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Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England
by Tom Wessels Brian D. Cohen Ann H. ZwingerLandscape is much more than scenery to be observed or even terrain to be traveled, as this fascinating and many-layered book vividly shows us. Etched into the land is the history of how we have inhabited it, the storms and fires that have shaped it, and its response to these and other changes. An intrepid sleuth and articulate tutor, Wessels teaches us to read a landscape the way we might solve a mystery. What exactly is the meaning of all those stone walls in the middle of the forest? Why do beech and birch trees have smooth bark when the bark of all other northern species is rough? How do you tell the age of a beaver pond and determine if beavers still live there? Why are pine trees dominant in one patch of forest and maples in another? What happened to the American chestnut? Turn to this book for the answers, and no walk in the woods will ever be the same.
Reading the Glass: A Sailor's Stories of Weather
by Elliot RappaportA fascinating insight into the science of weather and the strange, wild and wonderful world of life at sea.What's in a cloud? What separates a tropical storm from a winter blizzard? And what exactly is El Niño? Elliot Rappaport, a professional captain of traditional sailing ships, has spent three decades at sea, where understanding weather could be the difference between life and death. In Reading the Glass, he offers a sailor's-eye view of the moving parts of our atmosphere and unveils the larger patterns it holds: global winds, storms, air masses, jet streams, and the longer arc of our climate.Told through a series of tall ship voyages, Rappaport's narrative takes listeners from the icy seas of Greenland to the Roaring Forties, places where one can experience all four seasons in an hour. He navigates the turbulent waters of the Strait of Gibraltar, en route to storied port cities of the Mediterranean. In the vast tropical Pacific, he crosses the equator, where heat, moisture, and unsettled winds churn out powerful squalls, and drops anchor in isolated ports of call. He explores wide swathes of ocean to explain how the trade winds have carried ships westward for centuries, and how ancient Polynesian explorers pushed back the other way.Written in stunning prose, brimming with wisdom, curiosity, and humour, Reading the Glass brilliantly blends science and memoir to reveal how weather has shaped our oceans, our history, and ourselves.(P) 2023 Penguin Audio
Reading the Glass: A Sailor's Stories of Weather
by Elliot Rappaport'Brimming with knowledge and experience . . . delightful'TRISTAN GOOLEY, DAILY TELEGRAPH'A fabulous compendium of terror and disaster, expertise and courage'ADAM NICOLSON, author of The Seabird's Cry'Evokes panoramas of sea and land with confident flair'WALL STREET JOURNALWhat's in a cloud? What separates a tropical storm from a winter blizzard? And what exactly is El Niño? Elliot Rappaport, a captain of traditional sailing ships, has spent three decades at sea, where understanding weather is the difference between life and death.From the icy seas of Greenland to the turbulent waters of the Strait of Gibraltar, from the powerful squalls near the equator to the ancient Polynesian explorers who ventured eastward against trade winds, Reading the Glass combines science and memoir to reveal the remarkable story of how weather has shaped our oceans, our history and ourselves.'An extraordinary book by a modern-day Melville . . . I can't recommend this book highly enough'MARK VANHOENACKER, author of Skyfaring'A gripping account of what weather is, how it feels to be in the middle of it, and what we can expect going forward!'BILL MCKIBBEN, author of The End of Nature
Readings in Performance and Ecology
by Wendy Arons Theresa J. MayThis ground-breaking collection focuses on how theatre, dance, and other forms of performance are helping to transform our ecological values. Top scholars explore how familiar and new works of performance can help us recognize our reciprocal relationship with the natural world and how it helps us understand the way we are connected to the land.
