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Umweltpolitik aus sozialökologischer Perspektive: Aktuelle Analysen - überraschende Ergebnisse - Handlungsoptionen
by Carsten HobohmAngesichts einer zunehmend bedrohlichen Kulisse stellt sich die Frage, wie der Klimawandel, die Intensivierung der Nutzung von Ökosystemen und die Bedrohung der Artenvielfalt das soziale und kulturelle Leben beeinflussen. In den Medien haben Katastrophenmeldungen zweifellos zugenommen. Doch in welcher Weise das gesellschaftliche Leben oder die Menschheit insgesamt durch Umweltkatastrophen konkret bedroht ist, wird bislang nur selten in ausreichender Detailschärfe dargestellt. Mit dieser Analyse wird versucht, den Knoten der gelegentlich einseitigen Betrachtung zu lösen und den Blickwinkel um einige Möglichkeiten der Ausgestaltung von Zukunft zu erweitern. Eine ganze Palette von Möglichkeiten zielt darauf ab, den Fokus der global dunklen, gleichzeitig unscharfen oder sogar verschwommenen Perspektiven um positive Ansätze in der lokalen und regionalen Dimension zu erweitern. Möglichkeiten sind reichlich vorhanden, aber sie sind nicht zum Nulltarif zu realisieren.
Umweltpsychologie: Mensch-Umwelt-Systeme verstehen
by Andreas Ernst Gerhard Reese Laura HennKlimakatastrophe, Umweltkrisen, Ressourcenknappheit – und das alles mit uns Menschen mittendrin, als zentrale Ursache, aber auch als Betroffene. Wie konnte es dazu kommen und wie kommen wir da wieder heraus? Um Mensch-Umwelt-Systeme zu verstehen, bietet die Umweltpsychologie wertvolle Ansätze. Was können wir als Einzelne, was können wir gemeinsam tun, um diese Herausforderungen zu bewältigen? Warum geht es (scheinbar) nicht weiter in Richtung Nachhaltigkeit? Wie sieht ein nachhaltiges Leben denn aus und was erwartet uns in der Zukunft möglicherweise? Ist eine Entwicklung in Richtung Nachhaltigkeit überhaupt zu schaffen und wenn ja, wie? Dieses umfassende Lehrbuch zeigt, wie menschliches Handeln mit gesellschaftlichen Dynamiken und der Umwelt verknüpft ist und wie sich diese gegenseitig beeinflussen. Anhand von Alltagssituationen und aktuellen Themen veranschaulicht es umweltpsychologische Erkenntnisse und liefert gleichzeitig die natur- und umweltwissenschaftlichen Grundlagen, die für ein fundiertes Verständnis von Umweltverhalten unerlässlich sind. Zudem stellt es dar, unter welchen individuellen, sozialen und systemischen Bedingungen eine gesellschaftliche Transformation gelingen kann, die Wohlstand und Wohlbefinden im Einklang mit den planetaren Grenzen ermöglicht. Das Buch bietet auch für Interessierte aus anderen Disziplinen und aus der Praxis eine verständliche Darstellung der wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen der Umweltpsychologie.
Umweltschutztechnik und Umweltmanagement: Ein Kompendium für Studierende, Praktiker und Politiker (essentials)
by Ekbert Hering Wolfgang SchulzDie Autoren beschreiben Gefährdungspotenziale für Luft, Wasser und Boden und den globalen Klimawandel sowie Maßnahmen zur Gegensteuerung. Sie stellen Konzepte zur Abfallwirtschaft vor und verweisen auf die Verankerung des Umweltschutzes in Unternehmen durch ein effizientes Umweltmanagement und einer Ökobilanz. So können Leser die globale Aufgabe, die Umwelt zu schützen, mit nationalen und internationalen politischen Rahmenbedingungen und vor allem dem Wissen im Bereich der Naturwissenschaften einschätzen und Umweltschäden vermeiden oder ihre Auswirkungen verringern. Die Politik schafft dazu auf nationaler, europäischer und internationaler Ebene mit Gesetzen, Regelungen und Normen die Voraussetzungen.Die AutorenDr. rer. nat. Dr. rer. pol. Dr. h.c. Ekbert Hering lehrt und forscht an der Hochschule Aalen. Er ist Verfasser erfolgreicher Fachbücher in renommierten Verlagen. Dr. rer. nat. Wolfgang Schulz ist Leiter der Forschung und Entwicklung Sonderanalytik beim Zweckverband Landeswasserversorgung und Lehrbeauftragter an der Hochschule Aalen.
