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The Distributional Impacts of Trade: Empirical Innovations, Analytical Tools, and Policy Responses (Trade and Development)
by Gladys Lopez-Acevedo Jakob Engel Deeksha Kokas MaliszewskaTrade is a well-established driver of growth and poverty reduction.But changes in trade policy also have distributional impacts that create winners and losers. It is vital to understand and clearly communicate how trade affects economic well-being across all segments of the population, as well as how policies can more effectively ensure that the gains from trade are distributed more widely. The Distributional Impacts of Trade: Empirical Innovations, Analytical Tools, and Policy Responses provides a deeper understanding of the distributional effects of trade across regions, industries, and demographic groups within countries over time. It includes an overview (chapter 1); a review of innovations in empirical and theoretical work covering the impacts of trade at the subnational level (chapter 2); highlights from empirical case studies on Bangladesh, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and Sri Lanka (chapter 3); and a policy agenda to improve distributional outcomes from trade (chapter 4). This book comes at a time when the shock from COVID-19 (coronavirus) adds to an already uncertain trade policy environment in which the value of the multilateral trading system has been under increased scrutiny. A better understanding of how trade affects distributional outcomes can lead to more inclusive policies and support the ability of countries to maximize broad-based benefits from trade.
The Diversion of Land: Conservation in a Period of Farming Contraction (The Natural Environment: Problems and Management)
by Clive Potter Bryn Green Angela Edwards C. Paul Burnham Ruth GassonEuropean agriculture is on the brink of a financial and ecological crisis. The authors assess the challenge facing policy makers and those involved in the industry, arguing for the preparation of an environmental agenda based on land organisation and diversion.
The Diversity Of Life
by Edward O. WilsonView a collection of videos on Professor Wilson entitled "On the Relation of Science and the Humanities" "In the Amazon Basin the greatest violence sometimes begins as a flicker of light beyond the horizon. There in the perfect bowl of the night sky, untouched by light from any human source, a thunderstorm sends its premonitory signal and begins a slow journey to the observer, who thinks: the world is about to change. " Watching from the edge of the Brazilian rain forest, witness to the sort of violence nature visits upon its creatures, Edward O. Wilson reflects on the crucible of evolution, and so begins his remarkable account of how the living world became diverse and how humans are destroying that diversity. Wilson, internationally regarded as the dean of biodiversity studies, conducts us on a tour through time, traces the processes that create new species in bursts of adaptive radiation, and points out the cataclysmic events that have disrupted evolution and diminished global diversity over the past 600 million years. The five enormous natural blows to the planet (such as meteorite strikes and climatic changes) required 10 to 100 million years of evolutionary repair. The sixth great spasm of extinction on earth--caused this time entirely by humans--may be the one that breaks the crucible of life. Wilson identifies this crisis in countless ecosystems around the globe: coral reefs, grasslands, rain forests, and other natural habitats. Drawing on a variety of examples such as the decline of bird populations in the United States, the extinction of many species of freshwater fish in Africa and Asia, and the rapid disappearance of flora and fauna as the rain forests are cut down, he poignantly describes the death throes of the living world's diversity--projected to decline as much as 20 percent by the year 2020. All evidence marshaled here resonates through Wilson's tightly reasoned call for a spirit of stewardship over the world's biological wealth. He makes a plea for specific actions that will enhance rather than diminish not just diversity but the quality of life on earth. Cutting through the tangle of environmental issues that often obscure the real concern, Wilson maintains that the era of confrontation between forces for the preservation of nature and those for economic development is over; he convincingly drives home the point that both aims can, and must, be integrated. Unparalleled in its range and depth, Wilson's masterwork is essential reading for those who care about preserving the world biological variety and ensuring our planet's health.
