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Radiation and Radioactivity on Earth and Beyond
by Ivan G. Draganic Jean-Pierre AdloffThis book features information regarding the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the production of elementary particles, radiation exposure, the geopolitical effects of the end of the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, and the future of nuclear power.
Radiation Hazards to Crews of Interplanetary Missions: Biological Issues and Research Strategies
by Task Group on the Biological Effects of Space RadiationInformation on Radiation Hazards to Crews of Interplanetary Missions
Radiative Forcing Of Climate Change: Expanding The Concept And Addressing Uncertainties
by National Research Council of the National AcademiesChanges in climate are driven by natural and human-induced perturbations of the Earth’s energy balance. These climate drivers or "forcings" include variations in greenhouse gases, aerosols, land use, and the amount of energy Earth receives from the Sun. Although climate throughout Earth’s history has varied from "snowball" conditions with global ice cover to "hothouse" conditions when glaciers all but disappeared, the climate over the past 10,000 years has been remarkably stable and favorable to human civilization. Increasing evidence points to a large human impact on global climate over the past century. The report reviews current knowledge of climate forcings and recommends critical research needed to improve understanding. Whereas emphasis to date has been on how these climate forcings affect global mean temperature, the report finds that regional variation and climate impacts other than temperature deserve increased attention.
Radiative Transfer: An Introduction to Exact and Asymptotic Methods
by Hélène FrischThis book discusses analytic and asymptotic methods relevant to radiative transfer in dilute media, such as stellar and planetary atmospheres. Several methods, providing exact expressions for the radiation field in a semi-infinite atmosphere, are described in detail and applied to unpolarized and polarized continuous spectra and spectral lines. Among these methods, the Wiener–Hopf method, introduced in 1931 for a stellar atmospheric problem, is used today in fields such as solid mechanics, diffraction theory, or mathematical finance. Asymptotic analyses are carried out on unpolarized and polarized radiative transfer equations and on a discrete time random walk. Applicable when photons undergo a large number of scatterings, they provide criteria to distinguish between large-scale diffusive and non-diffusive behaviors, typical scales of variation of the radiation field, such as the thermalization length, and specific descriptions for regions close and far from boundaries. Its well organized synthetic view of exact and asymptotic methods of radiative transfer makes this book a valuable resource for both graduate students and professional scientists in astrophysics and beyond.
Radiative Transfer In The Atmosphere And Ocean
by Jakob J. Stamnes Knut Stamnes Gary E. ThomasThis new and completely updated edition gives a detailed description of radiative transfer processes at a level accessible to advanced students. The volume gives the reader a basic understanding of global warming and enhanced levels of harmful ultraviolet radiation caused by ozone depletion. It teaches the basic physics of absorption, scattering and emission processes in turbid media, such as the atmosphere and ocean, using simple semi-classical models. The radiative transfer equation, including multiple scattering, is formulated and solved for several prototype problems, using both simple approximate and accurate numerical methods. In addition, the reader has access to a powerful, state-of-the-art computational code for simulating radiative transfer processes in coupled atmosphere-water systems including snow and ice. This computational code can be regarded as a powerful educational aid, but also as a research tool that can be applied to solve a variety of research problems in environmental sciences. Teaches solutions for radiative transfer problems across a broad range of disciplines with a self-contained, systematic treatment. Offers a unique emphasis on formulation, judicial approximations and numerical solutions. Provides a unified treatment of radiative transfer in coupled atmosphere-water systems, filling the gap between descriptive texts and practical approaches.
Radiative Transfer in Coupled Environmental Systems
by Jakob J. Stamnes Knut StamnesThis textbook is the first to focus on teaching readers how to formulate and solve forward and inverse problems related to coupled media, and provides examples of how to solve concrete problems in environmental remote sensing of coupled atmosphere-surface systems. To this end, the authors discuss radiative transfer in coupled media, such as the atmosphere-ocean system with Lambertian as well non-Lambertian reflecting surfaces at the lower boundary. The spectral range from the ultraviolet to the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum is considered, as are multi-spectral as well as hyperspectral remote sensing, while solutions of the forward problem for unpolarized and polarized radiation are discussed in considerable detail.