Un: Helping Teens and Young Adults Flourish in an Age of Anxiety
by Kate O’BrienEvery child is born a physical, emotional and spiritual being. As parents and caregivers, it is our role to nurture these qualities and help young people mature into confident embodied adults and responsible custodians of our communities, economies and the Earth. But as the scaffolding of the old world has crumbled, we know that many members of Gen Z are experiencing anxiety, depression, addiction and even suicidality at epidemic levels. We want our children to grow up in an environment where they feel safe, loved, and can enjoy a deep sense of belonging. The sensitive, the open-hearted and empathetic ones are the most affected and these are the very people we need most in society.With contributions and timely solutions from leading scientists, doctors, inspirational teachers, visionaries and wisdom holders from varying traditions, the stories of hope in UN:Stuck offer guidance that will help our children mature into confident embodied adults packed with empathy, curiosity and a real sense of playfulness. The chapter titles in this book are rungs on a ladder of hope: Awakened Awareness, Emotional/Ethical intelligence, Interrelatedness (Ukama), Ethical Activism, Meaning & Purpose, Resilience/Courage/Curiosity, Creativity and Inclusion/The Whole Being.The result is a truly 360° vision of how we can support our young people, based on storytelling and wisdom in a way that reconnects them at a fundamental level with their world and seeds hope for the future.
Un: Helping Teens and Young Adults Flourish in an Age of Anxiety
by Kate O’BrienEvery child is born a physical, emotional and spiritual being. As parents and caregivers, it is our role to nurture these qualities and help young people mature into confident embodied adults and responsible custodians of our communities, economies and the Earth. But as the scaffolding of the old world has crumbled, we know that many members of Gen Z are experiencing anxiety, depression, addiction and even suicidality at epidemic levels. We want our children to grow up in an environment where they feel safe, loved, and can enjoy a deep sense of belonging. The sensitive, the open-hearted and empathetic ones are the most affected and these are the very people we need most in society.With contributions and timely solutions from leading scientists, doctors, inspirational teachers, visionaries and wisdom holders from varying traditions, the stories of hope in UN:Stuck offer guidance that will help our children mature into confident embodied adults packed with empathy, curiosity and a real sense of playfulness. The chapter titles in this book are rungs on a ladder of hope: Awakened Awareness, Emotional/Ethical intelligence, Interrelatedness (Ukama), Ethical Activism, Meaning & Purpose, Resilience/Courage/Curiosity, Creativity and Inclusion/The Whole Being.The result is a truly 360° vision of how we can support our young people, based on storytelling and wisdom in a way that reconnects them at a fundamental level with their world and seeds hope for the future.
The Un-Discovered Islands: An Archipelago of Myths and Mysteries, Phantoms and Fakes
by Malachy Tallack Katie ScottIn The Un-Discovered Islands, critically acclaimed author Malachy Tallack takes the reader on fascinating adventures to the mysterious and forgotten corners of the map.Be prepared to be captivated by the astounding tales of two dozen islands once believed to be real but no longer on the map. These are the products of the imagination, deception, and human error: an archipelago of ex-islands and forgotten lands. From the well-known story of Atlantis and the mysteries of frozen Thule to more obscure tales from around the globe, and from ancient history right up to the present day, this is an atlas of legend and wonder, with glorious illustrations by Katie Scott.
UN Human Rights Institutions and the Environment: Synergies, Challenges, Trajectories (Routledge Explorations in Environmental Studies)
by Sumudu AtapattuThis book presents an in-depth analysis of how UN Human Rights institutions and mechanisms have addressed environmental protection, sustainable development and climate change. Despite the increasing involvement of UN human rights bodies in addressing environmental degradation and climate change, a systematic review of the convergence between human rights and the environment in these bodies has not been carried out. Filing this lacuna, this book surveys the resolutions, general comments, concluding observations, decisions on individual communications and press releases. It identifies principles that have emerged, explores the ways in which human rights Charter-based and treaty-based institutions are interpreting environmental principles and examines how they contribute to the emerging field of human rights and environment. Given the disproportionate effect that polluting activities have on marginalized and vulnerable groups, Atapattu also discusses how these human rights mechanisms have addressed the impact on women, children, indigenous peoples, people with disabilities and racial minorities. Written by a world-renowned expert on human rights and the environment, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars researching and teaching in this important field of study.