The Diversity and Evolution of Plants
by Lorentz C. PearsonThis exciting new textbook examines the concepts of evolution as the underlying cause of the rich diversity of life on earth-and our danger of losing that rich diversity. Written as a college textbook, The Diversity and Evolution of Plants introduces the great variety of life during past ages, manifested by the fossil record, using a new natural classification system. It begins in the Proterozoic Era, when bacteria and bluegreen algae first appeared, and continues through the explosions of new marine forms in the Helikian and Hadrynian Periods, land plants in the Devonian, and flowering plants in the Cretaceous. Following an introduction, the three subkingdoms of plants are discussed. Each chapter covers one of the eleven divisions of plants and begins with an interesting vignette of a plant typical of that division. A section on each of the classes within the division follows. Each section describes where the groups of plants are found and their distinguishing features. Discussions in each section include phylogeny and classification, general morphology, and physiology, ecological significance, economic uses, and potential for research. Suggested readings and student exercises are found at the end of each chapter.
The Diversity of Russian Estuaries and Lagoons Exposed to Human Influence
by Ruben KosyanThis volume describes the complex characteristics of almost all Russian coastal estuaries systematized in the following regions: the coasts of the White Sea, the Barents Sea, the Kara Sea, the Laptev Sea, the East Siberian Sea, the Chukchi Sea, the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Baltic Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Sea of Japan and the Bering Seas. The part on the Baltic Sea includes a detailed description of the Kaliningrad coast and the Gulf of Finland. Apart from the geology and morphology, this book also looks at the anthropogenic effects on shores as well as at hydrological conditions, local climate and water level characteristics, and at economic use of lagoons.
The Docks
by Bill SharpsteenThe Docks is an eye-opening journey into a giant madhouse of activity that few outsiders ever see: the Port of Los Angeles. In a book woven throughout with riveting novelist detail and illustrated with photographs that capture the frenetic energy of the place, Bill Sharpsteen tells the story of the people who have made this port, the largest in the country, one of the nation's most vital economic enterprises. Among others, we meet a pilot who parks ships, one of the first women longshoremen, union officials and employers at odds over almost everything, an environmental activist fighting air pollution in the "diesel death zone," and those with the nearly impossible job of enforcing security. Together these stories paint a compelling picture of a critical entryway for goods coming into the country--the Port of Los Angeles is part of a complex that brings in 40% of all our waterborne cargo and 70% of all Asian imports--yet one that is also extremely vulnerable. The Docks is a rare look at a world within our world in which we find a microcosm of the labor, environmental, and security issues we collectively face.
The Domestic Politics of Foreign Aid (Routledge Explorations in Development Studies)
by Erik LundsgaardeIn spite of shared rhetorical commitments to tackling poverty worldwide, donors have varied considerably in their use of aid as an instrument for global poverty reduction. This book explains varied donor priorities by examining how societal actors, governmental actors, and the institutions that regulate their interactions influence development policy choices. The Domestic Politics of Foreign Aid challenges explanations for donor generosity that identify humanitarian values, partisan politics, and welfare state institutions as key determinants of aid-giving patterns. It explains how the preferences of diverse sets of actors are amalgamated in the domestic political arena to shape national preferences for international redistribution. Drawing on interview research conducted with a variety of stakeholders in four donor countries (Denmark, France, Switzerland and the United States) and an extensive review of primary and secondary sources on aid politics in the countries studied, the book offers both a static overview of the characteristics of aid policymaking systems and a historical treatment of policymaking dynamics over a 25-year period (1980-2005). Applying a common theoretical framework to the four case studies and using development NGO advocacy as a starting point for examining the politics of aid, this book provides a synthesis of several strands of theoretical work dealing with interest group politics and political institutions to inform the analysis of the societal and governmental determinants of aid choices.
