833 results for "Environment"

Climate justice: what rich nations owe the world - and the future

Sunstein, Cass R.
The social cost of carbon: The most important number you've never heard of—and what it means. If you’re injuring someone, you should stop—and pay for the damage you’ve caused. Why does this simple proposition, generally accepted, not apply to climate change? In Climate Justice , a bracing challenge to status quo thinking on the ethics of climate change, renowned author and legal scholar Cass Sunstein clearly frames what’s at stake and lays out the moral imperative: When it comes to climate change, everyone must be counted equally, regardless of when they live or where they live—which means that wealthy nations, which have disproportionately benefited from greenhouse gas emissions, are obliged to help future generations and people in poor nations that are particularly vulnerable.
The MIT Press 2025 195 pages

Hark

Sam Lipsyte
An “extremely funny...brilliantly alive” ( The New York Times Book Review ) social satire of the highest order from bestselling author Sam Lipsyte, centered around an unwitting mindfulness guru and the phenomenon he initiates. In an America convulsed by political upheaval, cultural discord, environmental catastrophe, and spiritual confusion, so many of us find ourselves anxious and distracted, searching desperately for peace, salvation, and—perhaps most immediately—just a little damn focus. Enter Hark Morner, a failed stand-up comic turned mindfulness guru whose revolutionary program is set to captivate the masses. But for Fraz and Tovah, a middle-aged couple slogging through a very rough patch, it may take more than the tenets of Hark’s “Mental Archery” to solve the riddles of love, lust, work, and parenthood on the eve of civilizational collapse. And given the sudden power of certain fringe players, including a renegade Ivy League ethicist, a gentle Swedish kidnapper, a social media tycoon with an empire on the skids, and a mysteriously influential (but undeniably slimy) catfish, it just might be too late. But what’s the point of a world, even a blasted-out post-apocalyptic world, if they don’t try with all their might to keep their marriage alive? In this “awfully funny...tartly effective sendup of 21st-century America” ( Star Tribune , Minneapolis) Sam Lipsyte reaches new peaks of daring in a novel that revels in contemporary absurdity and the wild poetry of everyday language while exploring the emotional truths of his characters. “Recommended reading” ( Vanity Fair ), in which “every line feels as thrillingly charged as a live wire” ( O, The Oprah Magazine ), Hark is a smart, incisive look at men, women, and children seeking meaning and dignity in a chaotic, ridiculous, and often dangerous world.
Simon and Schuster 2020-01-21 304 pages

The Oxford handbook of religion and ecology

Roger S. Gottlieb
The last two decades have seen the emergence of a new field of academic study that examines the interaction between religion and ecology. Theologians from every religious tradition have confronted world religions past attitudes towards nature and acknowledged their own faiths complicity in the environmental crisis. Out of this confrontation have been born vital new theologies based in the recovery of marginalized elements of tradition, profound criticisms of the past, and ecologically oriented visions of God, the Sacred, the Earth, and human beings. The proposed handbook will serve as the definitive overview of these exciting new developments. Divided into three main sections, the books essays will reflect the three dominant dimensions of the field. Part one will explore traditional religious concepts of and attitudes towards nature and how these have been changed by the environmental crisis. Part II looks at larger conceptual issues that transcend individual traditions. Part III will examine religious participation in environmental politics.
Oxford University Press 2006-11-09 662 pages

Writings on an ethical life

Singer, Peter
Love him or hate him, you certainly can't ignore him. For the past twenty years, Australian philosopher and professor of bioethics Peter Singer has pushed the hot buttons of our collective conscience. In addition to writing the book that sparked the modern animal rights movement, Singer has challenged our most closely held beliefs on the sanctity of human life, the moral obligation's of citizens of affluent nations toward those living in the poorest countries of the world, and much more, with arguments that intrigue as often and as powerfully as they incite. Writings On An Ethical Life offers a comprehensive collection of Singer's best and most provocative writing, as chosen by Singer himself. Among the controversial subjects addressed are the moral status of animals, environmental account-ablility, abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and the ultimate choice of living an ethical life. This book provides an unsurpassed one-volume view of both the underpinnings and the applications of Singer's governing philosophy.
Ecco Press 2001-09-18 361 pages