Readings in Wood: What the Forest Taught Me
by John Leland“[Leland] brings the botanical into direct relationship with the spiritual, using a prose style that is as profound as it is pyrotechnic.” —Jim Warren, Washington and Lee UniversityAward-winning nature writer John Leland offers a collection of twenty-seven short, poetic essays that marry science and the humanities as the author seeks meaning in trees. Readings in Wood is an investigation of trees and forests and also of wood as a material that people have found essential in the creation of society and culture. Leland views with wit and erudition the natural world and the curious place of human beings as saviors and destroyers of this world.At once personal memoir, natural history, and cultural criticism, the book reflects Leland’s idiosyncratic vision. As vast as a forest, topics range from tree grain and leaf shape to economic theories, mathematics, and engineering. Readings in Wood is a hybrid testament of science, faith, superstition, and disbelief learned from sitting on tree trunks and peering at leaves and fungi. Leland hopes others will join him in nature’s classroom. Quite aware of the irony, he reminds us, “These leaves you desultorily turn over once hung in a green wood gone to make this book. Touching a book, you touch a tree. I pray that Readings in Wood’s essays, touching you, may justify in some small way the trees who died in their making.”“This book constitutes a hymn to the technical and the beautiful, a meander through the geography, geology, botany, mathematics and vigor of our plants, especially in the southern Appalachians.” —R. T. Smith, editor, Shenandoah, and writer-in-residence, Washington and Lee University“Informative, thoughtful, inspiring, and innately entertaining.” —The Midwest Book Review
Ready for Pumpkins
by Kate DukeHercules, a classroom guinea pig, has a revelation when he watches the first graders grow plants from seeds. He wants to grow things, too! And during summer vacation (spent with the teacher's dad), he gets his chance. With the help of a friendly rabbit, Herky prepares the soil, carefully plants pumpkin seeds, and waits. And waits, and waits. One of the most important things he learns about gardening is patience. It's very hard to go back to school when fall comes--especially because his pumpkins aren't quite ready yet. But in October, the teacher's dad arrives with a big pumpkin for her class--that just mysteriously grew in his yard! And Herky begins dreaming about next year's garden . . .Kate Duke has created a funny and charming book that shows not just how seeds grow into plants, but also how you need patience to see a long project through.
Ready for Rain
by Esther M. O'GradyOn a warm day, the wind starts blowing. The trees and animals feel the wind and know a storm is coming. Then a woman feels the wind and calls her children home. They read while the storm rages.
Ready for Winter (Ready For Series)
by Marthe JocelynWhat am I going to wear? The question that diverts us all is first presented in the toddler years when the mastery of getting dressed is a triumph and opinions about clothing are emphatic. These four board books illustrated by collage-artist Marthe Jocelyn are a unique tribute to the colors, textures, and patterns that make clothes a child&’s favorite pastime.Ready for Winter displays a full wardrobe, introducing lovely words like turtleneck and galoshes, and allowing even the very young reader to be an expert on what should be worn next season.
Ready to Paint in 30 Minutes: Landscapes in Watercolour
by Dave WoolassThis guide to painting watercolour landscapes is ideal if you want to learn to paint but are short on time. Broken down into 33 quick and easy paintings that take no more than 30 minutes to complete, this basic course will teach you all the skills you need to paint landscapes and their components, including trees in winter, sparkling water, hedgerows and gates, animals, human figures and buildings in the landscape.The 30-minute paintings are all worked at postcard size – ideal for a 6 x 4in (A6) watercolour pad, and tracings are included for those with limited drawing skills. Each small painting is a work of art in its own right, and can be stored in your portfolio for reference later, or framed and hung on the wall to impress your friends.The book is broken down into chapters that focus, respectively, on essential watercolour techniques including colour mixing and glazing; laying washes and creating skies and realistic-looking clouds; the rudiments of composition; trees and flowers in a landscape; water– still and moving, from stream to open sea; and the living landscape – human and animal figures, structures and buildings in the landscape.The final section of the book contains three complete paintings that demonstrate how to combine all the techniques and elements of painting landscapes, as gleaned from the preceding chapters. These paintings, too, are accompanied by actual-size tracings.There are 33 tracings in all to help you compose your own landscape paintings.Praise for the Ready to Paint in 30 Minutes series: “This is a genuinely exciting evolution of a popular series. You’ll be guided through some simple exercises and on to complete paintings, gaining valuable insights that will develop and improve your skills.” – Henry Malt, Artbookreview.net
Ready to Paint in 30 Minutes: Street Scenes in Watercolour
by Grahame BoothThis complete beginner’s guide to painting watercolour street scenes is ideal if you want to learn to paint but are short on time. Each of the 32 quick and easy exercises takes no more than 30 minutes and will teach you how to create a new street scene element – such as doorways, buildings and people – or work an exciting technique – such as creating washes, mixing colours and playing with perspective. The exercises are all worked at postcard size – ideal for a 6 x 4in (A6) watercolour pad, and actual-size tracings are included. The book is broken down into eight chapters: tone, colour, perspective, the wash, edge control, brush strokes, adding detail and, finally, putting it all together – this last section contains 3 finished paintings that demonstrate how to integrate a combination of the elements into vibrant and inspiring street scenes; these complete paintings also have an accompanying actual-size tracing.