Un-making Environmental Activism: Beyond Modern/Colonial Binaries in the GMO Controversy (Routledge Research in Place, Space and Politics)
by Doerthe RosenowMuch environmental activism is caught in a logic that plays science against emotion, objective evidence against partisan aims, and human interest against a nature that has intrinsic value. Radical activists, by contrast, play down the role of science in determining environmental politics, but read their solutions to environmental problems off fixed theories of domination and oppression. Both of these approaches are based in a modern epistemology grounded in the fundamental dichotomy between the human and the natural. This binary has historically come about through the colonial oppression of other, non-Western and often non-binary ways of knowing nature and living in the world. There is an urgent need for a different, decolonised environmental activist strategy that moves away from this epistemology, recognises its colonial heritage and finds a different ground for environmental beliefs and politics. This book analyses the arguments and practices of anti-GMO activists at three different sites – the site of science, the site of the Bt cotton controversy in India, and the site of global environmental protest – to show how we can move beyond modern/colonial binaries. It will do so in dialogue with Gilles Deleuze, Bruno Latour, María Lugones, and Gayatri C. Spivak, as well as a broader range of postcolonial and decolonial bodies of thought.
UN Millennium Development Library: It Can Be Done
by UN Millennium ProjectThe Millennium Development Goals, adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, are the world's targets for dramatically reducing extreme poverty in its many dimensions by 2015 income poverty, hunger, disease, exclusion, lack of infrastructure and shelter while promoting gender equality, education, health and environmental sustainability. These bold goals can be met in all parts of the world if nations follow through on their commitments to work together to meet them. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals offers the prospect of a more secure, just, and prosperous world for all. The UN Millennium Project was commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to develop a practical plan of action to meet the Millennium Development Goals. As an independent advisory body directed by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, the UN Millennium Project submitted its recommendations to the UN Secretary General in January 2005. The core of the UN Millennium Project's work has been carried out by 10 thematic Task Forces comprising more than 250 experts from around the world, including scientists, development practitioners, parliamentarians, policymakers, and representatives from civil society, UN agencies, the World Bank, the IMF, and the private sector. This report lays out the recommendations of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger in seven major categories: political action; national policy reforms; increased agricultural productivity for food insecure farmers; improved nutrition for the chronically hungry; productive safety nets for the acutely hungry; improved rural incomes and markets; and restoration and conservation of natural resources essential for food security. The task force strongly endorses the Secretary General's call for a 21st Century African Green Revolution. These bold yet practical approaches will enable countries in every region of the world to halve world hunger by 2015.
UN Millennium Development Library: What Will it Take? (Un\millennium Development Library)
by UN Millennium ProjectThe Millennium Development Goals, adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, are the world's targets for dramatically reducing extreme poverty in its many dimensions by 2015 income poverty, hunger, disease, exclusion, lack of infrastructure and shelter while promoting gender equality, education, health and environmental sustainability. These bold goals can be met in all parts of the world if nations follow through on their commitments to work together to meet them. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals offers the prospect of a more secure, just, and prosperous world for all. The UN Millennium Project was commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to develop a practical plan of action to meet the Millennium Development Goals. As an independent advisory body directed by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, the UN Millennium Project submitted its recommendations to the UN Secretary General in January 2005. The core of the UN Millennium Project's work has been carried out by 10 thematic Task Forces comprising more than 250 experts from around the world, including scientists, development practitioners, parliamentarians, policymakers, and representatives from civil society, UN agencies, the World Bank, the IMF, and the private sector. In this report the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Water and Sanitation outlines the bold yet practical actions that are needed to increase access to water and sanitation. The report underscores the need to focus on the global sanitation crisis, which contributes to the death of 3900 children each day, improve domestic water supply, and invest in integrated development and management of water resources, all of which are necessary for countries to reduce poverty and hunger, improve health, advance gender equality and ensure environmental sustainability. Implementing the recommendations of this report will allow all countries to halve the proportion of people without access to safe water and sanitation by 2015.