If walls could speak: my life in architecture

Safdie, Moshe
"Over more than five decades, legendary architect Moshe Safdie has built some of the world's most influential and memorable structures-from the 1967 modular housing scheme in Montreal known as "Habitat" and the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel, to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas and the Marina Bay Sands development and extraordinary Jewel Changi airport interior garden and waterfall in Singapore. For Safdie, the way a space functions is fundamental; he is deeply committed to architecture as a social force for good, believing that any challenge, including extreme population density and environmental distress, can be addressed with solutions that enhance community and uplift the human spirit. Safdie always refers to the "silent client" an architect must ultimately serve: the people who live, work in, or experience a building. If Walls Could Speak takes readers behind the veil of an essential yet mysterious profession to explain through Safdie's own experiences how an architect thinks and works-"from the spark of imagination through the design process, the model-making, the politics, the engineering, the materials." Relating memorable stories about what has inspired him-from childhoods in Israel and Montreal to the projects and personalities worldwide that have captured his imagination-Safdie reveals the complex interplay that underpins every project and his vision for the role architecture can and should play in society at large. Illustrated throughout with drawings, sketches, photographs, and documents from his firm's voluminous archives that illuminate his stories, If Walls Could Speak ends with a chapter outlining seven projects Safdie would pursue around the world if resources and will were no issue and the choices were his to make. A book like no other, If Walls Could Speak will forever change the way you look at and appreciate any built structure"--
Atlantic Monthly Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic 2022 352 pages

Climate shock: the economic consequences of a hotter planet

Wagner, Gernot,Weitzman, Martin L.
If you had a 10 percent chance of having a fatal car accident, you'd take necessary precautions. If your finances had a 10 percent chance of suffering a severe loss, you'd reevaluate your assets. So if we know the world is warming and there's a 10 percent chance this might eventually lead to a catastrophe beyond anything we could imagine, why aren't we doing more about climate change right now? We insure our lives against an uncertain future--why not our planet? In Climate Shock, Gernot Wagner and Martin Weitzman explore in lively, clear terms the likely repercussions of a hotter planet, drawing on and expanding from work previously unavailable to general audiences. They show that the longer we wait to act, the more likely an extreme event will happen. A city might go underwater. A rogue nation might shoot particles into the Earth's atmosphere, geoengineering cooler temperatures. Zeroing in on the unknown extreme risks that may yet dwarf all else, the authors look at how economic forces that make sensible climate policies difficult to enact, make radical would-be fixes like geoengineering all the more probable. What we know about climate change is alarming enough. What we don't know about the extreme risks could be far more dangerous. Wagner and Weitzman help readers understand that we need to think about climate change in the same way that we think about insurance--as a risk management problem, only here on a global scale. With a new preface addressing recent developments Wagner and Weitzman demonstrate that climate change can and should be dealt with--and what could happen if we don't do so--tackling the defining environmental and public policy issue of our time.
Princeton University Press 2016 250 pages

What world is this? a pandemic phenomenology

Butler, Judith
"Whether we start from the pandemic, climate change, the inequality engendered by capitalism, the violence of racism and sexism, or any of a number of global crises, it is apparent that we are far from any idea of a common world, a world that is a site of belonging. Such a world would require a fundamental transformation of how we understand value--that everyone's life has value beyond market value and that the world is structured to facilitate everyone's flourishing. Such a world requires, too, the upending and reorientation of everyone's epistemic field, one's very sense of the limit and structure of the world, in order to apprehend the worlds of others and to find connection. Judith Butler draws, surprisingly, on Wittgenstein's sense that the world can be revealed as different than it was-precisely what the pandemic brought about. But what kind of world is it? Phenomenologist Max Scheler would say that it is a world that exhibits itself through its very breath as tragic. And how are we to live in this world? Critically, it must be inhabitable, and here is found the limit of personal freedom, which carried to its extreme makes the world unlivable both for others and for oneself. The world must also be tangible. As Merleau-Ponty describes it, touch is a characteristic of the world rather than a power that we have. We are bodies within a field of interrelated bodies--which has ethical and political consequences, moving beyond an ontology of individuals to an ontology of the world around us. We are asked to accept a vision of an interconnected world in which our breath is shared with others. Can we reimagine what we mean by social equality and inequality in the context of bodily interdependency? We have seen how the natural world begins to restore itself during the restrictions implemented during the pandemic; we have also seen the differential health results due to environmental racism. Together, they suggest that we have an obligation to reorder the world on principles of radical equality. Finally, an inhabitable world is a world where everyone desires to live. To want to live in such a world is to take up the struggle against the conditions that make it impossible for so many. "None of us can accept a world in which some people are protected while others are not," as WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus puts it. Intersubjectivity enmeshes us in the power relations of race, gender, class, and sexuality as they are reproduced, naturalized, and contested in bodies within the complementary crises of pandemic, climate, and systemic racism and sexism. Ultimately, what movements like Black Lives Matter and Ni Una Menos stand for is that all lives are worthy of care and all lives are equally grievable"--
Columbia University Press 2022 134 pages

