38 results for "Ecology"
The last great sea: a voyage through the human and natural history of the North Pacific Ocean
Book by Glavin, Terry
Human ecology, human economy
'A brilliant synthesis of ecology and economics that provides a sure guide to a sustainable future. It is a must for all environmentalists and economists.' Charles Birch 'Written by an impressive list of experts across a number of disciplines, this readable text provides not only analysis but vigorous criticism-and answers.' Robyn Williams 'This book is such a useful guide to responsible decision-making that it should be supplied in bulk to senior government officials and managers in the private sector.' Ian Lowe 'This is a fine contribution to ecological economics coming from Australia, and of interest worldwide.' Herman E Daly Human well-being is wholly dependent upon the continued good health of the Earth s ecosystems. Human behaviour as it interacts with the biophysical environment is enormously complex, as governments (and individuals) who must make decisions about resource use are becoming increasingly aware. Human Ecology, Human Economy provides the basic concepts and tools for understanding how to analyse that interaction. The book is designed to be used as a text for undergraduate and graduate students in environmental studies, human and social ecology, ecological economics, futures studies, and science and technology studies. It is also intended for interested members of the public and for policy-makers working on environmental issues, especially where these intersect with economic policy. Human Ecology, Human Economy not only covers the basic concepts, but also moves to some of the frontiers of thinking in several case studies. It uses a problem and solution oriented approach which crosses disciplinary boundaries, drawing together elements from biology, economics, philosophy and political science. Professor Mark Diesendorf is Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney and Vice President of the Sustainable Energy Industries Council of Australia. Among the books he has edited are The Magic Bullet and Energy And People. Dr Clive Hamilton is Executive Director of the Australia Institute, Canberra and teaches in the Public Policy Program at the Australian National University. His books include Capitalist Industrialisation In Korea, The Mystic Economist and The Economic Dynamics Of Australian Industry.
All our relations: native struggles for land and life
Discusses how Native American cultures have been affected by the loss of biodiversity throughout history.
The way: an ecological world-view
First published in 1992, The Way is Edward Goldsmith's magnum opus. In it, he proposes that the stability and integrity of humans depend on the preservation of the balance of natural systems surrounding the individual―family, community, society, ecosystem, and the ecosphere itself. Portraying life processes and ecological thinking as holistic, Goldsmith calls for a paradigm shift away from the reductionist approach of modern science. The basic belief in the whole was at the heart of the worldview of primal, earth-oriented societies, as manifested by the Tao of the ancient Chinese, the R'ta of Vedic India, the Asha of the Avestas, and the Sedaq of the tribal Hebrews. The Way was the path taken to maintain the critical order of the cosmos. Echoing the way of traditional cultures, Goldsmith presents an all-embracing, coherent worldview that promotes more harmonious and sustainable practices capable of satisfying real biological, social, ecological, and spiritual needs.
Human ecology; problems and solutions
German, English (translation)
Man and the ecosphere: readings from Scientific American
A blueprint for survival
Spine faded. Orders received by 3pm Sent from the UK that weekday.
Remaking society
Argues that the solution to today's global ecological crisis depends on decentralized democratic communities, ecologically safe technologies, organic agriculture, and humanly scaled industries
Jewishness and the human dimension
"Jewishness and the Human Dimension is a leading scholar's progress report on an effort to bring Jewishness broadly construed into dialogue with a wide range of thought in contemporary criticism, while linking those themes in turn to the question of planetary crisis. Each chapter emerges from and addresses the circumstances of its composition; a talk to New Jersey undergraduates inviting them to contemplate their lifespans vis-a-vis the life history of the species; a meeting to contemplate Jewish memory outside Europe and after 1945; an inaugural address as the author sought to make sense of leaving his home on the Lower East Side and making a new one in Kansas." "Two chapters on research and teaching in Jewish cultural studies as academic practice develop the notion of Jewish studies as a human science and examine how Jewish historiography, once a deeply conservative discipline, has integrated insights from anthropology and literary cultural studies. Boyarin also shares a dialogue with the Jerusalem-based physicist Martin Land on physical and cultural ideas of futurity and redemption. The book ends with a stark challenge to those who work in the contemporary humanities and social sciences: in order to be able to contribute to the possibility of sustained human life on Earth, we need to interrogate rigorously now the status of human differences."--
Living dangerously: the earth, its resources, and the environment
Toward an ecological society
"Bookchin's great virtue is that he constantly relates his theories to society as it is." George Woodcock "Bookchin is capable of penetrating, finely indignant historical analysis. Another stimulating collection." In These Times "A work that gives abundant evidence of its author's position at the centre of debate." Telos
Mastery of non-mastery in the age of meltdown
"For a long time, we humans have excelled in mimicking nature with the goal of exploiting it. Now, with the existential threat of global climate change on the horizon, the ever-provocative Michael Taussig asks what it would take to change ourselves so as to save our world. Acknowledging the possibility of collapse and our all-too-human impotence in the face of accelerating disaster, this book is not solely a reflection on our tragic condition but also a theoretical effort to reckon with those human faculties that have fed our ambition for dominance over nature. At stake is an ultimate undoing of our sense of control--a "mastery of non-mastery." Animated by the urgency of a planet approaching meltdown, Taussig captures our moment, and all its attendant mythologies, with luminescent clarity"--
Trees, earth, and Torah: a Tu b'Shvat anthology
Draws from biblical, rabbinical, medieval, and modern sources that address the significance and historical development of the holiday, offers several examples of a Seder tu B'Shvat, includes mystical writings along with Zionist and eco Jewish piec.