The Domestication of Women: Discrimination in Developing Societies (Social Science Paperback Ser. #Vol. 213)
by Barbara Rogers"The Domestication of Women is a feminist critique of international development agencies and programs. A researcher in development studies with past experience as a United Nations consultant, Barbara Rogers writes with a note of outrage about the pervasive biases against women that lead to wasteful and destructive bungling on the part of Western and Westernized men who dominate the field of development planning." - Amy Burce (Stanford University), Signs
The Dominance of Management: A Participatory Critique (Voices in Development Management)
by Leonard HolmesThis book offers a controversial reanalysis of the rise and dominance of managerialist approaches to development. Linking two British inner-city community development projects with projects in the developing world it shows how ’managed development’ runs counter to participatory values and aspirations of communities receiving development aid. This, in effect, mutes the voices of these communities. In conclusion, Holmes draws implications for the emerging community development agenda in urban development throughout the world.
The Doomsday Book: The Science Behind Humanity's Greatest Threats
by Marshall BrainHow might the world as we know it end? In this illustrated guide, How Stuff Works author Marshall Brain explores myriad doomsday scenarios and the science behind them. What if the unimaginable happens? A nuclear bomb detonates over a major city, for example, or a deadly virus infects millions around the world. There are other disasters we don&’t even have to imagine because they&’ve already occurred, like violent hurricanes or cataclysmic tsunamis that have caused horrific loss of life and damage. In The Doomsday Book, Marshall Brain explains how everything finally ends—the decimation of nations and cities, of civilization, of humanity, of all life on Earth. Brain takes a deep dive into a wide range of doomsday narratives, including manmade events such as an electromagnetic pulse attack, a deadly pandemic, and nuclear warfare; devastating natural phenomena, such as an eruption from a super-volcano, the collapse of the Gulf Stream, or lethal solar flares; and science-fiction scenarios where robots take over or aliens invade. Each compelling chapter provides a detailed description of the situation, the science behind it, and ways to prevent or prepare for its occurrence. With fun graphics and eye-catching photographs at every turn, The Doomsday Book will be the last book you&’ll ever have to read about the last days on Earth.Scenarios include: - Asteroid Strike: a massive asteroid could obliterate life—just as it might have killed the dinosaurs. - Gray Goo: self-replicating nanobots engulf the planet. - Grid Attack: an attack on our power grid shuts down the internet, affecting airports, banks, computers, food delivery, medical devices, and the entire economic system. - Gulf Stream collapse: the shutdown of this important ocean current causes temperatures to plummet. - Ocean acidification: if the oceans&’ pH levels shift due to a rise in carbon dioxide, all marine life could die.
The Doomsday Detectives: How Walter and Luis Alvarez Solved the Mystery of Dinosaur Extinction
by Cindy Jenson-ElliottFather-son scientists Luis and Walter Alvarez piece together one of the greatest mysteries of all time: What really happened to the dinosaurs? Dive into this fun and informative middle grade nonfiction book, which outlines the many important scientific discoveries that aided the Alvarezes in their search for answers.Cretaceous earth was known as the age of dinosaurs. But really, it was the age of LIFE--scaled and feathered, furry and leathered, budding, blooming, roaring, zooming, buzzing, glorious LIFE--until... DOOMSDAY. For 66 million years, the mystery of what happened to the dinosaurs lay hidden under layers of sand and silt, until scientists began to piece together the puzzle of what happened on the last day of the ancient world. Follow the real-life adventures of father-son scientists Luis and Walter Alvarez--along with an army of science detectives--as they unlock the world's most intriguing mystery. Learn how the smallest particles in the universe helped explain what happened to the largest animals that ever walked the planet. Track the timelines of discoveries that had to happen in physics, paleontology, astronomy, and geology, before humans could understand how and why 75 percent of species suddenly went extinct. This is the story of how scientists add to the sum total of human knowledge, one question at a time, and help us understand our beautiful, tragic, and magnificent world.
The Doomsday Handbook
by Alok JhaWe live in a world positively teeming with threats and apocalyptic scenarios. Many of them are familiar: terrorism, deadly viruses, global warming and war, but many others most of us can't even imagine: self-replicating nanobots that can devour an entire planet, high-energy experiments that threaten to suck the Earth into a mini black hole, and even super-sophisticated scientific contraptions that can put an end to the entire universe.