The ages of globalization: geography, technology, and institutions

Sachs, Jeffrey
"Today's most urgent problems are fundamentally global. They require nothing less than concerted, planetwide action if we are to secure a long-term future. But humanity's story has always been on a global scale, and this history deeply informs the present. In this book, Jeffrey D. Sachs, renowned economist and expert on sustainable development, turns to world history to shed light on how we can meet the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century. Sachs takes readers through a series of six distinct waves of technological and ideological change, starting with the very beginnings of our species and ending with reflections on present-day globalization. Along the way, he considers how the interplay of geography, technology, and institutions influenced the Neolithic revolution; the spread of land-based empires; the opening of sea routes from Europe to Asia and the Americas; and the industrial age. The dynamics of these past waves, Sachs contends, give us new perspective on the ongoing processes taking place in our own time-and how we should work to guide the change we need. In light of this new understanding of globalization, Sachs emphasizes the need for new methods of international governance and cooperation to achieve economic, social, and environmental objectives aligned with sustainable development. The Ages of Globalization is a vital book for all readers aiming to make sense of our rapidly changing world"--
Columbia University Press 2020 262 pages

Strong religion: the rise of fundamentalisms around the world

Almond, Gabriel A.
After the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States, religious fundamentalism has dominated public debate as never before. Policymakers, educators, and the general public all want to know: Why do fundamentalist movements turn violent? Are fundamentalisms a global threat to human rights, security, and democratic forms of government? What is the future of fundamentalism? To answer questions like these, Strong Religion draws on the results of the Fundamentalism Project, a decade-long interdisciplinary study of antimodernist, antisecular militant religious movements on five continents and within seven world religious traditions. The authors of this study analyze the various social structures, cultural contexts, and political environments in which fundamentalist movements have emerged around the world, from the Islamic Hamas and Hizbullah to the Catholic and Protestant paramilitaries of Northern Ireland, and from the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition of the United States to the Sikh radicals and Hindu nationalists of India. Offering a vividly detailed portrait of the cultures that nourish such movements, Strong Religion opens a much-needed window onto different modes of fundamentalism and identifies the kind of historical events that can trigger them.
University of Chicago Press 2003-01-15 281 pages

Frank O. Gehry Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Frank O. Gehry
No building was more anticipated than Frank Gehry's stunning new museum in Bilbao, an industrial city in the Basque Country of northern Spain. Philip Johnson, the dean of American architects, declared it "the greatest building of our time," while Sverre Fehn, winner of the 1997 Pritzker Architecture Prize, called the building "fantastic." Gehry's use of nontraditional materials and his sensitivity to the environments of his buildings is legendary; his method of envisioning a building through semiautomatic drawings and handmade models is little known, but provides an immediate entry into his creative process. This book celebrates the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and details its design process, bringing to life one of Gehry's greatest achievements. Coosje van Bruggen, who has collaborated with Gehry on various architectural and art projects, documents the history of the Guggenheim Bilbao from conception through design and construction. With unique access to the architect and his studio, she uncovers scores of fascinating drawings and working photographs, published here for the first time.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 2003 208 pages