Radical Botany: Plants and Speculative Fiction
by Natania Meeker Antónia SzabariRadical Botany excavates a tradition in which plants participate in the effort to imagine new worlds and envision new futures. Modernity, the book claims, is defined by the idea of all life as vegetal. Meeker and Szabari argue that the recognition of plants’ liveliness and animation, as a result of scientific discoveries from the seventeenth century to today, has mobilized speculative creation in fiction, cinema, and art. Plants complement and challenge notions of human life. Radical Botany traces the implications of the speculative mobilization of plants for feminism, queer studies, and posthumanist thought. If, as Michael Foucault has argued, the notion of the human was born at a particular historical moment and is now nearing its end, Radical Botany reveals that this origin and endpoint are deeply informed by vegetality as a form of pre- and posthuman subjectivity. The trajectory of speculative fiction which this book traces offers insights into the human relationship to animate matter and the technological mediations through which we enter into contact with the material world. Plants profoundly shape human experience, from early modern absolutist societies to late capitalism’s manipulations of life and the onset of climate change and attendant mass extinction.A major intervention in critical plant studies, Radical Botany reveals the centuries-long history by which science and the arts have combined to posit plants as the model for all animate life and thereby envision a different future for the cosmos.
Radical Environmentalism: Nature, Identity and More-than-human Agency
by John CianchiEnvironmentalism is a contest about the meaning of nature and the social construction of activism, deviance and harm. The contests that are the subject of this book are fought on the margins, in spaces where what is deviant and what is criminal are fluid concepts. Forest activists engaged in Tasmania's old-growth forests, and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society activists campaigning in the Southern Ocean to protect whales tell powerful and moving stories about their encounters with nature. These are profound experiences that fundamentally alter how they understand themselves and their world. What emerges in this book is a perspective that recognises the personhood of non-humans and which gives rise to a strong moral obligation to defend nature from harm. Providing a unique account of environmentalism, one that highlights the voices of the activists and the nature they defend, Radical Environmentalism: Nature, Identity and More-than-human Agency will be of great interest to students and academics of green criminology, environmental sociology and nature–human studies more broadly.
Radical Joy for Hard Times: Finding Meaning and Making Beauty in Earth's Broken Places
by Susan Griffin Trebbe JohnsonIn a world devastated by human interaction and natural disaster—from clearcutting and fracking to extreme weather and urban sprawl—creating art, ritual, and even joy in wounded places is essential to our collective healing When a beloved place is decimated by physical damage, many may hit the donate button or call their congressperson. But award-winning author Trebbe Johnson argues that we need new methods for coping with these losses and invites readers to reconsider what constitutes “worthwhile action.” She discusses real wounded places ranging from weapons-testing grounds at Eglin Air Force Base, to Appalachian mountain tops destroyed by mining. These stories, along with tools for community engagement—ceremony, vigil, apology, and the creation of art with on-site materials—show us how we can find beauty in these places and discover new sources of meaning and community.
Radical Love: From Separation to Connection with the Earth, Each Other, and Ourselves
by Satish KumarTo see peace in our lifetimes, we have to practice love.This is the radical message of this inspirational book of pithy advice from environmental activist Satish Kumar, which helps us find ways to love ourselves, others, and all beings on planet Earth—even those we may find unlovable.Satish Kumar is well known for his epic walk for world peace in his youth in the 1960s from India to the nuclear capitals of Moscow, Paris, London, and Washington, DC. Wherever he traveled, he found that human beings were capable of a love that could overcome hatred and division. Settling down in the UK, he married his wife, June Mitchell, and founded eco-university Schumacher College in Devon, eventually becoming a leading figure in the UK green movement.Radical Love distills the author's lifetime of experience as a lover, parent, activist, and educator into simple lessons on transforming our time of ecological crisis, conflict, and scarcity into one in which we experience harmony with nature, safety, and abundance. It is an exploration of the transformative power of love in all its forms, from romantic love to love for one's family and community to love for the planet and all beings. Kumar's approach is founded on simplicity (including the Jain principle of aparigraha), generosity, and continuous learning. Like an unfolding metta meditation, the book expands our notions of love to its most sublime universal state and makes a great gift to share with those we love.