Humanity's evolutionary destiny: a Darwinian perspective
Humans are biological creatures first. Culture is an expression of our brain and neurological function. Intelligence is the key to the flourishing of the human super-species. Humanity has reached the point where two sub-species are now competing within the earthly ecology. These are not defined by any of the existing racial categories, rather, intellectual and cultural behavior. They can be symbolized as Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens sapiens. In evolutionary history, no two sub-species have ever been able to cohabit a limited ecology. The outcome of this inherent selective conflict is written in the history of the human genus Homo, that is, the successive increases in brain size and intelligence and the disappearance of earlier, less corticalized forms of Homo. Civilization will eventually be shaped by the domination of Homo sapiens sapiens.
Conflict in man-made environment
"How the environment causes, or contributes to, psychic and social conflict is frequently discussed. Less often considered is the theme developed in this Pelican by Professor Rapoport--that human conflict intimately affects the 'symbolic' environment, which may be a more powerful determinant of man's condition than pollution, war or urbanization. By 'symbolic' environment is meant the whole non-material body of knowledge, science, art, history, language, beliefs and ideas which human intelligence has amassed. Outlining various theories of aggression, progress, evolution and the struggle for existence, Professor Rapoport examines in detail the systemic philosophies advanced by Hobbes, Hegel, Clausewitz, Marx, Lenin and the modern 'think-tanks'. He concludes--in a book which from the start is concerned with the functioning of systems--that the 'mind' of a system, backed by power, may be disastrously different from the psychology of any of its members. In this context Professor Rapoport detects a gleam of hope in the growing scepticism about all and any concentrations of power"--Back cover.
A letter to Layla: travels to our deep past and near future
How might the origins of our species inform the way we think about our planet? At a point of unparalleled crisis, can human ingenuity save us from ourselves? Much-loved writer Ramona Koval travels the globe in a quest for answers, and encounters the unexpected. She talks to an eminent paleo-archaeologist over a two-million-year-old skull in the Republic of Georgia, meets the next generation of robots in Berlin, attends a festival against death in California and explores an ice-age cave in southern France, speaking with the world's leading authority on cave art. Between these and other adventures she returns to her ever-engaging granddaughter Layla, whose development in infancy spurs Koval to find out what makes us human, what separates us from the other apes. Full of revealing exchanges with scientists and writers whose knowledge of the past and visions for the future could hold the key to our next evolution, A Letter to Layla will surprise and delight in equal measure.--
Lawrence Halprin notebooks, 1959-1971
"People 'think' in different ways, and I find that I think most effectively graphically and also that my thinking is influenced a great deal by my ability to get it down where I can 'look at it' and think about it furtherthe process of thinking with me generates more thinkingthe notebooks, in other words, have been not only a way of 'recording' ideas but also of 'generating' ideas...they are ways of running out what I call series of alternative SCORES." These selections from Halprin's personal and professional notebooks take us as far as it may be possible to go within the imagination of another person, especially one whose highly energized originality is moving in several directions simultaneously. Halprin's creativity, as his notebooks attest, springs from his synthesizing instincts: the joining of elements of landscape and cityscape, melding of individual architectural entities with community living patterns. The whole is enlivened by Halprin's awareness in such matters as group and ecological dynamics, participatory art, the choreography and scoring of human movement. The notebooks reveal an embracing of progressively more inclusive environments over the years: "In the early notebooks there is emphasis on gardens and on landscape...the latter notebooks reflect my increasing interest and commitment to the total environment as an integrating matrix for 'community.'" The reader will find here both an abiding interest in the natural environment and an evolving interest in the man-made environment. There are numerous drawings of mountains, rock formations, and waterfalls in California and elsewhere and an increasing concern with cities and how they can best serve man and nature. Halprin records his reactions to a worldwide array of citiesParis, Venice, Los Angeles, Jerusalemand displays drawings of their grand aspects and sketches of their intimate features. Other entries reflect the inception and growth process of ideas later to be fully realized in book form (Cities; Freeways; New York New York; The RSVP Cycles) or in built form (the Portland fountains). Still others relate to Halprin's recent involvement with community workshops, group sessions and participatory planning. In short, the full range of Halprin's imagination and professional activities is displayed here: "These notebooks have beenfor mea process...a way of exploring ideas and of 'scoring' the future...they are filled with the trying-out-of-things...of alternative score S which have then been either discarded or recycled into actuality or put aside for other times...they are full of letters either sent or not sent, articles published or never submitted for publication, speeches made or only imagined...an assemblage." The material in this book represents about one-twelfth of the original notebooks and was selected by an associate, Jim Burns, on the grounds that someone close to Halprin's work but at one removed from his total personal involvement could best present a cross section equally accenting past interests and current concerns. The notebook is entirely written in Halprin's very legible hand.