The Changing Environment


Book Description

This series is dedicated to serving the growing community of scholars and practitioners concerned with the principles and applications of environmental management. Each volume is a thorough treatment of a specific topic of importance for proper management practices. A fundamental objective of these books is to help the reader discern and implement man's stewardship of our environment and the world's renewable resources. For we must strive to understand the relationship between man and nature, act to bring harmony to it, and nurture an environment that is both stable and productive. These objectives have often eluded us because the pursuit of other individual and societal goals has diverted us from a course of living in balance and the environment. At times, therefore, the environmental manager may have to exert restrictive control, which is usually best applied to man, not nature. Attempts to alter or harness nature have often failed or backfired, as exemplified by the results of imprudent use of herbicides, fertilizers, water, and other agents. Each book in this series will shed light on the fundamental and applied aspects of environmental management. It is hoped that each will help solve a practical and serious environmental problem.




Culture and the Changing Environment


Book Description

Today human ecology has split into many different sub-disciplines such as historical ecology, political ecology or the New Ecological Anthropology. The latter in particular has criticised the predominance of the Western view on different ecosystems, arguing that culture-specific world views and human-environment interactions have been largely neglected. However, these different perspectives only tackle specific facets of a local and global hyper-complex reality. In bringing together a variety of views and theoretical approaches , these especially commissioned essays prove that an interdisciplinary collaboration and understanding of the extreme complexity of the human-environment interface(s) is possible.




A Changing Environment for Human Security


Book Description

Environmental change presents a new context and new opportunities for transformational change. This timely book will inspire new ways of understanding the relationship between environmental change and human security. A Changing Environment for Human Security: Transformative Approaches to Research, Policy and Action both supports and informs a call for new, transformative approaches to research, policy and action. The chapters in this book include critical analyses, case studies and reflections on contemporary environmental and social challenges, with a strong emphasis on those related to climate change. Human thoughts and actions have contributed to an environment of insecurity, manifested as multiple interacting threats that now represent a serious challenge to humanity. Yet humans also have the capacity to collectively transform the economic, political, social and cultural systems and structures that perpetuate human insecurities. These fresh perspectives on global environmental change from an interdisciplinary group of international experts will inspire readers – whether students, researchers, policy makers, or practitioners – to think differently about environmental issues and sustainability. The contributions show that in a changing environment, human security is not only a possibility, but a choice.




Grapevine in a Changing Environment


Book Description

Grapes (Vitis spp.) are economically the most important fruit species in the world. Over the last decades many scientific advances have led to understand more deeply key physiological, biochemical, and molecular aspects of grape berry maturation. However, our knowledge on how grapevines respond to environmental stimuli and deal with biotic and abiotic stresses is still fragmented. Thus, this area of research is wide open for new scientific and technological advancements. Particularly, in the context of climate change, viticulture will have to adapt to higher temperatures, light intensity and atmospheric CO2 concentration, while water availability is expected to decrease in many viticultural regions, which poses new challenges to scientists and producers. With Grapevine in a Changing Environment, readers will benefit from a comprehensive and updated coverage on the intricate grapevine defense mechanisms against biotic and abiotic stress and on the new generation techniques that may be ultimately used to implement appropriate strategies aimed at the production and selection of more adapted genotypes. The book also provides valuable references in this research area and original data from several laboratories worldwide. Written by 63 international experts on grapevine ecophysiology, biochemistry and molecular biology, the book is a reference for a wide audience with different backgrounds, from plant physiologists, biochemists and graduate and post-graduate students, to viticulturists and enologists.




Global Biodiversity in a Changing Environment


Book Description

Climatic change, conservation biology




Social Security Policy in a Changing Environment


Book Description

Social Security Policy in a Changing Environment analyzes the changing economic and demographic environment in which social insurance programs that benefit elderly households will operate. It also explores how these ongoing trends will affect future beneficiaries, under both the current social security program and potential reform options. In this volume, an esteemed group of economists probes the challenge posed to Social Security by an aging population. The researchers examine trends in private sector retirement saving and health care costs, as well as the uncertain nature of future demographic, economic, and social trends—including marriage and divorce rates and female participation in the labor force. Recognizing the ambiguity of the environment in which the Social Security system must operate and evolve, this landmark book explores factors that policymakers must consider in designing policies that are resilient enough to survive in an economically and demographically uncertain society.




Water and Sanitation-Related Diseases and the Changing Environment


Book Description

The revised and updated second edition of Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Changing Environment offers an interdisciplinary guide to the conditions responsible for water and sanitation related diseases. The authors discuss the pathogens, vectors, and their biology, morbidity and mortality that result from a lack of safe water and sanitation. The text also explores the distribution of these diseases and the conditions that must be met to reduce or eradicate them. The text includes contributions from authorities from the fields of climate change, epidemiology, environmental health, environmental engineering, global health, medicine, medical anthropology, nutrition, population, and public health. Covers the causes of individual diseases with basic information about the diseases and data on the distribution, prevalence, and incidence as well as interconnected factors such as environmental factors. The authors cover access to and maintenance of clean water, and guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta, and grey water, plus examples of solutions. Written for students, and professionals in infectious disease, public health and medicine, chemical and environmental engineering, and international affairs, the second edition of Water and Sanitation Related Diseases and the Changing Environment isa comprehensive resource to the conditions responsible for water and sanitation related diseases.




Organization in a Changing Environment


Book Description

This study deals with the interfaces between bureaucratized social service agencies, social workers, and clients. Russell K. Schutt covers significant topics of the history and organization of labor unions. He illuminates important questions concerning the degree to which initially democratic organizations are overcome by economic forces and how organizational and environmental features play a role in allowing this to happen. The object of the study is large union of public welfare employees. Spawned in the turbulent 1960s, the young union--once pledged to reform the welfare system--had, by the 1980s, become a bureaucratic structure focused on traditional economic goals. Dr. Schutt has drawn on theory and research in the areas of organizations, social movements, and public welfare, and makes a unique contribution to each area. A combination of intensive interviews, questionnaire surveys, archival records, and observational notes provide the data for his analyses.




Plant Life under Changing Environment


Book Description

Plant Life under Changing Environment: Responses and Management presents the latest insights, reflecting the significant progress that has been made in understanding plant responses to various changing environmental impacts, as well as strategies for alleviating their adverse effects, including abiotic stresses. Growing from a focus on plants and their ability to respond, adapt, and survive, Plant Life under Changing Environment: Responses and Management addresses options for mitigating those responses to ensure maximum health and growth. Researchers and advanced students in environmental sciences, plant ecophysiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, nano-pollution climate change, and soil pollution will find this an important foundational resource. - Covers both responses and adaptation of plants to altered environmental states - Illustrates the current impact of climate change on plant productivity, along with mitigation strategies - Includes transcriptomic, proteomic, metabolomic and ionomic approaches




Earth's Changing Environment


Book Description

Give your students, librarians, and teachers accurate and reliable information on climate change with Earth's Changing Environment. Written for ages 10 to 17, this comprehensive look at the environment focuses on climate, greehouse effect, global warming, and the Kyoto Protocol while exploring the delicate web of life with articles on ecology, biogeography, biodiversity, endangered species, deforestation and desertification. The effects fo environmental pollution and efforts to protect the environment and to convserve its resources are also addressed.