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 82
Page x
... surface waters , and coasts . In the fourth portion , essayists tell true stories about construction projects that defy geological sense . As a hopeful counterpoint to them , the essays in Part V detail geo- logically aware , innovative ...
... surface waters , and coasts . In the fourth portion , essayists tell true stories about construction projects that defy geological sense . As a hopeful counterpoint to them , the essays in Part V detail geo- logically aware , innovative ...
Page xiv
... surface water , and the oceans . The effects of urbanization on aquifers particularly concern him . He is presently a professor in the Department of Geologi- cal Sciences and Director of the Environmental Science Institute at the ...
... surface water , and the oceans . The effects of urbanization on aquifers particularly concern him . He is presently a professor in the Department of Geologi- cal Sciences and Director of the Environmental Science Institute at the ...
Page xxi
... ( surface - shaping ) processes , landforms , and biotic properties of ecosystems . For many years as a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey , E - an Zen studied Appalachian and Rocky Mountain geology , the origin of metamorphic and ...
... ( surface - shaping ) processes , landforms , and biotic properties of ecosystems . For many years as a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey , E - an Zen studied Appalachian and Rocky Mountain geology , the origin of metamorphic and ...
Page 15
... surface and are therefore spatially rare . Large eruptions are rare in time because volcanoes need to recharge heat in order to melt rock and form magma that will erupt . Some volcanoes recharge and erupt in a relatively balanced way ...
... surface and are therefore spatially rare . Large eruptions are rare in time because volcanoes need to recharge heat in order to melt rock and form magma that will erupt . Some volcanoes recharge and erupt in a relatively balanced way ...
Page 19
... surface of slanting strata , eventually covered by a sea . In the water , the new sediment of the upper formation would have accumulated gradually upon that surface , and , later , the forces building a fresh mountain range would have ...
... surface of slanting strata , eventually covered by a sea . In the water , the new sediment of the upper formation would have accumulated gradually upon that surface , and , later , the forces building a fresh mountain range would have ...
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