Radical Simplicity
by Jim MerkelImagine you are first in line at a potluck buffet. The spread includes not just food and water, but all the materials needed for shelter, clothing, healthcare, and education. How do you know how much to take? How much is enough to leave for your neighbors behind you--not just the six billion people, but the wildlife, and the as-yet-unborn? In the face of looming ecological disaster, many people feel the need to change their own lifestyles as a tangible way of transforming our unsustainable culture. Radical Simplicity is the first book that guides the reader to a personal sustainability goal, then offers a process to monitor progress to a lifestyle that is equitable amongst all people, species, and generations. It employs three tools to help readers begin their customized journey to simplicity: >It builds on steps from Your Money or Your Life so readers can design their own personal economics to save money, get free of debt, and align their work with their values.It uses refined tools from Our Ecological Footprint so readers can measure how much nature is needed to supply all they consume and absorb their waste.Combining lyrical narrative, compassionate advocacy, and absorbing science, Radical Simplicity is a practical, personal answer to twenty-first century challenges that will appeal as much to Cultural Creatives and students as to spiritual seekers, policy makers, and sustainability professionals.
Radical Transformation: Oligarchy, Collapse, and the Crisis of Civilization
by Kevin MacKayRadical Transformation is a story about industrial civilization’s impending collapse, and about the possibilities of averting this fate. Human communities first emerged as egalitarian, democratic groups that existed in symbiotic relationship with their environments. Increasing complexity led to the emergence of oligarchy, in which societies became captive to the logic of domination, exploitation, and ecological destruction. The challenge facing us today is to build a movement that will radically transform civilization and once more align our evolutionary trajectory in the direction of democracy, equality, and ecological sustainability.
Radioactive Ghosts (Posthumanities #61)
by Gabriele SchwabA pioneering examination of nuclear trauma, the continuing and new nuclear peril, and the subjectivities they generate Amid resurgent calls for widespread nuclear energy and &“limited nuclear war,&” the populations that must live with the consequences of these decisions are increasingly insecure. The nuclear peril combined with the looming threat of climate change means that we are seeing the formation of a new kind of subjectivity: humans who are in a position of perpetual ontological insecurity. In Radioactive Ghosts, Gabriele Schwab articulates a vision of these &“nuclear subjectivities&” that we all live with. Focusing on the legacies of the Manhattan Project, Hiroshima, and nuclear energy politics, Radioactive Ghosts takes us on a tour of the little-seen sides of our nuclear world. Examining devastating uranium mining on Native lands, nuclear sacrifice zones, the catastrophic accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima, and the formation of a new transspecies ethics, Schwab shows how individuals threatened with extinction are creating new adaptations, defenses, and communal spaces. Ranging from personal accounts of experiences with radiation to in-depth readings of literature, film, art, and scholarly works, Schwab gives us a complex, idiosyncratic, and personal analysis of one of the most overlooked issues of our time.
Radioactive Waste: Politics and Technology (The Natural Environment: Problems and Management)
by Frans BerkhoutRadioactive Waste provides a detailed historical account of the policy and practice of radwaste management in Britain, Sweden and the Federal Republic of Germany. In their differing approaches, these three countries define the parameters of civil nuclear strategy in Europe. The comparative analysis of the evolution of policy clarifies the context of political and technical decision-making. Assessing the varying degrees of influence which the public, the industry and the government exercise over these actions, Frans Berkhout applies the concept of boundaries of control', questioning the extent to which such control can be relinquished. This analysis of nuclear strategy, the politics of nuclear power and the shifting emphasis of government regulation redefines the issue of radwaste management and sets it at the centre of the current debate about power, the environment and society.
Radioactive Waste from Nuclear Power Plants
by Thomas B. Johansson Peter SteenThis title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1981.
Radioactivity Transfer in Environment and Food
by Fokion K. VosniakosThe book deals with various consequences of major nuclear accidents, such as in 1986 in Chernobyl and in 2011 in Fukushima. The public is extremely interested in learning more about the movements and risks posed by radiation in the environment related to food supply and food safety. Radionuclides are found in air, water, soil and even in us not only after nuclear accidents because they occur also in nature. Every day, we ingest and inhale radionuclides in our air and food and the water. This book provides a solid underpinning of the basic physical-chemistry and biogeochemistry of naturally occurring and anthrop radioactivity. The mechanisms of radioactive element transfer in the atmosphere, tropospheric and stratospheric diffusion of radioactivity, environmental contamination from accidents and the impact of atmospheric pollution on the food chain, soil and plants, are analyzed and the analytical methods are illustrated. The question of natural radioactivity concentration in building materials is addressed too. While the book contains many case studies and data for Greece, it is of general value. It contributes to the development of international environmentally safe standards and economically reasonable standard regulations based on justified radiological, social and economical legislation concepts.
