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Ring of Bright Water: A Trilogy
by Gavin MaxwellThis classic memoir of otters in the Scottish Highlands and the naturalist who cared for them is “one of the outstanding wildlife books of all time” (New York Herald Tribune).While touring the Iraqi marshes, Gavin Maxwell was captivated by an otter and became a devoted advocate of and spokesman for the species. Maxwell moved to a remote house in the Scottish Highlands, co-habiting there with three otters and living an idyllic and isolated life—until fate, fame, and fire conspired against him. This volume weaves together the Scottish otter stories from Maxwell’s three non-fiction books, Ring of Bright Water, The Rocks Remain, and Raven Meet Thy Brother—and includes his beautifully expressive illustrations. Ring of Bright Water: A Trilogy stands as a lasting tribute to a man, his work, and his passion for another species.
Riparian Areas: Functions and Strategies for Management
by Committee on Riparian Zone Functioning Strategies For ManagementThe Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that wetlands be protected from degradation because of their important ecological functions including maintenance of high water quality and provision of fish and wildlife habitat. However, this protection generally does not encompass riparian areas--the lands bordering rivers and lakes--even though they often provide the same functions as wetlands. Growing recognition of the similarities in wetland and riparian area functioning and the differences in their legal protection led the NRC in 1999 to undertake a study of riparian "areas, which has culminated in Riparian Areas: Functions and Strategies for Management. The report is intended to heighten awareness of riparian areas commensurate with their ecological and societal values. The primary conclusion is that, because riparian areas perform a disproportionate number of biological and physical functions on a unit area basis, restoration of riparian functions along America's waterbodies should be a national goal.
Ripley’s RBI 02: Dragon's Triangle
by Ripley's Believe It Or Not!The coast of Japan is being terrorized by a mysterious creature. The RBI are sent to investigate sightings of red glowing eyes that peer out of sea mists and an enormous beast that breathes fire and tramples cars. A trip to Japan reveals a bizarre inventor and stories of a slumbering sea dragon. Is their mission linked to the old legend of the "Dragon's Triangle" and its tales of disappearing ships?
Ripple Effects: How We're Loving Our Lakes to Death
by Ted J. RulsehLakes are among the Upper Midwest’s greatest treasures and most valuable natural resources. The Great Lakes define the region, and thousands of smaller lakes offer peace, joy, and recreation to millions. And yet, in large part because of the numbers of people who enjoy the local waterways, the lakes of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota face numerous challenges. Invasive species, pollution, defective septic systems, inadequate shoreland zoning laws, and climate change are present and increasingly existential threats. We are, quite possibly, loving our lakes to death. In his engaging and conversational style, Ted Rulseh details each of these challenges and proposes achievable solutions. He draws on personal experience, interviews, academic research, and government reports to describe the state of the lakes, the stresses they are under, and avenues to successful lakeside living for a sustainable future. Ripple Effects will be a go-to source for all who love lakes and who advocate for their protection; its driving question is summed up by one of Rulseh’s interviewees: “We love this lake. What can we do to keep it healthy?”
Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy
by Michael T. KlareFrom the author of the now-classic Resource Wars, an indispensable account of how the world's diminishing sources of energy are radically changing the international balance of powerRecently, an unprecedented Chinese attempt to acquire the major American energy firm Unocal was blocked by Congress amidst hysterical warnings of a Communist threat. But the political grandstanding missed a larger point: the takeover bid was a harbinger of a new structure of world power, based not on market forces or on arms and armies but on the possession of vital natural resources.Surveying the energy-driven dynamic that is reconfiguring the international landscape, Michael Klare, the preeminent expert on resource geopolitics, forecasts a future of surprising new alliances and explosive danger. World leaders are now facing the stark recognition that all materials vital for the functioning of modern industrial societies (not just oil and natural gas but uranium, coal, copper, and others) are finite and being depleted at an ever-accelerating rate. As a result, governments rather than corporations are increasingly spearheading the pursuit of resources. In a radically altered world— where Russia is transformed from battered Cold War loser to arrogant broker of Eurasian energy, and the United States is forced to compete with the emerging "Chindia" juggernaut—the only route to survival on a shrinking planet, Klare shows, lies through international cooperation.Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet surveys the energy-driven dynamic that is reconfiguring the international landscape, and argues that the only route to survival in our radically altered world lies through international cooperation."Klare's superb book explains, in haunting detail, the trends that will lead us into a series of dangerous traps unless we muster the will to transform the way we use energy." -- Bill McKibben
Rising River Escape (Global Heroes #3)
by Damian HarveyJoin our team of Global Heroes in this fast-paced, science-themed chapter book as they rush to rescue wildlife from the rapidly rising flood waters in Madagascar .Great for readers age 7+ these adventure stories are also full of fascinating facts. In Rising River Escape our heroes face a challenge to locate and rescue any remaining wildlife from a flooded village, while also uncovering an illegal trade in lemurs. They discover the causes and effects of rising sea levels, its impact on countries like Madagascar and what can be done to help prevent and protect from this threat in the future.These illustrated chapter books are perfect for making fascinating science topics accessible to young readers, inspiring a thirst for knowledge and learning by stealth. The team of characters come from around the world to give a truly global outlook.