UN Millennium Development Library: Achieving Gender Equality and Empowering Women
by UN Millennium ProjectThe Millennium Development Goals, adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, are the world's targets for dramatically reducing extreme poverty in its many dimensions by 2015 income poverty, hunger, disease, exclusion, lack of infrastructure and shelter while promoting gender equality, education, health and environmental sustainability. These bold goals can be met in all parts of the world if nations follow through on their commitments to work together to meet them. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals offers the prospect of a more secure, just, and prosperous world for all. The UN Millennium Project was commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to develop a practical plan of action to meet the Millennium Development Goals. As an independent advisory body directed by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, the UN Millennium Project submitted its recommendations to the UN Secretary General in January 2005. The core of the UN Millennium Project's work has been carried out by 10 thematic Task Forces comprising more than 250 experts from around the world, including scientists, development practitioners, parliamentarians, policymakers, and representatives from civil society, UN agencies, the World Bank, the IMF, and the private sector. This report lays out the recommendations of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Education and Gender Equality. The Task Force recommends seven strategic priorities: strengthen postprimary education for girls while ensuring universal primary education; guarantee sexual and reproductive health and rights; reduce women's and girls' time burdens; guarantee property and inheritance rights; eliminate gender inequality in employment; increase women's participation in government; and significantly reduce violence against women. Action on these priorities will enable countries in every region of the world to achieve gender equality and women's empowerment by 2015.
UN Millennium Development Library: Transforming Health Systems for Women and Children
by UN Millennium ProjectThe Millennium Development Goals, adopted at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, are the world's targets for dramatically reducing extreme poverty in its many dimensions by 2015 income poverty, hunger, disease, exclusion, lack of infrastructure and shelter while promoting gender equality, education, health and environmental sustainability. These bold goals can be met in all parts of the world if nations follow through on their commitments to work together to meet them. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals offers the prospect of a more secure, just, and prosperous world for all. The UN Millennium Project was commissioned by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to develop a practical plan of action to meet the Millennium Development Goals. As an independent advisory body directed by Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, the UN Millennium Project submitted its recommendations to the UN Secretary General in January 2005. The core of the UN Millennium Project's work has been carried out by 10 thematic Task Forces comprising more than 250 experts from around the world, including scientists, development practitioners, parliamentarians, policymakers, and representatives from civil society, UN agencies, the World Bank, the IMF, and the private sector. This report lays out the recommendations of the UN Millennium Project Task Force on Child and Maternal Health. The Task Force recommends the rapid and equitable scale-up of interventions like the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness, the universal provision of emergency obstetric care, and sexual and reproductive health services and rights be provided through strengthened health systems. This will require that health systems be seen as social institutions to which all members of society have a fundamental right. This bold yet practical approach will enable every country to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds and the maternal mortality rate by three-quarters by 2015.
Un remède théologique contre la crise environnementale: À la lumière de Jürgen Moltmann
by Joseph HabamahirweCe livre présente l’état actuel de la crise environnementale et offre des propositions pour l’empêcher. Les conférences internationales concernant l’environnement, comme celle à Rio en 1992, ont fait de bonnes politiques environnementales. Malheureusement, de telles politiques n’ont pas été suffisamment mises en œuvre. Cette situation reflète un manque d’intérêt de la part des pays développés aussi bien qu’un manque de ténacité des pays en voie de développement. Par conséquent, une telle ténacité est nécessaire afin de résoudre le problème apparemment intraitable de la pollution environnementale. Les Nations Unies ont établi un Programme Environnemental (PNUE) pour s’attaquer aux problèmes de l’environnement au niveau mondial. Il y a encore beaucoup à faire. Ce livre présente l’état actuel de la crise environnementale mondiale, ses causes et effets, à la fois pour les êtres humains et la nature elle-même. Il fait appel aux activistes de l’environnement, aux hommes de science, aux étudiants, aux conférenciers, aux chefs de l’Église et aux législateurs pour empêcher cette crise qui perdurerait pour des années à venir et se dégraderait au fur et à mesure si le monde n’arrive pas bientôt à une solution.