Ready to Paint in 30 Minutes: Trees & Woodlands in Watercolour
by Geoff KerseyThis complete beginner’s guide to painting trees and woodlands is ideal if you want to learn to paint but are short on time. 30 quick and easy exercises, that each take no more than 30 minutes, offer you a complete course teaching all the skills you need to paint trees on their own and as part of beautiful woodland scenes.The 30-minute paintings are all worked at postcard size – ideal for a 6" x 4" (A6) watercolour pad, and outline drawings are provided on tracing paper for those who are less confident at drawing. Each of the small paintings focuses on a specific subject or technique and is a work of art in its own right. Store them in your portfolio as an easy reference for future painting projects, or even frame them and display them on the wall to impress your family and friends.The final section of the book contains three complete paintings that demonstrate how to combine everything you've learned in the previous exercises. These paintings are also accompanied by actual-size tracings.
Ready, Freddy! Camping Catastrophe! (Ready, Freddy! #14)
by Abby KleinFreddy Thresher and his best friend, Robbie, are going on a camping trip with Freddy's dad. But everything goes wrong--from a collapsed tent to an encounter with angry bees to an unhappy skunk.
Ready, Set, Green
by Graham Hill Meaghan O'NeillThe time to save the planet is now. Ready? Set? Green!Living green means reversing climate change, but it also means protecting your kids and pets, improving your own health, and saving money. And it doesn’t necessarily demand a radical overhaul of your life–just some simple adjustments, such as switching to healthier cleaning products and driving fewer miles each week. Written by the visionaries at Treehugger. com, the most heavily trafficked site of its kind,Ready, Set, Greenis the definitive (and recyclable) guide to modern green living. It offers solutions to make your home, office, car, and vacation more eco-friendly. For example: • Using a dishwasher instead of hand washing will save you 5,000 gallons of water annually. • Eating less beef will save you 250 pounds of CO2 per year. • Washing your clothes in cold water instead of hot will save 200 pounds of CO2 annually. • Replacing three of your home’s most frequently used lightbulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs will save 300 pounds of CO2 every year. Including advice on how to properly insulate your house, cancel junk mail, and choose fruits and veggies wisely,Ready, Set, Greenwill help youchange the future of the planet and restore balance to your daily life. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Real Cowboys
by Jonathan Bean Kate HoeflerIn Kate Hoefler’s realistic and poetic picture book debut about the wide open West, the myth of rowdy, rough-riding cowboys and cowgirls is remade. A timely and multifaceted portrayal reveals a lifestyle that is as diverse as it contrary to what we've come to expect.