Rising Tides: Climate Refugees in the Twenty-First Century (Encounters: Explorations in Folklore and Ethnomusicology)
by John R. Wennersten and Denise Robbins&“Deals masterfully with a neglected crisis, how climate change is driving migration . . . The work broaches solutions both practical . . . and political.&”—Christopher E. Goldthwait, former US Ambassador With global climate change upon us, it is imperative to start thinking about the massive numbers of people who will be displaced by environmental crises. The rise in sea levels alone will account for hundreds of millions of refugees around the globe. In Rising Tides, John R. Wennersten and Denise Robbins face the difficult questions that will have to be answered: How will people be relocated and settled? Is it possible to offer environmental refugees temporary or permanent asylum? Will these refugees have any collective rights in the new areas they inhabit? And lastly, who will pay the costs of all the affected countries during the process of resettlement? Offering an essential, continent-by-continent look at these dangers, Rising Tides is &“a passionately argued, well-documented wake-up call on the dire, current and undeniable human fallout from climate change. Looking behind the headlines, it connects the dots in a way that will inform and should alarm us all&” (Eugene L. Meyer, author of Five for Freedom). &“This chilling and urgent call to action spares no detail in its mission to present the facts on a looming humanitarian disaster. Climate-change warning messages too often focus on the environment without going into specifics of how humans will be hurt by global warming. Rising Tides singlehandedly rectifies this issue.&”—Foreword Reviews &“A must read for policymakers and those in positions of power, especially the ones who remain in a state of denial about climate change and refuse to do enough to address the crisis.&”—The Hindu
Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore
by Elizabeth RushHailed as “deeply felt” (New York Times), “a revelation” (Pacific Standard), and “the book on climate change and sea levels that was missing” (Chicago Tribune), Rising is both a highly original work of lyric reportage and a haunting meditation on how to let go of the places we love. <P><P>With every passing day, and every record-breaking hurricane, it grows clearer that climate change is neither imagined nor distant―and that rising seas are transforming the coastline of the United States in irrevocable ways. In Rising, Elizabeth Rush guides readers through some of the places where this change has been most dramatic, from the Gulf Coast to Miami, and from New York City to the Bay Area. For many of the plants, animals, and humans in these places, the options are stark: retreat or perish in place. <P><P>Weaving firsthand testimonials from those facing this choice―a Staten Islander who lost her father during Sandy, the remaining holdouts of a Native American community on a drowning Isle de Jean Charles, a neighborhood in Pensacola settled by escaped slaves hundreds of years ago―with profiles of wildlife biologists, activists, and other members of these vulnerable communities, Rising privileges the voices of those too often kept at the margins.
Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore
by Elizabeth RushA Pulitzer Prize Finalist, this powerful elegy for our disappearing coast “captures nature with precise words that almost amount to poetry” (The New York Times).Hailed as “the book on climate change and sea levels that was missing” (Chicago Tribune), Rising is both a highly original work of lyric reportage and a haunting meditation on how to let go of the places we love.With every record-breaking hurricane, it grows clearer that climate change is neither imagined nor distant—and that rising seas are transforming the coastline of the United States in irrevocable ways. In Rising, Elizabeth Rush guides readers through these dramatic changes, from the Gulf Coast to Miami, and from New York City to the Bay Area. For many of the plants, animals, and humans in these places, the options are stark: retreat or perish.Rush sheds light on the unfolding crises through firsthand testimonials—a Staten Islander who lost her father during Sandy, the remaining holdouts of a Native American community on a drowning Isle de Jean Charles, a neighborhood in Pensacola settled by escaped slaves hundreds of years ago—woven together with profiles of wildlife biologists, activists, and other members of these vulnerable communities.A Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal Best Book Of 2018Winner of the National Outdoor Book AwardA Chicago Tribune Top Ten Book of 2018
Risk Analysis of Natural Hazards
by Colleen Murphy Paolo Gardoni Arden RowellThis volume investigates the interdisciplinary and cross-cutting challenges in the risk analysis of natural hazards. It brings together leading minds in engineering, science, philosophy, law, and the social sciences. Parts I and II of this volume explore risk assessment, first by providing an overview of the interdisciplinary interactions involved in the assessment of natural hazards, and then by exploring the particular impacts of climate change on natural hazard assessment. Part III discusses the theoretical frameworks for the evaluation of natural hazards. Finally, Parts IV and V address the risk management of natural hazards, providing first an overview of the interdisciplinary interactions underlying natural hazard management, and then exploring decision frameworks that can help decision makers integrate and respond to the complex relationships among natural events, the built environment, and human behavior.
