural World)
by Jason BittelAdéntrate en 'La vida secreta del hielo' y embarca en un viaje increíble por los polos de la tierra.Osos polares, pingüinos y hielo se deslizan por las páginas de este colorido libro, que combina hermosas ilustraciones y fotos para ayudar a los niños más entusiastas a aprenderlo todo sobre el Ártico y la Antártida. Desde ríos helados hasta volcanes antárticos, descubrirán la increíble vida secreta de las regiones polares de la Tierra. También descubrirán cómo pueden ayudar a cuidar el Ártico y la Antártida.'La vida secreta del hielo' lleva a los niños por un deslumbrante viaje bajo cero, mostrándoles cuán increíbles son los polos de la tierra, qué plantas y animales viven cerca de ellos y cómo podemos ayudarlos. Incluye una multitud de vida polar, además de datos sorprendentes sobre cómo se forman los icebergs, cómo los animales sobreviven en el frío helado y cómo los científicos estudian la Antártida.Enter the world of the Arctic and Antarctic for an incredible journey around Earth&’s icy poles.Polar bears, penguins, and ice glide across the pages of this colorful book, which combines gorgeous illustrations and photos to help young enthusiasts learn all about the Arctic and Antarctic. From icy rivers to Antarctic volcanoes, they&’ll discover the incredible secret life of Earth&’s polar regions. They&’ll also find out how they can help take care of the Arctic and Antarctic themselves.'La vida secreta del hielo' takes children on a fascinating sub-zero journey, showing them just how amazing Earth&’s poles are, which plants and animals live near them, and how we can help them. It includes a multitude of polar life, plus amazing facts on how icebergs are formed, how animals survive in the freezing cold, and how scientists study the Antarctic.
A Lab for All Seasons: The Laboratory Revolution in Modern Botany and the Rise of Physiological Plant Ecology
by Sharon E. KingslandThe first book to chronicle how innovation in laboratory designs for botanical research energized the emergence of physiological plant ecology as a vibrant subdiscipline Laboratory innovation since the mid-twentieth century has powered advances in the study of plant adaptation, evolution, and ecosystem function. The phytotron, an integrated complex of controlled-environment greenhouse and laboratory spaces, invented by Frits W. Went in the 1950s, set off a worldwide laboratory movement and transformed the plant sciences. Sharon Kingsland explores this revolution through a comparative study of work in the United States, France, Australia, Israel, the USSR, and Hungary. These advances in botanical research energized physiological plant ecology. Case studies explore the development of phytotron spinoffs such as mobile laboratories, rhizotrons, and ecotrons. Scientific problems include the significance of plant emissions of volatile organic compounds, symbiosis between plants and soil fungi, and the discovery of new pathways for photosynthesis as an adaptation to hot, dry climates. The advancement of knowledge through synthesis is a running theme: linking disciplines, combining laboratory and field research, and moving across ecological scales from leaf to ecosystem. The book also charts the history of modern scientific responses to the emerging crisis of food insecurity in the era of global warming.
Labor Markets and Multinational Enterprises in Puerto Rico
by Ahmad H. Juma'H Doris Morales-Rodriguez Antonio Lloréns-RiveraThis book expresses the reasons to embark on a production management system and begin a journey to a better social and economic life in Puerto Rico. Among the population of Puerto Rico there is a simultaneous presence of a high rate of unemployment and a well-educated workforce. How has this happened? How could the country overcome this economic situation and return to a path of sustainable economic growth in the short and long term? The study here presented introduces an objective and scientific input on these economic issues that are impacting the Puerto Rican society. Achieve greater economic and social welfare in a geographic area is based on increasing individual productivity that workers and employees can unfold in different workplaces, business and industries. The increase in productivity of the economy of Puerto Rico requires both individual effort and enterprise work.
Laboratory Earth: The Planetary Gamble We Can't Afford To Lose
by Stephen H. SchneiderLaboratory Earth taps the relevant knowledge from physical, biological, and social sciences needed to study the planet holistically. This so-called Earth Systems Science fosters a new way to understand the Earth and our roles as inhabitants, with the purpose of building solutions to the bewildering global environment and overdevelopment. Educational, business, health, and governmental organizations often dissect the world into narrow but highly specialized disciplines--economics, ecology, cardiology, meteorology, glaciology, or political science, to name a few. But real world problems, like urban sprawl, public health, poverty, toxic waste, economic development, the ozone hole, or global warming, do not fit neatly into disciplinary boxes. However, author Stephen Schneider asserts that these contemporary issues must be viewed as systems of interconnected subelements. This is especially true for global environmental problems, since they arise from increasing numbers of people demanding higher standards of living and willing to use the cheapest available technologies to pursue these growth-oriented goals, even if the unintended byproducts include land degradation, toxic pollutants, species extinctions, or global climate change. To first understand and then solve such problems, we must learn to view the Earth and our socioeconomic engine as one integrated system. Schneider, who in the 1970s predicted global warming would become "demonstrable” by the turn of the century, chooses that debate to illustrate how this twenty-first century Earth Systems Science approach works, introducing us to the sharp controversies and highly visible debates among climatologists, ecologists, economists, industrialists, and political interests over the seriousness and solutions to the climate change crisis. He begins with a fascinating journey to the beginning of geologic time on Earth and traces from there the coevolution of climate and life over the next four billion years. Along the way we learn about the Gaia Hypothesis, the demise of the dinosaurs, and the likelihood of an impending ice age. Schneider traces our climatic history not only from the beginning and up to the twentieth century, but deep into the twenty-first as well. He depicts the next one hundred years as a potentially perilous period for climate and life--unless we citizens of Earth recognize and then work to control the unintended global scale experiment we are foisting on ourselves and all other life on "Laboratory Earth. ” This "lab” is not built of glass, wires, and tubes, but of insects, soils, air, oceans, birds, trees, and people. While no honest scientist can claim to have clairvoyant vision into the twenty-first century, Schneider optimistically demonstrates that enough is already known to command our attention and to insure that the juggernaut of human impacts on Earth doesn’t turn into a gamble we can’t afford to lose.
Laboratory Earth (SCIENCE MASTERS)
by Stephen H SchneiderAn extremely readable account on the scientific essentials of the global warming debateThe possibility of global climatic change as a result of increasing numbers of people requiring higher stands of living has spawned an international controversy over the appropriateness of controls on deforestation and energy use. In order to address the political debate it is essential to understand the scientific background that underlies this problem. Laboratory Earth takes the reader on a journey from the dawn of earth's climate and biological evolution through the era of the dinosaurs, past the Ice Age and into the shadowy environmental future increasingly dominated by human activities. In the final analysis it will be human values more than scientific methods that must be applied to decide how to gamble with the fate of the earth.