Real Option Analysis and Climate Change: A New Framework for Environmental Policy Analysis (Springer Climate)
by Benoit MorelThis book sets out to reframe the theory of real options so that it can be used to support environmental investments for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Climate change policy often involves making decisions that concern extended time periods, and doing so under considerable uncertainty. By expanding and broadening the framework of real options, this book first introduces readers to new ways of quantifying investment decisions that can much more effectively address the shape and size of the uncertainty than traditional approaches using Net Present Value. In turn, the second part of the book applies this new theoretical framework to climate change policy by presenting a number of examples, and by providing a general perspective on investment decisions related to climate change and how to prioritize them.
Real Ponies Don't Go Oink!
by Patrick F. McManusA collection of humorous essays on bobcat encounters, birding, and other outdoorsmen misadventures from the Outdoor Life columnist hailed as “a treasure” (The Atlantic).“Bestselling outdoor humorist McManus bags another in this collection of yarns featuring irascible woodsman Rancid Crabtree, ‘Phantom of the Woods’ Retch Sweeney, boyhood pal Crazy Eddie, and others of McManus’s acquaintance. Also meet hunting dog Strange, dog delinquent, whose prey of choice is year-old roadkill. Readers of McManus’s humor column in Outdoor Life will enjoy his observations on the joys of pig-back riding, workshop puttering, and Sasquatch ducking. So will those who, like McManus’s wife Bun, appreciate nature most from the window of a seven-story luxury hotel.” —Library Journal“McManus is a brilliant humorist, particularly in describing human reactions to the unexpected . . . Certain pieces will appeal only to hunters and anglers, but other entries are so notable that the book deserves a wide audience.” —Publishers WeeklyPraise for Patrick F. McManus“Everybody should read Patrick McManus.” —The New York Times Book Review“A style that brings to mind Mark Twain, Art Buchwald, and Garrison Keillor.” —People“Describing Patrick F. McManus as an outdoor humorist is like saying Mark Twain wrote books about small boys . . . the funniest writer around today—indoors or outdoors.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Real World Ecology
by Susan Carstenn Martha Nungesser Shili MiaoEcological and environmental research has increased in scope and complexity in the last few decades, from simple systems with a few managed variables to complex ecosystems with many uncontrolled variables. These issues encompass problems that are inadequately addressed using the types of carefully controlled experiments that dominate past ecological research. Contemporary challenges facing ecologists include whole ecosystem responses to planned restoration activities and ecosystem modifications, as well as unplanned catastrophic events such as biological invasions, natural disasters, and global climate changes. Major perturbations implicated in large-scale ecological alterations share important characteristics that challenge traditional experimental design and statistical analyses. These include: * Lack of randomization, replication and independence * Multiple scales of spatial and temporal variability * Complex interactions and system feedbacks. In real world ecology, standard replicated designs are often neither practical nor feasible for large-scale experiments, yet ecologists continue to cling to these same standard designs and related statistical analyses. Case studies that fully elucidate the currently available techniques for conducting large-scale unreplicated analyses are lacking. Real World Ecology: Large-Scale and Long-Term Case Studies and Methods is the first to focus on case studies to demonstrate how ecologists can investigate complex contemporary problems using new and powerful experimental approaches. This collection of case studies showcases innovative experimental designs, analytical options, and interpretation possibilities currently available to theoretical and applied ecologists, practitioners, and biostatisticians. By illustrating how scientists have answered pressing questions about ecosystem restoration, impact and recovery, global warming, conservation, modeling, and biological invasions, this book will broaden the acceptance and application of modern approaches by scientists and encourage further methodological development.