Risk And Decisions: About Disposition Of Transuranic And High-level Radioactive Waste
by Committee on Risk-Based Approaches for Disposition of Transuranic High-Level Radioactive WasteThe U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) manages dozens of sites across the nation that focus on research, design, and production of nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors for defense applications. Radioactive wastes at these sites pose a national challenge, and DOE is considering how to most effectively clean them up. Some of the greatest projected risks, cleanup costs, and technical challenges come from processing and disposing transuranic and high-level radioactive waste. This report addresses how DOE should incorporate risk into decisions about whether the nation should use alternatives to deep geologic disposal for some of these wastes. It recommends using an exemption process involving risk assessment for determining how to dispose of problematic wastes. The report outlines criteria for risk assessment and key elements of a risk-informed approach. The report also describes the types of wastes that are candidates for alternative disposition paths, potential alternatives to deep geologic disposal for disposition of low-hazard waste, and whether these alternatives are compatible with current regulations.
Risk Assessment and Indoor Air Quality (Indoor Air Research)
by Elizabeth L. AndersonWith the recent tightening of air quality standards as mandated by the U.S. EPA, has come great pressure on regulatory bodies at all levels of government, along with the industries and groups affected by these standards, to better assess the hazards and risks that result from air pollutants. Risk Assessment and Indoor Air Quality carefully ties tog
Risk Assessment of Storms in Coastal Zones: Case Studies from Cartagena (Colombia) and Cadiz (Spain)
by Nelson Rangel-Buitrago Giorgio AnfusoThis book assists the reader in determining storm risks, focussing on sandy coasts and cliff coasts in the context of expected sea level rise from littoral transformation and climate change. It examines storm impacts through matrixes concerning physical parameters, socio-economic activities, ecological and historic resources, and it presents the Coastline Risk to Storms Index as a single numerical measure of the risk for a given area. The methodology is described and tested against two coastal areas: one in the Caribbean Sea (Cartagena, Colombia) and the other on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean (Cadiz, Spain). Both areas record an important flow of tourists associated with the "sun, sea and sand market" which represents an economic recourse for the hinterland too. Chapters describe this approach and explore three particular types of variables: i) the forcing variables contributing to storm-induced erosion, ii) dynamic variables that determine the resilience to erosion (Susceptibility) and iii) the vulnerable targets grouped in three different contexts (socio-economic, ecological and heritage). These are combined into two separate indices, the Hazard Index (combining forcing and susceptibility) and the Vulnerability Index, which together constitute the Coastline Risk to Storms Index. Maps created using this semi-quantitative approximation method can help to determine the causes, processes and consequences of storm-related processes. This book is therefore important to anyone considering coastal development programs, especially decision-makers: the work presented here can assist in the development of preventative management strategies for the most vulnerable areas.
Risk Conundrums: Solving Unsolvable Problems
by Roger E KaspersonA risk conundrum can be viewed as a risk that poses major issues in assessment, and whose management is not easily engaged. Such perplexing problems can either paralyze or badly delay risk analysis and directions for progression. Rather than simply focusing on the progress in risk analysis that has already been made, it is crucial to consider what has been learnt about these seemingly unmanageable problems and how best to move forward. <P><P> Risk Conundrums seeks to answer this question by bringing together a range of key thinkers in the field to explore key issues such as risk communication, uncertainty, social trust, indicators and metrics, and risk management, drawing upon case study examples including natural disasters, terrorism, and energy transitions. The initial chapters address risk conundrums, their properties, and the challenges they pose. The book then turns to a greater emphasis on systemic and regional risk conundrums. Finally, it considers how risk management can be changed to address these unsolvable conundrums. Alternative pathways are defined and scrutinized and predictions for future developments set out. <P><P> This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of risk governance, environmental policy, and sustainable development.