Un rimedio teologico alla crisi ambientale: Alla luce di Jürgen Moltmann
by Joseph HabamahirweLe conferenze internazionali sull'ambiente, come quella di Rio del 1992, hanno dato vita a buone politiche ambientali. Purtroppo, tali politiche non sono state attuate a sufficienza. Questa situazione riflette la mancanza di interesse da parte dei Paesi sviluppati e la mancanza di tenacia da parte dei Paesi in via di sviluppo. Per risolvere il problema apparentemente intrattabile dell'inquinamento ambientale è quindi necessaria una certa tenacia. Le Nazioni Unite hanno istituito un programma ambientale (UNEP) per affrontare i problemi ambientali a livello globale. Tuttavia, c'è ancora molto da fare. Questo libro presenta lo stato dell'attuale crisi ambientale globale, le sue cause e i suoi effetti, sia per gli esseri umani che per la natura stessa. Lancia un appello agli attivisti ambientali, agli scienziati, agli studenti, ai docenti, ai leader delle chiese e ai responsabili politici per fermare questa crisi che potrebbe protrarsi per molti anni a venire e peggiorare progressivamente se il mondo non troverà presto una soluzione.
Unberechenbares Klima: Ursachen und Unsicherheiten des Klimawandels
by Klaus DethloffDie Veränderungen unseres Klimas sind allgegenwärtig spürbar, das allgemeine Verständnis der Prozesse dahinter aber mit Informationen überschwemmt und vielfach gefiltert. Es fehlt ein tieferer Blick, um Klarheit über die beteiligten Prozesse zu erhalten und nicht zuletzt eigene Handlungsräume zu erkennen. Dieses Buch präsentiert den ungeschminkten Stand des Wissens und Nichtwissens zu den komplexen Ursachen des Klimawandels auf der Basis von globalen Datensätzen und Modellsimulationen. Nicht erschrecken – Der Anspruch besteht darin zu vereinfachen, ohne zu verfälschen. Klimaänderungen werden nicht nur durch Strahlungsprozesse, sondern auch die nichtlineare Dynamik des Atmosphäre-Meereis-Ozeansystems bestimmt. Die Dynamik des Planeten befindet sich nur teilweise in unserer Hand, denn neben dem menschlichen Einfluss durch Treibhausgase und Aerosole generiert das Klimasystem seine eigene interne Variabilität. Die globale Reduktion des Ausstoßes schädlicher Treibhausgase ist eine unerlässliche Maßnahme in allen Strategien zur Bewältigung des Klimawandels. Aber bleibt dessen Begrenzung ein unerfüllter Wunsch? Ein Buch, das von einem international ausgewiesenem Experten in der Arktisforschung geschrieben wurde, und komplexe Sachverhalte unseres Klimasystems für jeden interessierten Leser – den Naturwissenschaftler und den Laien - aufschlüsselt. Und das mit dem klaren Ziel aufzuzeigen, dass der Klimawandel nicht aufgehalten, sondern maximal in dessen Auswirkung auf unsere Lebenswelt begrenzt werden kann.
Unbestimmt und relativ?: Das Weltbild der modernen Physik
by Helmut Fink Meinard KuhlmannQuantentheorie und Relativitätstheorie haben das Weltbild der Physik revolutioniert. Beide Theorien gelten jedoch als unanschaulich und schwer verständlich. Dieses Sachbuch schafft neue Zugänge und lädt zum Mitdenken ein. Renommierte Experten aus Physik und Philosophie erläutern Grundbegriffe, Erkenntnisfortschritte und Deutungsfragen zu Raum, Zeit und Materie.Dabei kommen typische Themen aus der Philosophie der Physik zur Sprache, wie etwa die Interpretationsdebatte der Quantentheorie oder Modellbildungen in der Kosmologie. Weltbildrelevante Fragen nach dem Verhältnis von Mathematik, Empirie und Anschauung oder nach der Verlässlichkeit physikalischer Erkenntnis erfordern die Verbindung von Physik und Philosophie, von fachwissenschaftlicher Grundlagenforschung und methodenkritischer Reflexion. Der thematische Bogen geht zurück auf ein hochkarätig besetztes Symposium mit populärwissenschaftlicher Ausrichtung. Das Buch enthält Beiträge von Andreas Bartels, Robert Harlander, Paul Hoyningen-Huene, Gert-Ludwig Ingold, Claus Kiefer, Meinard Kuhlmann, Klaus Mainzer, Oliver Passon, Manfred Stöckler, Rüdiger Vaas und Reinhard Werner.
