Natur

This book explores the broad trajectory of the Holocene epoch in a region defined as the North Atlantic Polar Triangle (NAPT). The text is multi-disciplinary and synthetic, and focuses on the area extending from the North Pole to the Equator, and covers 60 degrees of longitude, encompassing the entire North Atlantic and significant parts of the land-masses that surround it. It discusses the physical, ecological and cultural history of the NAPT and its bordering regions after the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. It outlines the long-term changing relationships between environmental processes and humans within this single space, providing insight into the broader and more complex interactions happening globally. The author proposes, on the basis of the changes that can be documented in the NAPT, probable trajectories of change in other equally complex but less well-documented, and less geographically constrained Earth systems. It contributes to the ongoing discussion of human transformation of the world, and the current debate about the designation of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. It concludes by supporting the proposition that the Anthropocene is best understood as a boundary event, marking the upper limit of the Holocene, rather than as a new epoch. The intended audience includes physical geographers, anthropologists and readers exploring the synthetic analyses of the crisis humans currently confront as the world enters a period of extraordinary change

Découvrez "Mandalas Fleuris", un univers captivant pour les adultes en quête d'inspiration, détente et émerveillement. Plongez dans 34 illustrations exquises de Mandalas floraux en forme de cercle, mettant en valeur la beauté envoûtante des fleurs.Chaque page de ce livre relié en spirale vous invite à un voyage enchanteur où les Mandalas floraux se déploient avec grâce et finesse. Les motifs délicats des pétales, feuilles et tiges s'entrelacent harmonieusement, créant des compositions visuellement éblouissantes. Chaque illustration capture la richesse et la diversité de la flore, vous transportant dans un jardin imaginaire où la nature s'épanouit sous vos yeux.La reliure en spirale offre une expérience pratique et agréable, permettant une ouverture à plat facile pour vous immerger pleinement dans chaque illustration sans lutter contre les pages qui se referment. C'est un compagnon idéal pour donner vie à vos idées artistiques et vous laisser emporter par le processus créatif fluide.Le choix du papier de haute qualité de 120g/m² ajoute une dimension tactile à votre expérience. Chaque trait de crayon, coup de pinceau ou nuance de couleur se révèle avec précision et intensité remarquables sur ce papier luxueux. Laissez libre cours à votre créativité avec divers médiums, tels que crayons de couleur, feutres ou pastels, et profitez de la douceur et de la résistance du papier pour donner vie à vos Mandalas floraux.

"This gorgeous compendium distills the essence of the beloved bestseller, The Hidden Life of Trees, and is the perfect pocket-sized gift for holding forester Peter Wohlleben's words dear, and sharing them with your loved ones. Discover the operations of the forest ecosystem where themes of communication, resilience, beauty, age, family, society and survival tie into our human world. With rich yet easy-to-understand language and evocative artwork from world-renowned master painters, this treasure of a book highlights the fascinating interconnectedness of our world and celebrates trees in all their glory."--

Focusing on the integration of the Chinese civilization over the last four millennia, this book outlines the history of clashes, interactions, and fusion between the Huaxia civilization and the Grassland civilization, the two major powers shaping the history of China, from multiple perspectives. It particularly emphasizes how the two regional civilizations adapted themselves in response to each other throughout their evolution, and how they eventually combined to reach the pinnacle of a unified shining Chinese civilization. This book is a macroscopic delineation of the Chinese civilization aiming at helping readers better understand the origin of the Chinese identity, the Chinese nation, and its future.