Risk Criticism: Precautionary Reading in an Age of Environmental Uncertainty
by Molly WallaceRisk Criticism is a study of literary and cultural responses to global environmental risk in an age of unfolding ecological catastrophe. In 2015, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reset its iconic Doomsday Clock to three minutes to midnight, as close to the apocalypse as it has been since 1953. What pushed its hands was not just the threat of nuclear weapons, but also other global environmental risks that the Bulletin judged to have risen to the scale of the nuclear, including climate change and innovations in the life sciences. If we may once have believed that the end of days would come in a blaze of nuclear firestorm, we now suspect that the apocalypse may be much slower, creeping in as chemical toxins, climate change, or nano-technologies run amok. Taking inspiration from the questions raised by the Bulletin's synecdochical "nuclear," Risk Criticism aims to generate a hybrid form of critical practice that brings "nuclear criticism" into conversation with ecocriticism. Through readings of novels, films, theater, poetry, visual art, websites, news reports, and essays, Risk Criticism tracks the diverse ways in which environmental risks are understood and represented today.
Risk Journalism between Transnational Politics and Climate Change (The\palgrave Macmillan Series In International Political Communication Ser.)
by Ingrid Volkmer Kasim SharifThis book introduces a new methodology to assess the way in which journalists today operate within a new sphere of communicative ‘public’ interdependence across global digital communities by focusing on climate change debates. The authors propose a framework of ‘cosmopolitan loops,’ which addresses three major transformations in journalistic practice: the availability of ‘fluid’ webs of data which situate journalistic practice in a transnational arena; the increased involvement of journalists from developing countries in a transnationally interdependent sphere; and the increased awareness of a larger interconnected globalized ‘risk’ dimension of even local issues which shapes a new sphere of news ‘horizons.’ The authors draw on interviews with journalists to demonstrate that the construction of climate change ‘issues’ is increasingly situated in an emerging dimension of journalistic interconnectivity with climate actors across local, global and digital arenas and through physical and digital spaces of flows.
Risk Management for Park, Recreation, and Leisure Services
by Merry Moiseichik Sarah J. YoungRisk Management for Park, Recreation, and Leisure Services provides park, recreation, and leisure services professionals a primer in risk management, tort liability, and negligence that gives them an awareness of legal liability and allows them to take the lead in managing risk within their organizations. It covers topics from the emergency action plan, to the risk management plan, to managing employees through the lens of minimizing risk, to addressing risk at events and in facilities. <p><p>This book provides recreation professionals with the necessary knowledge to build, implement, and manage a risk management plan that first and foremost offers participants a quality experience in a safe environment and, second, protects the professionals and their employees from undue risk.
Risk Management for Water Professionals: Technical, Psychological and Sociological Underpinnings (Routledge Focus on Environment and Sustainability)
by Anna KosovacThis book presents a comprehensive view of the different theories of risk management in water, drawing on recent studies that serve to inform the way that practitioners consider their own risk practice.While it is commonplace to see risk described in technical and engineering terms when discussing water, this book argues that this is a flawed practice that results in poor decision-making, particularly where water intersects with social elements and the community. Challenging these traditionally held notions of risk, this book introduces the psychological and sociological underpinnings to water risk decisions. Using these, it argues for a broader view of risk-based thinking and proposes a number of evidence-based actions for policymakers to directly implement. Drawing on primary research conducted with water professionals across a variety of roles, this book highlights how the effect of psychological inputs, such as dread and reputation, can create barriers to implementing novel water solutions or projects. Through understanding the biases covered in this book, water practitioners can work to support processes that seek to encourage new and innovative methods in water management.This book will be of great interest to professionals working in water management, including those in government roles, planning departments and consultancies. It is also a great reference for students of both water resource management and risk studies more generally.
Risk Management of Non-Renewable Energy Systems
by Srividya Ajit Ajit Kumar Verma Hari Prasad MuruvaThis book describes the basic concepts of risk and reliability with detailed descriptions of the different levels of probabilistic safety assessment of nuclear power plants (both internal and external). The book also maximizes readers insights into time dependent risk analysis through several case studies, whilst risk management with respect to non renewable energy sources is also explained. With several advanced reactors utilizing the concept of passive systems, the reliability estimation of these systems are explained in detail with the book providing a reliability estimation of components through mechanistic model approach. This book is useful for advanced undergraduate and post graduate students in nuclear engineering, aerospace engineering, industrial engineering, reliability and safety engineering, systems engineering and applied probability and statistics. This book is also suitable for one-semester graduate courses on risk management of non renewable energy systems in all conventional engineering branches like civil, mechanical, chemical, electrical and electronics as well as computer science. It will also be a valuable reference for practicing engineers, managers and researchers involved in reliability and safety activities of complex engineering systems.