The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov

Levertov, Denise
The landmark collected work of one of the greatest poets of the 20th century How splendid and impressive to have a complete, clear, and unobstructed view of Denise Levertov at last. Covering more than six decades and including, chronologically, every poem she ever published, Levertov{u2019}s Collected Poems presents her marvelous, ground breaking work in full. Born in England, Denise Levertov emigrated in 1948 to the United States, where she was acclaimed by Kenneth Rexroth in the New York Times as the most subtly skillful poet of her generation, the most profound, the most modest, the most moving. A staunch antiwar activist and environmentalist, and the winner of the Robert Frost Medal, the Shelley Memorial Award, and the Lannan Prize, Denise Levertov inspired generations of writers
New Directions Publishing 2013-11-29 1063 pages

The next republic: the rise of a new radical majority

Guttenplan, D. D
What will the post-Trump return to democracy in America look like, and what are its historical antecedents? National political correspondent and award-winning author D. D. Guttenplan’s The Next Republic is an extraordinarily intense and wide-ranging exploration of how democracy rises and falls in America. The Next Republic introduces us to some of the organizers and politicians who are helping to bring about change in America, like new labor activist JANE McALEVEY; racial justice campaigner (and mayor of Jackson, Mississippi) CHOKWE ANTAR LUMUMBA; environmental activist (and chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party) JANE KLEEB; Chicago’s first openly gay Latino public official, CARLOS RAMIREZ-ROSA; Justice Democrats communications director WALEED SHAHID; communications director for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2020 campaign CORBIN TRENT; and anti-corruption crusader ZEPHYR TEACHOUT. Guttenplan juxtaposes this new social movement with chapters on key transitions in our nation’s history: the Whiskey Rebellion, the Lincoln Republic, and the Roosevelt Republic. Altogether, Guttenplan deeply fathoms the great American problem that is our democracy, and the prospects for its resurgence. Both unyielding and resoundingly hopeful, The New Republic foresees the post-Trump era as one that may not only restore American values, but also see a radical new transformation of them to match the new challenges we face as a nation.
Seven Stories Press 2019-12-10 232 pages

The new golden rule: community and morality in a democratic society

Etzioni, Amitai
Amitai Etzioni has devoted a lifetime of study to the question of what makes a good society, and his work as the founder of the communitarian movement attests to his influence in moving the public debate away from a preoccupation with rights to a balance between individual rights and social responsibilities. In this landmark new book, he invites us to examine how a communitarian society should operate in practice and what values we must bring to our social interactions if we are to achieve stronger and more enduring community ties. The New Golden Rule takes its title from the familiar adage to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." But when taken to a society-wide level, the Golden Rule's admonition expands, taking the formulation "respect and uphold society's moral order as you would have society respect and uphold your autonomy to live a full life." The problem facing society today is that many of us are wary of morality and order while others are suspicious of liberty - which in their mind is equated with permissiveness. In an analysis that powerfully cuts this Gordian knot, Etzioni lays out how we can and must have both order and autonomy if we are to create an environment in which individuals and neighborhoods can thrive. Recognizing that excessive morality and excessive liberty are each a dire threat to the health of a society, Etzioni shows that we have overreacted in recent years by assuming that there must also be a tradeoff between morality and freedom. That need not be the case, he argues, because when order is largely based on moral commitments rather than on the law, and autonomy is regarded as a place in a social space, these two social virtues can reinforce each other. Using this framework, Etzioni studies the implications for the future of community in America and explores the policy implications for governments, community groups, and families
BasicBooks 1996 314 pages

Powerless

Harry Turtledove
In a society where lies are law, a simple act of honesty can become the ultimate rebellion. When does silent compliance with an oppressive regime become unbearable? For Charlie Simpkins, the manager of a small vegetable shop in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, part of the West Coast People's Democratic Republic, the breaking point comes when he is asked to display a meaningless propaganda poster in his shop window. It is a seemingly insignificant act in a lifetime of obedience. But Charlie just can't bring himself to doing it. This minor act of defiance, however, show too much independent thinking on Charlie's part, setting off a chain of escalating consequences for Charlie and his wife and two children. Powerless is a haunting dystopian tale of how even the smallest act of defiance can spiral into disaster in a society that demands total conformity. It serves as a chilling reminder of how easily standing up for one's principles can lead to crushing consequences, erringly echoing the challenges we face today for speaking our truth, even in societies that claim to uphold freedom. While the novel draws original inspiration from Alexander Dubček's 1968 vision of "socialism with a human face" in Czechoslovakia (the reformist movement sought to humanize authoritarian rule), it will resonate with many who fear that individual freedoms are under attack in many parts of the world. In Powerless, Charlie Simpkins' growing disillusionment mirrors the psychological toll experienced by many today as political stress and uncertainty become ever more pervasive. As Charlie seeks out others who share his dissatisfaction, his increasingly deliberate and risky actions symbolize the quiet acts of defiance that offer hope and resistance in a society where the powerful suppress dissent. Powerless serves as a poignant reminder of the consequences that can arise when standing up for one's principles in an environment that demands conformity.​
CAEZIK 2025-07-15 290 pages