This book addresses the environmental challenges that Libya and similar countries in the regions are currently facing. Each chapter of this book provides a methodology using remote sensing (RS) and geographical information systems (GIS) dealing with one of these environmental challenges such as monitoring and mapping soil salinity and prediction of soil properties, monitoring and mapping of land degradation, spatiotemporal land use/cover, agricultural drought monitoring, hydrological applications such as spatial rainfall distribution, surface runoff, geo-morphometric analysis, flood hazard assessment and mapping, hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, pollution hazard assessment, and climate-related geophysical processes. This book also assesses the impacts of climate change on natural resources using both RS and GIS, as well as other applications, covering different parts of Libya. This book is beneficial for graduate students, researchers, policy planners, and stakeholders in Libya as well as other countries that share similar environmental issues. Also, the methodologies followed in the book's chapters can be applied to any other regions around the world with similar landscapes and climatic conditions.

This book looks more closely at how natural disasters impact bank activity and how banks can support economic recovery after a natural disaster. The importance of banks in this context is underscored by increasing regulatory attention on their role in fostering a sustainable future, but also on the risks that climate change poses to bank stability.Humanity has tried to cope with the short- and long-term economic consequences of natural disasters for centuries. However, the severity of these events is constantly increasing in magnitude, due to the alteration of the earth¿s climate and the environment. They pose a serious threat to the lives of millions of people especially in less developed countries. At the same time, the international community has acknowledged that weather hazards¿ impact and countries¿ resilience to them are affected by various socio-economic factors, such as the well-functioning of financial institutions, especially commercial banks.Banks will inevitably adapt their strategies to address concerns arising from climate change. In doing this, the book discusses partnerships with international cooperation institutions, other financial intermediaries, and local governments, so that the green transition ensures an inclusive growth for all, especially the most vulnerable parts of our societies. This book is of interest to researchers, academics, and students of sustainable finance and climate finance.

The book sketches out how the criminological lens could be used in the climate change debate around possible human extinction. It explores the extent to which the human species can be considered deviant in relation to other species of the contemporary biosphere, as humans seem to be the only species on Earth that does not live in natural balance with their environment (anymore). It discusses several unsettling topics in the public debate on climate change, specifically the taboo of how humans may not survive the ongoing climate change. It includes chapters on the Earth¿s history of mass-extinctions, the global state of denial including toward the possibility that the human species could go extinct, and it considers humans' future as a deviant, fatal species outside of Earth, in outer-space, possibly on other planets. It puts forward and enriches the critical criminological tradition by conceptualizing and setting an unsettling tone within criminology and criminological research on the human species and our extinction, by daring criminologists (and victimologists) to ponder and seek empirical answers to controversial imaginations and questions about our possible extinction.

This book explores the relationship between long-distance hiking¿in this case, hiking the Appalachian Trail¿and spiritual pilgrimage. Kip Redick interprets the Appalachian Trail as a site of spiritual journey and those who hike the wilderness trail as unique contemporary pilgrims.

This collection of essays presents a synthesis of current research on the Oxus Civilization, which rose and developed at the turn of the 3rd to 2nd millennia BC in Central Asia.

This edited volume discusses the socioeconomic, environmental, and policy implications of smart cities. Written by international experts in energy economics and policy, the chapters present wide range of high quality theoretical and empirical studies at the nexus of social, entrepreneurial, governmental and ecological transformation. The book covers a wide range of topics, with a view towards providing empirical evidence of the benefits of smart cities as well as practical frameworks for smart city initiatives. Topics discussed include: smart city transition pillars, innovation for smart and sustainable cities design and implementation, smart city governance, smart mobility within cities, and smart cities in emerging economies. This volume will be of use to students and researchers interested in resource economics, energy economics, sustainability, ICT, and governance, as well as policymakers working on smart city initiatives.This is an open access book.

This edited volume discusses the socioeconomic, environmental, and policy implications of smart cities. Written by international experts in energy economics and policy, the chapters present wide range of high quality theoretical and empirical studies at the nexus of social, entrepreneurial, governmental and ecological transformation. The book covers a wide range of topics, with a view towards providing empirical evidence of the benefits of smart cities as well as practical frameworks for smart city initiatives. Topics discussed include: smart city transition pillars, innovation for smart and sustainable cities design and implementation, smart city governance, smart mobility within cities, and smart cities in emerging economies. This volume will be of use to students and researchers interested in resource economics, energy economics, sustainability, ICT, and governance, as well as policymakers working on smart city initiatives.This is an open access book.

