[PDF] A World In Transition Humankind And Nature eBook

Author : Diederik Aerts
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 379 pages
File Size : 17,10 MB
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9400708564

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A World in Transition, Humankind and Nature is appropriately entitled after its aim for an intrinsic property of reality: change. Of major concern, in this era of transformation, is the extensive and profound interaction of humankind with nature. The global-scale social and technological project of humankind definitely involves a myriad of changes of the ecosphere. This book develops, from the call for an interdisciplinary synthesis and respect of plurality, acknowledging the evolving scientific truth, to the need for an integrated but inevitably provisional worldview. Contributors from different parts of the world focus on four modes of change: (i) Social change and the individual condition, (ii) Complex evolution and fundamental emergent transformations, (iii) Ecological transformation and responsibility inquiries, (iv) The economic-ecological and socio-technical equilibria. Primarily concerned with the deep transformations of humankind and of the relationship between humans and nature, it is addressed to a broad and thinking public that wants to be kept informed.

Author : Vaclav Smil
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 385 pages
File Size : 16,18 MB
Release : 2021-02-12
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0190060689

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From one of the world's leading experts on the history of energy, a rigorous examination of the transitions that structure our modern world--and the environmental reckoning that will mark its success or failure. What makes the modern world work? The answer to this deceptively simple question lies in four "grand transitions" of civilization--in populations, agriculture, energy, and economics--which have transformed the way we live. Societies that have undergone all four transitions emerge into an era of radically different population dynamics, food surpluses (and waste), abundant energy use, and expanding economic opportunities. Simultaneously, in other parts of the world, hundreds of millions remain largely untouched by these developments. Through erudite storytelling, Vaclav Smil investigates the fascinating and complex interactions of these transitions. He argues that the moral imperative to share modernity's benefits has become more acute with increasing economic inequality, but addressing this imbalance would make it exceedingly difficult to implement the changes necessary for the long-term preservation of the environment. Thus, managing the fifth transition--environmental changes from natural-resource depletion, biodiversity loss, and global warming--will determine the success or eventual failure of the grand transitions that have made the world we live in today.

Author : Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Bundesregierung Globale Umweltveränderungen (Germany)
Publisher : Earthscan
Page : 482 pages
File Size : 50,47 MB
Release : 2001
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781853838026

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* Comprehensive assessment from the leading German environmental scientists of the state of the world's living resources or biosphere * Covers all aspects of the subject: biodiversity and genetic diversity, landscape and ecosystems, its role in the Earth's system and human impacts on it * Reviews global policies and research strategies on the biosphere and advocates urgent policy actions * A major, authoritative contribution to environmental science and policy Biodiversity- the planet's natural capital- is undergoing a dramatic collapse: its " Sixth Extinction". The losses, which are do to human activities and overexploitation of the biosphere, are irreversible. They are undermining the basis of future well-being and prosperity, including genetic resources and food production, climate stability, and coastal and soil protection. The scientists of the German Advisory Council on Global Change have produced an authoritative and alarming analysis of the state of the biosphere. They show that the time remaining for remedial action is fast disappearing and they set out a range of initiatives to be undertaken at different levels. Among their main urgent recommendations are: * protecting 10-20% of the global land area * an Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity to provide scientific advice * conservation of the diversity of cultivated as well as wild plant species * greater multilateral cooperation and implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity The volume makes a highly significant contribution to the scientific and policy debates on these critical issues. It will be essential reading for those engaged with them.

Author : Steven Pinker
Publisher : Penguin Books
Page : 834 pages
File Size : 47,54 MB
Release : 2012-09-25
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 0143122010

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Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think this is the most violent age ever seen. Yet as bestselling author Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true.

Author : Judith D. Schwartz
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 44,60 MB
Release : 2020-08-19
Category : Nature
ISBN : 1603588655

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In a time of uncertainty about our environmental future—an eye-opening global tour of some of the most wounded places on earth, and stories of how a passionate group of eco-restorers is leading the way to their revitalization. Award-winning science journalist Judith D. Schwartz takes us first to China’s Loess Plateau, where a landmark project has successfully restored a blighted region the size of Belgium, lifting millions of people out of poverty. She journeys on to Norway, where a young indigenous reindeer herder challenges the most powerful orthodoxies of conservation—and his own government. And in the Middle East, she follows the visionary work of an ambitious young American as he attempts to re-engineer the desert ecosystem, using plants as his most sophisticated technology. Schwartz explores regenerative solutions across a range of landscapes: deserts, grasslands, tropics, tundra, Mediterranean. She also highlights various human landscapes, the legacy of colonialism and industrial agriculture, and the endurance of indigenous knowledge. The Reindeer Chronicles demonstrates how solutions to seemingly intractable problems can come from the unlikeliest of places, and how the restoration of local water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles can play a dramatic role in stabilizing the global climate. Ultimately, it reveals how much is in our hands if we can find a way to work together and follow nature’s lead.

Author : Jürgen Habermas
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 121 pages
File Size : 22,49 MB
Release : 2014-10-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 074569411X

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Recent developments in biotechnology and genetic research are raising complex ethical questions concerning the legitimate scope and limits of genetic intervention. As we begin to contemplate the possibility of intervening in the human genome to prevent diseases, we cannot help but feel that the human species might soon be able to take its biological evolution in its own hands. ‘Playing God’ is the metaphor commonly used for this self-transformation of the species, which, it seems, might soon be within our grasp. In this important new book, Jürgen Habermas – the most influential philosopher and social thinker in Germany today – takes up the question of genetic engineering and its ethical implications and subjects it to careful philosophical scrutiny. His analysis is guided by the view that genetic manipulation is bound up with the identity and self-understanding of the species. We cannot rule out the possibility that knowledge of one’s own hereditary factors may prove to be restrictive for the choice of an individual’s way of life and may undermine the symmetrical relations between free and equal human beings. In the concluding chapter – which was delivered as a lecture on receiving the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for 2001 – Habermas broadens the discussion to examine the tension between science and religion in the modern world, a tension which exploded, with such tragic violence, on September 11th.