Unbottled: The Fight against Plastic Water and for Water Justice
by Daniel JaffeeAn exploration of bottled water's impact on social justice and sustainability, and how diverse movements are fighting back. In just four decades, bottled water has transformed from a luxury niche item into a ubiquitous consumer product, representing a $300 billion market dominated by global corporations. It sits at the convergence of a mounting ecological crisis of single-use plastic waste and climate change, a social crisis of affordable access to safe drinking water, and a struggle over the fate of public water systems. Unbottled examines the vibrant movements that have emerged to question the need for bottled water and challenge its growth in North America and worldwide. Drawing on extensive interviews with activists, residents, public officials, and other participants in controversies ranging from bottled water's role in unsafe tap water crises to groundwater extraction for bottling in rural communities, Daniel Jaffee asks what this commodity's meteoric growth means for social inequality, sustainability, and the human right to water. Unbottled profiles campaigns to reclaim the tap and addresses the challenges of ending dependence on packaged water in places where safe water is not widely accessible. Clear and compelling, it assesses the prospects for the movements fighting plastic water and working to ensure water justice for all.
Unbound: How Eight Technologies Made Us Human and Brought Our World to the Brink
by Richard L. CurrierAlthough we usually think of technology as something unique to modern times, our ancestors began to create the first technologies millions of years ago in the form of prehistoric tools and weapons. Over time, eight key technologies gradually freed us from the limitations of our animal origins. The fabrication of weapons, the mastery of fire, and the technologies of clothing and shelter radically restructured the human body, enabling us to walk upright, shed our body hair, and migrate out of tropical Africa. Symbolic communication transformed human evolution from a slow biological process into a fast cultural process. The invention of agriculture revolutionized the relationship between humanity and the environment, and the technologies of interaction led to the birth of civilization. Precision machinery spawned the industrial revolution and the rise of nation-states; and in the next metamorphosis, digital technologies may well unite all of humanity for the benefit of future generations. Synthesizing the findings of primatology, paleontology, archeology, history, and anthropology, Richard Currier reinterprets and retells the modern narrative of human evolution that began with the discovery of Lucy and other Australopithecus fossils. But the same forces that allowed us to integrate technology into every aspect of our daily lives have also brought us to the brink of planetary catastrophe. Unbound explains both how we got here and how human society must be transformed again to achieve a sustainable future. Technology: "The deliberate modification of any natural object or substance with forethought to achieve a specific end or to serve a specific purpose. ”
Unbounded Functionals in the Calculus of Variations: Representation, Relaxation, and Homogenization (Monographs and Surveys in Pure and Applied Mathematics)
by Luciano CarboneOver the last few decades, research in elastic-plastic torsion theory, electrostatic screening, and rubber-like nonlinear elastomers has pointed the way to some interesting new classes of minimum problems for energy functionals of the calculus of variations. This advanced-level monograph addresses these issues by developing the framework of a gener
Unbounded Self-adjoint Operators on Hilbert Space
by Konrad SchmüdgenThe book is a graduate text on unbounded self-adjoint operators on Hilbert space and their spectral theory with the emphasis on applications in mathematical physics (especially, Schrödinger operators) and analysis (Dirichlet and Neumann Laplacians, Sturm-Liouville operators, Hamburger moment problem) . Among others, a number of advanced special topics are treated on a text book level accompanied by numerous illustrating examples and exercises. The main themes of the book are the following: - Spectral integrals and spectral decompositions of self-adjoint and normal operators - Perturbations of self-adjointness and of spectra of self-adjoint operators - Forms and operators - Self-adjoint extension theory :boundary triplets, Krein-Birman-Vishik theory of positive self-adjoint extension
Unbowed: One Woman's Story
by Wangari MaathaiIn Unbowed, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recounts her extraordinary journey from her childhood in rural Kenya to the world stage. When Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, she began a vital poor people's environmental movement, focused on the empowerment of women, that soon spread across Africa. Persevering through run-ins with the Kenyan government and personal losses, and jailed and beaten on numerous occasions, Maathai continued to fight tirelessly to save Kenya's forests and to restore democracy to her beloved country. Infused with her unique luminosity of spirit, Wangari Maathai's remarkable story of courage, faith, and the power of persistence is destined to inspire generations to come.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Unbreakable: Building the Resilience of the Poor in the Face of Natural Disasters
by Adrien Vogt-Schilb Mook Bangalore Rozenberg Stephane Hallegatte'Economic losses from natural disasters totaled $92 billion in 2015.' Such statements, all too commonplace, assess the severity of disasters by no other measure than the damage inflicted on buildings, infrastructure, and agricultural production. But $1 in losses does not mean the same thing to a rich person that it does to a poor person; the gravity of a $92 billion loss depends on who experiences it. By focusing on aggregate losses--the traditional approach to disaster risk--we restrict our consideration to how disasters affect those wealthy enough to have assets to lose in the first place, and largely ignore the plight of poor people. This report moves beyond asset and production losses and shifts its attention to how natural disasters affect people's well-being. Disasters are far greater threats to well-being than traditional estimates suggest. This approach provides a more nuanced view of natural disasters than usual reporting, and a perspective that takes fuller account of poor people's vulnerabilities. Poor people suffer only a fraction of economic losses caused by disasters, but they bear the brunt of their consequences. Understanding the disproportionate vulnerability of poor people also makes the case for setting new intervention priorities to lessen the impact of natural disasters on the world's poor, such as expanding financial inclusion, disaster risk and health insurance, social protection and adaptive safety nets, contingent finance and reserve funds, and universal access to early warning systems. Efforts to reduce disaster risk and poverty go hand in hand. Because disasters impoverish so many, disaster risk management is inseparable from poverty reduction policy, and vice versa. As climate change magnifies natural hazards, and because protection infrastructure alone cannot eliminate risk, a more resilient population has never been more critical to breaking the cycle of disaster-induced poverty.