The Dorian Aegean (Routledge Revivals Ser.)
by Elizabeth M. CraikThis wide-ranging yet detailed study describes and assesses the many-faceted cultural achievement of an area remote from Athens, the Dorian islands. Elizabeth Craik’s scholarship sets this lively outlying region of the ancient Greek world – which included Rhodes, Kos, Karpathos, Melos, and Thera – in the perspective of Greek civilization as a whole, demonstrating that excessive emphasis on the Athenian advancements of the fifth century BC tends to obscure the contribution of other regions. Beginning with a discussion of the geographical setting, natural resources and historical development of the area, The Dorian Aegean goes on to survey linguistic usage and local scripts, and to examine the regional contribution to literature, medicine and science. In the final three chapters, the religious traditions and practices of the islands are discussed, in terms of myths, cults and administration. This work will appeal to students of the classical world, archaeology, and cultural history.
The Double-crested Cormorant
by Linda R. WiresThe double-crested cormorant, found only in North America, is an iridescent black waterbird superbly adapted to catch fish. It belongs to a family of birds vilified since biblical times and persecuted around the world. Thus it was perhaps to be expected that the first European settlers in North America quickly deemed the double-crested cormorant a competitor for fishing stock and undertook a relentless drive to destroy the birds. This enormously important book explores the roots of human-cormorant conflicts, dispels myths about the birds, and offers the first comprehensive assessment of the policies that have been developed to manage the double-crested cormorant in the twenty-first century. Conservation biologist Linda Wires provides a unique synthesis of the cultural, historical, scientific, and political elements of the cormorant's story. She discusses the amazing late-twentieth-century population recovery, aided by protection policies and environment conservation, but also the subsequent U.S. federal policies under which hundreds of thousands of the birds have been killed. In a critique of the science, management, and ethics underlying the double-crested cormorant's treatment today, Wires exposes "management" as a euphemism for persecution and shows that the current strategies of aggressive predator control are outdated and unsupported by science.
The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming
by Laurie David Cambria GordonRight now we are waking up to the reality that the effects of global warming are upon us. From extreme changes in weather patterns, to melting glaciers and polar ice caps, to endangered plant and animal species, global warming touches every aspect of our lives.
The Drava River: Environmental Problems and Solutions (Springer Geography)
by Dénes LóczyThis monograph summarizes the environmental issues concerning the channel and the floodplain of the Drava River. It describes the diverse forms of human impact (river regulation, damming and reservoirs, dredging etc.) and the environmental changes of hydrological regime, sediment transport, biodiversity etc. involved. The transboundary nature of the river is emphasized and the resulting problems are outlined. Special attention is devoted to the evolution and present condition of the floodplain (drainage pattern, oxbow lakes and their vegetation). The possible solutions to environmental problems are illustrated by a review of ongoing and planned rehabilitation measures. The book is amply illustrated with maps, cross/sections, diagrams and photographs. The international team of authors (representing all countries crossed by the Drava River: Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary) approach the topic from different aspects. Thus, the reader is provided with a comprehensive picture of this, up until now, little studied European river.
The Driving Forces of Change in Environmental Indicators
by Paula Fernández González Manuel Landajo Mª José PresnoThis book addresses several index decomposition analysis methods to assess progress made by EU countries in the last decade in relation to energy and climate change concerns. Several applications of these techniques are carried out in order to decompose changes in both energy and environmental aggregates. In addition to this, a new methodology based on classical spline approximations is introduced, which provides useful mathematical and statistical properties. Once a suitable set of determinant factors has been identified, these decomposition methods allow the researcher to quantify the respective contributions of these factors. A proper interpretation of findings enables the design of strategies and a number of energy and environmental policies to control the variables of interest. This book also analyses the impact of several factors that allow control of these variables; among them, assessment of the specific contribution of improved energy efficiency is particularly relevant. A number of divisia-index-based techniques for decomposing changes in a generic indicator are now available, and these range from classical techniques based on Laspeyres and Paasche weights to more refined approaches relying on logarithmic mean weighting schemes. This book is intended for undergraduates and graduates of energy economics and environmental sciences, environmental policy advisors, and industrial engineers.