Risk and Culture: An Essay on the Selection of Technological and Environmental Dangers
by Aaron B. Wildavsky Mary DouglasThis research-based book speaks about risks of lapses on environmental conservation and protection endangering the life and security of Americans and the imperative need to wake up and address the issues.
Risk and Responsibilisation in Public Communication: The Global Challenges of COVID-19 and Climate Change (Earthscan Risk in Society)
by Antoinette Fage-ButlerThis book explores the connections between risk and responsibilisation in official communication to the public about the global risks of the pandemic and climate change. Our media spheres in the 2020s have been saturated with information about what we should or should not be doing to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. Although the ability of risk communication to ‘responsibilise’ the public is central to its functioning in our societies, this aspect has so far been under-investigated in academia. To address this lacuna, Antoinette Fage-Butler develops a discursive approach to risk communication that focuses on the values that are communicated in risk messages. Examples of official risk communication about the pandemic and climate change from national and transnational contexts are analysed and compared, leading to new empirical findings and theoretical insights about the nature of risk and responsibilisation. Fage-Butler also builds on recent stirrings in the evolving field of risk communication that highlight the importance of cultural and value-related factors. Overall, this book will equip researchers with an approach to risk communication that reflects the complexity of today’s global risk challenges. Risk and Responsibilisation in Public Communication will be of great interest to students and scholars of risk communication, public health and environmental studies.
Risk, Disaster, and Vulnerability: An Essay on Humanity and Environmental Catastrophe
by S. Ravi RajanOver the course of the past century, there has been a sustained reflective engagement about environmental risks, disasters, and human vulnerability in our modern industrial world. This inquiry has raised a host of crucial questions. Just how safe is humanity in a world of toxic chemicals and industrial installations that have destructive potential? Is it feasible to prevent large-scale catastrophes like the ones in Bhopal, Chernobyl, and Fukushima and smaller-scale disasters such as oil spills and gas leaks? How do environmental hazards affect social and political orders? S. Ravi Rajan expertly synthesizes decades of public policy and academic discourse on how societies measure and ultimately come to terms with risk, danger, and vulnerability and offers a fresh, humanistic perspective for grappling with the new global scale and interconnectedness of these threats.
Risk-Based Analysis for Environmental Managers
by Kurt A. FrantzenAll corporations must perform evaluations to define the risks to public health and the environment. Your corporation can get the edge by evaluating risk with a process that begins with the "end-in-mind" for the property and that concludes with a cogently communicated argument that addresses the issues. With this in mind, Risk-Based Analysis for Env
Risk-Based Waste Classification in California
by Committee on Risk-Based Criteria for Non-RCRA Hazardous WasteThe National Academies Press (NAP)--publisher for the National Academies--publishes more than 200 books a year offering the most authoritative views, definitive information, and groundbreaking recommendations on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and health. Our books are unique in that they are authored by the nation's leading experts in every scientific field.
Risking the Rapids: How My Wilderness Adventure Healed My Childhood
by Irene O'GardenA memoir of a dysfunctional, grieving family reuniting for a turbulent rafting trip, from an author with a “captivating talent for wonder and marvel.”?Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, LoveAfter the sudden death of Irene O’Garden’s older brother, she and her family decide to seek closure together by taking a journey through the remotest spot in Montana. The story of their harrowing trip on the river is intertwined here with the author’s account of growing up with her six siblings in a clashing Catholic family under the shadow of alcoholism.O’Garden’s father, a local TV personality in Minnesota, leaves his cheery public persona behind when he comes home and starts drinking martinis with his undemonstrative, icy-hearted wife. The children vary in their responses to profound anxiety sown in an atmosphere of neglect, psychological abuse, and rigid religiosity: One brother bites his fingers to gangrene. One relentlessly bullies the author, who begins overeating compulsively. One severs all ties with the family. Meanwhile, in the present, danger mounts as well on the raft trip, when unusual river conditions swell and speed the waters. Both stories build with escalating intensity to excruciating climaxes.Some memoirs shock. Some entertain. Some take us places we’re afraid to go. A rare few move us. Once in a blue moon, a book does it all. This is Risking the Rapids.“Enthralling.” —Malachy McCourt, author of A Monk Swimming“A deep and powerful memoir.” —Martha Beck, author of Finding Your Own North Star“Breathtaking . . . O’Garden adds a thoroughly welcome voice to the rich vein of American literature on the singular healing powers of wilderness.”? Florence Williams, award-winning author of The Nature Fix