Radiocarbon and Climate Change
by Edward A. G. Schuur Ellen R. M. Druffel Susan E. TrumboreThis book is a useful guide for researchers in ecology and earth science interested in the use of accelerator mass spectrometry technology. The development of research in radiocarbon measurements offers an opportunity to address the human impact on global carbon cycling and climate change. Presenting radiocarbon theory, history, applications, and analytical techniques in one volume builds a broad outline of the field of radiocarbon and its emergent role in defining changes in the global carbon cycle and links to climate change. Each chapter presents both classic and cutting-edge studies from different disciplines involving radiocarbon and carbon cycling. The book also includes a chapter on the history and discovery of radiocarbon, and advances in radiocarbon measurement techniques and radiocarbon theory. Understanding human alteration of the global carbon cycle and the link between atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and climate remains one of the foremost environmental problems at the interface of ecology and earth system science. Many people are familiar with the terms 'global warming' and 'climate change', but fewer are able to articulate the science that support these hypotheses. This book addresses general questions such as: what is the link between the carbon cycle and climate change; what is the current evidence for the fate of carbon dioxide added by human activities to the atmosphere, and what has caused past changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide? How can the radiocarbon and stable isotopes of carbon combined with other tools be used for quantifying the human impact on the global carbon cycle?
Radiogenic Isotope Geochemistry
by Schaefer Bruce F.Isotopes provide important information on many geological processes, with key relevance to the mining and petroleum industries, yet the techniques to obtain, process and interpret the data can be complex to master. This accessible book provides broad coverage of radiogenic isotopes in geochronology and geochemistry, explaining the basic principles and state-of-the-art techniques used to study them, with an emphasis on industry applications. The major isotopic systems are fully summarised with relation to real-world applications, enabling readers to decide which technique is most relevant for the problem they want to solve, and then to rigorously evaluate existing data, or recalculate and reassess datasets to avoid duplication of effort. A comprehensive glossary clarifies the numerous acronyms used in the field. Written at a level appropriate for advanced undergraduate students, the book also includes detail which allows more experienced practitioners to maximise the potential value of isotopic datasets.
Radiogenic Isotope Geology (3rd Edition)
by Alan P. DickinModern isotope geochemistry is a rapidly expanding field that has a part to play in a broad range of earth and planetary sciences - from extra-solar system processes to environmental geoscience. this new edition of a popular textbook is completely updated and places more emphasis on the uses of radiogenic isotopes in environmental earth science. The author reviews the field of radiogenic isotope geology in a concise and visual manner to provide a comprehensive introduction to the subject and its wide variety of applications. For each technique, current ideas are presented in their historical context to allow the reader to understand the development of the theory. The latest ideas and methods, classic papers and case studies all come under scrutiny within this book. An accessible introduction for scientists from other disciplines and an important reference for students and researchers working in isotope geology.
Radon: A Tracer for Geological, Geophysical and Geochemical Studies
by Mark BaskaranThis book reviews all the major research accomplishments and summarizes the different applications of radon. It serves as a solid reference book for researchers who are interested in the U-series radionuclides and noble gases as tracers and chronometers. Radon has been widely utilized as a powerful tracer to quantify a number of processes that include gas exchange rates between air and water, submarine groundwater discharge in coastal waters, water exchange between rivers and lakes, ocean circulation, hydrocarbon and uranium exploration. It is also used as an atmospheric tracer for the identification and quantification of air masses and as a tool for earthquake prediction, etc. A significant portion of the book presents state-of-the knowledge on indoor-radon-related health issues. Applications of the decay-series of Rn-222 are presented in a chapter. It serves as a reference and a state-of-the-art resource for researchers who want to learn the different applications of radon in Earth systems.
Rag and Bone: A Family History of What We've Thrown Away
by Lisa Woollett'Beautiful, like a muddy journey through time . . . a really important book' RAYNOR WINN, author of The Salt Path Lisa Woollett has spent her life combing beaches and mudlarking, collecting curious fragments of the past: from Roman tiles and Tudor thimbles, to Victorian buttons and plastic soldiers. In a series of walks from the Thames, out to the Kentish estuary and eventually to Cornwall, she traces the history of our rubbish and, through it, reveals the surprising story of our changing consumer culture.Timely and beautifully written, Rag and Bone shows what we can learn from what we've thrown away and urges us to think more about what we leave behind.