The Drought-Resilient Farm: Improve Your Soil’s Ability to Hold and Supply Moisture for Plants; Maintain Feed and Drinking Water for Livestock when Rainfall Is Limited; Redesign Agricultural Systems to Fit Semi-arid Climates
by Dale StricklerRainfall levels are rarely optimal, but there are hundreds of things you can do to efficiently conserve and use the water you do have and to reduce the impact of drought on your soil, crops, livestock, and farm or ranch ecosystem. Author Dale Strickler introduces you to the same innovative systems he used to transform his own drought-stricken family farm in Kansas into a thriving, water-wise, and profitable enterprise, maximizing healthy cropland, pasture, and water supply. Ranging from simple, short-term projects such as installing rain-collection ollas to long-term land-management planning strategies, Strickler’s methods show how to get more water into the soil, keep it in the soil, and help plants and livestock access it. This publication conforms to the EPUB Accessibility specification at WCAG 2.0 Level AA.
The Drowning of Money Island: A Forgotten Community's Fight Against the Rising Seas Forever Changing Coastal America
by Andrew S. LewisOffers a glimpse of the future of vanishing shorelines in America in the age of climate change, where the wealthy will be able to remain the longest while the poor will be forced to leave.Journalist Andrew Lewis chronicles the struggle of his New Jersey hometown to rebuild their ravaged homes in the face of the same environmental stresses and governmental neglect that are endangering coastal areas throughout the United States. Lewis grew up on the Bayshore, a 40-mile stretch of Delaware Bay beaches, marshland, and fishing hamlets at the southern end of New Jersey, whose working-class community is fighting to retain their place in a country that has left them behind. The Bayshore, like so many rural places in the US, is under immense pressure from a combination of severe economic decline, industry loss, and regulation. But it is also contending with one of the fastest rates of sea level rise on the planet and the aftereffects of one of the most destructive hurricanes in American history, Superstorm Sandy. If in the years prior to Sandy the Bayshore had already been slowly disappearing, its beaches eroding and lowland cedar woods hollowing out into saltwater-bleached ghost forests, after the hurricane, the community was decimated. Today, homes and roads and memories are crumbling into the rising bay.Cumberland, the poor, rural county where the Bayshore is located, had been left out of the bulk of the initial federal disaster relief package post-Sandy. Instead of money to rebuild, the Bayshore got the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Superstorm Sandy Blue Acres Program, which identified and purchased flood-prone neighborhoods where working-class citizens lived, then demolished them to be converted to open space. The Drowning of Money Island is an intimate yet unbiased, lyrical yet investigative portrait of a rural community ravaged by sea level rise and economic hardship, as well as the increasingly divisive politics those factors have helped spawn. It invites us to confront how climate change is already intensifying preexisting inequality.
The Dusk of Design: Exploring Multidisciplinary Approaches and Evolutionary Biology in Architecture (Integrated Science #34)
by Alessandro Melis Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez Paola Boarin Priscila BesenThe Dusk of Design explores the intersection of evolutionary theories and architectural design. Drawing inspiration from the concept of exaptation in biology, the book argues that natural selection, as the most successful designer on our planet, thrives on the diversity, variability, and redundancy of creative structures. By transferring these mechanisms to architectural design, the book contends that we can cultivate more resilient and sustainable architecture and cities in the face of environmental crises.This book seeks to illuminate the profound potential of multidisciplinarity by examining case studies from architecture worldwide. By exploring how evolutionary theories can explain various architectural phenomena, it aims to inspire architects, designers, researchers, and students to adopt a holistic and transdisciplinary approach to their work.The book provides a clear and concise overview of evolutionary principles, demonstrating their relevance to architecture.It will showcase a range of case studies that highlight the application of evolutionary theories in solving architectural challenges, such as adaptive reuse, sustainable urban planning, and resilient design in the face of climate change.Ultimately, "The Dusk of Design" aims to bridge the gap between biology and architecture, presenting a fresh perspective on how we can create more innovative, sustainable, and resilient built environments.
