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
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Page vii
... SCIENTIFIC JUDGMENTS AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 57 Natural Science , Natural Resources , and the Nature of Nature —Marcia G. Bjørnerud 58 Why Believe a Computer ? Models , Measures , and Meaning in the Natural World — Naomi Oreskes 70 ...
... SCIENTIFIC JUDGMENTS AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 57 Natural Science , Natural Resources , and the Nature of Nature —Marcia G. Bjørnerud 58 Why Believe a Computer ? Models , Measures , and Meaning in the Natural World — Naomi Oreskes 70 ...
Page ix
... scientific age ; yet we assume that knowledge is the prerogative of only a small number of human beings , isolated and priestlike in their laboratories . This is not true . The materi- als of science are the materials of life itself ...
... scientific age ; yet we assume that knowledge is the prerogative of only a small number of human beings , isolated and priestlike in their laboratories . This is not true . The materi- als of science are the materials of life itself ...
Page x
... scientific principles will necessitate technologies that do not yet exist . Nonetheless , a scientifically aware public , one that knows the ABCs of the earth system , will be able to hold accountable others who act in ignorance of ...
... scientific principles will necessitate technologies that do not yet exist . Nonetheless , a scientifically aware public , one that knows the ABCs of the earth system , will be able to hold accountable others who act in ignorance of ...
Page xii
... scientific community have inspired and encouraged me to think across disciplines , an endeavor that has surely led to this volume . For this I am indebted intellectually to Gail Ashley , Maria Luisa Crawford , Stephen Jay Gould , Susan ...
... scientific community have inspired and encouraged me to think across disciplines , an endeavor that has surely led to this volume . For this I am indebted intellectually to Gail Ashley , Maria Luisa Crawford , Stephen Jay Gould , Susan ...
Page xx
... scientific research in places like China , Egypt , and New York focuses on sediments in rivers and deltas . As a science advisor to the democratic leader of the U.S. Senate during the 104th Congress , she worked on environmental issues ...
... scientific research in places like China , Egypt , and New York focuses on sediments in rivers and deltas . As a science advisor to the democratic leader of the U.S. Senate during the 104th Congress , she worked on environmental issues ...
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