Rag and Bone: A Family History of What We've Thrown Away
by Lisa Woollett'Beautiful, like a muddy journey through time . . . a really important book' RAYNOR WINN, author of The Salt Path Lisa Woollett has spent her life combing beaches and mudlarking, collecting curious fragments of the past: from Roman tiles and Tudor thimbles, to Victorian buttons and plastic soldiers. In a series of walks from the Thames, out to the Kentish estuary and eventually to Cornwall, she traces the history of our rubbish and, through it, reveals the surprising story of our changing consumer culture.Timely and beautifully written, Rag and Bone shows what we can learn from what we've thrown away and urges us to think more about what we leave behind.
Rag and Bone: A Family History of What We've Thrown Away
by Lisa WoollettFrom relics of Georgian empire-building and slave-trading, through Victorian London's barged-out refuse to 1980s fly-tipping and the pervasiveness of present-day plastics, Rag and Bone traces the story of our rubbish, and, through it, our history of consumption.In a series of beachcombing and mudlarking walks - beginning in the Thames in central London, then out to the Kentish estuary and eventually the sea around Cornwall - Lisa Woollett also tells the story of her family, a number of whom made their living from London's waste, and who made a similar journey downriver from the centre of the city to the sea.A beautifully written but urgent mixture of social history, family memoir and nature writing, Rag and Bone is a book about what we can learn from what we've thrown away - and a call to think more about what we leave behind.(p) 2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Raging Sea: Powerful Account of Worst Tsunami In U.S. History
by Powers Dennis M.TSUNAMI One Night. One Disaster. One American Town Devastated in the Blink of an Eye. On Good Friday, 1964, the town of Crescent City, California was bustling as it prepared for the long Easter weekend. No one there knew that thousands of miles away, an earthquake registering 8. 4 on the Richter scale was tearing through Alaska. And no one knew the quake would set off a series of tidal waves that would stretch across the Pacific and right to their back doors--turning some residents into victims, and others into heroes. . . . Author Dennis M. Powers has written the first book ever devoted to the shocking event that all but destroyed scenic Crescent City--and tested the fortitude of its 3,000 residents. Weaving together historical research with the compelling accounts of survivors, Powers re-creates the events of the fateful night when thirty city blocks were ravaged, 289 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed, and eleven people lost their lives. But The Raging Sea is not just the stunning, well-crafted account of a real-life natural disaster. Chronicling the moment-by-moment efforts of several local heroes, it is the story of the remarkable courage displayed by those who came together before, during, and after the tsunami to save the lives of friends and strangers--often at the risk or even loss of their own. It's the story of how Crescent City rose up from the ashes of disaster to face its new, if uncertain, future--and a testimonial to the iron will and spirit of a community determined to survive. "Reminds us that tragedy often brings out the best in people. " --Willie Drye, author of Storm of the Century "A must-read because nature is capable of a repeat performance. " --Rob Mundle, author of Fatal Storm Dennis M. Powers was a full-time attorney specializing in business law before turning his concentration to writing ten years ago. He is the author of five published nonfiction books, among other publications, and has been researching the story of the Crescent City tidal wave for over ten years. A graduate of the Harvard Business School, he is currently a full professor in the School of Business at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon, where he resides with his wife, Judy, three cats, one dog, and libraries of books.
Railway Transportation in South Asia: Infrastructure Planning, Regional Development and Economic Impacts (Contemporary South Asian Studies)
by Sumana Bandyopadhyay Tomaz Ponce Dentinho Saptarshi Mitra Stabak RoyThis book discusses policy instruments for sustainable infrastructure developments. Railways are one of the most important developmental instruments of a region, province, or country. They play a crucial role in economic development, urban growth, urban mobility, regional susceptibility, market integration, and world trade. Railways are an integral part of regional and urban development, both in terms of freight and passenger transport. By offering case studies from various regions and cities in South Asia, this book examines the evolution of railway transportation and the impact of these infrastructure projects on regional and urban development. It examines the interactions between evolving infrastructures and competing demands and considers the negative and positive externalities of railway transportation for people, places, and locations. The contributions analyze issues such as network infrastructure planning and technological development, passenger mobility and satisfaction, vulnerability to environmental impacts, and cross-border trade.