The Dust Bowl
by Molly Smith Elaina JacobsDuring the 1930s, the Great Plains region of the United States earned the nickname "the Dust Bowl" because of the many large dust storms that raged across the open land there. Learn more about these "black blizzards" and their devastating effects.
The Dust Bowl: An Illustrated History
by Ken Burns Dayton DuncanThis “riveting” companion to the PBS documentary “clarifies our understanding of the ‘worst manmade ecological disaster in American history’” (Booklist).In this riveting chronicle, Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns capture the profound drama of the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Terrifying photographs of mile-high dust storms, along with firsthand accounts by more than two dozen eyewitnesses, bring to life this heart-wrenching catastrophe, when a combination of drought, wind, and poor farming practices turned millions of acres of the Great Plains into a wasteland, killing crops and livestock, threatening the lives of small children, burying homesteaders’ hopes under huge dunes of dirt—and setting in motion a mass migration the likes of which the nation had never seen. Burns and Duncan collected more than three hundred mesmerizing photographs, some never before published, scoured private letters, government reports, and newspaper articles, and conducted in-depth interviews to produce a document that may likely be the last recorded testimony of the generation who lived through this defining decade.
The Dutch Century: Domination of the Spice Trade at Any Cost (The\dutchman Trilogy Ser. #Vol. 1)
by Carl DouglassThe Dutch Century: Domination of the Spice Trade at Any Cost is the second of three books about the remarkable 17th century, primarily owned by the Netherlands. It reveals--as historical fiction—the adventures, trials, risks, accomplishments, conflicts, atrocities, and crimes, of the Dutch and specifically of the Seagoing Van Brakel family.
The Dutch Century: The Great White Hunter—Southern Africa
by Carl DouglassThe Great White Hunter—Southern Africa is the third and final book of the Dutch Century Trilogy. It covers the last two-thirds of the 1600s, during which the Dutch exercised considerable control of all sub-Saharan Africa. Among the Dutch who spent significant portions of their lives in the region were farmers, traders, builders, mariners, and slavers. And, most interesting, some intrepid long-distance hunters. They sought fortunes as rewards for museum-quality mounted specimens, success beyond their wildest imaginations from the elephant tusk/ivory trade, and adventure—always adventure. They were brave and hardy souls who faced hardships of miserable travel in oxwaggons, difficult to manage native helpers, balky oxen, mules, and horses. In addition, there were problems of tribalism, close calls from fearsome beasts, including lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, crocs, and dangerous men. Piet van Brakel explored the lower half of the African continent while still a fugitive from the dangerous Dutch VOC. To succeed, he had to control the vicissitudes of weather—floods, droughts, winds, starvation, and great thirsts. He was the baas, the bwana who had to deal with all unseen and unknown surprises. That included: animal attacks, Arab slaver/killer invasion, war with ruthless Zulu impis, poisons, malfunctioning guns, and misbehaving men of his safari team. He lost six of his nine lives, accumulated hard-won treasure twice, and gained incomparable friends and success beyond measure. Such a life was never a sure thing for the man. How he accomplished, that is the stuff of legend.
The Dynamic Magnetosphere
by William Liu Masaki FujimotoDespite the plethora of monographs published in recent years, few cover recent progress in magnetospheric physics in broad areas of research. While a topical focus is important to in-depth views at a problem, a broad overview of our field is also needed. The volume answers to the latter need. With the collection of articles written by leading scientists, the contributions contained in the book describe latest research results in solar wind-magnetosphere interaction, magnetospheric substorms, magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, transport phenomena in the plasma sheet, wave and particle dynamics in the ring current and radiation belts, and extra-terrestrial magnetospheric systems. In addition to its breadth and timeliness, the book highlights innovative methods and techniques to study the geospace.