Real time deforestation detection using ANN and Satellite images
by Thiago Nunes Kehl Viviane Todt Maurício Roberto Veronez Silvio Cesar CazellaThe foremost aim of the present study was the development of a tool to detect daily deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, using satellite images from the MODIS/TERRA sensor and Artificial Neural Networks. The developed tool provides parameterization of the configuration for the neural network training to enable us to select the best neural architecture to address the problem. The tool makes use of confusion matrices to determine the degree of success of the network. A spectrum-temporal analysis of the study area was done on 57 images from May 20 to July 15, 2003 using the trained neural network. The analysis enabled verification of quality of the implemented neural network classification and also aided in understanding the dynamics of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, thereby highlighting the vast potential of neural networks for image classification. However, the complex task of detection of predatory actions at the beginning, i. e. , generation of consistent alarms, instead of false alarms has not been solved yet. Thus, the present article provides a theoretical basis and elaboration of practical use of neural networks and satellite images to combat illegal deforestation.
Real-Time Environmental Monitoring: Sensors and Systems
by Miguel F. AcevedoThe natural environment is complex and changes continuously at varying paces. Many, like the weather, we notice from day to day. However, patterns and rhythms examined over time give us the bigger picture. These weather statistics become climate and help us build an understanding of the patterns of change over the long term. <p><p> Real-Time Environmental Monitoring: Sensors and Systems introduces the fundamentals of environmental monitoring, based on electronic sensors, instruments, and systems that allow real-time and long-term data acquisition, data-logging, and telemetry. <p><p> The book details state-of-the-art technology, using a practical approach, and includes applications to many environmental and ecological systems. In the first part of the book, the author develops a story of how starting with sensors, you can progressively build more complex instruments, leading to entire systems that end with databases and web servers. In the second part, he covers a variety of sensors and systems employed to measure environmental variables in air, water, soils, vegetation canopies, and wildlife observation and tracking. <p><p> This is an emerging area that is very important to some aspects of environmental assessment and compliance monitoring. Real-time monitoring approaches can facilitate the cost effective collection of data over time and, to some extent, negate the need for sample, collection, handling, and transport to a laboratory, either on-site or off-site. It provides the tools you need to develop, employ, and maintain environmental monitors.
Real-Time Environmental Monitoring: Sensors and Systems - Textbook
by Miguel F. AcevedoWritten 10 years after the publication of the first edition, this updated edition of Real-Time Environmental Monitoring: Sensors and Systems introduces the fundamentals of environmental monitoring based on electronic sensors, instruments, systems, and software that allow continuous and long-term ecological and environmental data collection. It accomplishes two objectives: explains how to use sensors for building more complex instruments, systems, and databases, and introduces a variety of sensors and systems employed to measure environmental variables in air, water, soils, vegetation canopies, and wildlife observation and tracking. This second edition is thoroughly updated in every aspect of technology and data, and each theoretical chapter is taught parallel with a hands-on application lab manual. Emphasizes real-time monitoring as an emerging area for environmental assessment and compliance and covers the fundamentals on how to develop sensors and systems Presents several entirely new topics not featured in the first edition, including remote sensing and GIS, machine learning, weather radar and satellites, groundwater monitoring, spatial analysis, and habitat monitoring Includes applications to many environmental and ecological systems Uses a practical, hands-on approach with the addition of an accompanying lab manual, which students can use to deepen their understanding, based on the author’s 40 years of academic experience Intended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, taking courses in civil and environmental engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, geosciences, and environmental sciences, as well as professionals working in environmental services, and researchers and academics in engineering.
Real-life Dragons and their Stories of Survival
by Anita GaneriFind out the fascinating stories of ten real-life dragons, the myths and legends surrounding them, their discoveries and how they survive today.For centuries, dragons have captured our imaginations, guarding troves of treasure and breathing out fire. They appear in many myths and legends from around the world, some soaring through the air on scaly wings; some lurking in caves underground and some diving the depths of the seas and oceans.While there is, sadly, no such thing as a fire-breathing dragon, there are still dragons alive today in the animal kingdom. One of them can even fly. This book brings together the stories of ten real-life dragons, with fascinating facts mixed with some folklore. There are also tales of how these extraordinary creatures were discovered and about their adaptations for surviving in the wild. Are you ready for the wildlife safari of a lifetime?This high-interest approach to the natural world shows the diversity of nature, evolution and adaptation and can be used to support the science curriculum study of living things at key stage two.Full-colour photographs combined with illustrations make this a beautiful and fascinating introduction to real-life dragons around the world.