This volume presents innovative approaches for confronting environmental issues and socio-ecological inequality within Outdoor Environmental Education (OEE). Through experimentation with alternative pedagogical possibilities, it explores what OEE can do in response to ecological precarity. Drawing upon posthumanist theory, it focuses on the enactment of more-than-human pedagogies that foster affirmative environmental relationships while challenging problematic cultural perspectives. The 12 chapters explore various topics, including place-responsive pedagogies, environmental stories, new materialist theoretical insights and waste education practices, engaging with complex environmental issues such as species extinction and climate change in the context of OEE. This book provides practical examples and conceptual creativity to extend contemporary theoretical currents. It offers innovative pedagogical strategies and methodological insights for OEE. Researchers, students, and practitioners of OEE interested in applying posthumanist ideas to their work will find this volume most interesting.

This open access book reviews the trends of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in human milk and discusses the main findings of five global surveys that were coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) from 2000 to 2019. Human milk was selected as core matrix for human exposure under the Global Monitoring Plan for effectiveness evaluation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Milk from well-defined groups of mothers was collected and mixed to form a representative sample per country. Datasets collected represent the largest global human tissues survey with a harmonized protocol, carried out in a uniform format for more than two decades. Altogether 69 countries participated in these studies between 2000 and 2015, and more than 40 countries participated in the study from 2016 to 2019.Divided into 5 parts, the book offers an authoritative overview of human milk biomonitoring; collates the harmonized sampling requirements and analytical methods for the identification and quantification of contaminants in human milk; examines the results of the WHO/UNEP-coordinated exposure studies, including the identification of selected chlorinated pesticides, dioxin-like compounds, industrial chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and chlorinated paraffins, polybrominated POPs and PFAS, among others; and traces geographic, temporal and cross-substance trends and correlations, and human health risks. The book finishes by providing the reader with the summary of the main findings and outlook from these studies, in which the comparison of concentrations found for the wide range of POPs listed in the Stockholm Convention allowed the identification of possible needs for actions and follow-ups in different countries/regions.This book contributes to the understanding of exposure to hazardous chemicals and pollution as addressed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals on Good Health and Well-being (SDG 3) and will appeal to environmental and analytical chemists, researchers, professionals, and policymakers interested in learning more about contaminants in human milk. Given its breadth, this book will also appeal to a broader audience interested in maternal and child health.

¿This book focuses on closing the gap between scientific insights on pressing environmental issues that do not often reach the general public, and putting that scientific knowledge in the hands of everyday people who can use these insights to take action against climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. The goal of this work is to share fascinating facts about nature and sustainability to inspire taking action toward a healthier planet, and to provide ideas on how we can take action to solve environmental issues in an informed and easy-to-understand way. The chapters are sourced from the author's work published on medium.com/@ErlijnG with added content not available on medium.com.All chapters are based on open-access research articles covering various environmental issues and solutions that are not often disseminated in popular discourse but are nonetheless important for non-scientific audiences to understand and become familiar with. They allow readers to explore the broad range of concepts and issues and recognize the far-reaching consequences, and trigger the desire to take action. Also, each chapter provides concrete ideas of how we as individuals can take action in daily life to make a positive difference related to the issues described. The book is a multimodal work, as it includes images and videos that accompany the text.

"Crafting a Sustainable Future Through Education and Sustainable Development" serves as a comprehensive study guide, offering critical reflections and constructive critiques. It covers an array of relevant topics, ranging from artificial intelligence and big data to gender equality, game-based learning, and socio-technological innovation. By examining concepts like knowledge management, problem-solving skills, and innovative abilities, the book provides a robust foundation for understanding the intricate connections between education and sustainability"--

A key point in the book is the need to focus more seriously at the energy problem as the real problem behind global warming. The failure of global climate policies to reduce CO2 emissions and halt climate change has led an increasing number of scientist and activists to lose confidence in democracy's ability to handle climate change and led them to look to more authoritarian measures to meet the problem. The book documents these trends, also from a historical perspective, criticize them and sketches more democratic alternatives.