Uncertain Climes: Debating Climate Change in Gilded Age America
by Joseph GiacomelliUncertain Climes looks to the late nineteenth century to reveal how climate anxiety was a crucial element in the emergence of American modernity. Even people who still refuse to accept the reality of human-induced climate change would have to agree that the topic has become inescapable in the United States in recent decades. But as Joseph Giacomelli shows in Uncertain Climes, this is actually nothing new: as far back as Gilded Age America, climate uncertainty has infused major debates on economic growth and national development. In this ambitious examination of late-nineteenth-century understandings of climate, Giacomelli draws on the work of scientists, foresters, surveyors, and settlers to demonstrate how central the subject was to the emergence of American modernity. Amid constant concerns about volatile weather patterns and the use of natural resources, nineteenth-century Americans developed a multilayered discourse on climate and what it might mean for the nation’s future. Although climate science was still in its nascent stages during the Gilded Age, fears and hopes about climate change animated the overarching political struggles of the time, including expansion into the American West. Giacomelli makes clear that uncertainty was the common theme linking concerns about human-induced climate change with cultural worries about the sustainability of capitalist expansionism in an era remarkably similar to the United States’ unsettled present.
Uncertain Path: A Search for the Future of National Parks
by William C. TweedIn this provocative walking meditation, writer and former park ranger William Tweed takes us to California’s spectacular High Sierra to discover a new vision for our national parks as they approach their 100th anniversary. Tweed, who worked among the Sierra Nevada’s big peaks and big trees for more than thirty years, has now hiked more than 200 miles along California’s John Muir Trail in a personal search for answers: How do we address the climate change we are seeing even now—in melting glaciers in Glacier National Park, changing rainy seasons on Mt Rainer, and more fire in the West’s iconic parks. Should we intervene where we can to preserve biodiversity? Should the parks merely become ecosystem museums that exhibit famous landscapes and species? Asking how we can make these magnificent parks relevant for the next generation, Tweed, through his journey, ultimately shows why we must do just that.
Uncertainties and Limitations in Simulating Tropical Cyclones
by Asuka Suzuki-ParkerThe thesis work was in two major parts: development and testing of a new approach to detecting and tracking tropical cyclones in climate models; and application of an extreme value statistical approach to enable assessment of changes in weather extremes from climate models. The tracking algorithm applied a creative phase-space approach to differentiate between modeled tropical cyclones and their mid-latitude cousins. A feature here was the careful attention to sensitivity to choice of selection parameters, which is considerable. The major finding was that the changes over time were relatively insensitive to these details. This new approach will improve and add confidence to future assessments of climate impacts on hurricanes. The extremes approach utilized the Generalized Pareto Distribution (one of the standard approaches to statistics of extremes) applied to present and future hurricane distributions as modeled by a regional climate model, then applied the changes to current observations to extract the changes in the extremes. Since climate models cannot resolve these extremes directly, this provides an excellent method of determining weather extremes in general. This is of considerable societal importance as we are most vulnerable to such extremes and knowledge of their changes enables improved planning and adaptation strategies.