Realism and the Climate Crisis: Hope for Life
by John FosterIn the teeth of climate emergency, hope has to remain possible, because life insists on it. But hope also has to be realistic. And doesn’t realism about our plight point towards despair? Don’t the timid politicians, the failed summits and the locked-in consumerism all just mean that we have left things far too late to avoid catastrophe? There is a deeper realism of transformation which can keep life powerful within us. It comes at the price of accepting that our condition is tragic. That, in turn, calls for a harsher, more revolutionary approach to the demands of the emergency than most activists have yet been prepared to adopt. This is a book to think with, to argue and disagree with – and to hope with.
Reality Bites (Camp Confidential #15)
by Melissa J. MorganGaby's had it with The Chelsea Show. So she embarks on her own attention-seeking campaign, and claims the boy on a Survivor-type TV program for teens is her brother. At first this seems like the perfect get popular quick scheme. That is, until the boy wins the competition and is awarded the grand prize: a trip to Australia, leaving immediately, WITH HIS ENTIRE FAMILY!!! Forget popularity unless Gaby figures out a way to convince her bunk mates that she's on the next flight out to Australia, she'll never be able to show her face at Lakeview again.
Reality Check: How Science Deniers Threaten Our Future
by Donald R. ProtheroA thought-provoking look at science denialism &“for popular science readers who want better to be able to explain and defend science and scientific methods to others&” (Library Journal). The battles over evolution, climate change, childhood vaccinations, and the causes of AIDS, alternative medicine, oil shortages, population growth, and the place of science in our country—all are reaching a fevered pitch. Many people and institutions have exerted enormous efforts to misrepresent or flatly deny demonstrable scientific reality to protect their nonscientific ideology, their power, or their bottom line. To shed light on this darkness, Donald R. Prothero explains the scientific process and why society has come to rely on science not only to provide a better life but also to reach verifiable truths no other method can obtain. He describes how major scientific ideas that are accepted by the entire scientific community (evolution, anthropogenic global warming, vaccination, the HIV cause of AIDS, and others) have been attacked with totally unscientific arguments and methods. Prothero argues that science deniers pose a serious threat to society, as their attempts to subvert the truth have resulted in widespread scientific ignorance, increased risk of global catastrophes, and deaths due to the spread of diseases that could have been prevented. &“Prothero&’s treatise will give the science-minded something to cheer about, a brief summary of the real data that supports so many critical aspects of modern life.&” —Publishers Weekly
Reality Check: The Nature and Performance of Voluntary Environmental Programs in the United States, Europe, and Japan
by Richard D. Morgenstern William A. PizerSince the early 1990s, voluntary programs have played an increasingly prominent role in environmental management in the U.S. and other industrialized countries. Programs have attempted to address problems ranging from climate change and energy efficiency, to more localized air and water pollution problems. But do they work? Despite a growing theoretical literature, there is limited empirical evidence on their success or the situations most conducive to the approaches. Even less is known about their cost-effectiveness. Getting credible answers is important. Research to date has been largely limited to individual programs. This innovative book seeks to clarify what is known by looking at a range of program types, including different approaches adopted in different nations. The focus is on assessing actual performance via seven case studies, including the U.S. Climate Wise program, the U.S. EPA's 33/50 program on toxic chemicals, the U.K. Climate Change Agreements, and the Keidanren Voluntary Action Plan in Japan. The central goals of Reality Check are understanding outcomes and, more specifically, the relationship between outcomes and design. By including in-depth analyses by experts from the U.S., Europe, and Japan, the book advances scholarship and provides practical information for the future design of voluntary programs to stakeholders and policymakers on all sides of the Atlantic and Pacific.