The triple helix: gene, organism, and environment

Lewontin, Richard
One of our most brilliant evolutionary biologists, Richard Lewontin has also been a leading critic of those-scientists and non-scientists alike-who would misuse the science to which he has contributed so much. In The Triple Helix , Lewontin the scientist and Lewontin the critic come together to provide a concise, accessible account of what his work has taught him about biology and about its relevance to human affairs. In the process, he exposes some of the common and troubling misconceptions that misdirect and stall our understanding of biology and evolution. The central message of this book is that we will never fully understand living things if we continue to think of genes, organisms, and environments as separate entities, each with its distinct role to play in the history and operation of organic processes. Here Lewontin shows that an organism is a unique consequence of both genes and environment, of both internal and external features. Rejecting the notion that genes determine the organism, which then adapts to the environment, he explains that organisms, influenced in their development by their circumstances, in turn create, modify, and choose the environment in which they live. The Triple Helix is vintage Lewontin: brilliant, eloquent, passionate, and deeply critical. But it is neither a manifesto for a radical new methodology nor a brief for a new theory. It is instead a primer on the complexity of biological processes, a reminder to all of us that living things are never as simple as they may seem.
Harvard University Press 2000 136 pages

Spirit of the wild

Bloom, Steve
Unforgettable images of the natural world by a best-selling photographer that will delight and inform. A snow monkey emerges from a hot spring. A Camargue horse streaks through a marsh in a blur of movement. Brown bears from Alaska wait in a waterfall for sockeye salmon. Scarlet and blue-yellow macaws sweep across the Peruvian sky. Red-crowned cranes gather to feed in snow-covered Japanese marshland. A bright-eyed baby sifaka clings to its mother as she hops along in Madagascar sunlight. A bottlenose dolphin skims over Honduran waters at breathtaking speed... At first fired by curiosity, Steve Bloom's photographic explorations of the natural world were soon imbued with a fierce urgency as the full force of man's destruction of the environment and its creatures was revealed to him. His goal has been to search for the spirit of the world's wildlife, from the tiger's eyes gleaming brightly in the jungles of India to polar bear cubs seeing the world for the first time to the few mountain gorillas left in Africa. The result embodies nature's choreography, an intimate exploration that reveals not only the animals but much that is new about ourselves. Accompanied by his own commentaries, as passionate as they are informed, and thought-provoking quotes from Mahatma Gandhi, Gerald Durrell, Emily Dickinson, and others, Spirit of the Wild brings to the fore the common experiences of all living creatures. 60+ color photographs.
Thames & Hudson 2007-03-27 128 pages

Human sexuality: a psychosocial perspective

Westheimer, Ruth K.
The perfect combination of clinical experience and academic expertise, Westheimer and Lopater’s Human Sexuality goes beyond traditional introductory sexuality resources by delivering all the classic content in a unique psychosocial context. Dr. Ruth’s renowned experience as sex therapist and her appealing, reassuring nature make this an invaluable lifelong reference as well as an engaging textbook. New and revised content reflects important developments in topics such as gender, sexual identity, self-concept, and the psychosocial environment; sexual arousal and responsiveness; fertility and infertility; contraception; and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS. Westheimer and Lopater’s Human Sexuality, Second Edition now includes bonus online faculty support and tutoring services powered by Smarthinking™ . Instructors and students can log on and post questions, which will be answered within 24 hours by an experienced human sexuality educator. Instructors can get advice on topics such as lesson plans, how to present difficult topics, test questions, learning activities and more. Students can get personal tutoring and instruction to help them grasp difficult concepts. Additional free instructor and student ancillaries are available. Visit connection.LWW.com/go/sexuality for more information.
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2005 768 pages