The Earth Around Us: Maintaining A Livable PlanetRoutledge, 2018 M02 19 - 480 pages Soil contamination . . . public lands . . . surface and groundwater pollution . . . coastal erosion . . . global warming. Have we reached the limits of this planet's ability to provide for us? If so, what can we do about it?These vital questions are addressed in The Earth Around Us, a unique collection of thirty-one essays by a diverse array of today's foremost scientist-writers. Sharing an ability to communicate science in a clear and engaging fashion, the contributors explore Earth's history and processes--especially in relation to today's environmental issues--and show how we, as members of a global community, can help maintain a livable planet. The narratives in this collection are organized into seven parts that describe: Earth's time and history and the place of people on it Views of nature and the ethics behind our conduct on Earth Resources for the twenty-first century, such as public lands, healthy forests and soils, clean ground and surface waters, and fluctuating coastlines Ill-informed local manipulations of landscapes across the United States Innovative solutions to environmental problems that arise from knowledge of the interactions between living things and the Earth's air, water, and soil Natural and human-induced global scale perturbations to the earth system Our responsibility to people and all other organisms that live on Earth. Never before has such a widely experienced group of prominent earth scientists been brought together to help readers understand how earth's environment works. Driven by the belief that earth science is, and should be, an integral part of everyday life, The Earth Around Us empowers all of us to play a more educated and active part in the search for a sustainable future for our planet and its inhabitants. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 35
Page xix
... predict beach behavior . Orrin recently retired as James B. Duke professor of geology at Duke University . However , he continues to direct the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment ...
... predict beach behavior . Orrin recently retired as James B. Duke professor of geology at Duke University . However , he continues to direct the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment ...
Page 5
... predict and to define the hazards and their consequences . Scientific research and monitoring groups , such as the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Center for Atmospheric Research , study and try to understand these events . Even ...
... predict and to define the hazards and their consequences . Scientific research and monitoring groups , such as the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Center for Atmospheric Research , study and try to understand these events . Even ...
Page 6
... predictions about larger and rarer events . If we see shooting stars and understand what causes them , then we have some basis for understanding that bigger shooting stars may exist . With scien- tific measurements , we find that the ...
... predictions about larger and rarer events . If we see shooting stars and understand what causes them , then we have some basis for understanding that bigger shooting stars may exist . With scien- tific measurements , we find that the ...
Page 7
... predict exactly when or where an impact might occur until we actually see an object heading on a trajectory toward us . As more measure- ments on the trajectory and the size of the object are obtained , our ability to predict the ...
... predict exactly when or where an impact might occur until we actually see an object heading on a trajectory toward us . As more measure- ments on the trajectory and the size of the object are obtained , our ability to predict the ...
Page 13
... prediction capability , or planned response to conditions that exceeded those which were usual for that short period of time . Now that we have seen and experienced this previously rare event , it does not seem surprising to the ...
... prediction capability , or planned response to conditions that exceeded those which were usual for that short period of time . Now that we have seen and experienced this previously rare event , it does not seem surprising to the ...
Contents
1 | |
Part II SCIENTIFIC JUDGMENTS AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS | 57 |
Part III RESOURCES RECONFIGURED | 121 |
Part IV LOCAL MANIPULATIONS | 197 |
Part V INVENTIVE SOLUTIONS | 255 |
Part VI WHOLE EARTH PERTURBATIONS | 307 |
Part VII GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES | 357 |
Source Notes | 410 |
Index | 443 |
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American aquifer Arctic atmosphere beach biological bluff Cape Hatteras Lighthouse carbon dioxide century City climate change coastal contaminated County desert dredged Earth ecosystems Edwards Aquifer effects energy Engineers environment environmental erosion example federal feet flood flow forests fossil future geologists geothermal global greenhouse groundwater habitat harbor Hawaii human Ibid ice age impact Island issues land landfill landscape layer living Lotus Bay material ment million mineral models National native Hawaiians North nuclear waste ocean Olmsted County Owens Lake ozone percent plants pollution population predictions problem processes protect radiation record region repository reservoir result River rock sand scale scientific scientists sediment shoreline soil species storm streams studies surface sustainable temperature tion U.S. Army U.S. Army Corps U.S. Geological Survey understand University USGS Valley volcanic water quality water supply watershed wetland York Yucca Mountain