This book shows how Californiäs weather and climate have drastically changed and what we can expect in the near future. Californiäs weather and climate are becoming as common a topic in the media as inflation and wars. It comes into our lives during heat waves when we require more cooling and during droughts when we are asked to limit our use of water. We may not be able to visit state and national parks when fires rage nearby. Indeed, California does have weather. LaDochy and Witiw dispel the erroneous myths about the state¿s climate in a colorful, entertaining way. California does have seasons. It does rain in Southern California. It is not always sunny and mild throughout the year. And not all El Niños bring abundant rainfall every time throughout the state. These and other myths are discussed and dismissed with the latest science and remarkable vignettes. The authors describe the diversity of the state¿s physical environment, both natural and man-made and how climate change is currently altering this diverse environment. Climate change, in the past, present and future, continues to influence this most populous state. Yes, California does have weather.

World Energy Handbook presents an overview of the energy systems of selected countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. It is a complete guide to energy history and generation in these countries, including renewable energy, storage, and use. The authors follow the same analytical approach for each country to construct comprehensive surveys of all aspects of energy systems, examining the advantages and disadvantages of each country¿s energy infrastructures. The handbook aims to raise awareness about the condition and deficiencies of energy systems in developing countries, and the potential for the countries to improve, grow, and advance the technologies for energy generation ¿ especially by turning to renewable energy sources to increase energy storage capacities and optimizing the way subsystems are integrated. The book serves as a must-have guide for decision-makers, investors, business people, and other professionals to understand the global distribution of energy generation, transmission, and each country¿s carbon footprint and identify opportunities for energy system improvement worldwide.

This textbook on Underwater Acoustics has a structure that is more organic than logical. It thereby unifies diverse areas of research, including topics of signal processing, the sonar equation, sources and receivers, scattering and reverberation, wave propagation, propagation models, and inverse problems. It also provides code fragments written in Python which complement the discussion. This is a book written for both beginners and specialists, as well as for biologists, oceanographers, computer engineers, physicists, and mathematicians, and for civilian and naval personnel who are looking for a introductory overview of the topic.

The book offers a comparative look at the social strategies of five carnivorous social predators (four terrestrial and one marine) that make them successful hunting units. The focus is on mammalian predators hunting (largely) mammalian prey. Each chapter (with separate authors) devoted to a particular species, explores the versatile hunting techniques and social dynamics of these top predators as they attempt to survive, defend, and reproduce in challenging habitats. Each chapter also delves into how the social fabric and ecology of each species influence their ability to deal with natural and man-made threats and shifting baselines.

The free market underpins our economy and our way of thinking around enterprise and value, but it is also a major factor in the sustainability problems that we now live with. Climate change, child labour and oil spills are just a few of the many problems associated with our economic activity and, although many companies have made an effort to produce more sustainably, the pace of change is much too slow. This engaging and accessible textbook teaches students the relationship between the economy and sustainability, assessing the hand of the free market on company behaviour and, ultimately, providing a framework for transition to a sustainable economy.Using case studies and optional assessment questions, this textbook explains to students what a market is at the macro level and then translates the effects of the market to industries and subsequently to the strategic choices of companies at the micro level. It adopts a model of 8 guiding principles that underpin the current free market economy and 8 guiding principles for the sustainable market economy. Switching these deeply held principles will be essential to any serious transition to a sustainable economy.

This Handbook includes contributions from established and emerging scholars from around the world and draws on multiple approaches and subjects to explore the socio-economic, cultural, ecological, institutional, legal and policy aspects of regenerative food practices.